Today was the day. Today was the day he officially eschewed his normal, casual, lounging clothes for sleek and atheltic trainer gear. Today was the day he traded his bedroom for a tent, his house for the outdoors, and his impatience for excitement. He was 18, old enough to be a trainer, and absolutely thrilled. Hailing from the mountains of Blackthorn, he had already been all over the Johto region thanks to his well-off parents and their support. He'd wanted to have a change of scenery, and enter a world unknown. The Alola region was perfect for that. It was the classic island getaway of the pokemon world, and he wanted to lose himself in the beauty of it all.

This was not without a condition, however. His parents came from a long line of dragon tamers, and to uphold tradition, they were sending him on his own journey to master dragon pokemon. He didn't actually want to become a dragon tamer, but he didn't feel like he had a choice. If there was anyone Evian didn't want to dissapoint, it was his parents. They had always been amazing to him, spoiled him, and well, how could he say no to them? They'd even arranged for him to have a starter that would become a dragon type. Things were certainly set in stone for him. They'd insisted that he just take one of the family pokemon, but Evian had been firm. He wanted the whole trainer shebang. So, okay, he'd be getting a dragon type. Still, he could deal with dragon types. At least it meant he could go on his journey.

He was fortunate. Most people didn't have the luxury of their parents supporting them on their journey. Being a trainer was hard. If one wasn't gifted in battling, contests, or performances, their shot at earning prize money and paving the way for themselves was obliterated. For trainers who weren't lucky enough to fund themselves, sometimes they were lucky enough to get sponsorships from bigger companies. Those trainers had it set, paid to travel, battle, perform-- wherever the company needed them, they went with an all-expenses paid trip to boot. Not to mention the fame. Other who weren't good enough for sponsorships tried working in cities and saving up before moving on their travels. Even that got old though. Well, it wouldn't happen to him. Ha, as if he'd have to work. Evian wasn't grateful for his fortune, he just believed he deserved it.

Alola was beautiful. It was so lush and green, flatter than the mountains of Blackthorn though he could see the peaks of some green gray mountains in the distance. He walked straight up to the lab. The lab was on the beach, right next to the ocean. It was sunny, breezy, and peachy. What a day. He was so excited. He smoothed his hair, then ruffled it, trying to make it appear casually bedhead. He had to look cool. His almond shaped eyes lighted up as an aide greeted him.
"Welcome," he sniffled, a scratchy voice that sounded permanently affected by allergies. "And you are...?"

"Evian! Evian Zephyr Flythe. I'm from Blackthorn, and I have a reservation for my pokedex and starter pokemon..." He placed a hand on his hip. "Well?"

"Juuuust one moment," the aide replied stuffily, the light reflecting off his glasses. "I'll get your pokedex and pokemon in a moment... Could I have your i.d? I've got to verify who you are." So Evian handed him his i.d.

"Think you can hurry it up? I've got places to be," he said impatiently, running his hands through his hair and shaking it once more. He didn't realize how strongly the aide glared. Who had the time for that anyways?

"Here you are," the aide said curtly, dropping a pokedex, 6 pokeballs, and his i.d. "Well, you're almost done here. Try to mind your manners from now on."

Evian laughed loftily. "Oh please, what's that supposed to mean? I'll be taking my leave now. Good bye-"

"No no, you can't go yet," the aide interrupted, catching Evian by surprised. His face, which always seemed to have a smile on it, contorted into a look of annoyance.

"What do you mean, I can't leave?" Evian asked, irate. "Whatever is the matter?"

The aide had to stop himself from grinning. Clearly this jerk hadn't received the memo from mommy and daddy. "Well, you see, we were given strict instructions here. Your parents don't want you to leave the lab without a partner. They asked for us to arrange a partner for you, and so we have to wait on them."

Evian's mouth fell open in disbelief. He tried to look cool and composed most of the time but this was genuinely news to him. His parents didn't usually just spring things on him randomly either. "Partner? Me? You must be mistaken. I don't need a partner-"

"Well why don't you give them a call if you don't believe us?" The aide asked. Evian crossed his arms loftily.

"Fine," he replied. "I will. You'll see. You've got the wrong trainer."

Twenty minutes later he was irate beyond belief. Mom and Dad had definitely arranged for him to get a stupid partner and they weren't budging. Damn. Who knew when his partner would show up? His dear partner... he'd have to get rid of them. And fast. His precious time was wasting and this was unacceptable. He stood, feet apart, hands on his hips, head haughtily turned up. He was trying to think of a way to convince them he didn't need a partner. The insinuation, as if he needed someone to look out for him? Please.

