Aurora Borealis [PG-14]

[Kon~]

"There it is, Pokey!" Jen announced, staring up at the ship before her. She had arrived in Canalave just the day before and signed up for the expedition quick-haste. The Slowpoke under her arm moaned, his eyes wide and oblivious. Jen giggled, hitching the heavy Pokémon higher onto her waist and heading for the gangplank. The Northern Light was to be the vessel that would take the pair to the highest circles of the north, and felt like a pretty exclusive place. There was even an attendant at the door, shooing away those who were not permitted on board.

"Name?" he asked as she approached, a grin on her face.

"Jenna Marren," Jen said, "and Pokey the Slowpoke."

"Welcome aboard, Miss Jenna," he said, and turn away, already crossing her name from his clipboard.

"It's Jen, really..." she said, but he wasn't listening. She didn't let it get her down. As soon as she was on deck, she let Pokey down, and he staggered across the wood, still a little off-balance but working well for a Slowpoke without a tail. Jen sighed, hands on her hips. Going to the north felt like such a positive idea now, and she wished more than anything she could help the legendary Pokémon Suicune, especially since they were both from Kanto. She felt a strange kinship and eagerness to help the being.

"Pokey, get away from the edge, you might fall," she called out, watching the pink Pokémon stumble near the barrier. When he turn around and stumbled further, she picked him up once more, groaning at his weight. "We'd better go somewhere more enclosed. Then you can explore all you want."

She quickly found a stairwell that led back down to the lobby, where she was greeted with the sight of two other attendees, one with a Torchic and the other with a Riolu. She let Pokey down before greeting them both with a smile.

"Hi, I'm Jen!"

 

[Aura.Lucario]

"Hi, I'm Jen!"

Lysander quickly turned and saw a girl with a slowpoke. Then gasped, "What happened to your slowpoke?"

Anubis instantly lost interest in the boy with the torchic and stood next to the slowpoke. Anubis smiled at the pokemon, trying to be friendly. His eyes widened when he saw the missing tail and felt sorry for the little guy.

"Anyway, I'm Lysander." Lysander told her but his eyes were on a pearl necklace that was placed on a table next to him, "And this is Anubis - a Riolu."


Do - not - steal. lysander told himself, but he couldn't get his eyes off the shining pearls, You stopped stealing a long time ago.

 

[TiTaN.JuStIn]

"So this is Canalave city."

Evan checked his watch. 9 am. He might be late for the expedition. So he rushed to the Canalave City Pier, but on his way to there he got lost 3 times and he had to ask the residents the direction. After running for 15 minutes, he finally arrived to the pier. This place smelt like fish pokemon. He didn't like fish much because they were boring and they smelt bad. With disgust, he went to the ship which was waiting for him and others.

"So this is Northern Lights. I hope nothing bad will happen."

As he approached the vessel, an attendant asked him:

"Name?"

"Evan. Evan Fitzgerald."

"Okay then. Welcome aboard."

He entered the deck. The desk also smelt like fish, which annoyed Evan. Now he disliked fish pokemon even more. Evan started exploring the ship. He unrolled his map to find out what there is in this ship. A lobby, scientists lab, cabins, pokemart and the training center. Evan went upstairs to leave his backpack. The second floor of the ship was a long corridor with a door in the end. He noticed something. All cabins had their name tags. Evan was waliking until he saw room 12 with his name. He opened the door. It was a room with a bed, a desk and a door which led to the bathroom. Evan dropped his backpack and lay down. The bed was plushy and it felt like a new bed for his room. Evan wanted to rest. He woke up at 2 am and rode the boat to get to Sinnoh. There, he ran towards Canalave city for about 2 hours until he arrived. Evan was tired. He just closed his eyes, not even thinking about closing the door to his cabin, and fell to sleep.

