A/N: Hi there! I really missed writing and so I decided to tackle one of my favorite fandoms since before I was even in school: Pokémon! The pairing for this one is going to be the male protagonist, Sun, and Guzma, the boss of Team Skull. Now, to address the underage issue with Sun, whenever I played Pokémon, I envisioned the character to be me and therefore my age. So I'm going to leave Sun's age up to the reader: he can be whatever age you are as you read this or he can be the canon ten years old if you'd like too. Either way, I hope you like this and enjoy!

I do not own Pocket Monsters or any of the characters. This is completely a work of fiction meant for entertainment.

"Adventure" - capsule

You're alive / You've gotta enjoy it / An adventure to be closer / To who you wish you could be / You're alive / You've gotta fall in love / It's a long way, but I'm on an Adventure / To spend more time with you

"Attention passengers, we will be docking at Melemele's Hau'oli City in approximately twenty minutes! We would like to thank you again…"

I rested back in my seat, one of the ones on the top of the ferry near the bow so that I could get a better view of the tremendous Alolan ocean. It was immense and sparkled in various spots as the sun glittered off it. Multiple Wingull flew along the ferry, some speeding up to head off to the large island that was coming into view off in the horizon, skyscrapers visible near the coast. Hau'oli City must be a large city. Back home in Vermillion, there weren't too many tall buildings. It was large, but was more of a cargo port than an actual city. So this was going to be my new home. Okay, it didn't seem too bad. Plus, the trip over to Alola from Kanto had been alright as well. I left Vermillion, taking the S.S. Anne ship to Cianwood in Johto, where it then sailed off to Alola, stopping in Ula'Ula Island. There was a town there called Malie City that surprisingly looked a lot like Johto, making me briefly question if we had just gone in a big circle out in the middle of the ocean. According to the crew, they told me that Malie City was a large tourist attraction for people who lived in the Johto region, so it was only natural that the ship would stop there. I left the S.S. Anne, and boarded a local ferry that would take me to Melemele Island where Professor Kukui lived.

My parents decided that it'd be better to ship me off to Alola to have my pokémon adventure. I was supposed to begin back home in Kanto, and was even looking forward to fulfilling my dream of following in my father's steps to become a gym leader. My dad ran the gym in Vermillion City. It was pretty cool being a gym leader from what I've seen; I remember that on days when I didn't have to go school, Dad would take me to the gym with him to watch the matches. It was nothing short of amazing! I would stay behind the plexiglass covered window and have my eyes go wide as his Raichu unleashed massive thunderbolts on the other pokémon. The sparks would illuminate the area and leave colored spots in my vision afterwards. And once the smoke cleared, ninety-nine percent of the time, the challenger's pokémon was unconscious, laying belly up on the gym floor. "Haha, train up some more and come back later," Dad would always tell the losing trainer, patting them on the shoulder. At an early age, I knew that I wanted to become a gym leader, just like my dad. He specialized in electric-type pokémon, but I knew that I wouldn't just have one type on my team. That way, I'd be a much bigger challenge and harder to defeat. I had begged Mom to let me have my fist pokémon back in Kanto, but she would always shake her head. "You're too young," she'd say. "Just play with Meowth." Don't get me wrong, Meowth's cool and all, but he doesn't like to battle and would rather just lounge out on the sofa all day, watching soaps with Mom. But then Team Rocket came back.

From what I'd heard on the news and out on the street, there was a small cell of ex-grunts in Celadon City who banded together to form New Team Rocket. Due to having experienced two major failures already, they resulted to using much more drastic tactics, such as outright attacking trainers with their pokémon. Plus, they upgraded from Rattata and Zubats to using much stronger pokémon such as Rhydon and Alakazam. With them being growing in strength and number at such a rapid rate, my parents thought it'd be better to send me to Alola where it'd be safer. Shuddering, I rubbed the scars on the back of my neck. The very mention or thought of New Team Rocket brought unwanted memories to mind. My dad had a friend who lived in Alola, Professor Kukui. Apparently, the professor had been a challenger in the past, even defeating Dad and going on to challenge the Indigo League. It was pretty impressive, so Dad didn't even think twice about asking his old colleague if he could look after me while I traveled throughout Alola. Kukui graciously accepted and said he knew a couple who's son had just moved out and that I could stay with them in their house on Route Two before I got my first pokémon. He also mailed over three pictures of the pokémon that I could choose from to be my partner on my journey once I arrived: Rowlet, Litten, and Popplio. Already, I had come to the conclusion that I'd like to start off with the grass-type pokémon, Rowlet.

