The dawn came cheerfully, bringing rays of happy sunlight streaming into Alina and Lyra's room. Alina turned over sleepily, and then cracked her eyes to look at the alarm clock on the bedside table. She groaned. It was seven o'clock in the morning.

"Eww," she muttered, then stretched her arms and yawned.

Lyra stirred in the bed beside Alina.

"What time is it?" she asked without opening her eyes.

Alina rubbed her eyes and sat up. "Seven," she mumbled, the bright light from window blinding her early-morning eyes.

Lyra groaned and turned over. "Yuck."

Alina sniffed. "That's what I said."

They got ready sluggishly, each taking their time in the shower, and each dragging their feet as they got dressed and grabbed their clean clothes from the little compartment were they were sent after the chansey washed them.

When they finally checked out of the Pokémon Center, they were both feeling much peppier and definitely more awake.

Lyra had all of her pokémon out, with Cyndaquil resting on her shoulder, Litwick bouncing along in the air, and Whimsicott brushing the treetops above. Alina was carrying Bellossom, who was humming a little tune to herself. It was a good morning.

The events of the previous day were still fresh in Alina's mind, though, and every once and a while, she turned her eyes up to the sky to make sure that Whimsicott was still there. She saw Lyra do the same too.

The road to Violet City was a long one, full of trainers and pokémon as well as Dark Cave. Alina tried to contain her excitement at the fact that she was actually seeing the world. After years of barely being allowed to shop at the supermarket, she was actually going on a journey with her very own pokémon.

The first trainer they encountered was a little boy with a rattata. Alina wasn't huge into battling, so she let Lyra beat him. Litwick was more than match for the newbie.

The start of the route consisted of many more battles like the first. But once they started to get deeper into the wildlife and untamed wilderness, stronger and stronger trainers started to appear.

Finally, there was a Lass who challenged Alina. She had a hoothoot by her side, and a fiery expression in her eyes.

"I challenge you to a pokémon battle, according to the rules set out by the Pokémon League!" The girl pointed her finger at Alina, ignoring Lyra.

Alina smiled and raised her hands. "Oh, I'm not a trainer. I'm a breeder. If you want to battle, Lyra's pretty good." She pointed to Lyra, who plucked Cyndaquil up, placing him on her head and smiling.

The Lass barely glanced at Lyra before turning her gaze back on Alina. "I said, I challenge YOU. You have a pokémon, right?"

Alina nodded nervously.

The Lass smiled triumphantly. "So then, according to the rules set out by the Pokémon League, you MUST accept my challenge!"

Alina sighed and looked over at Lyra, who shrugged and gave a 'sorry, but you have to' look back.

Alina sighed and set Bellossom down on the ground. "Okay."

She supposed that it would be good practice, since she would have to know how battles worked in order to breed her pokémon right. She already knew all of Bellossom's attacks since she had spent her whole life memorizing pokémon facts, but she was worried that she wouldn't be able to put the theory into action.

The Lass fist pumped in triumph. "Finally! A real battle!" She narrowed her eyes and glared at Alina. "I can't wait to crush you like a bug pokémon."

Alina took a step back. "Umm, okay." She drew in a deep breath and stepped back forward. "One on one," she said.

The Lass flipped her hair cockily. "Whatever. I'll still beat you. Can your friend referee?"

"Yeah, I will," Lyra said, taking up her position in the middle of the battlefield. "Are both sides ready? Then let the battle begin!"

"Go, Scyther!" the Lass called out.

The green mantis appeared in a burst of white light, slashing its scythes intimidatingly.

Rule one of being a pokémon breeder: your breeded pokémon must be able to win battles with a type disadvantage, Alina remembered, recalling the guidelines from a book she had read on Pokémon breeding. She flashed a reassuring smile at Bellossom and ordered her into battle. "Teeter Dance, into Sunny Day!" Rule Two of being a pokémon breeder: breed your pokémon with beneficial auxiliary moves as well as powerful attacks to compliment the set-ups.

Bellossom launched into a confusing dance of spins and hops. Scyther watched the flower pokémon with a sort of fascination. Alina could see the confusion setting in.

As soon as Bellossom stopped dancing, she started a very different, strange sort of dance.

"What is she doing?" Lyra asked, staring at the little pokémon who seemed to be performing a strange tribal dance.

Alina shook her head. "I have no idea. Sunny Day, I guess?"

The Lass' eyes bulged. "THIS IS MY CHANCE TO SHINE LIKE THE BLAZING SUN." She sprayed a quick Full Heal on her pokémon, then pointed straight at Bellossom. "SCYTHER, SLASH!"

