Chapter Two- New friends, New dangers

With Eevee in my arms I wandered through the streets that had been my home for the past sixteen years, I slowly walked towards the port, I knew I had enough time to take in my last few glances of the town where I had grew up. But it never felt like home, with no mother and my father gone on research I had been raised by some of my father's aides, I never liked them, they were too formal. That's why I cherished the friends I made at school, they were like my family, this year had been tough, with so many of them leaving, leaving me alone…

As I walked up a grassy verge I saw on the horizon the port, I slid down the side of the hill and regained my footing at the bottom. Within the next hour I had reached the port and was boarding the magnificent cruise liner, I knew this stopped in all the regions, some of the passengers had already been on the boat for weeks, I was only travelling on it for a few days.

I was showed to my cabin, my father's aide had bought the ticket for me with my fathers money, and I was in first class. I couldn't believe that my father would pay for this for me. I knew that this would have been expensive, I put Eevee down and it immediately began bounding around sniffing the interior of the cabin, I wasn't paying much attention to the small Pokémon, I was too mystified by the idea of my father buying something this expensive for me. Over the years I had just been given money to do with as I wished, I never thought that I would be bought something like this by my father, I couldn't lie, it touched me.

I set down my bag and decided to go to the battle deck with Eevee; I needed to start battling early if I was going to become great. I stepped out of my cabin with Eevee at my heels; I leaned and looked at the sea passing us slowly as we pulled out of the port. The ocean spray washed over my face, it was refreshing, while it was not my first trip on a boat, it was my first trip on a boat that was going far out to sea, the furthest I had gone was to Cianwood with some of my friends. That was only a short trip as well.

Pulling away from the rail I saw a girl, she had obviously been on the boat for a long time, her skin was tanned as she stood in a green bikini, her long brown hair hung loose around her shoulders, she was talking to one of the crewmen casually laughing, waving goodbye to the worker she turned and looked directly at me with those deep blue eyes. I realised I had been stood staring at her for a while now. There was no other option, I walked towards her, she walked towards me,

"Why were you staring at me?" she said, with a definite edge of accusation to her voice, she didn't sound mad but she seemed stern.

"Um… I… uh…" stumbling over my words I was aware of her bewildered expression, then I saw a hint of red in her hand, an idea came to mind that could rescue the situation… hopefully "I was wondering are you a Pokémon trainer?"

"Yeah I am, was that all you wanted to know?"

"I, Jai Oak challenge you…"

"Sam Toyo."

"To a Pokémon battle." I knew it sounded formal, but I was nervous I had just asked for my first Pokémon battle.

"Sure! I didn't think you were a trainer, your clothes look too clean." She giggled and they walked to the battle deck, "so Jai, is this your first Pokémon battle?"

"Yeah, and my first day…" an expression of genuine shock spread across the girls face. She regained her composure and said

"I wouldn't have thought a trainer so new to his journey would want to challenge someone so early." I nodded and gave her a smile "All right then let's get started!"

We stood at either side of the battle field, we had already agreed to a one-on-one battle, I sent out Eevee, I suddenly realised that I didn't know any of Eevee's moves, seeing my expression Sam shouted that most Eevee know Tackle early on, but it could know some other moves as well if it was recently hatched. `

"Ok let's go, what Pokémon are you going to use?"

"Alright, I caught this Pokémon just before I left Hoenn so im not completely sure about how strong it is…" she threw her pokeball and in a flash of blue a small lizard Pokémon appeared on the battle field, it was blue with grey bands running from its head down its back, this was a Bagon, they were rare. We started by each calling an attack, I didn't have high hopes but I had to try, Sam seemed experienced and I knew she had more than one Pokémon.

"Headbutt, Bagon!" she signalled, Bagon shot forward at astonishing speed; I panicked and called the first thing that came into my head.

"Eevee, tackle!" Eevee began to run at an astonishing speed, it jumped over Bagon and landed behind it, I was shocked to say the least, then Eevee launched the tackle attack against Bagon's back.

"Use rage Bagon!" the little dragon got up and began to stomp its feet and ran straight at Eevee arms flailing,

"Dodge Eevee! Then use tackle." It was strange, this was my first battle but I felt like I had been doing it for years, it was like an instinct. Then I remembered something I had seen a few years ago, it was a documentary on contests, a coordinators Eevee was able to use shadow ball, could mine? Distracted by my ponderings I didn't notice Bagon recover.

