WILLOW LEAGUE

Professor Andrew Willow stood at Port Shaula's docks, the sea breeze rushing through his long, golden hair. The air smelled of seaweed; the smell of a journey. This wasn't his journey, though. No, this was the journey of today's youth. Today was the first day of the future of tomorrow. Many young people would come for their first pokemon, some will never be remembered, others were destined for greatness, but every single one of them would remember this day for the rest of their lives. He smiled a great smile, eager to see the delight on everyone's faces as they met their new companions and fellow partners-in-crime. And there wouldn't just be bonding between trainer and Pokemon... No, friendships, rivalries, perhaps even love would be forged between the trainers. Truly, there couldn't be a better example of community than a bunch of people who don't even know each other getting together for an event and all around having a good time, could there?

Sometimes, the simplest joys in life are truly the greatest. he thought to himself. Looking off to the horizon, his grin turned into a chuckle of excitement as he saw the S.S. Bolt's silhouette on the horizon.

"Doctor Herschel!" He said, with a snap of his fingers.

A scientist in a lab coat with glasses and jet black hair walked up from behind. "Yes Professor?"

"The ship is approaching from the north. I leave you to gather all the new trainers and bring them to the lab. I have preparations I must finish posthaste."

"Y-yes Professor!" The man replied. "I'll see to it that they get a good welcoming."

"I should hope so. I don't want any of them to feel unwelcome in a strange new land. That's no way to start an adventure." And with that, Professor Willow turned and took a brisk pace back to the lab.

Herschel sighed as he watched the professor leave. The professor truly had nothing else on his mind for the past two months. He really couldn't have been more excited about this.

Herschel jumped in surprise as a deep horn penetrated his thoughts. He spun around and saw that the S.S. Bolt was already in the port, preparing to dock. He sighed and clutched at his heart, recovering from the scare. He truly couldn't have felt more unprepared to greet a bunch of restless young trainers. He took a series of deep breaths and hurriedly rushed potential greetings through his head, almost moaning in panic as he began to pace back and forth.

This was not what he signed up for...

Andre was in his room on the S.S Bolt, busy studying his reflection in the bathroom, making sure he was presentable before he stepped off the plane. One has to look good at all times, because you never know where there will be someone with a camera who wants to take his picture. He couldn't afford to have a bad hair day, or else that picture would end up in a magazine, and the tabloids would rip him to shreds. Such is the life of a star. In the end, it was all worth it for the fame and fortune.

Once he finished brushing his blonde hair, he adjusted his tie, and checked the mirror one last time. "C'est magnifique!" He exclaimed once he was satisfied, he sprayed on some lavender scented perfume, and put on his pink beret. He completed the look by grabbing a pair of pink sunglasses, and putting them top of his head. Just in time too, because the foghorn just sounded, signaling the ship had come into port. Andre grabbed his pink messenger bag, which was covered in red hearts. If you didn't know better, it was easy to assume that it was a girl's bag. "Très bien!" He put the sunglasses over his eyes, and left his room.

As soon as the ship docked, Andre had to navigate through a crowd of restless trainers who were also looking foward to starting their journeys. Andre was excited as the rest of them. He hadn't been able to do this when he was younger because of his busy film career, and his parents not really allowing him to do very much on his own. He was very much looking foward to making new friends in this new region, and getting some adorable Pokemon. Still, he knew how to be polite. Unlike some of these kids, who were pushing and shoving their way through the crowd to get off the boat first. There were still plenty of Pokemon to capture, and plenty of time to enjoy the experience. It wasn't necessary to be rude. Nevertheless, he kept his cool, and calmly made his way through.

Once Andre did finally step off the ship, he dusted himself off, and breathed a sigh of relief that he finally made it. He looked around, and found a nervous looking scientist in a lab coat with glasses and jet black hair. He looked completely out of place there, which suggested to Andre that he must be the one he was looking for. The boy smiled and approached him. "Oh, bonjour monsieur!" He then greeted the scientist the same way everyone from Kalos greeted each other, with a kiss on the cheek. "My name is Andre. You must be with the Willow league, non?"

