After about a half hour of walking, I reached a small house in the woods. The mailbox, rusted shut, read M . Pok m n – the other letters had faded away. "I guess this is the place," I muttered.

I walked up to the house and knocked. "The door's open!" I heard from within, so I turned the knob and stepped inside.

It wasn't a very large house – there was a kitchen to my right and a sitting area in the middle of the house. A set of stairs in the back led upwards, and a fire burned merrily in the fireplace.

Two old men were sitting in the living room - one aged and bent over, the other more sprightly, with a white lab coat. "Hello?" I said questioningly.

The one in the lab coat stepped up to me and grabbed my chin, twisting my face back and forth. "You look familiar…" he said. "Hm… well, are you here to collect the egg for Professor Elm?"

I blinked. "Oh… yes."

He nodded. "I'm Professor Oak," he introduced himself. "I live in Kanto, west of here. I'm a specialist in pokemon anatomy."

"I think I've heard Professor Elm mention you," I said. "Didn't you teach him everything he knows?"

"Some of it," Oak admitted. "He's gone on to make quite a name for himself in the field of pokemon evolution. In any case, I was just here visiting my friend Mr. Pokemon." The other old man gave a cheery wave.

Oak smiled. "Well, I'll let you collect the egg and be on your way, then," he said. "Although…"

"Yes?"

"How would you like to do a little interning?" Oak invited me. "I'm always looking for more talented young fellows to help me collect information." He held out a small red device, about the size of a trainer card. "This… is a Pokédex."

"What's a Pokédex?" I asked, taking it. There was a little black camera-like device on the back of it, and I found that it flipped open to display a small screen.

"It's a device that automatically scans pokemon and uploads information on them to my system." Oak explained. "By distributing them, we can find out more about pokemon – from their habitats to their average sizes to their capabilities."

I nodded. "Okay. I can understand why you'd want to get these out to people. But why me?"

Oak shrugged. "I don't have anyone in Johto yet, but I know that the indigenous pokemon here are a little different than the ones in Kanto. Professor Elm obviously trusts you, but you have the look of a man off to see the world. I always prefer travelers to the ones who just stay in one place. More information that way."

"Okay." I slipped the Pokédex into my pocket. "Is there something I have to do when I meet a pokemon?"

Oak shook his head. "It senses the psychic energy all pokemon have and uses that to scan them. You can leave it entirely in your pocket. Just be sure to pull it out if it dings."

I nodded. "Okay. Now then. Egg?"

Oak pointed to where a large, speckled egg sat in a cabinet. "Right over there. You might want to put it in a pokeball, though."

I pulled one out and tapped it against the egg, sucking it into the red sphere. That left me with five, since Cindy's ball had been provided by Elm. "I'll be on my way, then," I said, nodding to the pair.

"Meet lots of pokemon!" Oak ordered me.

"Have fun, that's the important thing," said Mr. Pokemon.

I waved, and began walking back to New Bark Town.

Before long, I arrived at Cherrygrove City. I passed through quickly, stopping off at the healing center to make sure that the egg was faring okay in its pokeball and to have dinner. I checked the time, and saw that it was about 7:00. I still had time to make it back to New Bark before I would really need to sleep. I'd just stay the night before heading out again.

But as I left Cherrygrove, I ran into someone. Literally, with a smack. I had been looking at my map, and he must have been doing something similar.

"Sorry!" I said, rubbing my forehead. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he snapped, pushing me back.

I squinted at him. "Hey, I've seen you before. Aren't you the guy who was looking into the Lab?"

"Aren't the guy who got that stupid cyndaquil?" the red-haired guy snapped.

"Hey!" I said as Cindy bristled.

"My pokemon is much better than that dumb rodent," red-hair said smugly.

"Cindy could stomp all over whatever you've got!" I said angrily. "What is it, a magicarp?"

"Way better," sneered red-hair. "Go, totodile!" He tossed out a pokeball, and the same playful little totodile from Elm's lab popped out.

"Come on, Cindy," I said, and she hopped down from my shoulder. "You can take him!"

"Standard League rules?" I asked coldly as Cindy and totodile waved to each other.

"No items," red-hair said.

"Fine." I glanced at totodile and made a guess at what moves it might have. Totodile couldn't be very strong yet, so wouldn't have much. Probably Bubble or Water Gun, Bite, and not much else. I would have to watch out for the water-type move, and I would have to use Tackle instead of Ember. Totodile's scales were thick on its back, and would resist the fire. As Ember was ranged, it would easily be able to turn and present the thick scales before the flames reached it.

"Ready," said red-hair.

"Three…" we said in unison. "Two… one…

"Smokescreen!" I snapped as soon as we finished the countdown. Cindy immediately whirled and sprayed a thick cloud of smoke into totodile's eyes. It stumbled back, blinking, and tried to obey its master by spouting a powerful stream of water at Cindy, but missed due to the smoke.

I grinned. It was the next round, and I had the advantage. "Three… two… one… Tackle!" Cindy slammed bodily into totodile, knocking it back. She quickly scampered out of range as it tried to bite her. "Missed again!"

"Shut up!" yelled red-hair. "Three… two… one… Water Gun!"

"Tackle!"

Cindy slammed into the totodile again, but this time its water gun caught her, sending her tumbling across the road. "No!" I rushed over, pulling out a potion, but was stopped by red-hairs sneering voice.

"No items, remember? Three… two… one…"

"Tackle!" I snapped again, and Cindy bravely slammed into totodile, who growled at her before spouting more water. She dodged again, but I knew it was only a matter of time before she was hit again. And she couldn't take another hit like that.

"Three…"

I frantically wracked my brains, trying to think through the League rules to find a loophole. I couldn't heal her – we were battling without items.

"Two…"

I couldn't use the same kind of strategy as I had with the ratata. Both pokemon had to start acting at the same moment, and Cindy was faster than totodile. It would see her stepping out of the smokescreen, there was no way it wouldn't.

"One…"

I saw it.

"Cindy!" I called. "Tackle low!" Thank Arceus, she understood and the totodile didn't. Cindy tackled the ground, deliberately missing, and skidded across the dirt road underneath the watergun. And now she was right underneath the totodile for the next round.

"Three… two… one…" I saw the gleam of triumph in red-hair's eyes. He had no idea what was coming.

"Ember!" I snapped. Cindy tensed and released a powerful blast of fire, right at the soft underbelly of the totodile. It wasn't resistant to fire I there, I saw. The water gun went high as it jerked back in pain. One more hit would finish it off. "Three… two… one…

"Tackle." The totodile hit the ground with a thud, followed by an electronic buzz as its pokeball automatically recalled it.

"You…" the redhead's face was as red as his hair.

Cindy scampered back to me and I gave her a potion. "I what?" I said mildly. "Beat you?"

"Impossible," red-hair tried to say. "You're a weakling!"

"I'm not the one who has to pay the fine," I observed. "Hand it over. Half your credits. You know the standard League rules."

Red-hair pulled his trainer card out, as did I, and tapped the red minus on the corner of his when I tapped a green plus on mine. They would sense each other and his would send over the right amount of credits automatically.

As red-hair stomped away, I realized that he hadn't put away his trainer card completely – it had fallen from his pocket. "Hey, asshole!" I called, bending over and picking it up. "You dropped something!"

"Give me that!" he said with a sneer, stalking back to snatch his card from my hand.

"I can understand why you might want to lose it," I said understandingly. "I mean, if my name was-"

"Shut up!"

I laughed, and began walking again. I wanted to be done with this.