She wasn't sure if it was the hand on her shoulder shaking her that woke her up, the detached voice that said "routine security check, Panopticon agent 012" or the low, angry growling from the general vicinity that brought Quinn to consciousness but one thing was for sure- it was definitely too early for her to be awake. The curly-haired novice trainer forced her eyes open to see a ginger-haired young man in his late-twenties standing in front of her with his arms crossed and his mouth in an unamused line. He was indeed wearing the typical uniform of the Panopticon field operatives; black cargo pants and a black long-sleeved shirt with the gray Panopticon emblem over the chest. On the right side, the numbers "012" were displayed.
On his left side was a particularly muscular machoke, who looked just as detached as his trainer, eyeing Quinn suspiciously. On his right, a girl with a platinum blonde French braid over one shoulder and bangs covering one cyan eye looked extremely nervous and at her feet was a glaring Benjamin, growing angrily at the intruders (but wisely choosing to focus his anger on the trainer without a hulking machoke). Quinn sat up and looked at the two, still a bit out of it. As she looked around the area, she found Marky a few feet away, still sleeping peacefully as if nothing was going on. Some guard he was.
"Good morning, trainer," the blonde young woman said timidly. "I am Panopticon Agent 016. We're sorry to wake you up so early, but this is a routine security check. Can we please see your trainer registration and ID?"
Still fighting off sleep, Quinn stared at the blonde blankly. "Reg…istration?"
"If you are a legitimate trainer, you should have identification with your name, age, trainer number and current pokemon team," the male said stonily. "If you have any foreign or markedly dangerous breeds, we also need to see those permits."
Quinn blinked. "I… This is my first day as a trainer."
"So I'm assuming you got this paperwork in Sandgem," he countered, his gray eyes unwavering. "We need to see this."
"I didn't," Quinn said, looking from one agent to another. She was now definitely awake and panic was starting to set in. "I was going to get it when I reached Jubilife."
Agent 012 scowled. "Do you have a pokedex?"
"Well, yes," Quinn said, puzzled.
"So you thought it important to get your pokedex, but not your trainer registration?" he said coldly.
"Silas, be nice!" the platinum-haired girl protested. Immediately after speaking, her eyes grew wide, as if she had realized she had made a big mistake.
"Agent 016, you would be wise to watch your tongue," he said, his icy look moving from Quinn to his female counterpart, who looked just as young and scared as Quinn herself. She didn't reply, but her face turned crimson. "Please excuse me for a moment. I'm going to call back to headquarters. We may need to bring you in."
"Bring me in?!" Quinn asked, horrified.
The redheaded male (Silas, Quinn guessed his name was, judging by the female agent's outburst) took out a Crosstransceiver and stepped away from the two women. "What's your name?" the girl asked Quinn.
"I'm Quinn," she said.
"Well, Quinn, I'm Abby," she said with a friendly smile. "I guess I'm not supposed to tell people that, but I've already slipped up, so I don't think it matters. I'm really sorry about my partner. He's… a little intense."
"Yeah, that's one word for it," she said with a small laugh.
"I don't think we'll have to take you in," Abby said in a low voice. "Just make sure the first thing you do in Jubilife is get your registration, okay?"
"Arceus, of course," Quinn said. "I thought I was going to make it there tonight, to be honest. My friend Colin did, and we left at about the same time, and I've done the walk from Twinleaf to Jubilife in forty-five minutes easy. But you see, Marky, my magmar, decided to attack a shinx and he lit some grass on fire and… well, you know how it goes. It set us back so we just decided to camp."
Abby giggled. "Well what an adventurous first day. Hopefully your second is a bit more… tame."
"I hope so," Quinn said with a big smile. "I just hope it doesn't start in some Panopticon cell."
"I doubt it," Abby said, playing with the ends of her hair.
Quinn stared at the girl curiously. She, of course, had seen Panopticon field operatives before (they had been around for ten years, after all, since she was very small), but they had all seemed more like Silas- cold and impersonal, a bit gruff, a slightly heightened sense of importance. Abby seemed much younger than any operative Quinn had seen before, and she was all kind sunshine, not aloof detachment. "How long have you been with Panopticon?" Quinn asked curiously. Certainly not long enough to have the smile squashed out of her…
"Three weeks," Abby said proudly. "It's nice to be back out in the field. It's been way too long since I've been traveling. Fitzwilliam certainly enjoys it too."
