Hi there people *waves slowly* I did put on my profile that I'm not updating for a few days, maybe a few weeks, and I'm sorry but to be honest, I lost my Gran yesterday and I'm not in the best place to write. But I did promise to release this today so I will.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, but I do own Rocket Academy.

Chapter One: A Fresh Beginning

There are some nights you just want peace and quiet. Those are normally the nights when your two year old son comes running into the room, screaming about a nightmare or something. That boy was always plagued by nightmares. No one could understand it either. It's not like Dawn and I let him watch scary stuff. He always has the same dream. It's about darkness, he tells us, the darkness scares him.

I don't understand. I don't think I want to understand.

With my wife asleep in our bed, I take Dante, my son, back to his room and tuck him back in bed. I look over him. He has darker purple hair than mine with bright blue eyes like his mother. He favours the colour blue and his room and his wardrobe reflected that.

"Daddy," he said, "Me scared."

"I know," I replied, "But nothing is going to hurt you."

I'm nineteen. I shouldn't have a son but I do. I don't mind it either. I love Dawn very much and I love my son too. People look at us weirdly when we're out in public. I know they think we're irresponsible teens who fooled around and are now dealing with the circumstances… Well… We are but in a much nicer way than they seem to think.

Dante slowly drifts back to sleep, grasping my hand tightly. As soon as he's gone I replace my hand with a Suicune doll. I smiled as I remembered how Raven made him that.

Raven was one of Dawn's friends. They both work in the fashion industry, although Raven is more about home fashion than clothes fashion. Dawn designs clothes. The two of them are thinking about going into partnership. A chance meeting provided them both with a great friendship.

I walked out of my son's room and went back to my own room. Dawn was twitching in her sleep again. She had this horrible habit. I have no idea where it came from but over the past few months she had got increasingly worse. She should see a doctor soon, I think, but then again, she believes it's nothing.

I climbed back into bed and let out a soft breath. I closed my eyes as I rested my head on the pillow. It was nice to finally put my feet up. I was nice to finally be able to drift into a nice, easy sleep.

THUD.

Dawn had just fallen out of bed again. I opened my eyes and looked over to the other side of the bed. Dawn was awake, groggy but awake. She sat up on the floor, rubbing her head.

"Are you OK?" I asked, trying not to sound bored. It was the fifth time this week and it was only Wednesday. She nodded sheepishly before she climbed back into bed. She sat for a few moments like she was trying to remember something. I glanced at her.

"I swear I was having an important dream," she mumbled, "But for the life of me, I can't remember what about."

I nodded as she settled down in the covers. I smirked as her as she rolled over to face me. She scowled at me for a few seconds.

"It's not funny," she told me.

"I know," I replied. She stuck her tongue out at me and snuggled down into her pillow. She looked cute. I shuffled towards her and pulled into me. She opened one eye to look at me.

"Go away," she moaned, "Mr Grumpy."

For some reason that name had stuck with me since I was a child. She relented against my grip as I refused to let go. She let out a contented sigh as she snuggled up to me instead. I laid there for a while. Sleep refusing to take me even though Dawn had nodded off again. I looked up at the ceiling.

I was four when I met Dawn. I was six when I fell in love with her. We were engaged at the age of fourteen (not taken seriously until a few years later). We were married when we were sixteen. We had Dante a few months later. Our parents thought it was weird how we had changed so suddenly. We used to hate each other, apparently, then one day we were the best of friends. Our relationship always seemed to be natural, like we were meant to be together or something. I could never figure out why that was but I felt it. We were in love with each other, purely in love. We belonged together.

I closed my eyes finally and I instantly drifted off to sleep.

A green dragon like creature flashed in my eyes and I jolted awake. I looked around to see that Dawn was getting dressed. I glanced at the clock. It said seven am. I slowly sat up rubbing my head.

"You OK?" Dawn asked. I nodded. She left the room, probably not wanting to leave Dante to himself too long although he was probably vegetating in front of the TV by now. I looked around the now empty room wondering what on earth I had dreamt about. I swear it was something important but I couldn't remember what. I shrugged and pulled the covers off of me. Time to get dressed and start my day. Enough of this stupid dream nonsense.

