It starts to get dark by the time I finally get home, and Piplup is still bobbing his head to my music, even though his eyes are starting to struggle to to stay open. After his first fight in what must have been a while I can't blame him, however keeping him awake will defiantly be worth it when my mom finds out what I'm going to be doing.

Shaking my Piplup slightly his eyes shoot open, his head no longer resting into my chest while he looks up at me with his cute little eyes, "Are you ready Piplup? My mom's a little strict but once she sees how cute you are she'll calm down." Piplup nods, puffing out his chest slightly as i open the door.

My mother, as usual is sat on the couch with her small tea set watching some contest show that's tediously boring, at first I don't think she'll notice me and Piplup, that is until I shut the door and her head flips round, immediately spotting Piplup and getting confused, "Hey swe.. oh my gosh is that a Piplup!"

I let out a sigh of relief at my mothers words, maybe this will be easier than I thought. Piplup brightens up in my arms at the attention, and when I sit down next to my mom he jumps in-between us pumping his chest which make me and my mother giggle, " Yeah, mom meet Piplup, Piplup meet mom." Just like he did with me Piplup bows politely, obviously having been in Rowans company long enough for it to be taught his manners.

My mother beams, even though Piplup isn't her favourite Pokemon as a beauty judge she always appreciates any with manners and adorableness that Piplup posses, "Oh my, isn't he just the cutest little thing! Did Rowan give him you to do contests with? Oh Dawn, I'm so glad you changed your mind about this." Piplup looks confused, and sees the various beauty treatments being given to a Starly, making him back away from my mother and look up at me, obviously not too pleased with the idea of being put through similar treatments.

"Umm... not exactly, mom. Look, I know that you had certain plans for me to be just like you... but Piplup and I aren't interested in Contests. Rowan gave me him to go on and explore our region, and help him as his lab assistant. On my own adventure."

Seizing up I can't trace how my mother will respond, she keeps flicking her head between me and Piplup, her face emotionless while she decides how to respond, until finally after a few awkward moments in silence, she grabs y hand softly and looks into my eyes, "Dawn, from when you where little, I knew you where going to be something special. Even when you where little I could see the look in your eye when you watched you father battle or played with his Pokemon, but, after the... accident... I knew that if I let you go there was a chance I'd never see you again, just like I never saw your father..." A tear pours from my mothers eye, however she struggles through and clears a lump in her throat before continuing, "Now though, I see, it was selfish of me to do that. You are so special that everyone deserves to see it, not just me..."

Pulling my mother close I don't know what to say, but it doesn't matter, all that matters is I love her, and even though I'll miss her more than anything else, I need to do this, not just for Rowan. For myself too.

My mother pulls back, getting a tissue and wiping her eyes, "When do you go?"

"Rowan want's me to be at his lab first thing tomorrow morning." To my surprise she only nods in response, going to the T.V and pulling from a draw underneath it (which to be perfectly honest I had forgotten was there) a small piece of crumpled paper and hands it to me. Its an address... I recognise a few, three are Pokemon Gyms and one is a mansion outside Eterna City, but the other two I have no idea where they are.

"What.. what's this?"

My mom smiles, "These are the addresses where they took your dads Pokemon... They where given to his friends, I'll give them a call and let you know your coming to see them. Of course most of them where given to trainers so you won't be able to take them, but I'm sure they'd love to see you..."

My farther had 6 Pokemon, Casper and Prinplup like I already mentioned, but even though the other 4, Machoke, Gibble, Sneasel and Wingull weren't my favourite, it doesn't mean I didn't love them all like family. It'll be good seeing them again, "Thanks mm... I'm going to go get some rest for tomorrow."

She nods in agreement and we say our good nights, gathering Piplup i show him to my room, and as soon as he lies on haunters old bed he's fast asleep. I don't blame him, tomorrows a big day.

Walking up to the door of Professor Rowans lab Piplup looks up and gives me a re affirming nod. I don't now why, but Piplup doesn't like going in his Pokeball, which is fine for now, but once he starts getting bigger I need t start forcing him into it, otherwise I'll be stuck carrying

THUD!

