I didn't say much for a little bit. I didn't exactly want to hold this against Brendan. From what I'd overheard he had good intentions when he had lied but I couldn't help but feel my trust for him was broken.

Still, the three of us walked back to the Pokémon Center without any more trouble, except of course Kirlia being annoying as always. Come on man! Don't you want to like... yell at him or something? This is way more boring than I thought it'd be.

"So May," I started as we sat down on the couch. "What brought you to Lilycove? I thought you were heading north?" I asked.

May shrugged. "Well the entire mountain was closed off because they're worried about the volcano pumping out too much ash, so I decided to go south and loop around."

"Well then." Brendan sat up. "Looks like since we're both on the gym quest we may as well head to Mosdeep City and take on the gym."

"That sounds like a pretty good plan." May agreed.

"S-so we'd take another boat?" I asked. I wasn't entirely thrilled to be heading out onto open water.

What's wrong Wally? Are you afraid of boats now? Kirlia asked me. I tried my best to ignore him and his pestering.

Brendan nodded. "Yep, unless either of you happens to have a Lapras we'll be taking a couple of boats to get to the next few islands."

"Shouldn't be too bad though. Nothing is too far away from here and the sights are pretty great. We should get going though," May said. Brendan and I nodded and we all made our way over to the port.

I looked back on the city, I was fairly eager to leave. I didn't want to encounter more trouble with Team Crown. Plus I was excited to see the sights in Mosdeep, even though I'd have to wait aboard a boat for some time.

We stepped inside the ship house and checked the schedule. A boat would be departing fairly soon but we would have to wait for a few hours in the meantime.

Brendan wasn't about to sit idly while the boat prepared to depart. "Alright guys, while we wait we should go get some ice cream. I saw a shop on the beach so let's go check it out."

I couldn't help but grin when ice cream was brought up. We walked down to the beach and took in the wonderful smells of the sea.

May stretched her arms and took in the sun. "I love the warmth by the shore! Littleroot is usually pretty warm but it's nothing as pleasant as this."

Brendan grinned. "Yep! It's so nice to go through Hoenn and see all of these great places!"

May rolled her eyes. "Haven't you always been complaining about how Hoenn is just 'nothing but beaches'?"

Brendan rubbed the back of his neck. "Well sure but that doesn't mean the beaches aren't great."

I stared down at my shoes as we waited in line in front of the ice cream shack. I was trying to think of something to say but they were already leaps and bounds ahead of my thoughts in the conversation.

"Do you remember that time when we went to the beach on Route 104 and that old guy let us play with his Wingull?" May asked.

Brendan's head bobbed up and down. "Totally! That was a really fun time! I also remember that time we snuck into Petalburg woods and got chased around by a bunch of Dustox."

May began to laugh. "Excuse me, I don't remember us getting chased around. I remember that you got chased around because you kicked a Wurmple."

"I only did that because you were scared of it!"

"Oh, I'm sure. We both know I'm not the one who's afraid of bugs." May crossed her arms and tilted her head upward with a smug grin painted on her face.

I continued to stare at my shoes. They were in pretty decent shape. I wonder how my parents are doing. If they knew about my adventure what would they think?

Wally... hey Wally... Wally! Can I get sprinkles on my ice cream? Rainbow. Not chocolate. Kirlia asked. I sighed.

"Sure Kirlia. Let's just wait until we're further in line." I quickly counted the people ahead of us and counted maybe three to four groups. "Hey Kirlia, can you do some translating for me?"

Kirlia nodded and I sent out Nian. The Goomy stared up at me and squeaked out a noise. "Heya Nian, I have some questions about your trainer. Is your trainer Steven Stone?"

Nian began to make noises that didn't make any sense to me, but Kirlia nodded. He says he doesn't know. Just that the dude's name is Steven.

I sighed. "Alright then, did he have blue hair?" That got a reaction from Nian. He started to nod his head. Yeah, he says yes. "I figured that out."

I returned Nian to his Pokeball and exhaled. That meant that Nian was Steven Stone's Pokemon. The Champion's Pokémon. Next time I saw him- or rather if I ever saw him- I could return Nian to his rightful owner.

