Danny glanced at the arriving 'Fary'. Yup, it was the two girls from before...and judging by what she directed her words too, he was being ignored. Nonetheless, he tried to keep his smile, and continued with a reply. "It's alright. There was no harm done," he answered – his cross Ini proved otherwise. "It's nice to meet you, Fary. My name is Daniel, or Danny for short. I'm from Slateport City in Hoenn myself, though I've been moving around frequently in my life. I've been to Nimbasa, in fact."

Now aware of the fact that the two girls, Fary and Aeris, were friends, he bit his lip and muttered to himself, realizing one problem: Danny had no friends here, and he was going to be alone in this if he didn't at least have a human companion along with him. Thankfully they were all going to walk down the same road up to Cerulean, but what were the chances he would get to befriend anyone later in his journey? Maybe going lone-wolf isn't all that bad, he reassured himself while following the crowd toward what seemed to be Professor Oak's lab. But...these Trainers are adults, and I'm a kid. Already he felt intimidated.

Lisa jumped on Aeris' head as Fary and Emily came closer to them, then jumped onto Emily, skittering on her head. Much like her own Trainer, she couldn't sit still for very long.
"Joltik, tik? Jol, Joltiktik!" Isn't this fun, being in a new region? So fun, gonna meet so many new Pokémon and make a party worthy of a Champion!

Aeris, in the meanwhile, observed for a moment while Fary talked to Charlie and Dan before joining in herself. "Oh, I totally forgot to mention! I'm from Driftveil City! I've been to Castelie City a few times, sometimes with Fary, and it's sooooooooo big! I almost got lost once in the sewers, but then I found my way out again. It's really really pretty at night, yeah, with all the lights and the people and the Pokémon walking around! But I prefer Driftveil because it's quieter, and there's a lot more I can do there than in the city! People apparently don't like it when you run around the streets and bump into everyone, so I just played with the Pokémon at our place, because we had a lot of Pokémon since my parents are breeders, but I didn't want to become a breeder so I decided to become a trainer instead!"

Before she could continue with whatever more she had to say, she went ahead of them into the lab, since they were relatively close to it now, and found two other people inside, a guy and a little girl. Ignoring the guy, she went down on her knees in order to pinch the cheeks of the girl. "You're so adorable, I could just squeeze the stuffing out of you, if you had stuffing!" Lisa had got back onto Aeris before she ran off, since Lisa knew her Trainer well enough by now to do that, and was jumping up and down on her head in excitement over meeting these new people.

As Sybil awaited a come back or apology from the girl before her, she noticed Lapis suddenly tense up, and another voice came from behind. Whatever words she had teetering at the tip of her tongue quickly vanished, and with a sudden grimace her mind whispered.

Well, here comes a knight in shining armor. Yeesh.

Sybil fought against her desire to continue glaring, turning slowly to face the new stranger with a face that could probably curdle milk. She examined him thoroughly, blue eyes full of unwarranted judgement, and as she did so she allowed the rage her mind had snatched without out hesitation to quell, instead clinging to the feeling of anxiousness this boy seemed to give out. The girl behind her, the still unknown stranger's anger, melted as she breathed in once, twice, and then exhaled. After a few deep breaths her face reddened, obviously embarrassed for exploding so suddenly, and without any knowledge on how to apologize for such an outburst and lowered her head in a light bow, stammering over her words before finally replying,

"S-sorry. You're right. Sorry, sorry..." She trailed off after a moment of apologizing, straightening and turning to stare back at the other girl. A brief string of anger filled her again, making her eyebrows furrow, but it passed in an instant and she tipped her head back, eyes narrowed only slightly,

"Though it wasn't my fault, sorry to you too." Lapis beside her seemed a bit amused by her comment, head tilting back and fourth as a giggle emitted from it's small body. Sybil felt the hint of a smile meet her lips, and with only slight difficulty she hefted the heavy ball of steel up and cradled him with both arms. Any remaining anger faded as she stood, surrounded by thoughts of rushing along up the hill and how nice the ocean sounded and how cool Lapis felt and... Oh right, the tall kid was still here. Her faint smile vanished as she rose to look up at the stupidly tall boy before her, head cocking to the side as she tried and failed to push back any angry comments about his height. A forced smirk met her lips, and she tightly asked:

"How's the weather up there?"

