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"Well Kokoro, looks like you're doing a pretty good job at hitting the targets. It'd be great if we could find some flying pokemon to battle though. I'm sure rocks aren't quite the same as living things even if they are pretty difficult to hit... Of course we've got more than fire on our side!" Claire said as she tapped the side of her head with her palm. "We've got Extrasensory! Okay, how about we try out using that to control the rocks? That way you can work on locking on to small, fast objects. We'll figure out how to work on your ability to keep stuff in your power later."

The Cyndaquil nodded at these suggestions and once again took her battle stance. This is gonna be fun! Kokoro always enjoyed using her psychic powers even if they were a bit mysterious to her. It was always amusing to bother random people that walked past by mentally shouting 'hey' or 'heads up' and seeing how people responded, especially if she wasn't visible and no one else was around. Though amusing, Kokoro kept these sessions to herself and seldom had a chance to tease others.

"Okay, the first one is gonna be a high lob. Try to keep it in the air as long as possible." Claire instructed as she tossed the golf ball sized rock into the air. It flew up into the murky darkness. Kokoro concentrated and began to glow a slight orange. Suddenly tendrils of psychic energy raced forth from the Cyndaquil and soon enveloped the rock. But Kokoro missed and the rock landed in the grass with a soft thud. It was harder to hit than I expected. she pouted.

Claire silently retrieved the rock and tossed it into the air once more. This time Kokoro managed to latch on to the rock. She managed to keep it aloft for five seconds before her concentration broke and the rock plummeted back to the ground. "Right. Now, let's try to get it up to a minute." Thus the training progressed for some time in this manner until the fire mouse managed the aforementioned goal. "Okay, from now on I'm just going to do random throws. You'll have to figure out where the rock is going and how fast. This way your reaction time will be better. Once you latch on try to keep it going for as long as possible." Claire instructed.

The first throw was a fast horizontal. Kokoro took note of the angle and focused her powers. Reaching out she put all her energy into where the rock was going in the next few seconds. There was a tug against her mind, but she would be stronger! The rock was captured and with a triumphant mew, the Cyndaquil lobbed the rock over into the woods with a forceful blast of energy! Ha, take that!

"OUCH!" a voice from the direction of the rock shouted. Suddenly a man in a black suit stumbled through the brush clutching his head. "Hey, were you the ones that tossed that rock at me?" the main exclaimed with an accusing finger pointed at Claire. "And if we were?" Claire responded. "Well, then you're going down you punk! And once I whomp you, you'll get lost ya hear?" With a flourish the man released another Pokemon into the clearing.

Excellent. Claire thought as his Pokemon became visible. Hovering slightly off the ground was a small red, bug pokemon-a Ledyba.

Keegan winced and pulled the phone away from his ear, having not expected to be yelled at so early in the conversation. He frowned and continued to look around, as a shouting, very angry blonde-haired girl would be much easier to spot than a normal, cheerful blonde. "Uh, hi," he said finally, bringing the device back up to his ear again, wondering just what could have set her off this time. Unless, of course, she'd witnessed the scene between him and Sasha, and if that were the case then he knew he was in a heap of trouble. "So," he went on, trying to keep his voice casual, "have you boarded the ship yet?"

Sasha looked to the ground, pretending to be interested in the dirt, not even realizing Eraku's Pidgey gently prodding her. However, the loud foghorn yanked her back into reality. "Eek!" she squeaked, scrambling to her feet. "Ze boat!" cried the girl, calling back to Kilik and Keegan, who had since disappeared. Sahsa looked to the distance and saw the redhead by the docks on his phone, and quickly ran towards him. Squeezing through people (probably making their days just a little better)

After clawing through the crowd Sasha made it to Keegan. She approached him cautiously, like a timid Stantler fawn. She wasn't sure how to deal with him after that kiss. She had never done that before, and even though she wanted to save it for someone special, it was still quite...fun. Sasha opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Keegan ripping the phone from his ear, nearly hitting her in the face. She barely dodged it, but soon realized why the redhead wanted to get it away so quickly. A very familiar, and very angry voice crackled from the other side. Merde! I forgot about Kasiya! She is going to be so mad at me! Sasha tugged her hair nervously. Kasiya was really nice, but it was usually the quiet and sweet ones that were the most terrifying when angered. She backed away and ran up the ramp. She had some explaining to do.