The mantis leapt forward, hissing menacingly.

Ignoring the Lass' odd cry, Alina called Bellossom in to action. "Bellossom! Lucky Chant!"

Fortunately, the tiny hula dancer stopped dancing strangely and started singing a melodic tune. The attack hit, but thanks to the Lucky Chant, the damage was minimal.

"Alina! The sun!" Lyra called out, gazing up at the sky in amazement.

Alina looked up, and to her utter astonishment, the gloomy, overcast clouds were breaking up and dissolving. The sun, which had not been visible at all before, now shone in the sky like a beacon.

Alina's mouth formed a perfect O. "How...?" Her question hung in midair.

Normally, Sunny Day created a large ball of light that hung over the battlefield and simulated bright sunlight, sort of like Rain Dance, which formed a stormy cloud above the field. But this…this was something that Alina had never seen before. A pokémon summoning the sun? Sure, there were myths of pokémon ending a drought or a snowstorm, but they had never been proven. A pokémon actually changing the weather in a split second was absolutely unheard of.

"I think I know why Jenna wanted my Bellossom, Lyra," Alina muttered, still gaping at the sky. The sun was shining and the pidgey's were chirping like nothing had happened.

Lyra nodded wordlessly. It made sense.

The Lass gaped. "How did you do that?!" she exclaimed. Then her face grew serious, and she shuffled up to Alina's side. "Teach me your ways."

Alina edged away from her. "Hey, I don't even know what just happened. Let's just get on with the battle."

The Lass straightened up and nodded. "Then you can teach me your ways after I defeat you!"

Lyra snickered on the sidelines. Alina kind of agreed. This girl was a little crazy.

"Bellossom, Solarbeam!" she ordered.

"Scyther! Use Bug Bite!"

Bellossom gathered a ball of pure white energy above her, then screamed as it shot towards Scyther in a powerful beam.

The scyther got hit full on by the beam. "Scyyyy!" it cried, but it got up quickly, not fazed much, and leaped forward to complete its attack.

Alina grit her teeth as she realized that Solarbeam wasn't very effective. She frantically tried to think of a move to counter Bug Bite, but the mantis pokémon was too fast. Bellossom cried out as the attack ripped into her frail body.

"Bellossom!" Alina yelled as the pokémon suddenly burst into dozens of red lights and flew back to its pokéball. She stood for a moment, not believing that the battle had ended in one move from the opponent. "But…" She didn't finish her sentence.

Lyra raised the hand that was closest to the Lass. "And the winner of this battle is the challenger." As soon as she said that, she ran over to Alina. "Hey girl. It's okay. We all lose sometimes."

"But I did everything the handbooks told me too. I even had a fully evolved pokémon with crazy Sunny Day powers. How did I lose?"

Lyra hugged her friend. "You can only prevent type advantages to an extent. Eventually, they win out. It can't be helped. But you fought really well! You would have beaten me."

Alina knew that wasn't true, but she appreciated Lyra's encouragement. Stop being a baby Alina. Everyone loses sometimes and it was your very first battle. Don't go crying over everyone because you can't win all the time. Alina shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. It was best just to move on. That's what she had been doing her whole life: moving forward, and never looking back.


They stopped midday at Dark Cave, laying out a blanket and resting for a while just inside the cave's gaping mouth. Lyra let Litwick and Cyndaquil out of their pokéballs to play with Whimsicott and Bellossom as she and Alina ate.

Occasionally, they would hear the cries of a wild wobbuffet or dunsparce, prompting Cyndaquil to squeal and jump into Lyra's arms. After everyone had had their fair share of food, they packed up and started again down Route 31.

After a long time of walking without seeing anyone else, they happened upon a man lying in the middle of the road, dead asleep.

Alina looked at Lyra. "What should we do? He's blocking the whole road."

Lyra shrugged. They stood in silence for a moment, then Whimsicott came floating down from the treetops, and came to a light and silent rest on the man's pudgy belly.

"WAHHHH!"

The sleeping man suddenly woke up and screamed out, flying up from where he had been lying down and lashing out blindly. "GET AWAY! AHHH!"

Whimsicott gave a little yelp and floated back up to the sky, startled away.

Lyra and Alina, however, were thrown in two different directions by the man's wild punches. Lyra flew over and slammed into a tree, while Alina splashed into a pond that was bordering the path.

The man stopped for a moment when he heard the girl's yells.