 

[PikaPal]

Nichole raced up the bustling streets of Canclave City. "There is no way I'm going to be late!" she said through gritted teeth, dodging people along the way. As she raced by, most of them shot her strange looks. Nichole ignored them, and continued racing to the peer.

Not an early bird even in the slightest, Nichole had overslept this morning. She kept on tossing and turning, nightmares keeping her wide awake.

"You'd think Id be used to those by now," she muttered as she remembered the visions that danced across her mind. She began to get lost in her own mind, feet still running, but mind not in the present. She didn't even notice when she was at the peer, until she collided with the man standing at the ramp of the ship.

"Watch it!" he said sharply, as he stood up and started brushing off the dust he aquired when he fell.

"I'm...sorry..." Nichole panted. The man looked at her over the top of his glasses disdainfully. "What do you want?" he asked. Surely someone as clumsy and irresponsible wasn't apart of the expedition.

Nichole straightened up. "I'm here for the expedition," she replied, still breathing a little hard. I swear I'm going to get in better shape after this, she thought.

The man raised his eyebrows. "Then where's your pokemon?" he asked, skeptical. "You'd think a trainer would be more responsible."

A bright light shone from Nichole's pack on her side. A huge dog-like pokemon appeared, lips curled back, snarling.
The man jumped a little, and Nichole stiffled a snicker. "Sam, its ok," she said, "relax. We're here." Nichole placed her hand on her Arcanine, feeling his soft fur beneath her fingers. The man cleared his throat. "Name?" he asked. "Nichole Canis," Nichole said, returning to look at the man in sunglasses. He stepped back, allowing her to walk past him, without another word. Great, she thought, definetly didn't make a good first impression.

Nichole looked around in amazement at her new surroundings. "Wow," she said, "I could get used to this." She and Sam made their way to the lobby, looking around for anyone else. She spotted a girl with her back to her with short brown hair, tan and small in height, and a taller boy, also with brown hair, with bright blue eyes. Nichole smiled a little when she realized she was staring. "Come on, Sam, lets go try and make friends." Sam woofed and followed, his eyes on the riolu and the slowpoke accompanying the two trainers.

"Hi," Nichole said smiling, approaching the two trainers.

 

[Kon~]

Jen chuckled embarrassedly at Lysander's attention to detail.

"A while back, some bad people came to my town and cut off all the Slowpoke's tails to sell as a delicacy. The tail usually grows back after a while, but Pokey's never did for some reason. We get by though. So that's a Riolu? I've never seen one before. I'm so excited for this trip!"" Jen was babbling with nerves, and it didn't help when she noticed the huge Arcanine approaching from behind.

"Oh, hello!" she said to the newcomer, but she was visibly frightened by the massive dog. Despite her travels, she had never encountered an Arcanine before, much as she had never seen a Riolu, so while it was a great experience to meet these new companions, she was still a bundle of nerves, and she realised more than ever that this was showing.

 

[PikaPal]

Sam wagged his monstrous tail and walked up to the girl excitedly. "Sam, wait!" Nichole said, realizing that the girl was a little scared of him. But sam was too excited; he stood next to her and licked her right on the cheek!

"Sam!" Nichole said, stiffling a little chuckle. She put her hand on his side and he stood back, still wagging his huge tail.

"Sorry bout that," Nichole said to the girl, "Sam gets a little to excited when he sees someone he likes. Though I must admit, it's not very often he does. He must see something really good in you." She winked at the girl, trying to cheer her up after the scare.

Nichole then smiled at the brown haired boy. "My name is Nichole Canis. And I know he's already introduced himself, this is my Arcanine, Sam." Sam barked excitedly, puffy tail still going.

 

[Cooker]

It was here. That moment, the dreaded moment, of isolation and independence. He could still see the back of their heads in the back window of the taxi speeding down the busy street.

Exhaling slowly in an effort to calm his racing heart, Emmet glanced once again at the giant ship which he had been admiring with his family not two minutes prior to. He waited for a while, the buzz of the town whirring around him on the sidewalk. How should he go about getting on?

