The pokemon lab of professor Elm. Used to, this place saw all sorts of trainers and was filled with the bustling activity and research of pokemon scientists. Used to, this place was the leading facility on pokemon breeding and eggs. The sleepy little town of New Bark was the perfect place to do that. Open fields, rolling hills and forests perfect for raising and breeding pokemon. Unfortunately, in recent years though, the activity had died down. Now that pokemon were all but feral at this point for some unknown reason, it made research difficult - especially when it came to breeding.

Still, it didn't deter the professor, nor his young assistant that lived in New Bark. Said, young assistant who was currently sitting listening to his granddad rant about pokemon. Professor Elm - his granddad was notorious for going off on long tangents and getting sidetracked quite easily when he was really engrossed in his work. It was something he hadn't grown out of, no matter how old he was. Alfred had to admit to himself, it was a bit funny to see his granddad go on long tangents and talk to himself. Well, to him, anyways. Still though, the new trainers should be arrived soon! This was exciting! This was the first time since working in a lab he was going to get to help new trainers chose their first pokemon! With the restriction on trainers, less and less trainers had been coming in recent years so this was a big occasion as far as Alfred was concerned. He just had to find someway to get his granddads attention...

"Fascinating! No matter how many times I see an egg, I never get tired of studying one!" The older professor said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he observed an egg in a glass incubator. The egg, was hooked up to various wires and other mechanical things. Various displays showed various life signs and other vitals of the baby pokemon in the egg. What they said, only someone who vaguely knew anything about pokemon research would know, but apparently it intrigued the aging professor. "If this experiment goes well, then We could have a major breakthrough as to why the pokemon are acting up! I'll have to thank that trainer again! Getting this egg all the way from Sinnoh must have been difficult at best..."

Elm went on some more, talking about a bunch of scientific variable sand Jargon Alfred didn't quite understand quite yet. It might have made some other kid a bit depressed, to learn they still had so much to learn about pokemon, but to Alfred it just brought a big smile to his face. He was eager to learn if nothing. He had a love of pokemon and learning that rivaled even his granddads. Now, he just had to get over his timidness, and he'd probably make a class A professor one day.

"Huh...well what have we here?..." Alfred shot a quick look over to Elm from where he was organizing the bookshelf, placing the books back on pokemon breeding in the correct order, turning his head over his shoulder to take a look at his Granddad. Apparently he found something interesting in the readings. Well, now was as good as time as ever to interrupt his Granddad. Interrupting him when he was going off on one of his tangents was almost impossible.

"Uhm, Professor Elm?" He said, hopping off the stool he used to reach the higher shelves.

"Curious..." It seemed Elm hadn't registered his comment. He was staring at one of the read-out screens, his brow furrowed in thought. It seemed he was still caught up in his own little world, then. With a bit of a sigh, Alfred walked over, giving the Professor a small little tug on his lab coat. For the briefest of seconds, it seemed as though Alfred got through to him. At least, until he turned swiftly around and completely ignored Alfred. "Where are my notes!"

The professor quickly walked past the young boy, completely ignoring him and causing Alfred to stumble a bit as the professor walked past him. He was surprisingly fast for an old man. Elm went to his desk as he started shuffling through some papers, stopping every now and then to take a look at a few of them.

"Granddad!" Alfred called out to him, walking to the front of his desk. Finally, it seemed Elm had heard him. The older man gave a small yelp of surprise, dropping the paper he was holding back onto the desk.

"Huh? Wha-Alfred! Sorry, I didn't see you there!" He laughed a bit to himself. "I was caught up in my research. There's something odd about one of the readings on this egg, but I'm not entirely sure what it is yet. Perhaps its whats causing all of the pokemon to be so aggressive! If I can identify it, perhaps I can find a way to reverse whatever effect its having! This is a major breakthrough!"

"Really? That's amazing!" Alfred said, reaching out and taking a look at the notes himself. He didn't see anything that was quite out of place - but he didn't have as much experience with such things - yet. With a cheery smile, he placed the papers back on the desk after putting them back in order. "But Professor! The new trainers are probably going to be arriving soon! We should get the pokemon Ready, shouldn't we?"

"Hm? Oh, I had completely forgotten about them! Of course, Alfred! Get the pokemon ready! I'll get everything else! Let's see...pokeballs...yes, they'll need those! Ooh, and maps too...they could always use a map! I'll need to remind them to stay in a group...where did I put those maps?"

"Top shelf professor!"

"Right, thank you Alfred! What else?..."

The professor was already lost on one of his tangents again as he quickly moved about, trying to find everything he had prepared for the trainers. Alfred smiled, as he got the pokeballs out of storage. Perhaps he should release them and let them get used to being out before the trainers came along?


~Cerise Fontaine~

It was a rather lovely day, she had to admit. Neither too hot, or too cold. In fact, Cerise was rather enjoying the day. These dirty backwater parasites had pleasant weather at least. As long as none of them attempted to speak with her, she could very well tolerate their unsightly presence until Abigail showed up, at least. She sighed, idly playing with a loose strand of her short red hair. Speaking of Abigail...when was she getting here? She lived in Olivine now - that was basically on the complete opposite side of Johto. Usually she'd just take a cruise liner to Olivine and meet up with her there, but Abigial insisted they meet here instead. Tsk. She should have went anyways. She would have liked to see Olivines beaches again.

She supposed it gave her time to adjust to her new rather...austere, surroundings. That was the best way she could describe this small little 'town' of New Bark. If it could even be called that. No mart, no pokecenter, not even a shopping center to buy clothes or anything! Really, what town doesn't have that?! No eateries either! Did they cook all of their food themselves? Not to mention the houses looked to be quite small as well compared to the houses she had seen in Kalos.

Hmph. Uncivilized barbarians.

At least the cool glare she was giving anyone who passed by prevented them from talking to her. She almost wanted one to speak, though, so she could see if they all had some stupid country accent or something as well. That would just be the icing on the cake that was this primitive backwards town full of filthy peasants and country hicks. Why was such a respected professor living out here anyways? He should move to the city - much more resources there to conduct whatever research he was doing as well, she was sure.

Bah, whatever. Just endure, Cerise. It would be over soon enough. Once she meets up with Abigail, she should be able to get out of this place easily enough. So for now, she simply sat on a bench in front of the lab rather impatiently as she waited.


~Abigail Blanchett~

It was a sunny afternoon in New Bark town. The Pidgey would have probably been chirping on such a day twenty years ago, but now all one could hear was the soft noises of the sleepy little town as people went about their daily lives. Nothing seemed too much out of the ordinary today. For the last twenty years, the lack of pokemon in the area was perfectly normal. If there was a pokemon around here, then people usually fled indoors, unless there was a trainer around. Usually there was one or two here and there, but in recent years, the number of trainers had diminished, thanks to the rather dangerous nature of the profession nowadays.

Still, that danger was the allure to some teenagers, just now turning old enough to get their licenses. One such youth, by the name of Abigail Blanchett, was just now arriving in New Bark town so she could get her first pokemon from Professor Elm. She had to admit, even for herself she was feeling a bit on the excited side. Not to mention Cerise was probably going to be here as well! The red-head might have some rather nasty personality flaws, but they were friends nonetheless. She might even decide to be nice to someone, if they caught her in this mood. Nothing could ruing this day for her! Nothing at all!

"Thanks for the ride." Abigail said, hopping off of the vehicle. It was an older vehicle, used by pokemon rangers or other outdoorsy people back in the day when pokemon weren't so aggressive. Now, most weren't in use since not very many people got stuck outdoors, since only those who knew what they were doing went out usually, but there were still quite a few around that worked. She was glad she didn't have to walk through route 29. That would have ended quite badly, probably.

"Aha, don't mention it kiddo." The older man said, with a kind smile. "When you said you were getting your first pokemon, I couldn't sit idly by. All kids your age should grow up with pokemon, not separate from them. Going on a journey is a great experience."

"Je vois...Well, Merci Monseuir." She thanked the man, stopping mid sentence. She had a habit of speaking the native language of Kalos, a bit to often sometimes. "I think I'm a bit late though, He said he wanted us there by midday."

"Oh, well sorry! Don't let me hold you up kid! Good luck out there, You look like you can handle yourself, but be careful." And with a wave of good bye, he turned his vehicle around and made his way back to Cherrygrove. With a sigh, she looked at the city in front of her. She found herself smiling involuntarily at the scene before her. She had waited quite some time for this! She would have gotten one when she was 16, but she graduated trainers school at 17, a year behind other kids simply because she was behind a year after the move to johto.

That was something, you did not talk about unless you wanted a face full of her fist.

"Now where is the pokemon lab?..." She took a quick look around, before pulling a map of New Bark town out of her bag. "Let's see...oh other side of town. Oh great...more walking." She grumbled, folding the map and replacing it in her bag. Oh well. At least she could walk off that rather large breakfast she had eaten. With a stretch, and still wearing a bit of a happy smile, she set off towards the Lab. She hoped they had a Steel or Ground type for a starter...

-Yuu Nozomu : New Bark Town-

Another day arose as the sun shined brightly in another room adjacent to Yuus where another one slept. The teen peaked into the room, gazing over his sleeping sister. Today was the big day, and she couldn't even give the boy a send off... then again he was positive that she would snap at him and begrudgingly force him away. This thought made Yuu shudder as he silently closed the door, sighing drearly with a somber look painted on his face. He knew that this was a result of his own desire to see his own sister, a twisted way of sorts.

Yuu leaned on the wall by the door an silently sobbed to himself, not wanting anyone to hear him. The boy certainly did not want his mouth comfort as she would just claim it wasn't his fault and that the circumstances that transpired could not be averted. "Mom, you understand that it could of been evaded if not for me excitingly sprinting towards her," the boy mumbled to himself, animosity up to his throat.

"If I just didn't do that, she would of won the Indigo Plateau championship, she would of been champion... but I confined her to a bed. Why?" Yuu whispered to himself over this sheer fact. The boy slumped down to the floor, despair piercing his throat before curling up into a ball and softly letting the tears all out, repeating the same drawn out wisps of tears. This went on for a couple of minutes be for recalling his task, shedding the terror in him.

The tears began halting their assault down his face as his eyes welted up as his nose became stuffy. Sniffling to himself, he discarded any remaining tears on his face with the flick of the wrist, the only thing that remained was his red eyes. Yuu weakly shoved himself back to his feet, stumbling around for a little bit. The boy cleared his mind, feeling that even though his sister hated him most likely, no tears must be shed. He had to be strong to both his family and himself.

"I have no time for tears now... I have to prepare for this journey ahead of me. No crying, just smiles... This is, after all, a happy day, correct? I don't want to cause anyone to become blue in part to my own depressed state... Hrm, now that i think about it, maybe Avery and his kid sister might get a pokemon today as this is usually the time trainers traverse here. Saw a couple last year... seems like less and less, which isn't really surprising."

"At least it's comforting getting the feeling that someone might tag along with me as I wouldn't want to go this alone... if either of them decide to come along. At any rate..."

