Guys...you can do better:( I got ONE review! Last chapter was missing something big to me, and I wanted you guys to help me figure out what it was...but I'm gonna keep this story up, at least future readers will be able to read this good stuff.
I love this chapter. I feel I put so much soul into this one, when I read it aloud, I felt like I was there. Also, this has the most words yet. Yay!
Enjoy!
"Alright, we're all signed up," Ash declared, after getting through that dispute of the girls. He wanted May to compete with him from the start, but he got the feeling she was trying to compete with Dawn for some strange reason.
"At least I get to compete too…" Dawn drawled, with disdain filling her voice. She agreed to sign up with Max, because he wanted to try his skill in the tournament too. Brock didn't feel the need to try, so Dawn wanted to give it a go. She reasoned to herself that it might be good for her to defeat May, but the problem was Ash. She knew he wasn't your average trainer in terms of skill or sheer luck. That may have been part of the reason she liked him as she did. Her liking him might not help her in a battle. The advantage on her side was she prided herself in knowing her crush inside and out, and that included how he battled.
"Yeah! Thanks for letting up with you, Dawn! We're gonna win for sure, you and me!" Max added, with confidence.
The group started heading toward the ferry that would take them over a long river toward the eastern part of the Resort Area. They would take it to get over to the actual tourist area, where they planned to find a place to stay over their trip.
"Oh yeah? Why's that, Max?" May asked.
"I've got Treecko and Ralts, of course! We can't lose!"
"Max, don't get your confidence up…Ash is a force to reckon with when it comes to battling," Brock spoke, knowing his friends well, "Not to mention May already beat Dawn…sorry Dawn…"
The group realized they were getting close to their boat, as they saw the river ahead, and some trainers were around the area too.
"So where are we going to stay, Ash? You did get us a reservation to an awesome hotel, right?" Dawn wondered, hoping she was wrong about the answer she thought he would give.
"Hm? Reservations? We don't need those; I'll get us a room somewhere nice." Ash explained.
Brock sighed. "Ash…you should think these things through. The best hotel always needs a reservation…"
"Aw, come on guys…have I ever messed up something like this?"
"Ash…yeah, plenty of times. Remember when you got us kicked out of a Pokemon Center and without rooms when you agreed to battle somebody inside?" Max reasoned.
By this time, they were at the ferry. While Ash got the tickets that would allow them entry, Dawn and May weren't going to take any chances.
"Uh…sir? Who drives this boat?" Dawn asked a man allowing people on.
"I do! Hello there, passengers! Are you getting on?" the man asked.
"Yes, we're waiting for our friend to grab our tickets." May explained, and then gave a tug on the man's beard!
"Ow! What are you doing?!"
"I'm so sorry, sir, we were afraid you might have been Team Rocket…they took over a ferry once…"
"Erm…no harm done." The man decided, while Ash brought the tickets, and Brock and Max came up too, "Get on, all of you, we're about to leave!"
The five got onto the boat and went to the railing to watch the scenery roll by on their 30-minute trip east. They relaxed against the railing right in time for the ferry to start moving. The starting jolt surprised May and she started to fall over. Ash was conveniently the one next to her, so he caught her on her shoulders and brought her back up steadily. With his hands still gripping her shoulders, she muttered thanks. It was at this point that a semi-familiar duo had walked up and laughed to themselves.
"See, I told you! We are never wrong about this thing!" Oscar exclaimed at the sight.
"Yes, we knew right from the start that you two were couple material!" Andi agreed.
Letting go of May's shoulders, Ash began to swiftly try to remember their adventure when these two showed up once. The minute Oscar and Andi, a very formal-in-appearance lovey-dovey-type couple had met Ash, May, Max, and Brock, they decided Ash and May were perfect for each other, and Ash and May couldn't have disagreed more.
"C-couple!? We aren't-"May started.
"No? I'm sorry, but the fact that you two still are traveling together, and the fact that your boyfriend here was holding you that way may prove different." Andi decided.
Brock and Max, without each other knowing the other was too, they smiled internally at that part of their adventure. This only confirmed their growing suspicion of something.
"I'm sorry…we're just here to compete in that tournament! Not any of what you're thinking!" Ash finished for May.
The fancily dressed couple smirked at what the boy had said.
"You too? We also are in it." Oscar said.
"Yes, and we shall win because of our love!" Andi explained, embracing Oscar.