Before forcing a truly faux-genuine smile onto her round face. Not exactly the question she wanted to ask, but hey, it's a conversation starter.

"Hey! Is someone there! Give me a second I'll be up front in a sec. Just feeding some of the Pokémon. Just head to the foyer to the left. Watch out for the Pidgeys perching above the doorway!"

"Whup!" Adrian dodged out of the doorway and turned his eyes upward. Sure enough, a flock of Pidgeys were sitting around chirping at each other. Magnus hovered up to their level, beeping at them, but they turned to glare at the Steel-type and it retreated back down to its Trainer's shoulder. Taking a few cautious steps away from the bird Pokémon, Adrian took a moment to examine the interior of the Laboratory.

It was a colossal mess, though Adrian interpreted it less like the place had been trashed and more like a certain someone had been left to his own devices for too long. Some things were overgrown out of neglect, others just plain broken. There were holes in the walls between rooms, for Arceus' sake. The Trainer just sighed, his suspicions correct. Someone needed to take over this place, preferably sooner rather than later. "This place is a trainwreck..." he muttered in an aside to Claire. "Come on. We should find some place to wait for whoever it was that gave us that heads-up."

Before Adrian could lead the way to the foyer the voice had mentioned, another girl burst into the Lab with reckless abandon. She made straight for the younger of the two Trainers, and Adrian's eyebrows were soon in danger of disappearing into his hair.

"Er... hello to you too, I guess?"

Charlie gave pause at Aeris' quick comment about the less-than-savory accommodations of Driftveil City. "Uhhh..." Hesitant to answer, he looked on as Aeris sprinted off, barreling into the Pokemon lab with reckless abandon. He gave a slow, confused look towards Fary. "Did she say she got lost in the sewers once...?" He mumbled uneasily to the trainer. From his experiences, sewers weren't really a place kids could just accidentally wander into, so the visualization of such a situation threw him through a bit of a loop.

"Guess things are different in the big city..." "Uh, hey, wait up-" He broke into a nervous trot, in attempts to catch up to the redhead.

"Alright, i'm here-whoa-" He slowed in his approach, eyes trawling over every cracked wall and blown out window as he carefully made his way through the building. "The hell happened to this place...?" It was clear the lab was in utter disarray. If it weren't for the other kids lurking about, he would've concluded the place run-down and abandoned. There looked to be a older male, and a much younger girl (the one currently being space invaded by Aeris). Charlie opted to approach the guy.

"This is the Pokemon lab...right?" He asked, still looking about the place. "You here for the region challenge?" As he queried, Quinn perked up, meekly picking up her head to sniff at the stale air.

Emily growled and tried to buck the annoying bug off of her head, but before she was able to Lisa ran off with Aeris. Emily, still very much so annoyed huffed loudly and cuddled back into Fary's arms.

"Zorua, zo zo zor zor zor zorrrrr zorua!" That damn bug, always waking me up!

"It's nice to meet you, Fary. My name is Daniel, or Danny for short. I'm from Slateport City in Hoenn myself, though I've been moving around frequently in my life. I've been to Nimbasa, in fact."

Fary gasped seeing Danny after he spoke to her. "Oh my Arceus. I'm so sorry, I didn't see you their Danny. I didn't mean to ignore you. It is very nice to meet you Danny. This is my zorua Emily. She was bread for my by my parents."

When Fary said her name Emily popped her head up and gave a happy but still a bit annoyed yip to say hi to Danny then curled back down.

"My parents use to travel to Slateport all the time when I was younger. Mom would compete in the contest hall while dad shopped at the market and chatted with breeders from the fan club. Since Unova doesn't have any contest halls mom had to take me to Hoenn."

Fary gave the boy a warm but somewhat lazy smile then heard the other boy talk to her.

Fary turned to Charlie and laughed a bit at his comment comment. "Yes, she really did get lost in the sewers. Castelie City has huge sewers that can be easy to get lost in. I told her not to go in but she was already set in her ways." Fary sighed thinking of that event as Charlie ran off. When he was out of sigh she turned back to Danny.

