Heart of Steel [Pokémon Fanfiction]

09| An Oceanside Brawl

"Dewford Town off the port side!" Winona cried cheerily, pointing off the left side of the ship's railing. Wallace and I followed her gaze and saw a group of short buildings clustered together on a distant island. Other than some trees and a few rocky hills situated behind the buildings, there was nothing else there except the seemingly endless ocean surrounding it.

   That's it? I thought, feeling a little disappointed. What did I expect anyways? It was an island town, so there obviously wouldn't be anything too fancy. At least there was what looked like a Pokémon Center. It was hard to tell since the buildings' colors were so washed-out looking.

   My morning didn't exactly start out as smoothly as I wanted it to. It began with Meteor actually shoving me off the bed because apparently, he remembered that I had said he could wake me up whenever he wanted to. I woke up mid-fall and collided with the carpeted floor of the rented Center room a second later. Right afterwards, I heard Winona and Meteor laughing.

It turned out while I was asleep, Meteor decided to introduce himself to Winona. I wouldn't have minded if it didn't result in he and Winona instantly becoming partners in crime. And being the overly passive person I was, I didn't complain. Besides, I couldn't stay mad at Winona's slightly immature cuteness or Meteor just being himself.

   "Do you want to sightsee, or should we look for the Gym right away?" Wallace asked, squinting to get a better look at the town.

   "I definitely want to challenge the Gym," I replied. "Looking around can wait until later."

   "And not try to find any more Pokémon for your team? I get that you like your Beldum and all, but you can only get so far with one Pokémon, even if it's strong," Wallace said.

   "He is capable of handling anything that's thrown at him. He won't go down that easily," I said, trying put emphasis on the fact that Meteor wasn't just some ordinary Pokémon. Though logic stated that I needed more teammates, I found it hard to imagine that I could have more than one partner constantly at my side.

   "I wasn't trying to insult Meteor or anything," Wallace apologized. "I'm only stating the facts."

   "Oh believe me, facts are something I don't tend to ignore," I said.

   Wallace arched an eyebrow and shook his head, giving me a half-smirk. "You sure are a strange person, Steven. You appear to be calm and logical despite having that outburst when you defended my sister the other day. Emotional and logical... for some reason, those words don't sound right together."

   "I think the word you're thinking of is courteous," I said. "Logical and courteous."

   Wallace sighed and hung his head. "I'm going to have to get used to this kind of talk coming from you, aren't I?"

   "You'll have to if you want me to travel with you. I'll have to get used to how you act," I said.

   "Oh yeah? How's that?" Wallace asked challengingly.