"How about instead of standing, you take a seat and get to know your pokemon," the aide suggested, trying his hardest not to laugh. Oh he loved seeing youngsters get put in their place.

"I guess even you've got valuable advice for young people like me, I'll be outside by the way," Evian quipped quickly. Before the aide even had a chance to reply, or realize what had been said, Evian was out the door. He pressed the release button on his ball. In a flash of light, his pokemon appeared! It was a funny looking, but cute creature. Round and blue with a white beak and wings that looked like big feathery puffs of cotton. It chirped, letting out a musical lilt. Well this... didn't look like a dragon. It was cute but, had his parents made a mistake? He wasn't that well versed in dragon types, even though his family had harked so much about it, because he'd never wanted to pay attention to them in the first place. As such, he only knew his family's limited amount of pokemon, and not really any other kinds. He blinked, opening up his pokedex.

"Swablu, the cotton bird pokemon. Swablu has light and fluffy wings that are like cottony clouds. This Pokémon is not frightened of people. It lands on the heads of people and sits there like a cotton-fluff hat." His pokedex prattled electronically. On the screen was a fullshot of his pokemon, and just beyond it, the evolution... but he didn't look. He didn't want to. He didn't want to see the scaly dragon it became. He turned off his pokedex. He loved it just the way it was, and he was going to enjoy his little blue bird.

"Why, hello there," he smiled, raising his arm and extending it. The swablu chirped and landed on his forearm, small but strong claws digging in firmly. "I think... I think I'm going to call you Aria." The newly christened Aria fluffed her wings, preening herself. She chirped once more. Oh no, she was just too pretty. Come to think of it, he'd always liked bird like pokemon. He felt a feeling unfolding in him. Evian the bird trainer. How did that sound?

It had only been a week since his return to Alola. Ioane had spent the past eight years in the Orange Islands studying regional variations of Pokemon under Professor Philena Ivy to further his research and that of his original mentor Samson Oak, a well respected and well-known Pokemon Researcher. Right as he returned Ioane rushed himself to his mentor's lab and began comparing all of his notes from the past eight years. The young adult had gone home one day to say hi to his family for about an hour before he returned to the laboratory and that was where he has been since.

"... the wings of the Butterfree's in the Orange Islands are differ due to-"

"Eeeeee-yo!" A voice chimed in. "You're late!"

The young researcher turned to see a bright face staring at him from the doorway of his little research room of Professor Oak's laboratory. It was one of his little sisters, Kai. She glared at him with her big, caramel colored eyes, nodding her head with a shot of annoyance and disappointment.

"Late for what?" Io responded, returning to his notes. He continued jotting down notes as he felt his sisters eyes piercing in his direction, which sent an icy chill down his back. "I'm pretty sure I have nothing planned. I mean, I would know if I did or not."

"You don't remember that you volunteered yourself to Professor Kukui?" Kai sighed. "You volunteered to help with a new trainer."

"I... did?" Io muttered. He dropped his pencil and thought hard, trying to remember when he had done that. He remembered coming to the lab right away, being greeted by Professor Oak, dropping off his notes, going home to visit his family, talking with Professor Kukui once he returned to the lab, then with Professor Oak for a second time, and finally staying in his room with the notes he had dropped off. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, biting his lips to induce some more stimulant to get his mind going even more. "Oh... I did."

The scene quietly replayed in his mind as he remembered his conversation with Professor Kukui.

"I've got a new cuzin coming to Alola. His parents asked me to find him a friend to help him out a bit." The professor said. "The first person who came ta mind was you. I know you just came back and all, but how's 'bout it?"

It all came flying back to Ioane that he said yes. The young researcher hadn't really been paying attention to the professor when they had their conversation as he was just excited to be back so he just said yes out of excitement.

"Here," Kai said, handing her brother a bag. It was a backpack full of clothes and other supplies that he would need along the way. "I knew you would forget so I packed your stuff for you. I saw the guy you're going to be traveling with when I was coming here." His sister's glare turned into a big, bright smile. "Have fun."

Io questioned his sister's smirk, but knew he didn't have too much time to think about it as he was already late. He thanked Kai with a quick hug and was out the door, on his way to Professor Kukui's to meet his new friend.

