Leira stood with her back pressed up against the side of the brick building, as if shrinking away from the wind. In her ears were the harsh notes of Rocket grunts' voices and in her nostrils was the insistent stench of cigarette smoke. They were on a break, standing by Celadon Department Store. Leira was listening in. She stood around the corner and heard the chatter—"I thought we would take care of that old man this time—" "Shut up, you moron! We can't talk about this here." The grunts started whispering and the girl strained to listen.
She loved the conspiratorial conversations of the Rockets. She loved the mischievous errands grunts always seemed involved with, and she envied the dark passion they had for their work. Throughout her years traveling through Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Kanto, Leira had never wanted to play by the rules completely. But any of the things she may have done to rebel were only tiny insubordinations. She imagined some kind of freedom would surely have to come with joining the largest organized crime syndicate in the world. It was these strangely hopeful, romantic thoughts that took over when she would stalk Rockets from around corners, or the time when she followed them and uncovered the Game Corner hideout.
She sighed softly into the wind. For a long time she'd been thinking of joining. However, she had an innate desire to be a "good person," which held her back. No loved ones should have to be disappointed, she should never have to look someone in the eyes and tell them about whatever sick life she was living... These thoughts were common for her as well.
Voices faded away. Leira slid toward the nauseating leftover smoke and stood where the Rockets had. After a moment of deliberation on whether or not she should visit the department store, she decided on walking to the edge of town. The day was dreary and gray and as she began her walk she stared at her shoes, inattentive to the mesmerizingly tall buildings of the shopping district. Her long-ish, straight hair whipped around her face when the wind rose. She pulled her black jacket tighter around her shoulders and shoved her hands in the lime green-decorated pockets.
For the rest of the afternoon Leira walked along the dirt road, out some ways and then back to town. Even in the gloomy weather other trainers came looking for battles. Leira won them all. She wasn't an exceptional trainer, but her brute force attack strategy worked quickly on weak opponents and made for nasty victories when the sides were equally matched.
Just as dusk was turning clouds pink, Leira came back into town. She strolled into the Game Corner's restaurant for dinner. She liked hearing the music emanating from various rooms around the place, and the tinkling of bells and whistles on machines. These were the sounds of people striking gold, hitting it rich; of losing their fortune, risking their life's work for a quick thrill. While sitting at dinner in a dark booth, she noticed a flyer with the big red "R" on it. The other text was unreadable in the dark. At the end of the evening she tore the paper off the wall and shoved it in her bag.
Author's Note: I made a few edits in grammar and wording since posting the other day. I'll probably do this with quite a few chapters since at this point I'm just trying to write and post every day. Hopefully writing this story will become easier and smoother as the plot progresses!