Vermillion City smelled, as ever, of grass and saltwater and warm spring evenings. Arden looked out at the glittering blue ocean, taking in the endless horizon which seemed to spread out forever before him, as a few ships lazily drifted to and fro across its surface. The sun was low in the sky and night would be on them soon. With a slight sigh, Arden leaned back against his blastoise's shell. "I wonder which of these ships is ours?" he asked. The blastoise flattened his ears.

"Blas…"

"I know you don't know," said Arden, furrowing his brow. "I was just wondering aloud. Is that alright with you?"

The blastoise shrugged and took one lumbering, limping step away. His support removed, Arden fell backwards, flailing his arms wildly about, and hit the ground with a pathetic yelp. The pokemon chuckled and Arden glared up at him. "Yeah, whatever," he said, pulling his knees up to his chest. "All it takes to foil you is a flight of stairs. We'll see who's laughing at the next staircase. …it'll be me. I'll be laughing."

"Arden, are you abusing poor, innocent Gimpy again?" asked a young man, only a few years Arden's senior, as he approached. He smiled a handsome smile. "If you aren't good to your pokemon—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Arden, getting to his feet. "I've heard it all before, Dixie. Did you get the tickets? When do we board? Where are we going?"

Dixie's smile was replaced by a troubled frown. "I really wish you wouldn't have made me choose the destination," he said.

"I told you, I just want to go to some far-off place," said Arden. "I honestly don't care where we go. Give me my ticket—where did you choose?"

"Hoenn," said the older boy. He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out three tickets, one of which he handed to Arden. "The ship boards in around an hour."

"Hoenn, huh?" Arden lifted the ticket up as Gimpy the blastoise edged around behind him to look. "Hey—why do you have three tickets? Don't tell me you bought one for Gimp? Pokemon don't need tickets to board ships!"

Dixie bit his lip and ran one hand through his curly, auburn locks as he looked away. "It's not for Gimpy," he mumbled. Arden blinked at him blankly before it dawned on him.

"No!" he cried. "Not her!"

A shrill, feminine laugh behind him made the hairs on the back of his neck. "Yes, her!" said his cousin, throwing one arm around his neck and pressing her cheek against his. "We meet again, Arden!"

"Felicia, get off me," grumbled Arden, pushing her away. He turned on Dixie. "What'd you invite her along for?"

Dixie rubbed back of his neck and smiled timidly. "I thought it'd be nice… I mean, the three of us—we don't hang out much, all of us."

"That's because she's a crazy person!"

"Oh, pipe down," said Felicia. "You're the crazy person."

"She's not all that bad," said Dixie. "She gave you that charmander—"

"Yeah, after she traded me a useless cyndaquil!"

"—How is Prometheus, anyway?" asked Felicia.

Arden frowned and rubbed his arm. "I dunno. He's fine, I guess," he answered. "I put him in my PC box to make room for the charmander."

"Poor Prometheus!" said Felicia, flinging herself against Gimpy and feigning distress. "How could you be so cruel to him?"

Arden ground his teeth. "Yeah, says the girl who pawned him off first chance she got?"

A smile crept onto his cousin's lips. "You were a fool to take him, Arden," she said.

"I was not! I didn't know he was faulty merchandise—"

"You never asked!"

Dixie bit his lip. "H-hey," he said, getting between Arden and Felicia. "Felicia, why don't you go save us a spot in the line to board? Arden and I need to get our bags; we'll meet you in a bit."

"Okay," she said with a warm grin. She kissed Dixie on the cheek and dashed off. "See ya, soon!"

Dixie waved after her while Arden glowered. "You shouldn't lead her on like that," he mumbled. "Letting her kiss your cheek and hug on you and things like that; it's cruel."

"It's polite," said Dixie. "What am I supposed to do? Slap her away and say, 'yuck, cooties!'? I can't do that."

"You can do whatever you like," replied Arden with a shrug. "You're a member of Team Rocket."

"I used to be," Dixie said tiredly. "Those days are long behind me. Besides, what's the harm? I don't want to hurt her feelings."

"That's exactly it. You're going to hurt her feelings, and the longer you wait the worse it'll be."

He sighed and tilted his head back. "I know," he said. "But… Well, I'd want her to be happy for a little while longer."

Arden scowled but said nothing more about it as they made their way back to the pokemon center to retrieve their bags. Gimpy limped along behind them slowly. "You shouldn't make him walk everywhere," said Dixie, motioning over his shoulder to the blastoise. "That's a bit cruel."

"He likes to walk," Arden answered defensively. "Besides, when I release him from a pokeball, he's always so unsteady. That's no good for battling."

"Blastoise," agreed Gimpy mildly.

"So, what do you know about Hoenn?" Arden asked Dixie after they'd gotten their bags and started back toward the docks. "What's it like?"

Dixie screwed up his face. "I… actually don't know much about it," he admitted. "I hear it has a lot of pokemon you'd never see in Kanto or Johto, though, so that's why I chose it."

Felicia waved to them from beside the ship. "Hurry!" she called. "Everyone's already boarded! We're going to get left behind if you don't hurry!"

They picked up their pace—even Gimpy tried to run in a way made extremely awkward by his lame leg. A sailor took their tickets and let them aboard. As they entered the ship, Arden felt a swelling hope in his chest. This was going to be a good experience, he thought; it wasn't going to be tainted by the same bitter discoveries as when he first set off to be a trainer, more than five years prior. The ship moved away from the docks and started out to sea, and on it Arden was filled with optimism. Somewhere over the ocean, however, clouds were beginning to gather.