Whirl Island Quest V.2: unBEARably sexy!

Well, how was it?


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    Helooooo everybody! This is my fic Whirl Island Quest, a comedy journey fic. Not intended to be grandiose so if you're an 00ber serious reader, you prolly won't like it! Chapters a bit long, but are divided into parts! Enjoy your read!




    A/N=This is the first chapter, but things will be A LOT better later on. There is a lot of explaining here so please bear with it because it is neccesary


    Chapter One: A Typical Beginning

    A fresh sea breeze drifted throughout the many streets of Cianwood, bringing a beautiful day with it after many days of fierce gale and constant downpours. The sun had absorbed most of the remnants of the storm, leaving the path clear for the aspiring travelers in the seaside city. In the top right corner of one of the many identical white houses, a teenage adolescent boy slept uneasily, having the typical original trainer "pokemon master" dream.

    Deep within the chambers of his sub-conscious, he found himself at least four hundred miles away in Meltokio, the home to the Whirl Island Pokemon League Tournament. Nearly a thousand adolescents from all corners of the mountainous Johto Region came to the Whirl Islands for a taste of pokemon training and only the greatest ones made it to the final tournament, one of them being Brian Arganaut...

    "Congratulations Brian Arganaut! You have overcome all the pokemon trainers of your age group with only seven pokemon at your hands and conquered the Whirl Island Pokemon League!" praised a beautiful middle aged woman with shockingly dark brown eyes.

    The immense crowd of over twenty thousand people leaped to their feet and applauded madly, stamping and cheering for the winner of the legendary tournament. The champion named Brian accepted his trophy with glee and thrusted it high above his head, making the seemingly unsurpassable din explode in sound.

    He had the clear appearance of a teen in his rising puberty. His deeply tanned face was rife with pink pustules and pimples that blended easily with his shoulder length shaggy red hair, and he towered nearly five feet ten inches high with the build of a runner. With one eye, he noticed how the Champion of Johto, Patricia Gonzales, looked down adoringly at him. Brian couldn't help but crack a small grin as everything he worked finally drew to close with this moment…

    "Oh puh-lease. This is the biggest load of bullcrap I have ever seen since the moon landing!"

    Brian turned his head back and forth swiftly, looking for the source of the rather rude comment. The eighty year old tournament coordinator had dozed off several minutes before, and Patricia remained on the spot with an unnaturally gleeful grin still glued on her dull, emotionless face.

    "Up here ya freaking moron! Yeesh, if you can't even find the source of a voice how on Earth did you manage to beat eight drug addicted gym leaders and another eight dumbass tournament trainers to get this far?"

    To Brian's horror, a large gaping hole had appeared in the center of his golden trophy and was the one spouting out all the horrid phrases. "Yes! Took you long enough moron!"

    "What the heck is going on? Oh God, did Greg stuff coke in my hotel room's Oust?" Brian mumbled, glaring down at the yapping trophy that he had dropped. The trophy, though only possessing a large mouth, emitted a powerful aura of freshness as it continued to bully Brian.

    "Coke? Puh-lease! Greg still snorts pepsi thinking that he is getting high off of the painful burning, sugary sensation in his nose. I can go years about that moron, but instead, let's focus on you! So, do tell, how does a complete idiotic, retarded, dumbass like yourself become the Champion of the Whirl Island Pokemon League? I suppose all of the MTV, hip hop music, and school vending machines are to blame…"

    The crowd was still cheering blindly flailing their arms in the air and turning bright purple, serenely unaware of the mentally unstable winner conversing with his trophy. Brian's bushy eyebrows had shot off into his crimson hair and his mouth hung low, trying to comprehend the insane situation. "What the heck is going on! Trophies don't talk, I haven't even gone to the Whirl Islands yet… Wait, this a dream isn't this?"

    "Obviously. Only a dream would be so farfetched as to let you of all people be the winner of any pokemon related thing. I am your sub conscious, and I am here to end this rib cracking dream of yours. You've been thinking non stop about your little retarded trip to the Whirl Islands all last week, so of course, I ended up manifesting this little scene without even knowing it. However, as soon as I found out what was going on, I had to put an end to it! I suppose you might make it to the fifth gym, but you'll NEVER get farther! So why give you--"

    "You know? I really hope that you and my self esteem never get together. The results would be really disastrous.."

    "SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! WHO GAVE YOU PERMISSION TO TALK? NEVER EVER INTERRUPT ME!"

    Brian immediately stopped his response and glared down at the malicious trophy below. He never thought how horrible the factions of his brain could be. "Figures, only you would submit to the orders of a partially animate object… Anyway, since this is such a typical start of a pokemon journey, I suppose you're going to get advice from a million people, but let me be the first. Only twenty percent of all pokemon trainers make it to a tournament, the other eighty percent crash and BURN. They burn like little babies after being doused in gasoline and thrown into a furnace! They burn like...a big fire! And you are going to be among the eighty percent because, unlike the other twenty, you do not have your own TV show or fan fiction! And that's because you're a complete moron! I do hope you have a rather enjoyi.."

    Brian had stopped listening to the mindless droning of his sub conscious and instead focused on a strange shape in the sky. The skies were turning gray and thunder clapped violently as a large bright yellow object hurtled through the air and stopped at the massive silver rim of the stadium. With a bright flash of lightning, the great yellow object revealed itself as a giant floating banana.

    "Oh no! The giant floating banana… that means that this whole thing is really just a dream…"

    "NO! DON'T WAKE UP! I HAVE YET TO SHOW YOU THE TRUTH!"

    The dream world was slowly slipping away from Brian's sight and blurred away as the face of his sheepish mother came to view. Soon, out of the corner of his eye all he could see was a massive black void with only the bright yellow banana in view, glowing strangely bright as it began to form into something else… It was definitely not a banana…

    "WAKE UP!!!"

    At last, the boy named Brian snapped back into the painful reality that was his life. He only bore a small resemblance to his dream version; he was barely five foot five while his hair was cropped neatly and acne had yet to sprout on his face. He tried to recall the strange dream he had just had, but it slipped away as quickly as he came. Brian was back in his dull white-walled room while his sheepish mother prodded him with her finger repeatedly, struggling to remain awake herself.

    Jolene Arganaut was the mirror image of her son with straight pink hair that fell to her shoulders and a very similar sheepish attitude that she passed down to her son. She belonged to the family of pokemon nurses known as the "Nurse Joys", that were all unnaturally cheerful and serenely aware of the fact that they all looked exactly alike. However, she was one of the rare occurrences in the bloodline with her own individual personality.

    While all of her cousins, sisters, and brother-in-law's-best-friends-second-cousins-twice-removed-great-aunt's always managed to keep a cheery positive attitude even if they were in the middle of a desert with a Growlithe chewing away at their leg and someone brutally stabbing them in the chest, Jolene was a pessimistic strong woman who did not take too kindly to idiots and complete morons.

    "Ehh, give me another ten minutes Mom. I was up till three on X Box live…" Brian groaned as he sank back under his sheets.

    "Do you realize that your little ferry is going to leave in ten minutes?"

    "WHAT?" Brian immediately bolted up and turned to face his alarm clock which read '8:13 AM.' "Uhhh, I have another four hours! Today is the day I get out of this house and can go off with Jules and Greg to the Whirl Islands though, right?"

    "Yes, so you better get this chapter going before the readers get bored with all the stale unoriginality!" Jolene exclaimed with her impatience growing.

    "Chapter?"

    "Chapter of your life! Come on Brian how dumb are you! You're the one who reads Tolstoy for fun!"

    "But what about the whole reader thing?"

    She ignored him and pointed to the bedroom door, with a furious demanding look on her face. Brian sighed and got out of his bed, grabbing the clothes left stashed on top of his drawer and headed to his bathroom at last. As soon as he slammed the door behind him, Jolene immediately slumped to the floor and fell asleep.

    Before long, Brian found himself in the shower, musing over his future adventures as he began to return from his sleepy state. Nearly twelve years ago, a bill that was passing through the Grand Council of the Kanto-Johto land for many years finally came into action. The rules of underage pokemon training were completely rewritten, and the age of the handing out of pokemon licenses was raised from ten to eighteen! The basis of this great change was the fact of many injuries and pokemon negligence occurred from giving children that haven't even reached maturity the responsibilities that came with training pokemon.

    Of course, there was great backlash and great support to this change. Famous and retired pokemon trainers were enraged over the government would change a tradition that lasted for thousands of years while soccer mothers were jubilant to know that their children would no longer receive bites from Rattata, bruises from Nidoran, and bloody decapitations from Scyther. After five years of intense debating and protesting, the leader of the Elite Four, Lance Sun, and the Grand Pokemon Champion, Patricia Gonzales, had managed to create an adolescent pokemon league in the Sevii Islands for thirteen year olds from Kanto and in the Whirl Islands for thirteen year olds from Johto.

    This league would have eight gyms like the other pokemon leagues, two on each main island. However, they were not nearly as difficult as the main land gyms and were supposed to have their own individual twists. Once one gained eight badges, he or she would be able to progress to a final tournament which determined who trained their pokemon the best that year. Then they'd return home and keep the pokemon, or send it to the nearest professor until they turned eighteen.

    In addition to the mini pokemon league, the true pokemon tournament of the Whirl Islands would be taking place this year. It was known as the "Whirl Cup", a water pokemon tournament held every three years in the main island, Red Rock Isle. Powerful water pokemon trainers from all corners of the globe would be coming to battle for the great title of "Water Pokemon Alpha Omega."

    After he stopped thinking his long typical boring thoughts, he finally went downstairs after neatly tucking in his shirt and combing his thin red hair to one side. At the foot of the stairs, he was greeted with the sweet aroma of the saturated fat of bubbling bacon and the warm smile of his pokemon, Sunkern.

    Back when Brian was but a wee little girly man, he found himself spending his spare time playing in the little patch of woods far back in Cianwood City. When he was eight, he came across a small, green striped yellow seed pokemon no bigger than soccer ball being attacked brutally by a small bird pokemon, Pidgey. Being the little indifferent child he was, Brian simply walked on, but after hearing the pitiful cries of the defenseless pokemon that was nearing death and looking straight into her shockingly adorable black eyes, all innocence fell, and the Pidgey soon paid with a flurry of stones.

    It was typical clich?d start to a new friendship, Sunkern and Brian soon became inseparable after Brian brought the severely wounded plant pokemon to his mother's PokeCenter to be healed. Six years later, the two's friendship remained strong as ever and Sunkern defied the taunts of all RMTers by becoming an above average battler. Her hard shell proved to be a bit of a pain in her powerful tackle, and her special ability of absorbing enemies health was improved greatly after years of practice again Rattata.

    "Hey Sunkern! Get a good nights sleep? Tis time for action buddy!" Brian muttered in a condescending voice, as if the pokemon was still a baby. Sunkern smiled sweetly as usual and leaped on to her trainer's right shoulder as they walked into the dining room to grab a bite of breakfast.

    Inside the dining room was not only Brian's mother, Jolene, who was slowly eating a bowl of Total cereal, cringing every time she swallowed, but also his two greatest non-pokemon friends since Kindergarten, Greg and Julie. They were polar opposite fraternal twins who shared the same dirty blonde hair and large seafoam eyes.

    "BRIAN! Ready go to the Whirl Islands?" Brian's female friend screeched as she leaped from her eggs and wrapped her arms tightly around the flustered boy, who weakly returned the hug.

    Julie was a practical and sagacious teenage girl, who boasted being the only thirteen year old in Cianwood being under five feet after her brother, Greg's, growth spurt. Though she was an optimistic and cheerful girl the majority of the time, she was prone to violence, and despite her small stature, could easily knock out several Donphans in of her notorious tantrums.

    "Ok! One-two-three LET HER GO BRIAN!" Greg roared angrily.

    Julie must have inherited all the family shrewdness because Greg was one of the greatest loveable morons to ever walk the streets of Cianwood city. He wasn't too intelligent or strategic, but he was built pretty nicely since he spent most of his free time working out to look good for the ladies. Shortly after receiving his first stirrings, Greg soon became nefarious throughout all of town for being an extremely terrible flirt. Any pretty girl he sees, he would immediately jump in and begin complimenting her and then suggesting things leading to a nice kick where it hurts.

    As soon as Brian released his hold of Julie (it was truly the other way around), Greg began to gorge on his plate of bacon once more with his right hand while he fixed his spiked blonde hair with the reflection on his spoon with his other hand. The two friends shrugged at each other at Greg's typical strange behavior and sat back in the table.

    "Hi Brian, Greg and Julie got here a few minutes before, have some eggs and bac…err toast," Jolene said cheerfully, staring at Greg with a bit of anxiety as he took the last of the nearly twenty pieces of bacon for himself.

    "Where's Slowpoke and Machop?" Brian asked the twins, who immediately responded by pointing to the room across from them. There in the kitchen were the two pokemon that belonged to his best friends: Machop and Slowpoke, eating their own meals.

    Slowpoke was a hefty bright pink water bear pokemon with a two foot tail ending with a white band. Though he sounded like a pretty fierce and formidable opponent, he was actually one of the dumbest and worst pokemon to own. He had very little will to move his chunky legs and spent his spare time staring blankly into air for long periods, with his large mouth gaping wide open.

    Many people wondered how Greg got stuck with such an incredibly incompetent pokemon that mirrored him so well. It all started when the poor idiotic boy was only seven years old and went with his family to the Whirl Islands to see the legendary Whirl Cup tournament. There he saw a beautiful water pokemon trainer by the name of "Misty" and immediately fell in love with her and wanted to be a water pokemon trainer just like her when he grew up. Julie claims that Greg's love for Misty is still alive and flaring. Ever since that Whirl Cup, Greg had become the world's biggest and worst flirt at the mere age of seven!

    Unfortunately for him, his Great Aunt Matilda, who knew very little about pokemon, heard about little Gregory's dream of being a water pokemon trainer and bought him the second cheapest water pokemon she could find for his eight birthday, a newly born Slowpoke that was abandoned by its parents. From that day onwards, the two morons were stuck together, both sharing a strong dislike for each other. Mrs. and Mr. Carson refused to buy another pokemon and said that if Greg can't raise one of the hardest pokemon to raise properly, then he could never be a true pokemon trainer. Clearly, he wasn't a true pokemon tranier.

    Machop was a much more competent pokemon that Slowpoke. Machop was a pokemon that sort of resembled a five year old kid—on steroids. He was completely grayish with a small tail and three fin like features on top of his head. He looked small and scrawny, but he could lift Greg in one hand and Julie on the other! The origins of Machop were similarly interesting, for he was actually originally intended for Brian.

    Brian was born into the Arganauts, the biggest family of Fighting Pokemon trainers in all of Johto. His father, Marcus Arganaut, was a traveling fighting trainer and often gave lessons at dojos and schools about fighting pokemon. His younger brother Chuck had become the gym leader of the Cianwood City gym while his older brother Bruno received the highest honors and gained the second highest position in the Elite Four.

    Being born into a family of fighting pokemon trainers, Brian was also expected to carry out the legacy, but instead shocked his entire family with the revelation that he would keep his Sunkern as his main pokemon, rather than the specially bred Machop his father had bought for him. Under Johto Pokemon Law 17-A, a child under the legal age of pokemon trainer could only possess one pokemon, though the family could still own a pokemon that would be intended for the child later on. However, Jolene refused to take in another pokemon in her house; it was already tough enough taking care of the three pokemon that already resided in her home, and Marcus couldn't take the Machop himself because then the pokemon would have no contact with Brian, defeating the purpose of Brian having his own fighting pokemon, so they ended up giving it to Brian's good friend Julie, who was the only one without a pokemon at the time.

    "Brian? Brian? BRIAN STOP LOOKING AT THE POKEMON AND EAT ALREADY!" Jolene hollered, snapping her son back into reality.

    "Huh? Oh sorry," Brian shrugged and started eating some eggs and toast himself while his Sunkern went to eat his good old sunlight with his pokemon friends. Everyone ate in silence for a few minute before Brian finally started a conversation . "I had the craziest dream this night. Where I--"

    "Oh Brian honey, have you been having those dreams about the crazy clown chasing you on a giant Butterfree with a pair of sewing scissors again?" Jolene asked with a look of dear concern on her face as her son's face turned bright purple and the twin's faces looked up rather eagerly.

    "Mom…please don't talk about that! No it was actually about--"

    "Oh! I know! It was the Skitty gouging you eyes out! You should have heard him scream; I could have sworn I had a daughter!"

    Greg and Julie grew steadily more and more purple as they struggled to hold in their laughter, even Sunkern was screwing her eyes tight and looked as if she was hiccupping. Brian decided to abandon the subject and went back to eating his toast, praying with all his might that his mother would not continue the subject of dreams. Jolene saw the look of deep embarrassment on her son's face and was determined to mend her mistake.

    "Oh but it's not like Brian only has nightmares all night long! He has all sorts of dreams. You should have heard him in the nights after we went to Goldenrod City and saw the gym leader Whitney!" Jolene cried with glee, looking intently at the twins. Brian dropped his egg filled spoon immediately and began to twitch madly. The two twins looked up eagerly, knowing they struck gold at their best friend's expense.

    "Oh really Mrs. Thomas? What exactly did my good buddy Brian say about that red head gym leader?" Greg asked the clueless mother, while secretly giving the magenta-faced Brian a "you go girl!" eye.

    "Hmm, I'm not exactly sure what all he was saying, but I remember him going 'I love you Whitney!' and then 'Your so hawt!!!' and then for some reason, he started mooing…"

    By the time Mrs. Arganaut started imitating Brian's alleged mooing, Greg and Julie could no longer hold in their amusement and let out a huge myrrh of laughter that brought tears to their eyes and shook the kitchen table rather violently as they struck it fiercely with their fists. Jolene gave her son a big thumbs up, still under the disillusion she redeemed herself, while he slowly banged his head against the kitchen table, in hopes that his brain would come loose, freeing him from the hell that was his mother's love.

    After finishing the ruckus that was breakfast, the trio gathered their pokemon and was ready to leave the house and go and visit the gym leader Chuck, who supposedly had a surprise for their journey. Unfortunately, the two greatest idiots in the group ran across some problems trying to leave the house.

    "COME ON YOU STUPID LUMMOX GET YOUR FAT BEHIND OFF THE FLOOR AND GET A MOVE ON IT!" Greg screeched as he repeatedly kicked the bear pokemon in its side, trying to get the dimwitted pokemon out of his usual nine o clock daydream. "AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN EAT YOUR REMORAID AND BITS! GAAH YOU STUPID POKEMON!" Greg grabbed a handful of the food in Slowpoke's bowl and shoved it inside the water pokemon's wide gaping mouth before storming out in a fit of rage.

    When Greg was out of sight, and Brian, Julie, and their pokemon looked at each other awkwardly, Slowpoke finally began slowly munching his food and started to drag his legs slowly toward the door. There was positively no way to understand what went on in that eccentric pokemon's large head. At last, the three had finally escaped the house (after much hugs and kisses to Brian from his mother) and were on their way to Brian's uncle, Chuck's, gym.

    PART TWO


    As soon as the trio was about three blocks away from Brian's home, Greg immediately stopped Brian by his shoulder and pulled his neatly tucked shirt out of his pants and messed up his neatly combed hair to give him a somewhat rugged look. "BRIAN! STOP LOOKING LIKE SUCH A FREAKING NERD! How are you going to get them hos looking like some mini lawyer?"

    "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A HO?" Julie screeched, grasping Greg tightly by the throat and pinning him up against the nearest house, her seafoam eyes vibrating madly. Brian stared at the two uncomfortably while gently trying to fix his hair. The same argument had happened between the three for a while on where Brian should fit in the social spectrum.

    Greg fit with the "stupid pretty boy" group, Julie fit with the "feminist intelligent female" group, but Brian didn't really fit anywhere! He was definitely a smart one and a black belt in karate (though he didn't want to raise fighting pokemon, that didn't mean he wasn't a formidable opponent). From his very origins in middle school, Brian had never really gone to any groups and just stuck with having Greg and Julie and best friends and several other friends from all different parts of the social spectrum. Basically, he managed to retain his Elementary mindset of open friendship, setting him apart from thousands of other teenagers all over Johto.

    "Brian, you're perfectly fine the way you are. If you ever be like Greg, I promise that I will kill you. Slowly and painfully," Julie smiled cheerfully, after throwing Greg down on the pavement. Brian stuttered, at loss for words when Greg struggled to stand and began speaking.

    "Oh puh-lease, are you trying to make Brian a girly man whose going to grow up to be a 'stapistics analist' who never got a woman and has to end up getting a mail-order wife from Bolivia! Hmm, then again, some Bolivian women are pretty hot…"

    "SHUT UP GREG! Brian, take it from a woman, plenty of girls are a lot more interested than you than my dearest brother! In fact, I remember some girls even said they had a bit of a crush on you!" Julie declared with a rather excessive broad grin. At her last statement, Greg's mouth fell down, and Brian's eyes grew rather large.

    "Really? Who liked me?" Brian asked curiously, attempting with all his might to hide his glee. At this question, Julie's eyes began to widen, and she began to flush a rather light shade of pink as she slowly twisted the ends of her long blonde hair trying to think of a quick response.

    "Errm, it was that one Ma..no she…well…actually…that Hoenn…you know what? We really need to go to the Cianwood Gym! It's already 9:30 and who knows how long Chuck wants us? Let's go off to our adventures!" Julie gave her legendary bright smile and skipped on ahead while the guys just shrugged at each other.

    "Sunkern Sunkern (Has it occurred to you that humans can be very strange)?" the seed pokemon asked Julie's Machop in utter confusion at the events that just followed.

    "Machop Chop Chop (That's because they're brainses aren't nearly as developed as us pokemon'ses brainses)!"the fighting pokemon said in response.

    "Slowpoke poke poke (I like tater tots)…"

    The rest of the fifteen minute walk to the gym was done in silence, the situation that was started by Greg left them all feeling awkward and Greg wondering what it would be like to have a Bolivian wife…

    Finally, they arrived at the most famous building of Cianwood City, the Cianwood Fighting Gym. On the outside, it was a great clash of Japanese architecture and beautifully positioned arches forming a great one story building that released the powerful aura of mysticism. Several beautiful wood chimes hung from the door archway and swayed softly in the breeze, and situated above it was a wooden carving of a giant flaming fist.

    When they entered inside, the mystic feel had not gone away quite yet. The wooden ceiling arched high above, looking so fragile yet intricate as if a single ember would make the whole thing burst into flames and cause the whole gym to collapse. The floor was smooth and shiny, except for the rocky battlefield in the very center. The light ninja battle tune that came from the hidden speakers was easily heard as the gym was nearly empty, except for the motherly figure that was trekking from across the field to meet the children.

    Her name was Sarah Arganaut, the wife of the gym leader Chuck Arganaut, and she was the world's most caring woman, always baking the children her famous cookies and always assisting the community and volunteering since she didn't have a job. She was a very beautiful woman with a cascade of straight black hair and sparkling blue eyes, and her beauty was only intensified in the kimonos she fashioned.

    "Hello children…or should I say teenagers. Ho ho…that was funny, I called you guys teenagers since you guys are now going to…errm, anyway, Chuck is waiting in his office for you! If you look closely, you'll see that Atkins diet I ordered for him is finally working!" Sarah told the kids, pointing to a room crammed all the way back in the corner.

    "Do you have any cookies Mrs. Arga--AH AH AH! NEVER MIND!" Greg started before Julie started to twist his ear painfully dragging him off to Chuck's office. Sarah didn't know what to say and just went off to kitchen while the children finally went to see Chuck.

    Unlike most offices which consisted of a chairs, a big desk, and a few plants and paintings, Chuck's office was full of different weight lifting stations from bench presses to squats to treadmills, even though there were two other weight lifting rooms in the gym. Machop looked nervously at the punching bag, getting the strong urge to practice his punching skills. In the very corner, there was a small work desk with a computer and phone attached. Chuck was at the desk, wearing his unusually thick glasses and filling out complicated looking forms rather quickly. He looked up at the adolescents who immediately jumped back at the bespectacled Chuck.

    "Hello Mr. Arganaut! Can Machop use the punching bag please? He didn't get his normal five days of training at your gym this week," Julie asked, pointing at her jittery pokemon.

    "Oh hey kids! Call me Chuck Julie! And of course Machop can use my weights. Errm, you three have a seat…I'm going to get something!" Chuck mumbled quickly as he tore off his glasses and stormed out of the room. Machop immediately went off to the punching bag and began assaulting it. The trio looked around for something they could use as a seat since there was no room for chairs. They ended up sharing one of the bench press benches before Chuck returned carrying a small box with him.

    Chuck was like a second father to Brian since his own father was constantly away on work and always taught him important lessons and even was his sensei when he was training in Karate. He was a very powerful but clumsy man with a prominent split moustache. Though his arms and legs were built powerfully and he had the built of a wrestler, Chuck was quite the chubby one, though his diet was having some effect.

    He placed the box down and began to rummage through the box before pulling out a tiny electronic device only the size of a cellular phone. It was bright red and had a clear screen in the center with several buttons below it and a tiny stylus to go with it. Chuck pressed a tiny, barely visible button on the back of the strange device, and a voice suddenly boomed out of it.

