Just as I was about to hit the ground, I heard a Pokemon's cry near me, and I was caught in midair by some Pokemon I couldn't distinguish. "Here, sit up!" I heard someone shout to me, grabbing by shoulders and propping me up correctly on the Pokemon's back.

I turned to see who had rescued me from becoming a ghost myself, I couldn't believe my eyes. "Blue?!" I questioned incredulously.

"The one and only," he gloated shortly, gesturing to himself as his Pidgeot landed safely in the center of Novelatta Town. "So, from what I've heard, you're Rei, right?"

"Uh-huh," I answered, still flabbergasted that Blue—the head gym leader in Kanto—was actually talking to me! "He's the guy I've always wished I was like when I was a kid!" I thought.

Blue got off of his Pidgeot's back, before grabbing my hand and letting me off, too, and returning his Pidgeot to his Pokeball. "What are you doing here? Don't you have, like, gym leader stuff to attend to?" I questioned amazedly. I had plenty more where that came from, but I didn't want to pester him too much.

"You know, since you're a gym leader, too, shouldn't you know better than to say 'gym leader stuff'?" He said, sounding mean, but I knew (or at least hoped) he was joking. "But anyway, this is the kind of gym leader stuff I need to do right now."

"You mean rescuing other gym leaders from random Aurora Beams?" I verified. "By the way, do you know who shot those, anyway?"

I know, I know, I should have asked that first, except this was the Blue. The guy beat the champion and became a gym leader; how couldn't I look up to the guy? I was really nervous. Even though now I know he's a bit of a jerk (a bit? Try insane lots), I still have this weird 'is this really happening' feeling build up in my chest whenever he starts talking to me.

"Yeah, but that's not important, we've got other gym leader stuff to do right now." Blue disregarded my question. "Stop asking so many questions; I'll explain later. Right now, we need to get some items so we can get going back to Kanto. This place has got a Pokemart, right?"

"No," I answered. "The nearest one to here is in Lyrina, but everything there is really expensive." Blue gave me a stern yet amused look. "Not that you can't afford it, I'm sure you've got plenty of money…" I added tentatively.

"Yeah, maybe you're dirt-poor, but I've got lots of money, and as long as there's nothing to annoy us on the way there, it should be no prob, right?" Blue said, bringing out more money than I had ever seen in my entire life. I stared at it wide-eyed, and he snickered. "You're like a Meowth with a laser pointer," he added, smirking. I then realized how silly I looked, and stopped immediately, red-faced.

Self-conscious all of a sudden from the laser pointer comment, I looked around and saw that some of the children living in Novelatta had left their houses and were staring at us. My face only burned even redder, and Blue also seemed to notice that everyone was looking at us with awe, though he just scoffed. "Don't you usually get this kind of attention?"

I shook my head, before he nudged me somewhat strongly, and I faced him again. "Well, come on, you know where all this weird stuff is, so you have to take me there," he said, heading towards the exit to Novelatta Town.

"Oh! A-alright," I stammered, skittering over with him anxiously. He looked at me with a humored expression, before looking forward again.

However, just as we were about to leave, I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I turned around, and saw a young girl who looked like she was just about a year younger than me (and since I'm tall for my age, four or five inches shorter), and a boy standing beside her who looked very similar. "Hey, a-are you Rei?" she asked shakily, her face turning almost as red as mine had earlier.

"No, of course she's not, stupid," the boy growled. "Why would she be here?"

"Poemira isn't that far from here, Vertico!" the girl hissed. "Stop being mean, you're embarrassing me!"

"Fine then, I'm going home," the boy named Vertico muttered, before walking away.

There was an awkward silence for a while, before the girl said, "Um… sorry about Vertico, he's a huge jerk."

"Not as big as some of the jerks I have to deal with…!" I thought, before I said, "No, it's alright. He's not your fault; just your mom's."

The girl paused with a slight, anxious smile, before continuing, "So…ARE you the real Rei? You know, the gym leader in Poemira Town?"

I nodded. "Yeah," I answered. "So, what's your name?"

"I'm Horizon," the young girl introduced. "My brother said you weren't real, but now I can go brag that you are!"

