KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
 “Petra!  Ruari!”
 “Hmm?”  Ruari pushed the rumpled sheets out of her face and looked towards the door.
 “Guys!  It’s ten o’clock!  We gotta go!”  Aoife was, as usual, eager to move on to her next destination.
 “Settle down, Aoife.”  Ferio, of course, repeating her old line, which normally prompted Aoife to say…
 “Settle down?  Geez, Ferio, you’re not my mom.  Or my teacher.  Or my—“
 “Um, girls?”  This was Sora.  “You planning to get up anytime soon, or will we have to get Ferio to kick down the door?”
 Ruari muttered a few unrepeatable words under her breath, then jumped out of bed.  “Coming in a minute!  Just have to, you know, get dressed and stuff.”  Quickly she pulled on some clothes, then slipped her feet into some sandals.
 “The morning after,” Ruari could hear Ferio saying outside.  “Guys, what _did_ you do last night that made you this tired?”
 “None of your business!” Ruari snapped at the door.  She jumped on the bed, grabbed a pillow, and began beating the lump in the covers where she supposed Petra was still sleeping.  “Saph, get up.  Now.  It’s like noon already.”
 “Ehh?”  Petra poked her head out of the covers.  “It’s noon?”
 “Okay, so it’s only ten o’clock…” Ruari admitted.  “But still!  The others are waiting outside!  We gotta hurry and get dressed!  Well, you do, anyway.”
 “Sure, just a second.”  As Ruari gathered up her things and stuffed them carelessly into her backpack, Petra got up and began to dress.
 “Ruari, I still have whipped cream in my hair,” Petra complained, frowning into the mirror as she finger-combed her hair.
 “Leave it,” Ruari said.  “We have to hurry.”
 “Guys, we’re going to go down to the harbor and leave without you,” Aoife threatened from behind the closed hotel room door.
 “I’d like to see you do that,” Petra said, still working at the whipped cream, “seeing as we’re using Ruari’s Pokemon.  Ruari, it’s not coming out.  I think it’s solidified.  We used so much of it I shudder to think of the mini-bar bill.”
 Ruari turned around abruptly.  “Did you say Bill?  Where’s Bill?”
 “Not Bill Sonezaki, the hotel bill.”
 “Oh.  Hey, Petra?”
 “What?”
 “You look cute with bed head.”
 “Oh, shut up.”
 
***
 
 “Whipped cream?” Sora said, raising an eyebrow.  “You were late because of whipped cream?  Okay, I don’t want to know…”
 Ruari filled her in on the details anyway.  “It was stuck in Petra’s hair.  And I think it still is…”
 Petra, who was on Ruari’s Dragonair along with Ferio (the others were on Lapras), tugged at the glob of white gunk in her bangs.  “I might have to cut it off,” she said, frowning worriedly.
 “Industrial strength whipped cream,” Ferio laughed.  “Hey, we’re in the water, aren’t we?  Try washing it off.”
 Petra did so, and Aoife asked, “Ruari, are you sure you’re navigating right?  It’s taking a long time to get to Mikan Island.”
 “According to the map…”
 “Which, as it turns out, you’ve been holding upside-down for the past fifteen minutes,” Sora said.
 “WHAT?”  Ruari scrambled to find the right side of the map.
 “Just kidding.”
 Ruari glared at Sora, then reached into the water and splashed her.  Sora splashed back, then Petra splashed both of them.  Soon Aoife decided to get in on the act, and the whole crew (including Ferio, even though she hadn’t participated) got wet.
 It was all a good laugh until Petra, in a fit of splashing everyone, fell off of the Dragonair and into the water.  “Wait, stop,” Ruari commanded to Lapras, and Ferio pulled on Dragonair’s reins and turned him around.
 “Stay here,” Ruari said to Sora, Aoife, and Ferio.  “I’m going to go make sure she’s all right.”  She changed into her Pokemon form faster than they had ever seen her transform before, and not moments later a Dratini jumped from Lapras’s saddle into the ocean, where Petra was under the waves.
