Broken Souls

Meet You At The Top

"So, we'll just stride on into Cerulean, right? I'm tired." Fang asks. If his already red eyes could be bloodshot, I'm sure they would be.

Minerva, just as flamboyantly sassy as ever, smirks. "Again, this is the Umbreon saying this? First of all, you're a weenie, and second of all, Umbreons are supposed to be nocturnal. You're supposed to have college grad student sleep hours, not those of an eight year old."

"I am not a weenie!" whines Fang at the top of his lungs. "It's late!"

"Calm down, it's only two in the morning." 

At once, the whole team bursts out laughing. Surprisingly, this even includes Pisces- she chuckles heartily, and agrees, "We've seen worse."

I think of the oceans where we found her, the string of casualties that preceded it, and find I couldn't agree more. She lets Fang onto her back, and says, "No more pick up lines."
Fang nods sleepily.

"It's not going to be easy, guys," I say, pointing ahead. A guard of no less than a half dozen trainers stand just ahead, standing straight as soldiers in their positions down the lane.

"Can we just not... fight them?" asks Reginae, to which Hycanith nods.

"League mandates. Technically we could walk around them." I say, "Some of them. Let's be honest here- we're not getting out of this without a few fights."

Pisces's expression of mild amusement turns back to a grim battle face. "I've got this." Fang falls off Pisces's back unceremoniously, landing with a yelp on the ground.

The first trainer sees us and sends out an Oddish with a sleepy grin on his face. "I'm gonna train 'til I drop," he informs me. "That's how we do it in Kanto!"

Minerva aggresses the Oddish and with a burst of flame from her maws, it topples back over. She staggers back away from her latest victim with class, saying, "That's how we do it in Johto, fools!"

I don't know if I should be glad the battle's over or just concerned for her, as usual.

I don't know how I ended up as the poster child for Johto, either. I wasn't even nationalistic about my country until I left it- if anything, I was just disappointed to be living there instead of the way cooler regions like Hoenn or Unova, but now that I'm here, I can tell you with a straight face that there's nowhere I'd rather be than Johto. I love Johtonian architecture, I love our culture, I love the cozy sense of family you get from the smaller towns, and I love that I know each route like the back of my hand from the two journeys I've had the honor of taking.

This proves two things:
1) You will never appreciate things as much as when they are torn away from you.

2) I, Ashley Hart, am an utter mess.

Hycanith taps my side. She looks into my eyes, pleadingly, and I sigh, "You want to go to sleep?" She nods, enthusiastic, and I tuck her away in a Great Ball, headed straight for the PC.

"We will get her out, right?" Reginae insists.

"She can take turns with the rest of the team, if that'd work. It'd be nice to start training alternates, and having a ground-type on the team provides better type diversity. We don't know what Red will throw at us, but if it's an electric-type, we're screwed. We have three flying types, Reginae."

"I know." he looks up. "If worst comes to worst, I'm electric-resistant."

"Just do your best." I say. We've reached the point of the night where I go from deep to just slurring mildly motivating catchphrases, and I give him a thumbs up to accentuate the point.