"Fitzwilliam?" Quinn asked. Certainly an interesting name.
"My jolteon," Abby explained. "My father used to work with the guy who designed Kanto's PC system and he got one from him that was given to me. He used to just be a pet, but we're required to have three pokemon on our teams, so I decided to start officially training him."
"Wow, that's so cool!" Quinn said. Her mom sometimes got pokemon as gifts too- Marky, after all, was one of those gifts. Melinda had never received anything as cool as an eevee though (or if she had, she had hidden it from her children). "Can I see him?"
"I don't think your shinx would like that very much," Abby said, gesturing to the small kitten, who was still glaring and ready to pounce at any moment.
Quinn laughed. "Benjamin, come here!" she called, gesturing to him to come onto her lap.
The shinx looked blankly at her for a moment before resuming his fiery stares in Abby's direction. "Benjamin!" Quinn called again, this time without the laugh in her voice. Benjamin didn't even look away this time. Quinn sighed. "Great, so neither of my pokemon like to listen."
"He's probably just focused on protecting you," Abby offered helpfully. "He knows we're intruders."
"You're not-" Quinn began, but then she stopped herself. Really, even though Abby was very nice, they were indeed intruders, and Benjamin was just following his instincts.
Benjamin began to growl again as heavy footsteps sounded, signifying the return of Silas. Quinn felt the flutter of panic return to her stomach. Despite Abby's confidence that she wouldn't be hauled off to a security cell, what if she was? What would her mother say if Quinn called her to come pick her up? Would she even come?
"Consider this a warning," Silas said briskly as he handed her a yellow sheet of paper. "I was advised to give you a write-up instead of taking you in, but we still need information on you and we'll be doing a follow-up visit with you in the next week."
Quinn stared at the yellow paper, her fear dissolving. It was simple enough. "Do you have a pen?" she asked with a nervous smile.
"Arceus, you left on a journey and didn't even bring a writing utensil?" Silas asked incredulously. He dug into the pockets of his black cargos and fished out a simple ink pen and handed it to Quinn. She grabbed her pokedex from her bag to use as a hard surface to write on and began filling the form out.
Name. That was easy enough. Pointer, Quinn P.
Date of birth (mm/dd)08/01. The first of August. A few short months away. Age.14.
Hair.Blonde. Eyes.Brown. Distinctive marks. Did her hair count? You could see it from miles away. She figured it didn't, so she instead wrote about the scar shaped like an apple by her right knee.
Pokemon (species and levels).Shinx, level 4. She remembered that from the day before. What level was Marky? Her mother had never said, though that didn't really matter to her mother, since she didn't train her pokemon for battling. Quinn opened the pokedex and waved it towards the sleeping form of Marky. "Magmar, male, level 16." Quinn blinked in surprise. Marky was strong.Well, strong for an amateur like Quinn. Certainly strong enough to beat the first gym. That was just awesome.
The curly-haired blonde smiled widely as she finished filling out the form by copying down her Crosstransceiver number and signing and dating the notice. She handed it to Silas, who glanced down at it to make sure that she had filled it out correctly. "Thank you. Someone in the Panopticon administration will be contacting you within the next week to let you know when someone will be coming. In the meantime, get your identification and registration first thing when you get to Jubilife and scan your ID at the readers in the Pokemon Center. You can also use your ID to get through the city limits after 10PM."
"Thanks," Quinn said awkwardly.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Pointer," Silas said. He grabbed a pokeball off of his belt and recalled the hulking machoke, who had done little more than blink since arriving. She supposed he was just there for the intimidation factor (which was valid, considering Quinn would never even think of acting out while that hulking beast was around). In his place, Silas called out a staraptor, who looked at Quinn with utter disinterest. Behind him, Abby offered Quinn a small smile as she too called out a large staraptor. The two got on the large birds and began to fly north, the direction of Jubilife, presumably to the Panopticon office to file Quinn's paperwork.
Quinn laid back down, but the comfort of the sleeping bag was lost on her now. She was definitely wide awake. Benjamin trotted up from where he had planted himself at her feet and curled up next to her stomach. He purred and rubbed his head against her abdomen. Quinn's face broke into a smile. "Awww…" she cooed. Benjamin smiled up at her and cooed back at her.