 A moment passed, and then another.  Sora was beginning to get panicky.  “Ruari?  Petra!”  Peering into the water, all she or anybody else could see was a reflection of the sky.
 Before too long, the top of a purple head poked out of the water, and then a pair of winglike ears and a blue Pokemon head.  Using her tail, Ruari pushed Petra back up onto Dragonair, then scooted up onto Lapras’s saddle herself, transforming back.
 Ruari guided Lapras over until it was surfing along next to Dragonair.  As Petra sat up on Dragonair, beginning to get her breath back, Ruari put her hand on her shoulder.  “You okay?”
 “Yeah, I think…” Petra coughed, then looked up at Ruari.  “Hey…you saved my life back there.  I don’t know how to swim, you know.”
 “Think nothing of it,” Ruari said, leading Lapras on.  “Oh wait…Petra?”  
“What?”
Ruari turned back and squinted at Petra.  “The whipped cream came out.”
 
***
 
 “Hey Ferio, you know the Orange Islands, right?” Aoife said to Ferio, as they tried to navigate their way across Mikan Island.  “So you know where this gym is?”
 “I know where it is,” Ferio said slyly, “but I’ll let you find it for yourself.”
 “Oh, come ON, Ferio,” Aoife said, looking exasperated.
 “It’ll be a challenge for you,” Ferio said.  “It’ll be very…character-building.”
 “I have enough character of my own,” Aoife muttered.  “I don’t need to build no stinkin’ character.”
 They continued walking…it appeared that Mikan was mostly jungle; they hadn’t seen a building in a while.  Sora sighed, then out of the blue said, “You know what’s really depressing?”
 “That the president of the world’s only remaining superpower can’t talk?” Ruari said.
 “That we’ll never find the gym?” Aoife said.
 “That all men are barbarians?” Ferio said, earning her some strange looks from the others.
 “No,” Sora said.  “Not even close.  It’s really depressing that I have at least two other rivals for Aidan, and god knows how many other potential lovers he has over there on Cinnabar.”
 “Typical,” Ferio said.  “She’s not concerned about anything but Aidan.”
 “I am too.”
 “Um, Sora?” Ruari said.  “Do these other ‘rivals’ even KNOW they’re your rivals?”
 “No…”
 “Then it’s one-sided rivalry,” Ruari said.  “Yeah…that IS pretty depressing…”
 Chu-Chu looked up from Aoife’s shoulder, sniffed the air, then said, “Pi?”  Sniffing some more, she cried, “Pika, pika!”
 “Huh?” Aoife said.  “What is it, Chu-Chu?”
 “Pika!” Chu-Chu said, pointing at the path in front of them.
 “Psy, duck, psy, duck…” something said in the bushes.  A minute later a Psyduck waddled out, pausing in the middle of the road.  “Duck?” it asked, tilting its head to the side and looking quizzically at the group.
 “Oh, no, not a Psyduck,” Aoife groaned.
 “What’s wrong with Psyduck?” Sora asked.
 “My mom had one,” Aoife said.  “It was completely clueless, and it wouldn’t do anything she asked it to.”
 “So that’s how come she could put up with you,” Ferio said, “because Psyduck got her used to it.”  Aoife growled and gave Ferio a sidelong glare.
 “It looks cute,” Sora said, approaching it cautiously.  “But it might not be friendly.”
 “It’s friendly,” a voice from the bushes said.  “Unless I tell it not to be.”
 “Oh, bugger,” Aoife muttered.  “I know that voice.”
 The bluenette they had met yesterday jumped out of the bushes and scooped up the Psyduck.  “The hicks from Kanto again, huh?” she said, giving them a disapproving sneer.  “What are YOU doing here?”
 “I came to do battle at the Mikan Gym,” Aoife said, stepping forward and attempting to look brave.  “I want to—“
 The bluenette interrupted, shaking her head.  “You’re saying it wrong.  It’s not pronounced ‘MY-kan’, it’s ‘MEE-kahn’.  It’s Japanese for tangerine.”