Finally, Emmet mustered up the courage and walked up the boarding way, his hands grossly clammy. A tall man was guarding the apex of the walkway, intimidation pouring out of his figure. Emmet swallowed hard as he approached this man.

"You're here for the expedition, right?" he asked nonchalantly. Oh he wasn't so horrible!

"Yeah," the 16-year old replied, giving an uneasy smile. The man didn't react.

"Name?"

"S-sorry?" Why was he so awkward! The man's intimidation kicked in again. He looked ticked off.

"What. Is. Your. Name?" His accentuation forced Emmet's face to flush red.

"I'm Emmet..." He paused, scratching his neck nervously. "And you are?" Maybe he could spark up a conversation? The man scanned the clipboard in his hand, ignoring the question.

"Leidner?" As Emmet's mouth opened, the man clarified, annoyance embedded into his face. "Are you Emmet Leidner?" Instead of risking further humiliation, the boy simply nodded, causing the scary man to step aside. Emmet made no move.

"Well what are you waiting for? Go on." Following the man's gestures, he walked onto the ship. It was big and and fancy and intimidating and big. The deck was void of people, but out of the corner of his eye Emmet saw a girl walking up some stairs. Not-so-eagerly, he followed, desperate and unsure of where else to go. There were voices at the top of the staircase. People. He tried to wipe the sweat off of his hands on his white-and-green striped hoodie, but it regenerated quickly and left him with clammy hands once more.

With all the courage he could muster, Emmet began ascending the stairs, towards peers, towards more awkwardness, but hopefully towards change. And he was then in a room with three or four others, all had their Pokemon out as well. He stood still, unsure of how to act/ what to say/ where to go. So awkward.

 

[Blaziken15]

Torchic finally returned and we headed to our room. Each room had a name tag on it saying our name.

I finally found my room, number 15. I openef the door and darted towards the bed. I jumped on it and relaxed.

"Ah, I could get use to this eh Torchic?" I asked Torchic. Torchic churped happily as he stood on the dresser across the room. I yawned loudly. I must have been tired from the long trip from Sevii. I tried to fight sleeping but I couldn't do it. Torchic curled up beside me and we both fell asleep.

 

[Aura.Lucario]

Anubis frowned and growled at his dog-like cousin.

"Let's go somewhere else, Anubis." Lysander told his Riolu, then smiled at Nichole, "Sorry about that, my Riolu is a little nervous. He thinks your Arcanine is too big to be a dog. So I think I'll go check out the arena now, see you later."

Lysander dragged Anubis into the lift and listened to the cheesy elevator music as the lift moved slowly upwards. The door opened on the second floor and he turned left. He stopped before a door that said - Pokemon Training Arena. He took a deep breath and entered. It was pretty small, with only two rows of seats, but then again, a ship like this wasn't big enough to hold more.

"Anubis, I told you before that you weren't ready to evolve into a Lucario right?" Lysander asked his companion, "Evolving into a Lucario would give you extra power, and you may grow lazy and stop training because of that. But I think you're ready."

Anubis' eyes widened and nodded eagerly.

"A Lucario can sense the Aura of every living thing, and can even read their thoughts and talk through telepathy - something a Riolu cannot do." Lysander explained, "And you have the responsibility to use your new abilities wisely. I've been saving some cash and heart scales for this moment, so you'll learn a new set of moves. I've chosen Bone Rush, Aura Sphere, Force Palm. The last one? Well you can decide."

Lysander waited for his words to sink in, and at last, Anubis nodded slowly. Lysander grinned as he removed the everstone attached to his tail and watched as Anubis started to glow. His ears and the four black appendages behind his head started to grow, then his white pads on his wrists started to change. There was a blinding flash, and a Lucario was standing before him. Anubis looked at his paws, then his yellow torso.


*M-Master?* a soft, but confident voice appeared in Lysander's head.

