Hey there readers! This is my first Poke-fic, based on the Sinnoh verse, with the inclusion of an OC and Steven. This is a story of their adventures through Sinnoh, with a deeper look at Team Galactic and their attempts at catching Dialga, Palkia and Giratina- hopefully with an interesting twist, as well as the Pokemon League Championships when it reaches there. Of course, there will sometimes be cuts and fast forwards through the travels, since it'll be realistically done, and will not take a hop-and-skip to get through routes. Hope you enjoy! Do let me know how I'm doing if you can! :)

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Steven Stone, Totodile, Rowan, Barry or anything Pokemon related, only Samantha Walker. This is written for entertainment purposes.

Chapter One: Rescue

Samantha Walker.

Hometown, Twin Leaf Town.

Age... 18.

Hair color... Sable. Style... short around with a long pony tail underneath, tied with a circular ornament.

Eyes... ice blue

Biggest peeve...

"Samantha! Samanthaaaaa!"

STOMP STOMP!

"Amanda, will you stop running around in the house already? And stop calling me by my whole name, I'm too used to it being used when I'm trouble!"

"But look, Sam! I have a Pokemon! It's a Starly!"

"..."

Biggest peeve... I'm now the only person without a damn Pokemon in this town! Everyone is equipped with at least -one- pokeball!

I stared at Amanda's pokeball, a mixture of happiness for her for obtaining her first Pokemon and contempt filled me. It left a bad taste. "That's...nice. Where the hell you get a Starly from anyway?" I thought for a quick moment, then retracted the question. I placed my hands on my temples and shut my eyes tight, seeming as if I were getting a premonition. "Wait! Don't tell me... It's coming to me..." I placed a hand on my hip and extended the other hand out, pointing a finger in emphasis. "That big head Barry gave it to you, eh?"

Amanda gaped in surprise. "Wow! How'd you know?" Her big, brown, curly pig tails bounced and her pink dress swayed as she hopped.

I shrugged nonchalantly, trying to play it up. "Like I said, it came to me. It's because I'm skilled like that." Obviously lying. Barry had been gloating ever since he and our friend Lucas had this incident where the duo were attacked by Starlys and ever so luckily got their first starting Pokemon, his being Turtwig. He went off and started accomplishing stuff with it. Catching Pokemon to make a small party for him self. Getting ready to travel. Catching a few Pokemon for the local kids.

The show-off.

"Ah, by the way!" Amanda caught my slipping attention and I turned to face her, her blue eyes shinning brightly. "Barry said to meet him by his place and fast, or else you'll owe him a million yen!"

I grinned then scoffed. "Pfft, he can try to make me pay if he wants, but I'm in no rush." I sauntered over to the door and kneeled down to put on some sneakers. "I'll see what he wants. Let mom know I might be back home late."

"Okay!" Amanda waved frantically as I causally lifted a hand while heading outside.

I closed the door and slowly walked onto the cobblestone, following it for a few minutes before I reached the next house. Just as I figured, right on the front lawn stood a teen around my age with a full head of blond hair equipped with a green scarf, white and orange striped zip up sweater and jeans, arms crossed. "Yo." I called out to him.

The blond turned around, brown orbs meeting my own blue ones. "Ah, Sam! You're lucky you're not a minute later, or else you would have had to cough up the cash!"

"Pfft, yeah right..." I rolled my eyes and pursed my lips in mild amusement. "Anyway, what's up, Barry?"

"This." Barry lifted an orange backpack off the ground and handed it to me carefully. "Professor Rowan's assistant is off right now looking for Pokemon, and Lucas and I were his supposed next best things, but he doesn't trust us boys with it, said we're a little too careless. So here. It's delicate. You'll take care of it, right?"

I nodded, not even sure what the contents of the bag even were. "Sure, not like I have anything better to do. Oh, by the way... thank you for giving a Pokemon to my little sister." I tacked on a the end, trying to look as pleased as possible at his act of kindness (and probably failing pretty bad).

"No problem!" Barry exclaimed merrily. He then shot me a grin. "I actually was about to catch a Shinx for you, but then decided not to."

I could feel my eyebrow twitch. "Now why in the hell would you go and do that?!" I yelled, clearly frustrated.