 “Well, excuse me,” Aoife said.  “So where’s this great gym you’re so proud of?”
 “That’s for you to find out,” the girl said, turning and running off through the bushes.  “See ya!”
 “Hey, wait!” Aoife said, chasing through the bush after her.  The others had no choice but to follow her as she crashed through the jungle, hoping to find where the other girl had gone off to.
 As she was running, Aoife stepped on something soft, something that yelled “PSYYYY!” when she tripped over it.  Aoife sat up, finding herself face-to-face with the dazed, swirly eyes of the girl’s Psyduck.
 “Oh, it’s you,” Aoife said.  The others approached.  “You know who that girl reminds me of?” Aoife said to them.  “She reminds me of you, Ferio.”
 “Thanks, I’m honored,” Ferio said.  “Did we lose her?”
 “Looks like it,” Aoife said gloomily.  “She didn’t leave much of a trail…but wait!”  She picked up the Psyduck and held it up to her face.  “You can tell us where your owner’s gym is, can’t you?”
 The Psyduck stared stupidly at her.  “Duck?”
 Ruari stepped in.  “Let me talk to it.”  She changed into Pokemon form and slithered up to the Psyduck as a Dratini.  “Tini, tini dra?”
 “Psy,” Psyduck said, shaking its head.
 “Dratini, tini.”
 “Duck,” Psyduck replied, pointing off towards the south.  “Duck, psy psyduck.”
 “Tini,” Ruari said, semi-bowing at the Psyduck (as much as it can be said that a Dratini can bow) and turned around to the group, resuming her human shape.  
“Psyduck gave me the directions,” she said.  “It’s this way.  Come on!”  She ran off in the direction the Psyduck had pointed her, with the rest of the group following behind, including Psyduck.
“Duck, duck, duck…” Psyduck panted, as it waddled along behind the group.
Sora turned around and noticed it, laughing.  “We’d better take you back to your owner, huh?”  She picked it up and ran to catch up with the group.
 
***
 
 “Psy psyduck!”  Psyduck pointed to a building up ahead that looked like a beach house but bore a sign with the words “Mikan Island Gym” above the door.
 “All right!” Aoife cheered, running up ahead.  “Thanks, Psyduck, we owe ya one.”
 The door on the second floor balcony opened and the bluenette girl stepped out.  “Oh, no, not you,” she groaned.  “How’d you find this place?”
 “Ermynne!” a voice from inside the house called.  “Is there someone out there?”
 “Unfortunately,” the girl, apparently Ermynne, said to the open door.  “Some challenger, I guess.”
 “What do you mean, you guess?” Aoife shouted.  “Of COURSE I’m a challenger!”  She bounced up and down, punching the air.  “And I’m ready to challenge you!  Where’s the arena?”
 A woman about 20 years old, with long dark hair and sea-blue eyes stepped out onto the balcony.  “Oh, so you’re the challengers,” she said.  “Come on in, I’ll be right down to open the door.”
 Somehow Petra managed to scale the balcony and, on bended knee, take the woman’s hands.  “Hello there, lovely lady,” she said.  “So you’re the gym leaders?  I had no idea the women in the Orange Islands were this beautiful!”
 “PETRA!” Ruari yelled, shaking her fist up at the balcony.  “I am SO going to kick your ass when you get down here!”
 “Um, maybe I better let your friends in,” Petra’s new love interest said, going back inside with Petra still following behind.
 “Don’t let them in!” Ermynne complained, following after the other woman, probably her sister.  “They’re just a bunch of hicks from the Orange Islands!  They don’t know how to battle!”
 “Hey, don’t speak for all of us,” Ferio said.  “We ARE all gym leaders in this group, after all.”
 The young woman came downstairs to let them in, with Ermynne glowering in the background.  “Please come in, the arena is downstairs.”
