(will Color Later)




Lusitania had been silent in the awkward tension, which had finally been broken by Chance talking about his goal. Letting out a sigh of relief Lusitania got up to her feet drawing herself to her full height. She was about to respond to him when she heard a polite throat clearing behind her, so she left Sadie to introduce herself to the boy. She turned around as she thought about who the hell had the right to. "Oh." She thought as she saw the boy from the earlier battle. The one who had the Gible, and almost completely knocked her Rockruff into the next level of Oblivion with only one attack. Speaking of Rockruff. Luna had started to pad gently over to the Gible.

"Sorry for the interruption, but I just wanted to say that we had a good battle. You and the other man lasted much longer than I expected." The Boy said. His words were sort of grating on Lusitania if it wasn't for the fact that Luna was fighting not one but two Pokemon that it was weak against AND she had to defend the ghastly they could have won. Easily. At least she thought that to be true.

In response to the Gibles cheer then sudden copying of its trainer, Luna laughed at it. Batting the little Land shark with her paw, she wasn't being mean she was just laughing at the situation as a whole, she had never seen such a pair and it was making her laugh that they had such formalities.

Lusitania shook her head, she needed to focus on the conversation, not on her rockruff. People were discussing about travel plans. "Honestly, I don't care where I go as long as I eventually explore this entire region, see all there is to see ya' get me." She said pondering to herself. "Doesn't matter how long it takes, it will be a good adventure from start to finish." She told Chance. "Maybe if we plotted a route that allowed us to hit all the areas effectively, that'll keep everyone happy." She stated plainly shrugging at what the correct course of action would be to do in this situation. All she knew was that she wanted to get going.

---

Danilo raised his eyebrow when Ruby called him Danny, well that action was lost under the mess of red locks that his eyebrows and eyes. He wondered if Ruby misheard his name, or simple nickname him. It would seem quite strange, then again he had a couple strange habits himself. Though the idea of the nick name Danny boy did had a nice sound to it. His helpful suggestion was taken quite well cheering the colorful performer. It went so well that quickly she offered them to accompany her on the travel. She even used the big eyes that was near impossible to say no to. The other girl Lucy how she introduced herself liked the idea.

"I'd be happy to, you guys seem so amu--interesting, after all. How could I say no? Having company makes a journey that much better."

Danilo laughed at that heartfully, his mind filling Lucy slip of tongue with the word amusing. Yes they were quite a amusing looking bunch. There was no way they wouldnt be spotted wherever they go. "If we do team up we will not need the tm flash, our dazzling existence concentrated all in one place will light up any darkness of the mind, heart or cave." He spoke spinning his staff, it wasnt like anyone else invited him. His curiosity about the other three people in the group won quite easily, over the idea of going on their own.

"In short, I have said yes to the phenomenal idea of traveling together." Francis chipped flying from the female pokemon to perch on Danilos staff. The Fletchling sharing a glance with Danilo, who guessed his little bird was approving of the other people around him.

"Have you all finished with the registrations at the lab?" Danilo spoke as he was fishing out a used looked map out his bag, tapping with his white gloved finger on it , tilting his head first left than right, and finally left again. Nodding to himself when he was positive he read the thing right. He dropped it back in the bag.

"May my vote for direction of or heading be placed towards the south. " He smiled, at them all once he was sure everyone had everything done at the lab. Already having Francis fly up and then right beside Lucy Elekid Zap and down towards route 9, chipping at the electric pokemon with a challenging tone, of try to catch me. Apparently the pokemon had it enough with the waiting. "Or run after the pokemon." He commented towards Lucy.

---

Before Sadie could really react, Blitzy's attention span would vanish as she jumped off her shoulder. Blitzy would look around once more, looking up at her trainer and- WAIT what is that? She'd twist her head around trying to get a glimpse at it but it quickly vanished, Blitzy would continue spinning around chasing the object out of the corner of her eye. Below, at Chance's feet Blitzy would be chasing her own tail, trying her best to try and catch it before she quickly got dizzy and flopped over on one of her trainer's shoes.

Chance would peek from behind the map, looking down at the skitty, laughing to himself at the cute little cat pokemon. Then he'd look up at Lusitania. "Honestly, I don't care where I go as long as I eventually explore this entire region, see all there is to see ya' get me." "Doesn't matter how long it takes, it will be a good adventure from start to finish." "Maybe if we plotted a route that allowed us to hit all the areas effectively, that'll keep everyone happy." "Oh! I could probably do that."