It was a nice day, and It had been a pleasant, relatively quiet trip. Thats all he could say about it though. He wasn't one to like travelling much. In fact he wasn't even sure why he came on this little venture. He had been idly watching TV while reading a pokemon research journal when some commercial came on. Something about some professor wanting to start his own pokemon league or something. He couldn't say he was that interested in it. Battling was not something he thought would appeal to him that much. He'd rather read about or observe battles than take part in them. Like always though, his sister managed to convince him to tag along on this scheme of hers. He really should stop doing that, though he'd be lying if he said a small part of him didn't like hanging out and doing...whatever it was his sister was doing right now.

"What are you doing?" He asked, looking up from the book he was reading.

"Trying...out...telepathy." She was currently seated across from him, legs folded and two fingers pressed against the sides of her head and eyes closed, and her face was scrunched together out of pure concentration.

"Its not going-"

"No! Sushy! I need quiet!" She interrupted.

"We're almost to-"

"I said silence knave!" Kayden simply sighed and gave her an unamused look as he stuffed the book into the bag that was carrying his things. It wasn't anything fancy, a small messenger bag that held a few of his essentials. Books, mostly for now. Later it was probably going to store any pokemon related things he needed. He picked it up and slung it over his shoulder as he stood from his chair.

"Is it working yet?" Abigail called out. Kayden didn't even turn in her direction as he walked towards the cabin door. "Kayden? Kayyyyden? Lil'bro?" She tentatively opened one of her eyes. Kayden wasn't in the room, and his bag was gone, she may have come to the conclusion he somehow teleported out or something as equally absurd if the door to the cabin wasn't open and a cool sea breeze wasn't blowing in.

"Ack! Hey, Kayden!" She shouted as she scrambled off the bed where she was sitting and gathered up her things. "Wait for meeee!"

---

Soon enough, the foghorn shouted and the ship pulled into port as dozens of trainers made their way off the ship, eager to start their own journey and capture their own pokemon. Most were pushing and shoving their way to get past the crowd. A few were politely trying not to step on people as they made their way off the ship.

And then there was his sister.

"Outta the way you slowpokes!" She shouted with a huge grin as she literally jumped over some poor soul who had the misfortune of coming across his sister. Kayden mostly stayed silent, though the fact that she had gripped him by his shirt collar and was literally almost dragging him along gave him very little choice in the matter. Most people shouted at her to slow down, stop, or otherwise quit being a nuisance. She ignored them of course. He had known her long enough to know that she didn't have a slow down button. Or a 'Manners' button for that matter.

Thankfully, it was a rather short trip off the ship for them and the crowd lessened as they finally made their way onto the dock and Abigail released Kayden from her death grip. He immediately went to straighten his shirt and bag as she surveyed the area.

"Well that was a nice trip!" She shouted cheerfully. "So where to Kayden?"

"Not sure." He said as he looked around himself. "There's a man in a lab coat over there."

"Great! He's the guy we're looking for!" She excitedly said before running off towards the scientist. Kayden gave a heavy sigh and followed behind. Today was going to be a long day.

Treize checked his bag, making sure he hadn't forgot something crucial. His book was there, along with some berries and other miscellaneous items. Checking his pokétch, he saw it was time to go. "Professor," he called to the other room, "We need to be out there. And soon, so hurry up." Oak replied with a yell, "Errr... Right, Treize! Off we go. I'm sure you're rather excited for this aren't you? I would give you a pokémon myself, but I did give all the ones I had away to the kids facing Kanto's league, and it does violate one of the rules Willow has set, anyway." They walked out, and Oak nudged Treize, handing him something. "I want you to have this. It's an app for your watch that shows the pokémon you have with you. You obviously don't have any yet, but you soon will."

"Thank you, professor," Treize said, flipping the chip to insert it into the pokétch's upload slot, waiting a second for the device to register the chip, then retrieve its information. The watch replied with a ping! They continued on, finally reaching their destination. "Come on, Treize, time to begin your adventure!" Oak announced cheerfully.