 “Where’s Petra?” Sora asked, looking around.
 “Oh…I think your friend is still upstairs,” the young woman said.
 From upstairs they could hear a loud CRACK and a girl’s voice yelling, “Pervert!”
 “Yup, that’s Petra,” Aoife said.  “Someone better go get her…”
 “Let me handle her,” Ruari said, rolling up her sleeves and looking threatening.
 “Er, Ruari, maybe you better not,” Sora said.  “I’ll go get her.”
 But Sora didn’t have to go upstairs.  A teenage girl with short blue hair came storming down the stairs, with Petra following on her heels, a red slap mark on her face.  Ruari stormed up to them and grabbed Petra by the wrist, pulling her away.  “Great goddess, HOW many times…”
 “But she’s really pretty,” Petra protested.
 “And I’m not?” Ruari demanded, hands on hips.
 “Well, you’re…”
 “Um, ladies?” the older sister said.  “The gym?”
 “Right,” Aoife said.  “Let’s go.”
 Ermynne and her sisters led Aoife and company down into the gym, while the older sister introduced them.  “I’m Michelle Cameron.  This is Cerise”—she indicated the bluenette who had hit Petra—“and I assume you’ve met Ermynne?”
 Ermynne was still looking sulky.  “Yeah, I guess.”
 “Chelle and I run the gym,” Cerise said, “although it’s really our mom’s, but she’s off on business now so we’re in charge.”
 “And your dad?” Aoife asked.
 “It’s strange,” Cerise said, her eyes looking distant.  “After Ermynne was born he went out to sea and we never saw him again…he was born in Johto, though, so maybe he went home.”
 “Here we are!” Michelle said, as they arrived in the gym.  It was a glass-enclosed sunroom on the side of the house, almost right on the beach.  There was a pool in the middle, and a ledge on one side of the pool, on which a variety of candles were set up.
 “Cerise, would you like to take this match?” Michelle asked.
 “Sure,” Cerise said, stepping forward and addressing Aoife in an official manner while Ermynne looked on her sister with admiration.  “Are you familiar with the rules of the Orange League?”
 “Actually, this is my first battle with an Orange Crew member,” Aoife said, ignoring Ermynne’s derisive snicker.
 Cerise laughed also, but a kinder laugh.  “If you think we’re going to battle, then obviously not.”
 “So we don’t battle?” Aoife said.  “Then how do I earn your badge?”
 “In the Orange Crew, challengers earn badges by competing in contests of skill,” Cerise explained.  “For example, at our gym we might have a race, or a Water Gun contest.  It all depends on the gym’s main element type, although unlike the Indigo League we don’t necessarily have to specialize.  No matter what gym, there’s usually a race, though.”
 “Ferio,” Aoife muttered at the smug-looking green-haired girl.  “Why didn’t you tell me that?”
 “You didn’t ask.”
 “Grr.”
 “Are you ready to begin?” Cerise asked.
 “Sure,” Aoife said.  “What’s the first challenge?”
 “See those candles over there?” Cerise said, pointing across the pool.  “We each use a water Pokemon, and with their Water Gun attacks our Pokemon will put out the candles.  Whoever puts out the most candles in the shortest time is the winner.”  She turned to Ermynne.  “Get ready with the clock please, Myn.”
 “Sure!” Ermynne said, holding up a stopwatch proudly.
 “She’s not a gym leader, so I guess she has to help her sisters,” Aoife thought, watching Ermynne as she brought out her first Pokeball.  “She seems to look up to them. Bet she thinks it’s the best job in the world, clicking that stopwatch.”
 Cerise brought out her Pokeball and threw it into the water.  “Go, Marill!”
 A blue balloon-like mouse Pokemon appeared in the water, bouncing up and down and using its bubble tail as a flotation device.  “Mar-ril-mar!”
 “Hmm,” Aoife took out her Pokedex.  “A new Orange Islands Pokemon.”