He'd think to himself, checking his bag to see if he had any extra Chromis maps... and he did, good. Chance would put away one map, pull out another map and a blue pen, sitting down- setting Blitzy on his lap and laying the map out on the ground. "Well... lets plan this out then, where are we all interested in going?" "If we're traveling together I guess...?" As he looked at the map he noticed that the city had a lake behind it...- that could be cool to visit, maybe do some fishing? Gotta keep these things in mind... maybe he could catch some cool pokemon there?

With the registration and sign ups done for Aiden and his friends he separated himself from the dwindling crowd, making sure that his new companions were sticking by. Zorex was busy skipping around, roaring and chirping to the other Pokemon as they got a bit too close or just spent too much time nearby him, still filled with energy and wanting to play.

When they were a tad separated from the rest of the busy crowd Aiden chimed up to say, "Well guys, I think it's about time we head out. Got what we needed here and I don't know about you but I'm raring to get this adventure started properly!" From there he pulled out his Pokedex firing up the map app to get a good lay of the land around them. After a few moments of study he felt determined that he had a good idea of where to start from. "If we head West on Route 13 we'll be well on our way to the Zamak Ruins which are said to be a very curious place surrounded in mystery and strange Pokemon. And from there we'd be able to branch off to many different towns and natural landmarks. If ever there was a good place to kick things off I think that would be it!"

Zorex seemed to think the same, though seemed would most likely be the correct term as he was mostly likely just pumped to be hanging out with his new friends. Showing this off he ran over to the Growlithe and let out a few roars before promptly runnign away towards the Riolu to which he did the exact same thing, seemingly happy by just jumping between the two looking for somebody willing to play.

---

Her... Her tone shifted. After she was extremely rude to the professor... She just... shifted personalities almost. If he was being honest to himself, he had no idea what was going on now. Instead, as she continued to speak about, well, whatever she was going on about, he simply acted like he was paying attention, instead attempting to solve this problem in his head. Did everyone seem to act like that? No, they certainly didn't from his experience, even if it was few and far in between. Comparing her to the others here he'd interacted with so far, they certainly didn't seem similar to her in the least.

And yet, she seemed off. Not your typical off, but the kind of off that made it seem you hiding something, or messing with someone. He wasn't sure what that meant, but he assumed she was either acting rude or acting nice, and neither explanation seemed reasonable to him. So as she continued her speech, he continued to silently observe her, watch her movements, take note of her tone of voice. A part of him wanted to believe she was being decent, but another part of him screamed something was off, and it was just getting louder. But he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, give her a pass on her actions, and maybe start anew.

After all, she was willing to tell him her name, so he could at the least return that kindness. He did his best to smile, and even held out his left hand for a handshake, although his movements were obviously filled with slight hesitation as he did so. "Oh, well... hello there Euphie. I'm uh, Ryan Frost. It's good to meet you."

"Thanks for lettin' me tag along," Novis said, "I bet Nier'll love the company more than me, though."

The two strangers seemed to be pretty chill with his intrusion into the group, so Novis promptly followed them out from the registration lines and over to the entrance of the lab once they were done. With all of that done, all that was left for the group was to decide where to go from Beryllium City, their options being routes to each cardinal direction. Novis had, of course, planned to head West to Devarda Town, but to get there they'd either have to trek around or go through the Zamak Ruins. The other two seemed pretty down for going in a mysterious place like that, so that was probably going to be a plan.

As Aiden pulled out his PokeDex's map, Novis walked over to him and rested his arm on Aiden's shoulder. Peering at the map, it indeed seemed as good a place to start as any, maybe even the best. Closest thing to Beryllium City. "We can get to Devarda Town through there," Novis said, tracing the routes with his finger. "If we're all doing League, we should leave Stellite City for last, so Ormolu City is probably the best bet after we beat the Gym in Devarda..."

"Ehh, we'll decide when we get there!" With that hastily almost-planned route, Novis suddenly bolted forward, his hand falling to Aiden's wrist and practically dragging the boy away. Nier let out a bark, directed at both the trainers and their Pokemon, as he chased close behind Novis. Stumbling out onto the street, it only took a few moments of figuring out where the sun was before he started off West, leaving little time for Aiden and Roxy to catch up. But, after running away a fair bit, Novis suddenly skidded to a stop and started walking backwards so he could talk to his two new companions better.

"I just realized, I never actually got your guys' names!" Novis laughed, running a hand through his dyed hair as they walked together to Route 13. "Got a bit too excited, I guess."