But the odds of running into the champion again were fairly slim. Maybe I could pay a visit to the Pokémon League just to drop Nian off for him. I owed it to the Goomy. He'd helped me out a lot already and it wouldn't be fair to not get him back to his trainer.

I found myself empathizing with how Steven probably felt. After all, I had lost a Pokémon at one point too. So that settled it. I would find Steven Stone again and return Nian to him.

After all of this, I noticed we were next in line. May and Brendan were still engaged in conversation so I had to break in to let them know.

"Uhm guys," I said, making sure to speak loudly enough to be heard. The two of them stopped talking and looked over at me patiently. "It's almost our turn to order."

Brendan gave me a thumbs up and looked over at the menu. "Alright perfect. Let's get us some ice cream!"

After we'd all gotten our frozen treats we stood by the beach and ate. Kirlia had gotten himself a hazardously large cone but he managed to keep it stable somehow. I suspected he was using his psychic powers to help.

I had gotten a small vanilla cone, I finished it pretty quickly and May and Brendan were still eating theirs. The ice cream was pretty good. I was glad we'd taken the detour but I couldn't help but feel reminded of how much of an outsider I was in the group.

I looked across the beach and saw a small blue figure run at the water, jump in, get hit by a wave, and wash up on the sand on its back.

The Pokémon was very small. It had two short baby blue flippers and stubby yellow talons. The Pokémon had a small round head with two large blue eyes and a small yellow beak.

Around its neck was dark blue feathers that extended out like a cape draped over its back. The Pokémon's main body was very short and tiny. It reminded me of a baby bird. But for some reason, it was trying to swim against the rough Lilycove waves.

The Pokémon shot back up and ran against the water once again. Only to get sent back to the shore. I was starting to feel concerned. I walked closer to it and the Pokémon was very distressed. Yet it kept getting back up and running into the water.

I approached it slowly. "Hello, there little buddy," I said. The Pokémon whipped around to face me and tried to take a threatening stance. "Woah I don't want to hurt you. I just want to know what's wrong." I explained.

The dude's telling the truth man. He's pretty cool all around. Gave me this ice cream. Kirlia added.

"Thank you, Kirlia." I groaned.

The Pokémon began to chirp at me, I obviously couldn't understand but Kirlia was already translating.

So this dude is a Piplup. Apparently, he's from far away from here, someplace called Sinnoh. He's trying to get back home by swimming but the water is way stronger here than back at his homeland.

"Oh Sinnoh? I know all about Sinnoh. I've always wanted to visit there." I said, recalling my memories of studying the region's unique geography.

The Piplup pointed its flipper at me and then at the ocean while chirping.

So the little dude says he wants you to take him to Sinnoh and make him stronger along the way since the little dude wants to show off to all his friends.

"So you want to join my team for now?" I confirmed. The Piplup nodded and said something else.

Oh but first he wants to battle to see how strong you are. So make Rodney do it or something. Kirlia went back to eating his ice cream. I picked him up and put him down on the sand.

"Kirlia you've been annoying all day. You fight him." I told him, feeling a little evil but I didn't really feel bad about it. Kirlia hadn't even thanked me for the ice cream.

Kirlia grumbled something to himself but just decided to battle the Piplup, with his giant ice cream cone in hand.

"Use Psybeam!" I told him. Kirlia sighed and fired a purple bean of psychic energy at the Piplup. The blow slammed into the Piplup but he stomped his feet and charged at Kirlia.

Piplup ran up to him and before Kirlia could teleport away Piplup tackled him, knocking the ice cream from Kirlia's grasp. Where it fell into the sand.

Noooooooo! Kirlia cried. He began to blast Piplup with Psybeam over and over again from both of his hands until the Piplup had been defeated entirely.

Kirlia stared down at his ice cream and a tear slipped down his face. Goodbye, sweet prince. You were too delicious for this world... and kind of melty.

I ignored his dramatic display and went over to Piplup. The Pokémon was already standing back up, though he seemed exhausted. I reached into my bag and grabbed a Pokeball and held it in front of him.

The Piplup tapped the button on the ball with his flipper and it opened up, sucking him in and shaking three times before making a dinging sound, signifying his capture.

———————-

And Wally catches a brand new Pokémon! Thanks, everybody for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'll see you all next time! Bye!