My stomach growled and I opened up my backpack to grab one of the malasadas that I had purchased on the lower deck. They were having a newcomer special: buy one get one free. So I figured I could have one on the ferry and save the other one to share with Rowlet in order to form a bond with it. I unwrapped it from its paper and took a bite, surprised at how good it tasted. It was almost like a jelly donut, crunchy on the outside, but sweet and fruity on the inside. I kept to myself as I listened in on some of the other passengers' conversations.

"…so then he decided that he would catch a Ledyba. I mean, why? It's a bug-type and everyone knows that bug-type are the weakest out of them all," a girl in front of me said, snorting with disgust at the end of her statement.

Her friend beside her nodded in agreement. "Totally," she said, her face glued down to her lap, probably on a phone. "Like, my boyfriend caught me a Butterfree for Valentine's Day, but I set it free, because how strong can a giant bug be?"

I frowned to myself, a little annoyed at what they were saying. Sure, some pokémon may not be as powerful as others, but they were all still worthy of being loved. At least that's what I believed. And that was why I leaned forward a bit and blurted out, "Actually, there's Aaron in Sinnoh. He's a member of the Elite Four and specializes in bug-type pokémon. I hear he has a Vespiquen who is vicious."

The girls jerked back and looked at me with disgust. "Eww, a bug-type trainer on the Elite Four?" one asked. "I guess Sinnoh doesn't have many strong trainers."

I shrugged. Having never been out of Kanto before, I wasn't able to vouch for Sinnoh trainers. "Well," I said, "my dad has a Galvantula and it's a total powerhouse."

"And who's your dad?" the other sneered, inferring that my dad wasn't an important trainer at all.

"He's a gym leader in Vermillion City."

"Oh," one said, turning back to look at her friend with a "Let's Ditch This Kid" look. Her friend nodded and they left, going over to the stairs that led to the lower deck.

Whatever. I probably should've minded my own business, but I couldn't just keep my mouth shut when I heard them trashing pokémon just because they weren't deemed as desirable. On the other hand, I was glad that they didn't press too hard about my dad who had a Raichu, Magnezone, Electrode, and Electrivire, but no Galvantula. Either way, I was considering having a bug-type on my team in order to balance it out. I heard that they were strong against psychic and dark-types.

"Good on ya, Kid," I heard a deep voice say beside me.

I glanced over to my right and a couple of seats away was a young man who sat all by himself. He leaned back in his chair, kicking his legs up on top of the chair in front of him. He glanced up at the clear sky, his arms folded behind his head that was topped with unruly white hair at the top with a black buzz beneath. He had on yellow sunglasses, but the left lens was cracked in half and his forearms each had a purple tattoo of a cartoonish and tribal-like S. He wore black board shorts that had a chain hanging from them and a white tank top that showed off his beefy arms.

"Oh, thank you," I mumbled, a little uneasy near this guy. He seems pretty big and from what I could see, he appeared to be tall. If we were both standing then I'd bet that he'd tower over me by at least a foot and a half… or even two. I swallowed the piece of malasada that was in my cheek, gulping loudly. "D-do you have any bug pokémon?"

He snorted, amused. "They're my specialty," he grunted, taking his sunglasses off and turning to face me, his gray eyes piercing my core with how hard they looked. The guy had dark bags under his eyes, like he hadn't slept in years. "And if you're really the Vermillion City gym leader's kid, then that would mean that you lied to those girls. 'Cause every strong trainer knows that Surge doesn't have a Galvantula." He smirked, cocking his eyebrow at me.