After things were settled, he headed off onto Route 9 along with Talonite. There wasn't much left to do in Beryllium, other than buying some supplies for the road, by calculations they should reach Amalgam University by the end of the afternoon, a fair bit before sundown. Route 9 was filled with people transiting between Beryllium and Amalgam, and Brittanium most of all. As a result the entire route has been nicknamed "park route" because of it's carefree nature. Many food stalls had set up there too, and there were detours that led into areas with wild Pokemon.

York chose to head to the university first since he heard they recently got some new fossils, so he wanted to see those fossils be realized and see the whole process. Even though the technology was found years ago, the idea of "reviving" Pokemon was such an amazing concept.

"Talonite... Hmmm. No that doesn't sound right, Talon... Tal, you ever heard of fossil revival tech? That's why I wanted to head to Amalgam first, they just got a new batch and are going to start them up fairly soon", the road they walked on was rather peaceful, it was still very close to the Brittanium-Amalgam-Beryllium crossroads, which was the most busy route in all of Chromis.

---

With a hand faster than the young lady could see, the Pokedex she had previously handed the young trainer was taken from her. Professor Grevillia was actually still quite young, in fact any lady should understand the idea of age at all, direct or indirect could be a sensitive subject when directed at her. Rude she can handle, but this...? Just as swiftly the same Pokedex was used to scoldingly smack her over the perfect middle of the head.

"Well I don't know what kind of parents you've had young lady or where you're from, but I'll have you know I'm still in my prime. You're a lady yourself and should also...", and she went on and on... One of the Aides entering the Pokelab turned right back around despite having a missive for her. Known in the lab... She had a sore spot about her age. As a seasoned mother she went at this scolding rant with expert pacing.

She went on for a good solid minute, making Euphoria keep her head down. After awhile, she took a deep breath and presented the Pokedex back to her.

"Now, here", she said, holding the Pokedex in front of her.

"This is yours now. And try to treat others with respect alright? Things do come around, after all", she finished.

The easy smile stayed to clothe her lips, she could see and smell the indecision on him, but indecision was good. Always, always best to leave them guessing, even those you could perhaps claim as allies. Euphie didn't want the boy to be too comfortable, yet: in time, he'd see more. Him and all the rest of them, all of Chromis, even. She was hardly the foremost practitioner of physical contact, but a handshake she could endure. She reached out with her right to grip his left, kept her eyes and lips seemingly warm, so as not to make him bolt; began, "Ryan, then? Well, consider me pleased to meet y- hey!"

Her smooth introduction was cleaved in two by her own surprised cry as she felt the Pokedex, resting in the grip of her offhand, wrenched from her with great speed. She knew the culprit, and furiously did she turn to face the Professor, all welcome gone from her face, mouth parted and ready to throw vitriol - but her planned, fiery criticism would not come: given that the Professor unceremoniously smacked her across the crown with the hard plastic device a fraction of moment later. "Arrgh!" was the unintelligent noise she instead produced, moreso in her shock and outrage than from the pain there was of the attack. The beginnings of the handshake; too, gone: her hand slipping the grip as she reflexively juddered downwards and backwards. But before she could escape or lash out, no! Now the Professor was clutching for purchase at her tangled hair, forcing her head bowed with unexpected strength - even as she squirmed, struggled, screeched (all of her prior control lost by this point) that she be released - she was drowned out as Grevilia ranted and raved, the harshly-spoken words floating past her ears like a rushing river as Euphoria's protests grew weaker and more pitiable by the moment.

After what seemed like an age the Professor let Euphoria go, taking a moment to recover and regain her poise as Euphie herself stood stock-still, unresponsive.

"Now, here. This is yours now. And try to treat others with respect alright? Things do come around, after all." spoke the Professor measuredly as she once again offered the Pokedex as some surreal post-modern olive branch. Euphie slowly rose her head again, to look at the thing in Grevilia's hand. Her eyes, for a moment, were completely blank, like the screen of a long-obsolete machine. But she quickly regained... it wouldn't be accurate to say Euphie regained her prior balance, but she could at least find the snarl of a filthy mutt to stain her features, as she looked furiously to the Professor. "Give me that!" yelled Euphie, nearly sending the 'Dex flying from Grevilia's outstretched hand as she snapped her arm over the table to rip it from her grasp.

