Peter gave a sigh of relief when he saw the looming smoke stacks of the gorgeous vessel, the S.S. Anne. He'd heard about it from his brothers, that it sailed from Vermilion City once a year to tour the world, ferrying only the best pokemon trainers to the farthest corners of the globe. He'd sworn this year, he'd be on it! No more sitting around in Cerulean City, watching as his jerk faced brothers got all the attention. No, a silly little city like Cerulean was not for Peter! He needed to see the world, forge a bond with the pokemon he would catch, challenge trainers, and become a master worthy of his own gym, preferably far, far away from home.

He wasn't going to admit that he was even more excited to see the calm waters of the bay, because that was perhaps admitting a little too much about his already mounting homesickness. Even though he'd come the night before, he had been far too late to get a good look at the bay, and the splendor of that beautiful body of water.

No, no, Peter Kirkland, youngest of the Kirkland brothers, was destined for much more! The S.S. Anne called his name, and beckoned him out of Kanto. Into the great unknown, just like his older siblings had done before him; only he was going to do it better. He wasn't about to mention that most of them had gone in their mid teens, around 15 to 16, not at 11, like he was, but that was a minor detail. Peter was destined for greatness, he was sure of it!

He reached his hand down to nestle it into his pocket, feeling for the thick slip of paper that was the S.S. Ticket that Alfred had given him. If his brothers found out about it, they would surely protest, but Peter would have none of it! He was off to better things, preferably in a place where his brothers didn't have spies everywhere waiting to nab him and send him back home! He'd been lucky to get through Saffron without being dragged back home by a certain wine loving socialite.

Regardless, this was the dawn of a new day; a new adventure for Peter, and he could hardly keep down his excitement. His state of being was obvious to his most trusted companion, the ever vigil, Rough. She was a lovely Vaporeon that had been a gift from his brothers at least 6 years ago, and had been his constant companion ever since.

Peter liked to think she knew him better than anyone else on the planet, and he could have very well been right. She took in his excitement with a cock of her head, and a soft mewl. At the sound of her, Peters eyes drifted over, and he flashed her a bright smile before reaching down to scratch that spot behind her right ear that she adored. She gave a contented purr at the action.

"Today's the day! I know I've been saying it quite a lot lately, but it's true! First it was leaving home, and then it was getting through Saffron without being discovered, and now it's getting on the S.S. Anne and saying good-bye to Kanto till I've made a name for myself!" In response Rough nodded dismissively, but as usual, Peter was not deterred.

He continued smiling, and offered a quick 'Lets go!' before skipping onto the docks wooden planks. Rough followed, casually sauntering behind him, as was her normal practice.

The excitement rose the closer Peter got to the beautiful ship, but it all came crashing down when he saw the man at the entrance of the ship, politely greeting, and bidding farewell to the guests who had arrived not too long ago.

That man, was Kiku Honda, dear friend of Peter's most disliked brother of all! There was no doubt that he would call up Arthur on his xtransceiver and blow Peter's whole cover. He'd been lucky that Alfred lived in Vermilion City, and that he was more than willing to help Peter's escape plan, but Honda was not likely to be as kind.

Knowing that he'd have to sneak on the ship with Honda standing right there, Peter dashed behind one of the pillars of wood jutting out of the pier. There was no way he was going to let Honda find him! He was looking for an opening to dash away when he realized that something was missing. Or more accurately, someone, was missing. To Peter's disdain, Rough had spotted Honda and was casually sauntering over towards him. Now he was utterly stuck. The only thing he could hope for was that Honda wouldn't recognize the random Vaporeon coming to say hello, otherwise, his cover would be blown and it would be straight to backwater Cerulean for him.

His plan fell through when Rough sat down close to Honda, straightened her head like a prim and proper lady, and softly mewled for his attention. Honda recognized her in an instant, bowed respectfully to the woman he had been speaking with, and made his way to Rough's side. He greeted her and kneeled down to pet her soft fur and whispered something softly into her ear. She cocked her head in Peter's direction, and mewled.

Honda turned to give Peter a smile, and the young boy quickly looked away so as not to make eye contact. Rough was his greatest ally, and best friend, but she never did what he wanted her to.

"Hello Peter. How are you?" Before Peter even realized it, Honda was close enough that Peter could see the twinkle in his dark eyes. This didn't bode well. "I've heard from Arthur recently, he is very worried about you."

Peter knew he shouldn't act like a petulant child, but he really couldn't help himself. "I'm fine! Better than fine! I'm great! Never better! What brings you hear? I didn't know you were coming to Kanto…" Peter tried to give a smile with the statement, but it was obviously strained. Rough sauntered over, and sat down beside him. Peter gave her a dirty look, which she disregarded entirely; her paws needed grooming.