    "HELLO USER. I AM THE I-POKEDEX MINI! I SERVE AS AN ELECTRONIC POKEMON ENCYLOPEDIA THAT WILL GIVE YOU ALL SORTS OF INFORMATION ABOUT A POKEMON! PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME AND GENDER!"

    The trio raised their eyebrows at the abilities of this tiny device and didn't know what to say. Suddenly, Chuck ran toward them and shoved the "I-Poke" in front of Greg's mouth. Greg did not know what to do and leaned back, as if the machine was a slimy Weedle. "Psst…state your name and gender!" Chuck hissed from behind the I-Poke Mini.

    "Umm Greg Carson, Female…NO MALE MALE MALE!"

    "HELLO MRS. UMMGREG CARSON! PLEASE GO TO MY SETTINGS SCREEN TO CHANGE MY SETTINGS."

    "This is the newest innovation in the Pokedex line! Last year we had the I-Poke which could fit in your smallest pockets and had nearly five hundred skins and could hold information on 400 pokemon! But this year, we have the I-Poke Mini which can fit neatly in the lining of your underwear and has a thousand skins and can hold information on 5000 pokemon!" Chuck announced in a strangely monotone and rehearsed voice.

    "Umm Uncle Chuck, who would want to keep their Poke in their undergarments?" Brian asked with a look of deep confusion at the I-Poke Mini.

    "And last time I checked, Chuck, there was only three hundred eighty pokemon, not five thousand?" Julie muttered, holding back her annoyance at the idiocy of this so called technology innovation.

    "That thing is so easy to lose! I'd end up putting it in my laundry!" Greg cried.

    "QUITE! THIS IS A TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION!" Chuck screamed, taking everyone by surprise. His crimson face soon returned to normal, looking rather embarrassed for his previous outburst. "Err, so anyway the I-Poke Mini was presented at the Spring Gym Leader conference, and I said I knew two very responsible adolescents who were about to go to the Pokemon League on the Whirl Islands and a third adolescent who could receive a prototype to see if the more slower children could easily operate the device. So, instead of that obsolete I-Poke, you three shall receive the I-Poke Mini as prototype testers! Let me demonstrate on your Machop, Julie!"

    Chuck pointed Urrgreg's I-Poke at Machop and pressed a red button, causing the tiny bulb at the tip of the device to glow brightly and pause for a few seconds.

    "MACHOP-THE FIGHTING POKEMON. THIS POKEMON IS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL PREVOLVED POKEMON AND IS CAPABLE OF LIFTING ONE HUNDRED TIMES THEIR OWN WEIGHT. THIS ONE IS CURRENTLY AT LEVEL 15 AND KNOWS LOW KICK, KARATE CHOP, FOCUS ENERGY, AND LEER!"

    "Great! One down….four thousand nine hundred and ninety nine more pokemon to go!" Greg exclaimed sarcastically, causing Chuck to scowl and point the I-Poke at Slowpoke as well.

    "SLOWPOKE- THE WATER/PSYCHIC POKEMON. THIS POKEMON IS ONE OF THE MOST DIMWITTED POKEMON AND EXTREMELY INRESPONSIVE. IT TAKES A VERY SKILLED TRAINER TO BRING OUT ITS HIDDEN POWER. THIS ONE IS CURRENTLY AT LEVEL 5 AND KNOWS WATER GUN, CURSE, AND TACKLE!"

    Brian and Julie immediately guffawed at Greg's humiliation before Chuck pointed the I-Poke at Sunkern.

    "SUNKERN- THE GRASS POKEMON. THIS POKEMON IS VERY FRAGILE AND EASILY DEFEATED. ITS PRIMARY WAY OF ATTACKING ITS OPPONENT IS BY ABSORBING ITS ENERGY. THIS ONE IS CURRENTLY AT LEVEL 16 AND KNOWS ABSORB, MEGA DRAIN, AND GROWTH!"

    "Pssh, very fragile and easily developed? Not my Sunkern! We'll prove that stupid I-Poke wrong, right Sunkern?" Brian asked his grass pokemon, giving her a hard slap in the back. Sunkern was immediately shot into the air from the bench, struck Chuck's hard desk rather fiercely, and slid down to lay face down in the dirty carpeted floor.

    "Sunkern kern kern (Why didn't you just get a shiny Larvitar like everybody else)…"

    "I've got cookies! And Miltank jerky for my Atkins man!" Sarah exclaimed as she walked right in the room carrying a plate of food, before they people in the room could commence to laugh at Sunkern and Brian. The trio was more than happy to take the cookies while Chuck politely refused the Miltank jerkey, not being able to take another bite of meat. "I see Chuck has given you the I-Pokes! Are they, as you kids say, totally
    rad
    !"

    The three immediately stopped half way through their cookies and looked up at the horrifying site of a middle age woman saying an extinct teenage phrase. After several seconds of silence, Greg was the one who finally broke the silence. "Dude, that like totally died out around the Middle Ages, fo'shizzle!"

    "Tell me Mrs. Sarah, can you name five thousand pokemon?" Brian asked the totally rad woman. Julie nodded vigorously in agreement while Chuck let out a groan of exasperation.

    "Umm, I can do this! I got an A- in Pokemon Studies! Umm Caterpie, Sunkern, uuhhh Poliwrath, ummm Wobbuffet, Jynx…." Sarah began to recite, with her eyes screwed tight in concentration as she attempted to recall the names of all five thousand pokemon. Brian and Julie looked at each other nervously; they didn't think she'd actually try.

    She continued on naming random pokemon names for another five minutes before Chuck whispered to them quietly that it was best they went off and wished them good luck on their pokemon journey, giving them all individual hugs and handing them their I-pokes, while Sarah still managed to recite random pokemon names, completely indifferent to what happened around her.

    As soon as they got out of the office, they broke out in a sprint to get away from the two very strange adults and there magical technology.

    "That was weird… But hey, I suppose it's not bad to get these I-Poke Minis for free. Normally, you have to pay a hundred dollars for one!" Julie commented as she looked at her new I-Poke Mini and showed it to her Machop as well.

    "Hmmph, I'll show that stupid voice! I am an extremely skilled trainer, and my Slowpoke will be the most powerful thing in the history of the world! Even more powerful than that Misty's Corsola…oh Misty how much I'd love for you too…errm give me advice on water pokemon training!" Greg rambled on, before being rudely snapped back to reality by the greedy looks on his best friend and sister's face at the hint that he truly still did love Misty.

    "Hey Julie, Greg and I definitely know what we're going to do. Greg is going to compete in the Whirl Cup, if he even manages to catch another water pokemon, and I'm going to get those badges and compete in the end of the year tournament. You decided yet?" Brian asked.

    Julie did not answer immediately, instead she paused for a moment and was deep in thought as reflected by the strange glimmer in her seafoam eyes as she tied her long hair in a ponytail. "Well, I do love an occasional battle but don't want to spend my entire year just training my pokemon for battle! Maybe I'll go and see what pokemon occupation I want to do when I grow up…and perhaps train my pokemon to beat that awful Sally!"

    She made a rather ugly face at the word Sally, for Sally was one of the Pecunia Triplets. The Pecunians were a very rich family with a giant mansion in the far end of Cianwood as well as a sea cabin. They had a set of triplets containing three snobby daughters: Sally, Grace, and Jean. They always wore fancy dresses and bragged about their surplus of material things in school. Sally and Julie were horrible enemies ever since Kindergarten, but that story is for another time…

    Brian and Greg chuckled at her last statement and the three decided to head back to their own homes, get their stuff, and meet back up in the Cianwood Port to wait for the Ferry to come at last. After a few blocks, they parted ways. Brian looked around him and for the first time in a while he appreciated the beauty of his city that he would be separated from for an entire year.

    Over to the far right was a giant beach that stretched all through out the shore with many ferries, fisherman, swimmers, and just people having fun at the beach. At the other side was a large city with beautiful white houses and a pokemon center. The entire city consisted of fifty streets and over one thousand houses. The sun always shined brightly overhead the city and the air was always salty with the taste of the Johto Sea; it truly was a spectacular place, but Brian anticipated even more the beautiful conditions and streets of the Whirl Islands that he waited nearly thirteen years for.

    Upon reaching his home, he saw his mother waiting patiently on the porch with Brian's packed travel pack hanging limply at her side. Besides her was a large praying mantis pokemon with large scythes for arms, a Scyther known as "Slissy". Jolene's normally peachy and bright face was wet with the stains of tears. Because Marcus Arganaut was always gone in work, her son was all she had and now he would be gone too. They looked at each other silently for a few minutes before Jolene finally cracked and leaped to wrap her arms around her son and planting fierce kisses on his cheeks.

    "Oh Son! I'm going to miss you so much! Even though it is only a year, I'm still going to miss you so badly! I have your bag packed with all necessary things you need, including ten sticks of Old Spice deodorant!"

    "You got me Old Spice deodorant mother? Wow Mom, you really do care about me!" Brian interrupted.

    "Yes, Old Spice deodorant is made with a powerful substance that has the force to eliminate and prevent powerful odors of the sweat gland; even a Muk will smell good with a nice application of Old Spice!"

    "So, if a mother truly cares about her Son, she will buy him Old Spice deodorant?"

    "Yes, because those cheap mothers who buy the one dollar store brand crap are also the tramps with seven crack addicted babies you see living in trailers in Alabama! So, unless you want to be a trashy woman living in a trailer with seven crack addicted babies, hurry up to your nearest drug store and pick up as many Old Spice deodorants as you can for the low price of 3.99!" Jolene exclaimed, pulling a stick of Old Spice deodorant from her pocket turning around and giving a strangely wide grin to the air in front of her.

    "Scyther Scyther Scythe (What the heck was that! Humans…)" Slissy commented as she watched the two humans acting very strangely from her hedge cutting.

    "Anyways, if you need anything, be sure to call me! Remember PokeCenters offer free meals, so don't be a Pecunia and save your money! Oh, Sunkern you be a good plant and protect Brian," Mrs. Thomas mumbled with tears pouring down her cheeks.

    "Mom…"

    "OH SON!"

    She gave Brian a rib cracking hug and splattered his face with kisses again as he put on his pack. Sunkern was screwing her eyes tightly, attempting for the one too manieth time to control her laughter.

    "I'll miss you too Mom, but can you please loosen your grip," Brian struggled to say. Slissy, who was about as close to Brian as Sunkern, turned away and crossed her scythes with a few tears growing in her eyes. "Oh Slissy! You know I'll miss you the most!"

    The bug pokemon turned back smiling and raised her scythes in preparation for an enormous hug. "AHHHHHH!" Brian screamed as he ran as fast as he could away from the sharp scythes and toward the port nearly toppling Sunkern off of his shoulder.

    When he finally reached the port, he found Greg and Julie already waiting there along with about fifty other adolescents and their pokemon waiting impatiently for the ferry to come anytime soon, even though they still had about another hour and a half. As he walked toward his best friends, many people gave him funny looks since he had lipstick plastered all over his cheeks and was panting rather heavily. The trio sat down on the rocks and played several games of Gin Rummy with a few other friends before the ferry finally approached the port.

    As the ship finally drew closer, the crowd murmured and gasped in great interest at the ferry. It was nothing like a ferry; it was more like a cruise ship! Within an hour, the ship anchored at the dock and the door opened as a small man with glasses holding a piece of paper came out along with several sailors. They explained the rules and regulations of the expected ship behavior (which even Julie didn't listen to). More people were focused on the majesty that was the S.S. Mantine! It was nowhere the size of a regular ship but was still rather large and shared the same volume as two houses. The white and black paint shined brightly in the sun and many bulbs decorated the intricate railing that traveled around the perimeter of the boat. They saw a few windows scattered sporadically around the side of the boat and couldn't wait to see what lay inside the majestic boat.

    The small man with the piece of paper began to speak himself. "Alright, get settled down. This boat ride is expected to last four hours on route to Olivine City and then another four hours to the Whirl Islands from there. I will name the names of those who registered to go on this journey in alphabetical order, and when your name is called out, I need you to come to me, show me your ID, and then you may come aboard the S.S. Mantine! Alright….Reddy Alibaster, Brian Arganaut, Lewis Badeyes, Adam Britannia, Greg Carson, Julie Carson, Billy Coors…"

    Brian and the twins pulled out their Pokemon IDs, gave each other big grins, and walked toward the ship to a new land, to a new adventure, to a new period in their lives that they would never forget as long as they lived.





    ...This chapter was brought to you by Old Spice Deodorant and Apple Computers. Remember, if you don't want to be outstyled crack addicted Alabama trailer trash, then use our products!






    End Notes: If you want to be a permanent reviewer/reader and want to be contacted when there is a new chapter, please tell me in your review or PM me
     
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    Chapter Two: All Aboard the S.S. Mantine! Part One

    Nearly twenty minutes after the children finally boarded the ship, the S.S. Mantine had finally anchored out of the Cianwood Port and began to turn away from the seaside city to head towards Olivine City. Most of the insensitive little brutes had made it their mission to head to the intestines of the ship as soon as possible and see what laid inside, but Brian, the twins, and several other teenagers were nice and sentimental enough to give their beautiful city one last gaze as the horizon slowly devoured and chewed it. Somewhere in the city, Jolene and many other overprotective mothers were bawling into the sheets of their beds, not being able to see their babies for quite some time. After about another thirty minutes, Cianwood was fully engulfed by the treacherous sea, and the trio turned to officially begin their Whirl Island Quest at last.

    Brian gave one final smirk before turning to face the twins and his pokemon. "Wow, so this is really it guys. We're on our own. We're on a pokemon journey! I can't believe how amazing the thought of…"

    "Brian, do me a favor and please shut up. Nobody likes an overly sensitive little sissy boy! Right Slowpoke?" Greg groaned, looking to his hefty bear pokemon for support.

    The three pokemon were sitting on the hardwood polished deck together. Sunkern and Machop prattling away in their own little language about the two things that mattered most to a pokemon: shiny things and The O.C.. While the two obedient and well respected pokemon were in a deep intellectual discussion about the joys of aluminum paper, Slowpoke gazed cravingly at a gray shellfish pokemon, whom he lusted after for ages. Upon hearing Greg's question, Slowpoke turned to his trainer, temporarily out of his usual day dreaming state.

    "Slow…. Slow… (Who are you again)?"

    "Oh shut up you big lummox! God, I can't wait to capture another water pokemon! Then, I'll finally be able to toss you off the side of a boat and tell people you couldn't bear living with your fat self! Look at Sunkern and Machop! They are already deep in discussion like good obedient slaves; whereas you are just lusting over that Melissa's Shellder!" Greg shouted to his pokemon. Slowpoke said nothing, but rather quietly blinked back at him, contemplating on how much his gelled up blonde hair looked like a delicious omelet.

    Having an extremely loud and obnoxious voice, Greg's whining was heard on the entire deck. The tall girl named Melissa looked back to see Slowpoke slowly licking his lips as he stared at the Shellder's backside, and immediately snatched her pokemon away, marching down into the bowels of the ship. Sunkern and Machop glared at the rude pokemon trainer with disgust, starting a new discussion on which of their attacks could probably off him. Slowpoke's eyes began to tear up as the love of his life slowly went away, all because of his stupid trainer.

    "Greg, sometimes I really wish you would just shut your mouth for an entire day. Is it really that hard?" Julie muttered to herself.

    "And I sure wish you would stop being such a little PMS infested bi…."

    "OK GUYS! Who wants to go downstairs? I'm sure that there are lots of fun and dandy things do to in there! What do you guys say? Eh? Eh?" Brian yelled out nervously, before Greg could finish his rather insulting remark.

    The tension between Greg and Julie reached an all time zenith, more frigid than an Articuno breath on a cold, blizzard stabbed day. They quietly stared at each other with their pearly seafoam eyes not budging a single millimeter. Greg started to clench his teeth with all his might while Julie's eyes began to shake violently. When the moment seemed like it would never come, Julie finally blinked. The twins looked at each other for another few seconds and started to laugh as Greg finally blinked as well.

    "**** it, Greg! Even if you are an idiot, you can still beat me in a good old fashioned blinking contest!" Julie moaned ruefully, giving her brother a light punch in the arm.

    "Oh, don't worry little sis, you're still good at other things! Like being an ice cold bi…"

    "Shut up Mr. ImgoingtoenduponthestreetswithnojobandafourhundredpoundgirlfriendwhoIhavetospoonfeedbecauseshestoo****fattogetuponherown!" Julie retaliated giving her brother a harder punch in the stomach. The two playfully fought with each other for a few minutes before landing on the deck and laughing their heads off. Brian stared at the twins in utter confusion. They may have been the worst enemies and polar opposites, but they always remembered the fact they were twins and managed to be closer than a obese adolescent to his chocolate cake.

    "Wow guys, one minute cussing each other out, next minute, laughing with each other! I will never be able to understand you two... Anyway, want to head downstairs?" Brian asked shaking his head and chuckling at his two best friends.

    "Yeah, let's get out of this place. People are already beginning to give us funny looks... Come along now Machop!" Julie replied calling her fighting pokemon forward while Sunkern hopped onto Brian's shoulder. Greg, without surprise, had major problems trying to get Slowpoke to follow him.

    "GET UP YOU FAT LARD! COME ON! MOVE RIGHT NOW!" Greg pleaded, taking a handful of Slowpoke's back fat in a vain attempt to pull him away from the ship's railing, only to find the blubber slipping from his hands each time. Cursing under his breath, Greg moved his hands to Slowpokes tiny tail and began to tug as forcefully as he could. With the poor luck of a comic relief character, out of all the things Greg could have done to Slowpoke, he chose the most fatal one.

    For the first time in many years, Slowpoke finally made a reaction that didn't involve gazing blankly with his mouth hanging wide open. Slowpoke slowly turned to face Greg with a face of utmost fury. His large eyes were narrowed in dislike, and his normally wide and gaping mouth had been reduced to a thin, annoyed line. After he glared at his trainer for a few seconds, he took in a big breath and opened his wide mouth as vastly as he could. Surprising everyone who watched, a thick pillar of foaming water fired out of the "fat lard's" mouth and struck Greg squarely in the chest, drenching his clothes and causing him to crash into the ship's side railings.

    Julie and Brian looked at Slowpoke with utmost amazement, more surprised that he was able to use an attack rather than the fact that he hurt Greg of course. Many other onlookers in the deck turned to face Greg and Slowpoke, ready for a few seconds of entertainment. Machop and Slowpoke exchanged grimace from their trainer's sides. They knew Slowpoke the best and have seen the results of his true power a few times before.

    Greg was knocked out temporarily by the sheer force of the Water Gun attack and struggled to get up again. Once he finally did, he shook his clothes fiercely like a dog, expelling a large amount of water onto the deck. As he regained control of himself he slowly realized something and brought his hands up slowly to touch his damp hair, fearing for his life. He could not feel the little gelled up waves and spikes sticking out.

    "You…. stupid…. pokemon; you… ruined my hair! NO BODY TOUCHES MY BEAUTIFUL HAIR! I'll show you how a true Pokemon battles! I CHOOSE YOU, GREG!" Greg declared as he sprinted toward the livid bear, ready to fight his own pokemon.

    "Wow, just when I thought Greg could not get any more pathetic and stupid," Brian commented as he watched the two lovebirds begin to circle each other silently, ready to take their anger out on each other.

    "Oh, the stupid human is going to get killed by Slowpoke. How unfortunate," Machop muttered to Sunkern as they eagerly watched the battle.

    "If he dies, do you think Brian will let me have his hat??? I love that hat!" Sunkern wondered out loud.

    "Alright, GREG USE YOUR DYNAMIC PUNCH ATTACK!" Greg ordered himself, resulting in many chuckles from bystanders. He nodded to himself in acceptance and began to pull back his right arm as far as he could. His remotely powerful biceps began to quiver as he flexed them with all of his might and launched himself toward Slowpoke, still standing several feet away. Unfortunately, because of Dynamic Punch's incredibly low accuracy, Greg found himself missing Slowpoke by a mile and tripping over his feet onto the floor instead.

    Slowpoke let a low howl and raised his head to the sky. As Greg struggled to get to his feet, the bear pokemon began to glow brightly in a white light as if he was evolving. Along with blinding people with the powerful light that shined from his body, he also began to flash with scarlet dots randomly until it finally stopped, and he returned to normal, looking a great deal more powerful.

    "What the heck was that? Looked like Slowpoke was laying an egg or something…" Brian asked, more concerned for the pokemon than his friend as Slowpoke began to growl at a whimpering Greg. The bulb at the end of Brian's I-Poke began to flash purple and started to say something.

    "The pokemon just used Curse attack, an attack that increases strength and defense at the expense of speed for non-ghost pokemon."

    When Greg got to his feet again, Slowpoke immediately let out a huge snarl and mauled his idiotic trainer as fiercely as he could. Greg let out a high pitched girly scream as nearly two hundred pounds of pure blubber crashed into his chest and pinned him down to the floor. His entire world was consumed by shadow as the only thing he could see was the glaring face of his Slowpoke who stared down at him with his eyes shaking and his mouth foaming.

    "Hmm, should we separate them now?" Julie asked Brian.

    "Nah, this is quite funny actually!" Brian commented, moving his head in different to see the battle better.

    "Is it just me or does it look like Greg is liking that position?" Sunkern asked with a smirk as she eyed the two.

    People began to come up from below the ship to see the Slowpoke-Greg battle, thinking it was all an act for their entertainment while the teenagers who were already on the deck were down on the hardwood laughing their heads off. Even the sailors, who should have stopped the fight long ago, began to sit and watch the battle like it was a casual football game. Greg took no notice of all the attention he was getting and turned a deep shade of puce as he strained with all his might to toss the fuming pokemon off him.

    "All…right…Greg…use…a…Flamethrower… attack!" Greg ordered feebly to himself, still trying to escape from the clutches of the blubbery weight that was his bear pokemon. He finally stopped trying to struggle his way out of getting raped by the bear pokemon and relaxed himself. After closing his eyes in deep tranquility for several seconds, he opened his mouth as wide as he could and blew a stream of putrid breath into Slowpoke's nostrils.

    "That looked like a Poison Gas attack to me…" Machop commented.

    Slowpoke turned his head away to avoid inhaling Greg's breath and loosened his hold on Greg, giving the twin the opportunity to force the bear pokemon off of him. Greg immediately rose to his full height and dropped all of his weight down on the Slowpoke with an elbow drop. Slowpoke let out a tiny moan of pain and collapsed on all fours with his eyes glued shut. Many people began to boo at Greg for hurting his pokemon, but more were upset at the fact that Greg won, since they bet a few bucks against him.

    Greg gave the poor fallen pokemon a nice kick in the side before marching around him, flashing all the disgusted ladies his infamous "Gregly Grin." As more people began to boo him and throw random items at him, Slowpoke's eyes suddenly flashed open in a split second, and he completely regained consciousness. Greg stood right in front of the bear pokemon's face, and his bare calves quivered oh-so-deliciously in front of Slowpoke's large mouth. The poor boy was so clueless as to why everyone stared at him nervously…

    "OH MOTHER F***** S*** YOU LITTLE A** …"

    Greg hollered and cursed loudly for all of the ship to hear and to make the sailors grit their teeth in envy as Slowpoke took a large bite into his right calf and refused to budge, sinking his tiny teeth deeper and deeper inside the flesh. People began to look concerned, and Julie and Brian nodded at each other with mutual assurance. Brian flicked Sunkern in the back who rolled her eyes and hopped into the melee, and Julie also poked Machop in the shoulder, who also entered unenthusiastically to separate the two.

    "YOU LITTLE PIECE OF S*** YOU ARE SO GOING TO PAY YOU LITTLE MOTHER FU…OWW!"

    Sunkern launched herself from the floor straight into Greg's face and began to assault him violently while Machop began to karate chop Slowpoke's neck lightly until he finally let go of Greg's bleeding calf. As soon as Slowpoke had released hold of Greg, Sunkern leaped off of Greg's face and scurried to the railing where Greg chased her, safely away from Slowpoke. Machop then wrapped his right arm around Slowpoke's neck, dragging him backward with his muscular legs. Slowpoke thrashed and struggled with all of his might to escape the fighting pokemon's grip, managing to loosen his head and released another Water Gun straight at Greg.

    Sunkern eyes widened as she saw the attack rocket toward the blonde, brainless boy, threatening to capsize him off the railing and into the murky depths of the sea below. Unfortunately for her, Greg was about to send her flying with what appeared to be a failing attempt at a Hyper Beam. Smiling softly to herself, Sunkern simply leaped onto Greg's shoulder and slid down his back like a slide in time to take the full blow of the Water Gun, which was nothing more than a refreshing bath to her.

    Greg and Slowpoke stared at each other for a long time similarly to the way Greg and Julie looked at each other earlier, except this time it was nothing but pure disgust in each other eyes. They loathed each other more than anything in the world…and no seed or two foot tall little man would stop them from hurting each other!.

    "MACHOP!"

    "SUNKERN!"

