Here's Part 2! Sorry it took so long. I just got caught up with a lot of stuff. Hope you like it. Tell me what you think!


Kylie sat at the breakfast table, staring into her cereal. The Rice Krispies had stopped cracking, snapping, and popping a long time ago and had become a soggy mess instead. She stirred her spoon around the bowl, causing the milk to break the pieces into mush, before she glanced up at her mother, who was prattling about which starter she should choose.

"Well, for a coordinator Piplup is the ideal choice. It's very cute and water type attacks are simply beautiful and can pretty much be combined with any other type! There's some miraculous potential there! Of course, Chimchar is also quite the choice as well. Fire attacks are gorgeous and the energy Chimchar has is hard not to notice! The only choice I wouldn't recommend would be Turtwig. It can be quite cute, but doesn't have the charm the other two have."

"Mom, I've actually already picked my starter."

"Oh, you have? Which one are you going to get today?"

"I meant that I already have it."

Her mother's spoon fell from her hand and clattered into the bowl. "I knew you and Aiden were up to something yesterday. Don't tell me you couldn't wait just one day and went to Sandgem Town along?"

"No! We would do anything that risky!" Kylie assured her mom. What we did was probably just as risky as that though!' "We just went for a walk outside Twinleaf Town and we came across the Professor and his assistant. The Professor offered us the Pokémon early." So maybe she had twisted the truth a little bit, but her mother couldn't know what really happened.

"Oh, okay then. Well, which one did you pick? I can just see you with a Piplup! It would match your eyes so perfectly! Or a –"

"Actually, mom, I chose Turtwig." Okay, another twist. She didn't exactly choose it, but now that she had battled with it she wouldn't want another partner. And the way that her mother was glorifying the other starters would have made her pick the grass type just to spite her mother.

"Hmmm, not what I would have gone with, but I guess you just wanted a challenge! It's not easy to make beautiful or gorgeous appeals with a bunch of leaves, but –"

"Mom, I've said it before: I'm not becoming a coordinator. I'm going to be a trainer and battle gyms."

"But sweetie, there's so much violence down that road. Besides . . . you know what could happen –"

"I know, mom. But it's what I want to do. You can't shelter me forever."

Her mother got up from her side of the table, walked around next to Kylie, and pulled her into a hug. "I know, sweetie, but I had to try. I guess I was so focused on trying that I didn't notice you had already grown up."

Kylie simply smiled and hugged her mother back.

"When you first told me that you wanted to be a trainer, I thought of your father – all the losses and the pain and suffering he felt from them. I wanted to protect you from that, but this is what you want to do. And you've obviously been sure of that for years now. I just want to let you know that whatever happens, I'm proud of you!"

"Thanks, mom."

"Oh! I have something for you!" her mother exclaimed, pulling away and rushing to the counter. She took a wrapped box from the very back of the storage space and handed it to Kylie. "Happy birthday!"

Kylie eagerly ripped the paper off and threw the lid off the box. There were sparkles in her eyes when she saw the brand new running shoes. If there was one thing her mother knew how to do, it was pick out gifts! "Mom, I love them!" Kylie carefully took the shoes out of the box and gazed at them reverently.

"I knew you would! I was worried they wouldn't come in time because I had to re-order them since you didn't like the outfit I had for you and you picked out your own."

"Sorry, but I wasn't wearing that! I hate pink and skirts aren't very practical when you're traveling around." Kylie shuddered at the thought of what her mother was going to make her wear.

"It was a very cute outfit! Skyla liked it!"

"Skyla's a girly girl, of course she liked it."

"She's going to wear it when she gets her new Pokémon and goes on her own journey. The poor girl was so disappointed that she has to wait six months to wear it!"

Kylie was so glad that Skyla was several months younger than herself and Aiden (who was a month older than herself) so she ended up in a different Pokémon receival bracket. She pulled on the new shoes and noticed how well the colors really did go with her outfit. She wasn't exactly a fashion queen, but she did like it when her clothes actually matched. Thanking her mom and hugging her one more time, she headed out.

As she passed Aiden's house, his mother came running out the front door. "Kylie! Would you mind giving this to Aiden? He left in such a hurry that I didn't get a chance to give him his birthday present."