And just as she had finally began to get comfortable, accompanied by her lovable shinx kitten, she felt a jolt of pain in her abdomen. After the initial shock of the pain wore off, it began to burn. "Shit!" Quinn swore as she sat up sharply, clutching her side. Benjamin looked up at her innocently, even though he knew damn well that it was his little "love spark" that had caused his trainer pain.
Love hurt, plain and simple.
After putting some aloe vera ointment on her burn (which Quinn had packed thinking that perhaps Marky would hurt some innocent pokemon), Quinn decided to start on her way to Jubilife, even though it was especially early, and awoke the sleeping giant that was Marky. The fire pokemon gave her a glare unlike any other and Quinn decided to put him back inside of his pokeball, not really wanting to deal with his attitude. Benjamin, on the other hand, was definitely a morning person and was chipper as could be, mewing as Quinn rolled up her sleeping bag and packed it away.
Oreburgh really wasn't far from Jubilife, and despite what Colin had thought, Quinn wasn't planning on sticking around the city for very long. After all, they had just finished school there, where they had been attending since the age of six, when their respective families had moved to Twinleaf. Jubilife was where she had spent the majority of her time when not watching Kale, so it wasn't too particularly exciting to be going there. Really, especially with how early she was bound to arrive, she was planning on stopping and getting her trainer ID and registration (because how awful would it be if she happened to run into Silas and Abby again without it?) and maybe some breakfast (because a muffin sounded awesome) and then heading out. She didn't have a lot of money left on her- the majority of her savings had been given to Kale as a birthday gift so that he could start his journey- but she did have enough for a muffin, and hopefully she could start battling soon to earn more.
However, considering the ordeal of the early morning, Quinn was extremely relieved to start seeing the first sight of buildings. Another Panopticon employee, this one a female with a short violet bob, was unlocking the city gates as Quinn approached them. There was a bouquet of balloons in her left hand. "Good morning," she said with a small smile. Once the lights on the city gate turned green and unlocked with a steady click, opening to the left, the woman began tying the balloons to nearby posts and trees.
"Good morning!" Quinn said, watching her balloon-tying. This was obviously another one of Jubilife's "big events" that were really never very big. Though Jubilife was still the biggest city in western Sinnoh, both the residential and tourist population had dropped steadily after the Galactic War. The rebuilding of the city had been extraordinarily quick, as the citizens of Jubilife greatly suffered without an influx of tourists spending money in their city, but even now, all of the buildings were rebuilt from the damage done and still nobody wanted to live in (or visit) the city where the television station was bombed. Once the debris was cleared, the buildings began to go back up and Jubilife TV had started throwing extravagant parties and promotional events to try and lure people to the city. It had never been very successful, and after so many years of schooling in Jubilife, Quinn was as used to "Jubilife TV presents…" as she was the never-ending amount of trees in Twinleaf. "What's the event today?"
"This is actually going to be a big one," the woman said with a big smile. "The Elite Four are coming out for a meet-and-greet, they're going to have a battling tournament where you can compete for a new bicycle and lots of free food!"
Well, she had Quinn there. Trainers had to take free food anywhere they could get it. She didn't care about the tournament, nor its grand prize (Quinn hated cycling; she crashed too much), and even though maybe meeting the Elite Four could be cool, she wasn't overly excited about that either. "Sounds cool!" Quinn said. "Where and what time?"
"It will start at 10 in front of the Jubilife TV station!" she chirped. "Hope to see you there, trainer!" And with that, the woman scuttled off, presumably back to the Jubilife Panopticon office.
Quinn pulled her Crosstransceiver out of her bag and looked at the time. 8:04. Quinn still had 2 hours to kill, and she was officially there, in Jubilife. Her first step was, of course, to head to the Pokemon Center, so that her next experience with Panopticon wasn't nearly as bad. She passed several wearing the insignia on their shirts and the same familiar panic began to well up in her stomach. She really hoped none of them would stop her, though none of them looked like field operatives. And didn't Silas say they would call her before checking on her again?
It was an understatement to say that Quinn was relieved to walk through the front doors of the Jubilife Pokemon Center. Despite the festivities of the day, the Center itself was rather empty. The blonde novice trainer took note of the ID scanners that Silas had told her to use so that she could go through them after she received her ID. She headed first to the counter, where a young man with shaggy emerald hair stood. A well-toned figure was evident even under a torn orange t-shirt and a bright blue windbreaker. "Hi, can I help you?"