    The two pokemon cried as they were shoved aside like flies as Slowpoke and Greg knocked them out of their way and jumped into the middle of the deck to brawl once more! They clutched each others arms and rolled around the floor, attempting to bite each other's heads off. The sailors finally stood up to split up the fight once and for all, but found someone had already beat them to a job when a very pretty girl burst into the deck fuming furiously.

    "I've heard enough of this battle from downstairs! This is just ridiculous now, Jigglypuff, use Sing!" she cried out pointing to the ball of brawling idiots in the middle of the deck.

    From behind her, a round, one foot high, two foot wide light-pink balloon pokemon holding a small microphone came into view. The pokemon's face was inflated with fury, and her livid eyes were narrowed in annoyance. She brought the tiny microphone to her lips and opened her mouth rather widely as she began to sing.

    "Jigg…alee..puff…jiggg…aleee…aleee…pufff….jigga…aleepufff….jigg…aleeepufff…jigggg…allee….puff…jiggaleee…" As the beautiful music notes began to slowly seep out of the balloon pokemon's lips and hover around the pugnacious twits, they slowly began to get steadily more and more drowsy without even realizing it.

    Before Jigglypuff could even get to her last note, the two dunce buckets were already spread eagled on the floor, completely asleep. The people on the boat gave a few scattered claps for the rather enjoyable pokemon battle before getting back in their own conversations and lives. Julie and Brian smiled enthusiastically at the Jigglypuff's trainer, who was a good friend of their's from school.

    "Thanks a lot Natalie! You and that Jigglypuff sure are good!" Julie commented while she and Brian dragged the limp, unconscious bodies of Greg to their feet while Machop took Slowpoke.

    "We were wondering where you and Nathan were!" Brian said to the girl named Natalie. Though Greg, Julie, and Brian had very close knit and powerful relationship, that sure didn't mean they didn't have any other friends! Natalie and Nathan, two other students from their grade, were their second highest friends and the two sets of friends hung out together a lot, though deciding to go their own separate ways in the Whirl Islands.

    Natalie didn't say anything at first; she kneeled down so that her Jigglypuff could hop in her arms and then stood up, all five foot seven of her incredible beauty. She made quite a few heads turns as soon as she stepped onto the ship with her straight and silky black hair that fell to her neck and extremely bright brown eyes that complimented well with her creamy white skin. Though she looked a little pale, she had a strange aura of beauty from her tall swimmer's body and dark features that made guys like Greg go, "HUBBA BEESA MEESA MOOOOOO!"

    "No problem! Nathan's coming up soon, he's playing a game of foozball with someone. So, I can't believe we're finally off! Nathan and I are going to have so much fun, I hope we meet up with you three a lot of times along the way! What are you guys planning to do? I know I want to collect and train normal pokemon and then get the badges with them! Whitney only has another ten years, and I'm going to take her place!" Natalie responded with her high and girly voice. Unlike Julie, she was in no way shape or form a feminist and instead was very girly, though she definitely was no brainless bimbo.

    "Yeah, I'm going to get the eight badges, Sleepyhead here is going for the Whirl Cup, and Julie doesn't really know yet…" Brian responded, trying not to stare at Natalie for too long.

    "Pssh, I'm doing the badges too dudes. All I want to do is hit the waves and check out the fine ladies, but I won't be able to live with myself if my good friend Natalie here became Champion, and I didn't get a bite at the apple!"

    The three turned around to see a voice coming from the stairs. Sure enough, from it emerged none other than Nathan Oliver, best friend to Natalie and typical surfer dude. Nathan walked up to the three of them. He had wavy blonde hair, dark blue eyes that always seemed to be zoned out, and a dark tan from countless hours of being in the water. Wearing a white t shirt and swim trunks, it was clear he planned on surfing as soon as he hit land. Being a frequent surfer, he had a strong athletic built, which the girls loved. Greg had great animosity and envy toward Nathan, for being able to get girls without even trying.

    "Yo, what are you guys still doing up here? We've all seen the ocean and its totally rad waves, but downstairs we can finally have our first legal pokemon battle!" Nathan commented, pointing to the stairs below.

    The three friends gave nervous chuckles and looked around each other nervously. One of the laws that came with the rise of the Soccer Mom included making pokemon battling illegal for children below thirteen. Apparently, some little kid named Timmy Turner got eaten by an Onix in Rock Tunnel in a tragic attempt to capture him with his bug catching net…. Either that, or he just had his straw hat stolen; it's not like soccer moms do their research anyway.

    "Sure, let's go! Machop and I have been itching to play jump rope with that Tangela of yours for a while now! What about these two over here though?" Julie asked, giving Greg a nice hard kick in the back. He still slept soundly, and was even using a very powerful Snore and Sleep Talk attack!

    "No problem again. YO TANGELA! COME AND GET THAT SLOWPOKE! I suppose your Machop can take Greg, I don't think he's quite strong enough to lift such a heavy pokemon unlike my powerful beast of a pokemon!" Nathan sneered with a bit of a cocky voice. Julie scowled and patted her Machop's head affectionately.

    "I don't think you're quite smart enough to not get eaten by a Tentacruel by the first gym!"

    From behind Nathan, a big mass of interlocking navy vines popped out and scurried over to Slowpoke. The only part of her round body not covered in vines was the small space in the center of her face where two white eyes peered out. One of the reason's Nathan loved this grass pokemon, Tangela, so much was that her little red feet were great for maintaining balance on a surfboard.

    Using her main ability, she released four vines from somewhere within the bramble that made up her body and coiled up Slowpoke in her grip. As she first attempted to pull her vines back in and lift up Slowpoke, her eyes immediately bulged, and the "powerful beast" fell back. Finally, she lifted the behemoth of a pokemon with great strain onto her back with the auxiliary of several other vines, slowly trudging downstairs.

    "My…. God…., lay off….. the potato…. chips, Fatty!"

    Nathan giggled nervously at Tangela's troubles while Julie and Machop simply smirked. With only one arm, Machop swept Greg into the crook of his elbow and tossed him over his shoulders like a backpack. The fighting pokemon then went and followed the grass pokemon downstairs, Greg's head dragging on the floor as he walked. After such a display of power, Brian and Natalie looked at their own "weaker" pokemon self consciously.

    "Well, you might not be able to carry pokemon, people, or well just about anything on your back Sunkern, but I still have my faith in you!" Brian yelled encouragingly to the grass pokemon, who was back on his shoulder again. The seed pokemon responded by giving a little leap of victory, plummeting straight to the floor as Brian walked forward to go downstairs.

    The interior of the ship was just as amazing and stunning as everyone thought it would be. It looked more like one giant Rec Room with extensions to other rooms and a corner rife with fattening, tooth destroying refreshments. It was carpeted with beautiful Indian material and scattered with many comfortable chairs and couches (which Tangela and Machop placed Slowpoke and Greg on). For entertainment, multiple big screen televisions, game consoles, pool tables, foozball tables, in short, all the things that a teenager would love were spread out all around the different rooms. Nathan pointed to another stairway on the right wall with a large picture of a gold and green Pokeball painted over it. Below it lay the Battle Room, a room designed in memory of little Timothy, where trainers could safely have their "first" battles under the supervision of certified sailors.

    "Hmm, this is pretty **** good for an eight hour boat ride!" Brian commented to Sunkern, who was nervously hopping behind him, struggling to keep up.

    "How about we start off with me against Julie, battle of the divas of Cianwood, and then Brian against Nathan, battle of the hunks of Johto!" Natalie piped up as the four friends sat down on an unoccupied couch to discuss what they would do. Brian turned a bright shade of red that easily complimented his crimson hair at being called a hunk while Julie scowled at being called such a demeaning term as "diva." She wanted to be called a hunk too!

    "STOP MAKING FUN OF FEMINISTS JACKASS!" Julie cried out randomly, resulting in her getting anxious stares from everyone in the vicinity. "Ermm, yeah. And then afterward it's winner against winner? It's going to suck not being able to fight you Nathan since Brian is going to beat you down!"

    "Right, I'm sure he will," Nathan said sarcastically, pointing to the seed pokemon who was still panting from having to hop down the stairs. "What about Greg and Slowpoke? Shouldn't we incorporate them somehow? I heard Slowpoke battling someone upstairs and then I came up seeing him asleep. He could be a pretty formidable opponent!"

    His question about the slight chance of Slowpoke and Greg being any good got him an astonished stare from Natalie and a myrrh of laughter from Julie and Brian. After Julie and Brian finally calmed down, Brian was the one to respond. "Dude, Greg was fighting Slowpoke. You missed one of the funniest things of the century! Though you are right, that Slowpoke is a lot stronger than we take him for."

    "**** it, why do I miss the funniest things? But, hey, I did meet this one sexy babe, and we did get a little battle going, and I was about to…errm yeah, I think we should head down already," Nathan added quickly upon seeing the furious looks on Natalie and Julie's faces. He was the first to stand up with Tangela following him downstairs. The rest soon followed.

    The Battle Room in the deepest floor of the ship was much more amazing then they could have imagined. It was nearly twice the size of Chuck's gym's battlefield, though split into four parts. Over in the far right was a plain white battlefield, next to it was a grassy, vegetation rife meadow, next to that was a opaque pool, and at the far right was a rocky mountainous battlefield. The last three were occupied by other trainers enjoying the joys of pokemon battling, but the normal battlefield was completely empty.

    The four were about to head to the normal battlefield when an extremely grumpy, chubby sailor with a large, brown bird pokemon flying besides him stopped them in their tracks. They had never seen a more repugnant looking man, he had a thick muzzle and extremely oily hair wearing a large sailors outfit that could hardly keep his large stomach in place. He walked across the battlefield with a bit of a limp and wheezing vehemently.

    "Stop it yeh little ingrates! Don kids these days have as much mind ter at least hear out the rules! Anyways, don't yeh dare use powerful attacks or powerful pokemon! Some genius sunk the S.S. Lapras having his Rhydon use Earthquake! If I see one of yeh breaking this rule, you and yer pokemon will feel the wrath of my Fearow!" the grumpy sailor ordered, bearing his bright yellow teeth and hissing his rancid breath which they could still smell from a few feet away. The Fearow gave an ominous cry as she spun her menacing, large orange beak and flying around the four children, digging his orange beak around their clothes as if to sniff out drugs.

    When the repugnant man and his Fearow finally let them be, they exchanged each other strange looks. They hadn't been that disturbed since the time Greg came to the last Halloween Costume Party as an Olympic swimmer, wearing nothing but a pink speedo… Shaking the horrible thought aside, they took their places on opposites sides of the Normal Battlefield, Brian with Julie and Nathan with Natalie.

    "Ready for this Machop? Remember, you have the fighting pokemon advantage over Jigglypuff, a normal pokemon. Watch out for the Sing Attack, other than that, you have absolutely nothing to worry about! You're going to pop that little balloon!" Julie whispered to her Machop, who nodded at her every word, thinking about how funny it would be if Jigglypuff did explode and left a mess of blood and guts.

    "Ok Jigglypuff, you just knocked out a two hundred pound pokemon and the world's most caffienated boy with your beautiful singing voice! You can crush that man baby, just remember the immortal words of Muhammad Ali! I can fly like a Butterfree but sing like a Beedrill!" Natalie mumbled to her Jigglypuff, who nodded at every word, thinking about how the hell a Beedrill can sing.

    "Alright Sunkern, watch this battle carefully! If we beat Tangela, we're going to be fighting one of these two pokemon!" Brian said to his Sunkern, who wobbled at his every word, thinking about why there was so much unneeded repetition going on.

    The two pokemon took their places on opposite sides of the battlefield and bowed to each other, secretly flicking each other off: Machop, an extremely power gray humanoid pokemon trained in the art of battle by hand and foot, and Jigglypuff, a round, pink balloon who was trained in the art of slapping and singing. Machop closed his eyes tightly, raised his left palm, and put his right foot behind him, ready for battle. Jigglypuff in turn closed her eyes tightly and brought her tiny microphone to her lips, her mouth slightly ajar, ready to sing. It was time to battle!

    "MACHOP USE KARATE CHOP!"

    "JIGGLYPUFF USE SING!"

    Machop immediately leaped high into the air and extended his right arm as far forward as he could. His karate chopping palm shined brightly with pure physical force manifested in the form of white light. Though the force of the Karate Chop could probably crack her skull, Jigglypuff remained calm and started to sing once again with her eyes tightly closed.

    "Jigg…alee…pufff….jiggalee…alee…puff…"

    Julie looked nervously at Machop, whose eyelids began to droop, and hoped that he would find some brilliant way to counter the attack, because if she ordered something, Natalie would be able to easily deflect whatever Machop threw at her. All the training at Chuck's gym and years of bonding with Julie came to use with Machop's next actions. Machop immediately stopped his attack mid-air (something that no regular pokemon would be able to do) and leaped backward, landing in the middle of the battlefield.

    His glowing palm immediately returned to normal, and just before Machop was about to fall unconscious from the balloon pokemon's song, he shoved two gray fingers as tightly as he could into his ears. Most of the song was drowned out so that even if Machop felt a little drowsy, he didn't fall asleep. Julie grinned broadly at her Machop's quick thinking and reflexes while Natalie's previously cocky face immediately became worried. Only Jigglypuff remained serenely unaware of the fact that Machop was not sleeping like a Smoochum as he ran toward her with his right foot glowing and his fingers in his ears.

    Luckily for the balloon pokemon, she opened her eyes a few seconds before Machop's Low Kick attack made contact. Letting out a tiny shriek, she immediately curled up into a ball, holding herself tightly, awaiting the powerful blow. With a big smile, Machop kicked Jigglypuff as hard as he could like a soccer ball, causing her to sail across the battlefield and right into Natalie's nose.

    "OWW! WATCH WHERE YOUR LITTLE FREAK KICKS MY JIGGLYPUFF! GOD **** IT! OH MY…GAH!" Natalie sobbed as she clutched her bleeding nose with great care. Machop stared in horror at the human he hurt, though he was on the floor laughing internally. Julie, Brian, and Nathan also looked at the sobbing, bleeding Natalie with horror, but because of their cruel, teenager instincts they also began to chortle fiercely, but seriously trying with all their efforts to hold it back!

    "Errm…Natalie…do…you…need an…ice…p-pack?" Julie struggled to say, her voice breaking from her strong urge to laugh.

    "I…have..some..t-tissu…HAHAHA. My…ha…I'm so sorry…HAHA!" Brian also added, holding up a box of tissues he recovered from within his backpack.

    "Guys stop being so mean! You guys are Natalie's friends and….oh who the hell am I kidding? This is hilarious!" Nathan chastised, holding his stomach laughing at Natalie's misfortune as well.

    If looks could kill, everyone in the room would have been grinded into a fine powder of blood and bones because of the look of pure rage and contempt in Natalie's eyes. She took out this anger on the person nearest to her, Nathan, by punching him as hard as she could in the worst place possible. Nathan immediately stopped laughing, and his eyes bulged out of their sockets as he plopped sideways onto the floor, letting out a huge groan of pain. Natalie then turned her shaking eyes to Brian and Julie with a look that said "Help me now or else I will beat your ass down!"

    Julie and Brian immediately stopped laughing, and Brian rushed up to the other side of the battlefield with the box of tissues. Machop still stood in the middle of the battlefield, frozen with trepidation and convulsing slightly, worrying if the crazy female would take her anger out on him as well. Brian was too scared to get near the livid female and her groaning friend, and simply slid the tissue down the battlefield toward her, which thudded softly against her shoe. Natalie silently pulled out several tissues from the box and covered her bleeding nose with it, still watching Brian with the deadly look as he walked back to his side of the battlefield.

    Natalie then moved her dangerous gaze to Julie, who scratched her head nervously, not sure what to do next. "Errm, you can take the victory by default since you did…."

    "NO!" Natalie roared, leaping to her feet and spraying several droplets of blood downward. Her voice was very nasal and sounded like a foghorn, but no one dared to make fun of her again.

    She panted heavily and glared at Machop and Julie, thirsting deeply for cold vengeance. Then, she turned to Jigglypuff, who was still curled tightly in a ball, too scared of Machop to come out. What she didn't know was that there was a beast more frightening than any three hundred armed fighting pokemon standing only a few feet away from her. Natalie gave Jigglypuff a little nudge with her shoe, and the pokemon immediately popped out of its ball, yelping at the sight of her angry, bleeding trainer. Natalie wouldn't allow her pokemon to just stand there and shiver like a little baby, she pointed furiously to the battlefield where Jigglypuff walked toward rather quickly, looking back at her trainer nervously with one eye, as if she would stomp on her at any given second.

    Julie hissed at Machop who immediately retreated back to his side of the battlefield, remaining transfixed by the sight that was Natalie. "We are going to finish this battle! And it will be a fun and educational experience that we will never forget! My Jigglypuff will beat your Machop down, and we are going to have a delightfully good time watching it!" Natalie stated to Julie, with a very quiet yet furious voice.

    "Right, errm, get ready Machop!" Julie ordered unenthusiastically. Machop got back into his battle stance of holding his left palm out and putting his right foot back. Jigglypuff became livid too, because of the fact that Machop made her trainer furious. Her cheeks were inflated with fury and her eyes narrowed in dislike.

    "Machop Chop Chop (Looks like your singing doesn't only make people's ears bleed)…"

    "Jiggly Jiggly (I'll bust yo kneecaps foo')!"

    "Now, Jigglybuff. MELEE STYLE!" Natalie ordered pointing furiously at Machop.

    Jigglypuff immediately leaped surprisingly high into the air with her cheeks still inflated. As she reached the zenith of her jump, she slowly sucked in tiny puffs of air and slowly ascended higher and higher into the air as her cheeks grew larger and larger until she was directly floating over Machop himself. Julie wondered what Natalie was trying to do, but didn't want to find out and intended to stop Jigglypuff before she could.

    "Machop! Jump and use Karate Chop!"

    Machop's right palm glowed white once more, and he leaped high into the air ready to drive Jigglypuff into the floor. When he came face to face with the balloon pokemon, she gave a tiny smile and giggle, raising her glowing right hand as well.

    "POUND HIM DOWN JIGGLYBUFF!"

    As soon as Natalie gave her command, Jigglypuff and Machop's palms made fierce contact and struggled to overcome each other. The hands glowed white with pure energy and steadily became more and more bright as they struggled to break the stalemate. Julie and Brian stared in awe at Jigglypuff; her hand was barely the size of Machop's pinky, yet it was somehow just as formidable in an angry Pound attack. Jigglypuff grew tired of the stalemate and conked Machop in the head with her other hand as hard as she could, causing him to plummet nearly six feet down to the floor.

    "BEAT HIM DOWN!" Natalie roared audibly, causing many nearby battlers to jump with fear,

    Machop groaned as his back cracked in the powerful impact of his fall, and Jigglypuff wasted no time staying in the air and immediately exhaled all the air in her cheeks, rocketing herself downward onto the fighting pokemon's chest with quite a bit of force. Machop's eyes grew wide as he saw the wicked smile on Jigglypuff's face as she raised her right hand high. She slapped him once, and a stinging sensation immediately rippled through Machop's cheek. The poor pokemon could only lay down helplessly as his cruel opponent slapped him silly, stomped on his chest, and gave him an occasional punch in the nose. Natalie laughed madly at the poor pokemon's abuse causing Nathan to crawl as far away from her as he could. Ideas began to rush around Julie's head as she struggled to find a way to save Machop from the painful situation.

    "Let's see…Low Kick, Focus Energy, Karate Chop, what was the other one…OH! Machop, try using a Leer attack!"

    Machop opened his eyes with a great deal of effort and looked straight at the abusive Jigglypuff. Upon seeing Machop's bright red, pupil less eyes, Jigglypuff immediately jumped off of Machop's chest and began to run away shaking in fear.

    "Use Focus Energy! Then, show her the true power of a pokemon!" Julie ordered savagely, smiling knowing the battle was hers.

    "Sunkern Kern Kern (GET HER MACHOP)!"

    "Tangela Tangela (GET BACK IN THERE YOU IDIOT)!"

    The other pokemon cried out their encouragements as Machop returned to his battle stance and closed his eyes tightly, beginning to glow blood red with power as he focused all of his energy into his single palm. Jigglypuff scurried faster toward her trainer as she looked back to see Machop's entire body about to combust with scarlet light. As tears of fright began to stream out of Jigglypuff's eyes, her running became more and more choppy, and she ended up falling flat on her face after tripping over her own feet. Natalie's evil attitude went away as quickly as it came when she saw the petrified look on Jigglypuff's face as she got up to face Machop.

    It truly was a frightening sight. His eyes were red and blank of all emotion while his right hand was flaring with crimson flames, and his whole body burned with a white hot aura of pure power! Machop then brought his open palm to his side and slowly turned it sideways until it was in position to chop Jigglypuff in half. The poor balloon pokemon couldn't bring herself to move a muscle even though her brain and trainer were begging for her to get out of the way. As Machop leaped high into the air with his flaming palm out and ready to kill, Jigglypuff screwed up her eyes as tight as she could and braced herself for the impact.

    "JIGGGLYYYYYYPUFFFFF!"

    Machop was still in the position he was when his palm struck Jigglypuff, hovering over the poor pokemon with his palm held out, his legs placed behind him, and his entire body flaring with energy. Jigglypuff wobbled around in place, her eyes swirling and her brain moaning. With one final "puff" Jigglypuff fell knocked out on the floor.

    "Jigglypuff is dead! Machop and Julie are the winners!" declared Nathan as he walked over to the two pokemon to state the obvious.

    "QUIET JERK! Congratulations Julie! That was a bretty good battle! Poor Jigglybuff though, she must be really hurt! Sorry about how bitchy I got earlier, friends?" Natalie asked Julie as she cradled her pokemon like a mother with one hand and held the mass of tissues to her nose with the other.

    "Don't worry about it Natalie, I would have been pissed off too! Sorry, that attack was way more powerful than it should have been. I have some Super Potions in my pack, I'll give Jigglypuff some! That was one great "first" battle!" Julie said as she walked over to Natalie and gently rubbed Jigglypuff's back.

    "It's nothing! I'm sure little Timmy and his hat would be very proud!" Natalie responded, causing everyone to chuckle. While chuckling, Brian and Nathan then turned their gazes to each other. It was their turn to battle now.
     
    A/N- This chapter is another 14 pages. I'm sorry the S.S. Mantine ride is taking so long, its the battles <_<... Next chapter will be the LAST ship chapter and then they'll finally get on the mainland! Also the next chapter SHOULD be under the 10 page mark, since it was originally only 6 and doesnt have too many things needing revision, though I did transfer some gags over. Also, I sincerely apologize for the battles because they might be a tad bit boring. Tangela and Sunkern are just NOT interesting pokemon (well, as of this point) to battle. I would appreciate a mention of my battle writing in a review....



    Chapter 2.5- All Aboard the S.S. Mantine! Part Two!

    "Here Babe, feeling better yet?" Nathan asked his best friend soothingly while he caressed her back and handed her more tissues.

    Natalie nodded softly as he wrapped on arms around her, and she rested her head against his right shoulder. They sat on their side of the battlefield, waiting until the blood pouring out of Natalie's nose finally froze stagnant. Julie and Brian avoided each other's eyes, trying not to shout out the obvious to the two oblivious teenagers in front of them. The four chattered for the next fifteen minutes, waiting for Natalie to heal and Jigglypuff to finally come out of her mini coma.

    "Alright, I'm fine now. Thanks a lot Nathan, I believe it's time for your battle with Brian. Battle of the grass types…" Natalie commented as she stood up and wiped away the remnants of the blood from her nose with her hand.

    Julie gave a small smile and pat on the back to Brian who stepped up to his part of the battlefield with a nervous Sunkern by his side. Sunkern pursed her tiny mouth tight and slowly hopped forward, keeping her eyes on the large vine pokemon in front of her. All the pokemon she ever fought were weak like Ratatta or buzzed like that Aipom from the heavy metal concert. Tangela would be the first real challenge she ever had. Meanwhile, the vine pokemon simply smirked to herself, not worried at all since she did inherit her trainer's over confidence.

    "Bring it on Shorty! Don't know what Carrot Top over there sees in you…" Tangela taunted, drawing out a lone, teal vine and pointing it at herself.

    "The only reason Surfer over there likes you is because he's into bondage!" the seed pokemon responded, giving herself a tiny boost of confidence. Brian smiled at the two pokemon, wondering what absolutely wonderful and pleasant things they were saying to each other, and looked down at his own Sunkern before kneeling down to her ear.

    "All right Sunkern, here we go! First official battle… we've practiced pretty **** fiercely enough to make little Timmy's hat turn in its rocky prison! All right, Absorb and Mega Drain may be our only attacks now, but we also have Growth on our hands! Power up and then all out, that's our strategy! Hmm, wonder what this I-Poke thing has to say about Tangela…"

    Sunkern gave an assuring nod to her trainer, who in turn pointed the tiny device of wonders at the opposing pokemon, after pressing the wrong button multiple times. A holographic image of a Tangela immediately projected forward from the I-Poke's screen and at the same monotonous voice began to speak once more.

