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Keegan ignored the highly-irritating screeches of his Skarmory as he caught up with the Charizard and Flygon, looking back over his shoulder and doing a double-take as he saw a second Flygon rocketing towards the group of fliers, Kasiya and Sasha serving as its riders. He wasn't sure which of the two girls it belonged to, but if he had to judge by the terrified expression on Sasha's face (and the way she was grabbing onto Kasiya for dear life) he'd wager that the Flygon wasn't Sasha's. Other than the fact that she was being squeezed rather tightly by the pink-haired girl, Kasiya looked rather confident and comfortable astride the Mystic Pokemon, but Keegan had no idea how such a creature could have come into her possession. Where in the hell does that girl keep getting all these new Pokemon? he thought, realizing that she had a new Pokemon or two nearly every time he saw her, though like Mike, he knew there was no way she could have just found a fully-evolved Flygon roaming around in the wild. Even its pre-evolved form, Vibrava, was quite rare, but he knew it was pointless trying to ask about it now. He did feel like the odd one out, being the only trainer without a dragon to fly on, but the envious feeling didn't last for long. Perhaps someday he'd find himself a less temperamental flier, but for now he was stuck with the Skarmory.
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Miharu's gaze also temporarily shifted over to Sam, and she blinked a few times, wondering why her new friend looked so... bashful. It wasn't like the bandanna guy was trying to hit on them or anything, he'd simply asked for directions. She looked back at him as a small, yellow head poked out of his bag, and she smiled at the sight of the Pikachu. "Hello to you too," she said, looking up as an obnoxiously loud voice was suddenly shouting in their direction.

"HEY! ARE YOU GUYS POKEMON TRAINERS!? WANNA BATTLE, MAYBE!?" The owner of the voice was a boy, again older than Miharu and Sam, with longish red hair that appeared to be in desperate need of a trim. She glanced to the Quilava perched on his shoulder, not entirely sure the little Fire-type was interested in battling at the moment as she'd snatched the boy's fries for herself. It was then that she caught sight of another boy with dark hair and a grey jacket. He seemed a little more subdued than his friend, but Miharu couldn't help but wonder where all these people were suddenly coming from.

She stepped forward, wearing a rather serious expression as she eyed the red-haired boy and his fry-eating Quilava. She didn't know about Sam, or their new bandanna-clad acquaintance, but she'd be happy to battle. "Certainly, I'd love to," she said, taking a PokeBall from her belt and holding it up. "Though we could always make this interesting and have a double battle. Us versus you guys," she said, motioning between her and Sam, and then the red and black-haired boys. "That is, if it's okay with you," she added, looking to Sam and Jasper respectively.

Peine navigated through the big city, following the Saffron Nurse’s instructions on how to get to the train station. It took him about ten minutes to finally get there, with some wrong turns and small stops taking up a bit of time. As he walked into the train station, he saw a couple other trainers with their Pokémon out, getting ready to go onto the train. Peine went up to the front desk and handed the person that attended it the ticket that Oak gave him. “I’d like to go to Goldenrod City on the earliest train to that destination please.”

“It actually just left, you will have to wait an hour for your trip,” the attendant said as he punched the ticket.

“Ugh…fine…thank you sir,” Peine said in a sarcastic, pissed off voice as he took the punched ticket and walked to the waiting area. “This sucks, now I have to wait alone for an hour, it would be so much better if I was able to travel with some other people…” Peine took out Sel’s ball and sent the Sharp Claw Pokémon out. “At least I have you buddy,” Peine said with a smile on.

“Sel!!”

"HEY!" Oh no. "ARE YOU GUYS POKEMON TRAINERS!?" Please stop. "WANNA BATTLE, MAYBE!?" Jett's foot paused in mid-air, and he forced himself to look away from that shiny gym building. Slowly, he stared back at the girls in question, one of which offered the prospect of a double-battle.

The only boy in the trio refused and now the girl produced a-- could it be? A Marshtomp? Jett remembered studying the starters for days when he was offered the choice to pick one, and he thought about what a weird combination the cute Mudkip could evolve into. And, if his type advantages were correct, Cindy was not the choice to use, but Jett had just the thing...

"I'd love to battle," Jett said smoothly, all signs of previous reluctance vanished from his face. His fingers coiled around Aerosmith's Pokeball as he shifted to stand beside the redhead. "I'm Jett, by the way." He tossed the object up and down, before catching it and holding it out to face the girls. His index finger just barely touched the button. "It's nice to meet you!"

