The quintet made their way down to the Sunyshore beach on Volkner's suggestion that Penny and her new mystery pokemon have plenty of room to have their first meeting. He'd also allowed Jolteon to accompany them outside of his pokeball and the electric pokemon hopped along the sand next to Penny; he was obviously just as excited to see what was going to pop out of that pokeball as she was. The group had gone to an area with no people so the meeting between new trainer and new pokemon would be unimpeded by beach-goers.

"Alright, you ready?" Volkner asked, standing next to her as the others stood off to the side. Jolteon stood on the other side of her.

Penny nodded slowly, biting her lip, as was her habit. "Yeah... Yeah I think so." She sighed and closed her eyes for a minute, holding the red and white metal ball against her chest. "Please like me..." She whispered to it, making Volkner grin over at his friends. Penny opened her eyes and tossed the ball up in the air as the white release light filled the area.

Eevee! The light subsided and Penny jumped up to catch the pokeball; she was glad they were almost like boomerangs and came back to the releasing trainer. Her eyes focused on the little brown fox-like creature that padded its tiny feet in the sand and yipped up at her. It had long, pointed ears and thick creamy tufts of fur around its neck, while its tail was a blend of the two fur colors and was just as fluffy as its neck mane.

Penny went down on her knees in the sand and held out her hands. "Hi... Eevee." She spoke softly and beside her, Jolteon sat down on his haunches and tilted his head at the pokemon evolution that he had once been. The little fox pokemon trotted across the sand and sniffed at Penny's fingertips. "I guess I'm your new trainer." She said, smiling sweetly. Eevee looked up at her and then over at Jolteon. "This is Jolteon, he's not our partner, but he's our friend." The girl used a hand to pet Jolteon's head and continued to hold her other one out to the curious Eevee. It turned its small head around and observed the men standing near it before it dove onto Penny's lap. Penny giggled in surprise and delight and lifted the little brown fur-ball up in her arms, cradling it. "Well! Hi to you, too, sweetheart!" She beamed as Eevee nuzzled against her chest and Penny looked up at the men around her. Eevee and Jolteon sniffed each other's noses as the others came closer to observe the new pokemon.

"I caught her in the Viridian Forest on my way here after we'd discussed that you should have a pokemon of your own, Penny." Lance said.

Penny looked up at him with wide eyes. "You caught her for me...?" She smiled at him excitedly and pet on her new little friend. "A girl..." She bit her lip so she wouldn't giggle so much.

"Good choice, Lance." Steven said, folding his arms, looking satisfied with this first meeting between pokemon and trainer. "An Eevee suits her quite well." The group all agreed and watched Penny with her cuddly, wiggly new pokemon.

〜〜〜

"Yes, and then it was Falkner and Aerodactyl who ended up plucking us out of the sky, don't you remember?" Volkner asked, shoving the last bite of his dinner in his mouth.

"I was unconscious, Volkner, you forget that. Skarmory had gotten hit with that Hyper Beam and knocked right into my head when we fell." Steven said, sipping his wine.

Volkner nodded and swallowed. "Oh that's right, I always forget that was the case. That's why Falkner had Aerodactyl carry you instead of all three of us riding his back." Lance and Falkner chuckled at the debate and recollection of one of their dangerous G-Men missions.

The group had shopped for and made dinner together as the men told Penny various stories of the missions they had gone on in the past to entertain her. Near the end of dinner, Penny had excused herself, taking most of the plates with her to wash in the kitchen.

"Volkner, were there that many plates for her to wash?" Steven glanced at Penny's empty dinner chair. "She's been gone awhile."

Volkner cast a glance at the chair and shrugged, pushing himself up out of his own seat. "I'll go check on her. She probably got sick of all your reminiscing." He teased the Hoenn champion.

"You started these stories, I recall." Falkner grinned at him. "I assume it was to impress her since we were all there when all of these happened." It was rare that Falkner got to tease anybody, much less the ladies' man himself.

"Shove it, Falkner." Volkner retorted, but he didn't have a shred of irritation in his voice and the other three laughed as he disappeared into the kitchen.

"So what do you think, Lance?" Falkner asked, leaning up onto the table with his elbows.

Lance arched a brow and ran a hand through his impossible hair; it somehow stayed intact. "About?"

Falkner gestured to the empty seat of the only female of their dinner party. "Penny. Do you have any ideas yet?" He watched their leader shake his head and the three men sat in contemplative silence until it was interrupted by the quickened thud of Volkner's rubber-soled boots on the floor.

"She isn't here." He sounded breathless and looked concerned. The others rose from their seats.

Steven grabbed his jacket on his chair and looked at the others. "We have to find her, then. She's unfamiliar with our world, she could be in danger." The others nodded and Volkner tossed two pokeballs on the floor as the white light filled the area and the electric pokemon yipped and growled a little.

"Jolteon, Luxray, Penny's gone. Can you find her?" Volkner frowned at his pokemon, both of whom looked at each other and began sniffing around; they were familiar with the girl's scent. They made their way quickly to the door and the men all looked at one another for a brief second and hurried out of Volkner's penthouse.