"I need to get my trainer registration and ID," Quinn said.
"Sure, let me grab the forms for you!" he said, as he reached under the counter where they obviously kept them. He handed two to Quinn, in addition to a blue ink pen. "Just grab me when you're done with them and we'll get the photo for your ID taken care of."
"Ok…ay," Quinn started, but he had already walked off. "Well that was super helpful."
The only difference between the forms that Quinn filled out in the lobby of the Jubilife Pokemon Center and the citation she had received from Panopticon was the Pokemon Center symbol replacing the Panopticon insignia in the top righthand corner of the piece of paper. She filled the forms out quickly and brought them back up to the counter with a pleasant smile on her face. A woman around Quinn's mother's age came to greet her. Her burgundy hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun and there were wrinkles by her eyes and mouth and Quinn couldn't help but think that her mother looked much more put-together than this woman. "Hi dear, can I help you?"
"I'm just turning in these forms for my trainer's registration," Quinn said, handing the woman the forms.
The woman scanned them over. "There are only two forms here. There should be three," she said with a frown.
"The guy that was here earlier just gave me these," Quinn said, looking around the Pokemon Center for him. His bright blue windbreaker was nowhere to be found.
"Guy? Are you sure it was a male, honey? Because we don't have any men that work at this Pokemon Center," the woman asked, clearly confused. "Maybe it was Vanessa. I told her that short haircut made her look like a boy." She dug underneath the counter and pulled out a mint green piece of paper and handed it to Quinn before the blonde girl could even protest. "No matter, though, just fill this out please."
Quinn wasn't even thinking as she filled out the third form, instead focused on the conversation that had just taken place. The person that had handed her the forms originally had not been Vanessa with her boyish haircut- he had been completely, 100% male. His muscular chest and arms had proved that, as they were visible even through his clothing. Not to mention that no female Quinn had ever met would wear a falling-apart orange t-shirt with a bright blue windbreaker.
She handed the form back to the older woman with a smile and decided to just forget it. Maybe he was new and the woman just hadn't met him yet. Maybe he was just a volunteer. Hell, maybe he was just a helpful stranger. He hadn't done anything but give her forms, so there was nothing to worry about. She just needed to forget about it. "Thank you, honey. Let's get that picture taken care of and then you'll have your ID."
"Thank you," Quinn said politely. The woman led her over to a large, old-looking camera and a green screen, in front of which Quinn stood.
"Okay, smile at three!" the woman instructed cheerily. "One… two…"
There was the bright blue windbreaker.
The woman took the photo as Quinn focused elsewhere, and the result once Quinn's ID was printed wasn't pretty. Quinn's hair was as wild and out of control as always, and a particularly bad cowlick right at Quinn's hairline made a piece stick out even more than the rest, making Quinn look like a wild, curly-haired monster. And while she had been unfocused, yes, the look on her face was one of confusion and it looked like she had a lazy eye.
Of course, the woman said there were no retakes.
"You look lovely, honey!" she chirped, ignoring Quinn's immense glares. "Ah, to be young again. You're so lucky you have your youth…" And by the time Quinn had received her ID card, the bright blue windbreaker was gone.
Quinn sighed, thanked the woman again and finally utilized the ID scanners at the far counter. To her, this was more exciting than receiving her ID had been, though it was possible she was a bit biased. The computer system attached to the scanner asked if she would like a reservation for the night.
She declined- she was getting to Oreburgh, no matter what. It was too short of a distance to not make it. A short hike through the eastern suburbia of Jublife, then the extremely short route 203 and the Oreburgh Gate- it was easy as pie. She, Colin and Kale had done the trek from Jubilife in about an hour before. She was certain that factoring in battling trainers and maybe finding another pokemon to add to her team, she was counting on maybe three hours, if that. After all, Marky was level 16- he could easily take down most trainer's pokemon around Oreburgh, she guessed. It would be a good training opportunity for Benjamin, though.
But first, free food.
