I awoke to my pokegear's ringing. Groggily, I picked up.

"Hello?" I say, trying not to sound irritated.

"Hey Elron! Are you going to see the Magikarp crossing?"

I just woke up and you're already asking me questions?! "Ummm... Who is this?"

"Who else?! It's Ryuusuke from Meteor Falls!"

"Oh, it's you. Hey, do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Seven in the morning. What of it?"

Oh, so I guess I should probably get up soon anyways. I sat up in my sleeping bag. "Nevermind. What's this about Magikarp?"

"Didn't you hear? I would expect more from a fellow dragon enthusiast!"

"I have a Bagon."

"Yep, and that makes you a dragon enthusiast! Anyways, today's the day when the Magikarp around Evergrande City make their annual mass-attempt to climb the water and evolve into Gyarados!"

"Evergrande City? I'm sorry, but that's a little too far away for us."

"Where are you then?"

"Just outside Petalburg City."

"Alright I'll come get you then."

"What?!"

"See you soon," Ryuusuke gladly announced as he hung up his phone.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and turned to Flora. "Hey Flora, get up. Apparently we are leaving soon."

She immediately stood up and was wide awake. She pulled a granola bar out of her bag. "Ready to go! Where are we going?"

You didn't even know and yet you got ready that fast?! I sighed. "Evergrande City."

-----

"Thanks for the ride... I guess." I hopped down from out of Ryuusuke's Dragonite's arms.

"Of course! Wouldn't want you to miss an important dragon-related event!" He slid off of the back of his Salamence.

Isn't Gyarados a Water/Flying type and not a Dragon?

Flora looked ecstatic. "I can't believe that I got to ride a Salamence ALL the way across the region!" She jumped off, following Ryuusuke.

I'm still a little salty that he got to ride with her. For some odd reason I always have to be carrying.

Flora ran around the prairie grass grown atop the plateau of an island that is Evergrande City. "I can't believe that we've already reached here!"

I walked the perimeter of the pond that leads to the waterfall. "We're only visiting, yet you say it like we're challenging Victory Road and the Elite Four." I looked across the pond, noticing no visible source of water to filter into the pond. How is this pond getting water? As far as I can tell all of it should've spilled out across the waterfall by now.

"Elron?!" A familiar voice called my name from the other side of the water.

"Dad?! What are you doing here?!"

We met in the middle. "Well, you know Gyarados. They can kind of level towns, so every year I have to come out here to make sure nothing gets out of hand. Elite Four odd job work pretty much."

"I see... You better be going home every once in awhile." I glare at him, suspecting that he left soon as I did.

"Of course! Every night even! I can fly around the region quickly with my pokemon after all!"

I felt a little relieved. "Good." Flora saw the two of us and started making her way over to us.

"Say, have you two done it yet?"

I could feel my face get warm. "W-what do you mean?"

"You know, hold hands. Or have you even gotten further?"

Well I just about had a heart attack. Who would've been able to guess that's what he meant?! "Errr... No, not yet. We kind of had a date though."

"Oh, nice! I didn't think you'd be able to pull that off."

"How little faith do you have in me? And wasn't it you who told me those 'tips' or whatever?!"

"Whatcha guys talking about?" Flora had gotten within earshot.

I tried to come up with something on the spot. "Oh nothing. Just... fishing."

"Yep," interjects my father, "for some reason Elron likes to think that there's only one fish in the sea."

Hurtful! And how suspicious can you make it sound?! I had already gotten tired of my father being here.

"Oh I get it, that's a metaphor!"

Please don't tell me she figured it out! Dang it dad!

"Like he's using the same 'bait', or strategy, for every opponent? Yeah, he needs to work on his trainer skills."

It took all my patience to not blurt out "look who's talking." I tried changing the subject. "In other news, when are the Magikarp going to start making their ways up?"

"Oh," replies Drake. "They already are."

Everyone was starting to crowd around the edges of the cliff to look down at the waterfall, and so we all made our way over there. I looked out of the cliff, which seemed really dangerous, and saw a small flood of Magikarps struggling up the waterfall. In their faces was nothing but determination. Determination to overcome difficulty. Determination to prove themselves. Determination to evolve into something truly special that they could be proud of. I would've never thought that I could be so inspired by Magikarp.

The small crowd of people started cheering as a Magikarp got close to the stop. It was wiggling its tail so fast that I thought that it would fall apart like a children's toy. It just kept swimming, and the cheers only got louder, especially those of Flora.

Suddenly, the lead Magikarp fell back out the water. The forces of gravity and the torrent of water had overcome it. Everyone gasped as it plummeted to down to the ocean below, creating a huge splash.

"Oh no," said Flora, holding her hands to her mouth.

Then, out of the water, came a fish that we all recognized. They might have all looked the same, but this one stood out. It was the same Magikarp. It hadn't given up, and this time it pushed even harder. This wasn't going to set it back, that it knew. A few more of the fish were about the reach the top, but it only looked forward and tried as hard as its little fins would allow it.

Alas, it did not reach the top first. Several beat it to the top, and in a brilliant flash of white light transformed into a horde of giant blue serpents. The new Gyarados roared as loud as they could, unnerving and even frightening many of the ones who had not yet reached the top. Seeing that they were beat, several stopped trying and fell to the bottom.

But there was one that wouldn't accept its fate, wouldn't accept that it had lost. In one last burst of energy, the fish shot forward in the water and came sailing over the top. At last, it had made it, and as if to congratulate itself it too burst into light and evolved. Evolved into a Gyarados larger and more powerful than the others. The humans watching the event were speechless, and so were the Magikarp. The hardworking pokemon about collapsed from exhaustion, but it wore an expression of pure delight.