"Look at you." He merely said in response. I looked down at myself, more or less the clothing I donned, and frowned. I had on a tight, light blue training top, decorated with white swirls- thanks to it being sleeveless, it exposed my decently muscled arms, along with matching, loose fitting pants. I had been working out before Amanda called to me. "Even spending your down time training yourself- as much as even going out casually in those clothes! You're stupidly strong, probably strong enough to take out a bunch of Pokemon! You're 'The Girl Who Doesn't Need Pokemon'!"

Scratch that...

My biggest peeve: Being called 'The Girl Who Doesn't Need Pokemon'!

I grit my teeth, brows furrowed from the obvious irritation as I placed my hands on my hips. "Well, excuse me! Sorry for being healthy and fit!"

"Fit? Fit is just jogging, being able to run without getting out of breath fast, keeping slim- not being able to apprehend some semi-muscular thief trying to steal someone's Pokemon... with ease!" Barry exclaimed while throwing his arms up in the air.

"You know what? Screw this! I'm off to Lake Verity. Catch you later, jerkwad." I slung the orange backpack on one shoulder as delicately as I could and pivoted on my heel, walking towards the direction of the lake.

"Don't be too cautious of the tall grass! I'm sure you could beat up the Pokemon and capture it!"

I didn't turn around to respond to this claim, just simply flipped off Barry and kept walking...

...

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHCHO!"

Sniffle.

"Ah...ahhh... AAHCHO!"

Sniiiiiiif!

Running off to Lake Verity was a smart movie. I swear I showed pure genius.

The lake was excessively cold for the kind of top I had on. Sure, it retained sweat, but because of that very reason, the chilly air seemed twice as bad. I kept rubbing my arms with my hands to try and generate and retain some sort of heat. I looked out into the vast sea, then faced the tall grass, thinking about what kind of Pokemon inhabited the area. After a while of thought, and nearly considering what Barry told me about wrestling a Pokemon into capture, I noticed a patch of white moving about a-ways away in a field of grass and dirt near the shore. After squinting to get a better view, I noticed it was a white haired, probably old man dressed in a suit. Not particularly interested in what they might be doing despite being curious as to why anyone would dig around in the dirt in a suit, I diverted my attention back into the sea, looking towards the cave. The water is always too rough to find out what dwells in there, so it was always a mystery.

But that didn't matter to me right now. The fact that I did not have a Pokemon at all kept depressing me, especially after seeing Amanda happily holding her pokeball. I let out a long sigh.

Rustle...

I jerked my head to the direction of the grass, something, or rather, things moving oddly quick in there.

"Excuse me! You're a Pokemon trainer right?" a man I could identify as Professor Rowan came running up to me from behind, seemingly out of breath. "A young Totodile is in danger, you have to help it!"

I stared at the Professor, completely at a loss. I certainly wasn't a trainer, and I'm sure Barry described me enough for him to know what I look like and steer clear from me when it came to Pokemon related business. But a Pokemon was in trouble, and no one was around to help it. After a short time of deliberation, I removed the backpack and placed it on the ground. "I'll take care of it, but please, watch that for me, and be careful with it!" And without further time being wasted, I was already on my way to the patch of grass. I pushed aside the thickets as I ran in, looking around frantically. The sound must have alerted the two Pokemon, because now, I had a small blue Crocodile and a medium sized purple dragon running towards me. If I'm right, that's Totodile and, from this one time I saw it during a Pokemon League match, I assumed a Gabite. The Totodile hid right behind me as the Gabite prepared to attack. If I didn't move fast, it'd be over for me. The Gabite lifted an arm, probably to scratch me with it's claw- I quickly lifted my arms and crashed them against the Gabite's forearms, parrying it- then I took a breath in and moved it's arms, causing the Gabite to spin around, and I took advantage, giving it a kick on it's back and sending it forward. It turned around, giving me a furious glare and charged at me. I had enough time to grab the distraught Totodile by it's waist and jump over the Gabite, avoiding it's attack- while in mid air, using it's head as leverage, kicking it, and stunning it in the process. I held onto the Totodile for it's dear life and ran as fast as I could to the silver mass of hair I noticed earlier. After reaching the man, I fell to the floor, startling him from his digging, his shoulders obviously tensing when he realized my presence. From my spot on the floor, I placed the helpless Totodile down while the guy just merely observed me with his aqua eyes, blinking in bewilderment. "Please, if worse comes to worst, send this Totodile to Professor Rowan. I'll try to come back though!"

The white haired man stood up quickly in surprise as I quickly scrambled back to my feet. "What do you mean by that? What's going on? Miss, please explain yourself!"