"Uh-huh," I said, smiling. "And since I know the importance of bragging to people that didn't believe you that you were right all along, do you want me to give you an autograph or something?"

Horizon gasped. "No way, that'd be awesome! Wait here, I have a badge case in my room!" And with that, my young little fan sprinted back to her house.

After a few seconds passed, Blue asked, "Why are you being so nice so her, anyway? She's just some random kid."

"Why not? I mean, it doesn't hurt having fans, does it?" I answered.

"Nah, but just wait until you get more. They just get more and more annoying," Blue groaned. "And just wait until you see the kind of pictures they'll draw of you; you'll start to wish you were never born with how stupid some of them look…"

I would have glared at him and started to argue, had it been anyone else I know, but instead I just stared at my feet. "Well, a promise is a promise. And who knows? Right now she might be just some random kid, but someday she might be the champion or something."

Blue didn't say anything, and I was too afraid to look to see his expression before Horizon came running back with a lime green badge case, which had indents for all the badges in Literoa to be placed. As she handed it to me with a permanent marker, I started to recall that I don't actually have a set-in-stone signature for myself, since usually people don't care that I'm a gym leader (other than the guys in Mockino, but no one appeals to those wildebeests). But I tried my best to make it look as big and fancy as some of the more famous signatures out there, and it ended up looking pretty good. I even added my Xtransceiver number just because.

Once I handed it back to Horizon, she nodded happily and said, "Thank you so much! Someday, I'm going to travel around Literoa and become the champion, just like Orlagh!"

I smiled widely. "I'll look forward to challenging you in my gym, Horizon. It'll be really interesting to see what kind of Pokemon you'll have," I said. "Well, we have to go now, so if you want to see me, well…" I trailed off, both because I remembered about the barrier keeping certain people out of Poemira and because Blue elbowed me in the ribs and muttered for me to hurry up. "Well, whatever. Call me later!" I finished, before I walked out of Novelatta Town and got onto the route leading to Lyrina.

"That was really pointless," Blue muttered indignantly as I treaded through the grass and nudged past some people who were walking around with him following behind me. "Plenty of kids want to be the champion, so why does she think she's so special?"

I wanted to say that the same could be said about him, but I guess my astonishment over him even being behind me made me hold my tongue. "Well, since you don't live here, you wouldn't know that hardly any people born in Literoa become trainers," I answered instead. "Most of them are lame breeders and those kinds of people that do contests. That's the main reason why I almost never have challengers in my gym and everyone in the League here is imported from other regions."

"I already knew that," Blue scoffed. "Still, being the only trainer in her town doesn't make her hot stuff. I doubt she even has a Pokemon yet."

I didn't say anything, but it was alright since Lyrina Town was very fast approaching in front of us. "Well, there it is," I said, keeping myself from doing a flamboyant gesture towards the town in fear that he might start to get on my case about it. "The department store is in the very center, but I guess you won't need any help getting there."

"Nope. All you'll have to do is stay close and, for Pete's sake, don't appeal to the fandom anymore," Blue ordered. "C'mon; the others are expecting us."

"You mean the other gym leaders?" I questioned, surprised.

"Duh." By this point, I was already lagging behind Blue as he entered the department store and looked at the level chart by the elevator.

"So, what do we need to get, anyway?" I asked tentatively, trying to look over his shoulder but finding I wasn't tall enough.

"Full Restores, some Revives, and most importantly, Ice Heals," Blue answered, before he pressed a button on the elevator. "That's what I think we'll need."

When Blue mentioned Revives, that's when I remembered that the two Pokemon I still had with me were both fainted. "Whoa, that reminds me! Both of my Pokemon have fainted, and I still haven't gotten them healed!" I exclaimed, panicked. "I have time to go heal them up, right?"

"Yeah," Blue answered plainly. "Aren't you supposed to be, you know, more professional than forgetting you have no usable Pokemon? You're a gym leader."

I could feel my face getting redder and redder as I quickly scurried out of the department store and over to the Pokemon Center. "Nurse Joy, can you heal my Pokemon?" I asked once I approached the woman there.