Yuu swiftly d back into his room, his fists clenched as if he was taking on a Machamp. As he did so, he observed the distinguishable room. Eyes filled with fiery brimstone, Yuu set to work packing up his items, making sure he had everything prepared for the journey ahead. "Let's see, put the pokeballs here... medicine here... where is my umbrella going to go? Should I wear this or that?"

The boy began organizing his backpack with items he was setting his mind on to take with him on this adventure. He made sure to have an extra map with his complimentary Pokegear. Sure, he could of just taken his Pokegear which had a map built in, but he wasn't one to squander his resources before him. As he finished packing, it came upon him that he should pick his clothes and take a shower. Upon determining what he wanted, he let out a small chuckle at how indecisive he was just before stepping inside the bathroom.

---

With a shower taken care of, the boy stood steadfast in the kitchen, preparing a few simple, but spicy sandwiches co the road ahead. Yuu put a finger to his lip, deciding on if he should make some sushi like he wanted or not. As he attempted to figure it out as if it was an algorithm, his mother discretely came up behind him and gave Yuu a hug. Yuu was slightly surprised as he broke from his trance, Turin his head to face his mother.

"I can't believe this day came. Honestly, I was a bit worried about how you would fare, but seeing you now I'm confident you'll do fine Yuu! I know your a strong young man with abilities beyond our reach!"

As his mom complimented the boy, Yuu smiled back at his mom who gag him a kiss before going off to prepare her breakfast. At this point, Yuus smile descended into a minor facade. He could only wonder what she was thinking as she was alone, managing the machines up stairs all to herself. Yuu pondered on why they didn't just take Eve to a hospital instead of having the items moved here. Maybe there was something about the air which helped her?

Either way, the clunky material was keeping her alive which you vehemently appreciated as he came to the forlorn conclusion of just having a sandwich instead. With that said and done, everything was packed up neatly in his small black and white backpack. Procuring it, Yuu slid one it onto his left arm, letting it loosely hang to the side.

The boy gave on last kiss to his mom for now as she wished him a tearful good luck on his journey. With that stated, Yuu gave her a wave before exiting outside. The boy pivoted around, staring at the second story of his house, he frowned. There was no cheer pressed upon him as gloom supplied him with a reminder that he could not ever run away. Returning himself to his original position, Yuu began recalling which direction the pokemon lab was in before pointing in that specific direction. His hand returned to his side as he walked towards the building.

"Always looming over the town. It feels calm to stand around here, and nourishes quickly a few joyful memories of playing with pokemon around this area... too bad all of this is snared within the confines of my memories... ditto for any on else who used to live here."

As Yuu pondered to himself, he gripped his backpack tightly with his left hand and squeezed it. It wasn't long before Yuu took notice of another in the general vicinity. The girls presence seemed a bit calm, as she appeared to be waiting patiently. The boy attempted to discern if she was waiting for a friend or if the professor wasn't surprisingly home. "Those clothes look cute on her. Surprisingly enough, they also have a practical design, so she came prepared... wonder what she's like," the boy asked himself mentally as he glimpsed at the girl awaiting the arrival of someone important to her.

Curious, Yuu walked up to the lab, staring at the door as he moved forward before stopping mere centimeters of it. Turning his head towards the girl, Yuu smiled at the girl be for answering a question to make sure that Elm was home. "Uhm, excuse me, is Professor Elm here or are you just waiting for someone else?"

A young man sleeping soundly on the soft grass under the tall tree began to stir. The shade from the tree had shifted slightly, and now the sun had unrestricted access to his face. It was abusing the privilege.

The lad rose to a sitting position, chasing away the remaining slumber sadly. He scooted backwards, entering the protection of the tree once more. He could have sat in that shade all day. It felt good. He still had the sun on his skin, but he wasn’t sweating and it wasn’t directly on his eyes. And the breeze…

AHH…

It was going to be a good day. Maybe he would go for a walk. He could go down around the forest, maybe catch sight of some of the Sentret out on 29.

Wait. Was he supposed to do something today? There was napping...but he already did that. Then...no, napping was pretty much all he had planned. Oh well. Probably wasn’t that important. A yawn escaped him. He pulled out an old notepad from his pocket, along with a pen, and flipped it open, searching for a blank piece of paper to doodle on.. He passed a few pages full of scribbles, doodles, the occasional note, a crudely drawn map of the town, a to-do list, then finally the blank page. Well, mostly blank. It had something written at the top.

FUTURE AVERY,

BE AT ELM’S TODAY

YOURS TRULY,

PAST AVERY

Oh. Oh yeah, that was today, wasn’t it. He was going to…

OH SNAP!

The lad named Avery shot up to his feet, dropping the pen and pad in the process. He bent, picking up both and slamming them into his pockets. Today was the day! How could he have forgot?! He was so excited the night before! He grabbed the backpack he had been using as a pillow. A little smile crawled its way to his face. That’d explain why he had so much stuff crammed into his pack. Good call, Avery of Days Past.

Now he just had to…

Had to go to…

Elm’s Lab.

But…

When?

“Heeey.”

Avery, hearing the sound, looked over to his right.

And smiled.

---

Tap.

Tap.

Taptap.

The annoyed tapping continued, growing louder and more frequent. The source? The tiny girl standing at the door to the bathroom in her parents’ home. Waiting for her big brother to finish up and vacate the damn thing. Seriously, if he was taking this long, he might have a problem. See a doctor, see a shrink, hell see anybody as long as it meant getting the fuck off the toilet.

“C’mon already, dude. You’ve been in there for an hour!

There was no response to her whining. So she tried again.

“I just need in for like, five minutes. Then you can go back to, uh, whatever you’re doing.

Still no response. That...was not quite like Avery. He was a bit dense, yeah, but he’d have said SOMETHING by now. Gwen tried the doorknob. The door swung wide open. The tiny girl frowned deeply, looking into the empty bathroom. Not going to lie, she felt pretty stupid. Good thing nobody saw that.

“Heh. Priceless.”

Gwen quickly turned to see the hulking beast of a man known to the world as Avery Victor Garfield XXVII. Nearly seven feet of bulging muscle, moustache, and meaniness. He flashed her a toothless smile then continued on to the next room. Gwen sighed. At least she was going away for a bit. That was one way to dodge Papa Garfield’s teasing...but damn, that man never did forget a thing.

She entered the bathroom and finished getting ready.

Shortly later, Gwen returned to her room. She checked her bags again to make sure she had everything she wanted to bring with her. She got a glimpse of herself in the mirror. With her bag and her guitar case both on her back, she looked a little bit silly. Especially with the Own Tempo tank top she was sporting. It was like she was about to embark on a woefully unprepared camping trip. Which...wasn’t too far off the mark.

Huh.

She said goodbye to Papa Garfield and Little Mama before heading off to meet with Elm. Avery was supposed to be going with her but...well...Avery was Avery. Dude probably saw a butterfly and chased it until he passed out.

…

Gwen sighed again. Maybe she should look for him...big guy was pretty much useless without her. As she closed the door to her house, Gwen spotted a purple haired girl she hadn’t seen before looking at a map. She was at the entrance to town...Eh, it didn’t really matter, did it? Gwen went on her way, following a roundabout path to the lab. It took a bit longer, but it went right past a tree that was an infamous Avery napping spot.

She was right. The big lug was all sprawled out as she came strolling on past him. She waited for a moment, and eventually he began to stir. He sat up, let out a yawn, and pulled out his notebook. He turned to a page and a confused look seemed to creep across his face. Gwen smiled for a moment before dropping it.

“Heeey.”

Avery looked up at her and smiled without saying anything. Dude was such a goober. Oh well. Avery was Avery.

“People usually reply when a cute girl says hello, dude.”

Avery blinked and waited for a moment. If she had to guess, he had gotten off on some weird tangent.

“Oh. Hi then.”

She sighed and walked over to him. She ‘gently nudged’ him with her foot. The kick seemed to spur Avery into actually getting up. Gwen would never understand how the hell the Garfield guys got so tall. They didn’t exactly eat any more wheaties than she did. It wasn’t fair...

He waited for a moment before bending back down to pick up his backpack.

“...you’re hopeless.”

She ended with a laugh. Avery joined in too. He probably didn’t get why she was laughing. Didn’t matter to him. Laughing was laughing.

“C’mon dork. We need to be at the lab uhm…” Gwen paused as she checked her PokeGear. She sharply inhaled when she saw the time. “Uh...yeah, let’s just go.”

Avery just nodded and the two headed off towards the lab. The tiny chick lead as the slow giant followed.

Cerise was busy checking a few things on her Holo-Caster as she waited. Her last call was to her mom and Miss Blanchett, who after finding out she went on a flight by herself to Johto was furious. That call was no fun to listen too. So obviously she had hung up without even getting halfway done with it. If Miss Blanchett wanted to yell at her, then well that would have to wait, and she'd deal with it later. Well, actually she shouldn't have to deal with it at all. She could just hire some expensive lawyers or something and have them take care of it.

The call before that was from her mom. Now, her mom was...a lot more lax than Miss Blanchett, in fact she had encouraged her to go on this little venture. Of course, that was after calling her from the Johto Airport in Goldenrod and her mom wasn't exactly known for being that ambitious. She was pretty sure she had married her father just for the money, and father apparently liked that for some reason. Well, hey, whatever was his preference.

Putting the phone away, she started to go through her other things, making sure she had everything Abigail had told her to bring. To be honest - she had no idea what she was doing so it was a bit difficult to get her trainers license at the last moment but money to the right people went quite a ways. Still, she would have to get Abigail to teach her the finer points of training...

"Uhm, excuse me, is Professor Elm here or are you just waiting for someone else?"

She was caught up in her thoughts, she didn't even hear the boy approaching. The voice startled her a bit, since she was wrapped up in examining her things. When she looked up from her things, the first thing she noticed was his exquisite taste in hair color. She certainly hoped that was natural - it was a lovely shade of violet. Second probably only to Abigail's. She almost wanted to put it in a braid as well, though that would be kind of hard considering how short it was, but a challenge could be fun.

The next thing she noticed...how bland his wardrobe was in contrast to his choice of hairstyle. She supposed that was probably the best he could do living in a bug-infested backwater town like this. Maybe it had a...rustic, charm to it? Hrm...no, no, it was just silly looking. Tsk. For a second she thought she might have found someone with similar interests. Typical. People from Johto had no taste in fashion or other fine things. Well, she might as well reply to this guy.

"I do believe it is customary to introduce yourself to someone when you are meeting them for the first time," She replied, with a small huff. "But I suppose you people in this...uhm...quaint," That was the nicest word she could use here. "Little...village, all know each other. I am Cerise Fontaine, perhaps you have heard of moi, No?"

She had little hope that people knew of her all the way out here. In Kalos she was somewhat well known, but out here she'd probably only be known in certain circles.

"Hm, I suppose it doesn't really matter." She continued before even giving him a moment to reply. "To answer your question, I am indeed waiting on someone and you and your affront to the fashion world are kind of in the way....so if you could move along, that would be much appreciated."