"We should follow the others to Professor Oak's lab. Shall we go?" Emily peaked up when her trainer talked about the lab.

"This is the Pokemon lab...right? You here for the region challenge?"

Another newcomer - thankfully a much less hyperactive one - had approached Adrian. The newcomer was slightly taller than him, carrying a Pokémon of his own in his arms. It seemed to uncurl as the guy spoke, revealing a long snout and closed eyes. Adrian recognised the colouring as that of a Cyndaquil, and smiled at the cute ball of fur.

"Yep, that's us. Adrian Manuka, of Celadon City: this here's Magnus." The Magnemite in question gave a beep at the mention of its name, rising from Adrian's shoulder to settle an inch or so above the Trainer's head. "Seems there's more than just a couple of people here on the last day of registration... whereabouts are you from? Not many places to find a Cyndaquil in the wild..." As he introduced himself and asked his own questions, Adrian got the distinct impression that everyone who showed up would be introducing themselves to each other a fair few times over the course of the next hour or so.

"How's the weather up there?"

Erik reflexively displayed a semi-amused smirk at the cliched question the girl posed to him. It's not like he hadn't heard that one a million times before back in Veilstone, mostly from his dad. At least it didn't bother him as much now as it did back then. Back during those darker days. Plus now he had a sidekick that he could use to deflect the usual sarcastic response he gave to such a question.

The Sinnoh native gave something akin to a forced chuckle. "Well...you know...the air gets pretty thin up at this level. Atmosphere changes and all that. But, you know, it's hospitable. Seems to support life up here." He turned to his travelling companion, who still had one of her rose buds attached to his sweatshirt. "How you holding up, Katya?"

Katya waved her free flower, red petals contrasting against the blue sky. "Rosel!" I'm fine!

"She seems to be dealing pretty well. If we get up to the heights of Oak's Lab up there," Erik pointed up to the building at the top of the hill. "We might have a little more difficulty, but till then, you know, we're golden. Take more than some vastly different weather to stop us." He paused for a moment, not really sure where to go from here. This girl seemed to have calmed down enough, but the other girl still looked pissed. She might need a little more time to calm down. "So...you heading up there too?"

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"Yeah, good, all right. Arceus, calm down." The sounds of chatter could be heard over the content growls of some unseen Pokemon. "If you guys went at Lance's Pokemon like that maybe I'd still be..." The muttering stopped as Gary Oak rounded the corner to see a few trainers already standing in the corner there. "Oh. Hello. What's up, newbies? Nice to see you didn't get coated in Pidgey shit. You here to get registered for the Kanto challenge?"

Daniel tried to smile at Fary, though it still felt strange to be around all those...adults. When he was younger, he generally remembered seeing all those Pokemon trainers who were probably no older than his current age, a few even becoming Gym Leaders. Times did change pretty fast. When her Zorua Emily popped out, Danny's Litwick Ini quickly flinched back, giving the Pokemon a glare before hiding into his backpack. "Ini..." he muttered, turning back to Fary. "Your mom still does Pokemon Contests? That's...honestly a bit surprising. Pokemon Contests has sort of been forgotten. Not as much Pokemon coordinators in the last five, ten years. It's a bit unfortunate, seeing the Slateport Contest Hall so empty like that."

He sighed and continued on, immediately noticing more trainers near the lab. He merely waved at all of them, not bothering to go with introductions for a second time. The trip was already tiring enough. None of the Pokemon were ones he had never seen before, save for "Quinn". And the lab honestly looked like a train wreck. Danny wasn't exactly getting good impressions of this Kanto region...then a man walked up in front of him and he hesitated.

The matured man definitely was not someone who sounded like "Professor Oak". He seemed experienced, however, and the vulgar language made him smile a bit. "Well, if we weren't here to register for the Kanto challenge, then we probably took the wrong ship," he joked, shuffling back slightly as he blurted that out loud.

"Huh, a Magnemite, eh? Cool beans!" He replied to Adrian. "I'm from Johto, or uh, Goldenrod City, if I were to be specific. Yeah, she's even rare where I got her from, so I was kinda surprised when I saw Professor Elm had her available." He elaborated. He glanced towards the Magnemite, and gave it a knowing nod. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Magnus." He said with a smile. "Hey, ya wanna say hi to the Magnemite?" He said to Quinn, in attempts to feign a reaction out of her. "Qui..." was all he got out of her, before she shuffled deeper into his arms.