    "Tangela, the grass pokemon. This pokemon is famous for being one of the few grass pokemon who rely on powerful physical abilities (namely their vines) and has no evolutions or pre-evolutions. This one is currently at level sixteen and knows Constrict, Sleep Powder, and Vine Whip.

    "Hey! It's that I-Poke Mini thing that you were telling me about earlier! Wow, it is such a technological innovation! I can't wait to get my mother to buy me one yet again for Christmas!" Nathan cried out with the same blank and rehearsed expression and voice Chuck had earlier. The three humans and four pokemon gave him an odd look for a few seconds, before looking back to the battlefield.

    Sunkern and Tangela gazed at each other warily, anxiously awaiting for the first orders…

    "VINE WHIP!"

    "DODGE AND ABSORB!"

    Tangela immediately clamped her eyes shut and shot forward two thick teal vines at the seed pokemon. Sunkern inhaled a good deal of air, puffing up her tiny chest and preparing to make her first move. She stood adamantly on the ground until the thick vines were only a few inches and a split second away from her. Right before they struck her, she hopped a few inches up into the air and leaned toward the right. Tangela's eyes narrowed in annoyance, considering it an insult that the seed pokemon could think she could escape the attack by simply jumping. The vine pokemon redirected her vines toward the right to finish the job, however, Sunkern giggled like usual and changed direction mid-air to the left.

    "I hear surfing makes you lose brain cells!"

    As Sunkern fell safely to ground left of the vines, Tangela lost control of her attack which kept on speeding to the right and couldn't change direction. The seed pokemon took advantage of this and began to use her Absorb attack. Standing very still, she closed her eyes gracefully and began to glow a light green shade. The light then began to surround the struggling Tangela as well. Tangela stopped trying to pull her vines in and temporarily looked at the dim light surrounding her before shrugging it off and going back to her internal struggle. Tiny bubbles of the same green color began to pop out and drift away from the vine pokemon and toward Sunkern, but they disappeared before they even floated two feet! Both Brian and his pokemon stood in disbelief at the failure of the attack while Nathan and his own pokemon just stood and laughed.

    "Pssh, come on Brian I thought you were smarter than that. Grass attacks have very little effect on other Grass pokemon. You Phail!" Nathan commented.

    "Have you been surfing, Shorty?"

    Sunkern scowled at her opponent, and Brian began to scratch the side of his head vigorously, something he did whenever he thought particularly hard. Out of the blue, Tangela's vines finally stopped in mid-air and immediately swept toward Sunkern once more, this time with the auxiliary of a third vine. Brian immediately stopped thinking and decided to go with his gut and first instinct.

    "Mega Drain!"

    Sunkern screwed her eyes tightly in concentration, and the light surrounding her grew much larger to a bright yellow color, making her look like a tiny little sun. The same light surrounded Tangela once more, but it made little difference as all three vines came crashing into the seed pokemon! The four trainers let out a groan of pain as Sunkern struggled to get up once more, three bright red marks now on her chest. Tangela let her vines droop to the floor as she huffed and puffed; controlling three fifteen feet long vines going nearly fifteen m.p.h was no easy feat. Sunkern brought herself to full height, huffing and puffing as well. She stared at the cocky pokemon, who raised the tips of her vines toward herself, with burning disdain. There was no way she was about to let Brian down.

    "SUNKERRRN!"

    Though she didn't officially know the attack, Sunkern launched herself with considerable speed toward her opponent in a full blown tackle. Time seemed to slow down as Sunkern sped through the air, defying the taunts of all of her greatest critics. Julie and Natalie's eyes slowly followed the little yellow blur while Brian's fist circled in the air as he encouraged his pokemon. Nathan let out his hand and cried out the typical "Nooooo!" as the speedy Sunkern made contact with his wide-eyed Tangela…

    She bounced off.

    "**** you Nature!!!"

    Time immediately went back to normal as Sunkern struggled to stand once more after being knocked back from the excessive force of her own attack. Nathan struggled to command an attack while laughing his head off, but Tangela was also too busy to obey, rolling around the battlefield in a fit of laughter. Sunkern and Brian had turned a similar shade of crimson as they slowly shook in their spots. The seed pokemon turned to face her trainer who nodded back at her. No one laughed at them and gets away with it!

    "Ok Sunkern, no more playing around! I have a plan; I want you to dodge all of Tangela's attacks and every single time you get even a split second of safety, use Growth! Keep this until that overgrown weed gets exhausted!" Brian commanded, with his eyes stone cold with anger and his finger quivering at Nathan and Tangela.

    "Calm down Brian, yeesh! It's just a battle ya know!" Nathan said, looking worried at the looks of anger on the two opponents faces, though nowhere close to Natalie's rage against Julie. "Oh, and I have a plan as well! Tangela, bring Sunkern close to you! Don't care how, just do it!"

    "Who are you calling a weed, Carrot Top?"

    Tangela got up to her feet at once and stared at Sunkern who was flashing light green with a Growth attack. Rolling her eyes at the puny pokemon's attempts to be big and strong, Tangela shot off several vines toward the seed pokemon, in hopes of carrying out her trainer's orders and bring the enemy close. Grinning broadly, Sunkern leaped over the vines and hopped all around the battlefield, avoiding Tangela's vines which steadily increased in number and occasionally flashing light green with a Growth attack whenever she got the chance.

    While this continued, Julie and Natalie began to talk to each other. They were no longer by their male friends but rather sitting together in the center of the right side of the battlefield with their pokemon, watching the battle from up close. Machop laid down on his stomach and watched the battle with his fists on his cheeks while Jigglypuff was awake and flaring, though struggling to get out of her trainer's arms to give Machop a nice slap for beating her in battle.

    "This is a pretty good battle, though it will only be better than ours if Tangela 'accidentally' hits Nathan in the face with all those vines. I have no idea who'll win. What do you think their plans are?" Natalie asked.

    Tangela was still chasing Sunkern with her vines, still standing in the same spot she started the battle in. Though exhausted from the constant motion all around her, she somehow managed to release more and more vines while Sunkern managed to jump over each and every one of them, managing to find time to sneak in a quick Growth attack as well.

    "Growth powers up special attacks like Mega Drain right? Brian is definitely powering his attacks up. I have a bad idea about Tangela though…. Nathan wants Sunkern up close, and I think I know why," Julie replied.

    "You beat her Tangela! And then cream that ugly fish-headed moron for beating me!" Jigglypuff screamed.

    Machop gave Jigglypuff another leering eye and the balloon pokemon twitched in her trainers arms out of fear. "Sunkern, you have it in you! I'll understand if you want to lose because you don't want to face a strong pokemon like me..."

    Sunkern smirked while dodging eight of Tangela's thick blue vines and flashing a strong green shade sporadically. When Sunkern jumped onto one of the vines and jumped to the right, Tangela's instinct proved correct as a strong ninth vine came hurtling through the arena and knocked Sunkern out of the air and onto the ground. All nine vines swooped downward toward Sunkern and struck her. The seed pokemon winced horribly at the painful blow, but it wasn't over as two of the vines wrapped around Sunkern tight while the other seven flew back into the main bramble.

    "You should have taken Machop's advice!"

    "Ah crap!" Brian moaned, trying to think if Sunkern would be able to get out of this situation as well.

    "Oh yeah! Now Tangela, bring Sunkern face to face!" Nathan commanded with a big white grin. Tangela pulled Sunkern in closely when Sunkern closed her eyes tightly in coordination with Brian's command.

    "MEGA DRAIN!"

    Tangela's entire body was blinded by the bright yellow light and a sphere of energy roughly half the size of the vine pokemon herself came toward Sunkern and replenished nearly a sixth of her stamina. The pokemon's eyes widened as she saw the big chunk of energy Sunkern absorbed from her. Immediately, her endurance took a sharp fall and her vines collapsed along with bonded Sunkern, who was now only a few feet away from Tangela and still draining energy.

    "Wow, all that growing sure helped. Looks like this battle is over," Natalie grumbled. Machop was rooting Sunkern on while Natalie struggled to hold an inflated cheeked Jigglypuff.

    "It is over, but not for whom you think," Julie moaned with her face in her hands.

    "Send Sunkern to where Greg and Slowpoke are!" Nathan ordered with a look of determination. Tangela's energy was diminishing fast, but somehow, along with another large sphere of energy, she released a cloud of green powder. Sleep Powder. Sunkern plopped asleep on the floor before she could even take in the life energy.

    Tangela was released from the sooped up Mega Drain attack and sighed. She had little energy left, but was determined to finish the battle off. "Tangela, give it all you got!" Nathan commanded with his blue eyes shining brightly. It would all be over soon.

    Tangela released about six vines and brought them to her right side, constricting them and combining them into one thick club like vine. Brian bit his lower lip hard and squinted, unable to watch the sight. With a great heave, Tangela swung the vines straight at Sunkern like a baseball! If it was baseball, Tangela would have definitely hit a home run as Sunkern soared across the battlefield, landing right at her trainer's feet, awakened by the blow and with her eyes swirling.

    "Looks like you won. Oh well, it was a great battle. Is your Tangela okay?" Brian asked rather quickly, before even picking up his pokemon. His brown eyes were looking away from everyone. This was his first battle ever, and he lost. There would be other battles he knew that, but there was just something special about the first one.

    "I suppose, those last Mega Drains did do a little damage though! And….my goodness! Stop looking so sad! You and Natalie take battling waaay too seriously, and that's why you guys lose! Yeesh!" Nathan yelped upon seeing the dejected look on his opponent's face.

    Brian immediately looked up self-consciously and gave a rather phony grin and thumbs up while Sunkern began to stir from being knocked out. The other three also gave phony laughter in response. The poor losing boy immediately felt a little better as he laughed with everyone else about losing. After all, the only person who should feel bad was Sunkern, who was rather sore from getting clubbed by all those vines. She finally woke up, very groggy though. The two losers exchanged a small smile that said, "Yeah we lost, but it's cool!"

    "So yeah, I think we should take a nice long break before Nathan and I go at it. Don't want to have too many battles at once and can't leave Greg by himself for too long. Alright with you guys?" Julie commented, breaking the rather tense mood among the four. Everyone nodded in agreement and walked toward the exit, prattling and behaving like normal teenagers once more.

    When they turned to leave the room for their respite from battling, they heard the door open and slam fiercely from upstairs, while someone or something repeatedly banged it over and over. Then, the person entering the room revealed himself as Greg as he scurried downstairs with an unfazed Slowpoke by his side. At last, the pounding on the door ceased, but the lummox and his bitch were still panting heavily. Clearly, they needed to run a bit more rather than sitting at home and watching old episodes of Baywatch.

    "T-t-here you guys are! Thanks for drugging and abandoning me jerks! I could have been raped you know!" Greg huffed, giving his bear pokemon a rather disgruntled glare. Before one of the abandoners/druggers could respond, Greg started to talk once more upon seeing the pokemon all worn out. "What the hell happened here? Did you guys battle without me? UGG! You guys missed out you know! Slowpoke and I here would have kicked all your butts! Give a roar Slowpoke!"

    "Slow…" With one great yawn, Slowpoke shut his eyes and snuggled himself back to a deep slumber, leaving a fuming Greg, laughing Brian and Julie, and confused Nathan and Natalie.

    "Yes Greg, I'm sure you and your Slowpoke would have cleaned the floor with us, look at that big scary face! We couldn't possibly stand up to you two since you guys are waaay out of our league! Anyway, Julie took on Natalie and won while I took on Nathan and…" Brian trailed off. Greg looked at the bruised Sunkern in horror and then moved his eyes up to the smirking Tangela before giving Brian a nice slap upside the head.

    "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU! HOW COULD YOU LOSE AGAINST GHETTO SURFER CONFUSED STEREOTYPE DUDE OVER THERE! YOU MUST BE HORRIBLE!" Greg roared while Brian just rolled his eyes. Putting his hands in his hair in rage to find his best friend defeated by his big pimpin' rival, the blonde boy walked in circles while everyone waited for him to do something stupid. He stopped in front of a flustered Nathan, beet red with fury. "You and me, RIGHT NOW! Brian only lost because he's a little sissy stapistics ana….OWW!"

    Everyone gazed in shock at the sight they saw. Upon Greg calling him a sissy, Brian drove his fist into Greg's cheek, knocking him to the ground and now stood over him with his dangerous smile burning the air around him. "I may be a 'sissy stapistics analist', Greg, but please remember, that this sissy stapistics analist can also kick your ass!"

    Julie grinned and gave Brian a thumb up for not taking crap from Greg, though it wasn't exactly a huge accomplishment to beat Greg down. Despite getting kicked to the ground, Greg stood up calmly and quietly brushed the dirt off his side, pretending nothing had happened. "So, what do you say Nathan?"

    "Ehh, I dunno. My Tangela's a bit tired from the battle with Sunkern…" Nathan started, but he was stopped by his Tangela, who raised her vine and nodded, signaling she wanted to battle. Giving Slowpoke a particularly hard kick in the side, Greg and his pokemon walked to the battlefield with Nathan and Tangela. The other three remained at the stairs, knowing the battle wouldn't last too long.

    "What are we doing?" Slowpoke droned as he looked lazily around the battlefield that he was dimly aware of standing on.

    "We're battling so get ready ya dimwit!" the vine pokemon snapped from the other side of the battlefield. She really was exhausted from the previous battle, but didn't have a problem with finishing up this battle to protect her trainer's honor from the stupid boy with the tendency to get beat up. Slowpoke growled at her insult and got into the partial battling mood once more.

    "All right Lummox, use your Water Gun attack!" Greg commanded confidently, as he pulled a tube of gel from his pocket and began to apply it to the front of his hair. Nathan opened his mouth to give an order, but Tangela was way ahead of him and already drew her vines out to quickly end this. Slowpoke opened his mouth nice and wide to release a foaming pillar of water, but before he could release the attack, Tangela shot her vines forward and wrapped them around the bear pokemon's mouth.

    Like a scene from a cartoon, Slowpoke's mouth began to fill up with an immense amount of water, unable to escape from the binds of Tangela's vines. His cheeks slowly inflated as the water began to quickly and painfully stretch the pink flesh and threatened to make it explode! Finally, Slowpoke's tire sized cheeks could no longer hold any of the water and shot off with a great deal of pressure across the battlefield and into the wall safely away from Tangela and Nathan, leaving a drenched streak across the tiles and a rather foreboding crack on the wall of the ship. With the great force of the attack, Slowpoke backfired straight into Greg and now lay unconscious over his struggling trainer. While poor Greg struggled to get his behemoth of a pokemon off of him once more, Nathan and Tangela simply walked off, smiling at their second victory in ten minutes.

    "We'll be upstairs now Gregory! You and Slowpoke play nice now!" Julie yelled as everyone else went upstairs, leaving their squashed friend behind. Greg cursed his sister as she walked off and continued his odyssey to escape the blubbery confines of his Slowpoke. When all hope seemed to be lost, he finally saw the grumpy sailor with the Fearow approaching him, with his rotting yellow teeth bared.

    "Woah! Someone drank a bit too much coffee… Could you help me out, Mr. Ugly?" Greg requested, demonstrating his amazing disability of detecting people's dispositions.

    The grumpy sailor gave a huge snarl and kicked the Slowpoke off of Greg with his hefty right calf and then pulled up Greg to full height by the newly created spikes in his hair. The idiotic boy still remained serenely unaware of the sailor's anger as he gave him a tiny thank you and began to walk off, before feeling a powerful grip on his shoulder. Greg turned around, ready to explain to the sailor that he had some ladies to try and hit, but instead, got pulled up by the man by his collar and right into his face. They were face to face now, terrified boy and ugly old man. The sailor's yellow tinted eyes quivered down at Greg, who tried to look away from the numerous lines and scars on the man's face. Finally, he moved his chapped lips and sprayed a good deal of sour spit and foul breath into his victim's face as he spoke.

    "You stupid little kid, look at what you did!" He turned Greg mid-air to face the drenched battlefield and marched toward the crack in the wall, displaying a good deal of power as he still held a choking Greg high in the air by his shirt collar. "I have to mop this god**** floor, and do you see that crack? The ship could have gotten a hole and sunk! Do you want us all to die??? IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?"

    Greg shuddered in fear as his face was bathed in the grumpy sailor's spit. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that the other battlers in the room also stared in horror, ready for the insane sailor to pull out a chainsaw and start harvesting body parts. This truly was not a good day for Greg at all. "With all due respect, Sir, it was that pretty boy Nathan who ordered the attack that caused this huge me-"

    "SHUT UP!"

    Greg gave a painful groan as his head cracked against the floor when the crazy old sailor threw him down. He began to growl maniacally as he slowly cracked his knuckles and gave a nod to the Fearow flying besides him. The bird pokemon gave a menacing caw and immediately dive bombed toward the poor boy and his Slowpoke.

    "OWW! What the heck is wrong with you! Ow! Ow!" Greg cried as the Fearow repeatedly jabbed him with his beak. As Greg struggled to get up to his feet, the bird then moved on the attacking the unconscious Slowpoke. After numerous pecks and bruises, the boy and his bear managed to get into a full fledged sprint and ran for their lives from the grumpy old man and his equally insane Fearow. At last, they reached the door which the quickly opened slammed it, right in the bird pokemon's face.

    "Fearow…"

    Greg gave a proud grin to himself and his Slowpoke as they surveyed the clear imprint of a squashed bird on the door. Turning around, he heard Brian calling out to him; he was standing with Sunkern on his shoulder at the edge of the nearest bookcase, clearly waiting for Greg.

    "Bought time, it took you long enough. I assume from all the screaming I heard that you must have gotten attacked again?" Brian asked with a small smile. Greg nodded solemnly and rolled his eyes.

    "Yeah, it must be cause I'm so sexeh. Anyway, what are we gonna do now? Wanna go hit on those chicks over there? It would pretty nice if you got yourself a nice girlie for the journey since there is no way in hell you're going to get with Julie…"

    "Keep it in your pants Greg! Nathan and Natalie went their own separate ways and now Julie is waiting for us in a couch back there. Let's go!" Brian hissed exasperatedly as he marched away with Sunkern on his shoulder. Greg scoffed at Brian's attitude and ran up toward him.

    "Okay Brian, what's going on? In case you haven't noticed, you've been getting colder and colder toward me! We used to be the best of friends and now you're only friends with my sister while you guys treat me like some third wheel! Remember when we were partners in crime? What happened to that? Please tell me!" Greg snarled as he jumped in front of Brian and wouldn't let him forward. His red-haired friend gave a sigh of annoyance and rolled his eyes before snarling himself.

    "I grew up Greg! I'm not some **** horny middle schooler like you still are! Yes, maybe I'm a little boring and a little sissy, but you know what? At least I'm not the laughing stock of the school, and I don't embarrass everyone around me by acting like some dorky five year old with a hormones of a sixteen year old!" Brian yelled, flushing crimson and causing people to look at him. Greg flushed as well and looked as if he wanted nothing better than to give Brian a nice punch in the face, but instead, just scoffed and marched on. The two walked forward silently, while Sunkern looked down at her trainer and one of his greatest friends, wondering why things between them were so turbulent.

    They found Julie on a coach rummaging through her pack, looking intently for an item. It was then Brian finally realized he never looked at what his Mom packed for him, and horrible images of little frilly shirts and short shorts that went above his knees and worse of all, tighty whities flooded his mind! Immediately throwing his hiker backpack sized pack onto the couch, he searched through it, content that she just chose random regular clothes from his drawers. Along with a few pairs of clothes, he also saw some pokemon medicines (fresh from the PokeCenter), a compass, small snacks, a few guide books, and most interestingly, a white box and envelope marked "To Brian."

    "Heya Brian! I found it! I bought your uncle, Bruno's, guide for beginner battlers! I know I got all battling strategies and basics pretty much covered, but this has some more interesting facts and things that might be useful to us later on," Julie prattled as she picked up a hefty magazine sized book with a big grinning picture of Brian's most famous relative, Bruno, member of the Elite Four.

    "Oh come on Julie. You know he didn't write it; a bunch of nerdy journalists who have never seen daylight put it together from the information in old, copyrighted guides and then just stuck a big picture of Bruno on it. Anyway, check this out!" He showed Julie and Greg the white envelope and package before tearing open the envelope, revealing a letter inside.


    Dear Son,

    It is none other than I, your father! Yes, we talked on the phone the night before you left, but I told Jolene to put this in your pack as a surprise! I repeat yet again that I am really sorry I couldn't make it to see you embark on your journey. I'm still in Hoenn helping out your cousin Brawly with his new gym in Lilycove, and I can't get a ship out of here for another couple of months because of that incident in Mt. Pyre… It was always my dream to see you replace your Uncle Chuck has fighting pokemon gym leader, but it's all right kiddo! In fact, I think there are way too many fighting pokemon trainers in our family. Well, enough of that, we went over that about a million times since you got that little Sunkern. I'm sure your Uncle Chuck and your dear mother (she was a very good trainer back in the day you know?) told you all that you need, so I'll end this letter short. You train that Sunkern good; if she doesn't win at least five badges, I promise I'll feed her to my Heracross! Also, in the attached package are fifteen specialized pokeballs. You better share them with Julie and Greg. I'll be in the Whirl Islands sometime for a little event. Good luck!

    Sincerely,
    Marcus Arganaut


    P.S.: Please remember my words of advice. Stay out of gangs, don't do drugs, and for the love of God, DON'T GET A GIRL PREGNANT!


    "Emphasis on that last part Brian!" Greg snorted.

    Brian gave a hearty chuckle at his father's humor. He sincerely missed him, but if the letter was correct, it wouldn't be too long before he saw him again. One of the big things about going to the Whirl Islands was not seeing his parents, but considering how he only saw his dad a few times in the past three years, it wouldn't be so terrible to see his father once more. Greg went to open the package that contained Pokeballs eagerly, but was stopped by his dear twin sister. After quickly shredding off the paper and opening the lid, Brian stared in astonishment at the ensemble of multicolored pokeballs.

    "Holy crap! Your dad knows a good journey present! Look at all these! There's four normal balls, two great balls, four lure balls, two heavy balls, two love balls, and a friend ball!" Julie squealed as she grabbed one of the light blue lure balls. Greg and Brian gave her a blank look for spurting out that much information so quickly. "What? Greg and I went to Azalea Town last summer, that's where Kurt is!"

    Brian smiled and put the package back into his pack, thanking his father under his breath for his generosity. The three got up and enjoyed the leisure of the boat for the next few hours from playing arcade games, to creaming everyone in Pool (which Greg and Brian were masters at), to talking to fellow classmates about what they would do in the journey. Halfway through, Julie parted ways with the guys to hang out with her fellow female friends, most prominently Melissa, the girl with the Shellder. Sunkern and Machop obediently followed their masters wherever they went and socialized with other pokemon, while poor Slowpoke still stood by the door to the Battle Room, completely forgotten by Greg and indifferently ignored by passerby. How he longed for tater tots…

    "THE SHIP HAS NOW ARRIVED IN OLIVINE CITY PORT! PLEASE MAKE ROOM FOR THE NEW PASSANGERS!"

    This announcement boomed throughout the entire ship and immediately caught the attention of the trio. Ten minutes later, they reunited along with Nathan and Natalie by the Battle Room door, finally catching sight of blissfully sleeping Slowpoke as well. Greg had managed to not hit on a single feminine shaped species for the entire break period and had loads of fun with Brian being slightly normal for once; besides the instance he started punching the ghosts on the Pacman screen of course.

    "Yeah, we gotta finish up this little tourney before all those inlanders take up all the space!" Nathan stated. Everyone nodded, and then the two finalists gazed at each other briefly. "Good luck to you Julie! You're going to need it!"

    "Luck? Luck is for novices? Good luck to you though!"

    Nathan gave a wry smile as the five of them walked down to the Battle Room together. This time the Normal Battlefield was occupied, but the Grass Field was devoid of any annoying trainers and beckoned Tangela forward. Machop and Julie frowned; Tangela would have an advantage in the battle if the field was of her element. Sunkern also frowned at the grassy battlefield; she would have easily blended into the dying yellowish-green grasses that the whole field was rife with, but, alas, she lost. She wondered if her trainer was disappointed in her but was more worried at the possibility of Machop losing to the overgrown weed…

    Brian, Greg, and Natalie sat in the edge of the battlefield's middle, eager to see Julie and Nathan dish it out. The actual combatants took their proper positions in the battlefield; Machop constantly ripping apart the skin of his legs which itched furiously upon contact with the tall grasses, and Tangela rolling around in the grass which had no effect on her whatsoever. The fighting pokemon growled at his opponent's physical taunting and decided to do a little name calling of his own.

    "Yo Weedy! Tell your Momma I left the twenty bucks on the kitchen counter!"

    "And you tell your Momma she's the finest Gyarados I ever wrapped in my vines!" Tangela responded, grinning behind the vast cover of vines.

    "Where do you think I got my big muscles and power from?"

    "And your dragon breath…"

    The two would have gone on even longer about each other's mothers (who are probably dead now, Mew rest their souls…), but unfortunately, their trainers began to issue commands.