Sigur groaned his displeasure at the sudden, ear-piercing sound of the foghorn, turning to his side and grumbling silent insults into his pillow as he tried to catch hold of whatever dream he'd just had. He swore, he had half the mind to just ignore the noise and what it entailed altogether. He much preferred the fairly comfortable cabin bed than whatever awaited him outside, anyway. Try as he might, he just couldn't figure out the appeal in Pokémon training. Why the hell would someone willingly abandon their bed, their fridge and basically their entire home to set out to roam forests, swamps and probably very fucking hazardous mountains in search for sentient monsters to stuff into small spheres for later bragging rights? Hell, how did any government and tree-hugger community condone that crap and not stop it before it got to began, anyway? He wasn't a particularly caring person, and even he could see something wrong with the entire prospect.

Well, whatever, his sleep was already ruined and whatever dream he had attempted to run after already beyond his reach. He might as well get his ass out of bed and drag himself outside. If not, someone would probably come fetch him anyway, and he rather preferred to walk on his own two legs than be hoisted over the shoulder of some freaking gorilla for hire. So, with one more annoyed grunt, Sigur pushed himself to sit and took a look around his cabin. His clothes and whatever other items he'd managed to fit in his backbag were scattered across the chair and table, and the leftovers of his last night's snacks spread out on the floor like a minefield of sticky sweets. Damn. They... didn't expect him to clean up, did they? Because he was, uh, in a hurry and shit. Excited to start his adventure and whatever. Yeah.

Standing up and quickly gathering whatever he believed to be his (including some "souvenirs" from the ship's decor. Hey, it was called being an opportunist), Sigur threw his backbag over his shoulder and marched out the door - only to run head first into ten dozen people who apparently had had the same idea of exiting the ship right at this very moment. It looked like a scene straight out the Titanic, just with less theatrics and mushy dialogue; people were pushing their way towards the docks, not really paying attention to who they trampled in the process. Tourists? Sigur believed so, unless half the world had suddenly decided to become a Pokémon trainer in this new exciting region today. This was why he hated huge crowds of people. Or, well, small crowds of people, too. Or just people, really.

Groaning, the blond teen figured he might as well join in on the oh-so-fun shoving war. He tightened his grip on his bag just in case some asshole tried to snatch it from him, and pushed himself into the wave of people flowing towards the new region. Out of all the hundreds of persons abroad, he must have been one of the only ones not to wear a stupid, happy grin on their face - at least, one of the only ones he saw from what little he looked around.

As fresh air finally graced his lungs, Sigur took a long breath in and allowed himself a very brief moment of relaxation - which was broken only moments after by some overly excited orangutan brushing past him. Was that a girl or a freaking missile on drugs? She was followed by some guy, so probably the former. She seemed to be heading towards a lab coated man - that was apparently being harassed by a dude in pink if Sigur's eyes didn't fail him. Really? Wait, shit, that wasn't the professor... whatever, was it? He wouldn't have to walk up there with these people, would he?

Well, crap.

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed was a description that seemed tailor-made not to fit Griselda Gilbert, but this was about as close as she would ever get. She felt awake and aware of her surroundings, her bag was packed and ready, and had taken a few minutes to comb and braid her hair. A testy, restless gaze prowled over the other passengers as she paced around the deck impatiently. For once she was looking forward to something that was not academic, although 'finally escaping this overpriced hulk' wasn't much of a goal. Griselda was seasick, and tired of being expected to exclaim gleefully over every Mantyke a happy tourist spotted with binoculars. Landfall would be an improvement.

Griselda didn't think much of her arrival into Saro. It was temporary, just like everything else. Symbolism wasn't her strong point, and she didn't bother thinking about what the 'new journey' that so many soon-to-be Trainers had sung the praises of through the years would mean to her. What she cared about was a laboratory and a place to stay and an eventual completed thesis. Nothing and no-one else mattered.