Then, A voice rung out from behind the bushy haired trainer, a seasoned voice that Charlie knew all too well. As he turned to match a face to the voice, the sudden suspicions floating about his psyche had rung true. "It's you...Gary Motherfucking Oak! Kanto Champion!" Charlie spoke the name in a hushed, excited tone. Naturally, as they were occupying his grandfather's lab, it would make sense that the man could be here. And still, he was quite surprised to be in the presence of a celebrity.

Fary sighed when Danny talked about the decline in the interest for Pokemon contests. She remembers her mother struggling to find something to do with her time once the contests died down. Her mother would just spend days training with her Pokemon for contests that would get cancelled due to a low number of registered contestants. Fary herself only was in a handful of contests before it slowed down. After that point her mom opened a grooming shop along side her father's breeding business. While it wasn't her passion, it was still something she could do with her family and that's all she needed.

Fary followed Danny up to the lab and blinked seeing it in such a disheveled state.

"Damn, Professor Juniper always keeps her lab looking neat. This... looking like someone let an Mankey run wild while trying to chase a Pidgy with explosive diarrhea."

She didn't see Gary Oak just in front of her was she spoke about the poor state of Professor Oak's lab. When looking around, she saw Gary smirked a bit when he commented to the her fellow group of trainers. She knew who he was the moment she saw him. Even in Unova, she made sure to keep abreast on the Pokemon leagues of each region.

She laughed a bit more when Charlie started acting star struck. She was use to meeting big names in the Unova Pokemon League due to her parents as well as dating a big name trainer herself. Fary was clearly not as impressed with Gary as some of the other members of her group were. That wasn't to say she didn't think he wasn't a good trainer.

"I had an ex that would talk about and bet on the Pokemon leagues from other regions outside of Unova so I know of Gary Oak even if Kanto and Unova aren't that close. Anyway, yea, we're here to take on the Kanto league. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Before the young girl could respond to what Aeris was doing, she had quickly turned her attention to Gary Oak, who had now shown himself. She'd heard of his name, mostly because of spending some time at Fary's house when they were younger, and she was excited to meet such an important person. Not that it was noticeably any different from her usual excitement, but she hurried herself over to where he stood and stood almost right up to his face.

"Hi! Yeah, we're here 'cause we wanna become Champions! It would be sooooooo awesome! I'm gonna beat 'em all with my lil' Lisa over here!" Aeris pointed towards the jumping Joltik on top of her head. "We're gonna be unstoppable!" Aeris herself was bouncing around on her feet out of excitement. "Jol, Joltik!" Yeah, no one can beat us!

"I'm from Johto, or uh, Goldenrod City, if I were to be specific. Yeah, she's even rare where I got her from, so I was kinda surprised when I saw Professor Elm had her available."

"Ah, Goldenrod City. You're a neighbour then, just across to the west... hey there, little one." The last of Adrian's comments was directed at the Cyndaquil, who seemed to shy away from him. Briefly Adrian considered extending a hand to see if she would poke it, but decided against it on the off-chance that she might have a little fire in her. That and, y'know, common courtesy. If another Trainer's Pokémon doesn't want anything to do with you, you leave it alone.

At the arrival of the one and only Gary Oak, Viridian Gym Leader - and therefore the last opponent before taking on Victory Road - Adrian nodded in response to his questions. Though his eyebrows shot up again at the hyperactive girl and what appeared to be a complete lack of understanding of personal space. As if it knew what he was thinking, Magnus gave a short two-tone buzz and settled back down on his shoulder.

The girl he was talking to seemed to clam up and shake her head no. It was a bit weird. Maybe she figured she made a huge misstep with the weather line. It was awkward sure but it wasn't anything to get so upset about. "OK...well I'm going up that way... so yeah...you two try not to fight any more OK? Yeah..." Katya was as chipper as ever, waving at the two girls as Erik turned around and headed up the hill towards Oak's lab. "Rose!"