Cindy watched with mild interest as the green haired girl accepted her overly excited trainer’s challenge, adding the stipulation of a double battle. The kid with the bandanna seemed to have opted out, leaving another brown haired girl to accept the final place on the enemy team. After dragging out another fry, she glanced back at Jett, who, surprisingly, didn’t look like he wanted to punch Scarlet in the face.

Scarlet, in the mean time, put on his battle face. He shut his eyes, pumping a fist into the sky with a rather thrilled grin. “Yeah! Awesome! Double battle! Never done that one before! You ready, Cindy-”

“Quil,” Cindy interjected, nodding to her fries.

“Ugh. Seriously?” He frowned, grabbing the only occupied pokeball he had. “Fine. Terumi’ll do, if you wanna be like that.” Scarlet tapped the button on the sphere’s center. He tossed it in the air above him, a mass of purple haze flowing out, just before the ball fell back into his hand.

The haze hovered onto the battlefield, before most of it condensed into a jet black sphere of malice and hatred known as Terumi, Scarlet’s Gastly.

"I can't do it, Raticate," Train barely managed to whisper, now standing completely still. She had found herself unable to move any further into the darkness. She felt so far away from the lights of street lamps, and the Pokémon Center, although in realty she was probably just a few feet or so away from it.

"Raticate…?" Train asked, but didn't hear anything except for her own, shuddered breathing. Her eyes had widened quite a bit, and she was staring fearfully into the dark, wanting to turn around and bolt back to the area that was actually lit, but finding herself frozen to the spot. She took a gulp of air and tried to hold back the tears that were forming, feeling like and idiot.

She let out a tiny gasp as she heard a movement, and tucked her arms in tightly against her, hands balled into fists and almost touching her chin as she tried to force herself to take at least a small step backwards. She obviously should have fumbled for another PokéBall, but the girl was terrified out of her mind, and thus wasn't thinking straight. Just as she was managing to actually lift her foot, there was suddenly something behind her, and, just as quickly, around her.

"You were probably thinking of doing some late night training for the contest, huh?" A voice said as Train's breath caught in her throat, and tears began to form at the corners of her eyes.

"I-I was just feeding her," She stammared, barely able to force the words out past the burning lump in her throat. "I-I'm not--part of the--contest."

"Oh, yeah right," The man said. "But you're not gonna get to be part of it anyway, because we're gonna be taking that pretty little Oddish of yours.

"N--" Train started to say, but couldn't get the word out. She suddenly began thrashing frantically, kicking and squirming and doing everything she could to try and loosen her capture's grip on her.

"Help me!" She yelled, followed by a very loud scream (and a rather boyish one, actually). The man tugged her arms forcefully, sending a very sharp jolt of pain through the girl that resulted in an almost blood-curdling scream being released from her. She continued thrashing her legs, hoping to actually hit the man in a way that would make him let go of her, but it appeared to be of no avail.

"SOMEBODY HELP ME!

Amy had long fallen into a sort of trance, sitting in the PokeCenter while feeling quite restless. The contest seemed so close, yet so far away to her. I guess time always passes by slower when you're waiting for something, the girl thought with a small smile. She needed to cool down anyways; she wouldn't go into that contest until she was absolutely sure and ready. Confidence is key, right?

It was the sound of those automatic doors parting and the sound of little paws scattering across tiled floors that caught the girl's attention. She looked curiously at a Rattata, scurrying away from apparently its owner. The older man stomped after it angrily, his face as red as a Charmander's Ember. "Come back here!" he screeched, cornering the tiny, purple Pokemon. "Don't you ever do that again!"

It must be a rebellious little thing... Amy thought, blinking some. Then, she adjusted her glasses and focused on the Rattata. Was that red in its fur? Her heart began to race, but otherwise her face and limbs seemed to be calm as she strolled right up to the man. "Excuse me," she murmured, peering further at the Rattata while the man turned to her. That was definitely blood in its fur. "Did you hurt this Pokemon?"

"How I discipline how Pokemon is none of your business," the man hissed angrily. Amy felt something boil within her veins, but her expression remained stoic. She gently knelt down to the trembling Rattata and gently picked it up. Ignoring the man's demands to knowing what she was doing, Amy carried it over to the counter and placed it there. The kindly nurse didn't say a word, either remaining tactful or fearful of the look in both the girl's and the man's eyes.