Crowds didn't appeal to her, so she avoided this one as much as she could, silently judging the behaviour she saw as she watched the horde go by. Wherever we go, humans never change. Self-centered apes under a mask of sophistication is all we'll ever be. Her impatience eventually overcame her distaste, and she joined the throng reluctantly, letting herself shove and be shoved by the people passing by. That was your fault, you peasants, she thought as she finally made it away from the ship with no desire to look back. Forwards was where she wanted to go, if she could just find out where forwards was in this case. There'll be a professor here, somewhere. With luck he'll have made it easy for us. It was a sarcastic thought. Griselda had never trusted luck.

Drifting around in the slightly-more-open space, her impatient energy having completely evaporated, she finally saw her target. He had made it easy for her. Who the hell wore a lab coat in public? Was her destination that close? Stopping her movement to watch, she saw that the apparent scientist was accompanied by twins and a young man with an amusing fashion sense. She chuckled abruptly and muttered to herself, but not very quietly. "A scientist and a homosexual walk onto a dock. There's a joke in there somewhere... Pity life has no punchline." Shaking her head and readjusting her beret, she stepped purposefully towards the unlikely pair. "Gilbert, Griselda. I understand someone was supposed to meet me here."

Up and about on the deck since the crack of dawn, the blue-haired Kalos native had only returned to her cabin after she caught sight of the harbor looming in the distance. ETA was thirty minutes. Cecily stifled a yawn as she trudged back to her cabin, forcefully rubbing away at the drowsiness slowly pulling at her eyelids. She had been so eager for this day that she couldn't sleep at all the night before. Too many conflicting emotions kept her tossing and turning in her bed: there were thoughts of being unsupervised, independent, and free that made her anxious and excited all at once; thoughts of her first Pokémon that made her restless; and even thoughts of befriending fellow trainers that made her happily giddy. Saro was like this magical land that made all her dreams and wishes into possibilities and realities, and she can't help but try to will the ship to arrive faster.

Cecily idly checked her satchel one last time then eyed the timer running in her Xtransceiver. She set it to countdown from the ship's ETA, and had been watching it like a Staraptor since then. When it went off, she hurriedly pressed her palms against her ears in anticipation of the deafening horn coming up. Grating as the sound had been, Cecily treated the noise like an initiation song. S.S. Bolt was finally docking and her long overdue journey was literally within her grasps. Any trace of sleepiness left was replaced by growing excitement.

Her room was nearest the ship's exit, so she was one of the first to disembark, thus luckily avoiding the rough crowd that seemed prepared to destroy anyone in its way. She wouldn't have stood a chance against them at all. But before she got very far, she was suddenly struck by a wave of sentimentality that caused her to stop in her tracks. Wide eyed and goofily grinning, her eyes darted all over the port, taking in every minute detail. A flock of Wingull circled the ships near the port, chirruping perkily. Over there was a man with a lab coat, pacing restlessly back and forth. She then took the time to appreciate the feeling of solid, steady ground on her feet and delighted at the sea breeze that tickled her nose. In retrospect, it was downright idiotic of her to have stopped right by the dock, where all the ship’s passengers had to cross.

It all happened in a blink of an eye. One second she was enjoying the breeze, and the next she was getting pushed this way and that—some person had even jumped over her! Cecily lacked the physical prowess to offer any resistance. She was drowning in a sea of people and the most she could do was pathetically crouch down and shield herself with her arms as she waited for the wave of people to ebb. What a perfect way to start a journey.

There was only one way to look at this new adventure. Quite clearly, it was an adventure. For Dakota Black, it was also other things. It was a chance to get out there and see new sights. It was a good shot at landing some new inspiration as DJ Black for new material, and also to boost her musical reputation a little. And of course, getting to see the Frillish below and the Drifloom above in their natural habitats was always nice for a Ghost enthusiast like her. And eventually, the boat came to a halt. Accompanying that was the sound of its loud horn announcing it was ported. Even over the headphones, Dakota could clearly hear it. That meant it was time to get off this boat and out into this new and unfamiliar territory: the Saro Region.

