Pokémon Heroes of Hoenn

Growing Together

“...Wally?” I questioned, shocked that I met up with the green haired boy so randomly.
“Uh, Ruby… who's that?” Leaf asked as Wally ran over. He looked so… different. His skin looked a lot healthier, he's definitely gained some much needed weight, and overall he just looked brighter.
“It is you, Ruby! Wow, you look so different!” Wally exclaimed cheerfully. I tilted my head in confusion, not quite understanding what he meant.
“I do?” I muttered, looking myself up and down for a moment.
“Yeah, you look kinda brighter, if you know what I mean. Like you've gotten some weight off your shoulders.” Wally stated with a grin.
Was that a joke off my own thoughts...?
“Uh, thanks… You look healthier too.” I murmured, taken aback by the sudden complement. Wally nodded to say thanks, when his face suddenly turned serious, catching me off guard.
“Ruby… I want to challenge the Mauville City Gym, but my uncle thinks I'm pushing it. So I have a favor to ask of you. Will you battle Kirlia and I? We've grown a lot stronger and I'd like you to see our strength.” Wally stated, staring into my eyes with such determination, I couldn't dare say no.
“I'll definitely accept your challenge. Leaf, would you please go get my Pokémon from Emerald? I'd like to battle with Wally.” I stated calmly, barely looking away from the shorter trainer.
“You didn't even introduce- ugh, fine!” Leaf muttered, dragging himself into the Pokémon Center.
“Would you settle for a one on one?” I asked calmly, drawn to the determination radiating off of Wally. It was like a powerful aura that I couldn't shake off.
“Yeah, I'd be honored.” Wally stated softly.
“Heads up, Ruby!” Leaf called, tossing my Pokéballs to me. I raised one hand, catching both Pokéballs swiftly. My casual expression changed drastically as I was armed with my Pokémon, a smirk filled with determination making its way to my lips.
“Hope you've trained well, Wally. Combusken, let's go!!” I called out, releasing my partner Pokémon. Sapphire, Emerald, Gold, Silver, Crystal, and Fire all came outside to see what was up, surprised to see me battling someone already after just getting into town.
“Kirlia, use Confusion!” Wally ordered, releasing his now evolved Ralts. Kirlia’s eyes began to glow a cyan blue, a wave of light radiating off of it towards Combusken.
“Combusken, counter that with Fire Spin!!” I commanded. Combusken shot out a swirling stream of fire from its mouth, cancelling out Kirlia's attack. Wally gasped in shock, a puzzled look on his face. “Alright, now use Flamethrower!” I called out, Combusken following through just as I gave my order. The attack hit Kirlia, sending it flying back a few feet. Kirlia landed on its feet, forcing itself to keep battling, though I, as a slightly more experienced trainer, could see how close the battle was to being over, much to my dissatisfaction.
“Kirlia, use Teleport!” Wally called. Kirlia teleported right behind Combusken, startling it momentarily. “Now use Magical Leaf!!”
“Combusken, Double Kick!!” I ordered. Combusken quickly jumped up, landing two powerful kicks into Kirlia's stomach, sending it flying back once again.
“K-Kirlia!!” Wally gasped.
“Now, finish this with Flamethrower!!” I commanded. Combusken leaped into the air, shooting another blast of flames towards Kirlia. Kirlia fell to the ground, fainting after Combusken landed on the ground, ending its attack. Wally raced to his partner's side, gently taking Kirlia into his arms to examine it. I sighed quietly, flashing a smile at Combusken for its hard work before returning it for a long rest.
“Thanks, Kirlia. You can rest easy now.” Wally murmured, returning Kirlia to its Pokéball as well as I came to his side. I was about to speak up before Wally beat me to it. “Thank you, Ruby… for accepting my challenge. I guess I'm not ready to take on a Gym yet, huh? I think… I'm gonna head back to Verdanturf Town now. I'll see you around, okay?” Wally murmured softly, hanging his head in defeat as he made his way to his uncle's side.
“Wait, Wally…” I muttered, though he didn't hear me as his uncle flashed me a sad smile and began to lead him home. I watched them leave, a pang of guilt hitting me as I did so.
Emerald made her way to my side, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder before speaking up.
“Come on, Ruby. Let's get Combusken healed up.” Emerald suggested calmly. I nodded softly in response, turning to the others with a slight frown before following them into the Pokémon Center. Fire's Typhlosion, Typhlo, decided to cheer me up by sneaking up behind the couch I was seated on and jumping up beside me, nuzzling me warmly as he did so. I pet the large ball of fur, thanking it for its help. Typhlo was definitely a suiting partner for Fire. I couldn't imagine her with any other Pokémon partner, to be honest. I smiled to myself as I thought about the pair when another thought suddenly hit me.
“Hey, where'd Leaf go?” I asked Emerald as she came over to sit with me. She returned my puzzled look, and in a matter of seconds, we were out that door looking for him.
We finally found the troublesome kid in the Game Corner, trying to play one of the slot machine games. Emerald grabbed him by the green bandana around his neck, dragging him out of the building while I followed behind.
“Didn't your mom ever tell you that playing those games is wrong!? You shouldn't be doing that kind of thing, you oughta be ashamed of yourself! Ruby and I shouldn't even have to be out looking for you!” Emerald scolded, dragging Leaf the whole way to the Pokémon Center.