Honda smiled before picking up the conversation. "I've been very lucky to work on board the S.S. Anne recently. I thought it would be nice to spend some time in Kanto, visiting and such. Kanto is a very beautiful region. I was actually going to be on my way to Cerulean City to visit your brother. Perhaps you'd like to accompany me?"

The obvious answer was no, but where that sort of hardheadedness would work on other people, it would not work on Honda. "Actually, I was going to board the S.S. Anne. I've been wanting to see other parts of the world. I've even got an S.S. Ticket!" In some attempt to validate his claim, Peter pulled out the ticket from his pocket, offering it to Honda for him to inspect. It was an official ticket, so he wouldn't be able to find anything wrong with it!

After a few moments of looking it over, Honda gave him another slight smile. "I didn't know you were a registered pokemon trainer, Peter. I must say I'm quite impressed! Your brother made it out to seem like you had left without telling anyone. I don't know why he would worry so much if you were already a registered trainer, and good enough to get an S.S. Ticket all on your own." Honda hummed softly at that, before finishing his statement. "Arthur has always been one to worry. But I digress; I'm interested in seeing how well you are doing so far. Perhaps a friendly match is in order; just to set my mind at ease."

The thought of Kiku Honda challenging him, to a pokemon battle, was enough to make Peter want to cry. Honda was good enough to best his brothers on a good day, there was no way Peter would be able to live up to his expectations! He'd drag him home without a doubt, and he'd be stuck there forever! No, there had to be another way to convince Honda that he was totally ready to be on his own! It was in that instant of quick and frantic thinking, that Peter found his solution.

At that very moment, a slight boy, maybe only a year or so older than Peter himself, with curly blond hair and a pale, sickly looking complexion came out of the boat's entrance way, and headed down onto the wooden pier. The boy looked horribly queasy, and he was shaking for some reason; not to mention that he looked horribly, horribly nervous. He was gripping the straps of his backpack as if they had him tethered to the ground, and it seemed that the slightest sea breeze would knock him over into the ocean, and he'd flail and be gone.

In summary, he looked weak. It was in that instant that Peter came to the conclusion that he didn't need to fight Honda to prove himself. He just had to make sure Honda saw him win a battle, that would surely be enough to get the job done!

With his plan in mind, Peter offered Honda a shaky smile. "Oh, I'd never stand a chance against you, Mr. Honda! You're very good at raising your pokemon, and I'm just beginning! How about I challenge that guy? The one over there, he's coming out of the ship right now."

Honda turned to look where Peter had indicated, and seemed to realize what he was up to without much effort. Regardless, Peter was confident that he could win against this one, this slight, timid youth would be no match for his burning passion!

Honda turned back to Peter, and offered a smile. That should have been the first indication that something was wrong, but Peter disregarded the feeling all together. He could win this, he knew it! "I don't see a problem with that. I'm sure Mr. Galante would be willing to have a small match with you. Why don't you go ask him?"

Peter had already made up his mind, so he squared his shoulders, and confidently made his way towards the youth, who was now looking around as if he was quite lost, even though there was only one way on the docks to go.

Despite Peter making himself known by his intimidating aura, the other boy didn't notice him at all until Peter tapped him on the shoulder. At the contact, the other boy jumped about ten feet, and spun around faster than Peter thought humanly possible. There was also the small 'Epp!' that escaped his mouth, but really that wasn't worth mentioning, right?

In spite of scaring the other boy, Peter gave a bright, confident smile, and placed his hands on his hips, with his legs evenly apart. The perfect image of a confident trainer! "I'm Peter! And I challenge you to a pokemon battle!" The sickly looking boy blinked owlishly at him for a few minutes before nodding slightly and uttering a small 'O-okay' before reaching for his bag. He unzipped it, and pokeballs of all different types started tumbling out. It was only in that instant, that Peter realized this might not have been a good idea.

The other boy seemed to go through a lot of pokeballs before finding the one he wanted, but when he had, he shoved all the other poke balls inside his bag, and placed it to the side before turning to face Peter.

He smiled timidly before speaking. "My name is Raivis Galante, and I accept. Battles aren't what I'm good at, -but let's have fun." Peter's confident smile didn't waver. He reached for the small pokeball in his pocket, and as he pulled it out it grew in size. Absent mindedly he felt Rough walk up behind him and rub against his legs, her long fish tail wrapping around his legs protectively.

"At the same time then!" Peter stated. He got a slight nod from the Raivis as agreement. "One, two…..Three!"

At the same time, the two of them released their pokemon; only Knock, Peter's recently caught Magikarp, flopped around on the deck, while an elegant, beautiful grass type pokemon that Peter had never seen before danced before him.

The reality sunk in very quickly that this was not going to go in his favor.

The battle, in total, took one turn. A single Leaf Storm from the pokemon Raivis had named Valmiera – Peter still didn't know what that pokemon was actually called - had sent Knock into a passed out oblivion. There was no hope, what so ever. He'd made the wrong choice, without a doubt.