    "Alright Tangy! Let's finish this up quickly, so Julie doesn't have to suffer. Vine Whip it with all you got!" Nathan ordered lazily. He was rather overconfident to a win lying ahead.

    "Stand there and use Focus Energy until I give further orders!" Julie retaliated with the air of a commander to a private.

    Machop returned to his typical battle stance with his left palm raised and his right foot kept back, shutting his eyes tightly and started to focus all of his energy into the palm. A fiery scarlet and orange aura began to circle and rotate around his palm until it began to slowly seep inside of the glowing white hand. Meanwhile, Tangela had launched three of her turquoise vines forward, ready to bring down the stupid Machop who fantasized about her mother. A sweat drop slowly inched down Julie's left temple; would Machop's attack be able to complete quickly enough to deflect Tangela's vines?

    "Karate Chop!" She shouted smoothly and briskly.

    In a typical clich?d manner, Machop chopped the vines down with his palm just when their tips were about to strike his chest. For a moment, they dangled helplessly in midair as Machop still stood in his striking pose. The vine pokemon winced painfully as she struggled to pull back the bruised vines that now drooped on the floor, but Machop wasn't about to let her get off scotch free when he had the clear advantage. Snarling madly, he pounced on the clump of vines and clutched them tightly in his grip. Tangela ran back quickly, desperately trying to get her vines out of his deadly clutches.

    "Tangela! Get your vines out of there right now! Send some other vines too!"

    But Tangela was too anxious and busy trying to pull in his already armed vines to listen to or obey Nathan's order. Machop slowly got to his feet and, with an evil grin on his face, began to pull in the vines as if it were a game of Tug-of-War. He could barely see Tangela because of the thick grass, but it mattered not because he could tell where he was from the pull of his vines. Finally, Tangela gave up and stopped his effort, leaving him fatally open.

    "Get her!" Julie declared savagely.

    Extending his evil grin even more, Machop flicked his wrist upward, bringing the vines and vine pokemon upward with his hand. Tangela let out a tiny yelp as Machop pulled him high into the air by her vines in a perfect arc. Upon reaching the zenith of the toss, the grass pokemon fidgeted and shook violently, hoping somehow he would avoid the painful impact…

    "TANGELA!"

    Everyone groaned as Tangela painfully crashed onto Machop's other side. Not willing to let her off that easily, the fighting pokemon continued to throw her back and forth by her vines over his head, like a scene from a cartoon. While this continued, the pathetic losers watched from the sidelines, shifting their eyes left and right, following Tangela's impacts. Natalie bit her lip, worrying that her best friend might lose. On the other hand, Brian and Greg were smiling and cheering Machop and Julie on.

    "Jeeze, that Tangela's easier than I thought! How bad are you Brian?" Greg commented as Tangela continued to smash into the ground.

    "Not that bad. Just wait till Machop gets a whiff of Sleep Powder," Brian responded. Sunkern frowned at Greg from her trainer's shoulder.

    "I don't think Julie or Machop realizes this, but Tangela is retreating her vines and is drawing herself closer to Machop each time he swings," Natalie pointed out. She was right; the intervals between Tangela's smashes were getting shorter, and her vines weren't as long as they were before. Jigglypuff, Sunkern, and Slowpoke also yelled their encouragements to the two fighters.

    "You can do it Tangela!" Jigglypuff shouted, leering at Machop dangerously.

    "Don't let my loss go in vain Machop! WHIP HER ASS!"

    "TA-TER TOTS! TA-TER TOTS!"

    Julie finally noticed what Natalie was pointing out earlier, but Machop was getting too cocky and continued to lazily smash Tangela back and forth, ignorant to the evil grin that Tangela now wore. It was too late.

    "Oh shi...."

    The fighting pokemon finally caught sight of his enemy hanging only a few feet directly overhead, eyes closed tightly in concentration as a small cloud of green powder burst from her vines, engulfing Machop. Immediately, Machop released Tangela from his grip and started to cough and hack, covered his nose, and even ran around in circles, desperate not to fall asleep. But Tangela's attack proved to be too powerful as his running began to slow down and his hand slid off his nose. His eyes began to droop, despite his struggles to keep them open.

    "That's what your mother looked liked last night!" Tangela snidely commented, panting and heaving as she eyed a spread-eagled, knocked out Machop sprawled face down on the floor. She knew she only had a limited amount of time before the powder wore off and her opponent would be at large again. Though her entire body ached incredibly and her vines felt like they could easily just fall off, she had to attack!

    Tangela, unable to use her vines, rammed her entire body into Machop several times, groaning each time. Still heaving and panting, her entire body was drenched with a thin green liquid which was perceived by the others to be plant sweat. As she continued to attack, she began to wince more and more painfully while Machop barely even shifted from his spot!

    "Wait a sec, is that a Struggle attack?" Brian asked.

    "What's that?" Greg asked.

    "Struggle is a move pokemon use when they can't use any other moves. Tangela's vines were severely hurt in my Machop's last attack, and she can't use them anymore. Also, there's no point in using Sleep Powder, so she has to use Struggle! It's not very strong, but takes stamina out of the pokemon using it too!" Julie yelled. Even though she tried hiding the fact she was smart, she loved being a walking fountain of information as well.

    "Tangela! Don't worry. It's okay; you don't have to keep hurting yourself!" Nathan pleaded with his pokemon. Tangela shook her blue head and rammed into Machop one more time before finally collapsing. Machop finally began to stir and woke up. He rubbed his eyes and sore side, noting Tangela laying facing down on the hard floor. He flipped her over to see swirls replacing her eyes. He won.

    Brian and Greg immediately got to their feet and chest banged each other, whooping and cheering for Julie's victory while Natalie rolled her eyes and walked over to Nathan with her baby face "Sowwy" look.

    "I guess you won Julie…" Nathan mumbled. He failed to avoid everyone's gazes and instead let the whole room see his watering crystal-colored eyes and quivering lips.

    He began to turn away, and everyone around him heard small sobs and cries while his hands began to wipe something away from his cheeks. Brian's look of victory faded away into concern, while Greg's smile just turned brighter and larger.

    "Oh, wittle Surfer Thug going to cry now?" Greg mocked in a babyish voice. Natalie flicked him off.

    Julie began staring at her feet and walked up to Nathan, whose sobbing became steadily louder and louder. "I am so sorry Nathan. I shouldn't have let Machop be so rough…" Julie said quietly.

    Nathan's sobs became extremely audible, reaching the point of huge bawling, and other people in the Battle Room turned to look. Kids in Johto weren't really taught to mind their own business unfortunately. Then, his sobs began to change sounds. He was completely hysterical. Laughing hysterically. He turned to face them and began to really cry guffawing. "Oh man, you guys actually believed that? So I have one loss, big deal! I bet that's what Julie would have done, big lot of cry babies… Gosh, you people are so gullible," Nathan cackled, holding his stomach as he continued to laugh hysterically.

    The looks of pity around him changed into looks of disgust and annoyance, though Greg looked rather disappointed. Natalie walked up with her black eyes narrowed in disgust and began to slap her best friend silly.

    "Don't you ever do that again! You made us all look like fools!" Natalie screamed over his yelps of pain.

    Nathan ran out the door with his best friend chasing after him. Jigglypuff walked up to Tangela, who was still laying face up and began to poke her. Tangela shook her body, refusing to get up out of misery for her loss, until Jigglypuff put the microphone to her mouth. Only then did Tangela jump on her feet and ran to the door.

    "So, kill time?" Brian asked the twins. They nodded and called their pokemon back.

    The battles were at last over, and it was determined Julie and Machop were the best of them all as of this point. During the final battle, the five trainers failed to notice the grumpy old sailor who was standing next to the crack Slowpoke's Water Gun made on the wall. His Fearow was perched limply on his right shoulder, beak bandaged and gauzed meticulously from the little smashing into the door incident. Tracing his pudgy finger along the crack of the wall, he began to laugh hoarsely before pulling out a small grey remote control, with a single, foreboding red button right in the center. Gently rubbing the button with his finger now, he looked around, making sure no sailors were around.

    "Only a matter of time…"
     
    FUNNE! Do I need to say more?
     
    Chapter Three- The God**** Ship Ride Ends!

    "Hey watch it—oww! Git off me! Hands off! Ugg, stupid redneck!"

    Packed was an understatement to describe the ship. Though it was fairly large, it was not nearly large enough to accommodate the one thousand pimple-ridden, body odor-reeking thirteen year olds that swarmed the jam-packed bowels of the ship. Being able to move across the hundreds of loud, obnoxious humans and their pokemon seemed a feat more difficult than the time Jolene tried to ask for directions in a heavy metal rock concert. While there were only about fifty children going to the Whirl Islands from Cianwood City, Inland Johto had much more adolescents coming in because of the big cities like Goldenrod and Blackthorn. After a good fifteen minuets of trekking across the massive crowd, the trio and their pokemon (Slowpoke having been separated five times) finally made it to the stairway to the deck, where it was much less packed, though still having a good thirty-forty people.

    "Woah! It's bright!" Brian remarked upon being bathed in the bright sunlight of the sea sky.

    Olivine City was not far off; the trio could still see the lighthouse on the horizon, not yet shining its bright light on the rocks it towered over. The sky was beginning to turn pink with the setting sun, but nighttime was still a far way off. Perhaps it was four o' clock, either way; they would only be reaching the Whirl Islands in another four hours, when it would be perfectly dark. The salty scent of the sea was fuming in the air, making the trio's eyes water and tongues dehydrate. It truly was very beautiful outside, the cyan depths of the sea, the sunny, puffy cloud covered sky, all the hot Goldenrod farmer girls…

    "Stop ogling at them Gre…Brian???" Julie snapped, half-way through hitting Greg before realizing it was Brian who was staring vividly at the scantly clad girls, his brown eyes completely empty…

    "Err, I was just…erm…thinking! Yeah! Thinking about our battles and how awesome they were! So, how 'bout that Machop about yours?"

    Julie immediately rolled her eyes while her twin brother burst out in a fit of s******s. She forced her two male friends to look away at the beautiful sea, which was about as dull as a pokemon battle between two Wobbuffet. They heard the door open and a stream of vehement mumbles follow; it was none other than the grumpy old sailor, whose name they still had not figured out, carrying his Fearow who sported a heavily bandaged beak. Turning nervously back to the sea, they stared at its beautiful, yet so very boring contents for several more minutes. Brian, who had zoned out rather quickly, finally looked up and leapt back at what he saw on the horizon of the sea.

    It was a definite long, yellow shape, the same one that haunted Brian's dreams for the past two years. Whatever it was, somehow it seemed to be staring directly at Brian, somehow giving off a distinct aura of fear. The teenager's heart immediately froze in place. His worst nightmares had come true. It was the giant, floating banana, signifier of dreams.

    "No! Please not the giant, floating banana! Please not the giant, floating banana!" Brian whispered to himself, crossing his fingers tightly and staring hopefully at the image on the horizon that refused to leave. The twins simultaneously turned their head toward their best friend, who looked like an idiot whimpering and crossing his fingers at the sea.

    "Giant, floating banana? Brian, is this about that stupid thing you see in your dream which shows that it's a dream? For the love of Vishnu, this is not a friggin dream!" Greg snapped, waving his hands foolishly in front of Brian's eyes.

    "Well, yeah… I just don't want to have to wake up and be eight years old and wait for another five years to go on this Whirl Island quest with you and Julie. Because a pokemon journey is about more than just catching pokemon; it's about bonding and learning the respons—"

    "Can it Brian! Yeesh, you can be such a clichéd character at times! This is not a dream, and I'll prove it to ya!" Julie pulled up her shirt sleeves and jumped at Brian rather spontaneously, wrapping her legs around his thighs and giving him one hell of a noogy with her sharp knuckles.

    Greg snorted with laughter as he watched Brian rotate around in circles, carefully away from the railing, with Julie on his back, attempting to dig into his brains with her painful noogies. Though his brotherly instinct was raging at him to get his sister's legs off of another guy's thighs, his normal Greg instinct demanded that he just go along with it. And so the two continued to spin around in circles childishly as Julie started to draw blood, and Brian pleaded for his freedom, laughing far too hard to be speak coherently.

    "Hey! St-top t-that! Git off me! You st-stupid c-crazy h-h-harpy!"

    "HEY! You kids cut that out right now! Last thing I need is to be scraping bodies off the deck…" The same grumpy (with no better adjective to describe him) sailor chastised, looking as surly as usual. His Fearow still maintained his menacing, ready-to-murder countenance, though his pride was slightly damaged upon having his incredibly huge orange beak cracked.

    Julie immediately dropped from Brian's back, muttering and rolling her eyes as she turned away from the sailor. Brian mumbled a few words of apologies before following Julie, trembling in fear. Greg, however, was no longer going to put up with this crazy maniac's tyranny any longer. No one ever bossed him around and got away with it! Except, of course, for that one time a few weeks ago when someone bossed him around and got away with it…

    "Ok, listen up you stupid dentist-needing, ham-loving, shampoo-deprived old man! I have just had enough with you! Just because you never got an education, and you're stuck with this deadbeat job doesn't mean you can take your stupid anger out on us! And I'm not afraid of you because your ugly ass Fearow can't peck me with that pathetic excuse for a beak!"

    Half the deck immediately turned to see the grumpy man's reaction, while the other half actually had lives. Julie and Brian gaped at the two incredulously, but decided that they didn't want to get involved and turned around to talk about frivolous things. The grumpy old sailor, surprisingly, made no response and rather stood in silence, his surreal bright green eyes vibrating slowly. It was quite clear that if he had immediately released his anger, Greg would be sleeping blissfully inside one of the ship's propellers at this point.
    Looking to his Fearow in agreement, the sailor let out a horrible roar that echoed all throughout the Cianwood sea and marched back down the stairs, ready to do his sailor duties once more, fuming with anger. Greg noticed that the man had one of his beefy arms in his uniform's pocket, fiddling around with some sort of square device.

    "How much you want to bet he'll snuff it within a month?" Machop asked Sunkern snidely, as they took bets with a nearby Sentret and Caterpie.

    "I'll give him two!"

    "Two?? Try two weeks!"

    "I just know he'll be gone soon, and I will be wearing that hat on my head!" Sunkern commented, eyeing Greg lustfully as he adjusted his orange and black starred hat sideways, in hopes of getting people to see how unbelievably cool he was.

    "Did you see how that guy just left? What can I say? No one can fight against the 'Greatest Pimp in All of Johto!'" Greg snidely commented, holding his head rather high. Rather than wasting precious energy rolling their eyes, Julie and Brian simply turned back to the sea.

    Ignored by his friends, Greg looked around frantically, searching desperately for a way he could get attention. Feeling too bored to disturb other people, his eyes found a sleeping Slowpoke, snuggled up in the corner of the deck. An invisible light bulb had popped up in his head telling him that he had an opportunity of a life time within his reach. Slowpoke was asleep, and Brian had a new set of pokeballs…

    "OH MY BUDDHA! W IS SPELLED DOUBLE U BECAUSE IT HAS TWO U'S!" Greg shouted rather loudly, causing many people to turn to look at him.

    "Greg! You said that five times yesterday; we get it! Hey, Slowpoke is asleep now. You can prolly put him in a pokeball now that he's weakened. Here, take one!" Brian said, tossing his friend a light blue pokeball from his pack.

    "Oh right! Hah! That stupid lard won't have to be near me anymore. Good ol' sleep…makes both pokemon and females easy to capture…"

    Julie wanted very much to maul Greg for his last comment, but was restrained by Brian, who was eagerly awaiting Slowpoke's capture, hoping that somehow it would keep Greg from being too stupid later on.

    Sunkern and Machop exchanged smirks as they gleefully watched Greg and Slowpoke, awaiting his attempt to capture him. Greg closed his eyes, adjusted his sideways hat, and kissed his knuckles, holding the Lure Ball tightly. Facing a vulnerable Slowpoke with a look of determination on his face, the blonde bombshell threw the Lure Ball as fast as he could, missing Slowpoke by a good ten feet and landing at Julie's feet with a rather weak pitter-patter.

    Luckily, no one was paying attention to Greg, and no one was there to guffaw at Greg beside a beet red Brian and Julie. Giggling mischievously to herself, Julie tossed the ball back at Greg, who caught it perfectly.

    "Errrm, take two!"

    Repeating the fancy eye closing, hat adjusting, knuckle-kissing once more, Greg threw the Lure Ball in an underhand toss right at a blissfully unaware Slowpoke. The pokeball stopped in mid-air right above the bear pokemon, and the two light blue halves lifted apart by some binding, mystical force, shooting out a red beam at Slowpoke, who simply swatted it away with his tail, still asleep.

    "What the ****! You little ********!" Greg screamed. The sailors turned and gaped at him rather shocked, but the other teenagers on the line had heard much worse things in their lives and could care less. A few had turned to watch Greg, interested in seeing a washed-up blonde fight a big, pink bear. Julie, grumbling in annoyance, stepped forward with Machop, prepared for what would happen next.

    After five minutes of loud cursing and chastising from Sailors, Greg decided to consult Bruno in his guidebook. Julie reluctantly handed him their pack, half-curious as to what he would do. Slowpoke still remained blissfully asleep, dreaming of tater-tots and burning babies. Greg flipped through the many pages of the guide book madly until he came upon a section on capturing pokemon.

    "Here's something! I have to weaken the pokemon, and it would help a lot if I put it to sleep or paralyzed it. He's already asleep, so why don't I paralyze him! So, GREG USE GLARE!" Greg commanded to himself.

    Brian and Julie groaned exasperatedly, but a voice inside their head told them not to stop him just yet since he and Slowpoke had a habit of providing good entertainment with their battles.

    "Hey, Sunkern and Machop, get ready to separate the two love birds if they get too feisty!" Brian yelled at the two grinning pokemon. Greg shut his eyes tightly and began to gently caress his temples with one finger each, focusing his eyes for one hell of a Glare attack. Slowpoke would soon be scared to paralysis!

    "Okay Lardo, look into my eyes!" Greg ordered his pokemon. Awakening from his unnoticed slumber with a snap, Slowpoke turned around and faced Greg dumbfounded. He was half-hoping that by "eyes" Greg meant "hot dog"; his stomach rumbled rather painfully. Greg's squeezed his eyebrows as hard as he could, adding in a nice toothy snarl and scrunched up his nose. His large, pale green eyes quivered ominously, attempting meekly to frighten Slowpoke out of his wits. The bear pokemon did look into Greg's eyes, but was more focused on the fact that they looked like nice little delicious grapes that he could eat…

    Greg slung the pokeball forward once more, and the red beam shot out toward Slowpoke again, however, Slowpoke swatted the beam yet again with his tail. Greg was burning a bright shade of purple as the bystanders watched his stupidity. Slowpoke than snapped his mouth forward, trying to eat his trainer's delicious eyes. Luckily, Greg managed to move his head back in time, Glare attacking slipping away into a Scared Face. But the human/pokemon (surprisingly) controlled his anger and instead sighed and began flipping through the guide book again, until he came upon a page of attacks A-B. "Let me try an Attract attack!" Greg mumbled.

    Julie and Brian immediately cringed, fearing what would come next. Many of the guys turned around chauvinistically while several girls turned around in interest. Half of them had experienced Greg's lame "Attract" attacks before and wanted to see how it would work on a pokemon. With a stone-cold "sexy" expression and a small-somehow "sexy" smile, Greg rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and began to flex his biceps and raise his eyebrows in a very seductive matter.

    Slowpoke wasn't attracted at all. In fact, he looked more as if he were about to throw up his Remoraid and Bits. Greg frowned and began rubbing his chest in a very horrifying (and "Sexy") matter. Two teenagers that owned the Sentret and Caterpie turned to face Brian and Julie.

    "Do you know this guy?" a chestnut haired boy with the Sentret said.

    "No! I swear we don't. He just follows us around," Julie responded. Greg had given up on his Attract attack (looking proudly at the giggling females repeatedly) and returned to his usual attacking.

    "All right, no more of that! I'm too sexy for that stupid pokemon to comprehend… GREG USE KARATE CHOP LIKE MACHOP!" Greg ordered to himself. He flung himself forward with his fist straightened out and brought it down upon Slowpoke, but the dopey pokemon moved, and his hand ended up striking Slowpoke's tail.

    "Oh crap. Sunkern get ready," Brian ordered. Sunkern hopped toward Slowpoke, prepared for the worst. Slowpoke stood still and turned to face his idiotic trainer. His countenance was ten times worse than Greg's terrifying Glare attack. Roaring with all his might, he glowed white with a Curse attack and launched himself at Greg.

    "All right Greg, time for a Harden attack!" Greg said rubbing his hands together as the bear leaped toward him.

    "NOOOOO!" Brian, Julie, and all the other trainers yelled in unison, absolutely mortified at what Greg would do, but thankfully, Slowpoke's attack struck before Greg could do anything. Greg flew back ten feet and crashed against the cold, railing, which was nearly becoming his best friend.

    Brian was positioned to order an attack from Sunkern, but a strawberry blonde girl from the deck, whose height rivaled Julie's, intervened. "Let me take care of this. Caterpie, use String Shot on both of them!" she ordered.

    Her Caterpie, a green and white worm the size of a computer processor, released a barrage of white string which entangled both Greg and Slowpoke in a large ball of white silk. The girl walked forward and rolled the large ball of idiots to the side of the boat. Greg and Slowpoke's heads peaked out side by side while the girl lectured them.

    "My name is Melanie, and I'm sick of you two! You're partners and should be friends not enemies! You, stupid boy with the ugly hair cut, if your pokemon doesn't want to be in its pokeball, leave it like that! Now I don't want to here a word out of both of you until we reach Slateblue City!" Melanie hollered.

    "Yes Ma'am," Greg responded mawkishly, glaring at Melanie. Melanie slapped the living daylights out of Greg and walked away, leaving his cheeks red and his manhood shrunken. Every single person and pokemon on board the deck clapped and cheered for Melanie for silencing the stupid boy while Slowpoke dozed off, finding his new silky prison rather comfortable.



    *****​

    And so the sun had finally sunken into the depths of the horizon, leaving the sky bathed in dark orange and red colors, as the full moon began to take over as beacon of the night. The ship's captain gave himself a wry smile as the giant lighthouse of Slateblue City came into view. It would only be another hour before they finally hit the Whirl Islands now, and the children would finally be gone. It was almost 8:00 clock now and the majority of the children had now come up into the deck, bored with all the leisure devices in the basement, and ready to finally set out. Brian, Julie, and Greg (who was released from the silk ball thanks to a helpful Charmander) were among these children on the deck as they waited gleefully for the ship ride to finally come to an end. Sunkern remained perched still on Brian's shoulder; Machop stayed faithfully at Julie's side, as the two played thumb war (resulting in several yelps of pain from Julie); Greg examined Slowpoke carefully for any bruises or broken bones after the little bout they had with some random Blackthorn City boy and his Swinub who dared to hit on Julie.

    "Greg, you have some nerve, ya know? I can take care of myself!" Julie said bitterly, dwelling on the immense humiliation her twin put her through as she made a little show of marching away to be with her female friends.

    "You wouldn't dare! Because I can tell them about that time you…did….something…incriminating….which I have not yet told you I know about! Hmm, Slowpoke is fine! You know he ain't that bad, but I'm still trading him for a Lugia when we get there…" Greg demanded as he stood from his pokemon and turned his gaze to Brian. The redhead leaned lethargically, bored of the constant bickering around him.

    "Huh? Why are you looking at me? Oh yeah, you and Julie are temporarily not talking again. That Slowpoke is a lot more powerful than you think, though I'm telling you Greg; you're not winning the Whirl Cup. Experienced people who trained water pokemon for years are competing whereas you are a ten percent mentally retarded boy who will probably have two water pokemon by the time the Cup comes!" Brian commented as he turned to face Greg as well.

    "You know who else will be there? Misty…"

    "Shut up! Isn't she like forty now?"

    "Hey, I don't mind an older woman. Don't worry though, I'm sure that plenty of surfing hunks will be battling for you to ogle at, eh, eh?"

    "Oh yes, I can hardly wait to see them! So anyways—"

    "ALL ADOLESCENTS FROM CIANWOOD, OLIVINE, AND ECRUTEAK CITY PLEASE REPORT TO THE BATTLE ROOM WHERE YOU WILL BE BRIEFED ON WHAT IS TO COME!

    Their conversation was immediately cut short by the captain's intercom announcement. Taking their pokemon with them, a good third of the deck went back down to the Battle Room, ready for their instructions.

    Fifteen boring, gratuitous minutes later

    "So we're going to the PokeCenter, right?" Brian asked for the umpteenth time, perusing the brochures handed out at the short convene (that only he found remotely interesting).

    "YES! Now stop asking! Look, you can already see the city clearly! Dang, it's pretty nice!" Greg shouted as he pointed at the city which was not more than twenty minutes away from now.

    The vast harbor with the many boats and other large ships took up most of the sight, but they could still see the tops white buildings and some fancy decorations, welcoming the newcomers. Apart from the size of the great port, it looked identical to Cianwood as a seaside city. After a good ten minutes, the deck they were supposed to reach became apparent with the multiple lights attached around its edges and the big banner that hung above it stating "WELCOME JOHTO CHILDREN!"