"Why yes, of course I can," Nurse Joy said, taking Sableye and Chandelure's Pokeballs and putting them in her healing machine. A few seconds later, she returned them to me. "So, excuse me for being nosy, but what happened? Don't you ordinarily have a lot more Pokemon on your team?" she asked as I headed for the door.

"Believe me, it's a long story you really don't want to hear," I warned her, before sprinting back to the department store. However, on my way, I smacked into Blue, and we both fell over.

"Gah! Watch where you're going! If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to rob me or something!" Blue shouted, standing up and brushing dirt off of his pants.

I stood up, as well, my face hung low. "I'm sorry…" I muttered embarrassedly. "I just didn't want to make you wait for too long."

"Well, now we've got to waste time with this nonsense," Blue sneered. "But whatever, we have all the supplies we'll need for our trip to Kanto."

"And you'll explain everything on the way there," I verified, "right?"

"Uh-huh, sure," Blue said hastily, grabbing his Pidgeot's Pokeball and releasing him. "Now, hurry up, we don't have any time to waste, so don't be slow!" he said in a more ordering tone as he climbed onto Pidgeot's back and gestured for me to do the same. I fastwalked over to his Pokemon immediately and climbed onto his back, at which point Blue said, "Pidgeot, Fly to Viridian City; if any Aurora Beams or Ice Beams start shooting at you, just try your best to avoid 'em, alright?"

Pidgeot nodded his head in agreement, and with a very quick takeoff, we were in the air, flying faster than I had ever gone in my entire life. I had to try very hard to not grab Blue's clothes for support, and I wondered how he could possibly be completely okay with flying this fast. Against my common sense, I looked down and saw the stretch of ocean. It took me a while to gather breath, but when I did, I asked, "So, why are you taking me to Kanto, anyway?"

"Well, to put this simply lots of bad stuff is happening everywhere, especially here, but since you got four of your Pokemon stolen and you almost died falling off that Archeops, you know that already," Blue explained. "Well, most of that stuff is happening to everyone else in all the regions, too; Pokemon are being stolen from trainers, any Pokemon that tries to Fly gets shot at with Ice-type attacks, trying to Surf sucks you into the ocean, and some gym leaders are getting kidnapped. So, all the gym leaders in the other regions that believed this was actually going on agreed that since Literoa is the most in danger, we'd try to get the gym leaders in one place so they'd all be safer. We're going to my gym, to be exact."

"Who's doing all of this, though? Shouldn't someone be trying to stop them?" I asked.

"We don't know what they're calling themselves, but we've found some of their headquarters and tried to take them down, but mostly it just ends up losing us more trainers from the leagues, so it's dangerous," Blue continued. "So far, we've lost contact with Lance, Clair, Whitney, Liza, Gardenia, Volkner, and Skyla. Not to mention, a majority of us have lost at least one Pokemon."

"That does sound really bad," I said. I knew I was being Captain Obvious, but I couldn't think of anything else to say since I only recognized three of those people's names, and only knew exactly who one of them was without just hearing their names thrown around. "We're going to Viridian City, right?"

"I already said that, weren't you listening?" Blue questioned. "Or is it that you don't remember where my gym is or something?"

"No, I remembered, but I just wanted to make sure," I muttered. "Jeez Louise, it's not like conquered Kanto a week ago or something; of course I'm not going to remember all of that right away." I looked down, and saw we were still over the ocean. However, just as I felt like it would all be alright, Aurora Beams and Ice Beams started to shoot from the ocean below again, and Pidgeot was doing really complex tactics to avoid them. "Good job, Pidgeot, just keep going! I think I can see Mt. Silver in the distance!" Blue shouted, patting his Pidgeot's head as his Pokemon did a barrel roll to avoid another barrage of rays. I almost started to cry, because his flying was really starting to get hectic now. I looked forward, though, and I, too, saw the outline of Mt. Silver in the distance, though it was really far away.