"Talking with telepathy so soon?" Lysander grinned.

*Y-you understand me?* Anubis asked.

Lysander nodded, "Now let's get you some TMs and some new moves at the General store."

 

[Quest]

Kellyn stared at the ship docked at the Canalave Pier. He had everything packed and ready to go and decided it was time to head up. As he walked up the gangplank a man stopped him.

"Hello," he said in a nice way. "What's your name?"

"I'm Kellyn Wayland," Kellyn said as he watched the man look at the notepad.

"Kellyn... Kellyn... Ahh, here you are," the man said. "You're the last one aboard."

Kellyn nodded and scouted the area on the ship before he walked away from the man. There were only one person and her pokemon in the lobby and he had seen six others as he boarded before one or two walked off. He looked at the girl, "Hi," he said, rather nervously.

 

[MichaelaTheUchiha]

Miharu closed her eyes as she felt power emanating from someone on the ship, a familiar power. She smirked slightly.

So, a Riolu just evolved into a Lucario...

It seems so Master.

Miharu tilted her head to the side. Think the Lucario will be a match for Bishamon?

If he just evolved...no. Perhaps if he trained, maybe, but you know how hard it is to defeat me.

Well, Bishamon is one my strongest pokemon, which is why I feel that it is overkill to bring Bishamon on this expedition.

There was a chuckle sounding through her head. Well, Master is paranoid.

Miharu nodded. And if the feeling I got was true, then I may need Bishamon. Also, since we are on expedition to save Suicune...I find it strange that we were only allowed one pokemon on deck. After all, if something bad has happened to Suicune, would we not need a lot of man power?

I agree with what Master is saying, but I am not sure why they made it so that we could only have one teammate with us. It would probably be easier for us to have others with us.

Well, whatever is going to happen, we should be on our guard, no matter what.

I concur.

They both fell into a comfortable silence.

 

[PikaPal]

(OOC: I'm assuming Kellyns talking to me. If not, I'm sorry xD)

Nichole turned as she heard a boy's voice and came face to face with a taller boy with black hair. She smiled very sweetly, noticing how dreamy looking he was. She ran her hand through her blond hair, tossing it gently. "Hi there," she said kindly, "here for the exciting expedition eh?"

As Nichole spoke to the boy, she couldn't help but think about how well everything was going. Alright, she thought to herself, what's the catch? Surely this wont be this smooth.

 

[Aura.Lucario]

Suddenly the ship started moving, and Lysander nearly fell down because of the sudden movement.

"We are now heading for the North Pole." the tall man announced through the speaker, "I am Chris Overman, and I am here to examine the Northern Lights. We will arrive five days later, and you can use our facilities anytime! If anyone of you wondered why did we only allow you to bring one pokemon, well, we do not really know if the legendary beast Suicune really needs our help. And if we bring all of our pokemon to the trip, we might get a little too much of attention. Mind you, this isn't the first expedition to the North. We allowed the trainers to bring all of their pokemon with them...and the results weren't pretty. Other than that, have a nice day!"

"Well, well, the journey has started." Lysander nodded, "Well, Anubis. Better start training you."
Anubis nodded and walked into the arena with Lysander. The stood there, face to face.

"First, bone rush." Lysander commanded and Anubis put its paws together and spreaded them apart, creating a light green bone of energy. It was about a meter long and had a strange mysterious glow. Anubis flung the bone towards Lysander like a boomerang, and before it could touch Lysander, it spun back and into Anubis's paw.

"Let's see your reflexes." Lysander grabbed a bottle and tried to whack Anubis in the head, but Anubis stepped back and parried with his bone. With one strong push he pushed Lysander onto the ground.

"Ouch." Lysander got up painfully, but managed to smile a bit, "Now try your signature move, Aura Sphere."

Anubis closed his eyes and went into a state of extreme focus. Except for his heartbeat, he couldn't hear or feel anything else. Slowly a blue ball of pure energy appeared in the gap between his two paws and grew larger every second.