As she strolled along the path to Elm’s Lab, Gwen found herself humming some infectious pop song that she had caught on the radio that morning. And the night before. And earlier that day. Thinking about it, most of the radio stations she had access to tended to repeat a lot of the same stuff...except that crappy talk show with that Glenn Somethingorother. She had caught Avery listening to it before, which was surprising. Then she had learned that he had absolutely no idea what the dude was talking about, which bored him, which lead to his taking of a nap. Whatever works, yeah?

She was just rather happy. She had been looking forward to this day, the day she could finally get out of the itty-bitty village she was stranded in and see the worl- Gwen came to a stop, grimacing. Avery ended up walking into her, but she managed to catch herself before she fell. Something felt off…

Gwen looked down at her legs and frowned. She was wearing a pair of faded gray jeans. It was a bit too hot for jeans in her opinion but…

Something was definitely off. She’d have to take a look at it later, but something didn’t feel smooth…

“Need a ride?”

The sudden voice gave Gwen a bit of a start. She snapped out of her thoughts to see Avery kneeling in front of her, back towards her, and head turned back to face her. He was wearing that goofy, soft smile he always had, and his eyes had the usual gentle, yet distant quality to them . She was blushing, both embarrassed that he would offer such a thing and annoyed that he didn’t think she could do it.

She scoffed and sputtered. “N-no! I can do it. And I don’t need your help to do so either, Wonderdork.” she replied, taking a step towards him and flicking his forehead before crossing her arms and looking off to the right at some distant anything, an exaggerated pout taken root on her face. Avery blinked, rubbed his forehead, then gave her a nod before standing back up.

Gwen marched past him. She was favoring her right leg a bit more than usual, but...well, her hands were tied at the moment. She’d take care of things later. For now, all she needed to do was focus on getting to the lab. Then she’d get her first Pokemon. Then she could finally start her journey...

Avery trailed Gwen like a puppy, never straying too far from her side, yet constantly getting distracted by all the surroundings. And the two continued down the path

---

As Avery and Gwen approached Elm’s Lab, Avery could swear he heard voices. He checked behind him, but he didn’t see any ninja. He checked his hair for tiny scalp villagers, but to no success. He even briefly closed his eyes and tried to smell the voices. That worked about as well as one would expect. Avery quickly grew bored and lost interest. Besides, if he did want to know, he could just ask one of the two other people standing outside Elm’s Lab.

He looked over at Gwen who was scanning the two of them. Gwen was kind of scary looking when she was scanning people. He poked her once when she was doing this. She yelled and tried to bite off his finger. Losing a finger would be scary.

Hey Avery! Y’know what’s not scary?!

Avery smiled. It sounded like Brainbro was awake. Avery loved Brainbro. The little dude always had the best ideas.

What’s that, Brainbro?

Trees, Avery! Trees are your friends.

Avery liked having trees. Avery liked having friends. Maybe it was time for him to get some treefriends? Yeah...that would be awesome. Avery thanked Brainbro, who had already retreated back to the halls of knowledge. He then began looking the trees nearby. They were awesome. Some were small, others were big, why...one even had a BirdBike! It made sense, really. Birds had to get to places from time to time. What better use than the BirdBike? Avery would love to ride a BirdBike one day. He would soar the skies spreading joy and love. But he would have to be a bird first. That was just a risk he was willing to take.

There was some movement in the branches below the tree, but Avery missed just about all of it, too engrossed in the BirdBike and all its glory.

As Avery’s eyes got tired and dropped down from their high perch, he noticed a redheaded girl with NO EYES walking his way. NO EYES. That was amazing. He couldn’t imagine having no eyes. He waited for a moment, thinking of some of the stuff he wouldn’t be able to. He could ask Gwen about it some time. She would know about that. Or at least, she would know about half of it.

...Avery turned back to Gwen but saw that she still had that scary look on her face. He started to ask anyway, but his tongue flobbled when it needed to wabble, and that little setback was enough to kill his interest.

As Gwen stood watching the two figures at the door, Avery snapped back to what he was doing and stepped around the little girl and between the two strangers. He looked at the large set of doors that were, sadly, too small for him. Ignoring the others completely, Avery began knocking on one of the doors.

“Alfie! Come out and play!”

Gwen stared on in disbelief at her adoptive brother and his...err...rather free-spirited nature. She stood at the beginning of the path up to the lab and waited a moment. Completely and utterly hopeless, this guy was. She liked the guy, but seriously, he was a bit of an airhead. Still, it wouldn’t do to just stand there like an idiot…

Avery knocked on the door again and repeated his invitation to ‘Alfie.’

Gwen shuddered then strolled up to the tiny group forming. She merely offered a tiny wave and stuck with a safe bet.

“So uh...either of you here to see Elm about a Pokemon?”

Gwen silently wished that they would answer no. She didn’t mind other people...but...well she didn’t know these people - correction, the guy with purple hair looked VAGUELY familiar. She MAY have seen him around town, but that’s about all he had. In any case, she hadn’t been expecting too many people. Oh well...she knew that she would be traveling with somebody, but she had figured it would probably be a two person deal, just Avery and herself. This was…

Maybe she was just overthinking things. Gwen forced her patented lazy grin as she moved into a place a bit farther back from the door and the other peeps.

Avery must have gotten bored with trying to coax his little buddy from his hidey-hole, because he soon broke away from the door, found a spot in the grass a few feet away, and plopped down with his arms folded behind his head. He then began watching the shapes the clouds make. With not a worry in the world, not a shred of responsibility or doubt, Avery found that he could glady spend days at a time just cloudgazing. The world truly was a most excellent story-teller.

A butterfly fluttering by landed on the giant’s nose for a few moments before taking off again. That was fine with Avery. Sometimes a little guy just needed some rest. He had to do that from time to time as well.

If the little group by the door was still talking then he was missing every word. And that too was fine with Avery.

~Abigail Blanchett~

While she wasn't exactly one to shy away from physical activity considering her morning routines, this walking was getting annoying. Not to mention there wasn't exactly a whole lot to see in this little town. She wondered where Cerise was? The other girl probably had gotten here before her, and was already probably causing problems knowing her. The little brat couldn't just keep her mouth shut sometimes. Not like she really had much room to talk on that front...she'd probably en up making sure the red-head didn't get lynched by the time she got to the lab.

"Oi! Get lost!"

Her thoughts were interrupted by a rather distressed sounding voice not to far from where she was. Huh, well, she really probably shouldn't get involved, but her curiosity got the best of her and she headed in the direction of the voice. It didn't take her long to reach the source of the distressed voice, thankfully, and when she got there, she couldn't help but to burst out in laughter.

"Ack!" A boy that looked around the same age as her was covering his head from a flock of spearow. "Ow, ow, ow!" She wasn't entirely sure how he had gotten stuck up there, but from the looks of things he tried to launch himself into the stratosphere with his bike, and ended badly. The spearows were relentless in their attack, causing him to lose his balance and cause him to hang upside down from his legs, like he was trying to mimic a Zubat

"Well," She shouted up to him, making sure he could hear her. "I didn't think it was possible to fail so hard! Did you forget the training wheels? Or did you think you could actually fly?" Really though, it looked like he was having a bit of trouble getting those Spearow off of him. Getting down in general might be a bit of a problem for him....well, she was in a good mood and well, it's not like it would hurt anything in helping him down or something. "Need some help getting down from there?" She added, though she was still obviously laughing quite a bit.

As she asked, she walked over under the tree branch he was hanging onto - intent to try and climb the tree and help him if he wanted it. In hindsight, that was probably a really, really, bad idea.

-Yuu Nozomu : New Bark Town-

As the boy quizzed the girl, she responded rather swiftly to his voice, however not in the way Yuu expected her to. The cute redhead threw in another question, to which bemused the lavender haired rookie trainer as he tilted his head to the side slightly. Yuu became mentally quizzical why she found that it was completely unnecessary to not introduce yourself after answering a simple question. His left eyebrow going up, he was positive that this girl was most certainly not from Johto.

"... I'm pretty sure it's not in our nature here to introduce ourselves after striking up a conversation. I'll admit, it was a bit unexpected that she would just latch onto that process of thought, but whatever I guess?... and now she's struggling to figure out how to properly complement this place... is this some sort of rich chick who has been confined to her mansion her whole life or something? The way she's acting is just uncomfortably... plus, calling this a village instead of a town makes it sound like the people here are inferior to her or some sort of inbred population... please let it just be ignorance as it would be distasteful if she was feigning goodwill."

A few sparks of suspiciousness prodded his brain about her locale of original dwelling as that would give him hints to where she lived before hand. As the girl continued to go on without fail, she came upon the part of introducing herself, along with adding a little hint to where she came from. "Cerise Fontaine, eh," he muttered confusingly to himself, not even having prior knowledge or hearing about her. Yuu was one for news and all, so he should of at least heard about her somewhere... the boy crossed his arms and sighed softly before looking at the girl yet again.

"Eh, apologies, but I don't think I've ever heard of you or anything. With most articles I've read, most of them solely focus on this guy Glenn and his whole idiotic spiel about pokemon, along with clippings of people trying to figure out what's wrong with them... er, sorry for going off on a minor tangent Cerise, best I quell these rampant thoughts for now."

"At any rate, my name is Yuu Nozomu; it's a pleasure to meet you Cerise."

Yuu gave the girl a pleasurable smile before putting his hand out in hopes she would shake it. At most, he felt that this would possibly clear up any misconceptions with the girl, along with her possibly giving him an answer to if Elm was home. Either way, she gave him the answer to which gladly accepted... before retrieving his hand and returning it to the former location it was in.

A small frown began to form on the boys face as he began to furrow his eyebrows at her after her totally subtle insult. Yuu was honestly hoping today would be a better day, but alas, trouble was sure to spawn somewhere. Mischief was forming in the boys eyes as it glimmered hastily upon her uptight and haughty attitude. He knew he was probably going to feel bad for this later, but it would most likely be worth it.

Snapping his right hands fingers, he acted as if he made a breakthrough while widening his eyes and pointing at Cerise excitedly. "Oooh, I thought I didn't recall you, but now I do! How did I miss that?!" There was a twinge of sarcasm embedded in his voice, but Yuu did his best to act like an adoring fan... one that wasn't annoying, useless, and stalked you constantly.

Giving the girl a chance to speak for a bit, he waited for her to make her piece before slightly reverting his frown back to a smile that was slowly creeping upwards. His eyes widened and became narrow as he shot out his assumption to her. "Your Cerise Fontaine! One of the most infamous people around that makes really bad impressions with everyone she meets! Oh my goodness, I'm so glad I met you!"

Ok, maybe he was going a bit too far there, but trying to carry herself as if she was a queen to him a peasant was an unprecedented way to make a lasting impression. Toning down his sarcasm, Yuu made sure to speak in a much more sympathetic voice to Cerise to show he didn't mean to be that rude. Slightly frowning yet again, Yuu crossed his arms as he stared at Cerise before speaking his mind to her.

