The sun had successfully made its journey across the horizons edge as the sky began to darken. The ferry to the mainland of the Kanto region was steadily chugging along towards Vermillion City, Kanto's main port and seafaring city.

The attendants on the ferry had told the now ex-students that they would be arriving sometime around noon the next day, meaning that each trainer could have enough time to stock up on any items they could at the city's Poke Mart before they continue off on Routes 6 or 11.

At this point however, most of the students were asleep either in one of the ships prepared cabins or dozed off on the available sitting areas on the boat. Much of the excitement from earlier in they day, what with the exams and the brief graduation ceremony, had been heightened when each of the attendants on the ship had been tasked with handing out trainer ID cards to each of the graduates. The main group of four of our story had been particularly excited about receiving their ID cards, and were suddenly glad that all students were allowed to wear their normal attire on school picture days, as each portrayed a headshot of the graduating student from earlier in the year.

While still excited at idea of having something standard for all trainers, they were laughing at their excitement some because they had all learned in class that a Pokedex basically renders a Trainer ID Card pointless as all Pokedexes carry more information on each trainer and are faster to scan and pass through a system thanks to a handy cable. After this bit of information was passed around by the attendants, all the trainers were then informed they would have to go the lab of the regions major authority on Pokemon research, one Samuel Oak, to receive a Pokedex.

While the leagues initially juggled around the idea of giving Pokemon Centers the ability to hand out Pokedexes and sending in shipments of them every month, they decided it was best for each of the major labs and their professors to hang on to the machines. This would continue to insure that the Pokedexes are safely handled by professionals and their maintenance and updating would be handled only by the best.

This made several of the students groan, believing that, thanks to the league's decision, they were required to go to Pallet Town to receive their Pokedex before they could do anything else. This was when they were informed differently. The attendants began to tell them that nowhere in League rules are you required to have a Pokedex, just a Trainer ID. They explained that, while a huge convenience, it's not a necessity, and could even be picked up at any time. The leagues kept each major lab wholefully stocked with enough Pokedexes to handle the influx of students heading to their resident professors, especially around graduation month.

This made those new trainers who had groaned before, and even those who didn't, begin to talk amongst themselves.

Would it be better to head to Pallet Town first, or would it be worth it to pick up a Pokedex later or not at all and continue another way?

While the other graduates discussed this, our group of misfits weren't fretting a bit. It went out as an unspoken fact between Hunter, Tyler, and Kat that Bryson was probably going to forgo getting his Pokedex until he stumbles upon Pallet Town, or that he decided to actively go receive one. The three of them, despite the new information that acquiring a Pokedex isn't necessary, were still set on retrieving one.

While it was still a little bit of a travel to get to Pallet Town from Vermillion, they believed that it was still worth it.

After receiving their ID cards and hearing about the Pokedex situation, our adventurers followed the examples of the other students and decided to call it a night. There were plenty of rooms still available on the ferry, so finding sleeping space wasn't difficult in the slightest. The boys decided to let Kat have a room to herself, and grabbed the nearest four rooms.

Hunter took the one to the right of Kat's, Tyler took one across from Hunter's room, and Bryson took the one next to Tyler's and across from Kat's. They all bid each other goodnight, their partners waving goodbye to one another, all not spotting that they were being watched by the shadowy figure that had tailed them onto the boat.

It waited and watched around the corner leaning into the hall they were in until all four of them had gone into their rooms, and approached the door to Kat's room. If anyone were around, or conscious for that matter, they would've seen a rather small figure proceed to stand guard outside the door, sitting down with it's arm crossed.

They also would have taken notice, if they had paid attention during the battle exams, that the figure, that had, thanks to the leagues' view on letting Pokemon on the ranch leave at any time, was Kat's Squirtle that had left the ranch and proceeded onto the ship amongst the students. Squirtle, as it had proven all too often earlier in the day, was a stubborn Pokemon. And as a stubborn Pokemon with plenty of spunk and attitude, Squirtle would not stand for the atrocity of Kat not having him as a Pokemon on her journey. And while even he had to admit she was fairly set with Vulpix, who he had made friends with after it had hatched and made friends with Kat and the others, Squirtle wasn't going to take his situation lying down.

And as for why Squirtle refrained from simply entering into the room of his friend was that he planned on it being a surprise that he had gotten on the boat, so he would wait until morning, and then slip into the room and wake her up. Squirtle nodded at his plan, pleased with himself, and then was suddenly aware of a noise.

A small pitter patter outside began to grow more rampant, alerting Squirtle that it was beginning to rain. This didn't instantly alarm Squirtle, as Squirtle had lived for a while on a beach near Fuchsia City and knew that rain storms out at sea happened all the time. Opting to simply relax against the wall and not worry about the rain, Squirtle began to drift into unconsciousness.

Hours passed as Squirtle and all the others among the cabin area slept through the night. Meanwhile, the storm continued to rage through the night, and when it was supposed to begin becoming light the next day (around 5:30 AM), it was nearly as dark as the night before had been. And around midnight the night before, it had begun to thunder and lightning made bright flashes from then on, amazingly only awakening few. Most of the graduated students began to stir awake sometime around 7, as was their custom at the academy.

Most were surprised at how hard it was raining, and were even more amazed when they saw how bright and loud the lightning and thunder was and how it had not woken them up. Our four intrepid graduates began to stir around 7:30 (classes at the academy started at 8:15), but not out of routine.

Them, and many other passengers were awoken by the sound of their Pokemon, along with the other nearby Pokemon, making cries as if to warn them of something. This was considered by many of the students to be just the Pokemon being spooked by the storm, but those who had taken research classes, such as Hunter, were immediately concerned. Pokemon were very attuned to nature, making it so that they are very aware of natural disasters, and have a very good sense for danger.

