A Hoenn Journey With Nearly No Hoenn Pokemon

Sam brought his arm over his face as he stood on the deck of the SS Tidal, blocking his eyes from the bright sunlight that shone in the sky. Some of the ocean water sprayed up and hit the passengers standing in the open as the ferry started to head towards its destination, Slateport City. Some various water-type pokemon could be seen in the surrounding water, looking relatively calm and relaxed. So, this is Hoenn? Can't wait to get started out here. And now that I'm here, I just have to figure out one thing: what to get started with. He thought to himself as he waited for the ferry to pull up to a stop.

Zoey, a female of average stature, sat on the bed in the room she had been given for the duration of the ferry's journey. Using the plain hair tie on her wrist, she put her long brown hair up into a messy ponytail, leaving a few wavy bits of hair to frame her face. Zoey turned, her blue eyes focusing on the Pokemon curled up on the bed. Tapping the Sandshrew's rough exterior, she watched as her Pokemon partner un-curled herself.

"How about we go get some fresh air, Dust?" she asked the Sandshrew. Dust smiled, nodding before she hopped off of the neatly made up bed and onto the floor. Zoey led the way out of the cabins and up onto the main deck where various other people could be spotted, watching their surroundings. Even from here, Zoey could feel the spray of the ocean water on her face. She walked forward, Dust hesitating for a moment before following.

It appeared that they were nearly at their destination and Zoey could feel the relaxed atmosphere. Blinking, she turned to Dust who had curled up on the deck to prevent herself from being sprayed with water.
"Aww, I'm sorry Dust," she apologised, remembering the ground type's weakness to water, "We'll be there son, I promise."
Zoey bent down and lifted the Sandshrew into her arms where she attempted to protect her from most of the watery spray. Dust settled there, uncurling and finding herself content in her trainer's protection.

Sam had been starting to get used to the relaxed atmosphere, enjoying it until a thought popped up in his mind. Wait a minute. Where's-oh. He had started to think, turning around and noticing a familiar and slightly annoying three-headed shape flying around in the air, passing by random people and always smiling, not seeming to care about anything in the slightest. Freaking Combee... he muttered to himself as the bee pokemon glided over towards Zoey's direction, hovering around her and some of the other people close by to her before returning to just over Sam's shoulder.
"You have got to be the most oblivious and near useless pokemon I've ever met, you know that Buz?" He muttered as the Combee continued to fly around him, continuously smiling. "Stop that, you're making me feel bad." He added, feeling guilty about what he said, despite it being completely true. Sometimes he just found he couldn't insult his partner with a clean conscience afterwards.

Zoey had been watching the tranquil rise and fall of the ocean waves before a Combee had flown over, buzzing around her for a few moments and drawing her attention towards it. She couldn't help but smile at the cheerful looking Pokemon, Dust looking rather confused at the Combee as it flitted from person to person before returning to it's trainer. Zoey wandered over to where the Combee had settled, hovering over Sam's shoulder instead of bothering other people.
"He's actually rather cute," she smiled, nodding to the Combee, "Are you from Sinnoh?"

"Huh?" Sam bluntly asked, blinking slightly as the girl said something to him. "Oh, yeah. I actually am from Sinnoh, nice guess. And cute as he may be, he's not too good with anything else other then that." He responded, smiling back at her. He noticed the curled up Sandshrew near Zoey and decided to try and guess where she was from. Let's see, Unova has a big desert but I think they're from the Kanto area...
"What about you, are you here from Kanto or something?" He followed up with, deciding to make conversation with her for the duration of the ferry ride.

"Unova actually," she smiled, placing Dust on the ground so that she could wander over to where the Combee hovered, "Though Kanto would probably be a nice place to live. Unova is so technological in comparison to the mostly countryside-like areas in Kanto. I think it'd be nice to live where the air is always fresh and the grass feels greener," she grinned.

"Ah, Unova. I know that Sinnoh is a bit more on the technological side but it's nowhere near Unova's standings in that field." Sam responded, remembering what he had heard about the area before. He swayed a bit as the boat also did so, the waves getting slightly stronger as the ferry started to near closer to land. Buz continued to move around in place in a spastic manor, looking overly energetic as he constantly moved but seemed to stay above the same area.
"Yeah, I guess that sounds nice, though there's a forest around where I live so that works out for me." Sam told her, shrugging slightly before he thought of something. "Wait, what's your name? Probably should have asked that first." He asked.