"Apologies for leading you on like that, but insulting a person and then telling them to get out of your way isn't very ladylike if that's what you were aiming for. Honestly, I don't know why your pretending like your better than me, but if this is the way you act towards everyone you meet, your not going to make many friends obviously. Even if it's minor, try not to act bold towards another person whilst filled with hubris, because that's the impression I got of you. I may not know you much Cerise, but I wish you no ill will as I don't want to see you get hurt, especially if your departing on a journey with that friend of yours."

As the boy set aside his part for the taking, he awkwardly smiled at her before jamming his hands into his coat pockets and leaned a few centimeters aaway from the door. As he did so, he was a bit guilty for acting like a jerk as evidenced by his disgruntled look and slanted shoulders. Yuu, feeling he answered the wrong questions felt maybe he could try the door instead.

Before he got the chance to reach for the handle, he caught a glimpse of two familiar faces he saw around town when running errands - Avery and his sister who he never got properly acquainted with. The chick, although he never really spoke noticed she was sporting an Own Tempo tank top. He chuckled slightly before gently smiling a bit. The band was an interest in bunch due to the music they created which he enjoyed listening to on several occasions while at home.

At most, as they approached, Yuu continued to survey the area, catching sight of a lingering redheaded chick whose eyes wear obscured from his file of vision. He didn't know what to make of her as he saw her grapple the bags strap as she made her way over. The clothes she wore look good on her, and he pondered on he personality too since he just encountered a redhead that acted... rather prideful.

At this point, Yuu easily discerned the amount of people that were possibly procuring a pokemon today - Avery, his sister, Cerise, Cerise friend, a girl with red hair, and him. As his eyes darted around between each person he noted, with the exception of Cerise since he got to know her very well.

As the duo he took note of made it up to the lab, Yuu almost forgot Avery dwarfed him due to his immense size of monstrous proportions. His eyes slightly widening, he kept his cool about things as the giant began to...

...

Knock on the lab door that wasn't his size while making a comment that sounded almost as if a child said it. His mouth was slightly agape, he rotated his head away a bit, facepalming at the whole spiel. This was utterly ridiculous to him as a grown man was stereotyping a fantasy giant. Then again, why was he bothered? Everyone had their own personality traits, so why did it matter that Avery was so... eccentric.

Right, he forgot Ms. "I'm Superior Than You Fools" was still here... so she was probably going to make an incorrect assessment.

As he let his arm down, he watched as Averys sister waltzed up towards the three as Avery continued his relentless assault with repetitive questioning of if Alfie was home. The girl seemed curious to know if they were both here to receive a pokemon today, and acted almost... timid from what he could discern. This was one way of definitely breaking the ice, but another was with a fighting type pokemon. Pleasantly smiling at the girl, he evoked a response to possibly cement a friendship maybe?

"Yeah, I'm here for a pokemon today also. I can acutely presume you and Avery are here to procure pokemon of your own today too... hey, nice Own Tempo tanktop by the way, didn't know you were a fan of them too." Honestly, he never saw the girl with the shirt other than today, so he was pleasantly surprised by that, despite the assumption she was a fan.

Woo hoo, no need for a Machamp on Conkeldurr to assist him here!

"Before I deviate much, I never got to know your name, despite the fact that we've probably lived in this same town together for quite some time. My name is Yuu Nozomu, yours Miss?"

Yuu never even noticed Avery lumbering away before going for a snooze as he was much more interested and hopeful about this girl.

~Cerise Fontaine~

As Cerise awaited the boys response, she couldn't help but to obviously frown in a bit as she grew a bit more impatient. He seemed to be taking his time answering her. Was he that slow of a thinker? She almost asked him not to hurt himself, but that would be a bit much, even for her in this situation. At least she didn't have to wait too terribly wrong for his reply.

"Eh, apologies, but I don't think I've ever heard of you or anything. With most articles I've read, most of them solely focus on this guy Glenn and his whole idiotic spiel about pokemon, along with clippings of people trying to figure out what's wrong with them... er, sorry for going off on a minor tangent Cerise, best I quell these rampant thoughts for now. At any rate, my name is Yuu Nozomu; it's a pleasure to meet you Cerise."

Well, she can't say she was terribly surprised by his reaction. Of course these people wouldn't have heard of her. He seemed to be a somewhat learned man, though which was a bit interesting. He seemed quite interested in the reason why pokemon were attacking people, if he had read a lot of articles about them. Either that, or he was just doing it for a hobby. Either way, she wondered briefly if she should apologize and perhaps get to know him a bit more. This...Yuu Nozumu might not be as bad as she had first thought. He seemed like he was of the same idea. He held out his hand in an attempt to make a greeting - and she was most certainly about to take it...when he quickly decided to pull it back. Whatever could he have done that for? Judging from the frown it his face it wasn't anything good.

"Oooh, I thought I didn't recall you, but now I do! How did I miss that?! Your Cerise Fontaine! One of the most infamous people around that makes really bad impressions with everyone she meets! Oh my goodness, I'm so glad I met you!"

...what?

what?

WHAT?

How dare he. How dare he speak to her in such a manner! Insolent little brat! If she hadn't learned to be an expert at controlling her emotions, she might have very well slapped the insolent man where he stood! He better be thankful Abigail wasn't anywhere near here, or she would have done ten times worse to him! She could have very well beat him to a bloody pulp, and she would laugh the entire time as well. This boy definitely deserved it for talking to her in such a manner. But...no, no. She had something much better planned. The others probably wouldn't have heard exactly what he had said. All she had to do was play her cards right and this guy would be seen as nothing more than a little bully.

"W-what-" She started sounding a bit distressed, though it seemed like he wasn't done. Oh goody. She wished she could duct-tape his mouth shut.

"Apologies for leading you on like that, but insulting a person and then telling them to get out of your way isn't very ladylike if that's what you were aiming for. Honestly, I don't know why your pretending like your better than me, but if this is the way you act towards everyone you meet, your not going to make many friends obviously. Even if it's minor, try not to act bold towards another person whilst filled with hubris, because that's the impression I got of you. I may not know you much Cerise, but I wish you no ill will as I don't want to see you get hurt, especially if your departing on a journey with that friend of yours."
She wasn't pretending. She was better than you, cretin. And ladylike? That had nothing to do with anything at all. All she did was perhaps berate him for his horrid choice in fashion. If he got upset over that then he should really have stayed home. Really, and Friends? She didn't need any friends, aside from Abigail. She wasn't planing on making any new ones either. As far as she was concerned all of these guys could go get eaten by an Onix. Really, the things this insolent cretin was spouting - who was he to tell her how she should act, hmm? It wasn't like he was some bigshot or something. She could practically smell the commoner on him.

And really, no Ill will? Then you should have kept that idiot mouth of yours shut, you purple-haired idiot.

But Cerise, said nothing. Her face didn't betray her harsh words, or thoughts. Instead in the silence that followed, her face went from one of calmness, to one of sadness. By the end of Yuu's rant, she couldn't say anything. Instead, she made a small almost too-cute sounding sniffle.

"W-why w-would you say s-something like that?" She stuttered out, a few hurt tears streaming down her cheeks. Of course, they were fake but she was quite confident in her acting abilities. "I on-only was-trying...to...be-n-nice!" And the finale to her little performance? She got right up off the bench, and left the rest of the trainers there. "Y-you're a meanie pants and n-nothing but a bully!" She cried as she ran off, away from the lab. OKay, maybe a tad bit over-dramatic, but it worked.

With luck, she'd run into Abigail and tell her of this little brat so she could make sure he knew where he stood.

"Y-you're a meanie pants and n-nothing but a bully!"

Gwen raised an eyebrow at that one. Not exactly the response she was expecting, but alright. What the hell was going on over here? She looked from the redhead who...fuck, was she crying? She was crying. Was it purple head? She didn’t get a chance to find out, as the girl up and bolted from where she was sitting. Gwen crossed her arms and narrowed her eye at the purple dude. Was he getting his kicks off making little girls cry?

...Maybe this little girl needed to give him a reason to cry. Yeah, he was a bit taller than her, but how tall would he be with her leg halfway up his ass?

…

Alright, so he’d be the same height. Justice still would have been dealt and she would have a comfy new legwarmer. Purple was even her color.

He turned to her and flashed a disgusting little smug smile that practically screamed 'Slap Me, Gwen! I am an Enemy of Womenkind!'. It made her sick. What, was he proud of what he just did? Did he think he was going to get away with it with her too? Not a fuckin’ chance, buddy.

“Yeah, I’m here for a pokemon today also.”

Oh great. Reward the asshat with a Pokemon. Bah.

“I can acutely presume you and Avery are here to procure Pokemon of your own today too…”

No, she just enjoyed asking random fuckin’ strangers questions about their day. OF COURSE SHE WAS THERE FOR A POKEMON. Gwen’s mouth tightened and she could feel her hand ball up tighter than it was. A part of her had to know she was just getting herself fired up, but that would mean accepting that she might be overreacting. That ain’t happening.

“...hey, nice Own Tempo tanktop by the way. Didn’t know you were a fan of them too.”

Huh?

Gwen’s mouth softened, and she dropped her arms, her hands no longer balls of pain and facewrecking. Did he...this dude was a fan of Own Tempo? They were probably one of her top five bands, easily. They were pretty big, but...well, she didn’t know of many other people in the town that had ever heard of them.

...surely a fan of Own Tempo couldn’t be a total jackass? He at least deserved the benefit of the doubt.

“Before I deviate much, I never got to know your name, despite the fact that we’ve probably lived in this same town together for quite some time. My name is Yuu Nozomu. Yours Miss?”

Gwen blinked. “Uh, yeah, call me Gwen,” she began hesitantly. She stiffened and shifted her weight over to her good leg before starting again. “What...what was that all about?” She raised an eyebrow and pointed back in the direction that the redhead had ran. She had her doubts about this Yuu guy, but before she smashed his face in, she should probably get his side of the story.

Excuses now, punches later.

-Yuu Nozomu : New Bark Town-

From mere seconds after he ended his conversation with Cerise was he completely beffudled by hiw she instantaneously went from a haughty and aloof lady to a sniveling girl. Before he dared to speak, he couldn't tell whether to be appalled at what he said or overview the girl even further. His mouth was agape, but no words came out as she continued to cry. Feeling a tad guilty, the boy reached his arm out, remorsefully frowning as he attempted to speak to the girl.

... or he would of before she squealed like an immature five year old and darting off. At that point in time, Yuu narrowed his eyes and retrieved his arm. The way she acted definitely warranted skepticism. The boy tapped his lip lightly as he began wondering to himself if that girl was crafting any machinations against him. "Alright, the way she spoke felt way over the top. She made it as if I broke her down and mentally harmed her within. This spiel definitely does not bode well with me... but I still can't help but feel bad, regardless..."

As the boy became entwined in his thoughts, a look of slight remorse formed on his face. He honestly never intended for this to go too far at all, rather, he hoped she would of worked with his crass meanings. Yuu stared solemnly downwards, he was immedietly snatched away from his trance by the introduction of the short girl. "Wha-? Er, sorry about that I was pondering on something. It's a pleasure to meet you Gwen."