Euphie then moved backwards very swiftly indeed, until she'd put a good 5 metres - as well as the table - between herself and the Professor. She stopped there, all her body tense, still trying to swallow what had happened. Euphie was not one to be used at all to feeling the abrasive touch and stung, self-righteous orders of others. And even when she had been exposed to that, on those few occasions? She had very swiftly and very proudly taken a disproportionate revenge. But now Euphie was faced with the fact she'd just been... she'd just been attacked, and insulted, and what could she even do about it...? She had no desire to run back and trade blows like a degenerate, especially considering she had a horrible feeling that the aged but shall we say better-fed Professor would trounce her in that capacity, if she had to. And that was about all she had open to her.

Her head hurt, and not just from the blow from the Pokedex. With a grandiose outrage, she stood at her nice safe distance and screeched insults. "You... y-you don't know just whom you're dealing with! Damn you!" She stomped the pristine floor petulantly, achieving nothing save to make herself momentarily seem 10 years' younger. "Don't think you've taught, that you can teach me anything... hag! Listen to me..." Calming down, just marginally, and trying to coax an intimidating staccato into her throat, "Listen to me... there is one thing you said, to be true. What goes around, does come around. And someday, you will regret this!"

She felt more pathetic, more disgusting then as she stood there throwing tantrum than she scarce had before. But such loathing brought with it, clarity. A realisation she felt near-physically sick to think on, but one she could not deny. With this the second time in just a handful of days that she'd been insuled, publicly humiliated and forced to run... Euphie, she couldn't face it. She couldn't start from the start again; alone, treading dark trails she didn't know, hungry and silent and... well, it turned her stomach, yet there wasn't much point in bemoaning it. It was sure to happen once again, courtesy of ill-judged pride.

But involuntarily, and with a desperate squeak fraying and betraying at the edges of her attempts to speak with command: "Ryan. Ryan, I'm going to sign up, now. The League... the League, and the Contests too, I suppose. Come, come with me."

Quietly, after that, but present... and to Euphie's own distress - "...Please..."

-

Before she could debase herself any further, Euphie with a great effort forced herself to spin on her heel and march promptly out of the lab. She soon regained a face like thunder and her deep-seated, indignant anger, which was a lot more comfortable to her... than, whatever the Hell had been drawn out of her like a vile cumulative toxin, a few moments' prior. Back on better-trodden ground now.

The PokePark. She fumbled in her pockets for her box of cigarettes; drew them out, glanced at them... thought better of it, and stowed them again. Instead, she stomped straight past the remnants of the queues. One tardy young lad who couldn't have been older than twelve was at the desk for the League, looking down at the page intently scribbling his name. Euphie leaned over him, tore away the pen - his signature now apparently read 'Benjamin Lans-wnnlnw' - shouted, "Out of my way!" and shoved him almost off his feet with a forceful left arm. She scribbled 'Euphoria Caulfield' quickly in her spidery handwriting and loped over to the Contest sign-up desk, where the young woman who'd just then come forward shrewdly stepped-back before the wild-eyed young woman with the scrappy violet-dyed ponytail could barge through her. Another momentary scribble, and Euphie speed-walked out of the PokePark before any of the young hopefuls could challenge her, almost before they realised what had even happened.

It wasn't far from the lab to the city limits, and Euphie soon found herself standing in the shadow of a tall 'Come Back Soon!' sign adorned with the icon of a saccharine, smiling Emolga's face, which seemed solely to be there to poke fun at her state. She looked upon it bitterly, but then sighed, resigned. So this was Route 9, apparently. "No real better place to start... nor any place worse. If I run now, I can be from this filthy city to another this side of nightfall. But... I'd best rest, first. That unnecessarily hasty escape's already taken it out of me. I should take a moment... calm down, forget, prepare. Can't let this new journey be started in bad faith."

She shook her head, lips drawn, then sat down upon a little brick wall lining the road leading out of the city, tilted her neck to look up at the sky, the placid scrags of clouds overhead. "Because wherever you may begin: things will always get worse."

After buying some supplies for the road Talonite and York set off onto Route 9. They weren't in need of food for sure judging by all the food stalls around, so Talonite ended up buying a Unova style hotdogs to chow down on. They were heading to the university York had spoken so highly of, apparently many people from the research lab had studied there. Sounds like the type of place Team Skull would have tried to rob. Key word being tried.