"Eevee, look out!" Penny shouted. Eevee hopped out of the way of the angry Krabby. "We're... going to have to battle it, aren't we...?" She bit her lip and Eevee yipped at her. "You really do want to, don't you?" Eevee snarled with her tiny teeth at the Krabby. "It's going to do something, Eevee, dodge it! Follow up with a Quick Attack!" She bit her lip again and watched as her little fox pokemon hopped into the air to avoid Krabby's Bubble. Penny, too, scurried out of the way, unsure if the attack would hurt her as well. She gawked in amazement as Eevee listened to her every command and the Krabby was hit. It scuttled around a little and its eyes looked even angrier at her Eevee. "U-Um, okay, um..." Krabby raised its claw in the air to strike Eevee and Penny widened her eyes, running over. "Eevee, jump out of the way and then use Bite!" She had no idea how she was doing all of this as she watched the battle play out before her. She was just spouting off attacks she knew back from her world. She was lucky that they happened to be the same and that battles were apparently conducted similarly to her understanding.

Meanwhile, the G-Men had followed the noses of Jolteon and Luxray to the beach.

"She must have gone for a walk and didn't tell us." Falkner mused as they all jogged behind the pokemon search team.

"Well that was real smart of her." Volkner snapped sarcastically. He felt somewhat responsible for her since he'd found her on this very beach, after all.

"Wait! Volkner, that's her up there!" Steven shouted and pointed up ahead to a girl hopping up and down on the beach. The group hurried toward her and discovered she was holding a very excited Eevee and a Krabby looking a little worse for wear was scuttling off into the ocean.

"Penny, what happened here?" Lance asked, walking up to her. He'd left his cloak back at Volkner's penthouse and was feeling a little strange without it. Penny bit her lip, suddenly felt embarrassed for having wandered off without telling her 'guardians' as they appeared to be now.

"Well, I... I wanted to get to know Eevee a little better so we came out here to walk on the beach before it got too dark. But since the light was fading, we didn't realize it and we bumped into a Krabby, I know that's what that thing was back there, but anyway. It got mad at us and started to attack us! So... Eevee and I kind of..." She fidgeted a little and Eevee yipped her response as well to the other pokemon present.

"You battled it." Steven grinned.

"And won." Falkner seemed equally impressed.

"You could have said something." Volkner frowned at the back of the group, although his chastisement went unheard as Penny was praised for using her knowledge correctly by the other three men.

The group decided to go on a night-walk of the beach, breaking off into smaller groups on occasion and drifting back to the full quintet over and over again. Penny walked between Lance and Volkner as she carried her Eevee in her arms.

"I'm impressed that you are able to show such skill so quickly, Penny. You have only been with Eevee for a few hours and you're already on your way to becoming a well-operating unit." Lance nodded his head as he spoke, seeming to agree with himself the more he thought about it.

"Well if you intend to use Eevee for battling purposes, you need more training than a beach Krabby." Volkner interjected. Penny glanced between the two men and down at Eevee for a minute.

"Well... I do think it would be really amazing to be an actual trainer and not just a pokemon owner." She looked back at the dark sandy beach as they walked somewhat behind Steven and Falkner. "How... do you train?" She was hesitant to ask these two highly accomplished men. She'd heard their stories at dinner; these guys were serious trainers.

"You currently live above a gym, do you not?" Lance looked down at her as they walked; he was slightly taller than Volkner and towered over Penny. He was also a very muscular man because of the physical work he was required to perform in the field for the G-Men. She felt dwarfed by both his physicality and his pokemon prowess.

"Yes...?" She looked up at him to find a light smile faintly touching his facial features in the dim light of the beach.

"You'll train with me." Volkner said, his tone sharp. "He's right. You live in my house and we live above my gym. So me and my team are the ones who will train you and your Eevee." Lance glanced over the blonde girl's head to the electric trainer who walked on her other side. Volkner was possessive of her, that much was clear. It was also not unexpected; Penny was a pretty girl; with her slender figure she almost appeared fragile like a Cloyster's ice sculpture and her eyes reminded him of the leaves in the Viridian forest while her blonde hair was as long and flowing as the silky beauty of the tail on a Ninetails. Volkner had an easy fondness for pretty girls, and this one just so happened to be easy for him to get close to. She was also interesting to boot. Lance fell silent in the conversation, idly observing Penny when it was possible and monitoring her interactions with Volkner. As a leader and potential protector of this strange girl from a strange world, it would likely prove useful for him to be able to observe her around the members of the G-Men. Should they ever have to split up, he needed to take note of how she got along with the various members of his group.

"Hey Lance." Volkner interrupted his leader's thoughts.

"Hn?"

"Let's head back." He redirected Penny's shoulders toward the gym that, even at a distance, was still easily identifiable. Lance nodded and motioned to Steven and Falkner and the group reconvened as one, wandering back along the sand toward the sparkling Sunyshore gym.