"Shoot the bottle." Lysander said as he threw the bottle into the air. Anubis heard his command and quickly looked up, then pushed his Aura Sphere towards the bottle. The sphere exploded on contact with the bottle, and when the smoke was gone, there was nothing there. Lysander looked at Anubis blankly for a second, He actually done it. he thought.

*Absolutely, Master.* Anubis told him through his mind, *You are under-estimating me*

Lysander blushed and patted his head, "Maybe. But you have much to learn. Now if only someone could come up here and battle Anubis, then I'll know how good you are. There are a lot of people out there that can beat you with ease right now. Even with your new abilities, you will still have to train. You now have Aura Sphere, Bone Rush, Force Palm for paralyzing people, and hyper beam, to push people away. Show my your hyper beam. You had force palm when you were a Riolu so you don't have to show me that."

Anubis opened his mouth and a ball of grey energy appeared before him. Then he fired a large red beam at Lysander. Then stopped when he saw what he had done.*uh oh. You okay master?*

"I guess so...ugh." Lysander said, still on the ground.

 

[MichaelaTheUchiha]

Miharu shook her head slightly as the boat started moving. Suddenly, a voice came overhead the speaker.

"We are now heading for the North Pole." the tall man announced through the speaker, "I am Chris Overman, and I am here to examine the Northern Lights. We will arrive five days later, and you can use our facilities anytime! If anyone of you wondered why did we only allow you to bring one pokemon, well, we do not really know if the legendary beast Suicune really needs our help. And if we bring all of our pokemon to the trip, we might get a little too much of attention. Mind you, this isn't the first expedition to the North. We allowed the trainers to bring all of their pokemon with them...and the results weren't pretty. Other than that, have a nice day!"

Miharu blinked as the explanation was broadcast.

Wait...did I hear that correctly Bishamon?

I am sure you did master.

So, this is not the first time that they have tried to rescue Suicune and people have died during the trip because they brought all six pokemon...And with the "the results were not pretty" means that the trainers died. And trainers have apparently died at least once. So, these people think that Suicune's life is greater than us trainers' lives...Why did I join this expedition again?

Because you wanted to help Suicune master.

Hmmm, although I did not think that it would come down to our "leaders" being arses.

In a less comfortable silence then before, Miharu and Bishamon fell into silence.

 

[Aura.Lucario]

*I guess that is kind of reasonable, Master. If you are going to lose pokemon in this trip, one loss will be better than six.*

"I am not going to lose you, Anubis." Lysander told him, though uncertainly.

*You are troubled. By what?*

"If Chris was right something bad would probably happen to us. But if something bad occurred in the past trips, why didn't we know about it? I have a bad feeling about this." Lysander told him as he got up.

*Master I am sure that nothing bad would happen to us. Relax.*

"I don't think I can." Lysander pointed out, "I think there's another reason for why they banned us for bringing the whole team."

*You may be right, Master. But we cannot do anything about it right now. Can we?*

"You're right, Anubis." Lysander stood up and looked at Anubis, "Let's start our practise again, shall we? If only we have a real pokemon to fight against you..."

 

[TiTaN.JuStIn]

"Can't you be quiet?! I'm sleeping here!"

Because of the loud announcement, Evan woke up. He still felt sleepy, but he wanted to breathe fresh air. He opened his back pack, took out his pokeball, put in on his pocket and went out. He went downstairs to the ship deck. It was refreshing out there. Fresh air. The ship was moving. And the only thing Evan could see outside was the wide long blue landscape. He enjoyed the scenery and stood there for about 10 minutes. After enjoying the cool breeze, Evan itched for a battle. Maybe there is someone in the Training Arena. With hope, Evan took the lift this time to get to the second floor. When he arrived he saw a trainer with a blue jackal pokemon. "Something what I wanted"- he thought and smiled. He went towards the boy and released his pokemon. Mika roared and then started to sniff wildly. Then he started to growl at the Lucario.