It wasn't all that steep of a climb but still Erik was glad to be done with it. The outside of the giant laboratory look like it had been well kept anyway. All the herbivore Pokemon around here it was hard to see how it couldn't be. Cries could be heard from all over the area. Most of them sounded happy at least. Erik was in awe of how how massive the complex was, while Katya was just breathing in the clean-ish air and fragrant scents coming off her fellow Grass types.

As Erik walked up to the door a younger looking girl came running out moving at a Rapidash clip. She was flying by too fast for Erik to even ask what was going on or why she was running like that. Must have been excited to start her journey or something. He could only shrug as he continued in past the still open door. From the sounds of things there were people talking to the left of the hallway. Just as well it looked slightly cleaner than anything that was on the right hand side of the lobby.

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Gary was taken back by the kind of reaction he got from the assembled group of trainers. A couple of them seemed way too excited to be seeing him, the youngest one was so overwhelmed she ran off. Nice to know I still have the effect on people. The other two were just...there. I remember when I had the entire group though. As Erik shuffled in behind the people, in place of the departed Claire, The Viridian Gym Leader figured that was as good as it was going to get for now.

"All right rookies, you may think that you're just going to have a walk in the park through this league, but there are some tricks up our Leaders sleeves that you might not be ready for. I should know. I took this challenge ten years ago before I was hired on as Viridian Gym Leader. You all are going to be travelling across brutal terrain, over oceans, through mountains. You'll be fighting again wild animals, ten times the levels of the Pokemon you have with you. But at the end, is a pretty nice reward. Money, a bunch of it, as well as a claim to fame that will never die. Champion of Kanto. If you're ready for that, then come forward and grab your Pokedexes. If not, you may want to follow that little girl out the door right now."

Charlie had a proud, defiant grin stretch across his face. "I'm down." He stated simply, stepping forward to retrieve one of the many devices laid out before him. He examined the pokedex as he picked it up. "Ohhh, these're those new new ones, from Kalos! I didn't even know they were out yet." The bushy haired trainer spouted, looking for anything resembling a on switch. The design of the new dex was very minimal, to say the least. A new piece of technology Charlie would have to get used to. With a smirk, he gave Gary a short glance. "I rode in all the way from Johto to take on this challenge. You won't see me turn it down just cuz we'll be pushed to our limits." He placed the pokedex in his pocket as he fell back in line with his fellow trainers. "...It wouldn't really be called a challenge if it weren't challenging...would it?" he added.

Aeris only half listened to what Gary was saying, but she pretty much got the gist of it. Travel with Pokémon, fight Pokémon, catch Pokémon, evolve Pokémon (the last thing being something she herself added in her mind). When he was done talking, she grabbed herself a Pokédex and examined it. It was really fancy and she tried all the buttons. It seemed to be idiot proof, as she had not made it fry itself from all the incessant button pressing and quickly going from one thing to another. Lastly, she scanned Lisa to see what info it would show about her.



"Oh wow, this is amazing!" Aeris said, rather loudly, and began scanning every other Pokémon she could see in the room, including Fary's Emily and Charlie's Quinn.

"Oh, I'm definitely ready for this." The claim came from Adrian as he collected a Pokédex of his own. Confident and collected. The wildlands of Kanto didn't inspire much, if any, fear in him, as he'd seen what some of the earlier routes had to offer. Zubat in Mt. Moon? Psh. They weren't scary. You just had to tune out the incessant flapping when you found a cluster of them gathered together. Maybe Gary had had a traumatic encounter with a flock of Spearow early in his journey? Or was that someone else? Jokes aside, Adrian began to examine the sleek-looking, semi-transparent-in-places device he now owned, holding it up to take a snapshot of Magnus for the record.



"Check it out, it's you," he told Magnus as he showed the screen to his Pokémon. Magnus gave a beep! in surprise and spun its magnets, hovering a little higher before flipping over in midair and settling back in place upside-down. His part in the formalities done, Adrian chuckled at the antics of his Magnemite and resumed his spot in the small group.

