Chapter 1

Saying good-bye to his home was one of the most painful things Irving Eisenherz ever had to do. For 10 years, He had lived with his younger sister, Sophia, in a nice house in the middle of Vermilion City. He had fond memories of when he lived peacefully in the middle of this busy port city. Now, he would never see his home again because he was with his sister on a boat headed directly to the Sinnoh region.

This boat was a passenger ship called the S. S. Maria, a luxury liner the travelled all over the known world. However, This boat had been modified to hold a great number of war refugees escaping from Kanto. The ship's theater had been gutted and replaced with space to hold people and the ballroom was converted into an auxiliary sleeping room. They had to make these changes due to the sheer number of people fleeing Kanto. Many had lost their homes and sometimes, their families.

Irving was one of those unfortunate persons who had lost both their home and part of their family. What was his house was now a smoldering crater with pieces of wood and metal pipe sticking out of the ground; his parent were just charred remains plastering this "house". Like many others about this ship, Irving had lost his normal civilian life to the constant fighting in Vermillion city. Now all he had left was his sister, her Psyduck, and a Togepi egg that he cradled in his arms.

That Togepi egg was a gift for his tenth birthday from his father. His father, who was a Pokémon researcher, decided that Irving was old enough to take care of this new Pokémon. Irving awaited the day that the egg hatched so that he could have his very first Pokémon. But until then, Irving was content with cradling the warm egg in his arms.

"Irving, when is the boat leaving?" Sophia said after gently grabbing Irving's arm.

"I don't know, Sophia. The Captain said that he would use the speaker system to tell everyone when everything is ready."

"I don't want the boat to leave." Said Sophia sullenly. " I don't want to leave home."

She then took her Psyduck and held it as if she were holding on to what remained of home. Irving understood this feeling; It was painful for him too to have to abandon his old life. Psyduck was technically the family's Pokémon, he was special to Sophia because they were the same age and grew up together. She had cared for Psyduck for many of the eight years she was alive, so Irving let Sophia have Psyduck as her own pokemon. For Sophia, Psyduck was the one thing, besides Irving himself, that she had from her old life. Irivng's thinking was interrupted by the speaker system.

"To all passengers, we are now setting sail for Canalave City"

Upon hearing this, Sophia ran over to the ship's railing to look at Vermilion city.

"Irving, they're going! I don't want them to go! I want to go home! Back to Mommy and Daddy!" Sophia yelled with tears forming in her eyes.

"Why do we have to go! It's not fair! It's not fair! It's...*sniff*...*sniff*.

Sophia's tearful yelling broke down into sobbing as he misery poured forth. Unable to say goodbye to his home, Irving hugged Sophia tight and cried with her.

Eventually, Irving and Sophia both stopped crying. By that time, Vermillion city was a small object on the horizon. Having cried their tear ducts drying, Irving and Sophia went to go get some dinner in one of the dining rooms. This room was filled with tables covered in fancy cloth and vases of flowers. Because it was almost dinner time, the room was filled with cooks as well as passengers of all ages. The cooks were dishing out meat and potatoes buffet-style, so Irving and Sophia got in line and acquired food for themselves as well as Psyduck. They then sat at one of the tables and started eating in the hopes that filling their stomachs would also fill the holes in their hearts where their old life had been.

While they were both eating, an older man with brown and grey hair came over to their table.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" the man asked. Irving shook his head and the man sat down to eat with them.

"Kids like you shouldn't be alone on this ship. Are your parents somewhere on this ship?"

Sophia started tearing up again and Irving shifted his gaze away from the man.

"We lost our parents and house in the bombing"

"Oh, I'm sorry. You have my condolences." said the man in a very apologetic manner. After a short silence, Irving spoke.

"Why is there all of this fighting going on. We didn't do anything."

"All of this fighting is because of Team Rocket, a terrorist organization dedicated to over throwing Kanto's government and ruling Kanto themselves. They've amassed a pretty strong army that our own police forces have been clashing with."

"I Hate them. They're bad people. They took away Mommy and Daddy! When I'm older and stronger, I swear that I'm going to defeat them!"

Sophia spoke up. "Yeah! I'm going to beat them, too, Irving! We both going to beat them for Mommy and Daddy!"

It had been a couple days since the S. S. Maria had set sail for Canalave City. Canalave city was a large port city like Vermilion. Canalave resided on the most western part of Sinnoh and was flanked by a large river to the east, Lake Verity to the south, and a thick forest to the west.

When Irving saw Canalave for the first time, the first thing he noticed was the giant draw bridge at the north end of the city. He watched it rise and fall as the S. S. Maria passed under it into the city harbor. He looked at this great feat of engineering in awe.

"Attention all passengers, we are now disembarking into Canalave city."

As Irving and Sophia got off the ship, Irving looked around at his surroundings. It was mostly ports and ships with buildings near the docks. It reminded him of Vermilion city; just different. That's what was so off putting about Canalave city; it could never replace Vermilion city. At that moment, Irving's resolve was great; he would rescue Vermilion and he would destroy Team Rocket