“Alright, we have time for one last match before the ship docks, who wants a piece?” Kayla asked, challenging people with a look, or a word.
“I’ll fight you.” Ash spoke up, he’d been wanting a rematch, and now the shoe was on the other foot. “Three on three?”
“Deal.” As per the rules of the ship they had to show which Pokemon first, Ash chose Pikachu, Sceptile and Donphan, while Kayla chose Vaporion, Bagon and Ninetales.
“Ready Ash?”
“Ready.”
“This is a three on three Pokemon battle, time limit of fifteen minutes, only the challenger may substitute, Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town is the Challenger, Begin!”
“Bagon!”
“Pikachu!”
“Bagon! Dragonbreath!”
“Pikachu, Agility then Volt Tackle!” Bagon’s attack missed and the huge dragon type was knocked back by Pikachu’s speed.
“I’m impressed Ash, it seems your team get better on thirteenth viewing.” Kayla grinned, to show she wasn’t insulting him, “Bagon, Focus Energy! Then Headbutt!”
“Pikachu, agility!” Kayla growled as Ash’s Pikachu dodged her Bagon’s attack. “Pikachu!” Ash called, “THUNDER!”
“PIKACHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!”
Bagon fell to the ground, “Bagon is unable to battle.”
“And it seems twelve is the unlucky number.” Kayla said with a grimace, “Go Ninetales! Fire Spin!!!”
“Pikachu! Volt Tackle!”
“Ninetales! Confuse Ray!” Pikachu stopped mid attack, completely confused.
“I’m calling Pikachu back!” Ash called, then ran forward and picked his Pikachu up. He got a small shock from it, but he quickly returned to his area and… “Donphan, go!”
Kayla had to admit, she hadn’t known why Ash didn’t just return his Pikachu like a normal Pokemon, so it had thrown her the first time he’d done that but now she understood that Pikachu hated being inside a Pokeball, and so Ash had never forced it to go inside one. “Ninetales! Flamethrower!”
“Donphan, Rollout!” Ninetales went flying across the Battle Lounge.
“Ninetales is unable to battle.”
Kayla growled. “Vaporion! Go! Hydro Pump!”
Donphan was the one sent crashing to the floor this time, as she disrupted its Rollout attack. “Donphan is unable to Battle!”
“Sceptile!” Ash called, “Leaf Blade!”
“Vaporion, Ice Beam!”
Ash’s Sceptile leapt over and behind the Vaporion and hit it from behind, Kayla’s Vaporion went flying but managed to get back to its feet. “Try it again!” Kayla called, this time the attack hit home, freezing Sceptile.
“Sceptile is unable to Battle.”
“Sceptile, return!” Ash called, “Pikachu?” The electric mouse had recovered and nodded at it’s trainer, “Ok, Pikachu, go! Thunderbolt!”
“Vaporion, Quick Attack!” The Thunderbolt missed and Vaporion bashed into Pikachu, who got back up quickly.
“Pikachu, Volt Tackle!”
The Pikachu shot across the battle field, and hit Vaporion with a combination of strength and electricity, the water type went flying backwards into a chair.
“Vaporion is unable to battle. Ash Ketchum is the winner.”
“Vaporion, return, nice battle Ash.”
“Ditto.” Ash said with a smile.
“I quite like Dittos, even if they’re a pile of pink goo.” Kayla responded, Ash laughed. “You coming to give our Pokemon a quick recharge before we dock?” Ash nodded and followed Kayla to the mock Pokemon centre of the ship, where their Pokemon were treated by the ship’s Nurse Joy who gave Kayla a firm look, a similar one to the one she’d given Ash after his twelve match day, one that promised that she’d have firm words with them once she’d seen to the Pokemon.
She did too, banning them from competing in the Battle Lounge for the remainder of their repsective trips. Kayla frowned but nodded while Ash sighed but agreed, they had been battling their Pokemon too hard.
This this Order placed on both of them, Nurse Joy handing back their pokeballs just as they docked at their next port of call.
“This is a Passenger announcement, welcome to the Isla de Leyendas, we are going to have to make an unscheduled long stop here, due to mechanical faults, and will not be leaving until tomorrow night, please feel free to use local tour guides to see the sights while we are here. Again we are sorry for the delay.”
“Sounds like fun.” Kayla laughed, “Shall we?”
“I have to make a phone call once we find a public phone, but sure.” Ash said with a smile, “Lets look around.”
There was a tour guide waiting outside for them, a young woman and a Kecleon. “Welcome trainers, to the Isla de Leyendas, I am Faith Excel, and one of the local tour guides here.” Faith took them round the town. The city was old, and Kayla would hazard a guess that parts of the city were ancient. Ash marvelled at the statues of Pokemon, though Kayla asked him what was wrong, when he frowned at a Lugia statue.
“It’s out of proportion.” Ash said, “It’s wings are too small and the ridges too big.”
“You sound like you speak from experience.” Kayla laughed. “You’ve seen Lugia?”
Ash nodded, “Twice.”
“Well since we’re being critical, you know that gold Ho-oh statue at the wharf?” Ash nodded, “Well its feathers are all wrong and someone obviously thinks it’s beak is bigger then it’s head.” Kayla shook her head, “I’ve seen Ho-oh a couple to four times, and no one seems to be able to get it right.”