    Brian's excitement reached an all time zenith as his heart began to pound fiercely against his chest. It was obviously not the first time he had ever seen the Whirl Islands, but it was the start of a new, exciting part of his life. He looked below at his top-notch pokeball belt which now fashioned five different types of pokeballs, ready to hold a good five new pokemon by the end of the year. He then looked at Sunkern who slept blissfully in his arms; she would be the one pokemon he would not subject to the captivity of the pokeball. Sunkern hadn't been in one since she joined Brian five years ago and she wasn't about to be in one now. He looked at Sunkern, who was in a deep slumber, with a smile; she looked so incredibly peaceful…

    "Brian? We're here now, Brain. You happy?" Greg commented

    "Huh?" Brian immediately jerked his head forward. Lying on the floor, eyes open and mouth frowned with anger, was his Sunkern. His arms were holding the railing tightly; he had fallen asleep. He didn't notice that the ship had finally anchored down in the Slateblue City Port.

    "I swear Brian, I am going to gently poke you till your horrible death!"

    "Hey guys! Let's go!" Julie said as she popped out unexpectedly from behind the two boys, causing Brian to leap slightly. Smiling to themselves they flocked toward the Cianwood group on the ship, ready to leave to the PokeCenter where they would be staying. After nearly twenty minutes of waiting and getting things organized, they were finally able to leave one group at a time, each accompanied by a sailor. With good old Greg's luck, the Cianwoodians were obviously stuck with the same, maniac sailor, who demanded on holding Greg's hand (or neck sleeve) for the trip.

    Not long after…

    "Stay in a single file line, yeh little ingrates! Last thing I need is someone dying on me…so much paperwork…" He trailed off, and the whole group was silent except for the pitiful whimpers of Greg. Brian and Julie stayed near the front of the group, not wanting to leave Greg alone with the crazy guy. When Brian finally stepped off the hardwood of the port and took his first steps into the soil of the Whirl Islands, he immediately turned back and looked at the S.S. Mantine, the final link to his home, one last time and grinned broadly. The journey had officially begun.

    "Ouch…ouch…git off me! This is unwanted touch **** it! This is rape! C'mon Julie, kick this guy's ass!" Greg pleaded as he tried to twist and turn his way out of the crazy sailor's Pincer-like grip. Julie looked at him with puppy eyes; she could have easily kicked the sailor's ass if she wanted to, but Greg deserved his humiliation for being such an ass.

    And so the Cianwood group marched silently through the dark roads of Slateblue City. Brian wouldn't have talked anyway; he was too busy taking in the aura of this new city. The city got its name for its slate-blue colored buildings and homes. They passed many houses (with very welcoming residents), tiny stores, pokemon exhibits, and plenty of other fun looking places. He enviously listened to the laughs of the other Johto adolescents whose sailor guides gave them a tour of the city rather than just forcing them right to their designated resting place like his own. Twenty boring minutes later, they finally finished walking the full seven blocks and reached the PokeCenter.

    PokeCenter's always looked different in each region, and the Whirl Islands had their own specially built PokeCenters as well. It was about the size of two sea cottages and was dome shaped. It was mainly burgundy, but had a crystal clear glass roof. Situated at the line between the actual marble building and the glass roof was a large red and white pokeball image below a great red cross. As soon as the group came within five feet of this building, the grumpy sailor immediately let go of Greg and marched back to the S.S. Mantine, caring less as to what would be of the children.

    "Have a fun trip!" he said in a falsetto, mawkish voice before adding in a very quiet, "yeh stupid morons…"

    "What on Earth is that jerks problem?" the tall girl named Melissa asked when he finally was out of view.

    "He needs to get a woman. Seriously," Greg responded as he caressed his sore forearms.

    Immediately chattering away like normal teenagers when the sailor disappeared, the group of about fifty teenagers swarmed into the PokeCenter. Brian, being the push-over he is, found himself tripping on his face trying to get in the door and was stepped on by a good twenty five people, including Greg who had to be pulled back by an angry Julie.

    "Are you okay Brian?" she asked, purple faced in her attempt not to burst out laughing.

    "Ugg…sure, why not?" he groaned as he struggled up with Greg's aid, the back of his blue shirt and his red hair grey with the dust of the bottoms of people's shoes. Though most teenagers were insensitive little pricks, a few children were nice enough to have remained to check on Brian (mostly female). Upon seeing the fact that he was alive, most scurried back into the long, fifty people line while only Melissa remained behind, rushing up to Brian to check on him herself.

    "BRIAN! I think you need to have the Nurse Joy give you a check up!"

    "I'm fine!" Brian stated with a deadly air to the two girls. Julie was rather taken aback at her normally polite, and courteous friend turning rather rude while Melissa simply scoffed and got at the end of the long line that extended a good ten feet out of the door of the PokeCenter.

    "Good going Goofy! Now we have to wait another what, million minutes? Now what are we going to?" Greg grumbled, glaring at his friend with contempt.

    "I'm sorry Greg, do you want me to give you a ******* as condolence? Hmm?" Brian asked rather sarcastically; he was not one to laugh at his own misfortunes and rather felt humiliated by them instead.

    "Brian, chill out. You're one of the only guys who I know who remains nice all the time and doesn't use such filthy words. Stop it right now." Julie's eyes were blazing with fury, but no other part of her face showed it. Brian's annoyed countenance slipped off his face like a piece of raw meat. Julie was one of the most deadly persons to cross; though she barely struck four foot nine and was but stick and bones, she tore apart her enemies likes an Ursaring tears apart the flesh of a little, bawling baby Spheal.

    "Sorry…"

    A few people standing in the slowly progressing lines snickered, but were soon met by the snarls of a pre-tantrum Julie. "IS THERE SOMETHING YOU'RE LOOKING AT? I know Brian is sexy and all, but he doesn't like people gawking at him!"

    The next few moments passed on silently and mundanely. The trio looked up and around their surroundings with curiosity; it was night time, but they did not feel tired at all and wanted to explore the city. It appeared the city had died at sunset because the only living souls they caught sight of were walking back in their homes, even the bird pokemon had not appeared in the sky. Unable to stand still for more than several minutes, Greg started circling around in circles, fidgeting madly.

    "Brian? Do you have any food on you? I'm starving! Those subs they gave us on the ship weren't ample enough to fill a big strong man like me!" Greg asked.

    "Greg, we're having dinner in the PokeCenter! Be patient and you can have your crackers and Wailmer paste!" Brian scolded resulting in a childish, pleading look from Greg.

    After another boring, eventless half-hour, the trio and Melissa finally found themselves nearly ready to register with the Nurse Joy behind the counter. After being inside the dank ship and the cold outside, the warm PokeCenter was a much more pleasant change. Inside they found themselves smothered with the bright light and colors. There were several cyan, spitz couches along the pink flowered wallpapers. A lone fan hung overhead, bathing the room with fresh, cool air. On the walls were numerous paintings of different pokemon, including a very seductive water painting of a Jynx on a beach…

    "GREG! You sicko, it's a freaking pokemon!" Melissa snapped, slapping Greg in the back of head after seeing him look at the painting of the Jynx with a rather curious expression on his face.

    "What??? I'm just looking! Yeesh. Why are you even still with us anyway? Aren't you going to go bunk up with Sarah, Leslie, and all them? Oh wait, THEY DON'T LIKE YOU!" Greg responded rather viciously, glaring at Melissa with considerable contempt. She was a rare specimen: a non-Julie remotely good-looking girl that Greg did not lust over. The tall girl looked rather taken aback by Greg's statement, but her nasty countenance returned soon, ready to chew him out. However, Julie intervened.

    "She's MY friend, Gregory. And she's COMING WITH US!"

    Brian, Greg, and Melissa were all immediately shocked by this statement; clearly, only Julie was the one who decided this. Brian's dreams of a wonderful, happy-go-lucky journey with him and the twins prancing around beaches holding hands immediately shattered as Melissa, some tall girl he barely knew, came in the picture, dragging the three smaller teens through the sands of the beaches as she took enormous her enormous strides.

    "W-wait? Melissa is coming with us?" Brian and Greg asked in unison.

    "Julie, it's ok! You don't have to take me along…" Melissa mumbled in a small voice, looking at her rather large feet uncomfortably.

    "Nah, Melissa, it's okay! You're staying with your cousin Mallory most of this year, right? Masoit City is just one city away, and we have to go there anyway since it's organizing the Whirl Cup. Greg's opinion doesn't count, and Brian and I would love to have you and Shellder, even if it's just for a few days! What do you say?" Julie asked eagerly, clutching Melissa's right hand in a rather pleading manner.

    "Yeah! You should come along with us Melissa. I think we were planning on going to Masoit City first, right Greg?" Brian rushed in a feigned, cheerful voice, elbowing Greg rather roughly in the stomach. He was a very relieved that she would only be with them for a few days, though in his perfect vision it would just be the three of them starting the journey.

    "OWW! Yeah sure, if it's just for a few days…"

    "Alright then, I guess… Don't worry, Gregory, we'll have plenty of fun times together!" The new, temporary group member added; her spirits slightly increased after insulting Greg. Deep within her crystal-blue eyes, Brian saw some sort of demon swimming about, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find out what was wrong with Melissa. Julie, the most sensitive of the three, obviously saw what was wrong, because though she was grinning rather widely, at the same time she was rubbing Melissa's back as if consoling her.

    "Next in line please!"

    Nurse Joy's voice cut through the awkward moment rather quickly and the four turned to walk towards the counter as the final group went to the sleeping ward. Behind the counter, they saw the most cheerful, personality-less woman they would ever see in their lives. Her hair was bright-pink just like Jolene's, but unlike Jolene's original ponytail, her's was split in the middle to form two hoops. Her eyes were bright brown and seemed to be full of excitement while her small, botox-fortified smile seemed as if it would remain even if her flesh was being eaten away by Ratatta.

    "Welcome to Slateblue Pokemon Center. My name is Nurse Joy. I take it you are here for your pokemon license? Is anyone signing up for the Adolescent Whirl Island Pokemon League?" Joy said to them with her bright smile and the distinctive air of a Stepford Wife. Besides the nurse was an oval, egg-shaped light pink pokemon named Chansey that fashioned a small nurse's cap similar to Joy's.

    "Chansey! Chansey! (God! I hate smiling this much!)"

    "Yep, we're all from Cianwood! I'm the only one signing up for the league, though. Wait, what about you Melissa?" Brian asked.

    "Nah, I'm doing the Whirl Cup like Gregory," Melissa promptly responded. She was holding herself slightly higher than before.

    "Well yeah, I'm the only one signing up for the league. By the way, aren't you the same Nurse Joy from the Olivine City?" Brian asked, resulting in a hearty chuckle from the nurse.


    "Oh no! She is my second cousins sister in law's Growlithe's walker! I don't know why everyone says we Nurse Joy look alike; we only share little resemblance! Hey, I think I know you! Isn't your mother the Nurse Joy from Cianwood. She is my third cousin's brother in law's great aunt's cousin's husband's niece, the little pony-tail wearing, different-name having, pessimistic traitor!" Nurse Joy responded in her same immensely cheerful tone.

    "Yes! My mom is the Nurse Joy from Cianwood, although we call her Jolene! It's freaky how you guys are all interrelated. Wait a second, what was your last comment?" Brian riposted. Nurse Joy gave her same hearty chuckle once more.

    "I didn't say anything after niece, hon. Pinky-promise! Oh, and I wouldn't say we're all related. The Nurse Joy from Goldenrod City is so many nieces and fourth cousins distantly related from me, it's hardly worth mentioning! [/i]Who does she think she is with that blue hair…[/i] Anyway, normally the pokemon licenses are I-Pokes, but Chuck alerted me that you three would have the brand new I-Poke Minis, so just hand me your I-Poke Mini, and I will upload the license card onto there after a few questions!" Nurse Joy explained, holding her arms out for the technological innovations.

    "Wait, what about me? Unlike the incredibly lucky Greg, Julie, and Brian, I don't have an I-Poke Mini…" Melissa asked flabbergasted as the trio handed the Nurse their devices.

    "Wait you turn! Errm, darling! Impatience will only get you wrinkles and punches to the face!" Nurse Joy continued, her lips looking as if they would snap apart from the very forceful way she was smiling and chuckling.

    "What a weirdo…" Greg mumbled under his breath. After a few questions concerning vital stats, Joy handed the trio back their shining, silver I-Poke Minis while tossing a rather dusty, humongous (nearly an inch thicker than the Mini!) I-Poke Normal that had a cracked screen. Melissa looked down sadly at her obsolete, barely working I-Poke and then looked back up at the Nurse.

    "Little girl, with the economy the way it is, you should be glad you're wearing those pants right now! Ah ha ha ha! Anyways, here's your room key. You're in Room 9! Now have a good nights sleep, or else!" Nurse Joy continued with her voice becoming steadily more and more dangerous. Brian quickly grabbed the key and exchanged a grimace with Sunkern, who was equally frightened by the nurse.

    "I'd hate to see what that woman does when no one's looking…" Machop mumbled to Slowpoke, who continued to stare blankly into space. Scarred and disturbed from the Nurse's extremely strange behavior, the foursome and their pokemon walked into the sleeping ward while Nurse Joy continued to smile brightly and happily, waiting impatiently for them to leave.

    "Hey, wait a second! Aren't we supposed to leave our pokemon with you for a starting journey check up?" Julie asked the nurse just before they were about to leave off into their room. Sunkern and Machop exchanged fearful looks; they did not want to be left with that crazy human lady.

    "Yeah sure, errm, I will be sure to treat them like little kings and queens!" Nurse Joy muttered, nearly losing her cheery voice.

    "Sure. Sunkern, don't worry; I'll make sure to pick you up tomorrow morning. Just stay with Nurse Joy tonight, so we know you're not sick," Brian told the seed pokemon on his shoulder. Sunkern nodded half-heartedly, not showing her annoyance, and leaped toward the counter.

    "Same with you Machop," Julie said to her fighting pokemon.

    "Good night Shellder!" Melissa mumbled as she handed the pokeball that contained her Slowpoke to the nurse.

    "Whatever! Just get this fat lard away from me," Greg mumbled as he pushed Slowpoke to the counter, leaving a startled Nurse Joy.

    Twenty Minutes Later

    "Mannn that was one hell of a start to a journey! That nurse was CREEPY! Well, we're gonna be off tomorrow morning right?" Brian said as he sat in the middle of their room wearing his pajamas. It felt rather weird not having Sunkern by his side, but it was also important to have some "all-human" time as well.

    "Yep, tomorrow is the last day to register for the Whirl Cup, and Greg and I need to get to Masoit City! My uncle is the Vice President of the Whirl Cup tournament execution! I can hardly wait to take on your Slowpoke, Gregory!" Melissa replied as she hugged her plush Clefairy toy.

    "Slowpoke will be a killing machine by the time I'm done training him, Melissa dear! I can't believe we already have to be in bed; it's only ten o' clock!" Greg commented, flexing his arm with a very large, metal 5-pound dumbbell.

    "What have you been doing with him for the past five years if it wasn't training? I shoulda prolly entered the league as well since I might go ahead and choose to do that. I can hardly wait to see the birthplace of Tiffany S. Terracotta, first female elite four member in Kanto/Johto!" Julie squealed happily, even getting Melissa to roll her eyes. Brian opened his mouth to speak, but was rudely interrupted by a sharp rapping at the door.

    "Please go to sleep, children! I'm trying to watch my stories—err take care of the pokemon, and I can't do it with all this noise!" the nurse responded from the other side of the door in her dangerously sweet voice.

    Groaning exasperatedly, reminded of having bedtimes back home, the children returned to their bunks, Greg and Brian in one and Melissa and Julie in the other. As Greg climbed to the top of his bunk, he started muttering to himself, not too fond of being ordered around by a woman.

    "Stupid pink-haired, bit—"

    "I can hear you, Sweety!" Julie cried, mocking the nurse's high voice. Everyone immediately bursted into a tiny fit of giggles.

    "I SAID GO TO SLEEP! THAT MEANS YOU TAKE YOUR LITTLE BONY BUTTS, CLIMB INTO BED, AND SHUT THE HELL UP! NOW!"
     
    Don't know if anyone's reading but....

    Chapter Four-The Borefest Begins!

    Brian's eyes opened with a snap, in cue with a loud thunderous crash. He was no longer in the two bunk room of the PokeCenter; instead, he was in a strange cartoon-like world. He was floating aimlessly through a yellow-dotted black void that shook violently with periodic thunderous crashes. The carrot-top attempted to move his lips repeatedly, but they were glued together by some seemingly celestial force. Minutes passed by as he continued to drift farther through the strange void, at the mercy of gravity's absence, prisoner to his mind.

    Finally, the lower half of the void began to twist and contort as it changed form. It was no longer an expanse of dreary space, but rather a raging grey ocean. The waves rose high and tried to devour an invisible prey dangling helplessly above it. Brian's heart wanted to hammer against his chest, but his entire body was paralyzed; his own eyes refused to blink. And so he watched as the grey waters continued to rage and the void continued to roar while rather copious amounts of a strange purple substance rose to the surface. He did not know whether this was some sort of a sick, demented dream or just a flat-out nightmare.

    Finally, when it appeared he would be trapped in this bizarre, nightmarish world for all eternity, the yellow spots that dotted the black void started to quiver and shake. As if being pulled by a black hole, they ripped themselves from their places and began to speed toward a spot in the middle of the dream realm. Brian could only watch in horror as the tiny golden spheres flew through him and saturated the void until a shape began to take form in front of him. It was curved, long, and majestic. Towering nearly ten feet high was none other than the giant, yellow banana.

    The raging sea became stagnant; the void stopped shaking; and the realm and Brian's heart swelled with a sort of blissful peace that would remain as long as the banana remained in front of him, glowing brightly as a beacon in this dark realm. Feeling began to return to Brian's lips and muscles, and he could finally move freely once more. Regaining his self after being numb for so long, Brian looked up at the banana with a dumbfounded look on his freckled face.

    "Wait a second…WHY IS THERE A FREAKING BANANA IN MY—"

    "—ROOM!" Brian hollered. He opened his eyes and immediately was smothered in a wave of drowsiness. He was out of the bizarre world and back in the PokeCenter room where a pajama clad Julie and Melissa stared at him in confusion.

    "Well, you win the award for most random statement of the day! Go get ready, Brian," Julie chuckled before she and Melissa turned to face a spread-eagled Greg on the floor, trying to not make eye-contact since he was wearing nothing but rather tight underwear.

    "Wake up Greg! We have to leave in an hour if we want to get to the next city in time, so you can make it to sign up for your little Whirl Cup!" Melissa pleaded as she attempted to pull one of his placid arms, but he remained adamant on the floor. Greg was not a morning person.

    "Ehhh…I don't care…I'll find another way to get that Misty…I'll catch up with ya guys in a…uhh…"

    Snickering to himself, Brian leapt out his bunk and rubbed his eyes vigorously, ready to set out on the road. He dragged his weak legs toward his pack to take some new clothes, having completely forgotten about the strange banana that haunted his dreams. Greg continued to be lethargic and remained on the floor to the girls' avail. Not long after, the insane, botox-injected Nurse Joy entered their room with her unnatural grin glued on her face.

    "Is there a problem? You children need to get up and ready-Freddy for the day ahead! So get yourselves up and come down for some scrump-diddly-umptious breakfast!" Nurse Joy squealed with a perky expression. Greg responded by groaning and snuggling closer to the floor. From the flush that came to her face, Brian assumed that Nurse Joy did not like being ignored too well. "Sweety, when I say get up, I MEAN GET…UP! BETSY, GO!"

    Looking more somber than before, the evil nurse grabbed a pokeball from her pocket and tossed it at Greg's bare back. The blonde idiot chose to simply grunt in annoyance while the two halves of the pokeball split apart, releasing one of the most terrifying pokemon Brian had seen in his life. It was a huge and intimidating bipedal violet canine pokemon, but this pokemon was no regular puppy; its lower jaw made up over half its head, and its eyes were narrowed in pure anger down at the boy who fake-slept blissfully. The other three children immediately stepped back several feet, frightened by this horrifying beast.

    "Grrraaaannnbuuul!"

    A thick stream of slimy drool dripped from the side of its huge mouth and fell right onto Greg's shoulder. Immediately, Greg opened his eyes to wipe off the icky saliva from his skin and instead found the growling pug-face of the Granbull glaring down at him, licking her lips rather lustfully. For a moment Greg simply continued to lie on the floor, whimpering as he looked at the big bad wolf. Finally, after a few moments of silence, the Granbull named Betsy gave a tiny, "Ruff!"

    "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Greg immediately took off in a sprint out of the room, right into the lobby of the PokeCenter, wearing nothing but his skimpy tighty-whities. A satisfied Nurse Joy recalled her pokemon and left a shocked Brian, Julie, and Melissa behind.

    "Great, it's only been five minutes into the day, and I already want to kill myself!" Julie sighed as the crescendo of laughter from the lobby struck their room.

    ;210;​

    Not long afterwards, the adolescents had finished getting dressed and started on eating a "scrump-diddly-umptious" breakfast in the lobby. The nurse was finishing their pokemons' physicals, and once they were fed and ready to go, the foursome would be ready to legally start their journey and head to register Melissa and Greg for the Whirl Cup. After finishing their eggs and bacon (just eggs for Julie), Greg had pulled out a large map of the Whirl Islands and spread it across the table where they studied it meticulously.

    "So guys, what's the game plan?" Greg asked taking the last swigs of his coffee.

    There were four distinct islands of the Whirl Islands: Blue Point Isle, Yellow Rock Isle, Red Rock Isle, and Silver Rock Isle. Blue Point Isle was the closest island to Cianwood and the one they currently resided in. Yellow Rock Isle was the second island and the least important; there were simply two gyms in it and nothing more. The third island was Red Rock Isle, the largest and most important. It was home to Scarlet City, the home to the legendary Whirl Cup and many other famous cities. The last island, Silver Rock Isle, was the most mystical and the legendary home to Lugia, who had not been sighted in fifteen years ever since Team Rocket attempted to capture her.

    Apart from a few other miniscule isles, that was it. They were looking at their future journey. Each main island was home to two gyms and several other attractions. For Brian, the final tournament would take place in Silver Rock Isle in Meltokio in the legendary stadium dedicated to Lugia, guardian of the raging seas. Four islands, three adolescents, two feet in a human body, and one year…

    "And I guess it's going to end in Scarlet City when we return again for the Festival of Summer Solstice! I'm not sure what you and your cousin are going to do Melissa, since you two are doing the Whirl Cup, but either way, I suppose you're going the same essential route," Julie finished as she stopped tracing her finger around the different cities of the map and looked up back at the other three.

    "So that's it. That's going to be our journey. I have a question though, as much as we love Slowpoke and all, what are we going to do with the fact that he refuses to go in a PokeBall and the fact that he will probably slow us down?" Brian asked curiously.

    "YES! What Brian said is true. I guess I'm just going to have to leave Slowpoke behind…" Greg spat out, eager to finally find a good excuse to rid of his little chubby companion.

    "Say Julie, can't Machop just carry Slowpoke like a breeze? He does bench five hundred pounds after all!" Melissa said to Julie smirking wickedly.

    "Exactly. So Slowpoke stays since my Machop remains a powerhouse!" Julie replied vindictively, leaving Greg with the face of a Pidgeot that lost his big, juicy Wurmple.

    "You're pokemon are ready and fighting fit to go! Except for Slowpoke, who is suffering three brain tumors… Now please take them and kindly leave!" Nurse Joy exclaimed as she brought a tray holding Sunkern and a pokeball containing Melissa's Shellder. Machop and Slowpoke had walked by her side, one eager to see his trainer and the other eager to have received a free morphine injection.

    "Only three brain tumors? Ooh Slowpoke I'm so proud of you! You're getting extra Remoraid N' Bits…" Greg lauded in a baby voice rubbing Slowpokes pink ears.

    "Que?"

    "Hey Sunkern! It's okay, the crazy lady is gone now," Brian whispered as the Nurse Joy returned to her counter, attempting to conceal the cigarette she was smoking, "Get ready Bud! We're leaving today after we go to hear the speaker! Last year it was my Uncle Bruno, but he's too busy in Hoenn trying to sort out those matters with Dad. We may have lost to Nathan, but we're gonna so whoop everyone else's butt!"

    "Sunkern!" The seed pokemon piped up, having stopped listening at Hoenn.

    "Machop dear, get ready because you're going to be carrying that Slowpoke the majority of this trip! You're such a little sweety! I just wuv you!" Julie squealed as she hugged her fighting pokemon as hard as he could, who looked embarrassed at Sunkern.

    "Great, I get to carry about fatso there…"

    "He's just big-boned…"

    "Hey Shellder! I'm gonna keep you out until we go into the Ameamkad Forest. Don't worry, once we get into Masoit City it will a lot better since there's a lot more sea air and water!" Melissa whispered to her pokemon as she released him from his pokeball. Unlike the other pokemon, Shellder simply nodded his great big shell and continued to stare around the room rather bored.

