Dawn could see buildings of perpetual length in front of her. The lush green grass of Twinleaf Town had turned into rocky pavement.

"Thank god! I'm finally in Sandgem Town! I wonder what time it is..?" Dawn glanced at her Poketch. The time was set at ten minutes to three.

"Oh no, no, no!" Dawn reached into her backpack and pulled out the postcard her mother had given her. It was from Tara, and it contained directions to the Sandgem Town Sea Port. She followed it and turned down Pearl Street. She pedaled as fast as she could. Then she stopped her bike right on the spot. She had turned right on to a dead end, and it cost her two whole minutes!

"Oh man, me and my great directions!" Dawn began to panic, going down street after street while trying to read her darned post card.

"Not there!"

"Wrong way!"

"I want my mom!" Dawn wailed.

"A left... and then a right. Or is it a right and then a left? Hmm... maybe the postcard's upside-down." Dawn frantically tried to make heads or tails of the postcard.

"This is sounding really familiar!" Dawn was officially freaking out. She was completely lost, and it was already three o'clock. Just as Dawn was about to give up hope, a voice was heard nearby.

"The boat to Unova is now departing! The boat to Unova is now departing!" Dawn followed the voice, and was led straight to the pier. But the boat was already leaving off shore!

"No way! I won't lose!" Dawn yelled. Dawn pedaled into overdrive, and leapt off the pier. Dawn's mind was racing incredibly fast, but she was able to realize that she was going to need an extra boost if she ever hoped to reach the ferry.

"No need to worry. No need to worry." Dawn whispered to herself as she jumped off her bike and leaped for the ferry once more. She extended her hand out to the boats rail.

And she missed.

Dawn began hurtling down towards the ocean.

"No need to worry! No need to w- Oh what's the use! I'm worrying, big time!" Dawn yelled as she fell. At that moment, however, a hand reached out and grabbed Dawn. She gasped. The hand pulled Dawn up and over the rail almost effortlessly. Dawn fell to the ground, exhausted from her near death experience. After her blood pressure returned to normal levels, she stood up to properly thank her rescuer.

"Thank you so much for saving me sir-huh?" Dawn took in the appearance of the person. It was a boy with purple hair that came down to his neck. He wore a blue jacket and grey pants. Dawn made the connection.

"Paul? Is that you?" Dawn exclaimed.

"How do you know my name? Have I seen you before?" Paul asked in confusion.

" YOU THINK YOU'RE FUNNY, DON'T YA? LISTEN, MISTER, YOU SPOILED, COLD-HEARTED, BRAT! APOLOGIZE!" Dawn screamed in anger.

Paul gave a chuckle. "Now I remember you. You're Dawn. Why are you coming to Unova? There's no official contests being held there."

"For your information, Paul, I'm coming to the Unova region to compete in the Unova league." Dawn sassed. Paul gave another chuckle, which angered Dawn beyond words.

"Good luck with that." Paul mocked in his gruff voice, and he left.

"Grrr! YOU LITTLE BRAT! I'LL SHOW YOU!" Dawn screamed again, but Paul had already left. Dawn sighed. She looked over the boat's railing.

"My poor bike!"

• • • •

"Finally, I'm here!" Dawn hoped off the boat and ran into the town.

"This must be the Nuvema Town mom was talking about. Now if I remember correctly, mom said to find her friend 's house and talk to her. She said lived in the northwestern part of town. It shouldn'y take my very long at all!" Dawn happily said as she skipped down the trail. The trail was marked with beautiful flowers and grass. Dawn heard the flapping of wings and looked up to see what all the commotion was.

There were gray bird shaped Pokémon with oval shaped yellow eyes and heart shaped bellies.

"I wonder what Pokémon that is. Ooh, I am so excited! I have to hurry to 's!"

It did not take long for Dawn to reach Tara's house, and since this town wasn't as big as Sandgem, she didn't get lost even once. The doors opened automatically, and Dawn walked inside.

"Hello, is this 's house?" A young woman with light brown fashioned as a mini beehive stepped inside. She wore a white T-shirt and green skirt with red and white sneakers. The outfit was completed with a white lab coat.

"How do you know my first name? You must be Johanna's daughter, Dawn, right?" The woman asked.

"Yeah, that's right!"

"Well, you can just call me Prof. Juniper. Your mom already filled me in on all the details, so why don't we get started, hmm? Follow me."Following , Dawn was able to see more of the laboratory. It was clean and there were many individual rooms, which Dawn guessed were the areas that the professor did her research. Prof. Juniper led Dawn into another room. This room was about the size of Dawn's kitchen back home. It had a huge computer on the far right side and a table situated in the middle. On the table sat three poke balls. grabbed them and threw the balls in the air.

The balls opened and released blue light, and as the light disappeared, three Pokémon were revealed. Prof. Juniper pointed to one of them. It was green and had a cute tail that ended with a leaf.

"This is Snivy, the Green Snake Pokémon. It is a cool and calm Pokémon."

She then pointed to the Pokémon in the middle. It was a red and black pig with a cute snout and curly tail.