For the most part, Dakota traveled light. Nothing she couldn't fit in two bags: a black duffel and a wheeled suitcase with a big Rotom sticker covering half of it. Just the essentials; clothes, hygenic products, and a laptop that served as the headquarters for all her DJ Black activity. Dakota opened the door to the room she'd been given in the ship, and...wow, that was a lot of people. A huge crowd pushing their way through, obviously all heading out to meet this new region for themselves. She hung back, waiting for the crowd to be out of the way before stepping out. She didn't mind going last. Just as long as they didn't stick her with a Psychic-type Pokemon to start her collection off. Bad memories of Abra in her childhood came to mind. The way it just sat there and stared at people without opening its eyes...it creeped her the hell out. Hoping that there was a Rotom to spare in the list of available Pokemon she could pick from, Dakota set down the hall once it was less crowded, just as eager as everybody else to see this new Saro Region.

Amelia groaned as the foghorn went off. She had been sleeping peacefully up until that point but now she slowly sat up and got out of her bed before grabbing a quick shower and getting dressed in her favorite white sleeveless blouse, a pair of jeans and her shoes before checking her things and making sure everything was packed: spare clothes, some money, personal hygiene items, her sketch pad, and a notebook for music related things that came to her mind. Once she was sure everything was packed she carefully headed outside, only to spot a large group of other newbie trainers crowded around the exit ramp of the ship, all eager to get off and start their adventure. Being the shy person she was, Amelia opted to stay away from the crowd and waited until they were all off the ship before getting off herself.

Once Amelia was off the ship she looked around with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. She was finally out of that mansion and in the world, no tutors, no people telling her what to do, and free to make her own decisions and possibly make some friends. But at the same time she was so scared. It was a very big change for her, something she never thought would happen. Unlike other children she hadn't dreamed of going on a Pokemon adventure because she never thought she would get the chance. But here she was, about to start one, and without a clue as to what to do. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a slip of paper the servants had given her with some instructions and a little advice. She saw she was supposed to find the Professors lab right after landing. Sadly it didn't say where the lab was. Looking around for some sort of clue, she spotted a group of trainers gathering around a scientist. The Professor maybe? Either way she decided to follow them, and hoped that they were heading for the same place she was.

Before anyone else could get a word in edgewise with the poor scientist, Abigail sped up from seemingly out of nowhere, barreling past everyone else. "Hi hi!" She cheerfully said with a huge grin on her face. "I'm Abigail, and the broody one back there is my brother. Ignore him, he's a meanie pants." She said as she proceeded to almost violently shake everyones hand whether they liked it or not. "So you're the professor scientist guy right? When do we get our pokemon? Do you have a cute little Phantump? Maybe a Snorunt?"

While his sister was busy making a fool of herself, Kayden was quietly standing on the sidelines, content with not drawing attention to himself. Instead, he was quiet studying the other trainers gathered here. He gave each of them a blank look as he studied them. The male dressed in pink made a bad impression on him just from the way he dressed and carried himself. If he had to guess right, he was probably a bit like Abigail in his mannerisms. Not something that was a plus in this case. The other one, a female, Griselda she said her name was? He had over heard her mention it when they approached. She seemed like a, less excitable sort of person. First impressions though were rarely correct though, and he resigned himself to make his final decisions after spending some time with the other trainers. That was for another time though, right now, he simply wanted to get this whole meet and greet over with. He'd rather have not done this at all, but if this is the way the professor was doing things, then he'd have to comply, at least a little. No one said he had to actually introduce himself. So after he finished his little inspection of the few trainers gathered here, he reached into his bag and pulled out the book from earlier and flipped the the page he had previously been on, and began to read. Hopefully, this would end soon and they would get moving.

Oak and Treize pushed through the crowd, somehow managing to not get separated, even though they seemed half insane. Treize noticed a few hanging back, simply observing. He wished he could be out there, but Oak was one of the famous Professors, and he had to meet Willow, so Treize trudged on through the mass of excitedly squirming bodies. Ahead, near Willow, there seemed to be some of the more hyperactive- Somehow being more hyperactive than the crowd was possible- soon to be trainers were around Willow. Even with the crowd, he could hear their pestering voices that bounced off the solid surfaces that were in place. In Treize's opinion, the acoustics were more than a bit too good. Eventually they found their way in front of everyone, and Oak called out to Willow's assistant, "Hello! I'm glad to be here. You're Willow's assistant, right? I'm Professor Oak, but I'm sure you knew that."