I pull back, holding my head in pain as does the blonde idiot who ran into me does the same, I make sure Piplups ok, which luckily he is, "Barry why have you got to be such an idiot all of your life for?"

Barry rolls his eyes, "Dawn, don't be such a sour puss. Besides, I'm already running late... See ya." As he runs away, Piplups eyes narrow, obviously not a big fan of the clumsy nitwit, "Don't worry Piplup, you can get him back soon enough, right now we need a trainer card though..."

Piplup nods in agreement as I push the door open again, still holding my head to try and numb the pain. Looking around I struggle to find Professor Rowan, there's a lot of scientist doing different things, none of which I have any clue about. Eventually after spending several minutes looking like a lost puppy a familiar red beret comes over to save me , "Hey... Dawn right?" I nod, unable to remember the boys name, "I'm Lucas, from yesterday. I've got to say although your tactics where unorthodox you really shut Barry up... if only for yesterday, he came 30 minutes early and started ordering people around so he could see the professor..."

I sigh as my cheeks redden, "Yes, he's a bit... eccentric sometime. I'm really sorry if he was rude."

Lucas laughs and rubs the back of his head awkwardly, "It's fine, it's just usually when I see people that excited about getting there pokemon it's the 10 year olds... anyway, come this way to Rowans office

I nod, following Lucas as he leads me up a staircase and to a large office with glass windows on the front with Rowan at a desk overlooking his scientists working. The more artistic side of me realised what a perfect scene for painting it would be, however, as Lucas opens the door I remember the real reason I'm here, and step into Rowans office, the door being closed behind me.

"Ahh, Dawn." He pats away some of his papers into his desk and gestures for me to take a seat, he notices Piplup in my arms and chuckles to himself, "I see your taking good care of your Piplup, have you had a chance to train him since yesterday?"

"Not training as such, Piplup did fight off a couple of Pokemon in the tall grass on the way over here though." In fact, I was being modest. Piplup had defeated 5 Bidoofs and a couple Starlys on the walk over, most of which in one hit with pound. that reminds me, " But... most of the Pokemon he beat was with pound, but I though Piplups had weaker physical attack and stronger special attack, why is he so strong?"

Rowan leans back, a puzzled expression on his face while he strokes his moustache, " Well, if I had to guess from watching your pokemon fight yesterday... I'd say you'r Piplup is Brave in it's nature. Without running the risk of overloading you with information, when a Pokemon is brave in nature it's physical attack gets a sharp boost compared to others of the same breed, on the downside however, they have reduced speed. It's rather common in Piplups, they are a very proud Pokemon."

This does make a lot of sense, and would explain why Piplup doesn't like being in its Pokeball, "Hmm, thanks a lot Professor. You sure do know a lot about this stuff."

He chuckles again, popping another candy in his mouth, "Well so I should, I've been study Pokemon for most of my adult life now, Dawn. Which brings me to why you're here.." Sitting forward from his desk he slouches down, fumbling around in a low draw for a brief moment and pulling out what looked like a phone and 5 Pokeballs, "This, is an an invention of Professor Oak, a good friend of mine. I promised I would get the best, most enthusiastic trainers knew. All you do is when you encounter a pokemon, you take a picture of it with this camera on the back, and the Pokedex will document all information and save it to a cloud that gets sent to all the regions for Professors all over the world to use in their research. Of course, if you spend longer amounts of time with a certain Pokemon, the pokedex can get a more in depth documentation, hence the Pokeballs."

I sit in silence, trying to take all the information in, "So... I see pokemon, take a picture and catch them if I can?"

He smiles and nods, "Will that be ok? In return I already have given you Piplup here, and you can have this too," Rowan hands me a card, it has my name on and a picture of me like a drivers licence, "This is Trainer card, but not just any run in the mill one. If you flash this card you will be able to stop in any Pokemon Centre free of charge, as well as getting free health care for your pokemon which is standard for all trainers."

