UPDATE- 12/17/08
Hey everyone! This fic is based on the Diamond/Pearl games, and uses the main characters from the games: Dawn, Lucas, and the blond-haired rival kid, who I named Taze since he didn't have an official name in the games. Also, at the time I first started this story, the fact that his fan-given English name was Damion hadn't yet been established.

In other words, Taze = Damion/Jun.

This is a simple tale of love and hate, friendship and enemies, truth and lies. What Dawn, Lucas and Taze thought was going to be a worry-free journey through Sinnoh becomes something much different as they struggle to survive. No one can be trusted… sometimes not even themselves.

Disclaimer, I don't own Pokemon, and any songs, food products, etc I may mention in the story, I don't claim ownership to. Blahblahblah.
Oh yeah. Please note that the story can get a bit crazy at times, and beware of certain rabid Clefairy-loving Professors... XD


Chapter 1: Crazy Clefairy! New Opportunities!


"Oy... I can't believe you're dragging me into this..."

Taze Kidane groaned as a determined girl dragged him toward a beaten-up suitcase lying in the middle of a field. She released her deathly grip on his wrist and cast him a glare.

The girl was Dawn Akine, thirteen-and-two-month-old rebel of Twinleaf town. She was, incidentally, also Taze's best friend, and even he didn't know how she put up with him.

"Will ya shut up for two seconds? It's no big deal." Dawn swung her head around, flipping her messy blue-ish black hair off of her face.

She stomped further into the grassy field, after resuming her grip on Taze's wrist, dragging him with her.

"But... we're not supposed to be going into tall grass! Especially since we don't have a Pokemon with us..." Taze mumbled.

"Yeah, yeah. I know, I'm not a Magikarp! Look, ya big baby, we're just going to be out here for like, two seconds. I want to see what's inside of that briefcase!" She paused for a second, licking her lips in thought. "And maybe return it of course," she added quickly, in her cute girly voice, smiling innocently.

Dawn led Taze closer to the briefcase, her heart hammering like she was about to open a gigantic treasure chest. "Maybe there are Pokeballs inside! Wee-he-HEEE! You saw that old guy, he looked pretty important. Like he was on a mission!"

Taze pondered, looking up into the cloudless blue sky.

The summer heat was blazing, the air was thick, and he was feeling quite sweaty underneath his orange and white striped polo shirt. "Ehh... I guess you're right."

-

TEN MINUTES AGO...

"La, la, la… OOOOH! I got another bite!"

Dawn squealed, standing up on the edge of the dock, as she started to reel in her fishing line.

Taze glared at her as she landed the Pokemon with ease. Dawn held up a giant Magikarp, about three feet long, and waved it around triumphantly.

"Whoa! It's huge!" Dawn giggled happily as she set it free back into the lake.

Taze grunted angrily. He hadn't caught a single fish in two weeks straight, and they'd been coming to the lake to fish every day since school got out.

Fishing might have sounded boring, but it's not like they had much to do. Most of their friends from school had gone out to become trainers already. Taze and Dawn? Well, they were just taking their time.

"Hee-hee! Looks like I've got another one!" Dawn bounced up and down, unable to wipe the grin off her face. "This is great, isn't it Taze? I'm having so much fun! The fish just LOVE me! Whee-he-HEEE!"

This time it was a Goldeen, fair in size.

"Hmm. Not bad, not great either." She threw it back into the lake.

Taze groaned. Dawn was catching Pokemon left and right, and there he was, sitting hunched over in a corner of the dock like a loser. Even when he DID catch something, it was an old boot with fungus growing from it, or a branch, or rotting fish bones.

He sighed. He was hopeless.

Dawn sighed, looking over at Taze. Well, it wasn't HER fault the fish liked her so much.

They went fishing nearly every day, except when Taze had to clean his room or something like that. Dawn couldn't believe his mom made him do... WORK... around the house. That was unheard of! What were they called again, chores or something like that?

Ah well... anyway. Dawn and Taze usually came down to the lake with Taze's mom's Finneon, but Fin was at the PokeDoctors that day and they'd snuck off anyway.

"Hmm! Well, Lucas, there doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary around here..."

Dawn and Taze turned, wondering where the loud voice had come from. About twenty meters away stood a tall man with white hair. A younger boy was next to him, and he looked to be around Dawn and Taze's age.

Dawn looked over at her friend. "Wonder what they're doing...?"

Taze shrugged, wringing out his shirt, and water plopped to the ground. "I don't know, but what I do know is that I'm dying for a turkey sub sandwich--"

"Your turkey sub sandwich can wait!" Dawn snapped, taking a pair of binoculars out of her shoulder bag and putting her eyes up to them. She looked over to where the boy and the old man were standing. They were looking across the lake.