It took Herschel everything he had to keep from running at the sight of the huge mob. People of all shapes and sizes were pouring out of the S.S. Bolt, and a few too many of them were approaching him. The first to reach him was a rather... flamboyantly dressed young man, who greeted him in french and promptly... kissed him on the cheek. A walking stereotype, he was. "You must be with the Willow league, non?" he said.

"U-uh... si?" Herschel responded.

He was then greeted by someone else. A girl who practically radiated grumpiness. "Gilbert, Griselda. I understand someone was supposed to meet me here."

"Y-yes," Herschel replied, "If you came to become a trainer, just wait here."

A man called out to him from the crowd, and he promptly looked up to see a white haired man who looked to be in his 50s or 60s, accompanied by a boy in a black hat. "Hello! I'm glad to be here." The man said, "You're Willow's assistant, right? I'm Professor Oak, but I'm sure you knew that."

"O-OAK? Here? But, why-" He heard yelps and shouts from the crowd, which only made him feel less safe. Were people being trampled by this crowd? "Uh... let's back away from the dock, I think the crowd might need room. What are you doing here, of all places?"

"Oh, I just heard about Professor Willow's new challenge, and I wanted to see for myself how it was going! I was quite the trainer back in my day, I'm sure you've heard," Oak replied, with his normal grin still plastered on his face. "And Treize here has studied pokémon all his life with me. Speaking of studying, I'm sure that there are some pokémon here that I can't find back in Kanto or Vesryn."At the mention of his name, Treize gave a small, acknowledging nod. "And while Ash and his friends are good enough at catching pokémon, they're not quite as good when it comes to variety, and often are more interested in the Pokémon Leagues than finding more information on pokémon," Oak continued, only at that moment thinking that Herschel would have a reply.

Cecily didn't know how long it took before the crowd waned, but she waited until the last one had passed by before she got up. The experience left her relatively unscathed. A large man had stepped on her toes, and an old lady accidentally hit her with her suitcase, but it only left a little bruise. Nothing she couldn't handle. Dusting herself off, she brushed away the aggravation bubbling inside and forced herself to think happy thoughts. Getting trampled wasn't a very good start, but since her day started out so crappy, it could only get better from there. Besides, if she keeps moping around, she would definitely miss out on getting her first Pokémon. She nodded to herself, feeling slightly better already, and started toward the man with the lab coat. There was already a small group of what she assumed were new trainers (because of the lack of Pokemon in sight) gathering around him, comprised of people older than she expected. She thought she would be with a bunch of ten-year-olds, as per the usual, and that she would be the oldest of the bunch. But young or old, it was all the same. They were probably all starting out at the same time, and that means they would most likely cross paths in the beginning. The thought of possibly making new friends, ones that aren't forbidden to go near her because they sneezed once, made her grin excitedly. Cecily tried walking at a brisk pace, but she was out of breath before she even got to small group.

"Hey," she called out, just in case he and the group were already leaving. She arrived just as the old man, who looked familiar although she couldn't quite place him, finished talking about leagues or whatever it was. She took a moment to regain her composure before looking at the man with the lab coat square in the eyes. "Are you the one we go to for a Pokémon and an adventure? I'd like both, please."

"Rather excitable bunch aren't they?" Joshua said to himself as he watched everyone rush to get off the boat. He knew how they felt, he had been there before. The first adventure was always the most exciting. He wondered how many would enjoy it though.

Laughing to himself, he shouldered his bag before making his way off the ship, making sure to avoid the bodies of the trampled. Once he was off the ship he scanned the crowd before spotting a group gathered around a nervous looking scientist. If he wasn't mistaken one of the members of that crowd was Professor Oak of Kento. Taking that as a sign of where to go he walked over to the group and gave the Scientist a nod in greeting. Hopefully this was the right way to go.