The boy brought back his usual smile to the girl, albeit forcing it somewhat. After that situation, the more he let it sit, the more it churned and disturbed him. It was best to probably slough it off for now... or further be inquired about the previous events that transpired. Despite being curious about it, Gwen seemed stiff and awkward about the situation. Yuu pondered between whether letting her in, or closing her out as she really did not need to know about it all...

"... That whole thing with Cerise? It... was more or less a fallout which I might of gone a tinge bit too far on due to her attitude." Yuu adamantly didn't want to go over this all again, but it would be rather selfish to cut it all off after he subsequently decided to speak to her about the whole thing. Yuu guessed it wasn't that important, and spoke to her in his regular tone of voice.

"Let me explain the whole thing to you as it happened only a few minutes ago. Cerise, the redheaded chick who went dashing off sobbing was not acting like this earlier. She Wellstone it cool, and acting like a stereotypical aristocrat. She struggled for a few minutes to come up with any endearing comment for the place, just call in it quaint in a quizzical tone of voice."

The boy ruffled the back of his hair for a little bit, pausing to a little bit before continuing on.

"She proceeds to then introduce herself, asking me if I've heard of her. The way she spoke reminded me of how a wannabe big shot acts as I never heard for the name Cerise Fontaine before. She then tells me the answer to my question, and then proceeds to insult me and get out of the way. I know saying the way I dressed is an affront to fashion isn't that much of an insult to her, but she would appreciate that I get out of the way after that is somewhat of a haughty way to act towards a random person she just met. I at least tried to be nice to her when asking her a question and introducing myself, but that was all for naught."

At this point, he stopped momentarily, allowing her to absorb half of the knowledge he bestowed on to her. Yuu felt genuinely guilty for acting like a jerk, but he felt no other way to exclusively get his point across without squandering it. At this point in time, he was considering whether he should of continued going into detail about this situation as it was stealing time away. "... I'll make this next part brief so I won't waste your time any further, apologies on describing most of the earlier events."

Stopping for a moment, the boy eyed where Cerise previously was located on before departure, and promptly cleared his throat. He kept his gaze within contact of her, making sure both eyes were at most completely locked. With his eyes on point with hers, Yuu began speaking once again in a gentle manner. He frowned slightly as he felt a bit contrite at his actions, even as he was miffed.

"So I do this minor sarcastic build up to which I call her out rather harshly on her first impressions before genuinely apologizing to her. I then explain my opinion on how she acted... and then she dropped the previous persona she sported and began crying and ran off. I do feel I went a bit on the edge when trying to make my point, so that part can be considered horrible scrutiny on my part..."

With that said and done, the whole subject could be possibly dropped at this point and not bothered with again. Yuu retracted his hands to the side, putting one on his his, staring at where Cerise ran off. There was a huge disconnect from reality here as he centrally focused on where she left and pondered on if he should go after her as Yuu appeared slightly depressed at what he said to Cerise still. Even though he already said his condolences for his actions, he was unsure whether he wanted to pursue her just to apologize again since she might of missed that or to actually we if the door was... unlocked.

...

Why didn't he do that earlier? That would of made things a lot easier. The boy rotated his head towards the door and glared at it. He almost wants to to scowl at it, but he withdrew this thought inward. Recalling he was talking to a person, Yuu embarrassingly looked back at Gwen, and rubbed the back of his head. "Say Gwen," Yuu said, his head nodding off to the door, "want to go inside if the door is unlocked, or stay out here and chat about Own Tempo while waiting for the others?"

Yuu knew he was making assumption, much to his chagrin, but he felt Gwen might of not been the one to catch up on the news. The boy crossed his arms, and looked at the girl, awaiting her beck and call on the matter.

Still smiling as always, still joyful as always...

Right off the bat, Gwen thought there was something...off about the one-eyed, one-winged, flying purple people eater. Like how he got all wrapped up with Arceus knows what right after asking who she was? Spacey much? Still, she wasn’t too annoyed just yet. Hell, Avery might actually be the new official definition for spacey. If she could live with that, she could handle Mr. Purps.

The second flag went up by his next sentence. He seemed rather...hesitant on filling her in. At least at first. And yeah, Gwen could get it. Big blowup with ya woman in public? It’s embarrassing, yeah. But being sketchy on answering what the dealio was? Not cool, bro. Definitely not helping his rep.

He went on to raise, well…many, many more flags.

“Let me explain the whole thing to you as it happened only a few minutes ago.”

Gwen felt a tinge of disgust at that part. She fully understood that it ‘happened only a few minutes ago.’ She was there. He knew that. He continued. “...She struggled for a few minutes to come up with any endearing comment for the place, just call in it quaint in a quizzical tone of voice.” Gwen frowned. Minus ten points for blowing up over some chick calling your town quaint. Hell, it was quaint. The quaintest little place in Johto.

“She proceeds to then introduce herself, asking me if I’ve heard of her. The way she spoke reminded me of how a wannabe big shot acts as I never heard for the name Cerise Fontaine before.”

Alright, that’s pretty egotistical. Minus fifteen points from this Cerise chica.

“She then tells me the answer to my question, and then proceeds to insult me and get out of the way. I know saying the way I dressed is an affront to fashion isn’t that much of an insult to her, but she would appreciate that I get out of the way after that is somewhat of a haughty way to act towards a random person she just met. I at least tried to be nice to her when asking her a question and introducing myself, but that was all for naught.”

...Oh boy. Looks like this one’s a talker. Right then. Minus ten points from Cerise. Insulting someone and telling them to get out of the way immediately after introductions? Rude, not cool, pretty asshatish. Minus twenty points from Yuu for using the words haughty and naught. Nobody should be using the words haughty or naught. Never. Not even once. Additional five point loss for even making her think of those words.

“...I’ll make this next part brief so I won’t waste your time any further, apologies on describing most of the earlier events.”

...what…did he just admit to wasting her time on bullshit that didn’t matter? Or was he wasting her time by telling her that he was wrapping it up? Gwen briefly considered asking him. She feared the response.

“So I do this minor sarcastic build up to which I call her out rather harshly on her first impressions before genuinely apologizing to her.”

...so he responds to a terrible first impression by leaving a terrible first impression?

“I then explain my opinion on how she acted… and then she dropped the previous persona she sported and began crying and ran off. I do feel I went a bit on the edge when trying to make a point, so that part can be considered horrible scrutiny on my part…”

Oh sweet Arceus...if his explanation of his opinion on her actions was anything like this little spiel...well, Gwen could understand the waterworks. Hell, she was considering crying and running away, just to end it.

…

Wow. Gwen blinked. She felt like she was being unusually catty at the moment. But hey, at least she didn’t say anything rude, yeah? Oh the willpower...surely she was being tested. Was there a character test to see if she deserved a Pokemon? Because this one was pretty brutal, Elm.

“Say Gwen, want to go inside if the door is unlocked, or stay out here and chat about Own Tempo while waiting for the others?”

She finally noticed the smile. Honestly, she didn’t know what it was but...it seemed wrong. Out of place.

Gwen crossed her arms again. She was biting her tongue hard, she really was, but...well…

“Dude... arrogant prick or not, it sounds like you ended up being just as terribad as she was. You were both acting like spoiled brats, so, well, don’t do that anymore?” She held her arms together and regarded Yuu with a harsh gaze...for just a couple moments before dropping the attitude and flashing the lad a lazy smirk, placing both hands behind her head. “I mean, there’s only enough room for one brat in a group, and that’d be me.”

She didn’t wait for a response. If the dude had an issue with it, he could fuck off. If he realized she was just being, well, quirky_{(i.e. a bitch)} then they’d be fine. He didn’t exactly ask for her opinion, but hey, he didn’t exactly NOT ask for it either. In any case, Gwen approached the lab door and gave the handle a push. The door swung in and Gwen peered inside. She genuinely smiled. Asshats or no, she was getting a Pokemon in potentially just a few moments. She was elated.
“Yo, Avery! C’mon!” she turned her head and called before looking back in the lab.

Soon…

She took a step into the lab.

Soon her journey could actually begin…

She took another.

Bring it on, world.

---

Clouds were cool. They got to just hang out all day, just chilling in the sky. And they’d sometimes make shapes out of themselves. Avery had tried to make shapes out of himself once, but he could only really figure out how to make the letter L, both capitalized and not, a capital I, a straight line, and slightly less straight line, and a boomerang. The boomerang was the most fun though. He had a boomerang once. A toy, not himself. Well, he was THERE but he wasn’t throwing himself.

...could he throw himself?

Avery could hear Gwen and Yuu having a chat. He wasn’t exactly listening, though. Instead, Avery was imagining himself propelling himself through the air. It wasn’t flying, and it wasn’t throwing. Just a nice game of catch between Avery and himself. Avery thought he had a good chance, but Avery was just relentless, not giving Avery a chance to turn things around on ole Avery.

…

The daydream rose from his resting place and shook his head. It huuurt. Thinking wasn’t fun. That’s why he had Brain. Brain did all the thinking and Avery handled the doing. It worked out, really.

Right Brain?

…
…
…

Welp, Brain was napping. Or dead. This called for a snack. Avery rose to his feet and was about to head off when he heard Gwen call for him. He looked over at her, confused, but saw the door open.

Oh.

Avery’s goofy grin returned as he lumbered up the path back to the lab. He flashed Yuu the smile, but apparently became a bit too distracted that to it. He ended up walking headfirst into the door. Wall? The little bit between the ceiling and the door. The Debraininator.

Luckily, Avery had adopted a habit of walking slowly. His stride was naturally much longer than others, so he never felt a need to hurry as much. And he had hit head enough times to deem it a worthing choice. Granted, he was still walking into Debraininators so…

Avery hunkered down and bypassed the clever defence against the Giants. Luckily, not even the great, mighty Elm could match up with the genius that was Brain!

…

Nothing?
Brain’s still asleep, folks. Stay calm.

Avery entered the lab and his eyes took a moment to adjust.

The lobby they had entered was brightly lit and...well, clean would probably be the best word for it. There were a couple benches in a corner, with a table sporting plenty of magazines. Similar to a doctor’s office...but, y’know, not. There was also a receptionist area, but neither Avery nor Gwen had ever seen it in use. Gwen looked about, searching for Elm or Alfred. No luck, it seemed. She started heading over to the benches.

Avery though…

Sigh.

Avery had wasted no time in gawking. Alright, so we wasted a few moments. He liked looking at things. Like the books on the bookshelf across the room from the benches. There were some really big books. Many, Avery couldn’t probably finish most of them.

As Gwen headed over to the benches, Avery strolled on back, past a set of doors, as if he belonged there. In a sense, he kind of did. When he was younger, he used to hang around Alfie and Elm all the time. One could say that Avery was trying to be a bit like a big brother to Alfie. Reality, as anyone who knew Avery would know, was the opposite. But hey, Alfie was a genius. Avery might not even belong to the same genus.

