Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

Also, this isn't going to concentrate much on the battles, so they won't be detailed much. Mostly just the story. c: Reviewers get my homemade cookies.

"To know the road ahead, ask those coming back." -- Chinese proverb

Chapter 1

"Hey, wake up!"

JJ groaned, and opened his eyes. His cousin, Lily, was hovering over him, with a worried look in her honey-colored eyes. Slowly, JJ sat up, putting a hand to his head.

"What happened?"

"I'm glad you're all right," Lily replied, the relief in her voice evident. "I was worried your head got all mixed up, or something..."

"But what happened?" JJ persisted. Lily sighed, and sat back.

"I'm not exactly sure, myself," she admitted. "We were at the beach, and then we saw these three balls of light... and then... we woke up here."

JJ frowned. He could remember all of that. There were three balls-- one blue, one red, and one gold-- and then he and Lily had decided to follow them... And whatever had happened next was completely gone from his memory. He shook his head in frustration, and his curly brown curls bobbed back and forth.

"Where are we?" JJ suddenly asked, looking around. It was a forest, but he didn't know where. And he couldn't hear anyone from the beach. In fact... he shivered. It was much too cold to be Florida weather.

"I don't know. I tried calling for help, but nobody came, and I looked around a little, but I didn't want to leave you here..."

"It's all right," JJ replied with forced calm. "We... we just have to stick together, and maybe we can figure out how to get back home..."

"Who are you?" a voice called out. Alarmed, both JJ and Lily turned around, staring at the source of the voice. Standing beside a tree was a girl, maybe about fourteen, who seemed to have just emerged from the foliage. Her hands gripped a strange belt at her waist, that was filled with red and white balls. Her bright blue eyes looked at the pair suspiciously behind a pair of thick-framed glasses. "Trainers?"

"What?" Lily asked stupidly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The girl's eyes flickered from Lily to JJ, seeming to be looking for something. Well, whatever it was, the two obviously didn't seem to have it, and she sighed. "Darn. I was hoping for a battle."

"What?" Now it was JJ's turn to ask. The girl stared at them curiously, and a long silence stretched between them.

"You know... A battle. You two look like you should be old enough to be trainers. Why aren't you?"

To JJ's frustration, Lily then burst into tears. Honestly, even though she was older than he was, she could certainly cry like a baby! "P-P-Please! We just want to go home! We don't know where we are, we don't know what you're talking about--"

"Whoa, girl, stop your crying for a minute and let me try and figure this out," the girl replied, taken aback. "All right, who are you and where are you from?"

"I'm JJ, and that's my cousin Lily," JJ filled in, knowing Lily was crying too hard to reply. "And we're from Miami. Who are you?"

"Miami?" The girl blinked. "Where's that?"

JJ stared, just as dumbfounded. "In Florida... Haven't you ever heard of Miami?" However, the girl's confused face yielded his answer. His heart sank. How could she not know where Miami was?

"Um... I'm Maeve, and to answer Lily's question, you're on the outskirts of Floaroma Town..."

"Which is where?"

"Sinnoh," Maeve replied simply. JJ stared again. Lily, on the other hand, wasn't quite so polite.

"Sinnoh?! What the heck is Sinnoh?!" she fumed, tears no longer streaming down her face. "Is it a suburb? Is it a county? And why are we even in this Sinnoh?!"

Maeve looked slightly hurt and slightly confused.."I don't know. Why are you asking me?"

"Because you are the one here!" Lily continued, laying it right onto the girl.

"I didn't do anything!" Maeve protested. "Look, we have a phone back at my house, maybe you can just call your family!"

Lily stopped her hysterics, and for the first time, she looked at Maeve hopefully. "Really?"

"Sure," Maeve replied, seemingly relieved that she shut Lily up. "And you can stay at with us until we figure out how to get you home, too. How old are you?"

"Eleven," Lily piped up. "And JJ is ten."

"Ohhh, JJ, you're the same age as the twins!" Maeve grinned. "Maybe you guys could be friends and go off on your journey together--"

"What?" Lily cut in. JJ sighed. It was annoying how Lily seemed like she needed to speak for him all the time, but he was too meek to say otherwise. "What journey?"

Maeve frowned. "Oh, yeah. You don't know what that means. I forgot you're from Mi-am-i," she said, drawing out the syllables in almost a mocking fashion.

JJ cleared his throat. "Um, can't we just go to your house, and then argue?" Maeve laughed, and Lily scowled.

"I like your thinking, tiger," Maeve replied cheerfully. Lily rolled her eyes. "Anyway, yeah, let's go home, and then we can figure out what to do."

Maeve led the pair through the dense forest to arrive at a well-used path. "Why didn't I see this earlier?" Lily wondered out loud.

"Probably you just didn't try hard enough to get through the trees," Maeve replied, amused. Lily flushed, and JJ suspected that that was exactly what the problem was.

As they walked along the path, JJ stopped. He heard a strange sound. He looked around anxiously. It sounded almost like "Odd-ish, odd-ish."

"Does anyone else hear that?" he asked. Maeve and Lily stopped, and looked at him.

"Hear what?" Lily grumbled.

"It's some kind of... weird words."

They all strained their ears for a moment as the sound started back up again. As a look of horror flashed across Lily's face, Maeve simply laughed. "Just an Oddish. Nothing too exciting."

The cousins stared at Maeve, who continued to cheerily tread on. Shrugging uneasily, JJ continued to follow her. However, like usual, Lily was not easily placated.

"Of course this is weird!" she hissed. "I've never heard of an Oddish, and animals aren't supposed to make that kind of noise, and--"

"We're here!" Maeve announced, perhaps a bit too loudly. JJ assumed that she just wanted Lily to shut up.

Standing before the trio was a tall, wide house, with a large garden and a swingset in the front. Two small children, both with identical eyes to Maeve's, swung on them, chattering happily as something that looked like a kitten slept off to their side. Lily and JJ stared in awe.

Maeve grinned. "Welcome to my house!"