York went through a couple of nicknames and Talonite cringed at the last one. " If you have to nickname me, go with Talon. And yeah, I know about fossil revival. Got an Archen revived in Alola, weird dude wanted to make an entire park filled with revived Pokemon."
@Sho Minazuki@I-Am-X

---

What would happen next, Ryan did not expect, nor never would have expected. In a swift motion, he watched as the Professor snatched the Pokedex that Euphie was given, promptly hitting her on the head with it. Such an act was unheard of it Ryan, mainly because it was coming from a Pokemon Professor, and they didn't seem like the scolding type. Then again, his only interactions with Professor Grevillia was getting a Pokedex from her, and she seemed relatively nice then. But, he supposed, being nice wasn't an immediate indicator that they would take someone like Euphie and her... harsh mannerisms lightly. Ryan himself wasn't particularly fond of her after her display, but seeing her get hit made him tense up and withdraw his hand back to his side. As the girl groaned in an angry fashion when she turned to Professor Grevillia, Ryan slowly brought his two hands together near the middle of his chest, soon poking the tips of his index fingers together lightly as the scene unfolded.

It was only a matter of time before the girl he had tried to introduce stomped away, having snatched her Pokedex and gone a decent distance away. For a moment he felt that the fiasco was over, giving off a sigh of relief that it had ended faster than he had thought. But that wishful thinking was soon interrupted by the shouts of the girl once more. "You... y-you don't know just whom you're dealing with! Damn you!" He heard, causing him to wince and look at the Professor for a second, raising his left hand slightly as if he were going to make some sort of comment, but unfortunately it was cut off by Euphie continuing her rather nonthreatening promises. It... was almost sad, really. Ryan couldn't understand why she was making such a big deal out of what had happened, especially because she got what was coming to her. What went around, Euphie's insults to the Professor, came around in the form of discipline. And even though she tried to sound furious, to sound threatening, but to Ryan... It just seemed that her heart wasn't in it. Maybe it had sparked something that had happened in her past, bad memories... He couldn't tell, but he did have a feeling that there was more going on beneath the surface.

Which is why when she asked him to come with her, he was shocked. His eyes widened, and he must of looked like a statue for a second as he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Someone wanted his company. And the worst part was, he could hear her distress when she pleaded for him to join her. It made his heart ache for her despite what had just happened, a sense of pity that he didn't expect at all. Here was this supposed, rough and rude teenager his age doing her best to, well, do something, and the next minute, she wasn't the same person at all. He saw that it was genuine, but he couldn't believe it. Maybe... he thought, maybe this girl has been through a lot more than he has, and all she needs now is someone who won't abandon her.

He took a deep breath this time, but instead of using it to calm down, he used it to get excited. When he reopened his eyes this time, he smiled in her direction, willing to go with her and, maybe... help her. He wasn't sure what the future would hold, or if she even liked him, but he felt that she needed someone to stay by her side, moreso than he needed to be alone with his Pokemon. And when he got to her side, he nodded at her with a reassuring smile, though not saying a word. He knew he wasn't the best when it came to getting the right words out, or even saying them properly, so he hoped she'd understand that he was by her side for now.

He didn't say much as time went on, letting Euphie do her own thing. He thought of taking Pixie out on multiple occasions to give him a companion he could talk to, but... he felt that would be a bit rude to Euphie. After all, one of them had to be a good example for what was to come. "Don't forget about me... Besides, I... Don't think things will get worse, at least so long as you're with your partner. But, uh, hey! We'll be fine." He replied, trying his best to counter her negativity with his own positivity. "Just, uh, lead the way, and I'll be here too."

Outside the Pokemon Lab - Beryllium City

@1Charak2@ZachChase@Alexfangtalon

"Hm?" Leo looked at the evidently older girl and simply nodded his head in acknowledgment. It felt weird being praised for winning battles. His father was hard to truly impress and most of the neighborhood kids knew him well as the "Cheater" for using Nado's Dragon Rage attack to quickly finish almost any battle. Did he take immense satisfaction from all the victories? Definitely. Did he enjoy the great loss of friends he had after battling them. Nope. Nado seemed much happier at the praise, as was usually the case. "Uh, thanks. Name's Leo."

Nado stared blankly as Luna pet his face with her paw. He stayed silent for a second, as if considering its options. Slowly it extended out its hand to the Rockruff and attempted to pet it in a similar fashion. Unfortunately, its stumpy arms were much too short to even consider touching the other creature without a boost in height. And so it tipped on its toes, tripping on its face before it could get even one pet in. Leo put the little creature up to its feet, briefly avoiding the gaze of the other trainers. He loved Nado to death, but the little guy could be a ditz sometimes.

He couldn't help but feel a bit out of place when people started discussing traveling options. He felt like he was intruding on something. Did they mean to tie him along, too? Mm. Well, he supposed it couldn't hurt anyone if they did go together, as long as they had similar plans.