 “Marill,” Dexter said.  “The aquamouse Pokemon.  The tip of its tail contains oil that is lighter than water, which allows it to swim without drowning, even in vicious currents.”
 Ermynne looked proud.  “That’s right, Marill really are great.  And they’re VERY tough to catch, but Cerise is an excellent trainer so it was easy for her.  It was her starter Pokemon.”
 “Then she didn’t catch it,” Aoife said.  “I mean, if it was her starter…”
 “She could if she wanted to, though,” Ermynne said.  “She’s that good.  I hope you have a really good Pokemon if you want to beat Marill, Aoife.”
 “Matter of fact, I do,” Aoife said.  “Go, Vaporeon!”
 Her Vaporeon landed in the water with a splash, and Ermynne snorted.  “Lame Pokemon.”
 Aoife glared at her but didn’t dignify her with a response.  “Ready to begin?” Cerise asked.  Aoife nodded.  “All right then, Ermynne, start the clock!”
 “Vaporeon, water gun!”
 “Marill, water gun!”
 The commands were shouted simultaneously, but Marill got a head start.  Both of the water guns streaked down the line of candles, putting out almost every one…but when they were finished there was one left.  It was much taller than the rest, making it easy to miss.
 Fortunately Aoife spotted it first.  “Vaporeon, you missed one!  There, on the right!”
 Vaporeon moved to put out the last candle, but Marill had heard Aoife’s command too.  They both raced for the last one, but Vaporeon beat Marill by a hair.  The last candle went out with a hiss of steam.
 “Yeah!” Aoife cheered.  “Good job, Vaporeon!”
 “Don’t think you’ve won yet,” Ermynne interrupted.  “I have to count the candles.”
 “How can you tell which ones she got and which ones I got?” Aoife asked.
 “I watched,” Ermynne said. “Very carefully.  And I saw which ones you both got.”
 “She’s not exactly impartial, though,” Sora said.
 Ermynne crossed the room and counted the candles, then looked up with a miserable expression on her face.  “Bad news, Cerise.  The Kanto girl over there got more than you.”
 “That’s okay,” Cerise said.  “It’s best out of three.  The next event is the skeet shoot, and Ermynne’s going to go set it up on the beach right now…Ermynne?” she prompted, and Ermynne quickly snapped to attention and ran outside onto the beach to prepare for the next event.  
 “What’s the skeet shoot?” Aoife asked, watching Ermynne scrambling around outside.
 “It works kinda like this,” Cerise explained.  “We have a machine, and it throws flaming discs into the air.  Your Pokemon has to put out the disks as they fly, and whoever gets the most wins.  You have to be quick and have really good aim, too.”
 “I can do that,” Aoife said confidently.  “I think I’m going to use Vaporeon again.”
 “Since Ermynne will be operating the machine and Cerise is battling,” Michelle said, “I have to count who gets the most.”
 Ermynne ran back inside and made a small bow towards her sisters.  “It’s ready!”
 “Good,” Cerise said, heading outside as Ermynne held the door open for her.  “How many did you put in?”
 “Twenty,” Ermynne said.  Her sisters had both gone outside and Aoife was about to leave the sunroom when Ermynne slammed the door in her face.  Aoife was flattened against the glass door, then slowly slid down to the ground, squeaking against the glass, with a small “Ouch.”
 Fortunately Aoife recovered, and she joined the Cameron sisters on the beach.  Ermynne was standing beside a machine that came up to her waist, which had a cannon-looking thing on the side.  Michelle stood on the side of the cliff holding a clipboard, getting a better view of the beach so she could count who got how many skeet.
 “Ready?” Cerise said.  Aoife nodded, and Vaporeon mimicked her gesture.  “All right, Ermynne, start the machine!”
 One disc shot into the air, and the sight of the fire startled Aoife.  She instinctively jumped back, as did Vaporeon, and Cerise’s Marill got the first disc.  Ermynne pressed another button on the machine, and two discs shot out this time.