"I suggest that you get over your doubts and just get together, you two, if you wish to get close to working together as well as we do." Oscar finished.
"I don't know about you, but we work together plenty well as good of friends as we are!" May retaliated.
"Yeah, and because of that, we're the ones who will win!" Ash agreed.
"Hey, what about us…!" Dawn whined, referring to her and Max.
"Hm? You two?" Andi asked, looking them over. She whispered something to Oscar, who nodded.
"You two may have something between you two in the works, but it is not as bright as this couple right here," Oscar said, motioning towards Ash and May.
"Wha…? That's not what I meant at all!" Dawn exclaimed.
Brock was laughing to himself at this chance meeting with such obsessed people.
"Aint this something? Maybe they're right. I think love's in the air for our little posse lately. Sometimes I wonder if Ash isn't the densest of our group here, May's on the same track as him right now, in every way. Reminder to self again: I need to talk to everybody later, maybe I'll find the answers."
Oscar and Andi smiled at all of their reactions to what was going on. Deciding they had said enough, they left before Ash and May could do what they did last time. They needed to get even closer, not farther.
By the time they finished, the ferry had arrived at its destination. The entire boat emptied, and our favorite group began looking for a hotel that wasn't full. They walked along the busy streets, going past many, many shops. Dawn and May were taking mental notes of each shop for later. The group walked into multiple nice hotels before they found the one. Ash decided to make a scene in this one, but no-one was sure if it helped.
This hotel was roughly one-eighth the size of the Battle Tower, which was pretty tall for a hotel. It was a very splendid hotel, and it had lovely neon displays to attract guests. It seemed busy, but there were plenty of rooms in the lavish hotel. The lobby was absolutely huge. It was clearly superior to any of the other hotels they tried, and they were glad they were forced to come to this one later.
"Hello, sir! Name, please?" the lady at the front desk asked.
"I'm Ash Ketchum!" he exclaimed, with pride, "from Pallet Town," he added.
"Hm…that name sounds so very familiar. Please hold on," the lady requested.
She took a few seconds scanning the computer, finding the entry in the computer she wanted.
"Is there a May here?" she asked.
"Yes, right here! Why?" May asked, also coming up to the counter and leaning on it.
"Why? This is the hotel designed for those in the tournament, and you're signed up with Ash Ketchum."
"Oh…ok. That makes sense. Oh! You don't mean the teams share a room, do you?" May asked, getting scared at the thought.
"Why, yes. Is that a problem, miss?"
"Well, you see, we're all a big group and were wondering if we could all get one room." She asked, motioning for Dawn, Brock, and Max to come up to the counter.
"Oh, well in that case we can definitely do that. There's one extra large room left. It even has the accommodations for any and all Pokemon on you!"
"Really? That's awesome! Wait…before we get the room, what's the rate?" Ash asked, beginning to get worried about his wallet's lifespan after the words extra large were mentioned.
Holding off the question for one of her own, she asked, "What are your names, you three."
"I'm Brock," the tall one said.
"I'm Dawn," the girl said.
"And I'm Max," the little boy said.
She looked again through the list.
"Ah, Dawn and Max, you also are signed up, correct?"
"Yeah, we are," Max replied.
"Then the answer to your question, Ash Ketchum, is that the room is complimentary since…most of you are competing. Like I said, it's modeled for the Battle Tower participants."
She handed the group the keys to their new room and began entering the occupants into the computer. Dawn led the five to the room, since she was already dying to get to this luxurious room. They went to floor eight and opened the room. They all went inside and Brock flicked on the lights. What they saw astonished them. They did not expect a room so big. It had four beds and plenty of nooks around the room for the Pokemon, they guessed. They decided to go ahead to let everybody out of their Pokeballs.
Max let out his Treecko and Ralts, who were relieved to be out of their containment. Dawn let out her Prinplup, Pachirisu, Ambipom, Chatot, Sunflora, and her newly-evolved Lopunny. Brock let out Sudowoodo, Marshtomp, Crobat, and Ludicolo. Croagunk came out before Brock could reach its Pokeball. He whispered an apology to Steelix, who he kept in the Pokeball for obvious size problems. May let out her Skitty, Munchlax, Bulbasaur, Blaziken, Teddiursa, and Burmy. Ash let out Bulbasaur, Staraptor, Cyndaquil, and Floatzel. Pikachu hopped off Ash's shoulder and joined the others. He also apologized to Snorlax for the obvious size problems in the room. Even though the room was spacious, it couldn't handle a Steelix or Snorlax.
