The young trainer roared down Cycling Road on his bright red bicycle, the wind ruffling his spiked black hair from under his backwards cap. The hood of his grey and yellow hoodie flew backwards and his khaki three-quart shorts allowed the wind to whip his legs. He veered off to one side, allowing his friend to run alongside him. The friend looked fit and healthy in leaf green tracksuit trousers, a green jersey and a white t-shirt, complete with a green headband.
"Juno!" his friend said, sprinting healthily. "Look where you're going, you're going to have an accident!"
Juno looked up from the cheese sandwich he was grilling using his portable toastie maker. "Huh?"
Without a moment's notice, the bicycle struck a geodude and Juno went flying, his toastie landing in his friend's brown hair. Juno landed with a crash on top of a young lady coming the other way, a lady walking with her infernape. The lady's necklace broke as she fell over, smashing in a cascade of aqua gem slivers.
Juno gasped. "Oh, Avia! I'm so sorry! Oh god, oh lord!"
Avia shook her head. Her black hair shook out from the red bows holding it in two ponytails. She looked sadly at the shattered gem with big, upset eyes. Juno's heart broke a little.
"It's okay, Juno," she murmured. "It's okay."
"No it's not. He smashed your ugly necklace." the boy in the green running pants argued, picking cheese toastie out of his hair.
"Marcus, you're not helping!"
"Well... it isn't really." Avia sighed. "That was my favourite necklace. It was made of rayquaza peace diamonds. My dad gave it to me for my birthday before he moved to Oblivia. It... kinda means a lot to me."
"Oh, snap!" Marcus winced. "Juno, you've got some cash to fork out."
"No, he doesn't owe me any money," Avia muttered sadly. Juno's heart broke more as she shrugged sadly. She looked innocent yet cool in a red and black Gothic Lolita style dress, and Juno had always had a crush on her, even if she was a little manipulative and tough. "My dad collected the peace diamonds from rayquaza himself. They're... priceless."
She began crying a little, whimpering softly. Juno felt his resistance break.
Hands scrabbling at his hair, he fell to his knees. "Okay, okay! I'll do it! What do you want me to get you in compensation?"
"Oh, you don't have-"
"Yes I do!"
"Yes he does!"
"Anything! Sableye hearts! Gigalith teeth! Persian amulets!"
"It just wouldn't be the same." Avia sighed. A sudden idea came to Juno. A great idea. Totally brilliant. It seemed so perfect, so amazing, that it couldn't possibly fail!
"I know, Avia!" he said, leaping to his feet. "I'll get you a gem so priceless, so amazing, that your dad will look up to me, your annoying, protective brother will accept me and you yourself will instantly fall in love with me!"
"What?!" Marcus gasped. "Impossible! Stop talking crazy, man!"
"I've got a right to be crazy, I'm in love! With Avia!"
Avia looked at him. "Sorry, I was distracted. Some guy doing a dunsparce inspired parody of Gangnam Style on rollerskates dressed as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu if she were starring in Starlight Express backwards on a pony wearing a rainbow afro. What did you say?"
"I'll get you a diamond of epic proportion! So great that the known universe will look at you and be all like 'Hey, check out the girl with the neat rock!'! I speak, of course, of-"
He pointed a finger to the skies dramatically, in the vague direction of Sinnoh.
"The Jewel Of Life!"
After a brief period of shock, Marcus began laughing and Avia put her head in her hands. Juno was always coming up with 'brilliant ideas' that usually almost got them near killed.
"I'm serious, you guys!" he whined.
"You've said a lot of wacky things, Juno Runo," Avia said. "But this just takes the biscuit."
"I am! I'm going to go right up to the Hall of Origin and swipe that jewel of life and turn it into a necklace for you! I will!"
The two friends exchanged doubtful glances. Growling, Juno produced a pokeball. Out popped his main pokemon; Surf the typhlosion, who poked his shades onto his nose and nodded.
"Surf, take a note." Juno said officially. "I, Juno Runo, swear that I will beat the snot out of Arceus and bring back the jewel of life for Avia Rexx, alive and fully clothed. Also, Marcus Lucas has to come with for the sake that he was being a jerk earlier and he's my best friend and all."