"No problem. I'll give it to him." Kylie took a wrapped package with a card attached to it from her.

"Thanks. Give that boy a good tongue lashing when you see him!"

"I'll be sure to," Kylie laughed. She put the parcel in her backpack as Aiden's mother headed back inside and she continued to her destination.

Kylie was feeling extremely confident as she walked into Sangem Town. She had easily defeated the Starly and Bidoof on Route 201 with the Turtwig and was impressed with the little guy's confidence boost. He was still shy when they passed other people on the route, though. Kylie was annoyed at those people for two reasons: one, they brought out the Tiny Leaf Pokémon's timid nature and two, they talked too much about stuff that she either already knew or didn't really care to know. One person had given her a potion though, which she knew would come in handy later on.

She approached the first building in town, which she knew was the Pokémon lab, and saw someone sitting outside, playing with a Piplup. As she got closer, she recognized it as Lucas. "Hi, Lucas," she greeted, stepping up to the lab.

"Oh, hey, Kylie. The Professor told me that was your name; I'm not creepy or anything," Lucas babbled as he quickly stood up, obviously a little flustered.

"That's okay. I'm sorry, again, about everything."

"It's really okay. As long as the Pokémon go to their rightful owners, I'm fine with it. Besides, you and that Turtwig seem really close already."

"Yeah, I guess we are."

"Kylieeeeee!" Aiden's familiar voice blared from the door of the lab. "You've just standing around talking for soooooooooo long! Get in here so the Prof. can get his show on the road. Then I can finally get my show on the road!"

Kylie looked to see her best friend (his Chimchar on his shoulder) holding the door opening, somehow managing to glare at her and smile widely at the same time.

"Okay, okay. I'm coming." She and Lucas walked into the lab and followed Aiden to the back of the building. Two people in lab coats were working on machines and copying down data, apparently for some kind of experiment. A third lab-coated figure was standing at a table in the very back, delicately using a screwdriver to tighten the screw on a small red device.

"I'll be with you in a second . . . just got to finish one final adjustment – there! Now, allow me to introduce myself – I am Professor Rowan," he said as he turned around.

Kylie's eyes widened when she recognized the man as the Professor from yesterday. "Wait! You're Professor Rowan!" She had read a lot about Professor Rowan and his research on Pokémon evolution. All those descriptions about him certainly didn't fit the crazy geezer she had seen yesterday.

"Ahem. Yes, that would be me. I'm afraid I must apologize for my behavior yesterday. Jet lag can do that to me!"

"That, among other things . . ." Lucas muttered quietly so only Kylie and Aiden could hear him cause them both to hide their giggles.

The Professor only cleared his throat. "Anyways, I want to check how you've been treating your Pokémon correctly so far, just to ensure that you can handle being a Trainer." He bent down to the Turtwig who was standing neat Kylie's feet. "So, Tyler, how is she?" he asked the Pokémon.

"She's really awesome, Professor!" he responded. "I feel like I've already gotten more confident!"

Kylie's mouth dropped open. She knew that Pokémon could be understood if they had developed a strong bond with a human, usually their trainer. Of course, she had hoped that the Turtwig would eventually be able to talk, but she never expected it to happen so fast.

"That's very good. And how about you, Ignatius?" the Professor asked, standing up and turning his attention to the Chimchar on Aiden's shoulder.

"You bet!" it replied with an enthusiastic voice. "No other trainer could possibly match my energy the way Aiden does!"

Aiden's smile widened even more, a feat Kylie didn't think was possible. The fact that his Pokémon could also be understood was another thing she didn't think was possible.

"That's good to hear! I'm glad that you two have found good trainers. Now, I have one more gift for you, Kylie and Aiden." The Professor picked up the red device he had been fiddling with when they walked in. "This is a PokéDex. It records data on Pokémon that you've seen or caught, among many other features, but I think I will allow you to discover those on your own. It will be very helpful to you during your journey, so I advise you to take good care of it."

"Wow! Thanks soooooooooo much, Professor. I'm gonna need all the help I can get." Aiden grabbed his PokéDex and immediately started playing around with it, Ignatius looking on eagerly from his shoulder.