Dawn always carried a pair of binoculars with her, for reasons unknown...

Not that Taze wanted to know.

He and Dawn had been best friends since Taze could remember. Their parents had been friends for years, so naturally, he and Dawn were too. Dawn was a tough, fiery girl who never said no to a challenge. When she was eight, in third grade, she started beating boys up. Nobody ever knew why, but Dawn said she hated all boys with a burning passion in her heart that would never die.

However, the only boy she never beat up was Taze...

Anyway, Dawn wasn't always the cold girl she now was. Ever since...

Taze shivered. He shouldn't let his thoughts wander too far. He wiped his forehead with his arm. The sweltering August heat was too much for him to take.

Dawn raised an eyebrow, still looking through the binoculars. "Hey, that boy went to our school! What's his name…? Lucas something. What's he doing with that old geezer? He's a cute one," she added, and then turned around to face Taze. "Take a look."

The blond boy looked into the binoculars. "Yee-up, I think that's Lucas. But I don't know about the cute part… He was in our Pokemon 101 class. He lives in Sandgem."

"Eww, what are you, a stalker?" Dawn snatched back the binoculars.

While Taze and Dawn lived in Twinleaf, their school was halfway between Twinleaf and the neighboring town, Sandgem. Because both of the towns were so small, there was one school for both of the towns.

Dawn sighed, zooming in a bit more. "Ooh, they're leaving... and... oh man! THEY LEFT A BRIEFCASE ON THE GROUND! Holy Miltank, I wonder what's inside..." Dawn's mouth tugged into a smile, and she put her binoculars back into her bag.

"Dawn, you're not thinking of... stealing it, are you?"

Dawn chose to ignore this comment, and when the old geezer and Lucas had left the lake, she grabbed Taze's arm and sprinted over to the briefcase with him.

-

"Important people always have Pokemon with them," Dawn told Taze, turning the briefcase over.

The blond boy sighed, frowning, as he slumped onto the ground. "Why me? Why me? I know something bad is gunna happen! I know it!"

"GRR! Shut your big ugly pie-hole!" Dawn growled, hitting him over the head with her bag. She unlocked the suitcase and opened it to find two Pokeballs.

The blond boy poked his head over her shoulder, looking into the briefcase. "Pokeballs! Is there anything inside of them?"

"SQUAAAAAAACK!!!! REREEEEEEE!!!!!! PRRIRIRIIRPIRPRI!!!!!!"

"GWA! What in hell is THAT?!" Dawn screamed.

The blond boy dove for cover in the grass, which was just about as tall as he was. He looked up into the sky, and caught sight of two small black birds soaring toward them.

"Pokemon! They're coming! It's a couple of Starly... I told you, Dawn, something bad was going to happen! Now look what you've got us into! Waaaaah!"

"TAZE! Shut up! How much of a wimp can you BE?! Just look inside this ball, will ya?" She threw one of them to him and picked the other one up herself. They both pushed the buttons and the balls opened...

Out of Dawn's came a red monkey-looking Pokemon with a flame for a tail. Taze's Pokeball contained a green turtle of a Pokemon with a tiny plant sprouting from the top of its head. Two leaves were protruding from the twiggy sprout.

"Cool! I think these are really rare Pokemon..." Taze murmured, looking down at his thoughtfully.

"Enough just standing there! ATTACK!" She shouted to her Pokemon, defiantly pointing a finger at the Starly. The fire monkey leaped up at the nearing Starly, who were squawking annoyingly.

"Yeah. Go, do... something!" Taze ordered, quite clueless, and his turtle Pokemon tackled one of the Starly, who had landed on the ground seconds before.

"What kind of attacks do you think these guys have?" Dawn asked, as their Pokemon battled the birdbrains.

Yeah, she had taken an advanced placement class of Pokemon Battling at school, but it's not like she remembered anything from it.

Taze shrugged. "Yours looks like a fire Pokemon... so... something like Ember. And I don't know about mine!"

"Try Ember!" Dawn shouted. Her monkey Pokemon jumped into the air and did a three sixty, shooting fireballs around at not just one, but both of the Starlys.

"Chim! Chim CHAR!" It shouted, landing on the ground and puffing its chest out proudly. The Starly were fainted, twitching on the ground now.

"Ha! That was AWESOME!" Dawn shouted. 'Her' Pokemon leapt into her arms and she gave it a hug. "You melted those twerps like butter on hot breakfast toast. Which is delicious by the way. So your name's Chimchar? Right?"

"Chim." Chimchar nodded, then jumped up and down on the ground, doing flips and such.

"What about yours?" She looked over at Taze.

