Disclaimer: Standard rules apply: I do not own any part of the Pokemon Franchise on any level and this story is written purely for the mutual enjoyment of the fan community.

Author's Note: There are really only three time-skips here in this chapter, so please bear with them, I try not to make a habit of using them too extensively. This is where the changes from the original storyboard really became necessary, as I wanted to portray Satoshi and his crew as if Haruka had already come to Sinnoh and gone back to Johto, as she did in the anime. (This also screwed up the entire storyline I originally had, but that part of the story's staying in the vault until later. )

Reviews and constructive criticism are more than welcome!

Chapter 1

"I'll bet you have one hum-dinger of a story to tell. Hope you got the movie-rights for it." She chuckled.

Leo let out a short bark of genuine laughter.

"Tell me about it. You probably wouldn't believe half of it."

"Try me. I've got a pretty active imagination myself."

"Alright then, but I warned you." Leo grinned as they entered the café, ordered, and found a seat by one of the windows.

It was a small beginning, but a beginning nonetheless.

Over 20 Years Later...

The sun sets over the Kanto region in a myriad of red, orange, yellow, and gold producing a breathtaking sight by any standard. The beginnings of autumn are upon Kanto in full force and as such, it is pleasantly warm and inviting to sit outside on such an evening and watch the sunset.

One young man sits outside in a porch-hung hammock, seemingly enjoying said sunset. He has a face that many would call 'ageless', meaning that he could be anywhere from twenty to forty years old and nobody would know for sure unless he told you how old he was.

He carefully brings his trusty instrument to his lips and runs through a few scales to test the harmonica and make sure it hasn't met with any abuse since he last played it nearly three months ago, if he remembers correctly.

After satisfying himself that his harmonica has suffered no injury, he begins playing. The sound which comes forth is slow, soulful, Rhythm Blues. The gentle melody floats out across the acres closest to the porch, at first startling many of the pokemon nearby. Yet after a few minutes of continued play, they all ease back into their places, almost appreciating this new addition to the cacophony of sounds which make up the surrounding forest and pastureland.

It is nearly twenty minutes before another man, this one far older than the first, appears on the porch. He sets a pitcher of iced tea on a small table between them and takes a seat in the hammock-chair beside the younger man, content to listen to the first live music his ears have heard in years.

Occasionally, the young man stops for a minute or two to pour himself a glass of tea and take a few swallows, but otherwise, he is content to continue playing and his older companion is equally willing to let him. It is only as the sun finally sinks below the horizon nearly an hour after the young man had started playing that he begins wrapping the tune up and allowing it to become more and more silent and subdued, trailing it off to a masterful whisper-finish.

Taking another swig of tea, the young man carefully places the harmonica back in the small box from whence it came and settles back into the hammock. He knows the evening is far from over and that the old man will cut to the chase soon enough.

After only five minutes, the older of the two breaks the silence.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself, Leo."

"It's not your choice to make Doc."

"I'm not a medical doctor Leo, as I've told you many times before. I work with pokemon, NOT people."

"We're similar enough Yuki, and you've never let me down before," The young lad trailed off.

"I'd beg to differ. Three days ago, you were at Death's doorstep. We're damn lucky I didn't screw up and quite frankly, I'm not sure how much more of this I can take. I've had to patch you up three times this past year; are you trying to get yourself killed?!" The older man wheezed and then began coughing for a few moments.

"Goodness knows the stress of stitching you back together isn't doing me any good."

"Are you telling me I'm not welcome here anymore?" Leo asked, hesitantly.

The old man rubbed his temples, contemplating his response. The young man had outright told him from the beginning of their arrangement that he trusted very few people, and whether he liked it or not, HE was on Leo's VERY short list of people he would trust to do something like administer medical treatment, ill-prepared for it though he was.

"No. I'm not saying that Leo. But I do think you need to take some time off from whatever it is that you're doing. You've never given me details and I've never pressed you to, but I daresay you can't possibly have something going on all the time. Certainly you can manage to put things on hold for a few weeks and take a vacation?" Yuki asked.