"What?! Who?! Huh?! What happened?! Who are you?! Aghh!" he cried out, confusion and drowsiness very evident on his face.

Lyra sat up and groaned, rubbing her head. "Watch it!" she scolded the man. Then she realized that a pokémon was sitting on her lap, staring angrily up at her.

"Aipom!"

Alina pulled herself over the pond's edge "Seriously?! Now I'm all wet!" she yelled at the man.

"Poliwag!"

The two girls stared at the two angry pokémon that had appeared in Lyra's lap and on Alina's head. They both jumped off of the girls and landed in front of them, taking a battle stance.

Alina looked up at Lyra and realized that she was in the same position.

Lyra smiled and shrugged. "What do you do? We did disturb their home. Besides, I've always thought that an aipom would be fun to have." She called out Cyndaquil and began her fight.

"Ready for a fight?" Alina asked her pokémon, who had just crawled out of the pond after her. When the flower pokémon realized what was going on, she nodded fiercely and took up a position in front of her trainer.

"Use Giga Drain!" Alina called out.

Bellossom looked at her blankly.

"Oh," she said sheepishly, realizing that her pokémon wasn't strong enough yet to know that move. But then how did it know those sun-related moves? Alina shook the thought out of her mind. She had a battle to win. "Let's go for a simple Absorb then!"

Bellossom nodded and shot a small seed at the poliwag, which wrapped around it and sucked a bit of energy out before the pokémon shook the seed off.

"PoliWAG!" it called as it shot bubbles down onto Bellossom.

The pokémon wasn't fazed, and took the bubbles with a bored expression on its face. Alina smiled inwardly at the sassy nature of the pokémon. "Now Bellossom, use…" Alina trailed off as she suddenly realized the potential of the poliwag in front of her. It could evolve into a politoed, which was very rare, and also could be pretty powerful.

"Scratch that Bellossom!" she called out, opening her bag and frantically searching for a pokéball. "Aha," she muttered when she found one. "You're mine!" she yelled, and threw the red and white sphere at the poliwag.

One.

Two.

Three.

Ding!

Alina beamed when she saw she had caught the poliwag. Rushing forward to pick up the pokéball, she bumped into Lyra, who was doing the same.

The girls smiled when they saw each other. "Good job!" Lyra congratulated.

"You too!" Alina responded, tossing the ball into the air to let out her new pokémon. Lyra did the same.

"Poli, poliwag!" The little tadpole pokémon jumped up and down excitedly, its slimy tail flapping up and down.

Lyra giggled as Aipom high-fived her with his big hand. "This is awesome!" she said, looking over at Alina. "I'm actually really excited that I get to train an aipom!"

"Umm, guys?" The guy who had pushed them over waved to get their attention. "I'm really sorry I pushed you all over. I was just really surprised. But hey, it looks like you got cool pokémon, right?"

Lyra nodded and shook the guy's hand. "It's fine. Thanks to you, I now have a really cool pokémon, and so does Alina."

The guy smiled, but scratched his back sheepishly. "Thanks, but I still wouldn't feel right if I didn't give you something for hit you both. Here, take this. It's the TM for Rest, and it's one of those new models that you can use however many times you want and it won't break." He handed them a little round disc.

Alina smiled at him. "Thanks! I hope you have a great day, but next time, try not to fall asleep in the middle of the road."

He chuckled a little bit and nodded. "Will do. Bye you two!"

They waved as they set back off.

Alina felt a little shiver run through her. The effects of Bellossom's Sunny Day were still being felt, and the warm sunlight on her back felt really nice. There was a slight wind that rustled the leaves on the trees peacefully and gave a serene feeling to the picturesque route.

As they mounted the last hill of the path, Alina looked back down on the valley-like route and smiled as the setting sun basked her face in rays. It had taken them all day to walk the path connecting Cherrygrove City and Violet City, but they had done it, and they had captured some new pokémon. Alina felt that same good-feeling shiver run over her as the last of the sun's rays peeked over the horizon. She felt so free out on the open road, and she knew for a fact that this journey was the best thing to happen to her in a long time.


Hey! Sorry for the shorter chapter, but I didn't want to try to force more things into it for the sake of making it longer. I prefer to have the most natural chapters possible. I actually didn't think I would be able to upload today, since I couldn't write yesterday due to a power outage, but I just got in the flow and it all worked out! Once again, thank you to Alphinia for reviewing, and I hope you enjoy!

(P.S. Oooh, mysterious Sun-related happenings going around, am I right?! :D)

-Cole Escapade