With a smile emerging on my face i pack all the new items in my handbag, putting the card in my purse for tonight, "Is that all Professor? If so I guess I should get going."

He nods in agreement, pulling out his papers and getting on with his work, "I agree, Oh and one more thing. That card also allows you, as my assistant, to access my Pokemon Farm back in the Kanto region, any Pokemon you catch after you already have 6 in your possession scan the Pokeball with the card and my family will look after them personally."

"Wow, t..thank you so much Professor." I'm stunned, such kindness wasn't expected from my old PokEd teacher.

"Thank me by achieving your potential, Dawn. Now get going with Lucas to Jubilife City, otherwise you'll miss a very special lecture at the Trainer school I'd like you to attend, the speaker is a bit of a celebrity so again, your pass will get you through the door."

I smile but inwardly the idea of a class for 'fun' doesn't entertain me, but since Lucas will be pretty much escorting me to Jubilife City I guess he'll be making sure I go. Saying my goodbyes I meet up with Lucas outside and we make our way to route 2, but there's defiantly a layer of awkwardness between me and him. I'm not sure why but he goes to say something but then stops himself, like somethings bothering him, "What's up Lucas?" He looks a little embarrassed, but since there's a good 1-2 hour walk to Jubilife I don't really feel like having the awkward silence. Especially since Piplup looks too cute in my earphones bobbing his head to ruin it.

Blushing slightly, it takes Lucas a few minutes to respond, "Well, it's just about yesterday. I underestimated you and assumed you'd be weak. Then you and Piplup worked so well together.. I'd offer to battle you myself but my if you can beat a grass pokemon that easy I'd hate to see what you could do with a type advantage!"

I giggle, and he chuckles to himself. Now it's my turn to look embarrassed but as we reach the start of the tall grass in route 2, conversations quickly turn to training.

Within a couple hours we reach Jubilife city with Piplup being too strong for me to catch any Pokemon sice fainted Pokemon can't be caught due to Poke-league rules. I'm not too bothered by it since Lucas tells me the Pokemon north and east of Jubilife are a lot stronger and easy to catch... and it also let Piplup perfect his Bubble move enough for me to feel confident about using it in battle, so it was actually time well spent.

Picking Piplup up in front of the Town I hug him tightly, making him growl lowly from the attention, "That was great Piplup! You'r Bubble against those last few trainers was amazing!" He puffs his chest out, acting modest but obviously appreciating the praise. I put Piplups favourite song, 'Take a hint' remix from Nightcore as reward and count up the prize money I earned. Over $100!

I'm so shocked that Lucas stops and laughs at me as he finally catches up, unlike Piplup, his Chimchar had just the right amount of strength in his scratch to leave Pokemon vulnerable to catch without knocking them out and had caught 2 more Pokemon. Looking at his watch his mood shifts into a more serious attitude, "Oh god, look at the time! If we don't hurry up we'll miss that lecture, is your Piplup ok to go straight to the school?" Right on cue my Piplup jumps out of my lap and does his dance for the chorus of his favourite song, making me blush, and Lucas laugh hysterically, "I guess so then, shall we get going?"

Lucas sets off before me and when Piplup finally finishes his dance (which is actually pretty adorable) I scoop him up and we get on our way after Lucas. On my headphones 'I think I'm in Love' comes on, making Piplup chirp happily, but then he looks slightly confused, Making me worried, "What's wrong Piplup?"

He Makes motions towards the headphones and then to Lucas, making me giggle slightly, "Did you not get it last time? I don't find guys cute." This doesn't seem to help him. Pokemon probably don't get it, there animals in a way. They just Breed and move on, love is a hard concept for them to grasp and Piplup especially doesn't seem to get that life isn't like the songs and you can't just love someone straight off the bat.. or maybe it is... I've never been in love so I guess I'm not exactly the best person to explain this to Piplup. When the chorus returns though his confusion passes and I'm spared the embarrassing birds and the bees talk with my new Pokemon, at least for now.