"Thank you." Kylie took hers and looked at the screen. What better way to figure out how to use it than to push a few buttons? she thought. After a few presses, she arrived at a screen that was asking her to scan a Pokémon. She held it over Tyler, pressed the 'scan' button, and watched as information about her Pokémon appeared on the screen.

'Species: Turtwig
Name: Tyler
Gender: Male
Nature: Timid
Place Obtained: Lake Verity
Level Obtained: 5'

"That's my favorite feature on the PokéDex," Lucas said when he saw what Kylie had found. "It keeps track of all the Pokémon you've caught, where you caught them, and all of their information."

"Soooooooooo – can we leave now?"

"Aiden!" Kylie admonished her friend for his rudeness.

The Professor simply smiled. "It's okay. You are too much like your father to expect otherwise, Aiden."

Aiden had that weird glint in his eye that he got whenever his father was mentioned. Kylie was never too sure what it meant – that he was proud to hear that or if he didn't like being compared to him. She had met his father several times and he seemed like a really cool guy, but she knew that those times were some of the few that he was home; his job was similar to her own father's in that it caused him to be away from home for long periods of time. That was one of the main reasons that she and Aiden were able to connect so well. Before she could even finish her chain of thought or try to read into the glint more, Aiden had already bolted out of the lab.

"Aiden, wait!" she called after him, only just remembering the birthday present she had to deliver. "Oh, well," she sighed after she realized how far away he had already gotten. "He's too far away by now and so there's no point in chasing after him if I can enjoy the scenery . . ."

"Wow, that was fast," Lucas remarked. "He didn't even stay for my tour around town or Pokémon catching tutorial – both of which he said he wanted earlier!"

"Kylie, you are a lot like your father as well." The Professor's tone was slightly serious even for his sober self. Kylie felt weird feelings at being compared to her father and wondered if it was how Aiden felt. The illusion was destroyed the next moment, however. "Well then, why don't you show Kylie around instead, Lucas?" The suggestion was coupled with a sly smile as he pushed the two teenagers out the door. "You two have fun!" The lab door closed behind them, muffling Rowan's laughter a little bit.

"Sometimes . . . I hate that man."

"You really don't mean that, do you? The Professor's a great man and I know you respect him a lot." Kylie could find that she was only slightly surprised when the Piplup contradicted Lucas's complaint.

"That's not what I meant, Eilert. He's just extremely annoying at times, like right now."

Kylie could only smile at their exchange. It seemed that her and Aiden were not the only ones to develop strong bonds with their starter Pokémon.

When Lucas called his Pokémon into its PokéBall, she did the same and let Lucas guide her around town. He showed her the Pokémon Center and PokéMart and explained a bit about the services they offered to trainers. She already knew all the information but she didn't want to hurt his feelings, especially when he seemed to be in his element spouting information.

When he mentioned something about going to Route 201 to catch a Pokémon, she started really paying attention and readily agreed. "Catching a Pokémon may seem simple, but besides the actual action of it, it's actually quite complicated. Pokémon are wary – and smart – creatures. If you engage in a battle with a wild Pokémon, the others in the area will take notice and will observe your battle. If you try to catch that Pokémon the others will know enough to avoid any PokéBalls you throw at them, whether you caught that one or not, so don't waste any on them. If you don't try to catch it, there are two things that have to happen: you can defeat it or run away from it. The other wild Pokémon will then see you as ruthless or a coward; either way their not gonna like you too much, so it's not a good idea to attempt to capture them because they'll disobey you. So, to sum it all up, the first Pokémon you encounter on a route is the only logical catch to make on that route."

Kylie felt as if her head is spinning. "That's a long explanation for something that could be summed up in one sentence," she deadpanned.

Lucas seemed to deflate at her statement. "I was just making sure you understood everything . . ."

Kylie felt herself feeling extremely bad about her remark. She didn't really mean to say it out loud, but she felt more irritated than she normally would be and was now feeling worse than she normally would for making a hurtful comment. It was similar to what had happened at the lake the day before. "Sorry. It really did help."