    "So off we go?" Brian asked positioning his Sunkern on his shoulder and his pack on his back.

    "Yep, the speaker's going to be in the Slateblue Concert Hall a few blocks up. I can't wait to see who it is; it's usually an Elite Four member, though three years ago it was J.D. Hutchenson, three time winner of the Silver Conference…" Melissa responded as she too arose, holding Shellder in her arms.

    "Too bad it ain't Bruno…that guys the epitome of testosterone? Did you know that Bruno Arganaut lost his virginity before his father? And that there is no such thing as evolution, just pokemon he chooses to live and chooses to die? Furthermore, he frequently donates blood to the Red Cross, just not his own…" Greg started rambling.

    "SHUT UP!!!" every single man and pokemon in the PokeCenter cried out, sick of hearing the jokes about some stupid muscle man on a daily basis.

    ;191;​

    A nice fifteen minute amble through the sunny, breezy streets of Slateblue City later, the adolescents had reached the Slateblue Concert Hall. The building was clearly one of the biggest attractions in Slateblue City; the hit band "Six Centimeter Screws" had played their last week judging from the scattered fliers and signs they had seen on the walk. It lumbered over a hundred feet tall; they had seen the great dome ceiling from all the way back in the ferry ride. After walking through the beautiful courtyard complete with marble fountains and lush green lawns, the glass doors came into view, opening the way of the beautiful building to them. It was clear that millions were spent into this hall, and the money was put the good use as they walked by the perfect tile floors, different fancy rooms, and beautiful artwork until they finally reached the main auditorium. Inside the auditorium, situated in the very center, the crystal clear ceiling hung suspended several hundred feet above, and a sea of plush leather seats threatened to drown them all. In the shining polished wood stage ahead, several men in fancy suits were swarming around, talking to each other, preparing for the speech, fiddling with the sound system and the great podium that stood elevated several feet above the stage in the dab center.

    Brian & co. had found good seats in the third row and took their seats, eagerly awaiting the speech to finish so they could finally go on. They had to leave their pokemon behind in a waiting room because the officials were extremely strict with keeping the beautiful concert hall clean (despite the fact most adolescent boys leave trails worse than any Muk). Julie and Melissa were at the edge of their seats, paying attention eagerly to hear the speech whereas Brian and Greg were lying languidly on their comfy chairs, fiddling around with the seat height and back angle levers, not really paying attention to what was going on around them. As the next fifteen minutes passed, the concert hall slowly began to fill up more and more with the remaining aspiring trainers, though the hall had not even been a hundredth full. Once all one thousand children were seated, one of the more stout men in the front stage had risen up to the podium.

    "Umm, testing, testing. Okay!" His voice had suddenly turned to a sharp bark and took nearly half the room by surprise with the deafening volume. "Welcome adolescents to the Whirl Islands! These beautiful islands will be your home until this very day next year when you depart with new pokemon, new experiences, and a new level of maturity! Now I don't want to speak for long to make room for our speaker, so I will just go over a few regulations…"

    These "few regulations" ended up in becoming another ten minute lecture on behavior and proper maturity, which appeared to be a problem in the past. Greg had fallen asleep around the four minute mark, right around the part mentioning sexual harassment of female federal workers. "And PLEASE! If an angry Tauros charging at you at sixty miles per hour, don't act like Little Jimmy and take a picture with a red camera! Well, that's all that I can think of for now. Now, presenting the League Set-Off Speech for this year is none other than Miss Patricia Gonzalez, Champion of Johto!"

    Immediately, all the sleeping children jerked awake and murmurs of shock filled the auditorium. Never had a Champion given a speech in Whirl Island Pokemon League history, and Patricia Gonzales was perhaps the greatest champion in the last century along with Lance Sun. Before the famous trainer had even stepped onto the stage, all one thousand audience members leapt to their feet and racketeered and screamed as fiercely as they could (which was quite fierce). Despite being a fractional audience, the din had ruptured several ears, and Brian had to stop half-way through to plug his applauding hands onto his ears. An extremely intelligent-appearing formal woman had stepped onto the stage, resulting in several wolf-whistles from perverted boys, including you-know-who.

    Though she was a staid woman, Patricia Gonzales couldn't help but crack a smile at the enthusiastic cheers of the children cheering at her. She was quite short, only five foot three, and fashioned half-moon brown glasses and a rather tight periwinkle business suit that Greg would have fainted over if only it had stopped a few inches higher. She had a rather dark tan from the outdoors life of a Pokemon Champion and had her hair tied in a neat bun for the occasion, though true fanatics who watched her battles would know that she was a very loose person who dressed casually and did not fret over appearances except for special occasions. It was a bit of an honor that she found giving a speech to a bunch of pimple-ridden, hormone-drowned tweens important enough to get dressed for. The cheering continued for a good five minutes after she had entered the stage and stood on the podium until she held her ringed hand high into the air, causing the room to fall silent immediately.

    "Good morning rising trainers of Johto! I'm sure all my precedents in giving this speech had the top-notch speech writers and used metaphors, similes, parallelism, and all that crap. But come on, I know none of you are interested in the flowery mumbo-jumbo that I would normally give; you're teenagers! You went on this journey to escape school and go out into the real world, instead of a powerful riveting Gettysburg Address, I instead to plan to tell you what you need to know and what you want to hear! And yes, you can tell your teachers when you get back that I also used the word I…" Patricia Gonzales was truly a great speaker; she used no note cards, every captivating word she said was impromptu. She certainly kept her promise; her speech was not boring and flowery but rather hilarious and anecdotal. Best of all, it was nice and short and within five minutes she was finished. "So you leave today like little Essax the Wynaut, but I know you will be great like Sally the Salamence when I see all your pimply faces at the end of the year tournament!"

    As she turned from the podium and walked off, the audience began to scream and cheer as loudly as they could once more, not doing as well as last time since they were still sore from their initial cheering. Once Patricia Gonzales had taken her spot with the other suit-clad men, the same stout man from before approached the podium, resulting in several groans from a few of the more disrespectful adolescents (Greg among them). Unfazed by the disrespect, the stout man began to speak once more. "At the end of this sentence, your journey will legally begin, and you are no longer restricted by school and parental rule; have fun, but not too much fun. And as we say in the Whirl Islands, GIT!"

    The audience cheered half-heartedly; really unable to strain their vocal chords any longer and threw their caps in their air. After waiting ten minutes for Greg to find his cap (the same one Sunkern lusted after), the foursome of Cianwood were finally read to set off into their journey, but were stopped again by Julie, who was staring at the stage, eyes burning with indignation. While everyone else was getting ready to leave, three extremely well-dressed girls had stepped onto the stage accompanied by a sober looking man wearing a tuxedo. Standing on the stage, chatting animatedly with Patricia Gonzales, were the Pecunia Triplets, among the most hated teenagers in Cianwood.

    WARNING: STORY TIME

    Melissa joined Julie in flashing a nasty look while Greg and Brian groaned in annoyance, knowing how the females got in the presence of the Pecunia Triplets. The Pecunia Triplets were filthy rich; their father was the C.E.O of some random company that did financial crap that not even Julie could comprehend. Though they could very well afford going to the fanciest private school in Johto, Violet City Academy, Mrs. Pecunia had some bad history with the headmaster, Earl Newton, and refused to let her children go to his school. Instead, they were sent to Cianwood Academy where they ruled with an iron fist because of their deep pockets. Though the triplets had nearly half the school cowering at their feet, Julie refused to join the rest of the sniveling cowards and was the only one who stood up to them and their bullying antics.

    Because of this, neither Julie nor anyone associated with her (including Melissa, Natalie, and Nathan) were not exactly the most popular people around. The Pecunias held influence over the bullies, the teachers, the upper-class men, and ensured anyone they didn't like went through hell. Despite having her and her friends' possessions vandalized, books thrown, and being overall sneered at by the minions of the Pecunias, Julie remained strong and refused to submit to the snot nosed brats and soon became the leader of the faction of the school that was anti-Pecunia. Sally Pecunia, the eldest and most influential of the Pecunias, let no opportunity go to be somehow insult Julie, and Julie was no angel either. Their war was kept overall silent until something drastic happened in the Winter of Seventh Grade.

    Julie's rage finally erupted when the Pecunia Triplets struck someone very close to her: Brian. It was common knowledge that Pokemon Nurses did not make great amounts of money, and at the time, Marcus Arganaut was unable to hold a steady job. The end result was Brian's family becoming quite poor and having to pull many desperate measures in order to live above sustenance level. Because of Marcus's pride, they were unable to turn to Bruno and Chuck for financial help, despite their constant attempts to help them. Because of the rise of the Pecunia Dynasty in Cianwood Academy, a new contempt for the lower middle class was forged, and Brian was no exception. While the twins were in Fourth Period studying the anatomy of Bellsprout, Sally Pecunia called for a mass taunting of Brian at lunch. Brian, who was never a strong person, was reduced to tears as a good fifty students swarmed around him and began to call him atrocious names and throw food at him. Despite being an entire wing away, Julie heard Brian's horrible ordeal and stormed out of her classroom, ignoring the angry cries of her teacher.

    Within minutes, Julie had arrived in the lunchroom where half the students were trying to look away and the other half was surrounding Brian. Snarling like a banshee, Julie plowed her way through the mob until she finally reached the center where a tear-stained motionless Brian laid sprawled on the floor, stained with an assortment of food. The Triplets had come forward to finish the job, and Sally was in the middle of squirting him with a bottle of ketchup, before an enraged Julie pounced on her. Julie then commenced to punch and beat the crap out of Daddy's Princess whom she had pinned on the floor, shocking everyone in the room. The cronies were too afraid to move, never having anyone physically stand up to them. Brian watched in awe, amazed at the lengths of Julie's anger.

    The strongest and most aggressive of the Pecunia triplets, Paige Pecunia, had gone to the aid of her elder sister and managed to lay a few successive blows on Julie. However, all of Brian's Tai-Kwan-Do lessons weren't for nothing after he saved his friend from the clutches of the bulky he-she with a good dropkick to the thighs. The third Pecunia triplet, Grace Pecunia, was very preppy and too busy with her makeup asphyxiated face to bother fighting, let alone notice the fact her sisters were getting beat up. Though she sat innocently several tables away applying nail polish to her manicured nails, a furious Julie still charged toward her and within thirty seconds, she was sprawled on top of her sisters, groaning with pain.

    Julie looked rather pleased with herself while the bystanders were too shocked for words. Good old Dean Thomas decided to finally act and suspended Julie for a month while Joseph Pecunia almost had her sent to Juvie for assault, if it hadn't been for the fact that Chuck intervened on her behalf. Ever since then, Julie was hailed as a hero; Brian was tormented as a girl-hitter; and the Pecunia Triplets swore revenge on Julie, even if it meant getting their Abercrombie and Trapinch clothes dirty!

    End Story

    "Let's go." Julie said cheerfully turning her eyes away from the Triplets on the stage and scurrying to the exit with a little skip-hop along with Melissa. Brian and Greg exchanged a confused look that plainly said, "Girls…"

    They recovered their pokemon and traveling packs and started the preparations to travel. Melissa called out her Shellder and kept him in one arm while holding a compass with another arm; Brian fixed Sunkern onto his shoulder and held a map of the Ameamkad Forest where they would be heading; Greg and Julie held the water bottles while Machop tossed Slowpoke over his shoulder like a simple sack. Backpacks on their backs, pokemon by their sides, the four trainers left the concert hall and set out on the main road ready for their journey with smiles on their faces and the flame for pokemon training in their hearts.

    "Do you guys realize how incredible cheesy this must look?" Greg asked as he walked in a rather cheery manor with a smile that rivaled Nurse Joy's.

    "Yeah, I know." Brian responded as the sun cast its beams on the sea, resulting in sparkling spots of pure beauty as they headed down the road, into the journey known as life.

    ;251;​

    "M-man, t-this is so e-exhausting…" Greg mumbled as he struggled to drag his feet through the roads.

    "Greg, we've only been walking ten minutes!" Melissa snapped. The Concert Hall was still visible behind them.

    "I know but still…"

    ;251;​

    An hour and a half later, the four trainers were already starting to get tired. Machop whispered something snidely to Shellder and Sunkern, who had gotten out of their trainer's arms and started hopping along the path by Machop's side. It had involved something about the weakness of the human race.

    They were still in Slateblue City, and after seeing so many of the beautiful sights, they wished they could have stayed a little longer. No one was talking except the pokemon who were particularly gleeful. After another ten minutes, Melissa caught sight of a little green sign that stated "Slateblue Concert Hall-4 miles, Ameamkad Forest- 8 miles, Oliver Hornsby Park-HERE."

    "Eight miles? Last sign it was six!" Melissa exclaimed, rereading the sign in disbelief.

    Brian looked down at his map and rotated it with a look of horror on his face which he quickly turned into a soft chuckle, "Heheh, umm guys…"

    Julie, who had assumed position of group leader, looked as if she very much wanted to knock out Brian's front teeth, but restrained herself and instead sighed deeply. "Let's go. It's already 11; I don't know how we're going get the city in time. Once we're in the forest, we have another twelve miles to walk! This is friggin insane; we're never going to get around unless we have some sort of uhh—"

    "Helicopter?" Greg finished, looking up into the sky.

    "Yes, exactly! A helicopter! Good job Greg!" Julie finished, rather shocked by the intellectual input donated by her brother.

    "No, Julie. Helicopter!" Brian responded, pointing at the sky.

    All four adolescents were looking at the clear sunny sky, and sure enough, there was a helicopter that was slowly descending into the park by which they were standing. A lot of the people in the park moved back to make room in the emerald clearing where the helicopter seemed be hoping to land on. In spite of themselves, the foursome rushed into the park and joined the mob looking up at the helicopter. As it started approaching the ground, the gale produced by the whirling blades soon called for the bystanders to protect their faces. Brian caught sight of Julie and Melissa's hair whipping to and fro violently as the helicopter came into clear sight. He saw a dark glint in Julie's eyes and soon understood why. There were large platinum colored "P" on the both sides of the helicopter…

    "Oh **** it. Not them! And only two pages after they were mentioned too…" Greg moaned loudly to be heard over the sound.

    "Pages?" Brian screamed trying to stay on his feet as the helicopter hovered only ten feet above the land, unleashing a mini hurricane on the surrounding radius with it.

    "Pages of our adventure, of course!" Melissa hollered, shielding her face with her Shellder's underbelly.

    "That makes no sense…"

    But they didn't hear his last response because the helicopter had finally touched the ground, blowing some of the small children back several feet. Even Brian and Melissa had to hold the petite Greg and Julie to make sure they wouldn't be hurtling off to Oz. Though Julie had her face completely shielded from the fierce winds, they could still feel the red hot fury burning off of her cheeks. There were a good fifteen other bystanders who looked as if they've never seen a helicopter up close (mainly small children and soccer moms). Finally, the helicopter blades stopped revolving, and the gale died down, leaving frizzy haired women and scattered trash as proof of its existence.

    They saw three figures stirring around within the metallic depths of the helicopter, and a vein in Julie's left temple started to pulsate like a diseased organ. Brian and Greg exchanged yet another grimace; they would never get to the next city by sundown now because they had a score to settle. Meanwhile, Sunkern and Shellder guffawed at Machop, who toppled over in the helicopter's landing and had a very hefty Slowpoke pinning him down by the chest.

    "Julie, maybe we should leave and just pretend they never were here?" Brian asked hopefully as he tossed a weak Greg out of his arms.

    "No," she responded simply, glaring at the helicopters.

    Finally, fifteen minutes after the helicopter was first sighted by Greg, the passengers finally came out through one of the doors, standing high and mighty over all the bystanders. They were three similar looking very well-dressed girls with rather prominent noses. They scanned their surroundings carefully and made a particularly nasty face upon sighting the foursome, as if they saw a half-rotted bloody baby Spheal being devoured by an Ursaring. The center girl opened her mouth as if she strongly wanted to say something, but was ushered off by an elderly man in a tuxedo who carried a roll of violet velvet with him. He pressed a button at the side of the helicopter causing a small stairway to extend from the doorway.

    He rolled a pathway of the velvet from the stairs and into the grass, ignoring everyone around him. The three girls reappeared once more, and lifting the bottoms of their dresses, they walked onto the velvet pathway and descended into the park, smiling vindictively while everyone stared at them blankly. After pretending that she didn't exist for several minutes, the three girls turned to face Julie with the same disgusted disposition as before. Julie returned an equally nasty glare and flushed red. The three girls were none other than the Pecunia Triplets. This continued for several minutes until a two year old girl said to her mother, "Mommy, do those girls need to go poopy?"

    After slapping Greg for laughing at the incredibly lame joke, Julie was the first to same something.

    "Well, well, well!"

    "Well, well, well, WELL!" Sally riposted with her evil smile. Though being the smallest of the three, Sally had the greatest aura of power and struck fear into any person by just staring at them with her black eyes. Each Pecunia Triplet had their hair done differently to differentiate themselves, and Sally's hair was kept in neat curls that fell to her shoulders.

    "Thanks Jeeves, now please go fix the engine!" Grace ordered their butler with a very shrill voice. Abundant amounts of makeup smothering her face; Grace Pecunia was the most look-obsessed typical teenage girl. Her massive amount of hair stood up in a small honey-comb, quivering ominously with the about thousand chemicals packed within.

    "What brings you harpies down from Cloud Nine?" Brian asked smugly. One soccer mom murmured something about "foul language" and stormed away, dragging away her two year old daughter with her.

    "Shut up, Brandon! Our engine was malfunctioning, so we landed here and caught sight of some rather icky bugs that deserve a good stomping!" Paige responded viciously, her voice strangely deep. Her body was abnormally large and her frilly pink dress seemed out of place on a girl who seemed as if she would pop a beard at any second. Her black hair was kept in a single braided pony-tail, and Greg shuddered just looking at her.

    "Stomping? As if you can raise those five hundred dollar shoes without paying several Orre immigrants to do it for you!" Greg cackled rather proud of his insult.

    The four pokemon exchanged rather uneasy looks to each other; knowing with the weakness of a human fist, they would seen be battling for their trainers' honor soon enough. The tension was quite heavy, but not quite ready to be sliced by a knife. Jeeves was peeking from the engine of the helicopter; everyone was expected something drastic to happen soon.

    "Oh no, we wouldn't let any filthy Orre immigrants leave their cheese-covered fingerprints on our shoes. We were thinking more along the lines of showing who's the dominant trio with a good old fashioned pokemon battle! Though I highly doubt your thirty cent Wal-Mart pokemon stand a chance against ours…" Sally declared, pulling a heavily decorated platinum pokeball from the pocket of her turquoise dress.

    "What about me?" Melissa snarled, wanting a piece of the triplets as well.

    "Oh, no one gives a **** about you, ****," Paige answered brutally.

    The response to her comment was chaotic. All the mothers immediately clamped the ears of their children and scurried off; appalled at the fact a thirteen year old girl used one of the foulest words in all of Johto. Melissa simply stood there with her mouth hanging down, her eyes tearing up with shock, but not surprise. Shellder's eyes narrowed in fury, and the other three pokemon (including Slowpoke) started snarling in protest, understanding the severity of the word. Julie almost pounced on Paige, roaring with rage and a long string of curse words streaming from her mouth, wanting nothing better than to mutilate her into a hundred pieces on Melissa's behalf, but she was restrained by Greg and Brian, who looked as if they also wanted to personally punish Paige. Sally and Grace simply chuckled at how angry they caused the foursome to turn. Shellder was ready to attack the girl who insulted his trainer himself, but was called back by Melissa.

    "Shellder…return," Melissa whispered, still too appalled to respond. Holding the pokeball containing her Shellder close by her side, she slowly proceeded to a park bench not too far off from them and sat there, simply staring into space. When Julie finally calmed down, she pulled herself from the guys' grip and ran to Melissa, silently whispering to Brian, "Kick her ass!"

    "Aww, is da wittle baby huwt by big bad Pwaiges wurds? Can't take much, can she da wittle fweak?" Grace taunted in a deep baby voice. She was met by several middle fingers.

    Julie sat on the bench next to Melissa, who started to sob into her friend's chest. Julie wrapped her arms around Melissa's back and began to pat the back of her head, trying to console her though her own eyes were getting puffy. At this, the triplets started to guffaw even harder than before. Brian looked down at his Sunkern, and they both nodded. Paige needed her punishment, and it would be them who delivered it to her.

    "You'll pay for what you called Melissa, you disgusting he-she!" Brian muttered furiously as he marched toward the triplets with Sunkern by his side. When he got within five feet of the velvet carpet, he was jabbed rather ferociously by Sally's parasol in the stomach.

    "Ten…feet….away! We don't want your slimy germs on us, sissy boy!" Sally lectured as she continued to jab him several more times until he got the sense to back off.

    "Next time it'll be your eye!" Grace finished.

    Looking more enraged then before, Brian kept his head high and nodded to Sunkern who also glared them down. Paige looked down at the grass pokemon and couldn't help but laugh. "You're going to be Melody's knight in shining armor with that? Pathetic, I'll have this done in two minutes sisters!"

    "I'll bite your head off, bitch!" Sunkern yelped as she leaped into the battle field, ready to battle.
     
    Chapter Five: Arise, typical arrogant, rich rivals!

    "Dun dun dun! Let the battle get going!" Greg cried, taking his place right next to Brian with Slowpoke by his side. Brian still remained enraged and ready to take Paige on, whereas Melissa stopped crying and watched the battle with a look of determination on her face. Brian nervously looked back at Julie, whose glare was enough to tell him the consequences of him losing. Sunkern hopped in place, pumping herself up for whatever fearsome opponent she would face.

    "Let's get this started, Gutripper come on out!" Paige exclaimed, tossing a pretty cyan pokeball covered with cute stickers and strings. Brian and Greg exchanged uneasy looks, wondering what kind of strong, violent pokemon would have the name Gutripper.

    It was a Teddiursa.

    "RAHHH!"

    Despite his rather comically cute appearance, Gutripper seemed to be rather vicious. He resembled Bo-Bo, the stuffed bear Greg secretly slept with at night. With tiny sharp claws, beetle-black eyes, and short pointed teeth, he indeed did look a little menacing. In contrast to Sunkern, he actually looked quite intimidating, but the seed pokemon was in no way frightened and growled at her opponent as the typical taunt-fest began.

    "Hey Babeh, suck on this!" the Teddiursa mocked, waving a plump thumb in Sunkern's face.

    "Lick this! Right here!' Sunkern retaliated, protruding her chest out.

    "I don't even want to know… Let's see what the I-Poke Mini says!" Brian commanded as he took out the wondrous device from his pocket.

    "Teddiursa—the Little Bear Pokemon. This pokemon tends to be very hot-headed despite his innocent countenance. It is best for new trainers to run when seeing one, because its much more vicious evolved form, Ursaring, are very protective of their young. This one currently is able to use Scratch, Charm, Fury Swipes, and Lick."

    "What on Earth is THAT thing?" Sally shouted from Paige's side, eyeing the silver I-Poke in Brian's hand.

    "It's an I-Poke MINI! The new incredibly advanced model that we are currently testing out whereas you guys are stuck with your obsolete, ginormous I-Poke Silver!" Greg answered, his head held rather high.

    "Oh yeah, we had those archaic pieces of crap two months ago. Now we have the I-Poke Infinitesimal, which can hold information on a hundred thousand pokemon and has over three million skins!" Sally said casually, holding out her right hand where there appeared to be a 1x1 inch cube wrapped around her wrist.

    Before a dumb-founded Greg could say anything, Paige shouted the first order.

    "Gutripper, attack!"

    Roaring ferociously, the Teddiursa charged at the seed pokemon, claws brandished in the air and teeth bared in a snarl. Before Brian could command it, Sunkern started to glow green in a Growth attack, preparing her to attack. However, instead of slashing and hacking her apart, Gutripper stopped a few inches away from Sunkern and changed his disposition immediately. His eyes started to water and gained a rather "aww" twinkle while he sucked on this thumb. After a few awkward seconds of this, Teddiursa removed his saliva-covered thumb from his mouth and flashed one of the most adorable smiles Brian had ever seen.

    "I wuv u!"

    Sunkern couldn't help but be taken aback by this sudden change in the icky pokemon. Rather than wanting to tear of his limps one by one, she instead had a sudden urge to give him a big hug and smother him with oodles of kisses, assuming she had arms of course. She felt herself weakening and didn't notice the hidden evil glint in her opponent's eye…

    "Don't worry! Charm doesn't affect special attacks like Mega Drain!" Greg shouted to Brian, who was beginning to lose his nerve. In spite of themselves, everyone, including the battling pokemon, looked up in confusion at Greg. "What? Just because I'm comic relief doesn't mean I have no brains whatsoever! Unrealistic little canon break—"

    "Anyways, Sunkern use Mega Drain!"

    Still in wub with the adorable Teddiursa, Sunkern burst into a golden aura and began to screw her eyes shut as she focused her attack onto Gutripper. Not allowing himself to be so easily struck, the Teddiursa returned to his normal nasty disposition and slashed his opponent across her chest. Brian gave a yelp of fright as Sunkern came sliding back toward him, three dark green marks fresh across her chest. The seed pokemon hopped to her feet once more, panting heavily and determined to get revenge.