The point is, Avery found himself standing inside the lab, watching Alfie doing something with Pokeballs and Prof. Elm being...well...Prof. Elm.

…

Unless he wasn’t Prof. Elm.

Avery’s eyes tightened.

This could be a phony.

There could be only one way to tell.

And with steps much lighter than appropriate for a man of his size, Avery quietly entered the room unbeknownst to Alfie or Elm. He crossed to the far side, leading to a desk Elm might use for writing. It didn’t matter. What DID matter was the oh so comfy Elmchair. It was glorious. A gift from Arceus.

Avery’s smile turned mischievous before returning to the normal goofball’s mask. He spun the chair and plopped down in it. He leaned back, letting the power swivel chair resist his mighty mass. Kicking his feet up onto the desk, Avery closed his eyes and drifted oh-so-quickly off to Napsville, Johto.

The plan was just to see if Elm would call him out for being in the chair but...well...sleep worked too.

Oh well.

Avery found himself running with Mareep on a never-ending brick road. There were hurdles he had to jump every so often, as did his sheepish companions. As he ran, he could hear faintly a dark, ominous chant, but...for some reason it filled him with joy.

BAA BAA!

BAA BAA!

~Abigail Blanchett~

"N-no! I'm fine! Totally fin-"

Hah. He was totally not fine. Those Spearow were definitely not happy that he had flown straight into their nest. Not to mention that tree branch looked rather...weak. But well, he said he didn't need her help so she might as well just get going to the lab. No sense in helping him if he was so sure about him being fine. Well...she would have if the branch hadn't suddenly made a loud creak followed by a snapping noise. The boy started falling, and Abigail reacted perhaps a bit more rashly than she was used too.

She ran forward, though she didn't really know why. She should have just let the guy land on the ground. That would have been funny. Still, him getting hurt would probably be a bad idea...and well, she was awesome so letting him get hurt on her watch was bad. She wasn't fast enough to catch, him though and in an attempt to dive forward, her foot got caught on a loose rock causing her to trip. Instead, she slammed into the falling kid at full-sprinting speed.

"Ooooowww..." She groaned. She must have hit her head pretty hard when that twerp landed on her. She rubbed her head, as she tried to ignore the bruise there. As the slight dizziness subsided, she attempted to stand up, but found something...or rather, someone was on top of her. The kid from earlier must have somehow ended up on top of her when they fell.

"G-get off!" She said, trying to shove him off of her. And...was that Cerise?

Goddamn it, sucks to be this guy. She hoped this he had life insurance.


~Cerise Fontaine~

That insufferable welp! She should have her lawyers sue him for everything he had! That would involve too much of a headache for a philistine like him though. At least once she found Abigail she could have her thoroughly deal with him in an appropriate matter. She could even get everyone else on her side as well, if she played her cards right. She may have to reign in Abigail a bit though. The purple haired girl could get a little...excessive sometimes.

The only problem was that...well, she had no idea where she was. She said she was going to be coming from Cherrygrove by a vehicle. At least, that was her plan. Judging from the time she should be here already. Maybe it would have been better to hang around at the lab, then? Well, out of sight of that idiot. After that stunt it wouldn't be a good idea to hang around him. At least, not in front of the others.

It was then, she heard a rather loud snapping noise - it sounded like something heavy had fallen. There was a scream with it as well, sounding like someone saying 'Catch me' over and over again. Well, now that was probably going to be a sight to see. She had only intended to view from afar and not get involved. Whoever had fallen deserved whatever injury they got, from probably doing something stupid. However, when she finally reached the place of the voices....

"A-Abigail!?" Cerise shouted, quite loudly. "Wh-what are you-?" No no no. This...she was misinterpreting something here, that was certain. However, something about seeing her friend under that guy in such a manner...made her feel a tad bit mad. Not like she cared if she got a boyfriend or anything...but, well...She shot a brief glare at the guy while his back was too her, before remembering why she had come looking for her friend in the first place. She softened her gaze, before walking over to Abigail with a sniffle.

~Elms Lab~

True enough, the door to the lab was unlocked, like always. Elm didn't like locking the door for multiple reasons, though if you talked to Alfred you'd discover the main reason was because Elm always forgot too. Elm would say he didn't want to lock it in case of emergencies, though.

As the trainers started shuffling in, they were greeted by a cheery Alfred. This was his first time doing something like this, so it was expected he was a bit on the excited side. It was almost impossible for him to not be. It looked like they were missing quite a few trainers still, though. They were late, then. Not that it mattered too much, they had all day to get here, or at least until the pokemon ran out. That shouldn't happen though, since they had more than enough for the applicants.

"H-hello!" Alfred started, as he introduce himself to the trainers. "Welcome to New Bark. I'm, uhm, Alfred Elm. I'm Professor Elm's assistant. He'll be here soon, probably, so uhm, if you could all sit here and wait on the other trainers..."

-Yuu Nozomu : New Bark Town-

As the girl spoke her part truthfully, Yuu was glad she thought that way as he wasn't one to disagree with rational speech. Rotating his head towards Gwen, he saw her scold him for his own insolence on the matter. Mere seconds later he found himself staring a bit longer at her, eyes without remorse, but shock about how she quickly dropped it. Pondering on it, Yuu did understand why as it wasn't something to dwell on for too long. Letting it go, Yuu gave a small, but truthful smile before pushing his bangs away from his hidden eye.

"Well if your the designated brat of the group, you've got your work cut out for you since you've acted much more mature than either of us. I may have been trying to demonstrate a point to her, but I feel I was a bit of a dick while doing so... I could try to clear things up with her once she comes back by apologizing a second time..."

As he spoke, he was a bit guilty still, but he also conveyed a lax presentation of himself by loosening his shoulders and letting them dangle more. Even though she seemingly wasn't in the mood, he said his piece... although it was a tad bit rude do her to just do that. However, she also answered a forlorn question that finally came to a close.

Yuu really wanted to just facepalm so hard right as he honestly never knew the door was unlocked... nor did he carry out the task he marks himself down for which made it even worse. Looking to the side, he slightly furrowed his eyebrows as he scratched the back of his neck with two fingers. Frowning slightly due to his own shortcomings, he sighed softly too himself before questioning himself.

"Why didn't I seriously check the door earlier," he uttered to himself as he let his working hand come back to waist level. As Gwen shouted to the slumbering Avery, Yuus eyes darted over to the scene where the boy automatically responded to the girl by slowly trudging over to the lab, and entering in. Yuu barely managed to make out a faint smile that was targeted for... someone by Avery.

Yuu shrugged before taking notice of a red-headed girl with hair that looked to be obscuring her vision. The boy wondered if she had the same looking impedement he did since on of his eyes was usually hidden from sight. He couldn't honestly tell if the girl didn't notice him as she did shuffle into the lab. Being the one lonely trainer out here, Yuu jammed his foot between the door and the opening. Analyzing the area around him, Yuu scouted to find any excess trainers lingering about but none were present.

With his analysis finished, Yuu quietly opened the door and slipped in conspicuously, blending in amongst the crowd of... one? From what he saw, everyone was procuring a free seat amongst the benches and chairs within the lab. He counted only two people though amongst the group which left him beffudled. Yuu swore he saw Avery enter the lab... "Maybe he is a ninja?... Nah, Avery wouldn't sneak around here... wait."

Yuu noticed a set of doors that were open that lead into the back of the lab. The boy pondered if that was where the lanky guy hid himself. Before given a chance to further investigate, a familiar boy bursted through the doors. He was sure that he saw him before, however his memory wouldn't commit itself to giving up that info. This left him a bit bugged mentally and he crossed his arms in a struggle to recall the boy.

As the assistant spoke with cheer embedded in him, Yuu took note of how the short boy in glasses fumbled over a couple of his words. The boy honestly could not tell if he was jittery with excitement or plain nervous. Either way, he introduced himself as Alfred Elm, an assistant of his grandpa. "Pleasure to meet you Alfred, my name is Yuu Nozomu," Yuu replied to the possibly rhetorical speech, smiling at him calmly. "You know, maybe we could take this time to all get acquainted with each other."

Rotating his head to the other remaining trainers in the presence of the assistant, smirking at them before jamming his hands into his coat pockets. Quietly scanning over the two, Yuu was sure the girl with a striped jacket and torn jeans never introduced herself to anyone in the vicinity yet. Feeling this was the time to break the ice, Yuu strode over to the red-headed chick in an attempt to maybe learn about who she was and why she wants a pokemon.

Once he was adjacent to the girl, he shined her a smile before attempting to strike up a conversation with her. Withdrawing his hands from his pockets, he let them swing to the side, limp. "You've been pretty quiet all this time, nervous miss," Yuu quizzed her, still keeping a smile on his face as he tried to pierce pass her hair and look at her eyes. As he struggled to find where they were within the messy red jungle, Yuu continued on as he wasn't done with this conversation and would not let it ends if he couldn't see the color in her eyes.

"My name is Yuu Nozomu, the guy who is going to conquer the pokemon league... or at least try anyways, heh..." Chuckling slightly at the confident assessment, that was one of his tasks he was aiming to accomplish on his journey. Yuus smile was bold and unyielding, a contrast to the awkward one he was showing earlier. Going on, Yuu ruffled his hair a bit before finishing up what he started.

"Oh, I almost forgot to ask, what's your name?"

Abigail had half a mind to slap this guy. Aside from what was basically harassment on so many levels, he just looked like he needed to be slapped. The only thing that was stopping her from doing exactly that, was the fact Cerise just looked like someone kicked a puppy. Now, whenever that happened it meant one thing. Cerise was being her usual self and trying to manipulate someone through tears. Seriously, she had just now only gotten into Johto and was already causing trouble. Well, whatever. It was always fun to mess with people, so she wasn't really gonna complain. Most likely she was gonna drag this guy into it as well.

"Ahhh! I'm sorry! Reallysorryreallyreallysory! It was an accident! I swear!"

Abigail simply shot him a small glare as she stood up, brushing some dirt and grass off of her shirt. He was lucky her hair didn't get messed up.

"Can it, training wheels." She replied to him as Cerise walked, well almost sprinted over to her. The smaller girl practically jumped on Abigail, wrapping her in a hug. "Gah! Cerise, I'm happy to see ya too but-" The redhead looked up at the other girl, giving a small sniffle.

"A-abigail," She cried. "T-this guy at the lab." Ugh. She could already guess what had happened. Cerise was being her usual self, some guy had decided to be a jerk to her about it, and now she was planning on getting the guy disliked by everyone else. Well, that'd be fun to watch. Kek.

"You know, if you keep talking like that I'm not gonna be able to understand ya." She sighed, giving the redhead a light pat on the head.

"S-sorry. But this guy at the lab, he was making f-fun of me." She continued. Oh...was he now? well, she was pretty sure she was being a jerk too, but well, no one is a jerk to her or Cerise and got away with it. Abigail pushed Cerise away, giving a small sigh.

"What exactly did he say?" She asked, fully prepared for a full on lie. Or at least, a major exaggeration of the truth here.