Lucas smiled slightly. "It's okay. Anyways, the best way to learn is to do. So just walk into the grass and see what comes out. Oh, here, these will probably be helpful," Lucas said as he handed her some PokéBalls.

"Thanks. All right, let's do it, Tyler!" She called her Pokémon out of its PokéBall and walked into the grass. It didn't take long for a Bidoof to pop out in front of her. It was quickly weakened by a few tackles from her trusty sidekick and easily captured in one of the PokéBalls. "Yes!"

"Good job. How does it feel to catch your first Pokémon?"

"Awesome."

"So now you can check its information on that PokéDex feature you found earlier."

Kylie pulled out said device and scanned the PokéBall.

'Species: Bidoof
Name: Unknown
Gender: Female
Nature: Quiet
Place Obtained: Route 201
Level Obtained: 3'

"Cool, it's a girl!" Kylie exclaimed. "But she doesn't have a name yet. I have no idea what to call her . . . what do you think, Tyler."

"Hmm, I like . . . 'Sally'," Tyler said.

"Me, too." Kylie put that information into the Dex. Satisfied she recalled Tyler to his ball and hooked both to her belt. "Thanks, Lucas!" she said as they started to walk back to the lab.

"No problem! The first gym is in Oreburgh City, but you'll need to go through Jubilife City to get there. Just go north from Sandgem Town to get to Jubilife and then east from there, but don't rush right through! There's so much to see and do in Jublife City."

Kylie didn't have any real interest in the big city. The hustle and bustle it promised reminded her of Contest Halls, but she knew that Aiden would be entranced by everything that she disliked about cities since he had hardly been out of Twinleaf Town. It would be her best bet of finding him and giving him the present. "That sounds good. I hope I'll see you later." Kylie was a bit surprised to find that the last sentence was completely genuine. She enjoyed Lucas's company and helpful advice.

"Yeah, you too. Good luck!" Lucas was smiling also. Since he spent a lot of time helping his parents and the Professor in the lab, he didn't really talk to many kids his age. He was glad to find that he really connected with Kylie and Aiden. Even if one of them totally ditched me, he couldn't help but think as he waved to Kylie as she headed off to Route 202.

He headed in the lab and the door had no sooner closed behind him when he heard the Professor ask, "So, how was your date?"

"You had a date!" his mother immediately asked, whipping around from her research to stare at him.

"It wasn't a date!" Lucas thought he was gonna die of embarrassment. He was just glad that Kylie was out of earshot at that point.

'Species: Shinx
Name: Luther
Gender: Male
Nature: Brave
Place Obtained: Route 202
Level Obtained: 3'

"That's an incredibly kickass name, Tyler."

"Isn't it?"

Kylie and Tyler were walking into Jubilife City, discussing Kylie's catch on Route 202. The blue electric Pokémon had practically pounced on her and Tyler as they, scaring the wits out of the poor grass type Pokémon and forcing Kylie to use Sally to weaken it so she could catch it. Tyler made up for it by coming up with an awesome name, though.

Kylie felt herself growing more and more anxious about being in the city. She just wanted to find Aiden as quickly as possible so she could leave. The PokéCenter being the most obvious place to check, she headed there first. After healing her Pokémon, she confirmed that Aiden wasn't there. She tried to ask several people around town if they had seen him – even in a big city he wasn't likely to go unnoticed or be forgotten easily – but they only insisted that she go to the Pokémon Trainer's School since she was a rookie trainer. Finally annoyed by the amount of times it was mentioned to her, she headed to the School. Surprisingly, Aiden was in there, standing in front of the chalkboard. Glad her trip wasn't pointless she approached him.

"You, actually learning!" she said in a fake-appalled tone.

"Hey! You are sooooooooo mean."

"And you're rude. You left the Professor's lab without even saying goodbye to me."

"Stop being a drama queen. I wanted to look around the city and I knew I couldn't do that if I was with you."

"Who's the mean one now?"

"Still you because you wouldn't have wanted to do any sightseeing."

"You're right there; I wouldn't have wanted to do any sightseeing."

"Well, since I'm done with my sightseeing, how about we have a battle!"

"Sounds good, but let me give you something first." Kylie pulled the parcel from his mom out of her bag. "This is your birthday present from you mom."