    "Good job Gutripper! Now, lick lick lick her from her head down to her toes!"

    Sunkern, still recovering from the Scratch attack, didn't have nearly good enough reflexes to dodge the attack. A rather perverted smile spread across the Teddiursa's face as he licked his lips slowly, and his nearly four inch tongue hanging out by his neck, charged toward the vulnerable Sunkern. Despite Brian's pleads to get out of the way, Sunkern only watched in horror as Gutripper tackled her to the ground, and the perverted grin still glued on his face, licked her entire body slowly.

    "Ohh…uggg…haaa…" Sunkern shuddered as the bear's thick saliva ran through each of her body pores. All the Cianwoodians cringed in tune with Sunkern while the Pecunias laughed madly at the creepy Teddiursa violating her. The seed pokemon could only take so much and before Teddiursa could go for a second lick, she leaped up and chomped down on his tongue as far as her barely visible teeth would allow.

    "AHHH!" Teddiursa began to run around in circles, Sunkern maintaining a firm grip on his tongue. His pink tongue was turning dark purple as it began to strain with about two pounds of grass pokemon. The positions were switched as the Cianwoodians had tears streaming down their eyes at the comical sight while the Pecunias cringed, afraid that Gutripper's tongue would tear from place. Paige repeatedly ordered her pokemon to attack Sunkern, but he knew better since adding anymore force onto his tongue could very well have caused it to tear off.

    Finally, after a good ninety seconds, Sunkern could hold on no longer and fell from Gutripper's tongue, leaving it hanging several inches lower than before. While Gutripper massaged his aching tongue, Sunkern had her own malicious smile as she glared at him from behind, landing perfectly several feet behind him. Her eyes moved back to meet Brian's who was also grinning.

    "Mega Drain!"

    Before Brian could even cry "Drain", a strange golden aura covered both the whimpering Gutripper and the proud Sunkern. Catching sight of his glowing arm, Gutripper ceased to caress his aching tongue and began to examine his body to see the aura burning brightly and softball sized golden spheres flying from his chest towards Sunkern. As his stamina began to diminish rapidly, the Teddiursa started clawing himself, desperate for the attack to stop. Paige was certainly no help as she encouraged his strange behavior, never one to pay attention in Battling class.

    "I am turning you into an alien," Sunkern cackled darkly, struggling to keep a straight face.

    Though they very much wanted to, the bystanders were not able to laugh at this moment as Paige unfortunately regained her composure quickly.

    "Hold on a second! If you can attack yourself, then you can attack Sunkern! Use Fury Swipes on Sunkern!" Paige ordered.

    Teddiursa snapped out the suicide attempt, and although very weak and covered in long, red marks, launched his claws at Sunkern, who was too busy snickering under her breath to notice. The bear pokemon went berserk and furiously slashed once—Sun!—twice—Kern!—thrice—Moo…!

    "Sunkern, use Absorb; he doesn't have much power left!" Brian shouted, wincing as multiple new dark green marks appeared across Sunkern's chest. He began to perspire heavily. What would Sunkern think of him as a trainer if he lost two battles in a row?

    Sunkern shut her eyes calmly and began to strain with all her might to attack, but could not manage to successfully launch her attack. Taking advantage of her failure, Teddiursa sent Sunkern flying to Brian's feet with one finalizing swipe. Although the odds looked bad, Sunkern managed to leap up and stay in the match. Both pokemon were panting heavily; the next move could decide it.

    "Come on, Brian you can beat that man ho!" Julie cheered. Paige wanted desperately to retaliate, but Sally stopped her.

    "Don't worry Paige! I'll take care of her in my battle with her!" Sally assured.

    "ABSORB!"

    "LICK!"

    Sunkern tried desperately to absorb Teddiursa's health, but she failed for the second time. It seemed that the saliva damp in her pores had paralyzing attributes. Teddiursa beamed while he rushed toward the seed pokemon with his sore tongue hanging out once more, huffing like a comic book fan in a female Swedish Gymnast's changing room.

    "Papa's comin' back for a second lick!" Teddiursa declared with his eyebrows raised in a seductive manner.

    The power of fear then kicked in. Sunkern's eyes widened in horror, and she finally managed to perform the Absorb attack. Teddiursa immediately flashed a light green, but was too intent on catching his prey to notice. When his tongue was nearly an inch away from Sunkern's chest, a tiny green bubble popped out of his chest and into Sunkern.

    Sunkern felt a slight increase in health and beamed herself as Teddiursa's eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he collapsed onto the floor. The small stamina sucked out of the bear pokemon was more than enough to knock him facedown with his eyes swirling. Paige stared at the fallen pokemon in disbelief while Brian and Sunkern exchanged wide grins. It was their first win.

    "WOOHOO! WE DID IT SUNKERN! That was easy!" Brian exclaimed, picking Sunkern up and head-banging her after chest-bumping Greg. Machop stole Sunkern from Brian, and they too celebrated her first victory in glee. Melissa and Julie jumped from the park bench and pushed Greg out of the way so that they could hug Brian. The poor carrot-top flushed a rather deep puce as he was bound with four female arms. Steam nearly hissed out of his ears after Melissa planted a wet kiss on his cheek.

    "Thanks for standing up to me, Brian."

    "No problem."

    "This isn't over! Best out of three! Grace, pulverize Gary!" Sally demanded, breaking up the cheesy after-victory while struggling to hold back and enraged Paige, who was shouting words such as "fluke" and "cheater" and "purple monkey dishwasher."

    "No comedy Greg, Slowpoke is a good pokemon, take care of Grace and Sally is mine," Julie muttered to her twin, the happiness in her voice replaced with a dangerous severity.

    "Yeah Sis, I'll make sure she breaks more than a nail," Greg responded, adding a wink. Melissa was considerably happier than before and stayed with Julie at Greg's side while an exhausted Brian returned to the park bench. Sunkern and Machop had to retrieve Slowpoke who wandered off to a swing set long before without anyone noticing his absence.

    "Alright Slowpoke, I don't like you and you don't like me, but we need to win this battle!" Greg muttered to his pokemon, whose eyes looked rather glazed.

    "I like you…" Slowpoke droned and turned to face a very pretty girl in a golden sun dress who was holding a parasol over her head and treading the soil as if it was lava. She held out a dangerously hot pink ball in her hand and was muttering something to herself. The water pokemon looked at the strange ball curiously; perhaps it had food inside.

    "Fannypoo, come on out!" Grace shouted, tossing her pokeball to the ground. The twins exchanged a smirk, wondering what sort of sissy pokemon would be named Fannypoo. Needless to say, they were right.

    "PHANPY PHANPY PHANPY PHANPY PHANPY!" Fannypoo yelped repeatedly as he immediately began to run around in circles, off the wall hyper.

    The Phanpy was indeed one of the…oddest….pokemon Greg had ever seen, excluding his own pokemon form. Like Teddiursa, he resembled Ga-Ga, Greg's stuffed elephant that he snuggled with whenever he felt sad. He had tough, cobalt skin and hoofed feet, his most prominent features being his long nose and floppy red tipped ears. Sunkern and Machop (now seated on either side of Brian) exchanged worrisome looks, for they alone understood what the ecstatically hyper pokemon was shouting.

    "CRACK! CRACK! GIMME CRACK! CRAAACK!" Phanpy cried in one breath, now leaping onto Grace's dress and digging his hoofs into her dress, desperately looking for crack.

    "Eww! Get em off me! Quick Sally, get that deluxe Columbian pokemon food!" Grace shrieked as she attempted feebly to drive her insane pokemon away by poking him in the eye with her parasol.

    "Here you go Phanpy! Man, what is with that stuff?" Sally mumbled after pulling out a label-less can from her purse and dumping its white powdery contents several feet in front of her. Phanpy was immediately on the "food" and rather than gulping it up, he seemed to snort it all up his long nose in less than two seconds. After every single speck of the "food" had disappeared (including several clumps of soil) into his nose, Fannypoo stopped fidgeting and came to a standstill for a full thirty seconds, while his right eyelid twitched very slowly.

    "Dude…pah….Purty….pah…Colors…heh…" Fannypoo muttered, swaying lethargically and seeming indifferent to everything around him. The humans watched with curious expressions, Sunkern and Machop, the only ones knowing what was going on, looked rather grim, while Slowpoke had curled up and slept a long time back.

    "Slowpoke! Wake up! If you win, I'll let you chew on my hair!" Greg ordered his pokemon, giving him a good kick in the side. Slowpoke slowly raised himself to his feet and gave a great big yawn before shaking his head vigorously and readying himself for battle, willing to do anything just to go back to sleep.

    "Looks like neither pokemon in this battle is very bright, Sunkern," Brian said to his pokemon, who nodded without listening, still in shock from what she had seen.

    "Slowpoke! Use a Curse attack!" Greg commanded. The pink bear pokemon gave one more enormous yawn and shut his eyes tightly trying to attack. He began to turn slightly red as if trying to release a rather hard bowel.

    "Fannypoo, Tackle that Lardo!" Grace commanded. The elephant pokemon was still busy in Nirvana and not taking in a single word Grace said. "FANNYPOO!" The order snapped him back into reality temporarily. Muttering mutinously, he flung himself blindly at Slowpoke, and ended up landing five feet diagonally from the constipated bear.

    "This isn't working! Slowpoke ain't angry enough!" Greg moaned. Julie and Melissa had scoffed in unison; chances were that this battle would go nowhere. Greg rushed over to his pokemon's pink tail and raised his foot as high as he could before Sally interrupted him.

    "Wait a second; you know physically interfering with a pokemon during a battle is against the rules right?"

    Greg groaned, and the two pathetic pokemon stopped their pathetic attempts to attack and resumed to their sluggish activities. Though Grace wasn't too keen on battling, she did not want to look like a fool in front of her sisters and began to flush even worse than Greg.

    "Please Fanny, stop this nonsense and kick that Slowpoke's shiny pink heiny!" she pleaded desperately.

    Fannypoo half-listened once more and languidly shot himself at the bear pokemon. Of course, he missed again, but to Greg's good fortune, he landed on Slowpoke's tail. Slowpoke's head immediately perked up and his eyes began to glow red. He was ready to battle and turned to face the pokemon, who was curled up in a snoring, blue ball on his tail.

    "There we go Slowpoke! Water Gun!" Greg cried.

    Opening his large mouth wide, Slowpoke fired a torrent of rushing water from his mouth which finally snapped Fannypoo out of Nirvana and into the battle. The Phanpy screeched as the water pelted him squarely in the face and sent him flying back, drowning in the pillar of foaming madness.

    "Eeek! Fannypoo doesn't like water!" Grace yelped, with her manicured hands covering her mouth. The drenched elephant shook violently to remove the water and was back to normal and looking furious. "All right Fanny let's try a Flail attack!"

    "Slowpoke use Curse!" Greg retaliated.

    Fannypoo took a deep breath and flung himself at Slowpoke who glowed white and weakened the blow as the Phanpy struck him squarely in the side. Although Curse raised his defenses, Slowpoke still trembled as the attacked made impact.

    "Flail is stronger the more my Phanpy Wanpy is hurt," Grace proclaimed. Fannypoo dug his front paw into the Earth and taunted Slowpoke.

    "Je dévorerai votre âme!" Slowpoke responded ferociously. Taking a deep breath, he glared down at a frightened Fannypoo with flashing rainbow eyes.

    "Rainbow? Ra-ra-rainbow? Well, I can't say I'm surprised Slowpoke. Don't worry I have nothing against you if you like other guy pokemon," Greg muttered incoherently, trying not to burst out laughing. Melissa and Julie's heads immediately fell.

    Slowpoke opened his mouth wide and released many tiny purple rings of psychic energy that rammed the Fannypoo back to his side of the field. Little imaginary ducks flew around the Phanpy's head as he swayed like he was on the Columbian pokemon food again.

    "Slowpoke must have learned Confusion. If he's pumped enough, he can control small objects!" Julie mumbled to Melissa, while Greg continued to ramble about the cute Octillery boy who lived down the block.

    "Rock on Slowpoke! You know, you're not half bad even if you are…ya know," Greg said with his eyes streaming in pride. Slowpoke ignored the idiot and prepared for Fannypoo's next move.

    "Come on Phanpy snap out of it! Try a Mud Slap attack!" Grace commanded anxiously. Phanpy did indeed use a Mud Slap attack, but didn't bother to turn around so Slowpoke would get the blow. Instead, he reared up his back legs and kicked large amounts of dirt onto Grace's yellow dress.

    The park suddenly became very silent as everyone watched Grace hold onto her precious dress with her eyes bulging and her mouth gaping. The beautiful Morticia Dearborn golden dress she wore was now covered in large, ugly dirt stains.

    "I think polka dots look very pretty on you if you ask me!" Greg snickered, breaking the silence. The silence was broken even further as Grace let out a giant roar similar to that of an Ursaring's.

    "YOU STUPID ELEPHANT! MY DRESS! MY BEAUTIFUL DRESS!" Grace wailed clutching onto her ruined dress.

    "Shut up Grace! We have four more of those in the helicopter!" Sally screamed over Grace's thunderous howling. Everyone, including the pokemon, corked their fingers into their aching ears.

    "WAHHH! WAHHH! MY DRESS! FANNYPOO, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Grace shrieked. She held her parasol high above her head and began to charge the confused pokemon. When the Phanpy caught sight of the enraged teenage girl with a deep bloodlust, he snapped out of his confusion and began to run for it
    .
    Grace was going at an amazing lightning speed that confused everyone, and Phanpy ended up curling up into a ball and rolled as quickly as he could to outrun her. Unfortunately, Slowpoke was on their path.

    "Ach scheißt..," he cried as the blue blur came hurtling toward him. Fidgeting nervously, he sent out a stream of water in desperation, but was too nervous to aim accurately and ended up hitting Grace instead.

    Everyone winced as Grace stopped abruptly. Her dress was not only covered in dirt, it was soaked as well. Her eyes began to twitch violently, and she soon started to resemble Carrie. Grace let out another screech of horror that was heard all throughout the park as she changed targets and began to charge at Slowpoke instead.

    Slowpoke tried to run, but was far too chunky and passed out after two feet. Phanpy helped out a bit when he crashed into Slowpoke, sending the poor bear pokemon flying nearly fifteen feet, and crashing into him again as soon as he landed. Grace chased the two out of sight into the nearby woods.

    "COME BACK MISSUS!" the butler cried after a long period of relative silence before he went off to chase the three.

    "What…was…that?" Greg asked in amazement. No one had an answer for him.

    "Want to go save Slowpoke?" Brian and Melissa asked Greg after the shock wore off.

    "Sure why not," Greg said indifferently. The two boys, Melissa, and Paige ran after the other three, leaving Sally and Julie behind. They exchanged evil eyes and walked toward each other.

    "So it's just you and me?" Julie asked casually, giving a nod to Machop's direction.

    "So happy together…" Sally smirked, revealing the silver pokeball clutched in her hands.

    Sunkern gave a nod toward Machop who knew his battle was coming up. Both sighed exasperated; for once they would like to make their trainers beat up the trainers of pokemon they didn't like. The two marched toward Julie, Sunkern remaining several feet behind while Machop stood proudly next to Julie. With a quick flash of light, Sally's pokemon was revealed, a Dratini. Dratini was indeed much more formidable than a Teddiursa or Phanpy. She had a long teal snake-like body with a white underbelly and floated in mid-air, an invisible atmosphere of mysticism burning strongly around her. Fluffy, tufted white ears hung on either side of her black eyes while a faint humming sound emitted from her pure white lipless-mouth.

    "Presenting, Dratini, one of the rarest pokemon in Johto, purchased for several hundred thousand dollars from the Dragon's Den," Sally declared as she started to rub Dratini's ears affectionately.

    "Presenting, Machop, a commoner fighting-type who will snap that Dragon in two!" Julie riposted, grasping a suffocating Machop rather tightly by the neck.

    Machop couldn't help but be in awe by the graceful dragon pokemon, who looked at him not with some angry glare, but a noble gaze that showed respect. Machop couldn't help crack a grin with how different the pokemon was from her trainer and returned her noble gaze with a low bow.

    "Our masters may have mistaken motives, but do not dare to hold back because I promise I will not." The Dratini stated sternly, slithering through the air around Sally.

    "Good, I'll hold you to that promise!"

    "Dratini—the Draconic pokemon. It sheds many layers of skin as it grows larger, and due to its mystic nature, considered the most prized pokemon of Kanto. This one currently is able to use—"

    "Dratini, Wrap!" Sally shouted briskly, not allowing the I-Poke Mini to finish. Her abruptness took both Julie and Machop by surprise. His master pointing to the battlefield, Machop leaped into the field, hands out and ready to dodge the Dratini. The Dragon blurred across the park and before Machop could strike, she had her body firmly constricted around his body, suffocating him and immobilizing him.

    "Like that, don't ya?"

    Machop grew increasingly purple as his powerful muscles strained heavily as he attempted to force the Dratini off of him, but her grip was getting tighter while his muscles were getting weaker. Appalled by Sally's early lead, Julie's mind was at a blank , and she could only stand and watch her Machop entering his early defeat before something spat out of her mouth.

    "Don't tell me all those hours at Chuck's have been for nothing!"
    Her encouragement at mind, a newfound power surged through Machop's veins as he managed to gradually pry the Dratini off of him. The dragon pokemon, though struggling, kept a firm grip until Machop glared at her with shining, red eyes, causing her to loosen her defenses even further. With one final grunt, Machop spread his arms fully and the Dratini fell with a splat onto the grass.

    "Karate Chop!"

    "Dodge!"

    Muscles still aching, Machop brought down his palm toward the Dragon pokemon's head before she rolled over just in time. In the two seconds Machop's palm was stuck in dirt, Dratini's thick teal tail had come hurtling through the air and struck the fighting pokemon square in his right temple, sending him flying several feet with stars bright in his eyes.

    "Machop, her reflexes are amazing, and she's taking advantage of all your recovery moments! You have to be alert every single second, if you even hear a small fluttering, attack!" Julie lectured carefully, studying the movements of the pokemon.

    "Finish this off Dratini!" Sally commanded calmly, twiddling her parasol in her fingers.

    Dratini rocketed into the skies above until she was masked in the blue expanses. Machop was still cradling his head with the stars fresh in his eyes, unaware of what was going on. He knew he would not be able to see again for several minutes and instead had to rely on his ears. He blocked out the tiny distractions of birds chirpings and enraged teenagers screaming in the distance until only one sound remained. It was a powerful rushing noise, like an airplane or a rocket. He was surprised he didn't get struck by it yet. It was slowly progressing to the point where he could barely hear it. The noise was going faster than the speed of sound…

    Machop immediately send all his focus back to his left arm and eyes as he snapped back into reality. Only a few feet away from him was Dratini, plummeting through the air at an unimaginable speed. Her snake-like body was blazing in mysterious silver light and fiery energy blazed from her tail as she rocketed through the air toward the fighting pokemon. He had barely a split second to react.

    "How do you like Extremespeed? My Dratini is one of four non-Arcanine pokemon in the world that can use it!" Sally cackled as Dratini burned the very air itself with her speed.

    Machop raised his left elbow in a ninety degree angle in front of his chest as his only means of protection from the attack. He winced knowing the incredible pain that was about to shoot through his entire body…

    BAM! In less than a second, Dratini's attack had made impact, straight onto Machop's elbow.

    Machop's elbow shattered into pieces as the force of Dratini's body going at hundreds of miles per hour crashed into it. The fighting pokemon let out a cry of agony as his left arm flung backwards. Pain blasted all throughout his arm as his elbow throbbed in unbearable agony. He looked down at his left arm; his elbow had been pushed back several inches until it was protruding from the other side. He could feel the pieces of broken bone piercing his flesh; if he moved his arm, it was very probable that a jagged piece of bone would tear through his blue-gray skin.

    Dratini was even more injured. Machop's elbow struck her straight in between her eyes as she reached nearly five hundred miles per hour. Her brain sent nervous twitches all throughout the dragon pokemon's body, and her vision was fully damaged. Everything appeared completely disoriented, and she couldn't even think straight with the massive dizziness. If it had been any other pokemon who was struck between the eyes, he would have been dead before you could say Muk.

    Machop was too deep in suffering to say a word as he panted, unable to move his eyes from his deformed arm. Sunkern who watched the battle nervously and jumped to his side and was attempting feebly to do a reverse-Mega Drain attack to heal his shattered elbow.

    "Drutini Dru Dru Blah blee bleh niii," Dratini groaned with her eyes rolling around their sockets.

    "Hey Jules! That third Rollout attack knocked Slowpoke out, so technically Phanpy is the winner, and Grace fell into a big pile of twigs and is all bloody, and now their Butler and Paige are trying to get her to be quiet and…whoa…" Melissa cried in one breath as she came into view with Brian and Greg lagging not too far behind her, a passed out Slowpoke balanced on their shoulders.

    Julie who had watched the scene in utter horror ran to her Machop's side and though very much wanting to somehow console his pain, didn't dare to touch him in fear of only increasing his pain. Her eyes were streaming as she could only stand and watch the agonizing howls of her Machop, whose tears of pain could not be held back. "Machop! What's wrong with you? Oh God…this is all my fault…"

    "This battle is not over! They may be injured, but neither are out cold!" Sally snarled maliciously, perspiring heavily in fear of losing to Julie. Dratini struggled to her belly, unable to float steadily. Julie stood to her feet, obviously suffering in a deep dilemma. After a moment of steady thinking, Julie regained her composure and turned to Machop. "Get up, we're finishing this!"

    "NO!" The other three Cianwoodians cried in unison while Sally smiled.

    Machop looked up at his master sadly, he was in way too much pain to battle, but he really did not want to disappoint Julie who was always so nice…Despite Sunkern's warnings, the fighting type rose to his feet, wincing horribly as he felt the shattered bones in his elbow quiver ominously. Julie refused to even look at her pokemon, she was too busy returning Sally's glare. This was too much for Brian who left Greg to balance two hundred pound of Slowpoke on his shoulders and ran toward Julie while Melissa gazed in shock.

    "Julie! NO! You're not doing this!" Brian cried running in between Dratini and Machop.

    "Get out of the way, Brian. I'm finishing this!" Julie sobbed, obviously still torn with herself.

    "Yeah! Move it Carrot-Top!" Sally agreed, grinning at Julie's pain sadistically.

    "Why Julie? WHY? Is hurting your enemies more important than loving your friends? Revenge will only drive you to insanity, you will never be satisfied! What's even worse is when you drag someone else into a battle they're not fighting! Machop is not your slave, he's your friend and you can't force him to battle Sally for your own selfish desires! You are the most intelligent of all three of us, how can you do this? How dare you? HOW DARE YOU!" Brian bellowed angrily, spraying spit on Julie's face as he jabbed his finger into her chest. Everyone was taken back by Brian's sudden burst of confidence and expected to see him get his head torn off, but quite the opposite happened.

    Julie cried. She covered her eyes and starting to bawl harder than she ever had before. Guilt shredded her soul apart as it cascaded from her large eyes, and manifested itself into the face of a suffering Machop. Wrapping her arms around Brian, Julie continued to sob for minutes as Melissa and Greg stared awkwardly. Unsure of what to do, Brian began to silently pat Julie on her back before he returned her hug. Soon, Paige, Jeeves, and a bumbling Grace returned from the forest, and they too witnessed the event. Sally had her own tears of joy forming at the corner of her eyes as she watched the breaking of her enemy vindictively.

    "I-i- F-f-forfo-fe-it. I-i for-feit!" Julie mumbled after abruptly releasing Brian.

    "Sorry, can you say that louder? I didn't hear you," Sally asked in an obviously phony curious tone.

    Julie started to bawl harder than before and dug her face into Brian's chest once more. Paige joined Sally in their guffaws as they deliciously ate up the scene. Greg and Melissa ran to Julie as well to join Brian in consoling her. Machop was exchanging painful looks with Sunkern; he wanted to console Julie as well but could barely move.

    "Aww, wook ad da wittle baby. I tink da baby needs her bottle!" Paige taunted in her very annoying baby voice. At this, Julie began to sob even harder while the other three only became angrier. But they dared not to say anything, Julie was in pain and that was more important than hurting the Pecunias.

    "Dratini, return. We have no time for losers like these. Start the helicopter, Jeeves. We're leaving this dump, sisters. And may you four get devoured by a giant Gyarados!" Sally commanded in her powerful booming voice. Soon, the vindictive sisters were in their helicopter, and ten gusty minutes later were permanently out of sight.

    Julie finally regained her composure and let Brian free after nearly fifteen minutes. She then ignored the humans and went straight to Machop, carrying a look of deep apology. Her lips moved to speak, but Machop silenced them with one of his fingers and with his one good arm, pulled her into a deep hug.

    And from that day forth, as they finally headed into the forest, the four trainers vowed to never use their pokemon as tools of hate ever again.


    Oh and there was probably a real pretty sunset too....
     
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