"Kasiya!" Sasha called out, cupping her hands to her mouth. "Kas!-Oh hey there she is." The pink haired girl spotted the blondie hanging over the side of the ship. Part of her wanted to dramatically cry out 'Don't do it! You have so much to live for!' but she felt that it wouldn't be so well received. Even though it wasn't really her fault, seeing Kasiya angry made the guilt crash on her like a wave. She felt so...whorey... She waited until the girl had hug up her 'nav to approach her. "Um...Kasiya...I..." she looked down at her shoes, her right foot drawing little guilty circles on the ship.

Kasiya rolled her eyes at Keegan's nonchalant attitude - it seemed he was showing no remorse for his actions whatsoever. How very typical of him! "Yes, I'm already on board the ship," she said, looking down towards the pier. She was now able to see the redhead standing off to once side, looking around presumably for her. "I'm up here," she said, sighing heavily and waving her arm so that he would be able to see her. "I don't see why you care, though," she said once he'd looked her way, making sure that he'd be able to see the hurt expression she wore. "I mean really, Keegan. Not even out of Hoenn yet and you're finding yourself another girl? I don't even have words for that but you definitely owe me an explanation." Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone with bright pink hair and a red bandanna approach her, and she sighed. Oh great, did he send her up here to brag? she thought angrily, but one look at the guilty expression on Sasha's face and her anger began to subside. Perhaps there really was a good explanation for what had just happened, and she sighed heavily. "Okay look Keegan, I need a minute, so I'll call you back, okay?" Without waiting for a response she clicked the PokeNav off and stuffed it back in her pocket before she turned to Sasha.

"Uh... hey," she said quietly. She'd always liked Sasha, and she hoped that the normally bubbly girl would be able to shed some light on the situation.

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Cynthia hadn't expected to lose sight of the kids once they'd ventured onto the ship, but it happened anyway, and though the Champion wasn't exactly devastated that she was now on her own, she did kind of miss their enthusiasm. It reminded her of why she'd chosen to become a trainer herself, quite a long time ago, and it brought back a lot of happy memories. She caught sight of a rather small Onix and her curiosity piqued, she followed after it, soon discovering that it belonged to Jason. "Oh, how adorable," she said, smiling at the young rock snake. "He mustn't be very old, how long have you had him?" she asked Jason, having missed Dante's very confused question of why the Onix was so very tiny.

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As Raichu yawned loudly, Surge returned him to his Pokeball and nodded at Riza, though she was now hugging the young man who'd just asked for a match. "Sure thing, sonny, if ya want. As a gym leader it is my duty to accept all challenges." He clapped his hands together and laughed heartily. He'd been quite busy with challengers lately, and though he was losing a good majority of these matches he didn't care too much.

"Lieutenant," Mr Reid said, stepping forward. "Would you like me to take your Pokemon for healing?" Surge nodded and handed the gentleman the three Pokeballs that contained his exhausted Pokemon. Mr Reid then turned to Riza. "And you, Miss Harding? I could take care of your Pokemon as well. It'll only be a few moments, as we have a Pokemon Center-grade healing machine in the back room."

Jaeshan had stayed back once the battle had ended, applauding Riza and Akima's efforts once the battle was over. He wasn't too eager to get up close and personal with Lt Surge again, though he did eventually venture from his place on the sidelines, careful to avoid the embracing Riza and Crenu. He stepped into view and he cleared his throat. "Hello, Lieutenant," he said politely. "It's good to see you again. I bet you don't remember me, but I challenged your gym a while back." Though he was sure he didn't need to, he withdrew his Kanto badge case from his backpack and opened it so that Surge could see the Thunder Badge nestled within.

