The next morning, I woke up pondering the conversation I had overheard the previous night. What pokemon could they have been talking about? I quickly got up, seeing that the clock read 9:30 and it was an hour long drive to Prof. Rowan's laboratory. I tapped Persian and she awoke with a jolt. She always slept at the bottom of my bed. I quickly showered, got dressed, and started down the hallway, looking at pictures on the walls. I came to one of the more recent ones where my father and I were standing side by side, wearing very fake smiles. I then noticed how different we looked. He had dark black eyes, whereas mine were bright blue. He had a very slim but muscular build, while I was more stocky. We did have two things in common though, we were both tall and had the same hair color: brown. After spending five minutes on these wayward thoughts, I realized the time and quickly made my way outside.

I had one of the butlers drive me to Sandgem town seeing as I couldn't drive the car back. Persian and I got out of the car and knocked on the door of the lab. "Ah yes, Jonathan! Right on time. Sorry, the family is a little late. Oh! By the way, the son's name is Kyle."

Persian and I sat on the couch as professor Rowan handed me the Togepi. "Oh no! I forgot that I have six Pokemon," I said, worried about letting them go.

"Don't worry about it. The rule is that you can have as many Pokemon as you can carry but you can only use six or less in a battle." "Or at least, that's what the rule is now. It was reformed a few years ago by the league."

"Thank God!"

"Knock Knock!"

"They're here!" Shouted professor Rowan. He opened the door and greeted the family as they stepped in. The father was tall and slightly overweight, with sharp eyes that glared at me, questioning my presence at the lab. His dark hair seemed to accentuate his force of intimidation. The mom was average height and slim, and she had a worried expression on her face, as if she was worried about letting her son go, but her blonde hair and soft features made her look nicer than her husband. The son resembled the father more than anything else, minus the weight and intimidating eyes, for those of the child looked quite timid in retrospect. The parents were pretty quiet most of time while Professor Rowan explained to Kyle how to manage battles, contests, and overall pokemon care. Finally, he called me over. "Now, I know you wanted someone to travel with your son, so I brought a friend of mine to help out with that." Professor Rowan gestured to me. "He has all of his badges and 4 contest ribbons. He is one of the strongest trainers I have met so far." I smiled, trying to hide the redness in my face. The parents seemed impressed, but they did not smile back, though the father lessened his glaring. The child seemed in shock. "Now, Kyle, which Pokemon would you like? We have many for you to choose from."

"I think I'll pick..." Kyle trailed off for a moment."Cyndaquil," he finally said after thinking seriously for a few minutes. I saw a glimmer of determination in his eye as he made his choice. Cyndaquil was a very small blue and badge pokemon that shot fire from the four badge spots on its back.

"Very good choice. A strong one too. Raise it well," said Prof. Rowan. "Now here are your pokeballs and pokedex."

"Whoa, you got a Pokemon too? That's awesome, Kyle!" Some kid had barged through the door and interrupted Kyle before he could thank the professor.

"Ben? What are you doing here?"Asked Kyle, shocked but pleased that Ben had arrived.

"I got a Pokemon too and I'm dying to battle! Will you be my first challenger? I was hoping you would be here around this time."

"Um... Sure," He replied.

"Take it outside if you two are going to battle, though your Pokemon are small right now they can still ruin a room." At first, they both looked as if they were about to question my authority(Ben especially), but one steely gaze from Prof. Rowan and they both obeyed. The Parents of Kyle looked somewhat surprised at what I said; most likely because it was the first thing that had exited my mouth since they had arrived.

Once outside, the battle was on. Both trainers had their pokemon out, ready for battle. Ben had sent out his Chimchar. The small creature had a bobtail of a single ember which blazed with a confidence like that of it's trainer.

"Chimchar, Scratch!" Ben commanded as the small pokemon dashed for it's opponent, claws ready.

"Cyndaquil, dodge it!" Shouted Kyle. Chimchar's claws barely missed Cyndaquil as it dashed out of the way, leaving small embers in the air wherever it went. "Now, keep dodging his attacks and using scratch!" The battle went quickly, Cyndaquil had more agility than Chimchar and Ben was too aggressive as a trainer. He made decisions out of frustration. His shoulders sagged out of disappointment at his loss. He left without saying a word. Kyle didn't notice for he was too busy being congratulated by his parents. I kind of felt bad for Ben, but at the same time, I was pleased at the fact that he had lost. I found his rashness highly repulsive. I found the same undesirable trait in Kyle after he had won. All of the sudden, he seemed extremely confident, from the very way he walked to the very way he spoke to his parents as they said goodbyes.

"Goodbye, son," The parents said in unison as they stood by their dark, green sedan. The mother spread her arms out to hug Kyle, but he simply pushed her away.

"Goodbye," he replied as his parents got into their car.

"Jonathan, I have something for you," said Prof. Rowan.

"Yes professor?" I replied.

"I would like you to take a pokedex with you. Knowing you, you'll probably meet loads of rare pokemon." He was of course talking about my team. None of them were traditionally found in the Sinnoh region.

"Thank you so much," I replied as I received the device from the professor. This is why I liked Prof. Rowan. He treated everyone with respect. He also felt like a father to me ever since I had first met him. He was once tricked by my father into being one of his researchers for a scheme in Johto. They wanted him to find a way to harness the legendary Lugia's power. He would let me come into the lab and see all of the high tech technology while he worked.. He finally realized what was going on though and left, but not without giving me his number to stay in touch. I said goodbye as he retreated into his laboratory.

"All right," I said to Kyle, trying to start a conversation. It would be a little awkward for awhile since we had only met that morning. "We can start at Oreburgh Gym if you like, where we can train at the mines, or we can go West to Canalave and challenge the Gym there, where we can see Iron Island. There's also Eterna which is right next to the Haunted Manor.. Those are just the ones that are close by and not too difficult to get to."

"Let's go to Canalave." He said as he pulled on his backpack which had been lying on the ground just moments before.

"Okay, but first, let's go to the pokemon center to heal your pokemon and then we can go." We said goodbye to professor Rowan and he wished us luck as we headed for the center.

"Hello, how may I help you today?" Nurse Joy asked from behind the counter.

"Could you heal my pokemon please?" Asked Kyle, handing her Cyndaquil's pokeball.

"Of course!" She took the pokeball and placed it on the machine. "It will be a few minutes. While you wait, would you like to consider donating to our program to help abused pokemon?" She handed both of us a flyer. "We also have an adoption program if you like.

"I'm sorry, but I am not able to adopt right now. I will, however, make a small donation," I said as I dropped a few pokebucks into the jar, struggling to retrieve the money from my wallet while holding Togepi.

"I'll do the same." Kyle dropped a few pokebucks into the jar as well.

"All right, your pokemon is done healing. Have a nice day!" Nurse Joy handed the pokeball back to Kyle. We walked outside and started for Jubilife city.