Suddenly, there was a hand on Amy's arm and it was squeezing hard. She didn't flinch, but she didn't look up to the man. "I'll take my Pokemon back, thank you," he said to Nurse Joy, who looked back to them. "We have some serious training to do."

"Heal it, please," Amy murmured with a trembling voice. She looked up to the man, who had opened his mouth to yell something, but he was promptly stunned into silence by the glare he received. The coordinator's eyes were ice, and her lips were set in a thin line; she was too angry for words.

"He needs to be strong," the man grumbled, shaking his head some. "As strong as the rest of my team." Something snapped within Amy and she seized his hand, shoving it off.

"Let's see how strong the rest of your team is," Amethyst Maple growled, seizing a Pokeball, "with a pathetic trainer like you."

“All aboard for Goldenrod,” the conductor of the Magnet Train yelled as Peine and Sel got up and went from the platform to the train. “Kid, you have to put your Pokemon away, they aren’t allowed outside of their pokeballs on the train unless you have a special reason,” the conductor said, standing between Peine and entrance to the train.

“Ugh…you heard him Sel, back in the ball,” Peine said as he returned Sel to her pokeball. “Excuse me, but I need to be on this train,” Peine said as he pushed the conductor out of the way and entered the train. After a couple minutes, Peine found a free seat and the train started to move. The time of arrival for Goldenrod was in about an hour, and the train would stay in Goldenrod due to this being the last stop of the day.

After thirty minutes, Peine’s hunger finally got the best of him. Having not eaten since dinner last night and being around that time same time right now, along with all the travelling he had done today, Peine was starved. The boy walked to the eating cart of the train and sat down at a table. A waitress soon came over to him. “What could I get you sweetie?” she said in a calm voice.

“A burger and a bottle of soda pop would be nice,” Peine said with an innocent look on his face. He knew that women loved the “lonely, innocent, new trainer thing. “How much would that be??” Peine asked, taking out his wallet.

The waitress leaned down and whispered in Peine’s ear, “For you, it’s on me, but don’t tell anyone.” The waitress winked at Peine and then walked over to the kitchen. Peine leaned back in his chair with a smirk on his face.

‘Works every time!’

After ten minutes, the waitress finally came back with Peine’s food. “Enjoy!” she said with a smile as she gave the young trainer his meal.

“Will do!” Peine said as I started to eat the burger.

After eating the burger for quite a while, a man came up to Peine and patted him on the back. “Good burger, huh?” He asked in a calm, cool voice. Peine finished chewing, put the burger down, and looked up at the man. He was wearing a black suit with a whitish-grey trenchcoat over it, unbuttoned. On top of his medium length brown hair was a black fedora, and on his right wrist was a nice, expensive looking watch.

“Um…ya…it is a good burger. The soda pop is pretty tasty too,” Peine said as he took a sip of his soda.

The man sat down at the table Peine was sitting at. “You’re a trainer I’m guessing, right?”

“Yes, I just started my journey today. I’m going to Jhoto so I can help Professor Elm with his research,” Peine stated to the man. ‘Why is this guy interested in me?’

“I remember when I was on my first day of training. I went to Oak for my Pokedex. He ended up also giving me a Pokemon he was studying too. Ah…those were the days. So what’s your name kid?”

“Peine Mononoke, yours?”

“They call me Gabriel Tamarrow kid. Nice to meet ‘cha!” Gabe said as he held out his hand for it to be shaken. Peine shook the man’s hand and then got back to his burger, taking two more bites and finally finishing it. “So Peine, do you have any way of contacting home?”

“No, I don’t. Oak told me to get a cell phone, but I don’t think I have the money for one.” Peine said. Even after his victory on Route Six, the trainer he beat was also new and very poor, so he didn’t get much out of it.

“Here, this is a new phone that Sliph Co. is producing. It’s not even out in stores yet,” Gabriel said, handing him a phone. “This is a gift for being such a nice kid to an old man like me,” Gabe said with a chuckle.

Peine took the phone, as a smile came onto his face. “Wow, thanks!!” Peine said as he received the phone from the man.

“It’s time for me to get back to my seat Peine, nice to meet you, and I hope to see you again,” Gabe said as he got up and walked out of the dining car.

Peine, still with a smile on his face, went to the contacts to add Lorelei and Oak. He was surprised when a contact was already there. ‘Who’s ‘Godfather’?’ Peine thought, though didn’t think of it to much, and just went onto adding the contacts. When he was finished, the train stopped and it was announced that the passenger’s could depart. Peine got up and headed to the exit of the train.