“Well no, my mom actually played 'em herself a bit, and for your information, nobody told you guys to come search for me, but I appreciate your concern.” Leaf stated calmly, though I couldn't really tell if he was being sarcastic or not. When we entered the Pokémon Center, we found Fire, Silver, Gold, Crys, and Sapphire seemingly pondering over something. They all turned to face us with a look of pure relief, Sapphire running over to hug us. By us I mean me, unfortunately.
“There you guys are! We were so worried about you!” Sapphire exclaimed.
“Yeah, yeah, good for you, now get off of me!” I exclaimed, prying her off my waist and dusting myself down. "Blame this one for hanging out in the Game Corner playing the slot machines." I muttered, pointing to Leaf with my thumb.
"That sounds just like good ol' Leaf." Fire stated with a snicker.
"You mean to tell me that he's done this kind of thing before?!" Emerald snapped, glaring at Leaf as he got up from the floor.
"Yeah, Leaf's always been a little rebellious. Whatever somebody said not to do, you'd find this one trying it out right away. Remember that one time I had to bail you out for angering the Beedrill?" Fire asked Leaf, chuckling softly as she spoke.
"Oh yeah, and then when I got that alley Meowth stuck on Tony's roof!" Leaf added on, laughing as he reminisced.
“Yeah, he was so scared when it jumped off and fell onto his head!” Fire laughed.
"Sounds like you have a history of mischief back in Pallet Town." Silver commented, crossing his arms as he let a soft smirk cross his lips.
"Naw, nobody saw it as mischief. I was just known for being too curious for my own good. I did some pretty helpful things too. Like mowing lawns, Pokémon sitting, and helping Tony out at the store at times." Leaf listed off with a grin.
Pallet Town must be a really small town for him to be as well known as he makes himself seem. We ended up chatting about our hometowns for a while, Crys and I recalling we were both from Goldenrod City. After all the chitchat died down, I headed to the Gym, earning my Dynamo Badge from Wattson, who I'd rather not describe.
He was just... strange. I don't even want to remember anything about that battle besides Poochyena evolving into Mightyena. We went to visit Wally the next day only to learn he had left. His uncle informed us that he went off training and probably wouldn't be back for a while.
We ended up helping this guy digging through Rusturf Tunnel finish his work, making it possible to get from Verdanturf Town to Rustboro City and vise versa through the tunnel. Now we were just strolling through Verdanturf Town, enjoying the fresh air and cool breeze.
"So Ruby, where's your next destination?" Fire asked, giving me a cheerful grin as she met my pace.
"You're still coming with us?" I asked in slight surprise.
"Yeah, if that's alright with you. See, we came here on vacation, so we'd like to tour Hoenn a bit. What better way to do that than to travel with you guys?" Fire asked cheerfully.
"You'd think we'd have a plan for traveling through Hoenn, but that wasn't on somebody's to-do list." Silver muttered, eyeing Fire from behind.
"Oh, be quiet! At least I invited you!" Fire exclaimed, sticking her tongue out at the red haired boy childishly.
"Alright, alright, don't start bickering like a married couple in front of the kids." Crystal teased, walking between the two Luvdisc and placing a hand on their shoulders lightly.
"At this rate, they probably won't get that far, Crys." Gold teased, snickering as he spoke.
"You wanna bet, Johto boy?!" Silver snapped, shooting a glare at Gold, who proceeded to burst out laughing.
I feel like I should be offended by the way he said "Johto boy"...
"Ha! You admitted it! Silver wants to marry Fire! Silver wants to marry Fire!" Gold yelled out, poking fun at Silver's outburst. Crys joined in Gold's laughter, giving him a high five as she did so. Silver growled, his cheeks taking a dark shade of pink as Gold continued to tease him. Fire shot the redhead a sympathetic look before a devious smirk crossed her lips.
"Gold wants to marry Crystal! Gold wants to marry Crystal!" Fire chanted in a mocking tone. Gold shot her a friendly glare before they both started chanting back at each other, Silver rolling his eyes as he picked up his pace.
"For the love of Mew, you guys are so immature!" Silver muttered, glaring ahead as spoke.
"Welcome to my world, Silver. We're just surrounded by idiots." I stated calmly, a small smile crossing my lips as I spoke.
"You can say that again..." Silver murmured, rolling his eyes to emphasize his annoyance.
"HEY!!"  Emerald and Leaf exclaimed, glaring at me as they yelled.
"Yeah, you guys count as idiots too." I stated teasingly, smirking back at the two green eyed trainers.
"Well excuse you, Mr. Moody!" Emerald huffed, crossing her arms as she spoke.
"Wait, I'm confused, what exactly is going on?" Sapphire asked, completely oblivious to the punches being thrown.
I ignored her as I laughed hardily at the look on Emerald's face. She glared at me for a few moments before her lips slowly curled into a grin.
"Well look who's finally enjoying himself." Emerald stated teasingly. My laughter died down as I paused to look at her, noticing that half proud grin on her face. I shyly grinned back, realizing she was completely right, I was finally enjoying myself for once since we left on our journey.
Maybe Fire was right.... Traveling with everyone really does seem to open up some doors for me. I just needed to embrace them instead of rejecting them. Now I understand. I understand what it means to grow stronger together instead of growing by yourself.

Now I just have to see what strength comes from growing with Sapphire, Emerald, Leaf, and the Heroes of Johto.