With the addition of the Sinnohan Elite Four to an otherwise standard event, Jubilife TV had a bonafide hit on their hands. Quinn realized quickly that the meet-and-greet with the Elite Four was completely out of the question, seeing as how the renowned trainers were mobbed almost instantly. It was definitely looking like Quinn was just going to have to grab food and then leave for Oreburgh.
As Quinn headed towards the food tent, the scent of barbeque guiding her way, she caught a glimpse of Tony Barclay, the flying-type master, talking to a starstruck teenager with a starly on her shoulder. His salt-and-pepper hair stood out amongst the crowd and sunlight glinted off the hook that was at all times attached to his upper arm (the forearm and hand had been lost in some sort of accident in his youth was the story told). One could hear his gregarious laugh above all of the chatter of the trainers. Quinn didn't see how anyone could miss Tony Barclay. Even on television, he was larger than life. She wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not.
However, Quinn really couldn't care too much about Tony Barclay at the moment, because she was increasingly hungry and there was free food. She had forsaken the idea of a muffin because of it, and now, some kid in a green cap that was clearly too big for his head was taking forever in line, and Quinn was growing more and more impatient. It wasn't until the kid looked up to move on to the veggie tray that Quinn forced herself to quit fantasizing about punching him for keeping her and food separate that she was hit with a flash of realization. That was not just any stupidly oversized green cap. "Kale!"
The boy looked over at her and the hat almost fell off of his head. His brown eyes, same as hers, lit up. "Quinny!" He paused, the excitement clearly wearing off and confusion setting in. "What are you doing here? Did you come up for the meet-and-greet?"
Quinn began to build her plate- even though she was thrilled to see her brother, she was pretty damn excited for food too. "No, I'm actually passing through on my way to Oreburgh," she said, grabbing a napkin.
"For what? Are you going to do some more service hours at the mine?" he asked. "Come on, let's sit down." The two took a seat at the cheap plastic tables just outside of the tent that faced the meet-and-greet, though mostly all they could see was the swarm of trainers surrounding them.
"No, I'm going to get my first badge," Quinn said with a big smile, taking a bite of watermelon.
Kale almost spit out the bite of potato salad he was eating. "Since when?"
"Since yesterday," Quinn said. "It's boring without you at home, so I thought I would do some traveling too."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Kale asked. "You could've met up with me and my friends."
Quinn waved her hand dismissively, almost spraying her brother with the cup of lemonade it was holding. "You don't want your big sister around. You've been traveling by yourself for awhile. It'd be like Mom being around."
"You are nothing like Mom," Kale said quickly, his mouth full of carrot stick. He swallowed quickly. "You totally could've come with us. You're a cool sister, and besides, you could cook, because we suck at that."
Quinn chuckled. "I appreciate it, buddy, but no thanks. I'm making it okay on my own. I've got Marky, Mom's magmar, and I caught my first pokemon yesterday! A shinx! His name is Benjamin."
"You took that thing with you?" Kale said, wrinkling his nose.
"Hey, Marky is not that thing!" Quinn protested. "He's my companion, and my friend!" Well, not so much friend as much as pokemon that completely disregarded her as both a trainer and person, but she still wouldn't let Kale make fun of Marky, even if he was her brother.
"He had a major attitude problem," Kale pointed out (which was a valid point). "Good luck trying to train that. I just hope your shinx is easy to raise, because you're going to need to really focus all of your energy on that magmar."
"We're going to be a great team," Quinn said proudly, a big smile on her face. Well, they would be a great team if she could get both of her pokemon to get along with her and each other.
"I'm surprised you're not with Colin," Kale said, raising an eyebrow. "Let me guess- he left you alone so he could focus on being the very best, like no one ever was."
"Something like that," Quinn admitted. "You know that's always been his dream, though."
"That's like, everyone's dream, Quinn, but I wouldn't ditch my friends because of it," Kale said, a frown on his face. "Totally not cool move on his part." It wasn't really like Quinn could argue with him, seeing as how she agreed. Her smile began to fade a bit, thinking of how she had been left in front of Professor Rowan's lab.
"Well if it isn't the Pointer siblings!" a voice behind them said. Quinn turned around, only to be faced with Grayson Barry himself, holding his own plate of food. "Mind if I sit with you two?"
"Of course not," Quinn said, scooting over on the bench to make room for her best friend's father and neighbor.
