Cynthia's POV

"So, Zeke, which are you going to choose?" I asked my little brother with a smile.

"Uh... Turtwig! That way it'll be easy to beat your water-type Psyduck." He smiled mischievously. "I'm pretty sure Psyduck doesn't have the psychic abilities he's supposed to have!"

"You shouldn't choose depending on this," I said.

"You're just saying that because you're afraid I'm gonna be stronger than you."

I sighed.

He smiled absentmindedly. "You know, Cynthia, I don't really care which pokémon I get. It could even be a geodude. It's like... you know, parents don't get to choose their children, and they'll love them anyway."

"So... Turtwig?"

"Yes!"

"Good choice," Rowan said. "Cynthia, could you take this with you?" He showed me a red electronic object. "This is a Pokédex. You'll find data about many pokémons. But I need you to add some more data about all the pokémons you meet, and take some pictures."

"I'll do that."

He gave me the Pokédex and smiled. "How's Carolina?"

My grandmother was an old friend of his. "She's fine."

"Good."

He wished us good luck, and we left the lab.

"So, we're supposed to go to Oreburgh City," I said as I checked the map.

"Could we go to Twinleaf Town first?" Zeke asked.

"Why so? There's no Gym. There's not even a Pokémon Center, and on top of that, the only pokémons we'll find are bidoofs and starlys."

"Well, we won't be able to go there anymore," he explained as he looked down at his feet. "We used to go to Twinleaf during the vacation, and swim in the lake, remember? I'm going to miss that."

I sighed. "Fine, if you want."

He grinned and hugged me. As we headed west, I noticed the boy from last night, Cyrus, staring at us.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Twinleaf."

"What's the point?"

I shrugged.

He looked away. "Good luck," he said. He left, most likely heading to Jubilife City.

We walked down the Route 201.

"Look, Cynthia, look! A bidoof! Can I catch it?"

Zeke was always very enthusiastic. Which was quite normal, since he was seven, but at that time, enthusiasm wasn't always a good thing. "If you want," I said.

"Turtwig, go!" he tossed his pokéball. "Use Tackle!"

The startled bidoof cowered and tried to run away, but got hit by the turtwig's head, and fell down. Zeke's eyes widened. "It... It's already hurt," Zeke stuttered.

"This is normal, Zeke. Why don't you catch it? That way you can heal it."

Zeke nodded and tossed a pokéball. It opened and drew the bidoof inside. After shaking for a few seconds, it stilled.

"Congratulation. You have a bidoof."

We arrived to Twinleaf Town. Zeke ran to the pond and sat on a bench near it. An old man was selling music boxes. One of them was playing Twinleaf's hymn. Zeke was humming, mouthing the words to the song. When it ended, he smiled sadly, the way he always did when he heard the song. I wondered why. It was a hopeful song, and Zeke had always believed in the power of hopes and dreams.

"Do you think Kanto and Unova will make peace soon?" he asked.

"I don't know. Politics. You know, grown-ups stuff."

"If we took care of that, no one would die," he said.

"I know."

"Then why don't we?"

"I don't know. You can't ask me the same questions you ask Mom. I don't know the answers for them."

"Neither does she. She says we should believe in the lake guardians, and that's all. There's one at the Lake Verity. Why don't we seek it?"

"Maybe it doesn't want to be sought." I shrugged.

"But it could save us!"

"Zeke. The point of this trip is for us to become Trainers. You didn't have to come, remember? You're only seven. You might know more about pokémons than most of the grown-ups, but you're still a kid."

"So are you!"

"Not in the League's opinion. Now let's go. We have to leave now if we want to get to Bewilder Forest by tomorrow."

"Fine," he mumbled. And off we went.


Cyrus' POV

I walked down the road, and as I did, I talked to Eevee.

(So, which pokémon do you think should join us?)

(You know I'm not so happy about that.)

(How about a shinks and a starly? I already know a lot about them.)

(Maybe.)

We kept walking, until a shinks appeared. "This is our chance," I told Eevee. The shinks stood staring at us, its muscle tense. "Come on, he's not that intimidating," I told Eevee.

The shinks surged at Eevee and attempted to bite him. Eevee jumped backwards and bared his teeth.

(Tackle, Eevee.)

He did as I told him, and slammed the shinks against a tree. The shinks growled. It obviously still wanted to fight, but one of his paws were bleeding. He attacked Eevee anyway, and clawed him. Eevee bit the shinks, and stepped away from it. I tossed a pokéball at it. the pokéball imprisoned it. Eevee came to me.

(Do you think he'll hate you?), Eevee asked.

I shrugged. (Let's go. I hope we can arrive to Jubilife City by tomorrow. Shinks needs to be healed.)

We walked for about two hours - during which we managed to catch a starly and failed to catch a bidoof - and arrived to Bewilder Forest. "We should be careful," I said to Eevee. "There are stantlers in here."

Bewilder forest was a beautiful place, especially now, in early summer. We could hear criketots and beedrills. I hoped we wouldn't meet any stantler or ekans. I hated ekans, and stantlers were extremely dangerous. Extremely tasteful - so I'd heard - but extremely dangerous. Eevee seemed to love being in danger, but I hated that. I had always hated that. And why take risks when there was nothing to gain? It wasn't like Eevee was going to kill a stantler so that I could cook it anyway.

(Are you sure about?) he asked mischievously. (I'm starving.)

(I have some pokémon food.) I handed it to him. I also took out a sandwich and ate it. I hoped we wouldn't stay too long in Bewilder forest.

Suddenly, a stantler appeared.

"Shit."

(Don't worry, I got this,) Eevee said.

(Don't look into her eyes,) I said. (I'll guide you.)