I bit my lower lip. "I-I just don't think that there's such a thing as a worthless pokémon," I stuttered. "Especially a worthless pokémon type." Some people may argue that Magikarp was useless, but it evolves into Gyarados, which will wreck house in almost any battle it enters.

The guy nodded to himself, his smirk permanent. He stood, stretching his arms above his head, proving my hunch correct. The man was crazy tall, making me feel as if I were a Flabébé by comparison. He must've worked out too or at least done a lot of physical activity because he was also at least twice as wide as me too. He sauntered over to me in an almost intimidating manner: his arms swaggered to and fro and his swung his bulk to the side with each stomp of his feet. Stopping at the seat directly beside me, he threw his body down with a thud, resuming his relaxed pose with legs up and arms folded. Almost immediately, I was assaulted with the strong odor of cheap body spray radiating from the guy. In an odd way, it was almost pleasant the way it mixed with the sea's salty aroma. "You must be a hard-working trainer then," he mused, his eyes sizing me up.

I shook my head. "Um, I'm actually not a trainer," I said. "Yet. I mean, I'm going to be as soon as we dock. The professor on Melemele is going to present me with my first pokémon. I'm going to go with Rowlet." I even held out the picture of the grass-type pokémon that I was going to call my partner in just a few short moments. "Cute, right?" I smiled up at the man who looked down at the picture with scrutinizing eyes.

"Ya know that grass is weak to bug, right?" he asked, clicking his tongue. He reached into his shorts pocket, fishing out an ultraball. "C'mon out." He tossed the ball up in the air and in a flash of white light, there appeared a giant bug-type pokémon that I'd never seen before in my life. It stood several feet tall on two legs and it had multiple sets of grayish-blue arms. It reeked of strength and when it looked over at the man, I saw nothing but respect in its black eyes.

"Whoa," I breathed. "What is that?" I sat up straight in my seat, completely in awe at the new pokémon that stood in my presence.

"Golisopod," the man answered, the pokémon standing at attention, waiting for an order. His smirk grew to a full-on smile of pride. "This tough guy will destroy ya grass-types without hesitation."

I nodded. "True," I admitted, taking in the sheer awesomeness that was Golisopod. "But every pokémon has its weakness."

The man jerked back, his smile faltering into a scowl. Golisopod turned to me, a whimpering noise emitting from its mandibles.

I cleared my throat. "Well, for example," I began, "your Golisopod is bug-type, so I would instruct Rowlet to use flying-type attacks. That would work, unless you had a Shuckle, which is bug and rock-type, or a Scizor which is part steel-type. I would have to change tactics then. For Shuckle, I'd try to use a water-type attack or even a steel-type. As for Scizor, when it comes to steel-types, it's always best to try and use a fire-type." I took a bite of my malasada, thinking over team options as I chewed. "So *swallow*, I would try to keep a diverse team so as to counteract type weakness. It also plays into my notion of no type being better than the other."

The guy beside nodded and Golisopod scurried closer to me, his head bowing down closer to my malasada. He took a couple sniffs and with a mighty roar, snatched it out of my hands with one of its giant claws, scarfing the pastry in a matter of seconds. I jerked my hands back into my chest out of reflex despite not coming into skin contact with the pokémon.

"Dude!" the guy scolded. He gave Golisopod a look and held out his ultraball, returning the pokémon to it with a red light. He then turned to me, biting his lower lip. "Yeah… 'bout that. We, uh, haven't eaten in a while so I guess it's my bad."

I shook my head. Food was food. I was honestly just glad that I still had both of my hands. "It's cool," I said, unzipping my backpack. I grabbed the other malasada and held it out to the guy. "They had a two for one deal, but I'm kinda full. Want it?"

The guy scrunched his face and sneered for a moment.

I hoped that he didn't think I was trying to use him as some charity case, so I quickly added, "I hate to waste food, and I'm full so I don't wanna throw it away. You'd be doing me a favor."