"Mind if I take a look?" He crouched right next to the boy, leaving Nado to his own devices as he observed all the possible locations they had to explore. He had read up on the locations quite a bit and the ones that interested him the most were the Temple and the University. Both for personal reasons. Part of him wanted to check out the temple first, but he doubted he would find what he wanted there. "I think heading to the Amalgam university would be a good place to start. I've been meaning to look for some good bug pokemon for awhile now."

He pointed towards his place of interest. It was kind of taking everything in his power to avoid suggesting they go to Brittanium. The gym leader there, Estella, would mop the floor with Nado, realistically. But he wasn't interested in a battle with her just yet. Let's just say that his "siblings" really wanted an autograph from Estella, as she was a very popular idol even as far away as Sinnoh. His "siblings" would be incredibly disappointed if he--they, couldn't manage to get a few autographs from her. Good and kind brother that he was, what choice did he have?

---

As the trio headed out of the lab, Roxy couldn't help but excitedly drum her fingers against the straps of her backpack. She was eager to get started, and evidently Aiden was as well, seeing as he was already putting together their travel plan. Roxy stood on the tips of her toes and leaned over his shoulder to look at the map on his Pokedex, studying the distance from Beryllium City to the Zamak Ruins. It'd be kind of a long trip, that's for sure; and the longer, the better. Novis-who, Roxy suddenly realized, still didn't know their names-piped in, talking about Devarda and Ormolu; they seemed as good of places as any, assuming they headed out from the Zamak Ruins. "If the Zamak Ruins really do have strange Pokemon, then that's a great place to fill out our Pokedexes. We can restock in Devarda, too, if we need to."

At that moment, Novis suddenly bolted forward, dragging Aiden along with him. Roxy, being totally left in the dust, just laughed and pulled Lucina onto her back as she ran to catch up with them. Evidently, he'd let go of Aiden at some point, so now they were both far behind while he ran on ahead. Pausing next to Aiden-and, admittedly, trying to catch her breath-she couldn't help but laugh a bit. "Did he do track in school or something?" She almost thought he'd run all the way to Devarda by himself, but he eventually turned around and ran straight back toward them. "I just realized, I never actually got your guys' names! Got a bit too excited, I guess." Roxy laughed again, practically skipping as the trio headed down Route 13. "I'm Roxy! This here is Lucina," she replied, gesturing toward the Riolu she was currently giving a piggyback ride to.

"Nice to meet cha, Lucy and Zappy~!" Ruby grabbed the older girl's hand in her own, shaking it as a friendly and excited gesture. Hearing what the other teen had said, which was somewhat confusing to the girl, Ruby giggled at his description of how flashy they were. Maybe except for the blue Sylveon boy, who had just introduced himself as Ven after Ruby forced it out of him, but he did have a blue Sylveon which stood out so it counts?

"That was pretty funny but obviously we'd stand out, look at us! Especially me~!" Flipping her hair in a very sassy manner, the little girl winked, not particularly towards anyone but teenage boys who happened to be at that direction blushed. "Ruby is glad we all get to travel together, look even Berry is happy~ I'm done with the registrations, all I needed was to sign up to become a star anyway~!" The female Sylveon smiled and wagged her tail excitedly before standing proudly as Ruby mentioned about becoming a star.

"Ruby doesn't mind where we start from, as long as we get to the contest halls to perform~" Before the short teen could react, the two Pokemon and their owners suddenly dashed towards the outskirts of the city. Before losing sight of them, Ruby quickly picked Berry up from the ground and grabbed Ven by the arm to chase after the rest. "Wa-Wait for us! Come on Venny, we're getting left behind!"

__________________

"You know, this road seems awfully familiar~ It kinda looks like the road I used to go to my city~!" The fact was, the group was indeed heading towards Ruby's hometown, Brittanium City.

The road to Brittanium City was a busy one, especially between Beryllium. There was a highway overhead for those in automobiles, and as a footpath reminiscent of those found in parks marking the way to walk between the cities. Various people's houses were more concentrated around the areas closer to Beryllium City and Brittanium City, along with detouring footpaths and dirt paths that led into the wild grass and small forests that skirted the pathways and houses. No doubt teeming with wild Pokemon that chose to avoid the populated pathways, barring that, there were some flying Pokemon such as Pidgey and Pidove hanging around happily.

As they walked down the southern way towards Brittanium, they noticed a Pokemon battle was going down. A well dressed young trainer with a Totodile had won a very convincing victory over a passersby.

"Now that was certainly boring... What's a no-badge trainer to do against someone who already has one after all?", he remarked. The other trainer gave him dirty looks before leaving on their own way. The young trainer began to walk their direction and noticed the four were watching.