"I-I just asked him if he had heard of me before! I m-mean I am kind of famous in kalos, s-so I kind of wanted to see if I was out here!...and I may have s-said a few...u-uhm, things about how quaint this little place was, but I didn't think it was mean!" The explanation was more for probably the guy that was still probably trying to furiously apologize for landing on her. "B-but he then he got all mean a-and said I was acting unlady like, and that I shouldn't act so arrogant! He s-said something about me not having any friends either...."

Well...for Cerise that was probably a pretty close rendition of the truth. Which meant...that it had probably just been him that had heard her...rather arrogant attitude. Well, heh, she could get behind this little scheme of hers. Well alright then.

"B-but I wasn't! H-honest! A-at least I don't think I was!" Abigail sighed, a frown forming on her face.

"What'd he look like?" She asked.

"U-uhm...purple hair. K-kind of tall. He talked weird too...kind of wordy." She replied. "W-why?" Abigail stretched her arms, making sure they were ready for what she was about to do. Purple hair. Wordy. Kind of tall. She had a pretty good idea of who that asshat was. Yuu Nozumu. Otherwise, known as the guy that thought he was as good as she was in trainer school. Hahahaahahah! She hoped the guy had gotten eaten by a wild onix or something, but seems he wanted to get a pokemon. And insult her friend, even if Cerise probably had started it.

Really. bad. Move.

"Cerise. Stay here for a bit, alright?" She said...before taking off at an almost impossibly fast sprint towards the lab.

"Ah-Wait! Abigail wait!" Cerise cried out after the running girl. "D-don't do anything like you normally do!" She fidgeted for a moment. Kek, this was all going to plan! She'd look innocent probably, and that purple dude would look just like an ass. All she had to do was be fashionably late and tell Abigail to not beat up Yuu...fake an apology, and be the better person. It'd make that guy look like an idiot, moron, and above all, a jerk. Of course, by the time he got there Abigail would explain the situation that she's never been outside Lumiose before, and is a sheltered girl attempting this journey to learn more about the world. Instant sympathy from everyone.

"A-ah...uhm..." She turned to Zeph. "S-sorry! I know we have just met each other, but uhm, would you mind running after my friend? She's going to do something stupid over something so small and I'd rather her n-not. I'd do it myself...but I'm not exactly...uhm, suited for running long distances."

~Alfred Elm~
~Pokemon Lab~

Well, it seemed like the other trainers were getting along well. That was good! Chances were they'd be traveling together, so it'd be good if all of them got along. He saw Gwen sitting on a bench, though Avery seemed to have wondered off somewhere. Probably near the back. Elm would probably take care of that, though, after he got done observing that Egg from Sinnoh. Though if he took too long he might have to start introducing himself and handing out the things himself. He hoped he didn't have too. There were a lot of people here he hadn't seen before, and he was a little intimidated.

It was then, something a bit odd happened. It was almost as if a purple-haired demon ran through the doors too the lab, and made a beeline right for the other guy with purple hair.

~Abigail Blanchett~
~Pokemon Lab~

It didn't take her long to reach the lab. After all, she was going at a full sprint and she was quite confident in her athletic abilities. She was top of her class in everything, including athletics. As soon as she reached the building, she didn't hesitate. She practically kicked open the door, immediately searched the room for Yuu, and found him within seconds.

Well, what happened next was pretty obvious. She ran right at him, not even thinking about the other people or the consequences of what she was about to do. Instead, she simply ran up to him while he was facing away from the door...and planted her foot right into his back as hard she could, still running at a full sprint.

"Yuu!" She shouted, landing easily on her own feet. "Really, I know you're a scumbag who thinks he's better then me, but insulting my friends? That's low, even for you, jackass."

Meanwhile, Alfred was trying his best, and failing to get both of theirs attention so he could tell them fighting in the lab was most definitely not allowed.

-Yuu Nozomu : New Bark Town-

As the boy spoke with the red-head, he was sure that at this point she was antsy and didn't know how to respond since she was just sitting there with her head was indirectly facing his. "... Am I being a bit upfront and ambitious? Honestly, I didn't wish to intimidate her, but looks like I slipped up a bit..." Yuu pondered this silently as he refrained from breaking his smile. This day was supposed to be one of his better days with the implications of procuring a pokemon, but looks like there was a downcast.

Eventually, the girl known as Mattie broke the silence between the two by speaking her full name. "Mattie Linder," Yuu mumbled to himself as if he was trying to unlock some sort of secret within the name. No algorithms or complicated physics were needed. Yuu glanced at the girl gleefully, glad to hear her name. As Yuu opened his mouth, the girl swiftly shifted her head away in the opposite direction.

Was he really that scary?

Contemplating for a couple of seconds, Yuu relocated his right hand to his mouth, obscuring it from view. Under the hidden crevices of his hand, Yuu frowned a bit, glancing over at the girl... before noticing more of her face became coated in a faint red blush. Feigning coolness, he acted completely natural by letting his right arm sink to where it belong, his mouth heralding a neutral expression. Yuu in reality was rather taken back by what he thought she was blushing for. This wasn't a romantic candle lit dinner in which two folks were sitting across from each other.

Nothing cheesy like that, right?

... right?

At any rate, she was flustered and anxious by him. Yuu looks at the timid girl before deciding to switch angles. Instead of forcing her, Yuu adjusted to where her face was by walking a few feet to stay in front of her instead of to the side. Smiling, Yuu pursued the girl even further in a friendly way.

"Er, apologies if I intimidated you Mattie, but I want to speak with you directly, not indirectly if you don't mind..." Flashing her a temporarily toothy smile, Yuu proceeded to calmly continue on, trying to dispel any... er... thoughts she maybe had? Honestly, Yuu had no idea how to act at the moment other than making sure Mattie wasn't flustered further by any type of antics... or was she trying to refrain from giggling?

"Anyways, it's a pleasure to meet you too... Er, are you ok? Your kind of a bit... rosy around the cheeks... did I do something wrong, or, er..." Yuu was trying to keep himself from tensing up, but he was just as befuddled on how to face a predicament or help her out if there were a couple of possibilities. At this point, he struggled to come up with something to say. The boy awkwardly came into silence as he rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes still intently focused on her.

"Come on, think of something to say you fool, even if it's simple and a conversation starter," Yuu mentally scolded himself on the matter at hand. "Anything that does not pertain to how she is feeling because that blush of hers... actually looks kinda cute. Breaking off from those coherent thoughts, his mind suddenly conjured one easy item that could snowball this down a hill in a positive way

"Say Mattie, where did you come from as I can tell your not from around New Bark. Did you come from somewhere around Johto or another region for your own reasons?"

Finally! Hopefully he wouldn't feel stumped when around the possibly shy lady like today, but she seemed sweet enough to. Yuu did have a curious look painted on his face, although he kept his readily cheerful expression. At this point, Yuu was confident that no inconsistent outliers could ruin any of the moments he would possibly have with any of the trainers.

Well, until doom echoed from the door with malice and greed. Yuu heard the door swiftly come open, and turned slightly to see who the new friend... was.

Oh no.

Day please, why Yuu do this?

Anything, just anything but this.

Purple hair came streaming through the door, a girl marked with a wild fury bolted for Yuu. Those same furious eyes he was familiar with stared daggers at him... and instead of using a sharp and pointy object, used her foot. Athleticism was a thing as he felt a sharp welted on his back before flying forward, albeit to the side... towards the well-being of Mattie.

Yuu barely caught a glimpse of who it was but returned his main focus on the safety of another as he was going to slam onto her at full force at this rate. His eyes widened in fear, his mouth slightly agape in the shape of a frown, Yuu felt as if time was speeding up and slowing down for him in this situation. Reaction time was a must for him now and he had to move while thinking to the best of his abilities.

"...! I got it!" Yuu, to the best of his abilities, dug his hand behind the girls back to make sure he had a grip on her as he was falling. As he continued to topple down forward, his other hand pulled around to fully embrace the girl. The spiral then came to a close as his butt landed directly on the chair.

...

Just kidding, part of it did, which caused the chair to capsized to the side, dropping Yuu and Mattie to the side. The chair behind Yuu was brought down on the floor with a rather loud banging sound above Yuus head which startled him and caused him to squeeze Mattie a bit harder. Of course, in a few milliseconds, he caught a close-up of her whole face, and, well... her everything.

"Uh..." The words were there with Yuu, but they were resting inside his throat where they wished never to depart. As he looked at the girl, he invoked within his face a slight blush at this whole spiel. His heart was pounding right now, harder than ever. Flustered, Yuu attempted to unsuccessfully reconcile what was left of his serene calmness.

"Er, sorry about that Mattie," Yuu silently uttered to the red-headed girl, still in a slight daze. "Anyways, you alright? Are you uh, hurt or anything?" After he spoke his part, he came to the realization that he was still kind of hugging her tightly. His blush became much more apparent as he quickly loosened his arms to the point where they were laying, spread across the floor.

As he lied there with a girl on top of him, Yuu moved his head slightly to the side to address another issue. A purple haired girl with a fiery attitude stood among them all. He knew her well - someone who always insisted they were better and spread her hubris to the masses, distorting her opinions as mere fact. Yuu narrowed his eyes down, a frown creeping up very slowly on his face.

"Abigail Blanchett..."

It wasn't sheer disgust that marched out into the forlorn air about, rather mild annoyance."Speaking pridefully like you always did in trainer school... you haven't changed much, have you..."

"Look, I've said it a million times to you - we are both equal in our skill... More importantly though, what the hell?! Didn't you see that I was standing in front of someone?! She could of been seriously injured if I wasn't good at reacting! What were you thinking?!" With those last sentences, his voice transpired into vile disgust at her actions.

Furthermore, she did mention a friend.

God please, why? At this point, it was random as hell to burst into a lab and kick someone, but with that reason? Making a proper guess, Yuu shot out what she might understand... oh who was he kidding, his words were lost in meaning to her. "... something tells me your that other red-headed chicks friend... Do I seriously need to clear up any smoke because I can only tell at this point everything is becoming one sided."

His blue oni side was showing as he calmly spoke, even with tidbits of blush still around his face. "Look, how about instead of ignoring me for once, hear me out on my recommendation because I don't want to further dump this whole event on the group as that's just rude. Cerise and I tell our sides of the story and we leave it at that."

Hopefully he didn't sound like an idiot for his shot in the dark, but all he could do now was hope Abigail refuted her usual line of thinking around him, "guilty until proven otherwise."

Further more, if he was right, that meant Abigail was going to be...

...

God damnit, please don't be right.

Gwen headed towards the benches, assuming that Avery was on her heels, but when she turned to say ask the big lug something, he was nowhere in sight. She sighed. He probably went on into the back then. Avery wasn’t exactly gifted with common sense, much to her chagrin. Honestly, she didn’t know what the dude would do without here sometimes. But this was Elm’s place, and the old professor seemed to like them well enough. And this wasn’t exactly the first time that Avery had just barged in and made himself at home.