"Well when ya put it that way…" He grabbed the malasada and unwrapped it, keeping a careful eye on me. It seemed as if he were expecting me to shout "Psych!" He took a small nibble and the corners of his mouth pulled up and a little reddish color came to his face. He then tore the pastry in half, keeping one for himself and shoving the other back at me. "Here." We ate in silence, the sounds of the waves crashing against the ferry filling the space between us. Every now and then, the man's side would brush up against me as we were swayed by the rocking waves. And each and every time, the guy's face would turn red and he'd mutter, "My bad" or "Okay…" And by the time we jostled against each other for perhaps the hundredth time, he chuckled to himself. "Might as well sit in my lap with how much we're bumping against each other."

I laughed. "Yeah, we just met, though," I teased.

He nervously chuckled back, the redness taking completely over his entire face. "So, uh, why Alola?" he asked, trying to make small talk.

"I'm starting my pokémon journey," I beamed, my excitement taking over. I literally had my hands balled and was jumping up and down in my seat as I told the guy my pokémon trainer plan. "The professor is going to meet me at the docks and give me my first pokémon and then he's going to take me to this house where I'll stay for a day or two and then it's out on my own. My parents chose Alola because they said it'd be safer than Kanto with New Team Rocket and everything going on back there."

He nodded. "Yeah, heard about them." He clicked his tongue again, glancing down at me. "And who ya stayin' with? I probably know 'em since Melemele's a small island."

"You know what? I actually don't know their names," I laughed. Professor Kukui never mentioned them in any of his letters, so I was a little confused on who I was exactly going to be staying with. "But I do know that they live out on Route Two. It's a married couple who have a son, but the professor said that he moved out."

"He ran away," the guy said, clenching his lower jaw. He flexed his fingers and the redness grew in his face, but it concentrated itself around his cheeks.

"Oh, you know them?" I asked. Hopefully he knew their names and would clue me in so that I wouldn't make a fool of myself.

"We're here," he said instead.

I glanced up, a little shocked to see that we pulling up to a dock that was in front of a huge city. Hau'oli was said to be the largest city in Alola, rivaling that of Saffron back home. It was immense and bustling with people and pokémon going about their daily lives. My body was trembling with excitement now. It was official: as soon as I got off the ferry, I'd begin my new life as a pokémon trainer. Yay! Wow, talking to the guy beside me really helped to pass the time.

The guy stood up, crossing his arms in front of his massive chest. "Hey, Kid, look," he grunted.

I glanced up and smiled back. "Yeah," I cheered, "it was great talking to you too. Hopefully we'll run into each other and can battle once I get a team together." I stood and gathered up my stuff, holding out my hand for him to shake. "I'm Sun, by the way."

"Sun, eh?" he asked, looking up at the sky, squinting. "Makes sense." He then turned back down to me, taking my small hand in his beefy one. He radiated heat and his rough, calloused hands further contrasted to my smooth and dainty ones. "Listen though, keep in mind that in a pinch, Rowlet's move leafage can seriously mess up a foe."

"Okay?"

He cleared his throat. "And, um, the couple on Route Two are kinda out there. So leave as soon as ya can, got it?" He narrowed his gaze and his grip on my hand tightened. "If the old man gives ya any trouble, shout out for Guzma."

I yanked my throbbing hand away, holding it up to my chest. "What's a Guzma?" I asked.

He smirked. "That's me," he said. "I'm ya boy Guzma."

Okay… That was a weird introduction. "Um, nice to meet you, Guzma," I mumbled.

Guzma turned to head towards the stairs to go to the lower deck. "You too, Sun," he said, winking back at me, making my jaw drop. Did he just wink at me? Why would he do that? "I'll see ya soon." Then he disappeared down the steps.

— — —

Everything was going my way! As soon as I got off the ferry into Hau'oli City, I was greeted by Professor Kukui and his assistant Lillie who had a secret pokémon in a bag that she had around her shoulder (emphasis on secret, apparently). The professor was child-like and fun-loving, eager to give me my first pokémon. I chose Rowlet, immediately letting him out of his pokéball, ready to spend some fun times with my brand new pokémon. Plus, Kukui even gave me a PokéDex to use so that I could gather information on any pokémon that I ran into in the wild. The neat thing about Alola's Dex was that it had the ghost and electric-type pokémon, Rotom, living in it.