Andre thought it was cute when the scientist acted all flustered when he kissed him. He had gotten that kind of reaction lots of times when he greeted someone that wasn't from Kalos, and it was fun to watch every time. He was about to say something else, but Andre got a little annoyed when his new friend ran off to talk to another scientist. How rude. Andre thought. Here was a movie star standing in front of him, and he goes and runs off to talk to another scientist. I guess that is just how they are.

Fortunately, a crowd had begun to gather around which meant Andre wouldn't have to be alone for long. Among them, there was another young woman, who also looked like she could have been a scientist herself. By the way she spoke, Andre figured she was an unpleasant person. Not that it mattered to him, she would warm up eventually, they always did. There was a purple haired young woman who had asked a question to the male scientist about starter Pokémon, but never got her question answered before he took off. She had come with a brown haired boy who had sat down and started reading a book. Andre just looked at the kid and chuckled. Who goes to a far off region, just to sit there and read a book? You could do that any time. There were much more interesting things one could be doing right now.

Now that the scientist man had left, he decided to socialize with someone else. That purple haired girl seemed friendly enough. So, he put his arms around her, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I am certain they have plenty of cute Pokémon for us, mademoiselle. In the mean time, we should get to know each other better, hm? My name is Andre, Enchantée!! What might a beautiful young lady such as yourself be called?"

The fog horn blasted Shoto strait out of his dreams onto the floor. "So help me Arceus if I have to ride another friggin' boat in my life it'll be my last." He said as he gathered up himself and his blankets off the floor. After a shower and a bite to eat of the leftovers from his room service the night prior he got dressed. A minute later he was out his door and met by a flood of people. "Holy smokes. S-l-o-w d-o-w-n." He said as if in a slow motion section of an action movie. "The island is right outside now and it'll be right outside 10 minutes from now." He added, but it was all in vain and really more to himself than anything anyway for amusement. So he just stood there with his pack shouldered until he saw an opening. He would walk along that opening until it was filled again by rushing bodies then wait...again. Took him twenty minutes to get to the gangway and he was fine with that seeing as when he started his way down it seemed the person he was looking for was still on the dock. Albeit surrounded by what looked like other future trainers like himself. When he hit land he took his time to look at his surroundings. Wingull crying into the salty breeze, a man playing a pokeflute bussing for change, and chauffeurs calling out their clients names.

Finally Shoto approached the group. He addressed them in general, "Sorry I'm late. Traffic was horrible." He chuckled for a moment at his joke then continued, "I suppose we're all here for the same reason. Aint pokemon awesome? My name is Shoto to those who are curious and to those who aint...oh well. Pleasure to meet you all the same." He noticed the two men in the lab coats. One looked older than the other so Shoto approached him first not even knowing he was mistaking the great Samuel Oak for Andrew Willow. "You must be Professor Willow. Its nice to finally meet you. Although, by the way you sounded in the commercials I thought you'd look younger, no offense. " He said extending his hand.

Abigail scowled at the Scientist as he walked off, her questions about her Pokemon going unanswered. She thought about running him down and demanding an answer. Thankfully for him, Andre had stepped in before she could even get one foot towards him. Him putting his arm around her wasn't much of a problem, she didn't mind it one bit. In fact, she rather enjoyed the gesture. It was the kissing part that made her just slightly freak out. Despite her flirtatious nature, she had actually received one before. She was more of a tease that enjoyed flirting with words and a bit of touching, but actually kissing someone, was new to her.

"Uhh....I uh..." She stuttered, her face turning bright red. "Abigail. It's, uh, Abigail. Linwood. Abigail Linwood." She replied quickly, badly hiding her emotions. Right now she wasn't sure whether she should like this Andre or not. She was the one that was used to doing the flirting, not being flirted too. So she took this like she took anything. A challenge. Lets see how he handles hard to get. Quickly regaining her composure, she gave Andre a small smile. "Beautiful hm? You're going to have to try harder to impress me with just words, pretty boy." She teased.