“Are you a Pokemon Trainer or a Pokemon Watcher?” Ash asked, “Cause I saw you sketching the Pokemon who were taking part in the Battle Lounge matches.”
“I’m a Trainer but I used to travel with a Pokemon Watcher, and he taught me how to draw, I’ve found that a hand drawn Pokedex is much more personal, and that’s basically what I’ve got. Of course, I have the trainer’s licence too but…” Ash just smiled and nodded. “Oh look!” Kayla pointed to the Island’s Pokemon Centre, which had been hidden behind the remains of a humongous statue of Kyogre and Groudon fighting. “They have to have a Vid-phone!”
They shot inside, the heat of the day beginning to build up, the Isla de Leyendas was an equatorial island and as such got hot very quickly, so no one noticed the few degrees higher then usual. Ash sat himself at a Vid-phone and shoved some money in the machine, dialling the number quickly.
“Hey Brock.”
“Hey Ash, having a good time?”
“There’s a Battle Lounge on the ship and some of the trainers aboard are really good.” Ash said appraisingly, “It’s good practise, and the sights are fantastic.”
Brock laughed, “Trust you to talk about the battling first. Where are you calling from?”
“The Isla de Leyendas, there’s a mechanical fault with the cruise ship, so we’re going to be here till tomorrow.”
“You’d better tell Misty you’re going to be a day late, we were going to meet you at the Port.”
“I will, I’ll give her a buzz after…”
“Hey Ash, who’s the girl in the background?”
Ash looked over his shoulder, “Oh, that’s Kayla Juno, she’s a Pokemon Trainer, she and her Vaporion are really strong.”
“You praising someone’s water Pokemon other then Misty’s? I’d be careful Ash, Misty’ll get jealous.”
Ash laughed, “Kayla’s taken, one of the other Trainers asked her the second day we were on board, and you know I’d never hurt Misty.” Brock nodded.
“Alright, get off the phone and call Misty, then go do some sightseeing, the Isla de Leyendas should interest you with all the legendary Pokemon we’ve seen.” Ash nodded.
“I’ll see you on Monday then?”
“Take care Ash.”
“I will.” Brock looked at him speculatively, then cut off the call. Ash rolled his eyes and put more money into the Vid-phone.
It rang for a while then the picture came to life, Misty was flushed, and looked happier then Ash had seen her in a while. “Hi Ash, how’s things going?”
“It’s been great so far, but there’s a mechanical fault with the ship, so we’re going to be at least a day late getting home.”
“I’ll still meet you. But it’ll be Monday right?” Ash nodded, “Any one interesting on the cruise?”
“Well there’s this one trainer,” Ash started, “Who has a Vaporion, and she’s one of the best trainers on the ship.”
“Really?” Misty wasn’t taking the bait, “Is that her in the background.”
“Uh huh, hey Kayla!” The girl came over, “This is Misty, Misty this is the trainer I was telling you about.”
“Hi.”
“Hi, I hope you’re not going easy on Ash.”
“No way.” Kayla laughed. “I never go easy on anyone.”
“Good,” Misty said with a vindictive smirk, “How many days of travel left?”
“Six.”
“Then beat him six times, once a day.”
“We’ve been banned from the Battle Lounge.” Kayla complained, “Too many battles in one day or I’d beat him more then once…” Kayla smirked.
Ash decided he was getting fed up of being ganged up on, “All right, all right, there’s not much time left on the phone, how’s the gym going?”
“Things are running really smoothly at the moment, I was just swimming with the Pokemon, trying to do some training.”
“We’ll leave you to get on with it then.” Ash said, “See you on Monday.”
“Take care.”
“I will.” Misty gave him a similar look to the one Brock had, and cut the connection.
“Are you normally reckless?” Kayla asked with a laugh.
“No… well… yes… but…” Kayla laughed her head off as they left the Pokemon Centre, Ash waited until she calmed down, then looked around. “We’ve lost the tour guide.”
“That’s cool; we’ll make our own way around.” Kayla laughed, “We’ll probably see more that way anyway.” She pointed down an alley, “For example, a large crowd would’ve scared away that Baltoy.”
“Baltoy?” Ash wheeled around quickly, just in time to see it vanish up the alley.
“Shall we follow it?”
Ash nodded and they chased it up the alley and up the hill. They stopped as the Baltoy entered some ruins. “What is this place?” Ash asked, looking around. Something here felt weird. Pikachu grabbed his trouser leg and tried to pull him away.
“Look at this Ho-oh…” Kayla murmured, walking up to a statue and placing her hand on it’s head, “It’s so real…” She jumped back in surprise as one of her Pokeballs opened on it’s own, and her Vaporion pushed her away from it. “What’s wrong?”
Vaporion just head butted her, pushing her away.
“Alright, alright, we’re going.” Ash said, as his Pikachu ripped his jeans by accident with its pulling. His stomach growled.
“Lunch time?” Kayla asked, wiping her forehead with her hand, “It’s getting too hot anyway.”
“Ok,” Ash agreed, “Lunch sounds great right now.”
The two trainers turned around and went back the way they’d come, their Pokemon happier now that their trainers were leaving the strange place.
Unknown to them, the eyes on the Ho-oh statue had started to glow, a bright and vivid red.
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