Eventually I do catch up with Lucas, outside a large building in the centre of town. Not being used to the large cities I lagged behind Lucas, taking every chance I got to stop and take in the experience... half these buildings look like they can reach the clouds! The trainers school was perhaps an exception, only looking modest with about enough room for a reception area, one classroom and maybe a lecture hall.

Lucas grabs my handbag and pulls me closer, the crowd thickening around the trainer school, "W.. what's with the crowd? It's only a lecture..."

Lucas laughs and now it's my turn to be confused, as we finally get to the entrance two large looking men with seemingly an army of Machamps, Kangastans and Machokes holding back the crowds in front of them. Lucas flashes his trainers card and I follow suit, once they finish expecting them they open the door and hurry us through. Lucas smiles to me and shakes his card in my face, "Being Rowarks assistant has it's perks, this isn't just any Lecture you know..."

Hearing the crowd outside I catch my breathe, "With the sea of people we just had to push past I guessed that... so who is it?"

He laughs again, but this time it just annoys me and I shoot him a glare. Just as he is about to respond though, a woman with large blonde hair and a clipboard appears from nowhere, startling me and Lucas, "AHA! So they are here after all, now come along Lucas you're late." Lucas scratches his head awkwardly but before he gets a chance to explain himself the large woman turns to me, "You must be Dawn, well aren't you as cute as a button... wait... where's the other one?"

The woman looks at her clipboard and starts to look anxious, shifting her attention again to Lucas, who shakes his shoulders, "He said, 'Pokemon Masters don't have time for stupid lectures..' at least... that's the nice version of it... sorry Nancy."

The large blonde woman (who I'm guessing is Nancy) rubs her eyes with her fingers, if she got any more stressed I think she'd burst a blood vessel, "Do you know how hard it was to set this up? First Oak backs out, then Birch and his assistants and now one of you have too! Ok..ok... Calm down Nancy we can do this... we'll just have to move it to the smaller classroom, then let the press take pictures in the lecture room after.. yeah... YEAH!"

While Nancy is having this conversation to herself I look to Lucas and whisper quietly, "Does... she do this a lot?" By the small 'coo coo' sign he gives as an answer I'm going to guess that's a yes.

"Ok, follow me Lucas, Dawn." After the argument with herself is over Nancy guides us down from the reception area, down a small corridor and into a large classroom, "Let me just go and get the speaker, since it's just you two I'm going to trust you not to break anything until they get here.. ok?"

Lucas nods, waving her off as I say my goodbyes as well, even though I'm sure I'll see her on my way out. Turning to Lucas, I'm genuinely starting to get excited about this mystery speaker, judging by the crowds and the fact that two of the most famous Professors in the world where supposed to be in attendance it must be someone pretty special, "So, do I get to know who this person is yet or what?!"

Seemingly right on cue the door unclicks, and a amused smile forms on lucas's lips as he points to the form entering the small classroom, "Her."

I turn and my jaw drops in disbelief... not only is she possibly the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on but I recognise her, her long black coat draping across the floor majesticly, like she's floating across the floor with such grace, and her face, it's... flawless. I'm suddenly very lost for words as i stare admiringly into this girls eyes... but luckily, she's the first to speak which breaks me from the trance she seems to have over me.

"Hi, I'm Cynthia..."

Hey Guys! It's me, the writer. I just want to say thanks for the support and since I am really enjoying writing this story I will set abit of a challenge for you. If we can get to 10 followers on this story before Sunday (the day chapter 3 should be put out) then I will put out the next chapter early. How early depends how quickly we get to 10 followers and if it doesn't work it will just go up on Sunday as usuall. So basically 10 follows = new chapter :D

Obviously let me know what you thought of this chapter through reviews because that what keeps me wanting to write is hearing how much of a crap writer I am and how Dawn belongs with Ash (FYI not going to happen since this is based off games... Ash may make an appearance but thats allyou can hope for.)

So follow, Favourite and all that good stuff, and see you later (Hopefully before next Sunday)