Kayden, overhearing his sister and Andre simply rolled his eyes and flipped a page in his book. What was the professor doing? He came here to get a pokemon, not stand around and talk all day. Giving a sigh, he replaced the book inside his bag. He'd finish it later, he decided that he'd have to talk some sense into this scientist so that they could get underway. Call it impatience, but being out in the open with a bunch of strangers was not something he liked doing.

He walked quietly over to the Professor and the Scientist, and seemed to almost appear beside Cecily without any sort of warning. "I agree with the girl." He said sharply. "Can we get going?" His hands were in his coat pockets, and he was giving the scientist a deadpan look.

Whoever said that patience was a virtue was probably some old, lazy fuck who needed an excuse to sit on his wrinkled behind a few minutes longer before getting up and going to work because boy, patience sure hadn't done Sigur any good so far; he'd opted to wait a bit further away from the gay (in both meanings of the word) teen, the scientist and whoever else had gathered around them until they were done chatting, but it had been a good ten minutes by now, and yet nothing was happening still. Weren't they supposed to get their first Pokémon and set out on an oh-so-glorious adventure? Because if the whole thing was cancelled, he'd rather appreciated to have gotten a note in advance. He wouldn't have even minded! Just... tell people about that before they travel across half the world for nothing.

Figuring that standing around and watching the group around the scientist guy grow wouldn't do him any good in getting him off the fish-stenching dock, Sigur rolled his eyes and walked up to the others, indiscriminately pushing past whoever happened to be in his way.

"Hey, so, are we waiting for our Pokémon to hatch or what?" He grumbled as he reached the scientist guy and some old dude who looked like a professor. Wait, yeah, he'd seen pictures of his face before. He was named after a tree or something, hailed from the Kanto region and was apparently kinda-sorta important in his field. He wasn't sure, Pokémon research had never been one of his favorite subjects. Either way... "Can we drop the chitchat and introductions for now and get a move on? Everyone's gonna have a lot of time to get to know each other while our pets smash each other to death in a battle and all."

It was morning and the sun was shining brightly on the ocean. It would have been a glamorous sight, had Randy been looking. Instead he was bent over the railing of the ship, closing his eyes and trying not get sea sick...again. It was his first time ever taking a ship and the rocking of the boat was killing him. He took a few deep breaths to try and relax himself before the horn on the S.S. Bolt blared its warning call. Randy jumped back and groaned in relief. "Finally, I can get off this hunk of metal," he muttered under his breath as he stumbled back towards his room. He managed to get back to the hall where his room was before the stampede came. Everyone in the rooms around him were trainers-in-training too, so they were all eager to start their new adventures.

Randy managed to make it almost halfway to his room before he got shoved out of the way. He stopped and turned to yell when the person behind him refused to stop and collided with him. “Watch where you’re going!” he shouted heatedly as he turned around to face his second attacker. Unfortunately, that person was a little girl who looked scared out of her mind by this stranger. Randy scratched the back of his head, muttered a sorry and quickly moved on, not wanting to be known by his future peers as ‘that guy who yells at little girls’.

The little room he had been assigned to provided him cover from the onslaught of people that were still steaming towards the exit. He went and got his backpack from the corner of the room. It was a fairly big hiking backpack that his brother used in his travels. He gave it to Randy with the advice to take just that bag, as it was important to travel light. Randy took that advice and packed his spare clothes, a pair of shoes, some food and other supplies and tools. That, in addition to his current gray t- shirt, jeans and work boots, was all he brought. He couldn’t take as much as he wanted to but thought that the trade-off was indeed worth it. He left his room and saw the hallways had returned to a normal state. Randy jogged to the exit, determined not to be left behind when everyone received their first pokemon. Even worse, he thought as he bounded down a flight of stairs, he could get stuck on the boat and have to take a return trip. Soon enough he emerged and stepped onto the docks. He immediately noticed the group of people around a couple fellows in lab coats, so Randy assumed that they were the ones to talk to.

Somebody was complaining they hadn’t gotten their pokemon yet, Randy noticed as he approached the group. He was not a very big fan of complainers and he had only just got off the boat without being that late. “Take it easy boss,” he said with a smile, “we just got here. Ain’t like anyone else is gonna go beat the gym leaders right now.”