---

Ioane neared the lab and noticed someone standing outside. They were with their Pokemon petting what Io believed to be a Swablu, a Pokemon native to the Hoenn region. Kai had made the comment that she had seen his new companion so he came up with the assumption that this person was just that, his new traveling companion.

"Excuse me..?" Io said nearing the trainer. He threw up his hands and waved with an awkward and forced smile. "Are you..?" That's also when Ioane realized that not paying full attention to Kukui meant he didn't know what the name of the person who he was going to help was.

Aria was just so adorable. Was she really his? Maybe she wouldn't evolve into a dragon. Maybe she wouldn't evolve at all. Oh, he hoped so. But his thoughts were interrupted as he saw someone approach him.

So this was his partner? They looked to be the same age, but very different in appearance. This person looked to be an Alolan native. He had the weirdest smile though. Evian couldn't help but snicker.
"Am I...?" He shrugged, eyes glittering, face always etched into the wisp of a smile. "Free? Sure. You can call me Evian. I guess you must be my dear, dear partner." Aria chirped, looking up curiously at Io from Evian's arm. "So, what are you called?"

He had a few options. He could maybe, just maybe, ditch this guy. It was obvious he didn't really care about Evian too much. There were a few things he could do. Maybe he could just go off on his own. Maybe he could say he was going to the bathroom and never come back. But, as much as he wanted to solo his journey, making connections was never a bad thing. Maybe this kid would be useful or something. Evian was curious about people. Sometimes he just liked to drive them insane and see how they reacted to whatever he said though. Really it was whatever his whimsy was that day. He was feeling sociable.

After learning his name, Evian nodded. "I see. You know, I guess this was inevitable. Well, I'm open to exploring this place. Let's spend some quality time together. What's there to do around here?"

"I'm Ioane," he nodded, responding to his new partner. "You can just call me Io though." He gave his new friend a quick up and down, scanning to see what his first impression was going to be of the guy, Evian. Io stood taller by an inch or two. His spikey jet black hair made him seem a bit younger but Io could tell they were near if not the same age.

Io slipped his left hand into his pocket and stuck out his right for a handshake. "Hopefully we can become friends?" The words that came out were said in a question but in his mind it was supposed to be a statement. That was one thing that always flustered Ioane when it came to conversations, the words never came out right. "I'm guessing Professor Kukui wasn't in, so we can meet with him first. I'm sure he would want to meet you."

The Alolan native paused for a moment to think of where the professor would be before going on. "He's probably on Ten Carat Hill," Io said, pointing to the west. "Just a ten or fifteen minute walk."

Evian firmly clasped the hand offered to him. "Sure, we're going to be the best of friends, Io." He had a wicked smile on his face. Io seemed to be... somewhat standoffish. Maybe people were intimidated by his height, or maybe they were intimidated by the serious expression he bore. It had caught Evian off guard too. Still, messing around with people was what he did. Riling them up with inflammatory comments, seeing what made them tick, getting under their skin... He enjoyed it. "If you insist, I guess we can head over to Kukui." Even though Evian wasn't particularly crazy about the idea, he'd go along with it. Maybe he could snag some more items out of it, get a free potion or something. Maybe get to know Io some more, so he could drive him crazy. And then happily head out solo on his own.

As they headed out to Ten Carat Hill, Evian decided to probe more. Why not? He could make this more exciting for the both of them. "So, Io, right? You grow up around here? Why'd you decide to become a trainer?"

"I mostly grew up here," Io replied. "My family is big on researching and I took it up too. I worked with Professor Oak here in Alola for awhile then studied abroad in the Orange Islands with Professor Ivy. They both have in-depth studies on regional variations of Pokemon." Io smiled brightly, he always exuded confidence when talking about his research along with his mentors, but he also knew that not a lot of people found it as fascinating as him. "I'm not much of a trainer though, I mean, I have Pokemon, I just don't battle as much as others. Never really found my footing in that area..."

Io further led the way towards Ten Carat Hill as he turned to his new partner in crime, hoping he hadn't bored him to death. "What about you, why come all the way to Alola to be a trainer?" The region within itself wasn't anything special as Ioane could tell. The Pokemon League was brand new, having been open only in the past few years, and the trials themselves were probably one of the only exciting things the region had going on compared to others.

As they neared the entrance to the hill Io took notice of the tall shrubbery and bushes, "We should be a little more cautious now, Pokemon are seen aro-"

But before he could finish his sentence what he worried about most was already happening. From the bushes jumped out four Ratatta's ready for action. "Not good!"