"Want a battle?"-Evan said to the boy.

 

[Aura.Lucario]

"Of course." Lysander grinned. Finally, someone to practise with. Anubis leaped into the arena and stood at one side, waiting for the challenger to get ready.

*Master. I do not think I am ready to fight. I am not used to being a Lucario yet.*

"It's okay, Anubis. I'll guide you." Lysander nodded from behind, then turned to Evan, "Please, make your first move."

*Master shouldn't I attack first?*

Have you forgotten everything after you evolved? We use our old method. Block, counter. Lysander thought. He was certain that Anubis was reading his thoughts. He was right. Anubis nodded and poised for an attack.

 

[TiTaN.JuStIn]

Evan smiled. A battle. Just what he wanted. He stood to the other side of the arena.

"Mika! Let's show them.

The Mightyena growled. It seemed energetic and confident.

"Please, make you first mo.."

"Growl."

The Mightyena started to growl stronger. Maybe because of the shockwave, Lucario grunted. "Hmmm..." Evan thought of a plan. He already knew what to do. He just had to wait for the right timing. Evan just stood there, waiting for the other trainer to make a move.

 

[PikaPal]

As soon as the words passed through Nichole's mind, the announcer came over the speakers.

"We are now heading for the North Pole." the tall man announced through the speaker, "I am Chris Overman, and I am here to examine the Northern Lights. We will arrive five days later, and you can use our facilities anytime! If anyone of you wondered why did we only allow you to bring one pokemon, well, we do not really know if the legendary beast Suicune really needs our help. And if we bring all of our pokemon to the trip, we might get a little too much of attention. Mind you, this isn't the first expedition to the North. We allowed the trainers to bring all of their pokemon with them...and the results weren't pretty. Other than that, have a nice day!"

"Ah, there it is," Nichole said with a short chuckle, "Danger's the name of this game." She sighed and leaned against a table, her arm's crossed under her chest. "Guess we'll have to see what happens, eh Sam?" Her Arcanine woofed lightly and nuzzled his trainer. Nichole looked at him, and realized that they were a little behind on their training. "We better toughen up if things are going to get this rough," she said, standing up straighter, "lets get to training." She flashed another smile at the black haired boy. "Hopefully I'll see you later," she said with a wink, and walked towards the arena.

As the blond haired trainer approached the arena, her pokemon suddenly grew excited, and began to quicken his pace. "There must be a good battle going on," Nichole thought, as she peered out into the large battle area of the ship. Sure enough, a wolf pokemon that she knew was a Mightyena (her full team consisted of all dog-like pokemon) was standing across from a blue jackal looking one. Strange, she thought, that pokemon looks very familiar.. As she looked at the trainers, she recognized the same boy she had seen earlier, with the Riolu!

"So that must be Riolu's evolved form," she thought, "he's very powerful looking, isn't he Sam?" She looked over to see her Arcanine's entire focus on the battle. Nichole knew that Sam could sense powerful pokemon, and this one was no exception. She looked back at the battlefield, her eyes fixed on the two trainers, hoping to learn some new techniques when the battle was over.

 

[Aura.Lucario]

"Don't let the growl affect you, Anubis, stay focus!" Lysander ordered, "Bone rush fling!"

Anubis created a bone from his paws and flung it towards the enemy like a spinning boomerang and watched.

Charge up your Aura Sphere. He'll be distracted.

Anubis heard him and closed his eyes slowly. He let the aura within him channel through his body and he could see the aura of the others in different colours. Only now did he notice that a trainer and her pokemon arrived and was watching him, but he didn't let that bother him. As the bone was flying to the enemy, he had time to prepare. He took a deep breath and a blue ball of pure energy appeared in his palm, glowing. But he didn't throw the sphere towards the enemy. He just waited.