Leo was silent for several moments as he considered the Doc's offer. He couldn't recall the last time he'd taken some time off to unwind from his work, if he even dared call it that after so many years.

"You're wound so tight at this point that you're bound to snap and I personally don't want to witness such a thing," the old man continued gently. No matter what he said otherwise, he'd grown fond of Leo, almost like seeing him as a Godson of sorts. It was also nearly impossible to find someone as strikingly intelligent as Leo, as he remembered many a night where the two of them had stayed up well into the morning hours working on some project that he'd taken an interest in whenever he visited.

Unbeknownst to the older man, Leo's eyes had visibly widened at the word 'snap' and had stayed that way for nearly two seconds before he schooled his appearance back to normal and began to consider Yuki's offer more seriously.

"Didn't you say you had previous careers that you enjoyed?" Yuki asked.

Leo only nodded. He'd had to pass as several different professionals before; an accountant, a musician, a teacher, a wheel-man, a chef, a detective, a fisherman, an acrobat, and so many others.

"Didn't you mention something about being a pretty good cook at some point?" Yuki continued.

"Yeah, why?" Leo asked, mildly interested.

"I was just talking to an old friend about a week ago and he mentioned that he might have a position open if I had any assistants or interns who weren't on assignment at the moment or if I simply had any recommendations on anyone he could possibly hire."

Leo raised an eyebrow at the thought. Cooking was one of the very few things that still brought him any measure of peace. Whenever he was well enough, he'd cook for Yuki and anyone else who happened to be on the grounds when he rang the dinner bell. He remembered one red-haired lady specifically who he'd figured was about his age. He could hardly tell how old he was anymore since time just seemed to bleed together between missions.

Were it not for the fact that the nurses who'd brought him into the world had shoved the birth certificate down his throat, he'd have likely forgotten his own birthday long ago. Nothing seemed to be worth celebrating anymore, a fact that was becoming more and more of an issue with him on the cold, lonely nights when he had nothing but the stars, his team, and his thoughts for company. Having his team with him helped alleviate the loneliness, but there were some voids that they could never hope to fill...

Maybe this is how he felt...

Leo pushed the thought away before it fully formed and remembered his words all those years ago. He'd vowed that he wouldn't go out like him, and he'd be damned if he allowed himself to sink any further than he apparently already had. Yuki was obviously noticing that something was off, though he couldn't put a name to it.

"Can I get a few of the details about the job?" Leo asked, his voice sounding tired, but somehow relieved all the same.

Yuki almost couldn't believe his ears.

"Take a breather for a while. I'll go and talk to my friend and see if I can call in a favor and get you signed on. Who knows, you just might enjoy it," Yuki replied as he patted the younger man gently on the shoulder, being careful of his still-healing body.

"Yeah, maybe..." Leo trailed off.

It had been so long since he'd enjoyed anything. Ever since that day over a decade ago now, he'd simply been existing, forget living or enjoying.

Leo fell asleep sometime later in the warm night air, plagued by images that had long ago been burned into his mind's eye.

Three Weeks Later...

Olivine City of the Johto region is known for many things, but above all else, it is a port city that attracts all manner of trainers, coordinators, workers, and developers who all come together to form a city that is in an almost constant state of change.

On this day, the docks are undoubtedly the busiest part of the city, and for good reason. In less than two weeks, the newest cruise liner in the world, the S.S. St. Ives, would finally way anchor on her maiden voyage from dry dock.

Weighing an impressive 91,000 tons and measuring in at 965 feet, she wasn't the biggest liner ever built, but she was by far and away one of the most luxurious to have been built in almost ten years, featuring some of the latest creature comforts known to the modern world, including twin movie theatres, three swimming pools, two spas, multiple hot tubs, a full-sized pokemon training gym, and several other amenities all packed efficiently within her 15 decks and housing as many as 2,200 passengers.