I looked down again, and peered into the ocean, trying to make out what Pokemon were shooting the beams, and noticed multiple Dewgong swimming after us at absurd speeds, each with a trainer on its back. I wanted to tell the trainers to stop, but then I noticed that they were all wearing odd outfits I had only previously heard of. I know this is going to sound stupid, but I could swear the people riding the Dewgong were wearing Team Magma, Galactic, and Plasma outfits, each of them wearing one of the three. "No way! All three of those groups disbanded; why are they chasing us?!" I thought.

"Oh, so you've noticed what we're dealing with," Blue said, looking behind him and seeing what I was seeing. "Yeah, we don't know how or why, but apparently the groups that were terrorizing the different regions a few years ago have gotten back together and formed an alliance. I know it sounds stupid, but believe me; it's anything but a picnic for us. All of them still have the goals they used to have, but now they're just trying it all at once on all of the regions, and it's getting really hard for us to handle. From what Lance and Clair told us before they disappeared, Rocket and Snagem are responsible for all the Pokemon kidnappings, Aqua are the ones making trainers disappear in the ocean, Magma's the one shooting at us with Ice-type attacks, and Galactic and Plasma are helping those groups with whatever else."

I paused. "Well, that must have been a mouthful."

"You think?" Blue questioned sarcastically, before his Pidgeot did another twirl in mid-air and got cut off. "Okay, land now, Pidgeot!" he ordered his Pokemon. Looking down, I could somewhat make out the radio tower in Lavender Town.

Pidgeot cried out, before swooping downward at such a fast speed that I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped for the best. I mean, I knew that Blue wasn't going to crash into anything; he's not me, after all, he's flown a million times before, so why would he screw up now, but being safe never hurts. A minute or two later, I opened my eyes when I felt it was safe, and saw that we had landed in front of the Viridian City gym. After we got off of his Pidgeot, Blue returned him to his Pokeball and went inside, gesturing behind his back for me to follow him. Why wouldn't I?

Be thankful; I almost cut it off right before Pidgeot flew with them to Viridian.

But anyway, I'm really happy that I'm actually getting reviews for once! I can't tell you how many times I've written equally-as-long fanfics on my alternate account and hadn't even gotten a single review, but now people are saying that they actually like this! I couldn't be happier! Maybe someday, if you all think it's really, REALLY good, it'll get its own TvTropes page! That would be the day… (drifting off far into my imagination, trying to picture this, I feel kind of overbearing on the readers, telling them somewhat forcefully to gain more popularity and asking them for a TvTropes page I don't deserve yet like a sixteen-year –old girl would ask her father for a Corvette, but for some reason…I feel like they won't fail me this time like the others did so many times in the past. Not these fans, I tell myself, smiling. These ones will never desert me like-)

What…? What? Oh, hey, what's that, up there, is that a mini-roleplay that I just did there? Whoa, oops, I never do that in front of other people. Sorry. But still, I trust you all to try and stay loyal and be the best (or just be exceptional; no, you know what, I'd take a participation ribbon, even) fanbase you can. I mean, no, I'm not asking for a TvTropes page. Not right now. That'd be rude. We'd clutter it up with a fic that's barely reached its fifth chapter, much less its climax or finale chapter…

Although I do always dream of having one someday…

NO.

I WILL STOP NOW AND CEASE TO CONTINUE TRYING TO FORCE YOU TO DO ANYTHING BY MAKING YOU FEEL BAD BECAUSE THAT'S HORRIBLE AND I DO IT ALL THE TIME AND I HATE IT BUT I CAN'T HELP IT EVEN THOUGH YES, I DREAM OF BEING ON TVTROPES BECAUSE I AM A TVTROPES ADDICT ALL THE WAY EVEN THOUGH I'M NOWHERE COOL ENOUGH TO HAVE ANYTHING ON THERE MUCH LESS AN ACCOUNT AND I'VE NEVER EVEN EDITED ON IT ONCE.

I think pretty much every word of that past 'time' was a run-on, but I guess that's meant to be the joke…? But anyway, sincerest apologies for that ridiculousness that I just broke into, it'll never happen again, I promise.

What do the other gym leaders think of Rei? I can't think of any more questions than that. Until next time, you'll just have to try and guess, I suppose.