"Hi Mr. Barry," Kale said, the biggest smile on his face that Quinn had ever seen. He had always been totally in awe of their neighbor and had dedicated a fair amount of time to find excuses to go next door, in case Grayson happened to be there. He rarely was, as his Elite Four position demanded a lot of his time, but every once in awhile, Kale would get lucky during his trips to the neighbor's to borrow something.
"Hi there Kale," he said with a smile. "And hi Quinn! You haven't seen my son around, have you?"
"Not since we left Professor Rowan's lab yesterday in Sandgem," Quinn said, fighting the urge to add the words where he ditched me.
Grayson chuckled. "Colin has always been so impetuous. I'm sure he wanted to start training hard for Emily, since he has a large disadvantage with Crag."
"I guess he does, doesn't he?" Kale said with a small smirk.
"He'll find a way to get around it," Grayson said with a shrug. "Colin's a smart one, that's for sure. Just as you will, Quinn. You have that magmar that Ellen gave to your mother, don't you?"
"I do," Quinn said. She was wondering how Colin had a disadvantage with the outrageous attack and defense of Crag, and how she too had a disadvantage. Emily was pretty new to Oreburgh and Quinn couldn't even remember what she trained. However, she didn't want to seem stupid in front of one of the Elite Four, even if he was her best friend's father, so she decided to just play along. "But I also caught a shinx yesterday! He needs to be trained still, but I think he can beat Emily."
"Well if you're half as good at training as your mother is at contests, you have nothing to worry about," Grayson said with a warm smile. It was amazing to Quinn how much he and Colin looked alike when they smiled. Sure, Grayson's neatly kept blue-black hair was beginning to gray around the edges, but he was aging gracefully for sure. "How is your mother doing?"
"She's doing well," Kale cut in, his tone a bit short. He always got a bit snippy when their mother was the topic of conversation. "She and Kiera are traveling to Hoenn soon to compete in contests, if I remember correctly."
"I haven't talked to her in a while," Quinn said with a shrug.
"It's good to hear her coordinating is going well," Grayson said, his smile unwavering, though she could hear the contempt edge into his voice.
"Arceus, Grayson Barry!" a girl squealed behind them.
Grayson sighed. "Well, I guess it's time to get back to this thing. You two be good, alright? And be careful out there. You know you can always call me or Lea if you need anything."
"Thanks, Grayson," Quinn said, the smile returning to her face. Colin's father had always been so good to her and Kale, acting as a substitute father figure for them (Quinn especially) whenever he was in Twinleaf.
"And you tell Colin to call every now and then if you see him, which I'm sure you will. Even if he is impetuous, he can't stay away from you too long." He gave Quinn a pat on the shoulder as he got up to throw his plate away and deal with the throng of trainers. "See you kids."
As Grayson walked away, his fan club in tow, Kale stared after him with an amazed look on his face. "That guy is seriously the coolest. I can't believe he live next door to him."
Quinn chuckled. "Yeah, we got pretty lucky with our neighbors."
Kale stood up. "I think I'm going to try and cut through the crowd to meet the rest of the Elite Four. Wes said Ivy and Tony were talking about a friendly three-on-three. Wanna come with?"
"I think I'm going to make my way to Oreburgh, actually," Quinn said with a smile. She reached out and wrapped her little brother in a big hug, which she knew wasn't cool anymore, but he was still her little brother above all else. "Be good, and call me."
"Uh, you call me," Kale retorted, pulling away from the hug. "You didn't even tell me you were leaving home. And I want to know how your battle with Emily goes." So did Quinn, considering she couldn't remember for the life of her what Emily trained.
"Will do," Quinn said with a smile. She grabbed her bag on the bench and placed it on her back. "See ya, kiddo."
Stuffed with halfway decent (but completely free) food, Quinn's journey through the Jubilife East suburbs and then route 203 took a little longer than she thought. For one, because of the event, there were more trainers to battle than she expected, which was good for Benjamin and bad for her lack of patience. By the time she got to the Oreburgh Gate, she had a cramp in her side and she had come to the conclusion that she didn't even want to battle Emily today- for one thing, Benjamin still needed some more training before taking on a gym leader and for two, Quinn was exhausted and just wanted some ice cream and a nice comfy bed.