"Oh, you four seem interesting", if not flashy.

"Care for a battle? I would not be offended if you decline, after all... Knowing an impossible battle when you see it is a prime instinct as a trainer", the boy did not seem to care for others feelings so to speak and would continue to speak down on them. So, would they challenge him? Or not?

This time, it was Lucy's turn to laugh at Danilo's line. All of them definitely do stand out in different ways, especially Ruby, after all. "With how adorable you and Berry are, I definitely can see that." Lucy smiled warmly. "As far as registrations go, I'm set. All ready for the league."

"As long as it's fun, anywhere is fine. Adventure above all." she laughed. Danilo would then take advantage of Zap's competitive nature, egging him into all out race. "Or run after the pokemon." she echo'd with a laugh. Without wasting anymore time, she bolted after Zap.

---

As they raced down the path, they noticed how busy the road to Brittanium City was. While they were slowing down the further along the path they went, they came to a full stop when they noticed a battle up ahead. And before long, the winner of said battle took note of them and challenged them. "My my, quite the entertainer, aren't you?" she laughed. "Me and Zap will definitely take that challenge. Time to see what we can do Zap." she grinned at her Elekid as Zap also grinned back, getting into it as well.

It was going to be their first battle after all. As Elekid stood in front of her, they readied themselves for battle.

---

Where to go... he thought to himself, tapping his pen on the map befo- oh, some guy just appeared out of nowhere? He'd look over at them ... "Mind if I take a look?" ... he paused for a moment... looking over at them, smiling. "Yeah, sure! My name is Chance by the way...". As the two of them looked over the map, the shiny little skitty in his lap would hop up, energized once more, "Mew?", "I think heading to the Amalgam university would be a good place to start. I've been meaning to look for some good bug pokemon for awhile now." Blitzy, the little skitty, would hop from Chance's lap and onto his shoulder, curiously looking over at the other trainer, hopping upon Leo's shoulder and purring. Chance would look up from his map for a moment to look at BLitzy, chuckling to himself. "Heh, Blitzy whatcha doin' up there?~"

He'd turn his head, taking his attention back to the map. "Yeah, that could work... from route 9 to the university... maybe even visit the reserve, go through route 10... take a stop in damascus town... route 11... then the temple, and from there- through route 17 to solder cave!" As he spoke he'd mark the map with the blue pen. If he was going to travel with a group it looks like he's going to have to take a long detour to reach solder cave... but hey, that's fine. It's better to travel in a group of people, plus- ...do I even know how to catch pokemon? ... "guess I could get some help...".

---

They run until they reach the start of the route, from there they started to casually stroll. Well Danilo casually strolled looking around and taking the atmosphere in. Francis got tired and had once more hid under his top hat, making Danilos red hair under the hat into a nice nest to sleep in. He let him sleep, as the day already had quite a bit of excitement in it. The road was quite lively, one could see all sorts of people moving and heading somewhere. He was sure he spotted several common flying types over their heads.

Seeing such crowds, meant as well that many more eyes would spot them. Some for Vens shiny sylveon, some for the strange dressed people. Compared to the two ladies in the group Danilo was nearly feeling moderate dressed. Such thinking made him nearly grin. He truly wondered how his family would react about the strange travel group. Promising himself to mail his family some photos of his newly acquired travel group, once they get to a pokecenter with a PC. He could already hear his mother jealousy about his son having the chance to spend time with a shiny pokemon.
His idly thinking got interrupted and pulled back to the now and here.

"You know, this road seems awfully familiar~ It kinda looks like the road I used to go to my city~!"

"Oh, is that so? You grow up in Chromis? You must have some fascinating stories to tell us, maybe if you would honor us with some of them it would be quite nice. Maybe we could even pass your home on our way."
Danilo commented quite interested in hearing some of those stories connecting about this region. As well as learning more about all of them. A part of him guessed she she has to have a good grasp about Chromis geography, with the home advantage.

They spotted a battle in progress, and curiosity made Danilo observe the win of the trainer. He was nicely dressed, he noted. Able to carry the fine cloths with his attitude. Not a most welcome attitude, and quite likely much bigger on words than acts. But the attitude reminded him quite a bit of the trainer pokemon. The way they stood and how sure they appeared to be. He leaned on the staff, as he heard the challenge send towards them. Lucy jumping into it, accepting the challenge faster than lighting. All puns intended.

"Ah, the first battle, such an exciting start to our story. I am quite in wonder what spectacle Lucy and Zap will make for our eyes to feast on."