Surge leaned forward as the other, more familiar blonde boy stepped forward, and he nodded. "Haha, of course I remember ya," he laughed. "Put that badge away, I never forget a challenger, I tell you that. You're uh, Jake right?" When Jaeshan didn't answer, the man laughed harder. "Naw, I'm just pullin' yer leg. Good ta see you too, Jaeshan. You been keeping up with yer training?"

"Yes sir, uh, Lieutenant," Jaeshan nodded, chuckling a bit as well. He closed the badge case and put it back in his bag. He didn't know what else to say, and he didn't want to get in the way of the next battle so he stepped back again. So Crenu's gonna take on Surge next, eh? This ought to be good, he thought.

The words were enough to make him flinch, and very nervously he looked up towards the ship where Kasiya was, feeling as though a hot poker had been jabbed through his heart when he saw the disappointed way she was looking at him. It reminded him all too much of the way his father always used to look at him, and he almost couldn't stand it. If she were acting this way from seeing him kissing Sasha, then he couldn't help but be absolutely terrified of her reaction if, no, when she were to find about his night with Mai - and he knew she inevitably would. All at once the guilt welled up inside of him to the point where he thought he was going to be sick, and he shut his eyes as though it would quell the horrible feeling. "N-no, that's n-not how i-it is, not a-at all," he stammered finally, shaking his head. He wanted badly to apologize though he didn't know how to say it and mean it, but by the time he'd gotten up enough nerve to try and say anything else she'd hung up. He hadn't noticed that Sasha had been there, nor did he see her board the ship. All he knew was that again, he'd screwed up, and again, he would pay the price for it. He wanted more than anything to just get out of there, but his feet felt as though they were wearing cement shoes, so he just stood there, not sure what to do now.

Eraku was laying out on the bow of the boat just taking in the sights. There were trainers from everywhere here all to go to Sinnoh. “Wow this will be quite the trip” he said to himself sitting up. Hurricane was perched on a railing right next to him and apparently was taking a little nap. “Yeah it’s been quite the day buddy.” He said rustling the top of his best friends head. He looked around and noticed that the girl had come her with was now on the boat. She was talking to another girl and from the looks of it, it seemed Sasha was apologizing for something by the way she was looking very submissive to the other girl. “Well I’ll catch up with her later. We have plenty of time.” He said to himself. Eraku continued to look around and was amazed at the site. He saw Pokémon from all over, “maybe I’ll get to battle someone on the boat ride” he thought excitedly. He glanced back over towards the gangplank and noticed what appeared to be a news team getting on board. “Wow even the media is here. Maybe Uncle Blaine will watch! Blaine! Oh I haven’t even told him where I’m going...well I suppose I’ll get in touch with him at some point. He knows I’m old enough to take care of myself.” Eraku leaned out over the railing and looked out on the water before him. The fresh sea air was relaxing… “Hey you! Eraku was it?” someone said behind him. Eraku turned around and saw that as fate would have it the boy from the ferry he took back in Kanto was now on this boat to Sinnoh. “Uh hey surprise seeing you here. I thought you were going to see your parents?” Eraku said very surprised to see him here.
“Yeah well my parents decided I needed to go visit my grandparents over in Sinnoh so here I am.” the boy replied.
“Ah well that’s nice. How’s your wingull doing?” Eraku asked remembering the beach ball shaped wingull that this boy had before. A smile came across his face.
“He’s doing good. I took your advice and cut his snacks down a bit. He’s isn’t too happy about that. I know how about we have another battle just a little one to see how each other’s birds have been doing?” The boy asked excitedly.
“Sure sounds fine to me. You up for it Hurricane?” Eraku looked over to his pidgey and it was already fluttering by his side ready for a little action.