Before I could even think of actually glossing over the situation to the man, I already took off, running back to the Gabite that was pursuing the Totodile and me. I slid on the back of my feet when I ran into it rather quickly- apparently the darn thing was hot on our trail. I quickly jumped back when it clawed at me, purple aura emanating from it's hand. Luckily I moved in time, that would have done major damage. I took my stance again, locking stares with the Gabite once more. It sucked in a breath, red swirling around it.

Oh shit.

It was a flame attack. I quickly thought about all the possibilities, none that worked too well coming to mind. I prepared to move out of the way, but as fire escaped Gabite's mouth, I was tackled onto the floor. "Aggron! Heavy Smash!" The floor rumbled as a huge, monstrous, bipedal Pokemon, silver and black in color, released a bright light and smashed against the Gabite. Gabite fell against the floor and didn't move. It was too dazed to flinch. It was apparently an easy victory for the giant, blue eyed Pokemon.

I let out a sigh of relief as I propped myself on to my elbows. "Finally, that angry thing has been knocked out for at least a while…"

"Are you mad?!" The person above me addressed me in a stern tone. I looked up and offered the white haired man a lop-sided grin. Lucky for me, he was actually a lot younger than he seemed from a far, and it seemed as if he were a skilled Pokemon trainer. "You seriously used hand to hand combat on that Gabite to protect this Totodile..." As if on cue, Totodile ran up to the both of us and looked at me with it's red bright eyes. "Thankfully and rather surprisingly, you didn't get injured, and you did get Totodile to a safe place. But really, if I hadn't stepped in, you could have..."

Before he could finish, the ground began rumbling and quickly, it seemed as if we were surrounded by what looked like baby Gabites- they were cuter, much smaller, but equally as vicious looking. All these little bastards must have been carnivores. I grit my teeth and wondered just how we were going to escape, but was cut short when the little guys all started stampeding towards us. "Ah, hell!"

"Aggron! Use Hyperbeam!" Aggron didn't waste time as it moved near us, the man pushing me back down to the ground, keeping my head safe as Totodile jumped to the floor, protecting it's own head. Aggron aimed low, letting out a bright, black and read beam, blowing away the baby Gabites and blasting away quite a bit of dirt from the ground.

I looked around at the now empty vicinity, shocked at how quickly this guy's Pokemon took out the masses of little ones. I let out an impressed whistle as I propped myself onto my elbows "Now that's something..."

"Yeah, it would have been something alright had you still been alone!" The man reprimanded me as he stood to his feet. "You were endangered enough by a sole Gabite, imagine if you were alone when the Gibles came! They're carnivorous creatures, that could have gotten ugly fast!"

I blinked as I slowly recoiled back. "Um... Thank you for all the concern..." It felt weird for someone I didn't know to scold me- or care for my well being like that. I felt my face flush, and felt I had to explain. "I was just doing what I felt was right, really. I... didn't really mind what happened to me, as long as I saved that Totodile…"

The white haired man flinched slightly, then let out an ever so slight smile as he held out a hand to help me back up. "I see you're a good person, but that's not the right way to go. Why not call your Pokemon? Are not a trainer?" I shook my head as continued holding me under scrutiny. After a moment of silence, he continued. "You shouldn't try to battle Pokemon yourself, that's a very a dangerous stunt. If on the other hand, you had the capabilities to do some of the things Pokemon could do, I'd say that-"

My face sunk. "I wouldn't need Pokemon, eh?"

"Exactly so." The white haired man nodded. "Then I wouldn't have minded so much about your stunt, since you would have came out okay as well as saved Totodile. But that's not possible, so be more careful." He then returned Aggron to it's Pokeball.

"I'm glad to see the Totodile is safe!" Professor Rowan finally caught up, book bag slung over his shoulders. When he finally reached me, he passed off the bright orange bag. "I can't thank you enough that you went and saved it."

"No prob, Prof." I said as I grinned. "I had a lot of help, but you know, just trying to do what's right. Now I assume you want it back?"

Professor Rowan looked confused, then chuckled. "That's not my Totodile- it's a wild one. They're very rare around Sinnoh, which is most likely why it's of a different color."

"Oh." I scratched the back of my head. "Well then, I guess I'll let the little guy go."

"Why? Why don't you catch it? You have Pokeballs, right? I'm sure it'd want to be one of your partners after you rescued it." The Professor questioned me.

"No, I don't. I don't even have Pokemon. I'm Twinleaf Town's infamous Samantha Walker." I explained finally.