"This is Tepig, the Fire Pig Pokémon. It shoots smoke out of its snout if it gets sick."

moved her gaze over to the next and final Pokémon. It was a blue sea otter with a scalchop on its belly and an oval shaped brown nose.

"And this little one is Oshawott, the Sea Otter Pokémon. It fights with that scalchop on its belly. So what do you think? Which of these three Pokémon do you want to be your partner?"

"I don't know. I like them all!" Dawn said with a big smile. The professor laughed at Dawn's remark.

But their fun was cut short.

A smokescreen materialized in the room. Dawn and coughed from the smoke.

"I can't see a thing, Prof. Juniper!" Dawn wailed.

"What's going on here!" raised her voice in anger.

"Oh, nothing! We just came to steal your ultra rare Pokémon, is all." A mysterious voice answered. "Buh-Bye now!"

The smokescreen cleared. Dawn checked the table. Two Pokémon were missing!

"Prof. Juniper, Snivy and Tepig are gone!"

"What! So they weren't bluffing after all!" Prof. Juniper exclaimed. A young boy with black hair and glasses ran over. He had on skinny black pants and a blue coat.

", are you all right? What happened?"

"Yes, Cheren, I'm fine. I was just about to give this girl a Pokémon when someone came and stole Snivy and Tepig."

"New trainer...?" Cheren took in Dawn's appearance until he found something that interested him. He ran up to her and grabbed her brightly colored Poketch. Dawn was taken off guard by the sudden movement.

"Is this a real Poketch? I've never seen one before! Is this the first model? Because I really like the first model. It's the simplicity that adds to its charm. Can you believe we don't have any in Unova? What a bummer that is! It totally sucks! Do you mind if I do some tests? Please? Pretty Please?" Cheren was geeking out, and it was scaring poor Dawn.

"Uh..Sure?" Dawn reluctantly agreed.

"Oh, joyous day!" Cheren took the Poketch and ran back in the direction he came.

"Sorry about that. That's Cheren, my assistant. Don't worry though, he only gets like that with electronics. He doesn't get excited by too much else." Prof Juniper explained.

"That's good to hear. Now let's get back to the stolen Pokémon dilemma.

"You're right. I think you should take Oshawott and go look for the theif. He couldn't have gotten very far."

"Sure thing, professor! Let's go, Oshawott!" Dawn marched out the laboratory with Oshawott following close behind.

Dawn and Oshawott had been walking for quite a while.

"Auggh, I'm so exhausted! Where did this loser go anyway!"

"Osha, Oshawott!" Oshawot seemed to agree.

"Well, just as said, they couldn't have gotten very far. Let's keep go-

Ahhhhhhh!"Dawn was couldn't move!

"What is this?" Dawn was stuck on a weird silky thread. Then she remembered what that thread was.

"Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww! I'm stuck in spider web!" Dawn shook violently to try and get lose, but to no avail.

"Hel p meeeeeee!" Oshawott was startled by the scene and a group of galvantula appeared. Galvantula are yellow spider shaped Pokémon. They slowly advanced towards Dawn.

"No need to worry. No need to worry." Oshawott had to act fast. It closed its eyes in concentration, and its face grew red hot. It then released a gush of hot water at the spider web.

"Hot, hot, HOT! Cool it with your attacks, will ya?" Dawn yelled.

"Oshawott…" Oshawott said in embarrassment. The galvantula were angry now that they had been attacked and they released a brigade of electrically charged orbs at the sea otter Pokémon.

"Oshawott you gotta jump!" Dawn exclaimed. Oshawott jumped to dodge the powerful attack, electro ball, and they exploded in a nearby bush.

"Oshawott, do something with that scalchoppy thingy!" Dawn ordered.

Oshawott grabbed its scallchop from its stomach and a blue light poked out from the end of the seashell, shaping it like a sword. Oshawott descended from above with its signature move razor shell and sliced the net into mere pieces. The galvantula were frightened by this display of power and they scurried away. Dawn jumped down and landed safely on the ground.

"Thanks for saving me Oshawott! Now let's go find these petty thieves!"

"Oshawott!" Oshawott gave a little dance.

"Let's goo-"

"And where do you think you're going?" A boy appeared out of the bush that was fried by the galvantulas' electroball attack. The boy had long green hair that ended in a ponytail. He wore a black and grey baseball cap. His white shirt and khaki pants were neatly ironed.

"Look at what you've done to me!" The boy declared in anger.

"Purrloin!" A black cat situated on the boy's shoulder.

"What..?" Dawn looked at the boy more closely now. His clothes were burnt and tattered in certain spots.

"And look what you've done to my roller skates..!" The boy held up his foot in front of Dawn's face, and she could see it up close. There weren't any wheels.

"But they look just like normal shoes…"

"That's because you've taken the ROLL out of my roller skates!" The boy got into Dawn's face.

"We didn't do that! The Galvantula did! And don't you know it's rude to yell at someone without introducing yourself first!"

