They found Lindon wandering in circles around a Pokemon Center. Apparently he kept confusing the roof of the Center for the similar, but much larger roof of the Olivine City Gym. By the time Cashe and Emilia found him, it was already late, so they returned to the cruise ship instead of continuing on to meet Jasmine.

With late arrival of the SS Ambition and the dock party already providing a good amount of revelry, the reception of the Johto trainers was a quieter affair than when the Kanto trainers first came aboard. There was no welcome party at all, instead the cruise held a few more subdued events for those who were not in the mood to join the party on the docks.

Party or no, Cashe, Emilia, and Lindon arrived back at the cruise ship late enough to have missed it all and retreated straight to their rooms after a brief goodnight. Cashe spent a few minutes before heading to bed to let Bulbasaur and Mankey out of their pokeballs to stretch or even spend the night in the real world if they so wished. Pokemon were discouraged from being out of their pokeballs in the public areas of the ship, but there was no such rule in the private quarters. Cashe made frequent use of the loophole, letting his pokemon sleep on the bed more often than not.

Cashe pulled out a few snacks as a treat for his pokemon. The cruise had a plethora of snacks for every type and type combination of pokemon, even theoretical combinations that had not yet been confirmed through research, like psychic-ghost. Cashe could think of a few pokemon with the combination off the top of his head, but they were all legendary pokemon and not among those listed in his pokedex.

Cashe also took a minute to check the general health of Bulbasaur and Mankey. Bulbasaur had grown a lot. A few months ago the little guy was, well, little. He had grown almost a full foot since they started their journey and he was no longer easy to carry in his arms. The top of Bulbasaur’s bulb was now almost at his hip, and Cashe was pretty sure Bulbasaur was wider at the shoulders than him. Surprisingly, the voluminous growth in height did not extend to Bulbasaur’s weight. He was heavier, for sure, but still not as heavy as Mankey, who conversely still stood about a foot from the ground, but had gained several pounds of weight.

“You’re getting close to evolving, aren’t you?” Cashe grinned, giving Bulbasaur a scratch under his chin, “Pretty soon you’re going to be bigger than me. Excited?”

“Bulba,” Bulbasaur licked Cashe on the hand.

“Mankey, mank!” Mankey hopped up and down, trying to get Cashe’s attention away from Bulbasaur.

Cashe turned to her, giving her scratches of her own, “I think it’s going to be a little longer before you evolve, little monkey. You still have a ways to go.”

“Man-key,” Mankey slapped her hands against the floor of the cabin, working herself into a frustrated rage, “Mankey!”

“Easy there,” Cashe said gently, “It will be tough to evolve to Primeape, but you should evolve again after that even faster than Bulbasaur.”

Mankey froze in her rage, mid slap, pondering what Cashe said. Cashe was silently relieved. A furious Mankey in a confined space was not something he wanted.

“Bulba,” Bulbasaur smirked. Cashe felt his eyes widen. He wasn’t sure how or what Bulbasaur was saying, but Bulbasaur managed to make the single word sound like a smug challenge. Mankey obviously understood it and was already shaking in rage, her eyes turning red as her anger increased.

“MANK-”

“Nope,” Cashe held up Mankey’s pokeball and returned her to it. It shook in his hand and he was forced to hold it closed so she did not break out. He pulled off his belt and tied it around the ball, strapping it tight. It was not the first time he had to resort to such methods in order to stop one of Mankey’s tantrums. Her Defiant ability may be powerful, but it was a pain to deal with.

Bulbasaur huffed in delight and hopped around the cabin in excited prancing.

“Don’t know what you think is so funny,” Cashe said, holding up Bulbasaur’s pokeball as well, “For that, you get to spend the night in the ball.”

“Bulba?” Bulbasaur’s prancing came to an abrupt halt and he turned his big red eyes to Cashe, begging like a dog.

“Nope, good boys don’t make their friends descend into an uncontrollable fury.” Cashe tutted and shook his head, “It’s just not polite.”

“Bulbasaur,” Bulbasaur sulked as Cashe returned him to his ball as well.

Cashe waited another hour until Mankey tired herself out and her pokeball stopped shaking before removing the belt from around it and heading to bed as well.

***

The next morning Cashe was out of bed early and knocking at Emilia and Lindon’s doors to train. Emilia shouted something rather rude at him, while Lindon did not bother to wake up and give a response. Cashe headed to the training gym and was surprised to find that he was not the only one there. Three people were already using it, making the space positively crowded in comparison to the previous times Cashe visited.

Two of the trainers, a young man and a young woman, were battling each other in a back and forth fight that looked to be focused on evasion techniques. The young woman used an Eevee, and was having it dodge an incessantly attacking Gligar. The flying purple pokemon did not seem to be giving its all in the attacks, happy to let the Eevee dodge.