The ship's dry dock had been flooded almost a month ago as the final phases of interior decorating and last-minute construction had been finishing up, although she wouldn't see open water until after her christening, which was slated for the afternoon of her departure.

Dockside, several hundred crew members were pulling double-duty for the third consecutive day in a row as supply trucks wove their way through an intricate dance of mayhem, offloading equipment of all shapes and sizes for the promise of double-time pay since the corporation which owned the ship didn't want to risk letting just anyone on board. After all, nobody wanted to invite a terrorist attack. The crew had been meticulously screened and selected, and there was simply little choice since they wanted everything to be ready on time.

A nearby warehouse served as a sorting arena where equipment was unpacked from its shipping containers and organized for transfer onto the ship. Most of the crew was already accounted for and on the jobsite, with a few notable exceptions, who had informed their supervisors that they were en-route.

Which didn't surprise many people when a yellow taxi cab pulled up to the curb across the street from the warehouse and a single young man disembarked, retrieving three bags from the back seat; a large duffle bag that appeared to be almost bursting at the seems, another large rucksack that he swung onto his shoulders, leaving the hip belt unfastened, and finally a large padded black square that had a shoulder strap as well as the traditional Medic symbol that was recognized around the world. He quickly paid the driver and then proceeded towards the front of the warehouse.

Upon entering, the figure removed his sunglasses and asked around the floor for the supervisor. After being pointed in another direction, the young man quickly headed off, hoping to get squared away quickly and get started helping the other crew members since they appeared to be very busy.

First Officer Allen Powell was just about to head back out of his office and back onto the floor when three loud knocks sounded on his door. He sighed before raising his voice and flipping to the next sheet of paper on his docket for the morning.

"Come in!"

Expecting something else to have gone wrong or had been misplaced or broken, Al was pleasantly surprised to find a young man with a pack, duffle, and full Medic Kit in his temporary office space. His surprise became even more pleasant when the youth immediately dropped his bags and fired off a near-perfect military salute. The odd quirk that the kid's left eye seemed sealed shut might have bothered Al at some point, but he'd seen worse injuries sustained in military service.

"Sir; Ship's Head Cook #8, reporting for duty, Sir!" The youth called out in a voice loud enough to be heard, but soft enough to not make Al's ears ring. Al's eye furrowed for a brief moment as he processed this information. Maybe this news wasn't so good after all.

"Son, I'm sorry to say that this ship only has seven head cooks, and they're already present and accounted for. Whoever told you to come to this dock made a mistake."

The youth wasn't fazed in the slightest. He simply reached into his jacket pocket and produced a letter from the company, along with a hand-written note from the captain, informing Allen to call him as soon as this new cook arrived.

"I was contacted about two weeks ago sir. Seems the company decided to help promote the ship by giving away some staterooms as prizes for the Johto Grand Festival that's finishing up today. A friend of mine recommended me to the Captain without telling me first, so all I got was a call asking if I wanted to help out as a cook on the ship's maiden voyage," The young man explained.

Al nodded at the guy's explanation. He'd heard the rumors off the grapevine a few days ago and had wondered what kind of package the company was likely to throw together in order to show off the elegance of the St. Ives, and he guessed that this guy must come as part of the package. He quickly placed a call to the Captain, who said he would have someone down there soon to escort the young man onto the ship and work him into one of the few remaining orientation classes.

"If you'll just wait outside the office, the Captain'll get someone to escort you onto the boat and get you settled in. In the meantime, I have more work to do. Welcome to the crew of the St. Ives sailor. I don't believe I caught your name?" Al asked.

"Stenbuck sir. Leo Stenbuck." The youth replied steadily, shaking the First Officer's hand.

"I'm First Officer Allen Powell, in case you didn't know already. Welcome aboard Mr. Stenbuck. If you can spare the time, we'd appreciate any help you can give us on the floor once you're settled in. Just make sure you punch a time card on the way in and out and report to the galley supervisor when you do so."

"Yes sir. I'd be happy to help out. Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you," Leo replied with a small grin as he and Allen stepped outside the door and locked it behind them.

