Turns out I'm really stuck here – I don't know why I'm still surprised. I guess I assumed I'd appear back home since my adventure's officially started, and my dreams always cut short at the good parts. I knew I was still in Sinnoh practically from the moment I woke up – Kira was kneading my stomach (with his CLAWS) and Credere had found a comfortable sleeping spot in my head.

I'd had to slip out from under my Cranidos to stand up, and apparently Kira had dug his claws in my t-shirt pretty well; regardless of any jerking he did, he was stuck hanging from my midsection like a whimpering ragdoll. I sat back down, carefully taking his claws out of my clothes, and as soon as he was off he ran to the other side of the room, now very wary of the dangers of my t-shirt.

The rest of the morning I don't clearly remember; I just spotted the time, panicked, and was out the door of the Pokecenter with my hoodie only half-on. The rest of Route 202 passed surprisingly quickly, seeing as the local Trainers weren't yet out to weigh me down.

Before I knew it, I was in Jubilife City, and that place woke me right up. The lights and activity of the place, even at this early-ish hour, were much more vibrant than they'd been pictured to be in the game. Both Credere and Kira seemed intimidated by the place, and Kira somehow managed to get on top of my backpack and in my hair for cover from the place. Credere was slightly more brave, growling at everything – from about an inch behind my legs.

It took me longer than I thought to find the Trainer School, this being Sinnoh's largest city and all. I'd decided to stop here mainly for battle experience, seeing as this was a school for Trainers; clearly it would have some pupils wanting to battle.

When I went in, though, I met someone unexpected. Lucas was up at the blackboard, scribbling the information down on a notepad. I walked up quietly behind him (nope, not creeper-ish at all, not me) and looked at what he was writing down.

'Antidotes heal poisoning, Pecha berries have the same effect. Paralyze Heal cures paralysis, Cheri berries have same effect. Pokemon gain experience from battling other Pokemon (more experience is gained through battling other Trainers).'

It went on like that for a bit, until I eventually worked up the nerve to talk. "Uh, you're Lucas, right?" The poor kid jumped half out of his skin, and he whipped to face me.

"S-sorry, didn't mean to scare you there..." I apologized guiltily. He offered a spooked smile. "It's all right. How would you know my name, anyways?"

"I met the Professor. He gave me a Pokemon and a Pokedex, so I figured I'd get acquainted with the other local DexHolders. I've already met Barry, but I never got the chance to say hello to you or Dawn."

Lucas's smile mellowed into a real one. "Oh, I didn't know there was another person working on the Pokedex! Welcome to the crew! What's your name, anyways?"

"Hannah," I answered. "I'm probably only working on it because of Barry. I think he would've flipped out if I only got a Pokemon and no 'dex." I waved to Credere, who was still cringing behind my legs. "Meet Credere, my starter Pokemon."

Lucas's eyebrows shot up. "He gave you that one? For real?"

"Uh, yeah...is there something bad about that...?"

"No, not exactly, but that little guy was at least as important to our research as the rest of our starters."

"Piplup, Turtwig, and Chimchar, right? You've got Chimchar?"

"How'd you know?" Lucas asked, looking genuinely confused. I mentally slapped myself – I had no logical reason for knowing this...

"Barry had Turtwig, and he told me what you guys had," I replied, the lie flowing a little too easily from my mouth. Lucas seemed to consider this for a moment, but bought in. "Sounds like him. He talks a little too much, you know?"

"You're telling me," I snickered. "The kid dragged me around Sandgem, giving me the rundown on how absolutely EVERYTHING worked." Lucas just laughed.

"Well, either way, take good care of that Cranidos. He was a hassle at the lab, but he seems to have taken to you. You seem like a good Trainer, at least." Lucas said, adjusting his hat. "But since we're both here and all, how about a battle? A practice match, more or less. I'd like to see how well you've trained Crani-...Credere, I mean."

I nodded. "Uh, sure. This'll be my first Trainer battle, but I think I can do okay." My first Trainer battle in real life, I mentally corrected myself. But far from my first. "Let's try and keep this place from getting destroyed."