"I think this is a Turtwig." He bent over and patted the turtle Pokemon on the head. "Is that right, little guy?"

"Turt!" Turtwig nodded happily, rubbing its head against Taze's leg.

Dawn rubbed her chin as she thought. "Taze... we just used someone's Pokemon. After a while, don't you think they'll come looking for them? We need to run away! FLEE! Before they see us with them!"

Dawn was about to take off, but Taze thought otherwise.

"Eh? Run? Are you crazy? We're not criminals. We need to return the Pokemon and the briefcase... come on, if we hurry we might catch up to them."

Dawn and Taze ran down the path leading to Route 201, Chimchar and Turtwig following closely behind. Dawn made Taze carry the briefcase, of course.

They were almost to the path leading back to Twinleaf when two figures came into view on the horizon. Dawn skidded to a stop.

It was the old man and Lucas.

"Eep! That old geezer's looking at us! He looks like he just got blasted by a Flamethrower and pooped on my a billion Starlys. What'll we do?"

Taze kept walking toward the old man and Lucas. "We'll return the Pokemon! We'll just tell them the truth. They'll understand!"

Dawn sighed, running up to catch up with Taze. "Fine... but if we get in trouble I'll have Chimchar set you on fire."

They sprinted toward the old man and Lucas. Lucas was the first to speak.

"Thieves! You took the Professor's Pokemon!" He shot a finger at Dawn and Taze.

"THIEVES?!" Dawn shouted, her cheeks flushing a bright shade of pink. She stomped over to Lucas, face-to-face with him. "How dare you make such a rude accusation!"

Lucas shrugged, looking at her pathetically. He smirked, satisfied with her displeased state. "You could have left it there. Didn't your mother ever tell you not to mess with anything that's not yours?!"

"Okay, now you're going WAY too far, buddy, bringing my MOM into this!"

"THAT IS ENOUGH!"

Dawn, Lucas and Taze all froze, and Dawn was still blushing, looking over at Lucas, and shooting daggers at him.

Oh why did he have to be so cute, yet so rude to her?! Hmph!

The three teens looked over at the old man, the 'Professor' as Lucas had called him.

"Stop fighting this instant or I will... I will... do something mean. Horribly mean."

Dawn looked at Taze and Lucas, raising an eyebrow. "O-keey?"

The Professor then cleared his throat. "My name is Rowan. I'm a Pokemon Professor. Clefairy is my favorite Pokemon. Oh, Clefairy was a gift to the earth from the heavens... I can't get over how wonderful they are. Cute little marshmallow-y puffballs, that's what they are. They're just a bundle of happiness, star-shaped and cotton candy pink. So delightful they are..."

"He has a bit of a Clefairy fetish," Lucas said to Dawn and Taze after they gave him scared looks.

Rowan paused, looking at the three teens, and stood up straight. "A-hem. 'Scuse me for rambling. Now, I won't get into all the boring stuff, but I would like an explanation about all this."

Dawn looked over at Taze.

He took a deep breath. "I'm -- I mean, we're -- really sorry about using your Pokemon, but we went up to the briefcase because we wanted to return it, but then these wild Starly charged at us, and we had no other choice, so we had to use your Pokemon to protect ourselves--"

"That's good, that's good, enough! I will warn you now... never speak too quickly in front of me." The old man said, interrupting Taze, and holding a hand in front of the boy's face. Taze's amber eyes scanned the large hand and then he looked around it to the professor's face. Taze was panting, after saying that last sentence in one breath.

"Emm... sorry." Taze murmured.

"So... are we in trouble?" Dawn asked, peeking out from behind Taze.

Rowan shook his head. "No. In fact, Chimchar and Turtwig look so extremely happy with you two! Oh my oh my, it just brightens my heart to see such carefree young Pokemon, dancing their little hearts away, with no clue whatsoever as to what's going on around them. Look at them, aren't they so adorable? Just one look at them and I have a case of the jiggy-wiggies!" Rowan clapped his hands together, grinning madly, as he looked down at the young Pokemon.

Chimchar and Turtwig were running around Dawn and Taze's legs, playing tag and sniffing each other's butts with absolute bliss.

"So! I would like you two to come by my lab later. It's in Sandgem. Near the entrance of town. Oh, pish posh! Why later? Why not now?" Rowan asked himself, chuckling slightly, as he reached to his belt for a Pokeball. He clicked the button on the ball and a large, yellow fox-like Pokemon came out.

"Kadabra..." it hissed, clutching a spoon in its hand. The Pokemon was twirling a long pointy finger around its yellow moustache.

"Whoa a Kadabra," Taze said. "This one's a big guy, isn't he?"

Kadabra glared at him, and proceeded to whack him in the face with its spoon, leaving a large oval-shaped red mark in the middle of Taze's face.