Leo's head had begun to spin with how fast the crew was moving in order to ready the ship. Although he acknowledged that with less than fourteen days until the launch and only about sixty percent of the ship furnished and ready to receive guests, they had a right to be concerned about the pace they were moving.

The crewman who'd shown up (some twenty minutes after he'd parted ways with Al Powell) was chipper and polite enough, but it was obvious that the lad was in a bit of a hurry. Leo had to be extra cautious around turns as his stereoscopic vision was practically nil with his left eye out of commission. If the crewman had been spooked at Leo's closed left eye, then he'd done a superb job of hiding his reaction, as Leo hadn't picked up on any overt signals.

Leo's quarters weren't much other than a large closet with two full-size bunks, one atop the other, a wall of shelves for personal items, and another small room with a head and shower. He immediately took notice of the other door and lack of a doorknob, meaning that this was likely a shared bathroom between four crewmen.

"Am I alone in this room?" Leo asked the young crewman, who nodded his head.

"Yes sir; as of yet, no one's slated to be in here with you. You're a late addition, so you're also the odd man out."

Leo took a minute to look around the room and throw his bags on the lower bunk, but the crewman glanced at his watch and urged the both of them out of the room, leading Leo away once more. Leo took note of his room number and the deck they were on as the crewman continued to keep up the speedy pace.

"If we hurry, we can get you into a class and get your ID made within a few hours, then we'll have one more hand to help load the ship," he explained as he dropped Leo off at a registration desk. Surprisingly, the Captain, an aged gentleman by the name of Daniel Whitcomb, personally introducing himself to the new crewmen who'd arrived. Leo assured the young crewman he'd be alright and let the young man race off to resume helping the on-loading process.

Captain Whitcomb took immediate notice when Leo introduced himself to the young lady checking in the new crewman and giving them a Visitor's badge until their new IDs were made. He approached Leo with a calm demeanor and introduced himself.

"An honor to finally meet you Leo Stenbuck. Yukinari's told us a great deal about your prowess in the kitchen, and I hope to sample some of your work at some point on this voyage if it's not too much trouble for you," the Captain remarked. Whitcomb couldn't help wondering what could have happened to the young man's left eye, which hadn't twitched or budged since he'd first seen the lad. It was shut at all times, giving him only one good eye.

"It's a privilege Captain, it's not everyday I get asked to serve on a cruiseliner's maiden voyage, especially not one THIS high-tech," Leo answered, scratching the back of his head in a semi-shy manner.

"Well then, if you'll just be seated, we'll get these semantics out of the way and let everyone get started." Whitcomb motioned, leaving the mystery of Leo's missing eye for another time.

Leo only nodded as he received a thick binder containing an obscene amount of information that he'd have to peruse in the next several days, both before the launch and immediately after it. There was no doubt he'd be able to do the job, as cooking had become something he could almost do in his sleep, if need be.

Three hours later, the orientation class was adjourned and everyone filed out to have their IDs made and finally settle into their quarters and changing clothes so that they could get to work. Leo followed their example and donned a rugged pair of boots, some worn-in blue jeans, and a simple t-shirt as he made his way to the docks. He reported into the galley supervisor and started to help unpacking the hundreds of bed frames that would soon occupy the interior of the St. Ives.

It was going to be an interesting lead-up to an interesting voyage.

Leo more or less threw himself into his bunk almost 12 hours later.

Sure he exercised regularly, but routinely lifting heavy furniture with little or no rest in between reps was a trial even for him. He must have assembled some 50-odd beds in the past several hours and then helped move in the furniture of each room to boot, a job that was very taxing physically when you were moving at the pace of the construction crew.

By some harmless tactical blunder of speech, he'd let slip that he'd worked on a construction crew before while he was standing not five feet from a crew foreman, who immediately had snapped him up as a 'room assembler' as the galley crew had a few too many workers unpacking boxes and organizing china, cutlery, and appliances.