 “Okay, Vaporeon, you can get this one!” Aoife said encouragingly to her Pokemon.  She was right; Vaporeon got one and Marill got the other.  The next one went to Vaporeon, and the next one after that.  Then the discs started coming faster, and the Pokemon both had to work harder, sometimes putting out two or even three discs on each try.  Eventually the machine ran out, and the contest was over.
 Cerise turned to Michelle for the results.  “How’d it go, Chelle?”
 “Cerise got 13 discs,” Michelle reported.  “Aoife got 7.”
 “All right!” Ermynne cheered.  “Go Cerise!  I knew you could do it!”
 “Which means we’ll have to have a tiebreaker event,” Cerise said.  “How about a race?”
 But Mother Nature had something else to say about that.  While they were competing, dark clouds had begun to roll in over the islands, darkening the tropical sky.  It began to rain, in big scattered drops at first, then the raindrops became more numerous.  Quickly the sand on the beach turned dark grayish brown with moisture.
 “Or how about not,” Aoife said.
 “Come on, everyone inside!” Michelle said, jumping down from the rock she was standing on and herding them all inside until she and Petra were the only ones still out.
 “After you,” Petra offered, bowing gallantly.
 “Thanks,” Michelle said, hurrying inside as Petra followed.
 Ruari looked up at the sunroom roof, watching the raindrops pelt against it.  “It’s really going to rain like a son of a bitch tonight, isn’t it?”
 Cerise frowned.  “And the pool inside is too small for a race.”  She turned to Aoife.  “It’s up to you, Aoife.  We can wait until tomorrow when the rain clears up and race outside, or have another event in here.”
 Aoife shook her head.  “I want to have a race.  I can wait.”
 “But we don’t have anyplace to stay tonight,” Sora pointed out.  “We spent the whole day training and looking for the gym, and we didn’t find a hotel.”
 “That’s okay, you can stay here!” Michelle offered.
 “Noooo!” Ermynne groaned.  “I don’t want any Kanto hicks hanging around here all night!”
 “Now, Ermynne, be nice,” Michelle said.  “We have those two sofa beds, so that’s four people taken care of…but there are five of you.”
 “No problem,” Cerise said.  “Someone can sleep in Ermynne’s room!”
 “Oh dear god no,” Ermynne said, covering her face with her hands.
 Ruari was quick to link arms with Petra, possessively.  “We’re sleeping in one of the beds.”
 Petra looked disappointed.  “But can’t I sleep with—“
 “NO.”
 “Okay, so that’s one of them taken care of…” Cerise said.  “Now what about the other bed?”
 Ferio smirked.  “I think Sora and I will take that one.  Aoife can room with Ermynne.”
 “Are you CRAZY?” Aoife said.  Ermynne looked like she was thinking the same thing.
 “So it’s settled,” Michelle said, clapping her hands excitedly.  “I love having guests…I’ll make you some dinner later, all right?”  She dashed upstairs to the kitchen.
 Cerise headed upstairs too.  “Guess I better get the beds made.”
 “Great,” Aoife muttered.  “I have to sleep in HER room.”
 “Great,” Ermynne said.  “I have to let a Kanto girl sleep in MY room.”
 Ferio sighed.  “This might be a long night…”
 
 
Author's Notes
Wow, not only is this the longest episode so far, but it was also written after I hadn't written any Conclave for a month at least.  So we learn the name of the "bluenette" (heehee) and meet her sisters...who, by the way, are all Cissy's daughters.  Remember Cissy, from Fit to be Tide?  She's one of my favorite characters, probably my favorite side character.  She's cool.  You might meet their father later, might not...but it'll be a while before you do.  Sonezaki, BTW, is Bill's Japanese last name: Sonezaki Masaki.  I just carried it over to the English.  And again Ruari is Bush-bashing...why she cares so much about a president who was around a hundred or so years before her time, I do not know.  It's funny, though.  Oh yeah, and Cerise is a really cool name. ^-^ That's why I had her do the battle, so I could write her name more.
 
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