"Zoey," she smiled, glancing at the Sandshrew nearby, "And this is Dust. Pleased to meet you!"

Dust stared up at the Combee with beady, blue tinged eyes. The Sandshrew was curious about the Tiny Bee Pokemon, having never seen one before. Raising one paw, she made a waving motion, greeting the unusual bug and flying type.

Sam smirked at Zoey, nodding his head. "Right, nice to meet you too. My name's Sam." He answered, and looked over at the Combee. "And for lack of a better name, he's Buz." Sam continued to introduce his pokemon, sighing slightly but still smirking. Buz looked down at Dust and tilted slightly to his side, still flapping his wings in order to attempt to mimic the wave she gave him.
"So, what brings you to Hoenn?" Sam asked, curious as to why someone from Unova, and interested in Kanto would be interested in Hoenn.

The Sandshrew seemed to smile at the Combee's attempt to wave back, amused for a moment.

"I'm hoping to pursue a career as a pokemon coordinator and Hoenn is where pokemon contests originated so I figured here would be the best place to start," she replied, explaining her ambitions to Sam.
"What about you?" she asked, just as curious about him as he was about her.

"Me? I'm just here because I figured this would be a good place to start as far as taking on gyms goes. I mean it's a pretty nice place, one of the regions I want to visit the most." Sam responded, explaining his reasons for being there with a smile on his face. Truthfully he wanted to take on the gyms there, and then move on to other regions and challenge their gyms some day. He found himself wondering where the conversation would go, and glanced over at their pokemon before getting an idea. "So, how did you meet your partner over there?" He asked, looking at the Sandshrew for a moment before glancing back to Zoey.

Zoey couldn't help but smile as she listened to Sam and felt his enthusiasm. Dust's attention was drawn back to Zoey and Sam when she heard her trainer talking about when they had first met.

"I live in Nimbasa City, which is pretty much right next door to a desert, which you have to cross to get to Castelia City. There is a road there now, but I once got caught on Route 4 during a very harsh sandstorm and ended up lost in the sands. Dust here found me attempting to take shelter under some rocks and stayed with me until the sandstorm passed by. Once it was over, she lead me back to the road," explained Zoey, "I came back to visit her often afterward as a thankyou and in the end she became my pokemon partner."

"Wow, that sounds like something. It's a good thing she found you then." Sam commented with a smile, glancing at Dust and Buz again before looking back to Zoey.
"Well, at least you got your partner on purpose, and you two seem to have a bit of backstory, so that's good. I'm still getting used to him though." He said, referring to Buz as he remembered how he had ran into his partner pokemon. The boat seemed to rock again, sending a slightly larger splash of water onto the deck, causing Sam to take a few steps from the edge closer inwards.

Dust dodged away from the edge of the boat as water splashed onto the deck, hiding behind her trainer's leg. Zoey followed Sam's lead and stepped back a little, turning and lifting Dust back into her arms so that the Sandshrew wouldn't have to worry about the spraying ocean water again.
Now that Dust was happily away from the water, Zoey returned to their conversation.
"So if you didn't get Buz on purpose, how did you get him?" she asked, curious as to what could have happened.

Sam chuckled slightly and ended with a sigh, looking up at the sky for a moment as he prepared to tell his story.
"Well, you see, it all started when I was determined to catch my first pokemon..."
Sam was sitting in a bush, looking out at an unsuspecting pokemon in Eterna Forest. He watched as a Roserade was out in a patch of grass, getting some sunlight and on its own. Glancing down at the pokeball in his hand, he tossed it up once and caught it, getting ready to throw it.
"So there I was, ready to hopefully catch it, when basically..."
Pulling his arm back, Sam threw the pokeball out at the Roserade, when something completely unpredictable happened. A certain spastic Combee fluttered past, and got in the way, getting hit by the pokeball and sucked in. Sam simply stared wide eyed with his jaw open as the ball clicked three times and indicated a successful capture.
"Yeah, so I caught him instead. I considered releasing him but I mean I couldn't, those smiling faces are kinda mesmerizing." Sam finished, glancing at Buz, who had flown back over to him, circling just above his head.