Off to the side, a young man with a mop of dark hair was training with a Deino, making Cashe stare for a long moment. It was the first time he had seen a dragon type pokemon up close and personal. He knew they were both extremely rare and difficult to train, which usually precluded them from events like the True Rookie Tournament. The small black and blue dragon was working with his trainer to improve its accuracy, firing blasts of dark energy at moving targets.

Cashe’s arrival caused heads to turn for a moment, the Deino trainer’s eyes locking onto him for a moment longer than the others, before he got back to what he was doing. Cashe ignored the looks, heading over to the large training dummies beside where the Deino was training and letting Mankey out of her ball. She was still asleep, twitching in her dreams, but Cashe was able to wake her with a few gentle prods. She immediately turned angry, her breath becoming rough, her eyes narrowing into slits.

“Have at it,” Cashe said, pointing to the large training dummy. Mankey took off, attacking the lumpy figure in her rage.

“Is she like that every morning?” The Deino trainer walked over to Cashe and extended his hand, Deino waddling beside him, “Damian.”

“Cashe,” Cashe shook his hand, “And no, only when she gets angry in her dreams. Knew it was happening today though since she was angry last night.”

“That happen often?” His eyes moved to Mankey, appraising her critically.

Cashe smiled wearily, “Every night. She barely sleeps.”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Damian snorted, “What do you do when you don’t have a training dummy?”

Cashe looked over at Mankey. She wasn’t even using moves, just attacking the training dummy with reckless abandon.

“My other pokemon knows how to handle her morning rages by now,” Cashe said, giving Bulbasaur’s ball an affectionate pat, “But this is mostly for show. She’s just being stubborn.”

“It’s for show?” Damian said, “It looks like someone pressed her button.” He glanced at Cashe, “Maybe when you woke her up from her sleep?”

“I read somewhere that Mankey mostly get angry because they are lonely, even in their troupes, and all the fighting makes them lonelier.” Cashe smiled happily, “But she’s not lonely now.”

“She seems pretty angry, though,” Damian said, doubtful.

“She’ll calm right down if I call her over,” Cashe shrugged, “She just likes the morning exercise and doesn't want to admit she’s making a fuss over nothing.”

“Glad I don’t have to deal with that,” Damian sighed.

“No, you only have a dragon to train,” Cashe laughed as Deino looked affronted, “I’m sure that’s much easier.”

“Deino can be a bit much, but she’s a good girl at heart.” Damian admitted with a strained smile. He leaned over and patted her head when Deino made a noise of protest.

“Must be tricky, starting with a dragon,” Cashe remarked, “I don’t know if I have that kind of commitment.”

Damian frowned, “What do you mean?”

“It’s a hard road, is all I’m saying,” Cashe said, “Especially at the start. Most people wouldn’t be comfortable with taking so long to show progress.”

“Are you trying to say something to me?” Damian narrowed his eyes, “You should come out and say it.”

“All I’m saying is dragon types are tough to train and slow growers,” Cashe said, holding up his hands, placating, “It’s admirable that you have dedicated yourself to being weak for so long.”

Deino let out a bark of anger and Damian’s face twisted into a snarl.

“Battle me,” Damian growled.

Cashe raised an eyebrow, “No.”

Damian’s face twisted further, “So that’s it, you’re just a coward?”

Cashe grabbed his trainer ID from where it hung around his neck and waved it in Damian’s face, “I didn’t hear a bell. If you challenge me, I will fight. But maybe you should look into what happened to the last person to piss me off.”

Damian’s scowl fell away like it was never there, replaced with a confident smirk. His shoulders relaxed and he straightened up into a nonchalant stance. “What gave me away?”

“No one with such a well behaved dragon would be so easily provoked,” Cashe said, turning back to Mankey and waving her over, “Now leave me alone.”

Damian’s smirk faded and he turned and left. Emilia joined Cashe just as he walked away, yawning and rubbing her eyes. She was still in her pajamas, a pair of Mareep patterned flannel pajamas and a loose, white tee-shirt with the Earth Badge depicted on the front.

“Starting fights with the new trainers already?” She said, stretching her arms with a huge yawn.

Cashe scoffed, “It's the other way around. He recognized me when I walked in but introduced himself like he didn't.”

“So?”

“So he came over asking about how Mankey sleeps, suggesting that she might be angry because I ‘pushed her buttons’.”

“Ah,” Emilia nodded, turning her focus to Damian, “Trying to figure out her ability. Good plan. Fighting Mankey goes very differently depending on what she has.”