Thus, he'd basically spent the last 12 hours in a strenuous gym workout that he'd been ill-prepared for. He'd always been more centered on physical endurance than heavy lifting and the drain on him had been considerable. Although he'd lodged a complaint with both the crew foreman and the galley chief, both men had agreed to leave him on the construction crew as they were short-staffed, with the galley chief having a small smirk on his face, though Leo could only imagine what he'd done to deserve such rigorous punishment having not even been on the ship for a single day.

Too tired to drag himself to the crew mess for whatever was being served for dinner, he grabbed three protein bars from his rucksack and almost literally inhaled them, washing it all down with a liter of water before his head hit the pillow, setting his wristwatch alarm as he went to make sure he was up in six hours for the next shift.

For the first week, Leo saw nothing but hazing from the galley crew, and had confronted them about it after three days of being on the construction crew, and had only broken away because most of the cabins had finally been outfitted and the crew had gone onto interior decorating, which Leo had told them, rather forcefully, that he had no experience working with the expensive materials that they were handling.

Understandably, they hadn't believed him whatsoever and had promptly transferred him to the engine maintenance team and those guys had promptly utilized his lean frame to crawl back into cramped quarters and conduct fine-tuning on the engines, double-checking the turbines, and what have you, but that is another story.

Leo had been bone tired when he'd faced the galley chief, who'd seen it for what it was worth and had let the kid know that he wasn't a part of the galley crew, more specifically, the Chief Cooks, just yet, despite having the Captain's seal of approval. The boy hadn't worked on a cruise liner before whereas the other seven had spent months, some even years, at sea on one. However, while the eldest Chef, an Italian named Stravinski, was a tough man, he also wasn't blind.

He acknowledged that the boy had gone several days performing work that would have put any ordinary cook into a full-blown rage, and here he was, calmly discussing what exactly he'd done to upset the other Chief Cooks to warrant being reallocated to a construction crew. Stravinski was forced to admit that the move had been childish indeed, but didn't voice that particular thought aloud as he calmly informed Leo that he would see to it that Leo was transferred back to the galley by the end of the week, satisfying both his own sense of vindication and the boy's determination to prove to the older Chiefs that they couldn't break him just by giving him hard manual labor.

After the first week, Leo had finally acclimated to the strain of working on a crew for the most part and was finally transferred back to the galley, where he met all the other Chief Cooks and was given his own area of the kitchen to use as he needed, although some of the cooks still eyed him suspiciously from time to time. Yet as the time to board passengers loomed ever closer, Leo fell into a grove that respected the elder cooks whilst also preserving his own dignity.

When the time finally came to board passengers, Leo had made a few acquaintances and was generally respected in the galley for his prowess in the kitchen and around the ship for his ability to remember a person's name despite having only met them once or twice.

Stravinski himself would be handling the food preparation for the ship's premiere high-rollers, the super-rich who wanted to be some of the first onboard the world's most luxurious ocean liner. Leo knew for a fact that Stravinski had a team of nearly ten people to help him prepare food for the nearly five-hundred high-rollers who had confirmed reservations for the maiden voyage.

Leo had just been informed by Captain Whitcomb that he'd be serving as the personal chef to some forty-odd VIPs for the duration of the voyage and nothing else. Whatever Yuki had told the Captain, it must have been one doozy of a tale to make him out to be some kind of Gourmet Chef. The only Cordon Bleu certificate he had was a forged copy for crying out loud.

Hundreds of miles away, in the Sinnoh region…

Satoshi sat at a table in the local Pokemon Center, digging into an early breakfast knowing that within the hour, he'd be on the road again and the next town was at least a few days travel from here on foot, and he wanted to start the trip out on a full stomach. In the corners of the room, TVs were playing an early morning news report that he only paid token attention to as he noticed his traveling companions approach the table while Pikachu continued to happily wolf down more ketchup.

"Figures that Satoshi would be down here, tanking up for the trip," Hikari thought aloud as she set her bag down and journeyed over to the breakfast buffet with Piplup in tow.