I walked to work. Yes, I deem my duties at the City Gym as work, yet it wasn't really. It was more like a huge waste of my time. I had quite the reputation as being the strongest gym leader in the whole of Sinnoh. Bearing in mind I had qualified for being part of the Sinnoh Elite Four at the age of fifteen meant nothing, apparently. I had given up that life to settle down with Dawn which meant that I was between worlds, I guess. No one wanted to take me on. Those who did were soon out of my gym, crying for their mother's about how mean I was. I had given out a grand total of three badges in my short gym leader life. Those same three people had gone on to win the Sinnoh league or close to it. I am sure I could lock up my gym for a year and no one would notice the difference. Maybe Cynthia, the Champion, would complain. She liked to see her gym leaders busy.

So that is why I am working with a guy named Gary Oak. We'd met a few years ago when he was researching Suicune and I hadn't been able to get rid of him since. I don't know why he didn't bother me than he did. He was a cocky researcher with a sense of humour and a sense of leadership that I found I couldn't argue with. He talked to his aides like they were morons but always talked to me like an old comrade. We have no idea why. He found my criticisms good for his research like I found his instructions easy to follow. Currently, he was moping because his girlfriend had blown him off… again. I had nothing against Leaf (I had named her crazy sugar rush girl but it was too much to say so I resorted to calling her just Leaf), but whenever she blew off Oak, she left him a broken sop. She was cruel. I liked her.

As I walked into the gym I saw that Oak was talking to someone on the phone. It was Ketchum, one of the morons that had somehow 'defeated' me in my gym battle. I had to admit, it was his fifth time against me and I was sort of bored of him coming to challenge me. Ketchum hated me for throwing him the badge when in all actuality he had lost. I told him that with that sort of determination he could far and that I appreciate that I can see his potential. It was a load of rubbish but it was good rubbish the Pokémon League couldn't argue with.

"Is she alright?" Oak asked Ketchum. Ketchum nodded gravely.

"I have no idea what it was but it sort of attacked her," Ketchum explained, "It was like a person but not a person. I felt cold and scared but it wasn't interested in anything but Misty."

"When will she be out of hospital?" Oak asked. I shuffled towards the screen and leaned in. Ketchum acknowledged me with a nod before he continued to speak.

"In a few days," Ketchum replied, "We're about three days away from you."

"That's great," Oak said, "I'm sure we can come to the bottom of this."

"What's going on?" I asked, "If it's dangerous I can meet you."

"Really?" Ketchum asked, sounding hopeful. I nodded quickly.

"We're currently in Solaceon Town," Ketchum explained, "So not too far away."

"I'd rather you stay here," Oak told me. I raised an eyebrow at him. He seemed confused as to why he had said that but I nodded. "I can go and meet Ashy-boy."

"Great," Ketchum said, "I don't know how bad Misty will be."

"Carrot Top is strong," I told Ketchum as he looked downcast. He glanced at me. "I'm sure she'll be fine."

"Right," Ketchum agreed, "I'll call you when we're ready to leave."

"Great," Oak said, "I'll be ready for your call."

The screen switched off. Oak rubbed his eyes wearily. I put a hand on his shoulder.

"You OK?" I asked. He nodded slowly.

"I am so close," he told me, "To finding out why we act in ways we can't explain."

"This nonsense again," I retorted. Oak looked up at me. "You really think this is 'fate' or 'destiny'?"

"Yes," Oak replied. I sighed at his reply. It was all he ever went on about. No wonder Leaf ran away from him. "I am worried about this thing that attacked Misty though."

"Really?" I asked. Oak handed me a piece of paper. It was a drawing, most probably Ketchum's work. It looked like a person but it wasn't quite one. I looked at it a few times before I leaned into the face of the person. I recoiled and threw it back to Oak. Oak jumped at my action, neither of us expecting it to be so venomous.

"OK," I said, "I'm sold."

"I'll call Drew and make sure he, May and Leaf are OK," Oak said but it sounded more like a question. I nodded.

"I'll have a word with Raven too," I said, the words pouring out of my mouth before I could stop them. Oak merely nodded. We were getting too used to this. Oak gave me a smirk.

"No such things as fate and destiny?" he asked, "Well, it seems you were wrong."

"Somehow," I replied, "That's just the half of it."

Like I said, I don't know when I'll feel up to updating stuff so I may pick it up by Friday or not. Don't worry, I will be back but may take some time since it's been a big shock and a big loss for all the family. And it does stop me from writing really, really, really depressing stuff too, so in a way I'm doing us all a favour.

'Til my next update,

RSx