The Confidence Within.

Heading Home

After a long day of travel, we had arrived at Slateport City. The familiar salty air filled my nose as I stepped off of the boat.

The sun was still rising in the sky and most of the shops weren't open yet. I yawned and rubbed the exhaustion from my eyes.

I had hardly been able to sleep during the trip. I just wanted to reunite with Kirlia. I was so worried about him.

May seemed to pick up on my exhaustion. "So Wal, have you ever seen Sea Mauvile?" She asked me.

I shook my head. "Nope. But I know a lot about it. My uncle actually used to work on it." I told her.

"Wow, that's pretty cool!" May said.

Brendan raised his brow. "Isn't that the abandoned boat out in the ocean?"

I nodded as we went north from Slateport to the route above. "I'm surprised you never heard of it. Seeing as though your dad is a professor and all." I mentally smacked myself the moment I said that.

Brendan tried not to show that the question upset him. "Well-I mostly know about Pokémon and the region itself. Like when the volcano is smoking, volcanic activity is up."

I looked up at the giant volcanic mass in the center of Hoenn. Sure enough, smoke was flowing out of the volcano. "Oh," I muttered.

"Ah don't worry about it, Wally." Brendan nudged my shoulder. "We've just got to stop that doom machine and all of this should calm down... I hope."

"You hope?" May asked.

Brendan shrugged. "Well, obviously we can't be sure what'll happen. It's been a slow burn of destruction." We turned left on the route and started heading down the path to Route 102. "We can't just ignore these signs, and we probably can't blame everything on Team Crown. They've accelerated things, but this region's had a lot of underlying problems."

The cooler climate in this area gave me a sense of familiarity. The air was less clear but I still found myself energized to press on. Home was close.

We arrived at the edge of the lake between us and Route 103. The water was clear and shallow and I could faintly make out various fish Pokémon at the bottom of the lake.

Brendan sent out his Marshtomp and grinned at us. "Alright, it should be smooth sailing across the water now that my buddy here can play ferry." He told us and hopped onto his Pokémon's back.

Before long the Marshtomp returned to our side of the lake and May boarded as well. Finally, it was my turn and I stepped onto the Pokémon's back. I clutched his head to hold on and felt the cold water on my knees.

The crossing was easy enough and the three of us walked south to Oldale Town. The town was a simplistic cluster of buildings where a few people lived.

I briskly turned to Route 102, and I was eager to just go and make amends with my friend. But, Brendan gasped which tore me away from my goal.

"Shoot. Shoot, shoot, shoot." Brendan growled.

"What is it?" May asked.

Brendan was peering down to Littleroot Town. "Those Crown guys. I can see them. What are they doing?" He clenched his fists.

Brendan was about to march down to the town when May stopped him. "We can't just go charging down there. We don't even know what they want."

"They WANT to cause trouble May! We can't let them have their way with our town." Brendan told her.

I nodded. "C-come on. We have to take this chance and s-stop them." I said. I was trying my best to control my nerves. I knew we could win.

The three of us rushed down the simplistic route. I remembered the times I had explored when I was younger and been on this very route.