"Be sure to leave some for the rest of us, okay Satoshi?" Takeshi added as he too headed for the buffet, leaving his pack on the floor next to Satoshi's seat, who merely nodded his reply and kept happily chomping away, mirroring his pokemon to a 'T'.

It was a few minutes later before Takeshi and Hikari returned to the table, taking up the seat opposite Satoshi who pushed his plate away as they say down. The plate was nigh-on empty, as was usual of Satoshi before leaving a major town and heading out into the wild once more.

As Satoshi stretched his arms and legs out in an attempt to limber himself up for the hike, his eyes fell towards the TV in the corner opposite of himself, where he caught a brief glimpse of someone who might have been familiar had his vision not suddenly blurred from last night's sawdust in his eyes.

As he feared, despite hastily rubbing the sawdust away, the picture had moved on to display a familiar face that he hadn't thought about since his reunion with Haruka.

"Hey, check that out." He pointed to the TVs as Hikari and Takeshi both glanced at the TVs within their own fields of vision, catching the briefest of glances at the Coordinator who had been on the screen.

"Shu?" Takeshi thought aloud.

"Haruka's rival? That Shu?" Hikari asked, glancing between Takeshi and Satoshi searching their faces for an answer, "And what's he doing on TV?" She continued.

Satoshi answered her question first.

"Yeah, that's him alright," Satoshi replied, still half-paying attention to the TV news report.

Hikari remembered some of Haruka's 'horror' stories about the first few years that she'd known her rival and quietly thanked whatever gods were listening that Nozomi was infinitely nicer than the guy that Haruka had described to them. Charmer though he sometimes was, nobody appreciated being perpetually put down and underestimated.

According to Haruka, Shu had really only started to lessen the frequency of his tirades when she routinely began defeating him. Shu might have inspired Haruka to become a better Coordinator, but Nozomi was unique in that she could get her point across without making her opponents feel like dirt in the process.

Takeshi was also paying attention to the news report as a massive ship suddenly was flashed across the screen with the subtitle on the screen reading "S.S. St. Ives Maiden Voyage".

"Seems like Shu won a trip aboard that ship at the Grand Festival..." Satoshi continued as the news reporter did a small spiel on the ship and some of its creature comforts that were unique to it and it alone until other ships like it were built.

"Seems odd that Haruka wasn't in that contest as well, I didn't think she'd let her biggest rival get the better of her," Takeshi continued.

"She might have finished ahead of him, but I didn't get a chance to see it. It says that a lot of other VIPs are showing up for the maiden voyage as well," Hikari threw out, now paying attention to the news report as well.

"Wouldn't that have burnt his ego..." Satoshi thought aloud, grinning. While Hikari didn't catch it, Takeshi raised an eyebrow at the remark, but let it pass.

The report concluded and the news anchor moved onto another story. The trio sat silent for another five minutes, hoping that the news station would repeat the story so they could hear the whole thing from the beginning, but it appeared that luck was not on their side in this venture, and soon Hikari moved to grab her bag and get Piplup to its feet.

"Well, it looks like they're not going to repeat the story anytime soon and I don't think we can waste another hour of daylight seeing if they'll repeat themselves."

"Hikari's right Satoshi, we really need to get moving, the clocks moved back an hour this weekend as well, so it'll be dark way sooner. It's midmorning already, so we really don't have the time to sit around. We'll catch the report in the next town," Takeshi added, watching as Satoshi shook himself to clear his head.

"Yeah you two are right. It's time to head out," Satoshi replied as he pulled Pikachu away from the ketchup bottle and started moving towards the door.

As the trio left, Satoshi spared one last glance over his shoulder towards the TVs before stepping back out into the chilled morning air and turning west towards the next town.

"Satoshi, we need to be heading SOUTH," Hikari gently reminded him.

Sweating slightly and face red with embarrassment, Satoshi pulled the brim of his hat lower as he corrected his direction and once again took the lead.