The stantler tackled Eevee, who fell down, but quickly recovered. He bit the stantler and scratched him three times. The stantler went mad and attempted to step on Eevee's head.

(Eevee, be careful!)

He dodged the attack, and looked at the stantler defiantly.

(He's going to use Hypnosis!) I mentally screamed to Eevee.

The stantler did as I predicted, and Eevee dozed off. What was I going to do know?

I picked up, a rock and threw it at stantler's head. It knocked her out cold. I ran to Eevee, and tried to wake him up.

(Come on, Eevee.)

But he wouldn't. I decided to carry him and run out of this forest as fast as I could.

Fortunately, this worked out, and I managed to leave the forest before it was too dark. I sat down against a tree and fell asleep.


I woke up at dawn, because Eevee was tugging at my arm. I yawned and asked him, "What's the matter?" I got up and stretched.

(There's a woman coming, and she's riding a rapidash.)

I saw her, striding towards us.

(She's anxious,) Eevee pointed out. It had always been easier for him to sense such things. (You can talk to her, I don't think she's an enemy.)

"What's wrong?" I called out to her. She pulled on the reins and the rapidash halted.

"There's a battle taking place in Oreburgh. The Unovans were able to invade the Underground," she explained. "I'm supposed to pass this message on to Prof Rowan. And I'm not quite sure I'm supposed to be telling you. But you look like you're from Sinnoh. Snowpoint, maybe? I have to get going. Be careful!" She rode away.

I had never met such a chatty person. She was on an extremely important mission, and yet, she still took the time to talk to me. Was there anything suspicious about that? She had looked and sounded like she was from Sinnoh, most probably Solaceon Town. And her thinking me to be from Snowpoint was probably due to the fact that I looked more like my mother than my father, and that my mother was from Snowpoint City.

(What are we going to do?) Eevee asked.

I took out my map. (We're going to Jubilife city in order to learn more about that.)

Jubilife was a big city, but there was no Gym Leader to protect it. And Floarama would be of no help. How the hell had the Unovians entered the Underground anyway?

(Probably using digletts,) Eevee answered.

(There are no digletts in Unova.)

We walked for about an hour and finally arrived in Jubilife city. I was struck by how silent and empty it was. There were very few people outside, and most of the stores were closed.

(I'm starving,) Eevee complained.

(I know. I think we should go to the Pokémon Center right away.)

I spotted an old man sitting on a bench, and walked towards him. I repeated several times in my head what I was going to say, as I always did before asking something to a stranger. "Excuse me, sir? Could you show me the way to the Pokémon Center, please?"

He smiled. "I'll go there with you, if you don't mind. Where are you from, kid?"

I was not sure what to answer. I was always very suspicious of stranger, and very rarely dared talking to people who weren't very old. "I'm from Sunyshore, but I've been traveling from Sandgem Town."

"So you're one of those young drafted trainers, eh?"

I nodded.

He sighed and shook his head. "Can't the League see what's going on? We're sending our children to their death."

(Very reassuring,) Eevee pointed out.

I shrugged. We arrived in front of a building that had a sign with a pokéball drawn on it.

"Here we are," the old man said. "The PokéCenter."

We entered the building. There were tables and chairs, and people eating together. A nurse with pink hair was standing behind a counter. I went to her, while the old man went to sit at a table. She kept adjusting her clothes, tapping her fingers against the counter, checking the time. Another nervous person. "What can I do for you?" she asked in a nervous tone.

I took out the pokéballs containing Shinks and Starly and asked her if she could heal them. I handed the pokéballs to her and she gave them to her chansey. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Cyrus."

"OK. I'll call you when we're done. Until then I think you should stay here and get some rest, maybe eat something. You look exhausted."

And I was. I nodded, and headed to one of the tables. The old man came to me and we sat down next to a group of people who were eating together, in order to listen to their conversation and find out more about what was going on in Oreburgh City.

"Apparently they came with ground-type and water-type pokémon. Their spies had found out about the underground. Eterna's leaf-type unit is helping Oreburgh. Part of it is traveling through the underground to kill the Unovians. The rest of them is helping Byron in Oreburgh."

"It seems like we are going to win this battle."

"Yeah, but how much did Unova find out about Sinnoh without us being aware of it?"

"We can't know!"

"That's what's scary."

"Really? Aren't you afraid they're gonna attack Jubilife?"

"Oreburgh and Eterna are going to win this battle."

"So, no need to worry?"

"Exactly."

"What we should worry about is the food shortage."

"Yeah."

Apparently, a lot was going that I hadn't known about. Oreburgh was my next destination. How safe would it be when I got there?

(Safe enough,) Eevee reassured me. It was comforting to have him near me. (I'm starving,) he complained.

I walked to the counter where an old woman was selling soup and pokémon food, and bought two bowls of soup, and a pack of pokémon food, that I gave to Eevee. I gave a bowl of soup to the old man. He was astounded. "You don't need to do that. I can take care of myself well enough. Food is expensive these days, kid, you can't just go around offering soup to old geezers like me. Drink both bowls. One bowl isn't enough!"

I shrugged. I had done that out of reflex. Not that I cared about this old man. I drank the soup - both bowls - and still felt hungry. Eevee looked full. I hoped I wouldn't be short on cash too soon. I would need money to buy potions and stuff like that. I could buy some at the black market, but I wasn't quite sure it was a good idea.

The nurse game my shinks and my starly back. I was exhausted. She told me that luckily, there was an empty bed. I went to the dormitory and put my backpack under my temporary bed. I lied in the bed (which was very warm and comfortable by the way), with Eevee next to me, and soon fell asleep.

I woke up to a child's piercing scream.

A/N: I hope you're enjoying the story :) please review!