Defeated and visibly pouting – he wasn't on the verge of tears, though he felt like he should be – Peter summoned back Knock. "…You win…" He stated softly, his eyes turned away. This had been no fun at all.

Raivis, for his part, blinked. If Peter wasn't so absorbed in his total and absolute defeat, he would have noticed that he looked quite confused. "Aren't you going to use your Vaporeon? She's quite beautiful, and she seems very protective of you…."

At the comment, Peter continued to pout, but reached down to pet Rough's head softly.

Thankfully, Peter didn't have to explain, Honda did the job for him. "Ah, Rough here does not fight. She is a wonderful guardian, so to speak, but she hasn't fought a trainer battle in many, many years. She's retired, if you will." Honda stepped forward, passing Peter on his way to Raivis.

"This is a beautiful Lilligant. She's quite a high level, isn't she? I've not seen one before, so this was a treat!"

Peter really wasn't paying attention as Honda asked to take a picture of said beautiful pokemon, and how Raivis smiled and agreed to let him, and how they had polite conversation about the regions they'd been to and that sort of thing. No, he wasn't paying attention at all. Instead he plopped down on the dock pouting as Rough reached up and licked at his face, her own way of telling him to stop sulking.

"I know" He mumbled back to her, unnoticed by the other two. "But I don't wanna go home…" Rough nuzzled his chin in response, before backing off and taking a seat herself. He offered her a glance before letting out a puff of air dramatically.

Peter got back up on his feet while the other two were still talking and quickly regained his look of confidence. He flashed Rough a grin and a thumbs up before moving to interrupt Honda and Raivis.

"You won fair and square! I don't have much, but it's yours!" In truth, Peter had used all his money on buying pokeballs. He'd been able to buy two in total, one that he'd lost to Knock the first time he'd broken away, and the second that had finally caught Knock. Peter didn't have any money to give Raivis, but he did have something that was of value.

Without a second's hesitation, Peter reached into his pocket and pulled out his S.S. Ticket. He handed it to Raivis with a big smile on his face. "You can have this! It's what I have, so feel free to take it!" Raivis seemed quite shocked at the offering. Money was usually what was given when someone won a battle, but he hesitantly took the item with a soft 'O-okay' to accompany it.

Neither of them noticed Kiku Honda, as he took a step back and smiled.

"Mr. Galante, I've heard you've never been to the Kanto region? Do you have a map to help you get around while you're here?" Honda asked politely. If Peter was looking for it, he might have been able to tell Honda was up to something, but in this case, he certainly didn't. He was far too worried about kissing his freedom good-bye for good.

Raivis, nodded softly before speaking. "Y-yes. You're right, Mr. Honda. I've never been to Kanto. It's my first time away from Unova, so I'm very nervous. I did buy a map on the S.S. Anne, but I'm not very good with directions. I'm….uh….worried about it…"

Well that was troublesome, Peter thought to himself. Perhaps Raivis should look into getting a guide for his stay? That seemed like the logical thing to do.

"Ah, is that so? Well, perhaps Peter would be interested in accompanying you. He's well acquainted with the region, and he probably knows some place the two of you could stay everywhere you go. I'm sure he'd make a marvelous guide for you, Mr. Galante."

It only occurred then, that perhaps Honda had no intention of sending him back to Cerulean at all.
Raivis looked – for lack of a better word – worried. "I-I wouldn't want to trouble anyone….I'm sure you've got a lot you could be doing…"

At the statement, Peter flashed Raivis a bright smile, and this time it certainly wasn't forced. "Not anymore! You've got my ticket, so I'm stuck here. What do you want to do in Kanto? I'm sure I could help!"

Raivis seemed to blush at the statement. He toyed with the new ticket in his hand, before slipping it into his pocket. "Gym badges are, nice. I'd like to get them, but mostly I'd like to see more pokemon. I'm working on my pokedex, and I'm trying to find rare breeds of Pokemon. I…really enjoy breeding them. So I'm trying to get as many as I can before I settle down."

Peter smiled at that. There was no question that he'd be able to help on that one! "Then I'll gladly be your guide in Kanto! Let's do this over!" Peter gave a blinding smile, and reached out his hand. "My name is Peter Kirkland, of Cerulean City! It's nice to meet you!"

Raivis smiled back before taking Peter's hand. It wasn't a blinding smile, just a soft, passive, pleased sort of smile. As the two of them shook hands on the deal, Peter decided it was nice. It was a very nice smile. So he wasn't going on an adventure in a distant land, the point was he still wasn't going home! And besides, maybe traveling with someone else could be fun! Peter had never even though of it before, but now that the thought was in his head, he rather liked it. This – not so distant – adventure, would do.