However, there were more trainers stuffed into the small cave that was the Oreburgh Gate than had probably ever been there at one time. Quinn, irate, pushed her way past trainers to see what was holding them up, earning herself more than a few dirty looks along the way. When she got towards the front of the pack of trainers, she saw the cause of the problem- two boys holding a battle. Quinn groaned in frustration. "Are you kidding me?" This battle had to take place in the already small Oreburgh Gate, right at the exit, so nobody could get out and they were prolonging ice cream? Not cool.
A boy next to her in a backwards orange cap chuckled. "It'll be over soon. That blonde guy is kicking some ass. The other kid is on his last pokemon"
The other kid had a munchlax out, which was no match for the strange anteater blowing flames that the blonde guy was wielding. Quinn knew the pokemon was from Unova, but she couldn't remember its name to save her life. Upon watching the anteater spit a torrent of flames at its opponent, Quinn looked over at the other kid, and realized that the other kid who was getting his ass kicked was Colin, who looked completely devastated.
The blonde guy didn't even look like a trainer to Quinn- he was too perfect. His blonde hair was perfectly tousled with gel, not wild and uncontrollable like Quinn's own (or even Colin's, which looked more disheveled than Quinn had ever seen it), there was no dirt or scratches anywhere on him, his navy blazer looked ironed and pressed (what trainer had time to iron?), there were no holes in his straight-leg jeans and no mud on his navy slip-on shoes. There wasn't even any food spilled on his plain white t-shirt under the blazer! As the munchlax fell, the features of his face twisted into a smirk.
Colin immediately went to the munchlax's side and whispered a few words of thanks to it before calling it back. "Come on kid, I don't have all day," the blonde guy said, tapping his foot on the ground.
"Yeah, hurry up!" called one girl from the back of the traffic jam. "With our luck, the Pokemon Center is going to be full before we get there."
Colin was scowling as he pulled out his wallet and handed the boy a few crisp bills. The blonde guy took them, the smirk never leaving his face, and placed the bills in the pocket of his blazer. He recalled the anteater without so much as a "good job" and then released another pokemon. A tall, lean and especially angry-looking gallade was released. "Teleport me back to Sunyshore, please and thank you." And with a pop!, he was gone, leaving Colin standing there with a befuddled look on his face.
While everyone in the background was talking about how cool the blonde guy's pokemon were or what a good trainer he was, Quinn went straight to Colin and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey best friend."
"That was rigged," Colin hissed, whipping his head to face her. "He knew I was just a beginning trainer. He wouldn't leave me alone without a battle."
"Apparently someone either needed an ego boost or a few measly bucks," Quinn said. "That's horrible, though. What kind of jerk gets his ego boost from beating down a new trainer? I mean, he obviously has at least four badges since he has a pokemon from Unova."
"Well I've got my first badge already. I'll catch up to him and when I do, I'm going to beat him as badly as he just did me," Colin declared. "Seriously, what an asshole."
"You beat Emily?" Quinn asked. Grayson had said Colin had a distinct disadvantage.
"Yeah, with Mamie… That's my munchlax," he said, a proud smile creeping onto his face. "She's going to be super tough."
Quinn put her arm around Colin's shoulder. "Do you want to go get ice cream?"
"Well, I was going to start on my way to Eterna…" Colin said, hesitating. "But actually, ice cream sounds awesome."
"Ice cream is always awesome," Quinn said with a smile. "Let's go."
Author's Note (5/26/13): And we are well off into the journey of Quinn Petunia Pointer! Thank you SO much to everyone who has read and reviewed so far- I am so overwhelmed (again, in the best possible way) by the response- I definitely wasn't expecting it. And thanks to everyone who submitted OC's! Again, I was blown away by the sheer volume of submissions I got- 16! And seeing as how I can't fit 16 trainers in here, I unfortunately can't put them all in this story. As of right now, the posting of chapter 2, submissions are CLOSED. I will have answers on which submissions I'm using by next Sunday, when chapter 3 is posted. :)
A huge thank you, per usual, to my friend and beta Noteleks. Without being able to rant about story ideas, send double and triple messages trying to figure out characters and teams and getting feedback on each chapter, as well as each character, each outline and the sociological and criminological underpinnings of it all, I doubt I would have the motivation (nor the ability) to keep writing amongst my other million real-life commitments. So thanks, as always. :)
See you next week all! And thanks again for reading! I am happy to hear any feedback, negative or positive. :)
~DAT