"Actually, let's take this outside," Lucas said, sounding a little nervous. "Now that you brought that up, I'm not entirely sure my Pokemon can...you know, NOT trash this place." Long story short, the two of us wound up just outside the school, with Credere against his Chimchar.

It was with mild annoyance that I realized Credere had no Rock type moves at the moment, preventing him from totally overkilling that Chimchar. However, two Headbutts did the job just as well. Lucas seemed fairly surprised by this, and sent out an Abra to replace the Chimchar. Credere and I swapped incredulous looks. "Uh, Lucas, let's call it quits now. Abra doesn't learn any attack moves until it evolves at Level 16, unless you have TMs it can learn of something..."

Lucas called back his Abra back almost gratefully. "Really? Where'd you learn that?" I shrugged. "Spent most of my life learning about Pokemon. You'd be surprised what I know." Lucas nodded almost respectfully to me. "Cool. Do you know much about Type matchups?"

"Only every possible matchup for every single Pokemon," I said, realizing how conceited I sounded two seconds after I spoke. The other Trainer raised an eyebrow. "Really? What's the weak Type matchups for all the DexHolders' Pokemon?"

"Well, you have Chimchar, so you'll be weak to Dawn's Piplup. She is, in turn, weak to Barry and his Turtwig, and you have an advantage over him with Chimchar. I'm weak to both Dawn and Barry right now, and technically I have an advantage over you, if Credere knew any Rock type moves, but when your Chimchar evolves into Monferno, it'll be half Fighting type and the advantage will belong to you." I rattled off.

Both of Lucas's eyebrows shot up, giving him an almost adorable look of shock. "Okay, nice. You got me. I thought you were just bragging."

"Really? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound like that. I thought that would happen..." I apologized, facepalming. "I'm not usually like that."

Lucas shrugged. "No biggie. Well, I should probably go heal my Pokemon. It was cool meeting you; maybe we can battles again later," he suggested cheerfully. I nodded, relieved that my first battle had gone so well. "Sounds like a plan. See ya around."

We split paths, and only later did it occur to me that this was a regular occurrence in the Pokemon world; meet, battle, wave, leave. I wasn't sure if I could get used to or even vaguely comfortable with that, coming from a different sort of home and all.

I had been walking around for only about ten minutes after the battle when I was jumped by none other than the Poketch guy. "Oh? OH? You call yourself a Trainer, yet you have no Poketch?" All of a sudden I understood the whole creep factor of this guy, and I was inching away the whole time he spoke.

After he finished, I made off for the clowns; I mean, creepy as this guy was, a Poketch could really help me out. Naturally I got all the questions right (seeing as I've answered them eighty-something times...) and I made my way back to the Poketch man.

He eagerly counted my coupons with his own Poketch, which I considered pointless, and he handed me a brand-spanking-new Poketch of my own. Its strap was magnetic, apparently – I started to put it on and the two ends snapped together instantly. Kira finally poked out from behind my hair to observe my new contraption, lashing out a paw at it.

"Kira, no. You cannot kill the Poketch," I told him, walking off. I tried to go to the GTS before being sharply reminded that I couldn't without a badge. Mixed emotions resulted; Roark was easily my favorite Gym Leader, even though my top region was Unova. Sure, it would be pretty awesome to meet the guy, but I'd probably screw up something or another and wind up looking like a complete retard. The Gym would probably be a good place to get advice on how to best train Rock types, too, seeing as I'd never really worked with them in-game. And then there was the looming concept that I could be a Nuzlocker following me like some deadly shadow. All in all, I was only half-looking forward to getting to Oreburgh City.

Nothing too exciting happened for the rest of the day; mostly I explored Jubilife, getting acquainted with the layout of the city for return visits, and I caught every Pokemon I could find in the nearby areas (Bidoof, Kricketot, Abra, and Starly). I stored them in the PC for the time being, not really planning to use them on my team at the moment. I mean, if I had the Pokedex, I might as well do all I could to fill it. Other than that, I have nothing left to say about today's events.

Hannah, out.