"Dragon pulse Bagon!" a blue sphere of energy appeared in Bagon's mouth, I could tell Sam wanted to finish this quickly,

"Alright lets show them Eevee, counter with shadow ball?" it was clear to Sam that I was unsure about Eevee's ability to use the move, but my gamble paid off when a mass of dark energy appeared in front of Eevee's mouth, Eevee launched it at the oncoming dragon pulse, the two energies collided causing a smoke to form over the battle field. "Eevee listen for Bagon in the smoke then launch a tackle attack, ok?" the small Pokémon turned and nodded, then it closed its eyes. With its ears twitching Eevee stood still then in a burst of motion it performed tackle, a cry came from Bagon then as the smoke cleared I saw Eevee stood over the unconscious form of Bagon. I was elated, I had won my first ever battle. Sam walked and picked up Bagon,

"Thanks Bagon you were great!" the small dragon smiled at her as she returned him to its pokeball. "Wow you were amazing Jai, are you sure that was your first battle?" she looked sceptical,

"Yeah honestly I only got Eevee today." I smiled at her and she smiled back, we both let out a small laugh, "c'mon we can go get Bagon recovered"

As per my suggestion we walked to the onboard Pokémon centre, after roughly an hour, in which myself and Sam talked about her adventure in Hoenn to get to a port, Bagon came out full of energy.

As we walked to the upper deck I enquired about her other Pokémon, she said that she had one other Pokémon, it was a Magby, she released both of her Pokémon. Sam and I sat on the deck and talked about everything from Kanto to family, we watched the three Pokémon become fast friends playing around on the deck.

"So your father is really Professor Gary Oak?"

"well…um…yeah…" she had asked him so many times and seemed to think it was completely ludicrous "look why would I even bother to lie about this?" she finally accepted it, "besides when we dock in pallet you can meet him if you want?"

"I wish I could but I have to meet up with someone in Viridian city so im leaving as soon as we dock." This came as a blow to me, although I had only known her for a few hours I enjoyed spending time with her. I must not have hidden my emotions very well as she playfully punched my arm "hey c'mon we'll meet again I guarantee." This reassured me somewhat, especially because her smile seemed so genuine and sincere.

During this conversation we had failed to notice to older boy walk towards us, I turned and was stunned to see him, he spoke "Hello, my name is Riley. I couldn't help but overhear, is it true that you are the son of Gary Oak?"

"Well, yeah I am, why did you want to know?" I asked openly.

"No particular reason, I just wondered." The boy began to walk away then turned and said "good luck on your journey." Sam and I turned and looked at each other hoping for some kind of explanation. We decided to just ignore him. But Riley wasn't the only one who was watching us, from behind a door stood a man dressed completely in black, despite the temperature, flecks of green hair visble beneath his cap.

He rushed from his hiding place and grabbed Eevee, before I could react however; he was halfway down the deck already, but Sam had faster reflexes and sprang up in pursuit her two Pokémon at her heels. I was still stunned, everything was happening so fast, I came back to reality at the sound of Sam calling my name; I began to run behind her, she was a distance away with the thief even further. He clearly knew the ships layout. He veered into an unmarked door. He sprinted down a staircase and into a door marked with a sign to show the presence of high voltage.

We entered the engine room; manic laughter echoed around the room, the man was like a shadow jumping around the room in an attempt to confuse us. Suddenly Sam called "Magby use ember!" the little fire type sent small balls of fire from its mouth, it made contact with the criminal, but unbeknownst to us the engines cover as well. The man was rolling on the floor trying to get rid of the flames slowly covering his body, Eevee climbed timidly out of the bag next to the burning man. We were desperately trying to douse the flame, we didn't want him to die; despite what he had done he didn't deserve this. Using my shirt to bat out the flames the man laid severely burned on the floor, his small breaths ragged. "Go get help!" I instructed Sam. She ran off out into the corridor, I was alone with the man who had almost taken Eevee.

Sam had only been gone minutes before the man attempted to talk, "you should have let me die kid." The remark shocked me as I sat looking at the shell of a man, it was clear that without help soon this man would die, and he knew it. "there are bigger things here than silly childish dreams of becoming Pokémon master!" he said the last two words with such venom that I was scared of the almost lifeless form lying on the ground in front of me, his green hair was almost completely gone except patches were still intact but even they were smouldering. "I was part of Team Rocket, before they fell… but I refuse to let their ideals fall with them, now leave now or die." I stared at the man on the floor with such a mix of emotions, I had pitied him while he was dying, seeing him as a petty criminal, but he now seemed something else, something dangerous. With a sudden surge of energy the man rose to his feet grabbed my throat and pushed me against the engine with such force that I barely stayed conscious, "It doesn't matter if I die here," the man said "all the passengers will be dead soon, and it will all be you and your friends fault you melted the engines casing, it will soon collapse on itself and cause the ship to lose power, the passengers will eventually starve on this ship, and you wont be able to help in any way!" his hands were cutting off my air supply my vision was going blurry I could feel the life ebbing out of my body, this was it, today I was going to die. My last sight before losing conscious was Eevee being kicked against the wall by this mysterious man, with the last of my energy I asked "who are you?"

"Butch." Then the green haired man pushed his hands harder onto my throat and I lost consciousness.

OHHH, how is Jai going to escape this one?

I really wanted to start encorporating more action in to this chapter as the first one was relatively slow.

i would like to thank Waras for his help in starting this, all his advice really helped me to understand how i would write this fan fiction.