The people cheered, and Flora looked struck to the core. I could see tears in her eyes.

I grabbed her hand. "It might be hard right now, but someday you'll be that Gyarados."

She looked straight at me, surprised, but did not let go.

I just looked back at her with a smile.

A smile crept across her face, and she looked out to the open sea. "Yeah. Except it won't just be me. We'll both climb this waterfall some day."

I was truly happy, and I think she was too, but something was missing. I had been holding hands with Flora, and he didn't come out of his pokeball to disrupt me, which I recognized as strange and got suspicious of. I hated to break bliss of the moment, but I just had to check. With my free hand I reached into my pack, pulling out his ball and tossing it behind me.

We both noticed it. The popping open of the capsule. The empty sound of it hitting the ground, no beaming sound erupting behind us. We looked back at the pokeball, opened up without anything in it.

-----

Shoot, I didn't actually dislike you that much. Sure, we didn't always get along... I was unsure of the feelings that I was having.

Flora and I ran through Petalburg City in search of the missing member of our team. He wasn't in the streets. He wasn't around the ponds. We asked around and no one had seen a stray Aron. There was only one likely possibility, and that was that he had left the town.

We scoured as much of the area as we could for what felt like an eternity, but could not find him.

"Are you the trainers of the Aron?" asked a voice that sounded as if it was in my own head.

I looked around wildly. There wasn't anyone but Flora and I around in this part of the forest. "Yeah! Who is this?! Where are you?!"

"Down here, silly human."

I looked around some more, and saw a Ralts poke its head around the corner of a tree. The Psychic type pokemon came out from hiding and waddled out in front of us.

"A Ralts? Who's your trainer, little girl?"

"I have no trainer, and I'm a guy. Why does everyone assume that I'm a girl?!" The miniscule figure that looked like it was wearing a hood to cover its eyes tilted its head at me.

"Eh?! Telepathy?!"

"That's right."

Apparently Flora could hear it too, because we both looked at each other, shocked at the turn of events.

"Don't give me those funny looks. If you're looking for your Aron he went over that way," said the Ralts, gesturing to the side.

"Uh... Thanks." We cautiously start walking in the given direction, but we didn't look away from the strange pokemon until we were a few feet away.

"Trials await you though, if you wish to get him back."

-----

We had kept along the path that we were told, and eventually came up to another pond. Hoenn really has a lot of water.

"Should we have trusted that Ralts?" I ask. "I don't think this is getting us anywhere."

"Hmmm... He was a little suspicious. Maybe we should head back."

We turned around and were met with several Bug type pokemon staring us square in our faces. There were Wurmple on the ground, and Silcoon and Cascoon hanging from trees. We turned back around to find that several Surskit had closed us in.

What's going on here?!

Without warning, the pokemon unleashed a volley of String Shots at us, tying us up.

It must've been that Ralts! Should never have trusted a pokemon! I came up with an idea. "Bagel, jump out of your pokeball and blast an ember to get us out of this!"

A red laser burst out from behind me and unleashed my tiny dragon, who in turn unleashed its own red beam of fire. I felt the string loosen up. I also felt my back get significantly hotter.

"What did you do?!"

"I don't know, I wasn't thinking!"

The flames crept up on us, getting closer and closer.

"See?" said one pokemon in the shadows to another. "This is how much your trainers care for you. Do you really think that you should abandon such wonderful trainers?"

The Surskit let out a burst of water and saved us. After they put the fire out, they scurried out in all directions, as did the other insects that had ambushed us.

I pulled the remaining strings off of me. "I wonder what that was about." I looked at Flora, who was even more covered than I was. I pulled a string off of her arm, trying to help, and felt something hard hit my leg.

"Aaron!" cried out Flora, jumping down and embracing the pokemon.

They both looked very happy, and I think I felt a twinge of gladness as well.

My Aron let himself out of her arms and stared right into my eyes.

"He says that he thought you didn't like him," said Ralts, coming out into the open.

I leaned down and put my hand on his head. "Sure, I don't always like him, and he can be quite a pain sometimes..." Just then I had finally found the words I was looking for. I smiled at my reckless steel skinned partner. "But everyone needs a rival on a pokemon journey, you know?"

In that moment, we connected.

"Will you come with us now? I have an empty pokeball with your name on it."

He looked to Flora, who only gave him a welcoming smile. I pulled out his pokeball from my bag and put it in front of his face. His eyes lit up, and he pressed his forehead to the button. He was sucked into the metallic sphere. He was home.

"My work here is done," said the Ralts, walking away.

"Why don't you join us?" I hold up an empty pokeball. "We could use a cool pokemon like you on our team!"

He looked back. "Sorry, but I've already picked out my trainer."

"That sounds a little backwards, wouldn't you say?"

"Nonsense! Plus I'm sure he'll be glad to have me."

"If you say so. Come on Flora, we should be heading back towards the city."

"Race ya!" Still having some white threads attached, she broke out into a run.

"Hey! That's a long run you know!" I chased after her, leaving Ralts to himself.

"Yes," Ralts said to himself. "I'm sure Wally will be just as great as you two."

***

A/N: Yay! This story's chapter count has hit double digits! I also wrote this all today because I was a bad writer and procrastinated, but hopefully it turned out well :P So what do you think? Will you be like the Gyarados and do something great? *cringe cringe cringe* Okay I'm done XD