“Unless I figured it out and led him to believe she had Anger Point.” Cashe said.

“Did you?”

“Don’t think so,” Cashe shrugged, “I think the best I did was not reveal anything he didn’t already know. He changed his tune as soon as he knew I figured him out.”

“Good,” Emilia said, nodding with approval, “So who is he? Probably not just some dragon trainer hottie.”

“No. Competition. Damian Dart.” Cashe paused, “Hottie?”

Emilia grinned, “What can I say? Tall, dark, handsome. Just how I like it.”

Cashe snorted, “Maybe go with someone less likely to piss me off?”

“You’d better get used to it, Blood Money, everyone is going to piss you off,” Emilia said, “Welcome to professional pokemon. It’s a den of serpents here.”

Cashe glanced at Deino and her trainer.

“More like dragons.”

***

Misty clicked through the Pokenet forums, a small smile finding its way onto her face. Emilia was doing well for herself. She had gained a small number of fans from her brief appearance on television after the Golduck incident and even had a thread or two dedicated to her on a couple of different sites. It wasn’t unexpected from her, she was an Oak, after all. What was unexpected were the things her fans were saying about her.

“Cute and enthusiastic.”

“Earnest and determined.”

It was almost enough to make Misty laugh. Not only was it a far cry from what Emilia wanted people to think of her, it was also woefully far from accurate. It mattered little though. Perceptions could change, especially when trainers were at the beginning of their careers. More importantly, Emilia has dealt with the initial attention of the tournament well. Misty had received a number of calls from people who were currently on the cruise telling her how delightful her daughter was.

It was a good start, overall. Nothing like the mess with Selena at the beginning of her journey, and far from the excitement of Maggie’s. Maybe Emilia would take after her oldest sister and wait until she could handle things herself before the world went crazy around her.

Misty sighed. If only things could be so easy. Her eyes flicked to the most likely thing to cause Emilia’s journey to become hectic: Apollo Cashe.

The things they said about him were not so kind. Bully. Violent. Poisoner. It did not help that there were two very vocal accounts that claimed to have battled Cashe and experienced his brutality firsthand. It especially did not help that both the people were young women. It put Cashe in an unsavory light.

Misty doubted that what people were saying was true. Not the part about his brutal battle style. Misty approved of that. She never gave her opponents an inch and she would be damned if they tried to come back to her gym for a second chance. It was disrespectful. No, Misty doubted that Cashe was truly brutal and unhinged as people seemed to think. The teary-eyed young man who left on his pokemon journey with her daughter was a far cry from the figure that was portrayed online.

But that was exactly the problem. Cashe was not that monster, but people would expect him to be. It might be fine if he were traveling on his own, but beside her daughter it would not go unnoticed. People would take advantage of him to take advantage of Emilia. She needed to give that boy a talking to and set him straight. Or crooked, as it were.

Misty sighed again and closed her laptop, putting it aside to enjoy the sun on the warm Alolan beach. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. At least Starmie was getting some exercise again. There was nothing to do now but wait.

“Misty Williams?” A woman asked.

Misty opened her eyes. A mismatched couple stood before her. On the left, a small woman with silver hair stood in a tiny polka dot bikini. Not overly revealing or anything, just tiny due to the woman’s diminutive size. Beside her stood the largest man Misty had ever seen. He must have been seven feet tall and had the physique of a professional bodybuilder. He was shirtless and in swim trunks, but wore a thick lab coat over his shoulders. The woman appeared to be using him for shade. She knew them both.

“I thought I told you I go by Misty Oak nowadays,” Misty said. “It was Dr Elliot and Dr Albert, correct? Can I help you two?”

“Dr Arbutus,” the huge man corrected.

“Actually yes,” Dr Elliot said, giving her a cheery smile, “We were hoping we could borrow your pokegear and contact your husband.”

Misty frowned, “I thought you were looking for Cashe?”

“We are,” Dr Arbutus said, “But your husband’s paper has some interesting claims, we were hoping-”

“We saw you and we need to talk to him right now!” Dr Eliot burst out, hopping in excitement, her fists clenched as she bounced on the sand, “We can’t take it any more.”

“What she means is we are very excited,” Dr Arbutus said, laying an enormous hand on Dr Elliot’s shoulder and calming her down, “Sorry to put you on the spot, but we really couldn’t miss the opportunity.”

“My husband’s paper?” Misty said, giving the pair a confused look.

“You don’t know?” Dr Elliot’s mouth popped open in surprise, “It just came out today. Here, look.”

She handed Misty a tablet. Misty’s eyes flicked over the title, exasperation and excitement rising together in her chest. Maybe she had more to do than simply lay on the beach.

*****