May's Bulbasaur ran over to Ash's and decided instantly on a little cubby with a nice little bed. Treecko and Ralts didn't know the others too well, so they decided to share a cubby above the bed Max picked. Crobat decided to stay on a pipe running along near the ceiling, and would hang from it. Dawn's Chatot gave a cheery "Not to worry!" in Dawn's voice before following Staraptor into a little crevice near the ceiling with some nest-like beds, probably for the bird Pokemon like themselves. Croagunk explored the room, and decided on a bedside stand with a door, and crawled into it, satisfied with its strange idea of a sleeping place. Munchlax only cared about trying to break into the hotel fridge, but to its horror it discovered it couldn't. It dragged a bed from one of the cubbies, threw it on top of the mini-fridge, threw itself up, and was satisfied with sleeping on its prey. Burmy wriggled its way into the closet and decided this dark place was perfect. The rest of the Pokemon decided on a good sleeping place without too much quarreling, and were all satisfied. They came back down from where they were to stay with their trainers while they were still up.
Everybody picked a bed, but they realized it was one bed too short. Before anything drastic was thought of, like Ash sleeping with Pikachu in a cubby, May decided she could stand another trip in the same bed as her brother. Since that was decided, Pikachu would sleep with Ash and didn't pick out a cubby. Since it was about time to eat dinner, Ash suggested they would get something brought up. They all got something, and made sure the Pokemon got stuff brought up too. For their sodas, Ash went and got ice from the machine. When he went back and was closing the door, a hand caught it. Ash put the ice down and opened the door again to see who it was.
"Hey, loser," Paul greeted.
"Paul? What are you doing here?" Ash asked, already finding himself getting angry at him.
Paul walked inside and gave a look around at the group and all the Pokemon that were previously having fun. He shook his head and said, "I see you got two new additions to Loserville here. The name's Paul. I beat Ash too easily in the semi-finals." He explained, smirking at the thought.
May and Max just were baffled at this guy, but Brock and Dawn knew him all too well.
"I found out you losers are in the tournament too, huh? Good luck trying to win with all your pathetic Pokemon and your pathetic girlfriend you're competing with. I'm off to train harder so I not only brush you losers off my shoulder in a battle, but at least beat the competent Pokemon trainers out there. See you, losers," he finished, walking out of the door and disappearing down the hallway.
"Hey, Paul! Wait up!" a voice said. This voice belonged to a boy about Ash's age running after Paul. His clothes consisted of a plain dark green tee. Over the tee was a dark biker jacket.
"Kyle, I already told you. I'm only competing with you because you're more competent than those losers down the hall. You do not share a room with me." The group heard a voice yell back, probably Paul's.
"Well, you better be the one paying!" Kyle yelled back.
When those two were gone, Brock spoke first: "Well…that was terse…"
May had walked over to Ash, who was by the door, to try to calm him down. She asked for an explanation, because he had gotten this way only at the sight of him, and that wasn't the Ash she knew's way. He, Brock, and Dawn explained the many annoyances of Paul to the listening ears of Max and May. May was getting upset at the stories of Paul's cruelty, and Max just was baffled. Seeing Ash was still upset at Paul's recent words, she thought of how to fix it. Hatching a remedy, she decided to stand directly in front of him, and stare him in the eye. Ash tensed up for a moment at her piercing gaze, but relaxed to normal.
At the sight of her doing this, something clicked, and it felt like a ton of bricks. He felt a feeling tug on his insides. He finally asked May to stop, as he got a weird feeling from it. She seemed content, and Max seemed relieved. His mind raced to find a memory of this feeling…but he couldn't. Never in his life had he felt such a…slamming force that could land so delicately, but then grip his chest's innards. He got lost in that feeling he had, and tried to process it, but couldn't think of anything. He instantly decided to consult Brock; he always knew how to cure illnesses of any kind, no matter how small or common. He would talk to him later, in case whatever it is was supposed to be private. He thought to himself it could be a guy thing and comforted himself in the fact Brock could handle it. He even thought it was the aftermath of Paul's words…
"Ash? You there?" Max asked, looking at him strangely.
"Yeah…sorry, I just felt a little sick for a few seconds there." He replied.
Rate and Review! Tell me how I failed last chapter too.
So...Ash has something within him churning? Took him long enough! ;P I wonder what? (AaMayL story, anyone?)
I loved explaining the hotel room.
That is all.