She shook her head and took a seat, setting her bag and guitar case on the floor beside her. Her hand touched her jeans, just below where her knee would have been, while her head turned to face the nearby wall. A grimace set upon her face. That fucking sensation was back.. She hated it with her very core. It was as if she just needed to really lay into her shin, to finally scratch an annoying itch, but...that was absurd: her shin was made of carbon fiber.

“H-hello!”

Gwen forced herself back into a neutral expression and turned to face the hesitant voice. Alfred Elm. She grinned despite her frustration. He was good kid, this one. She might have normally messed with the kid, playing prank after prank on him but...

“Welcome to New Bark. I’m, uhm, Alfred Elm. I’m Professor Elm’s assistant. He’ll be here soon, probably, so uhm, if you could all sit here and wait on the other trainers…”

...but the kid had like no spine. He was waaay too fragile. Hell, it wouldn’t even be fun. But she had to admit, he was definitely a smart kid. Smarter than she was, for sure. That was fine, though. She could still run circles around the little dude.

Before she could speak, the purple haired dude approached Alfred and introduced himself again. Yuu Nozomu...Gwen frowned. She was pretty sure she hadn’t met the guy before but...his name sounded familiar and it bugged her to no end. When he said it again, Gwen was a bit confused. Did he just REALLY like the sound of his own name? But then she noticed that he had turned to...someone else.

That unsettled Gwen, somewhat. She hadn’t recalled seeing the new redhead before...when did she arrive? Surely she wasn’t already in the lab...Gwen wouldn’t have missed a red mop like that. She had to have come in afterwards. A slight shiver ran down the girl’s spine. She didn’t know why.

The redhead introduced herself as Mattie Linder to Yuu. It was surprisingly difficult for Gwen to make our what she was saying. The little lobby they were in wasn’t THAT big but...well, maybe she was just shy? Bah. It didn’t really matter, Gwen decided. Give her enough time and she’d probably snap out of that.

Yuu, apparently, disagreed.

He seemed rather insistent that she speak to him. But fuck, it wasn’t any of her business. So why care? Gwen pushed back in her chair, trying to get comfortable. If Elm was tied up, they might be waiting for a bit. And the sensation in her leg was fading. If she wanted to get any comfort, now was the time to-

The doors flew open, catching Gwen off guard. Before she could even move, she saw a purple blur fly past, and in the next moment, Yuu flew forward a bit, dragging this Mattie chick and a chair down to the ground with him. Above them standing triumphantly like a lavender lady of justice, was yet another chick that Gwen had never seen before. She got to her feet and approached the madness.

“What the flying fuck…?” she muttered as she looked from the couple sprawled across the floor to the purple haired newcomer.

The hell was with that hair color and causing trouble?

“Yuu! Really, I know you’re a scumbag who thinks he’s better than me, but insulting my friends? That’s low, even for you, jackass.”

Gwen blinked and looked down at the dude. Yeouch. Looks like karma was catching up with him. Well...sucks for him. Though she had to admit, she didn’t like this Mattie chick being dragged into it. This was a war between purps.

“Abigail Blanchett…”

Wait...what?!

“Speaking pridefully like you always did in trainer school… you haven’t changed much, have you…”

Trainer…

Holy fuck.

Gwen’s eye widened. Abigail Blanchett...she HAD heard that name before. Everyone in her class was. This was THE Abigail Blanchett. She had been in the class ahead of Gwen back in trainer school. And she had been good. REAL good. Gwen had actually caught a couple of her mock battles. She was no joke. Honestly, Gwen had somewhat looked up to the purple haired lass. After all, if you want to be the best, learn from the best.

She shifted her gaze back to Yuu. Gwen had finally placed where she had heard his name. He was in Abigail’s class. If not for her, he’d probably have ended up on top of the class. The mock battles that Gwen had caught had been against this guy. And they were intense. Obviously, he was no slouch either. Maybe a goober when it came to women, but a talented trainer nonetheless.

...so what in the actual fuck were they doing here?!!

She realized that Yuu had been talking, yet she had only caught the very end of it. He was asking her to hear him out. If what she had heard about Abigail was correct, she...didn’t really see that working out too well. Poor guy. Creep or not, it didn’t seem like he could catch a break.

Oh well. Sucks to be him.

Gwen noticed a rather stunned Alfred. Or was he angry? Concerned? Terrified? Maybe all of them. Still, Gwen wasn't sure if the little dude could handle this.

She crossed her arms and shifted her weight to her good leg as her gaze went to Abigail, then to Yuu, before settling back on the schoolyard hero.

"Riiight...if you're going to kill Yuu, could you do it outside?" She began rather dryly, pausing to hitch a thumb back towards the young Elm. "Cause I'm pretty sure the kid might actually keel over and die if y'all keep it up." She turned her head, showing Alfred a lazy smile before looking back at the purple posse. "...and, hey, as fun as that sounds, I don't think Elm would be up for handing out Pokémon with a couple of dead dudes in his lab."

There. She had tried. In truth, she couldn't care less what happened between the two. If they killed each other, that just meant less competition for her. And really, the ruckus might serve to get Elm off his ass and out here a bit quicker. She just wanted to get her partner and get going. Was that too much to ask?

...if she had to end up waiting because Elm decided to lecture these two bozos, she'd kill the lot o' 'em herself.

---

Before him lay a seemingly endless brick road. Avery took a few steps. The Mareep had left him. He wasn’t sure when they had or where they went, but they were gone. And he was alone. A few more steps. Avery looked off to his right, but there was only darkness. The same could be said about his left. There was only the glowing brick road. And Avery followed it. At one point, the road split a beautiful, flat field, but that too left. How long ago, Avery couldn’t say. And he dare not turn around. He couldn’t look back. Never.

BAA BAA!

Avery’s feet caught the ground and he stumbled, but quickly caught himself and continued. He couldn’t stop. Not yet. He had to keep going. He was growing tired, but every time he stopped, he would hear the whispers. The whispers...they filled him with such dread. Avery had never felt as much fear as when the whispers crept in. He couldn’t understand what they said, but...that was good. He felt as if he was not supposed to. Understanding the words would mean…

He shuddered, unwilling to consider it, and continued on.

Minutes grew into hours, hours into days, days into months, months into years..

It felt as if many a lifetime passed by, yet Avery continued his march, never stopping, never slowing. He had to get to the end of the road. All would be better at the end.

BAA BAA!

Avery felt tears streaming down his cheeks. That was odd. He hadn’t felt anything in such a long time. He had forgotten what it was like to cry. He had forgotten many things. It did not matter. All that mattered was the end.

For Avery, time seemed to have lost all substance. It meant nothing. In the darkness, there was no today, no tomorrow. There was no later. He had been traveling for no time and all time. He would travel until he could no longer.

BAA BAA!

Joy swelled in the young man’s heart. Was it joy? It was, but he knew not how he was sure of that. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. But this joy came from something...a faint light could be seen. It was but a dot in the distance, but in the nothingness, it stood out. It radiated this feeling, this joy.

BAA BAA!

Avery could not quicken his pace. Nor could he slow. He would arrive when he arrived and not a moment sooner or later. The light expanded as he grew closer. No...that wasn’t the right feeling. He wasn’t approaching it...it was moving toward him. The joy was overwhelming. Avery tried to cry out for it, but he could not recall how. There was only moving forward. Forever. And never.

But the light soon enveloped Avery. The darkness did not fear the light, rather it grew closer. It cut off the brick path behind the light. His only option was to embrace it. Why would he want to do otherwise.

Avery peered into the brightness. His eyes did not react for the longest time...but soon they did. Avery wished they hadn’t. Joy disappeared, replaced by the fear so primal, Avery thought his heart would claw its way from its chamber. The light was wrong. So very wrong. He didn’t want it anymore. But it was too late.

He found himself standing in pure light. It filled everything. It reminded him of the darkness. Surely it felt as empty. Tears flooded the boy’s newfound vision as he focused on what was before him, yet his legs refused to slow or stop.

It was an infinite mass of wool. It expanded forever, yet Avery was still far from it. He knew that that shouldn’t exist, couldn’t exist, but it did. There was more than one eternity between the young lad and the never ending wool.

As if feeling his disbelief, the wool shifted, nay, crawled away. And from it sprouted flesh. It seemed as if the flesh would simply generate forever, but it took form. Its visage, Avery could not comprehend, but as he turned his eyes away, he thought of the Mareep he had ran with so very long ago. Had they looked like this? Had this looked like they? He could never know. When he looked back, he saw more shapes rip through the light. The word bird came to Avery, but he knew not what that was. Nor would he. No sooner did the shapes appear, did the flesh disappear, replaced once more with gargantuan wool.

And then there were screams.

Screams echoing across the vast empty brightness, bouncing off other screams, gaining forever. Why, they crossed even time. There was no more path to follow. His fate was to forever listen to the screams. Avery fell to his knees, gripping his ears. It did not help. The endless screams filled him with such agony. This was his punishment. Yet again, he knew not why such a thought came to him. He had stopped thinking so very long ago. But it rang out nonetheless.

Some part of Avery begged for the screams to end, but they didn’t. They never would.

But then they did.

BAA BAA!

BAA BAA!

Almost as soon as they began, they stopped. The screams which crossed eternity faded entirely. Avery wondered if they had ever existed for a while, but that too fade. The boy knelt in the light. There was no path to follow, no screams to endure. There was simply being. And that was the worst.

BAA BAA!

Avery felt himself turn. He gazed into the infinite wool. Yet this time, he felt none of the terror he once had. At first, he felt nothing.

But time passed.

BAA BAA!

Slowly, ever so slowly.
Quickly, ever faster.

BAA BAA!

Avery felt love. Love for this existence.

There was not path to follow.
There were no screams to endure.
There was only Tes-

Avery awoke with a fright. Shaken, a disoriented Avery frantically gazed about his surroundings.Where was he? What was he doing? But that fear quickly passed as his dream faded, and Avery soon got to his feet and stretched. After a few moments, it hit him. He was in Elm’s lab. How could he tell? Well...there were books…and Elm was there...

Avery approached the elderly professor, who had had his back to Avery while the young lad slept. Avery didn’t know how long he was out for, but if he had to guess...oh snap. He blinked. Elm was hard at work at...something. Avery didn’t know what that something was. He sure wanted to know though. He consulted brain, but the little guy was still asleep. Figures.

He soon found himself standing somewhat behind the old man. Avery leaned forward and peered over Elm’s shoulder looking at...an egg? It was a pretty big egg…

Avery’s mouth watered. He was getting pretty hungry, and that egg looked like it would be pretty tasty. Did eggs have a taste? Avery frowned, unsure. He wanted to know, but well...he couldn’t get to it to find out with Elm in the way.

Wait...Elm?

Elm was a smart guy. Maybe HE knew what the egg tasted like?

“What’s that egg taste like?”

Avery didn’t bother to introduce himself nor did he really direct the question to Elm himself. That was just how he worked. Ask a question and something was bound to answer. It had worked thus far for Avery.

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