"Oh, I forgot that she was waiting until I left on my journey to give me my present."

"I'm surprised you forgot. You complained about not having your present yet pretty much every day," Kylie commented as she watched Aiden rip the paper off the box. He threw the lid to the floor and pulled out the item that was inside it.

"It's a map. She knows how I get lost soooooooooo easily!"

"Yeah, I'm surprised you got this far."

"Shut up." Aiden then turned to the card. Below the sweet message from his mom she had wrote a 'p.s.' telling him to give the extra map to Kylie as a birthday present because she knew that he had forgotten to get her one. He couldn't help but think that his mom knew him too well. He searched the box and found another wrapped package that was the same size as the map. "Happy Birthday!" he exclaimed somewhat sheepishly as he handed it to her.

Kylie's wry smile only confirmed his suspicions that she knew exactly what had happened. "Thanks. What ever could it be." she "wondered" in a voice that clearly intoned she knew exactly what it was.

"Now that that's over with, we can have our battle!" Aiden opened the cover of the case that held the map and pointed to an area just outside of Jubilife City – Route 203. "Let's meet there to battle. I don't think that they would like us destroying their building very much. You can use your map to find it!" he joked.

"Haha, very funny, but I don't think I'll need a map to find it. You, however, should keep yours out."

"Whatever, I'll still beat you there! And you better not take too long, or I'll have to fine you $10 million this time!" With that Aiden sprinted out of the Trainer's School, nearly knocking over several students and a teacher who was carrying a stack of papers.

Kylie simply sighed. Counting on the fact that he was likely to get distracted by many things before he got to the Route himself, she decided she had some time. Looking at the map herself, she decided to check out Route 204 and maybe catch a new Pokémon before battling Aiden.

By the time she swung by the PokéCenter to heal up her Pokémon before battling Aiden, it was already quite late. Looks like we have just enough time for that battle with Aiden before we have to find someplace to sleep for the night. I wasted a lot of time finding those stupid clowns. But it was totally worth it. She admired her latest gadget – a brand new, red Pokétch – that was strapped to her wrist.

After she healed her Pokémon and arranged to spend the night at the PokéCenter, she decided to check her two latest catches.

'Species: Starly
Name: Stephan
Gender: Male
Nature: Hardy
Place Obtained: Route 204
Level Obtained: 4'

'Species: Zubat
Name: Cronin
Gender: Male
Nature: Naughty
Place Obtained: Ravenged Path
Level Obtained: 5'

She kept both of them on her belt, but they would need serious training if they hoped to catch up with the rest of their team, but that would have to wait until after battling Aiden. Kylie left the Pokémon Center and hurried to Route 203. The hyperactive blond was waiting for her just outside the city.

"What took you soooooooooo long! I've been waiting forever!"

"I got sidetracked . . . a couple of times."

"That's not an excuse. Anyways, it only gave me more time to train so I'm stronger than I would've been if you had been here on time! Ha! Your procrastination has backfired!"

"Hmph. Let's just battle."

"Agreed! I'm gonna use the first Pokémon that I caught!"

"Then so will I!"

Aiden's first catch turned out to be a Starly. He could only laugh at Kylie's first catch. "A Bidoof! That's unfortunate!"

"Shut up, Aiden! Sally's awesome. You'll see once we totally beat your Starly into the ground!"

"Yeah right! Sullivan, use Quick Attack."

Kylie countered with Tackle and Aiden kept having his Starly use Quick Attack. She deduced his strategy was to get attacks in before the opponent's Pokémon could deal similar damage, thus resulting in it K.O.-ing first. The only problem was that Sally was at a higher level and simply had more H.P. After only three Tackles, the battle was over rather quickly.

"Come on, Aiden. I thought you could do better than that!"

"I can do better! Wait until you see Ignatius!"

"Oh, yeah! Wait until you see Tyler!"

With that, both rookie trainers sent out their starter Pokémon. Kylie knew that a Chimchar at Ignatius's level would know fire attacks, which could deal serious damage to her grass type, but she would simply recall him before anything really bad could happened. Besides, she knew Aiden would never allow it to escalate that far.

Then why did she have a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach . . .


As always, R&R!