"After the Rocket Takeover?" Margaret pointed out. "There should have at least been more guards."

"True." Aleron shrugged. "Maybe because everyone knows you? Maybe they have security measures you didn't see, or something. I mean, lots of possibilities."

"Maybe," Margaret replied. "Well, what matters is that neither of us got caught."

"Exactly." Aleron kept walking, frowning just a little. "We'll see how long that lasts."

"Well, let's try to at least get back to Sprout Tower," Margaret said. "The egg I found is really kind of cold, and I'm fairly sure we saw Suicune's tracks in the tower."

Aleron nodded. "Sounds fair to me."

She got on the boat that would take them across to the mainland and settled in for the trip.

Margaret followed her onto the boat and settled her bag gently on the floor.

"About how long is the ride, usually?"

"About an hour or so, depending on traffic and how many people get in the way."

Aleron snickered and pointed to a guy scrambling out of the way of the boat. "Like that."

"Idiot swimmers," Margaret said. "They should know by now that boats go through."

"Yeah, you'd think so." Aleron rolled her eyes.

Margaret grinned, and made herself comfortable as she looked out the window.

"This is kind of like the ferries that run from Vermilion to Cinnabar," she said. "I mean, it's faster to Surf or Fly from Pallet Town, but people who don't have pokemon that know those moves take the ferries."

"Sometimes I just like taking the ferry. It's quiet, and it's kinda pretty." Aleron paused. "Plus you usually get to see at least a couple of pokemon."

"I had to take the ferry the first few times," Margaret replied. "Until Noctowl could learn the route to Cinnabar Island. After that, though, it was faster to Fly."

"Yeah, I know the feeling. Thus why I'm still debating what kind of bird pokemon I want."

"There are very few bird-types that are also fire-types," Margaret mused. "Very few. I think Charizard is the only relatively common one... I'm not sure if the Torchic family counts as flying-types, since they technically can't fly."

"Hey, a water/flying type would be okay. I'll have to see what I find around." Aleron shrugged.

Margaret giggled.

"Don't get a Gyarados," she said. "It's the only flying-type that can't learn Fly."

Aleron snorted. "Yeah, with my luck, I'd get the one psychotic Gyarados that thought it could fly." She rolled her eyes.

Margaret snickered.

"I bet it would have one of my pokemon levitate it around," she joked. "Just so it could pretend to fly."

"I wouldn't be surprised." Aleron shook her head, amused.

Margaret couldn't help but still grin.

"Just don't get a Gyarados, then," she said. "What about a Skarmory? Skarmories are badass if you ignore their weakness to fire and water, and they're resistant to lightning because they're part steel."

"Skarmories are really cool. I like them." Aleron grinned.

"You'll have to carry around a maintenance kit," Margaret teased. "Steel-types rust. You saw what happened with Metagross, and that was just because it was raining a little."

"Meh, I don't mind. I'm kind of a neat freak, so." Aleron shrugged.

"Yeah, Metagross appreciated that," Margaret replied. "I need to figure out where all of his trouble spots are again, now that he has like four times the number of joints than before. I'll break out the wire brushes and such once this whole mess quiets down a bit."