Danny just rubbed his head and shuffled quietly. He knew the Viridian Gym Leader was a big deal and all, but he was pretty much just stating the obvious. He, and probably everyone else in the room, never assumed it would be a walk in a park, and would have expected many challenges to come in Kanto, otherwise they wouldn't have come here. But he was still a rookie, so it was best he didn't talk back. Lots of words would be saved when he was strong enough to challenge Gary, so as of now, he just accepted the Pokedex and went on to examine its functions.

As Charlie had mentioned, these were the new Pokedexes from Kalos, holographic screens and all, and seeing Aeris scanning her own Pokemon and then the rest of them in the room, Danny decided to do it as well and scanned his Ini with the Pokedex, which immediately came to life once pointed in front of the curious candle. "Litwick, the Candle Pokemon," the machine spoke. "Litwick pretends to guide people with its illuminating flames, but actually absorbs the life energy of other Pokemon and people to fuel itself."

Suddenly Danny turned back to Inizio and frowned while the candlestick looked back with a confused look. "Lit-Li..." Ini muttered before Danny used the Pokedex to scan Aeris' Lisa and Fary's Emily, and later the other Pokemon in the room. "Yeah, technology is pretty amazing," he responded to Charlie after putting away his newly possessed Pokedex.

As Charlie overheard Danny's pokédex describing the young trainer's Litwick, he couldn't help but perk up at the excitement of the technology. "Whoa, they talk to us too?!" He pulled his own dex back out to confirm the feature. As it took a brief scan of Quinn, the screen came alive with light and sound and pictures. "Cyndaquil, the Fire Mouse Pokémon." The pokédex spoke in a metallic, yet feminine voice. "Cyndaquil has a timid nature. If it is startled, the flames on its back burn more vigorously."



The bushy haired trainer chuckled goofily at the real time developments the pokedex presented to him. "Whaaaaaat? That is awesome!" He replied, easily impressed by the cutting edge electronics.

"All right is that everyone?" Gary looked over the crowd of trainers and spotted the taller bloke in the back with the Roselia on his shoulder. "Get up here man, I don't have all day."

Erik sheepishly stepped forward through the group. "Right, sorry." He slowly made his way up to the Viridian Gym Leader, who was impatiently holding onto the last Pokedex. However, as Erik went to grab to Pokedex, the Pidgeys started flying off as a commotion was coming from behind the group.

"Trainers, there you are! I have your Pokedexes right here!" Professor Oak came charging up from entryway, carrying around a sizable box in his arms. "Come get them while they're still good and blank!"

"Grandpa what the hell! They aren't..." Gary's face went almost blank as he saw what the Professor's box actually contained. "Are those just broken iPods smeared with ketchup?!? What are you even doing with that many iPods??"

"I find them on my walks! Careless trainers chuck them out, so I fix them up, wipe them clean and put a fresh coat of paint on them! They're good as new! You should know that by now, Grandson...eh, Grandson...what was his name again?"

Meanwhile, distracted by the sight of the old man trying to pass off his condiment-infused creations as Pokedexes, Erik wasn't paying attention to his own actual device and dropped the slim Pokedex onto the cold parque floor. Shocked and fearing the worst for the slim looking electronic device, Erik shouted, "Oh shit!"

A moment of clarity struck the Professor. "That's right! I remember now! His name is Oh Shit!"

Gary's face was glowing rage at the realization of what had just happened...again... "What! You better be fucking kidding me, old man! You better be FUCKING JOKING!"

"Calm down, oh shit! Calm down. I can hear you fine. Just make sure the trainers take their Pokedexes! I'm going to go feed the Magikarp! Oh shit, lock the door when you're done."

It looked like Gary was ready to stuff live Voltorbs in the Professor's pants but instead he turned his rage on the trainer who had the unfortunate timing and foul mouth. "You son of a bitch. It took me FIVE YEARS! FIVE! To finally convince him my name wasn't ASSHAT!" He stuck a finger in Erik's face. "You have about two minutes to get the fuck out of my sight, or so help me Arceus, I will ram a Tauros head so far up your ass, you'll be coughing out Horn Attacks!" Erik's tough and distant facade was melted away into brick-dropping fear at the violent anger the Viridian Gym Leader was showing. "Now anyone else have any fucking questions before you all get the same farewell speech?!?"