"…make sure you catch lots of Alolan pokémon, woo!" Kukui called out as he made his way over to Iki Town to do some field work. "Rotom, look after him!"

"Zzrt! Roger that Professor!" Room replied, floating by my side. He then turned to me as we made our way through Hau'oli City, wading through the crowds of tourists. It was packed and the crazy amount people and the large sun made a small sweat break out on my forehead. I briefly took a quick look around, but caught no sight of that Guzma guy that I had met on the ferry. Darn, even if he got a little weird by winking at me. "Sun! I registered Rowlet's data if you'd like to check it out. I recommend reading up on your partnerz so you can utilize their powers more effectively."

"Oh, thank you, Rotom," I said, not used to having a living PokéDex. Rowlet hooted from atop my left shoulder. I figured that he might've felt cooped up in his pokéball, so why not let him roam free with me? Besides, I'm willing to bet that every trainer out there would rather have their pokémon walk with them from outside their ball.

"Don't mention it! Zzrt! It'z what I was programmed to do!"

Pretty soon, we were stopped by Lillie and Nebby, the latter moving around energetically in the duffel bag.

"Oh! Nebby!" Lille scolded, gently patting on the bag in a poor effort to calm the excited pokémon. "You need to be quiet or else someone will see you." She then looked up and smiled shyly. "Hey Sun. This here is the Pokémon School." She gestured beyond the gates that she was standing in front of, showing off a large three story building that had an immense tennis court in front of it. A handful of students were seen playing around on the grounds, some of them battling one another and others just enjoying the tropical weather that was typically experienced in Alola. "The Professor thought it'd be a good idea for you to study here for a little bit so that you could learn some useful information as a pokémon trainer."

Rowlet yawned.

Eh… I looked up at the school, my stomach turning in knots. I hated school before I was a trainer, so why on earth would I want to go now? "Um, I'm good, thanks," I muttered.

"Huh?" Lillie asked, confused. She shook her head, her blonde hair dancing about her under that obscenely large hat. "Um, Sun, I think the Professor really wants you to—"

"I don't wanna sound like a snob, but I grew up around gym leaders who taught me how to catch pokémon and how to battle, what more do I need to know?" I asked.

"Zrrt! That'z right, no more tutorials!" Rotom interjected.

Lillie put her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. "Oh, honestly, Sun! How do you expect to get better as a trainer if you refuse to go to school?"

"Can you just go and I'll copy your notes?" I whined, my shoulders drooping at the thought of having to go to class. I was too eager to start my pokémon adventure and the thought of having to sit in a desk as a teacher droned on and on made me nauseous.

"Pew!" Nebby said, hopping out the bag and floating towards the school.

"Zrrt! Nebby says 'Sure thing, Sun!''" Rotom translated, flashing a smiley face on his screen.

Lillie stomped her feet and turned around to follow Nebby. "Fine!" she grumbled. "But I'm not taking a test for you if there's one. And look for Team Skull." She made her way, angrily, muttering to herself the entire way to the school.

"Zrrt! You made the right choice," Rotom said. "Who needs to know the circumference of a Voltorb? I can answer any questions you may have, Sun." He flashed a picture of a thumb's up.

"Totally," I agreed, skipping further into town. The whole Team Skull warning that Lillie had given me stuck in my head. The rational part of me said that she was just trying to get back at me by scaring me with intangible threats. However, I had seen the destruction caused by New Team Rocket first hand. There was this one time they blew up a red truck on the Vermillion docks with a zap cannon from an Ampharos. It was cool at first, but once the flaming debris began to crash down into the scared masses, it was terrifying. The last thing I wanted was to run into any kind of gang. Therefore, I decided that if Team Skull wasn't just a figment of Lillie's imagination, I would avoid them at all costs and not have anything to do with a single member. Ever.

A/N: So, yeah, there's the first chapter. I don't have an updating schedule pinned down since I'm busy with personal stuff, but I will do everything in my power to finish this because, I mean, c'mon: Guzma! He's so my husbando.