"Ahem. I'm sorry. My name is N. NOW BUY ME A NEW PAIR OF SKATES!"

"Wait..did you just say your name was N?" Dawn asked.

"Yes." Dawn's frown was lifted, and it turned into a smile. She snickered, and then began to laugh.

"Hahahaha! Is that short for noodle?" Dawn teased.

Wha.."

Or nincompoop?"

How about nose hair? Or nickel boxer?" Dawn and Oshawott rolled around the ground and squealed in laughter, tears falling from their eyes.

"My name's N!"

"But seriously, don't you think you should go by something that makes a bit more sense? Like Nathan?"

"Nathan..?"

"Well, we've wasted enough time here. Oshawott and I have to go catch these burglars. See you later!"

"But wait..!" Dawn had already sped off.

Dawn kept running until she saw what appeared to be a giant raticate shaped balloon.

You have GOT to be kidding me, Dawn thought to herself.

"Hey, team rocket, you hand over Tepig and Snivy right now! I know you have them!" Dawn demanded. A blond haired woman and a green haired man resurfaced from the bottom of the balloon. They wore black uniforms with red R's printed on them. The woman spoke first.

"Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

"To infect the world with devastation!"

"To Blight all peoples in every nation!"

"To denounce the goodness of truth and love!"

"To extend our wrath to the stars above!"

"Cassidy!"

"Butch!"

"Team rocket circling the earth both day and night!"

" Surrender to us now or you'll surely lose the fight!"

"Raticate!" Their raticate jumped and yelled.

"Oh, no its Cassidy and Bub!" Dawn exclaimed.

"It's Butch! BUTCH!" Butch yelled in anger of Dawn "BUTCHerring" her name.

"I remember you! You're that sneaky little brat, dawn!" Cassidy screamed.

"Well to bad you're not saving the day this time! We're much to high for your puny Oshawott to do anything!"

"Mwahahahahahahaha!"

"Oh brother… But they're right. What can I do!" Dawn said to herself.

"You could watch us make our escape!"

"Purrloin, icy wind!" Afraid and cold blast of air enveloped Team Rocket's balloon, and they began to sink. Fast.

"Now use quick attack!" The Pokémon ran at unbelievable speeds and rescued Tepig and Snivy from off the balloon.

"Purrloin? Wait…N?"

"Yup." The boy appeared beside Dawn.

"Thanks a bunch, Nickel Boxer!"

"It's N, N!" N screamed angrily.

"If you excuse us, children, we really need to be stealing back what we've stolen! Raticate, bite!"

"I've had just about enough! Oshawott,, use hot water attack!" Oshawott rolled its eyes in annoyance.

"It's called Scald, Dawn." N mocked.

"Oh. Oshawott, Scald!" Oshawott's face grew hot once again and it released a powerful jet of steaming hot water, blasting Raticate right back at Butch and Cassidy!

"Waaah ahhhh!" The blast launched the two thieves into the air.

"No waaaaay! We're blasting offff!"

• • • •

Back at the lab, Dawn gave Prof. Juniper the stolen Pokémon back.

"Good work, Dawn! You recovered the stolen Pokémon, and you made a new friend!" Prof Juniper said, referencing to N.

"Thank you." Dawn was beaming with pride.

"So did you decide what Pokemon you want?" Prof. Juniper asked.

"I'm going with Oshawott, no doubt!"

"I thought so. Here's Oshawott's pokeball. Why don't you go ahead and recall it now?"

"Okay then. Oshawott, return!" Oshawott dodged the red beam and scurried up Dawn's body and on top of her head. It wiggled itself under Dawn's cap and made itself at home.

"What do you think you're doing in there! You're gonna mess up my hair! Get out!" Dawn fought with Oshawott to get it out of her hat.

N, Prof. Juniper, and Cheren all laughed at the two.

"Thanks for using your leavanny to fix my clothes."

"Oh you're welcome. It's the least I could do. It's too bad about your roller skates, though."

"Oh that's okay. Dawn's gonna pay me for them."

"I am?" Dawn asked.

Yes you are!"

"No way-"

"If I may interrupt, Dawn, I finished researching your Poketch. I upgraded it so it can hold a lot more memory know." Cheren added.

"Thank you, even though I have no idea what that means! Haha!" dawn laughed in spite of herself.

"I feel so bad. My new order of Pokedexes hasn't come in yet."

"It's okay. I know most of the Pokémon around this part of the region." N chimed in.

"But how does that help me?" Dawn annoyingly answered.

"I'm traveling along with you, of course!"

"Wait, what?"

"I said I'm keeping an eye on you until you buy back my roller skates. It's a done deal, too. We're traveling together.

"Well then, there's a beautiful seaside resort at route 1. If you hurry, you two can make it there before dark." Prof. Juniper explained to the kids.

"Really let's go, N!" The two walked outside.

Um…Dawn?"

"Yeah?"

"You can call me Nathan from now on."

"Okay, Nathan."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome, Nickel boxer! Hahahaha!"

"Cut it out! It's Nathan! NATHAN!"