A look of knowing came across the Professor's face, which was quickly covered in a face of utter horror. "W-What? Then how did you save it from that Gabite?"

"She held off the Gabite with hand to hand combat until I came in and helped. After that, Aggron chased away some Gibles that came for more." The white haired man cut in, explaining as Totodile ran off and started picking at some rocks near the shore. Thankfully I didn't have to go through the embarrassment of saying it myself. "It was incredibly foolish of her, but she approached me and didn't explain what she said, and it sound like she was prepared to die, so I followed her and ensured her safety."

Professor Rowan then turned to the white haired man and observed him for a second, then let out a sigh. "Ah, I'm relieved. There's no better help than Hoenn Champion, Steven Stone's."

"..." It took me some moments to process the sentence, until I went gaping. "St-St-ST-Ste...Steee...Steven... Stone... STEVEN STONE?" I whipped my head around at break neck speed to look at the white haired man. No wonder he defeated the pack of those little meat eaters so fast. "Oh God... Oh God! I got reprimanded by THE Steven Stone...Wait till Barry hears about this!"

Steven chuckled softly. "Not sure that's a good thing...but nonetheless, it seems that Totodile is rather fond of you. It wanted to run from my side and go back to help you against Gabite. Since you have no Pokeballs, here." Steven held out the usual red and white ball, I extended open palms and he dropped it in. "I'm sure you two would make a fine team."

"Thank you..." I looked at the pokeball in awe. This was going to be my first Pokemon.

"Ehrm." Professor Rowan let out a faux cough to let us know he was going to give some input. I faced him now. "Now that you have some sort of protection for venturing, would you like to help me by traveling the world and filling out a Pokedex?"

My eyes brightened as I let out a big smile. "Of course!"

Steven then gently pat me on the shoulder, garnering my attention. "I don't mean to interrupt the celebration... But I'm sorry, I'll have to take my leave, I went looking-"

"Toto!" The Totodile waved one hand vigorously as it came dashing towards the lot of us. It innocently held out a bright stone, emanating light, as if it were giving it to me as a gift.

"Wait a moment, that's what I was here looking for!" Steven exclaimed, surprised. Probably for how fast Totodile un-earthed it.

"You heard that, little guy. I'm gonna give the stone to him. Don't worry about it." I smiled while I took the stone and handed it to Steven.

"Dile, Dile!" Totodile signaled me to not move as it went back to the shore for some moments. It went digging quickly, then pulled out another rock and came running over to me and held it out, this time a rock encrusted with a gorgeous blue stone with a water drop pattern.

"Ain't this a water stone?" I asked, taking the rock into my hands and examining it with wide eyes.

"A water stone as well?" Steven seemed impressed. "It looks like your Totodile can uncover stones with relative ease..." Steven looked as if he were in thought for a second. "Would you mind terribly if your Totodile assisted on the search for rare stones occassionally?"

I shrugged in a well-meaning, sure-why-not kind of gesture. Hopefully the sentiment shone through "I wouldn't mind it, it'll allow it to go around and have some fun."

"Ah... would you mind terrible if I joined you on your journey through Sinnoh, then?" Steven now asked.

"Of course I don't..."

3...

2...

1...

"WHAT?!" I yelled in complete surprise. I could only manage to give Steven a stupefied look.

"Are you actually against Steven joining you in your journey?" Rowan asked, an eyebrow raised.

I turned to the two men, mouth gaping and hands flying about as I tried to remember how to speak again. "N-No way! I'm just shocked he'd go traveling with an absolute newbie like me!"

"I was once a beginner too, you know." Steven added.

A grin slowly melted on my face as I pumped my fist in the air. "Alright then! It's settled! Starting now, we're traveling partners!"

-End Chapter One.

A/N:

Totodile is a shiny Totodile with blue scales instead of the regular red ones. It has the ability to find rare rocks/stones/etc. It's the reason the Gabite was on the run for it. Totodile found the Shiny stone, Gabite wanted it, Totodile buried it and instinctively ran away from the Gabite, causing the Gabite to think he still had it. Totodile is male.

The moves Gabite used respectively are: Slash, Take Down, Dragon Claw, Flame Thrower. Incidentally, those are four attacks, but more or less, the Pokemon may end up using more than four attacks rather than having a base set of moves, like in the video games. Seems more realistic that they use whatever they can remember.

Well, that's all! See you in the next chapter!

-The Painted Skies