He wasnt worried about Lucy and Zap, as it was clearly they would win the fight, unless the trainer had more than one pokemon. A badge holder would probably have a bigger team than one. He pulled out his pokedex and scanned the other pokemon, quite happy as it told the name and some tidbit about the water type. He saved a photo of Totodile and focused on the battle. "Zap and Lucy! Show him that the beauty of soul always wins!" He cheered them on.

He felt Francis shift and peak only its head from under the hat. Watching what all the commotion was about when he was just so nicely dreaming.

---

Sage nodded at Morgana's assessment of heading to Arsenic Island to start with. She did have some valid points in that her Pokemon had no real advantage where he planned to go, but neither did they have any real weakness to the Pokemon native to the area. And besides, there were other advantages to going in that direction.

"Well, look at it this way- we both need more Pokemon. Pretty desperately, as a matter of fact, if we're going to accomplish anything in this League. I'm heading to Arsenic Island because Rey here has an advantage against them, and because Poison gives me some needed coverage against certain types. I mean, there's even a Fairy gym here, for crying out loud... Sorry, rambling again. The point is, Arsenic is easiest for me, but we can go a different direction if you're not 100% confident in going east, or if you maybe wanted some different type of Pokemon."

He shrugged, then started to move away. "I have to go sign up, myself, but after that, we can go. Hold up for just a sec."

With that, Sage shuffled over to the League sign-up, where the line was much shorter now, given that he'd waited a while before registering. He chuckled lightly to himself- for once, being lazy had its advantages. After a brief wait, and signing his name into the system, he shuffled back to Morgana, smiling slightly.

"So, that's all taken care of... want to head out now?"

@Brose

Sadie Hill

---

---

This was absolutely amazing. Sadie couldn't believe how easy that was to group up with some people lat alone one of her friends from back home. This was going to be so wonderful. She watched and listened as the others discussed where they wanted to go. She only knew of a few places she wanted to go to specifically, but so far it seemed they'd be going to those places. She especially was looking forward when they got to the southern region of Chromis so that they could do the contests. She was going to try her best to convince the others to try. "I can't wait to get going. We should definitely travel together. We can each help each other to get stronger and support the others to succeed. Also, remember it's not the destination but the journey. Don't let our destination take away from the trip on the way there. So, whose ready?"

The further along they walked down the path, the busier it got. It wasn't really a surprise considering it's filled with people heading towards Beryllium, Brittanium and Amalgam, not to mention Beryllium being the city in which the Pokemon Lab is located in. Along with the many new trainers that flood the path, it's also filled with food stalls taking advantage of all the people that go on through. Some of which were serving food from other regions, one of which Talonite stopped to buy from.

Just as he was about to dig into his meal, him and York immediately stopped what they were doing as a chorus of shouting erupted behind them. When they turned around to see what all the commotion was about, they saw a flock of Pikipek swarming the food stalls, with one that seemed bigger than the others seemingly leading them, pecking non-stop at people as a pair Aipom darted around their feet stealing whatever dropped, be it food or personal possessions.

It didn't take long before they turned their attention towards York and Talonite and as the Pikipeks distracted them by snatching Talonite's hotdogs, a group of people, faces covered by hoods, crashed into the two young trainers as they were chasing after the Aipoms. "Sorry," they apologized in a low voice as they hurried past them. It was then York and Talon realized something was off and began searching their pockets. Sure enough, their wallets and pokedexs were missing.

"Looking for these?" Turning towards the voice, they found three people standing there, showing off the stolen goods with the pair of Aipom by their feet. The voice, the delinquent in sunglasses, continued as he looked as the pokedexs. "Well, Well, Well. Aside from the other chump, looks like we've got a little celebrity here, York Grevillia. Son of thee Professor Grevillia, Looks like we've hit it big guys!" he flashed an obnoxious grin.

"Heh, talk about easy." the delinquent girl followed. "Too boring." muttered the taller delinquent, looking bored. "Let's beat'em down and use him to blackmail that Prof, just imagine what we could get for him!" the girl beamed with excitement. With a laugh, the one in the sunglasses whistled as the bigger Pikipek from before flew over and landed on his shoulders.

"Of Course!" He laughed again as he looked right at York. "If you want these back, you'll have to beat us first!"

The girl cracked up at it. "As if that'll happen! Just be a good boy and give up quietly so we can go collect from good ole mother, got it?"

"This won't take long" mutter the taller one. If they want their things back, they'll need to take on all 3 of them in a 3 vs 2 fight.