Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or any of its characters. The plot is my idea though. First time attempting to write a fan fiction story. Reviews appreciated!

As much as I dislike being connected to a major company like Devon Corp, I cannot quite escape from its grasps since my father owns the corporation. As his son, I am compelled to some degree on handling certain matters concerning the business. Despite my hatred for paperwork, I have to deal with some even while in an island city like Mossdeep, thousands of miles away from the headquarters.

After some hours staring at the documents, I feel utterly exhausted. Staring forward to the window, I observe the calmness of the sea between the edge of the island and the distant Shoal Cave. I wish I can be as cool and collected as the water below. Of course I suppose without the mountain of paper on the desk I should be calm and serene as the sea.

"Aww...I was so close!"

A girl's soft voice comes to me. Knowing how incompetent the sound proof system in the house is, I wander around the house hoping to hear the distraction again. Anything different from the silent and paramount paperwork seems very attractive right now.

"Did you see that? I almost pulled out Wailmer with just this little rod!"

Someone seems to be fishing near me. After approaching my small and only window, I open the panels and see a rather amusing sight.

A young girl is sitting on a rock surrounded by shallow water. Looking toward her right, she appears to be animatedly expressing her disbelief at a pokemon. Sadly they are too far for me to make out what pokemon that is. Although I should think that it is a water type.

The girl soon redirected her attention to the sea. She refocus on her rod and launches it into the water. At that moment a wind picks up from west to east. It softly blows her brown hair sideways and occasionally plays with her white little hat rims. But she pays no attention. Her concentration is solely on the calm water before her.

Some minutes passes and she rarely stirs. I have to say I truly admire her focus. Determined to follow her example on my own tasks, I brings myself back to the table to resume my tackling at loads of work before me.

A few days has passed and the weather has changed drastically. Normally Mossdeep will stay relatively sunny but that is not the case today. Something about the gloomy clouds makes the surrounding look dull and depressing. And I dislike having a mood that reflects the environment. So in an attempt to drown out the moodiness in the atmosphere, I set sail toward the nearby Shoal Cave. From my experiences, I have long realized that I can forget about my situations and stay inside a cavern for weeks on end in search of possible discoveries, mostly rare stones. I do not necessarily like the darkness so much. More importantly I consider hunting for discoveries a peculiar passion of mine that make time go faster. Hopefully fast enough for the sky to settle back to its sunny self.

After stepping inside the cave for a few minutes, I notices a girl on her way back to the entrance. The girl smiles upon seeing me. She seems somewhat comfortable talking to strangers as she looks up at me and then starts talking about how she managed to catch a cute little Spheal after chasing the little rolling ball around to the a dead end. Her excited countenance and her gleeful green eyes brings a smile onto my face as well. I congratulates her and she replies back a quick thanks.

A silence then follows as two strangers realize the lack of topics to discuss.

The girl then takes one look at her bracelet like watch and decides to be on her way. With a quick "Goodbye Now!", she leaps on forward to the entrance. Sad to see the only other person in the cave leave, I turns toward her. Just before she leaves, perhaps conscious of my staring, she looks back at me. A nod and a smile are directed toward me as if she knew I feel slightly lonely at being inside a dark cave, maybe like she has felt before. Is that why she was so eager to talk before?

But soon after, she moves back toward the dimly lit light emitted from the entrance, takes a familiar white little hat, puts it on, and walks away until I can no longer see her. We are still strangers after all. A bit disappointed, I directs my attention back to the darkness around me and tries to immerse myself in my way of passing time, digging for rocks.

Because of my lack of social interaction, I rarely see a past acquaintance and recognize him or her. But the brunette I met in the cavern seems to be an exception. Just the day after I left the cave to go to my father's company, I see her again. This time in the laboratory.

The machine designed to turn fossils into real Pokemon is finally ready for testing. Hoping to make a long lasting impression in the world, Devon Corp advertises daily to attract the fossil owners and provide excitement and anticipation to the general population. Despite the large budget, the marketing department has not received much positive response. After weeding out the fake fossils, the employees are only able to deem two fossils as acceptable. Still as long as the testing goes well, most researchers are optimistically believing, more fossils will come forth and the machine will then become a truly commercial success.

As soon as the news of the testing date reached me, I decided to attend the life changing event. Eager to see the fossils myself, I bide my Skarmory to fly to Rustboro City as fast as he can. Then I goes into a run towards the headquarters. By the time I reach the lab floor and burst through the door, I am still panting and breathing quite heavily.

"Are you alright?"

A familiar voice reaches my ears. I look forward and see the young girl again. She is wearing her white hat despite being indoors. Her green eyes stare at me, showing a great degree of concern.

"Yes," I replies, "I am just excited to see the machine. Changing rocks into real creatures. It is just revolutionary!"

"I know! I cannot wait for my fossils to become pokemons! I just can't wait!" Her green eyes shine brightly as she speaks. "Oh yeah, I'm Leaf, by the way. "

"Steven Stone. Call me Steven." I have a feeling I should get to know her more. And I will.