"Oww..." Taze grabbed his nose in pain as blood streamed down from it. "Why meee..."

"Kadabra is going to teleport us to my laboratory! So everyone, grab a hold of Kadabra!" Rowan instructed, holding onto one of Kadabra's brown shoulder plates.

"Ehh?" Dawn grabbed onto Kadabra's free arm, along with Lucas, Taze, Chimchar and Turtwig.

The next thing they knew, they were flying through a tornado of color, in some alternate reality. When they reached the end of the swirling vortex, they were in front of a building in Sandgem town.

Rowan led them inside the lab, after returning Kadabra to its Pokeball and bowing in front of a gigantic Clefairy statue outside the door.

Dawn and Taze looked around in awe when they entered the lab. It was like a Clefairy Shrine. There were Clefairy plushies, books, pillows, blankets, and other odd collectables on a huge shelf that took up the entire left wall of the lab. There was even a giant picture of Rowan posing with about seven Clefairy, who were rubbing his shoulders and feet.

...Other than that disturbing display, there were bookshelves and scattered papers everywhere. Pokeballs were lined up on tables around the room, and there were people in white lab coats jotting notes down on clipboards.

At the end of the lab was a table with two square red devices lying on it. Rowan went to his computer, telling them that He'd be there in just a minute; he had to answer a very important e-mail... about a Clefairy.

As Rowan was typing frantically, Lucas took the opportunity to shoot Dawn a dirty look.

"What's his problem?" she whispered to Taze, and then stuck her tongue out at Lucas. The dark haired boy adjusted his weird-shaped red hat he wore on his head and folded his arms across his chest, pretending not to care.

"So," Rowan started, spinning around. "You two. I have come to a decision."

"A... decision about what?" Dawn asked.

"I would like you to keep Chimchar and Turtwig."

Silence...

For about two seconds. Dawn had to let it sink in for a moment.

"AHHHHHHH! Oh my gooooood! Are you serious! HOOO HEEE HEEE!" Dawn jumped around, and did a little dance internally.

"Yes. But. On one condition." Rowan lifted up the two red square devices and handed one to Dawn and Taze each. "I want you to do a favor for me. That is of course, if your parents would permit it."

Dawn and Taze looked at each other, hardly able to contain their smiles. "And...?" they chimed together.

"Those are PokeDexes."

"AH! COOL! A POKEDEX! I KNEW IT!"

"Yes. Fascinating. You see, Lucas here is going out around Sinnoh, finding information on every type of Pokemon there is. It is my dream to complete the PokeDex, but since I'm an old weak man I can no longer do anything of importance other than worship the greatest Pokemon that ever lived, Clefairy. So I've left it up to him. Lucas, regrettably... can't do it alone, however."

Lucas grimaced.

"So that is where you two come in! He needs some company on his journey, and I think you two would be the perfect candidates." Rowan pinched Taze's cheek, grinning widely as he shook the boy's head back and forth. He patted the blond on the head, chuckling a bit. "You're cute kids, too!"

"..." Taze's eye twitched. First the disturbing Clefairy obsession, now... Rowan thinking he was 'cute'?! What in hell?!

Dawn raised a brow. "So that means... we're going to become TRAINERS?!"

Rowan nodded.

Dawn did a dance. Even if she had to travel with... Lucas... being a trainer would STILL be awesome! She'd wanted to be a trainer ever since she was little... and now that she was pretty much the only one of her friends from school who hadn't already gone out on an adventure, she was finally getting her chance!

"But you must speak to your mothers of course," Rowan put in. "Is this something you would want to do?"

"HELL- I mean, HECK YES!" Dawn shouted, punching her fists in the air. "Come on, Taze, let's go back to Twinleaf and ask our moms!" She grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward the door of the lab.

"Call me tonight!" Rowan called. "You can find it in the phone book. I'll be waiting..." he winked, flashing them a smile, eyebrows going up and down. He waved as they exited. "I'll tell you the details then!"

"Right-O!" Dawn shouted. "Come on Taze!"

The two of them jetted out of the door, and Professor Rowan smiled, looking down at Lucas.

"Are you sure this is okay, Lucas?"

Lucas shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose. They went to my school. They're okay, I guess... I can't deny that I'll need some help."

"It's going to be tough…"

"Be sure to look out for those blue-haired thugs that have been running around Lake Verity. They're lucky we didn't see them today, otherwise they would have received a beating. They're bound to be in other places, too, stirring up trouble." Rowan sighed, looking out of the window of his lab.

"Professor, what do you think they've been doing at the lake?" Lucas asked.

"...I don't know. But they certainly don't seem like they're doing anything worth a pat on the back."