I yawned, got out of bed, and stretched. This was no normal sunny saturday. This was my 16th birthday! My formal schooling had ended yesterday, and she was excited that it was over. However, in two years, if nothing came up, i'd start college at the university of Jubilife. But, I have two years. I have plenty of time!

I got dressed after a quick shower and realizing it was only 7 AM, I decided to play Wii a little bit. When I turned the T.V on, it was one of the specials on the news that no one really watched. This one, however, interested me. It followed a team of scientists trying to find a red Gyrados in the lake only a quarter mile away from her house. Of course, nothing turned up, but it wasn't likely in the first place.

Walking downstairs, I was greeted by my mom. "Dawn, your friend Jack stopped by earlier and told me to tell you to meet him at his house. He said it was urgent!" I rolled my eyes and turned my direction out the door. "Thanks, mom. I'm going out for a few hours, i'll be back later." Right as I walked out, my mom intercepted me. "Oh, and Dawn? Remember not to go into the tall grass. It'd be fine if you had your own pokemon, but you don't, so..." Her voice trailed off as I sprinted down the street to the Pokémart. I decided to buy a poké ball, just in case we were attacked by one. I ran further down the street to Jack's house. As I knocked on the door, it suddenly opened up and BAM, Jack ran into me at top speed, knocking both of us over. We both stood up.

"Dawn! I need you to meet me by the lakefront! I'm fining you 1 million dollars if you're late!"

"But, wha-" but before I could finish, he ran back into his house, saying "Ach! I forgot something!"

I went into his house and his mom, cleaning, waved at me weakly. I walked up to his room and as soon as I got up the stairs, he ran into me again. "Dawn! Hurry up! Im charging you 10 million if you're late!" and ran downstairs and out the door. I followed him towards a path through the forest that led to the lake, and we started walking to it. "Hey, you saw that news report that was on TV, right?" he said. I nodded. "You know, 'Search for the red Gyrados! The mysterious appearance of a furious pokemon in a lake!' That show got me to thinking. I know they couldn't find it, but I bet we could. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna find that pokemon!"

I rolled my eyes. "You always come up with schemes like this. But i'm bored, so I guess i'll tag along." We walked a long way in silence, and we finally came to see the lake. "All right! Let's find us a red Gyrados!" Jack said.

"What's going on?" Jack said, noticing the two figures by the lake. The larger one said "Hmm... I may have been mistaken." But I didn't know what that meant. "Fine! It's enough we have seen the lake. Back to the lab." He said. They walked towards us and I saw one was a boy about my age and the other was an old man who I recognized but couldn't place his name. "Excuse me, let us pass please." And they both went past us, towards the town. "Huh, Dawn? They left something!" Jack said, and we approached the object. "Uh... Jack?!" I noted, "We can't go into the grass. We'll be attacked by wild pokemon. "No problem, no problem," He said, "we won't be in there long enough to be attacked. We went into the grass and warily stepped to the object. "It's... a briefcase?" Jack questioned. "Those people forgot it here, what are we supposed to do with -" But before he could finish what he was saying, an ear-piercing screech sounded in the air, and two Starly flew towards us at a high speed.

We realized there were pokeballs in the briefcase, and opened it. I saw one with a "Piplup" Sign and a water drop, so I slapped away Jack's hand, also going for the Piplup, and picked up the pokeball. "Piplup, come.. out?" I said, and the cute penguin pokemon came out of the ball. Suddenly, the two Starly flew into Jack and started pecking him. "Ahh!" he screamed, running around and protecting his head. "Uhh, Piplup! Use..." I strained my head, trying to remember water pokémon moved from Pokemon Studies class. "Bubblebeam!" Piplup jumped into the air and shot a fast stream of heavy bubbles at the Starlys. However, bubbles obviously won't do much to regular pokemon, and the Starlys turned around and headed towards us. I suddenly remembered a powerful water move. "Piplup! Use Water Gun!" Piplup jumped back and unleashed a firehose worthy stream of water at the Starlys, sending them flying, and they flew away.

It took me a while to realize what happened. Jack was nowhere to be found, probably running home, and I was sitting there with a Piplup and a pokeball that didn't belong to me. I took the briefcase and my Piplup hopped along home with me. I brought her and the briefcase inside and plopped down onto the table. My mom came in and was surprised by the Piplup sitting on the table next to me, nibbling on a biscuit, but with her Mother's intuition, said "I can assume something happened at the lake? That looks like Professor Rowan's pokemon he was going to give to the next budding trainer." I suddenly realized the man's name, Rowan. He lived a few miles away in Sandgem town. "Yeah, we got attacked by Starlys and I had to use this to fend them off. I think two other pokemon are in there. One of the balls rolled out and deployed, sending out a Chimchar. He and Piplup started playing with each other and then fell asleep on Dawn's lap. Dawn sighed. "It's been a long day."