"Hey!"
"If I fail, I pay 25000 poké to a professional ranger to get a rayquaza peace diamond. Surf, read that back to me."
The typhlosion coughed. "Typh, tie, ty, phlo, flo, tie, tie, phlo phlo phlo, sion sion, typh."
"Perfect. Now, I'll sign it."
He scrawled Juno R at the bottom with a scratchy biro, then handed it to Marcus. He looked apprehensive. "Are you sure about this?"
"Sure as socks are socks."
Marcus sighed. "Nothin' to lose."
He signed his name under Juno's, a quick, speedy signature. Juno offered Avia the pen.
"I'm not letting you get killed." she said, putting her foot down.
"Oh, come on, it's a quest of l-l-l-liking someone a bunch."
"No."
"Please, Avia, please, please?"
"No."
"Okay, okay." Juno put his hand up. The other was still pointing towards Sinnoh. "But just listen to this. You know that obnoxious Dawn trainer who's always professor's pet? Think what she'd do when she saw that beast of a gem around your neck!"
Avia was struck dumb. It was true. She strongly disliked Dawn. Dawn was skippy, light, sweet, airheaded and cute. Avia was tough, mean and powerful, but fair. Avia disliked people who got in her way, who were too light on the bad guys, who didn't stop and consider the logical tactics, like all the things you could use to smash someone's skull in with. Dawn had gotten in Avia's way once too many times and Avia had a grudge for it. Juno carried on.
"And it doesn't stop at Dawn, no ma'am! All the trainers that dissed you. Sabrina. Whitney. The girl from the clothing store. The teacher who thinks you're common. That ranger who laughs at your dresses. Just think! They'd drop dead at that beauty! And think of the boys-"
Before he could continue, Avia had signed the paper in a curling script. She may be tough, but you could press her buttons and control her like an RC Car if you knew where to look. Surf handed the paper to Juno, who stuffed it in his pocket, before shaking hands with Avia and Marcus.
"Let's go, Marcus." he grinned. "You'll see, Avia, you won't ever underestimate Juno Runo ever again! Onwards, Marcus! Onwards to Sinnoh!"
"We can't do that." Marcus said, shaking his head.
"Why not? We signed the thing!"
"One; you're pointing about ten degrees the wrong way. Sinnoh's over... there." He adjusted Juno's hand so it was more in Sinnoh's direction. "Two; Arceus isn't even in Sinnoh any more. Ever since it got visited by so many trainers, it moved to a distant island way off in... that direction." He moved Juno's hand again, about 45 degrees more South-West.
"So where is it now?"
"Nobody knows. Some tried to go there, but never returned. All we know is that it's somewhere over in that direction. And lastly, we're in Johto. AKA, the most inconvenient region of all. We haven't got the knowledge of Kanto, the resources of Hoenn, the firepower of Sinnoh or the general mind fuzzery of Unova."
"What about Fiore?"
"Fiore sucks, but it has kidnapping ghosts."
"Oblivia?"
"Full of weird, evil people. It's really confusing. Their rangers are badass, though."
"What about Almia?"
"Almia's great, we all wanna be like Almia. But look, stop distracting me. Here we are, on Kanto's little sister region. We don't know where to start. How are we going to find Arceus's temple?"
Juno looked around.
"I propose we run aimlessly in that direction." he announced, pointing.
"That's the sea."
"Then that direction."
Marcus squinted. "Olivine. Great. We can catch a boat to Kanto and get in the know."
"Okay, let's go!" Juno yelled, leaping on his bike and calling Surf back into his pokeball. "I won't let you down, Avia!"
The two trainers sprinting and cycling into the distance, Avia watched until they were barely visible, then gone. She smiled inwardly. Juno was such an adorable sucker.
He held the map out in front of him, in front of his vision and stumbled as he tripped over a root. Marcus shook his head. "We're lost. Admit it."
"No, we ain't lost." Juno grinned. "I know exactly where we are."
"Where's that?"
"Lost."