The way his Squirtle was acting, and from what he could hear of the other nearby Pokemon, had Hunter and other students getting out of his bed and getting his day clothes on before the others were out of their morning laziness.

The storm had gotten progressively worse the longer it had been around, and the lightning began to strike ever closer to the boat, and the thunder had gotten much louder, as if to warn those on the ship much like the Pokemon were. And then, as if an act committed by a vengeful and angry Zapdos, a bolt of lightning struck home and hit the ferry.

This immediately jostled our slowly rising trainers out of their morning stupor, along with the other passengers aboard the ship and Squirtle. While no people were hurt from the lightning strike, the engine room had been struck. This meant that the boats speed began to slow to a halt, and a fire began to spread from the damaged area of the ship.

Hunter was nearly knocked off balance when the lightning struck as he was standing and throwing his messenger bag over his shoulder, and realized that this was what the Pokemon were trying to alert the people on the boat of. He immediately left his room in a hurry once he regained his balance, and nearly rushed right into the resident stowaway Squirtle.

"Squirtle? What in the world are you- ….. You know what, never mind. Go work on warning Kat, I'll work on Tyler and Bryson." Hunter began to work his way around Squirtle, making a beeline to Tyler's room, before sending a look back at the longtime friend of his hooded accomplice. "Get me?" Squirtle nodded, and drafted in the assistance of Hunter's Squirtle, by having her use Withdraw so he could use her as a boost to get up to the doorknob of Kat's room.

Once Kat's Squirtle managed to open the door, Hunter's Squirtle mistakenly came out of her shell, making Kat's Squirtle lose his balance and fall into the room, and the force of the loss of balance brought Hunter's Squirtle in as well.

Kat had just risen from her bed after being pestered by Vulpix yipping, lightly growling, and pawing at her in her sleep. She had just gotten her day clothes on before the lightning struck, and was immediately tossed back onto the bed from the force and being wobbly from just waking up, with Vulpix finding it very hard to hold her balance.

The young hooded girl was fully awake after that, and sat up quickly. "What in the world was that?!" She was met with a response from Vulpix in the form of the small fox Pokemon motioning out the porthole to the storm.

It was at this point that both Squirtles came through the door and landed on the floor in front of Kat, Kat's landing on his stomach, Hunter's on her back. Kat was instantly taken aback, the shock of the lightning strike combining with the shock of seeing her Squirtle on the ship. She stood up, picking up her Squirtle and giving it a big hug despite the confusion, as Hunter's Squirtle dusted herself off.

"Squirtle! Did you really run off from the farm? To be honest, I was half expecting the school to just get tired of you not working with anyone and would just send you to me at a Pokemon Center." Squirtle rolled his eyes, returning the hug, but then hopped out of her arms and pointed to the door of the room to warn her that they needed to leave.

"You're right. Vulpix just got done telling me that the storm just damaged the boat, so we probably need to get up and going and see what's the damage." Hunter's Squirtle was then unexpectedly picked up by her trainer, who had just unsuccessfully tried to wake up the other two males of the group.

"Morning love, glad to see these two got you up to speed, but I gotta take my Squirtle back now though. The ginger and the blonde boys are being difficult again." Kat simply had to laugh at that as Hunter walked out of the room holding Squirtle like a water pistol.

Minutes later, a soaking Tyler, joined with an equally soaked Bryson, stood in the hall with Hunter and Kat. Charmander and Gastly were being hard pressed not to laugh at their trainers, but Gastly was openly laughing after a few seconds, with Charmander still only snickering in good fun and patting Tyler's leg.

Tyler was too busy sending a heated glare at Hunter to notice his leg being patted, clearly not too appreciative being forced to get up and moving faster with a Water Gun. "You better sleep with one eye open, contest boy." Bryson could only give a 'hmph' of agreement as he was preoccupied with glaring at Gastly, which only made the ghost-type laugh harder.

Hunter could only roll his eyes, trying to keep in a chuckle of his own, and he could hear Kat was trying her darndest to not laugh herself. "Yeah, I'll make sure to do that. But y'know, more importantly, we need to go see what the damage is from that lightning strike." The other three couldn't help but nod, and Bryson began to think for a moment. "We're probably going to have to evacuate." They all had to agree, because more than likely, the lightning had done some major damage to the ship, and a fire breaking out was a given.

With that, they all left the sleeping corridor they were in, and headed towards the front of ship. A good number of the students had already begun to head up that way, and as they were headed that direction, an announcement came over the ship's intercom. "Attention to all passengers and crew. A bolt of lightning has struck the engine room of the ship, and a fire had begun to spread to the other parts of the ship. The water types belonging to the staff have yet been able to douse the flames, and we are worried that the damage to the engine room may cause an explosion. All those aboard the ship need to calmly and orderly make their way to the lifeboats located on the sides of the ship. We are close enough to the coast of Cinnabar that the trip by lifeboat will not be too long. That is all."

This announcement began to worry the four graduates. Bryson had completely called it. They also couldn't believe their luck. All the other previous years had never had problems during transit to regions before, but now, their year rolls around, and suddenly, nature decides that it needs to put a complication in their way.

As they were about to get to the lifeboats however, the ship's captain's subject of worry came to pass.

The damage done to the engine was in fact enough to cause a rather large, destructive explosion. The resulting fireball was enough to make all those who saw it squint, and the sound sufficiently popped all those on the boat's ears. The resulting shock wave however was the worst part. It sent all those who were walking along the side of the boat over the edge into the water, this included our favourite group.

They all began to plummet into the drink below, all of which were clutching their Pokemon close to them, except for Tyler, who amazingly was able to think fast enough to hold Charmander over his head to keep it's tail hopefully above water.

And with that, before they could even make a sound, all four and their Pokemon made a large splash together as they all fell into the ocean.