My father's name is Blake Caldwell. People call him "Mr. Backlot" because he's a bigshot lawyer who focuses mainly on developing properties. His parents bought the mansion on route 212 because they wanted a big family, but they only had my father, who inherited it when they retired to a villa in northern Sinnoh. Most of the house hasn't been touched since my mother lived there.

My father is a nice man, but he's very serious. He takes his business very seriously and comes home still in "business mode" sometimes. His biggest joy in life is his garden full of pokemon. He has a lot of rare ones imported from other regions and he loves going out there and playing with them. He opens up the garden to passing trainers as well, because he says that he enjoys sharing his pride and joy. My father and I are very close, and the idea of something bad happening to him terrifies me. He was really all I had growing up, besides the care of a few maids, and so I don't even want to picture something happening to him.

My mother's name is Lydia White (formerly Caldwell). She and my father are so different that it's hard to believe they were ever married. Whereas my father is all business, my mother is very relaxed and sort of without direction. She moved back to Nuvema Town after the divorce and works as a sometimes-assistant to Professor Juniper. She is very compassionate, sometimes taking in pokemon that the professor has no room for, like her venipede, Vinny. My mother and I had no contact from the time she moved out until I moved in with her three years ago for a brief time. I was really angry at her for a long time. I ignored her letters and calls and I was really rather rude to her when I first got there. Lydia is so compassionate and kind, though, that it's hard to be rude to her. She was really great support through my journey through Unova. There's no way she will ever be able to make up the years she wasn't there, and I will never forget them, but that doesn't mean I can't forgive. We just kind of had to build a relationship from the ground up.

I miss them.

Chapter 03: Ready to Start

The Crosstransceiver in Delaney's hand rang for the third time as Sawyer snored in the background, completely oblivious to the fact that Delaney was awake and had been for hours. Both of their pokemon were sprawled sleeping around the room of the Pokemon Center and as Delaney stared out at the bodies in deep slumber, it almost felt like a journey all over again, and the brunette trainer looked on with a rueful smile and a strong sense of déjà vu. If she was to take a picture of the scene in front of her, it would be nearly impossible to guess whether or not it had been taken in Unova during her journey around the region as Christa White, but of course, Delaney would be able to tell the difference.

The pokemon that were spread out among the room asleep were not the same- well, for the most part they weren't. Delaney's pokemon had most been in either their first or second stage forms when she had left Unova, with the exception of Perry and Alec, who had evolved in her last gym battle there. In the time that she had been away from Unova, they had all evolved, and Delaney had added one more to her team, a peaceful bird with her fluffy body curled in a ball on Delaney's pillow, humming softly even in her sleep. Grace, a cheerful altaria that was a bit smaller than most of her kind, had been caught on her second day in Hoenn and Delaney was still trying to get her up to speed with the rest of her pokemon, though she had thus far flown through training with flying colors.

Not only had the forms of her pokemon changed, but Sawyer's entire line-up had been altered upon leaving Unova. He had stayed a year and a half longer than she had, trying to help put together an Unovan resistance against Teams Plasma and Galactic and in the end, he had lost his pokemon to a "purple-haired Galactic wench with an attitude" (Sawyer's words, not hers) that she knew had to be Jupiter. Instead of the semisear, excadrill and galvantula that he had been training for years, his team was now mostly Johto pokemon that he had picked up while looking for Delaney there. An elegant ninetails was at Sawyer's feet as he snored and his flaaffy was in the chair next to him. Muffin the breloom, his one Hoenn companion, was under his bed and his noctowl was in the small coat closet, as the room wasn't dark enough for her tastes. Sawyer's gyarados, Fluffy, was back in Evergrande, as he was really only happy playing in the large pool (and you really didn't want to see Fluffy when he wasn't happy).

Even Sawyer himself had changed. Sure, he was still full of sarcastic quips, dry humor and a tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, but there was a more serious glint that appeared from time to time behind his stoic brown eyes. They had never once talked about what had gone on in the year and a half they hadn't spoken and truth be told, Delaney had no desire to know. All she knew was that she had been walking up the stairs to her room in the Ecruteak Pokemon Center when she had heard a loud "Delaney!" from down below. She stopped at the top of the stairs and watched in wonder as her auburn-haired former companion ran up the stairs and wrapped her in a huge hug that had lasted for what seemed like years. After he let go, he raised his eyebrows and said, "Your hair is still brown" (which reminded her way too much of Dax) and since then, they had been inseparable.

"Delaney?" she heard say questioningly and she looked down at the Crosstransceiver to see Steven staring up at her, clearly puzzled. She turned bright red, wondering how long he had been trying to get her attention while she stared out at the room.

"Sorry, I was just… distracted," she apologized. "I was just calling to discuss my findings from Rustboro yesterday. I got in rather late to Petalburg and thought it was best to wait until morning to give you a call."

"That's fine, Miss Caldwell," he said with a kind smile. "I've already been in contact with Sarah, and apparently you made quite an impression."

"A good impression, or a bad impression?" she asked, a bit worried.

"Oh, most definitely good," he assured her. "Though apparently you left the secretary of the Devon Corp in a tizzy."

Delaney chuckled. "That sounds about right. Rustboro looks fine, though. I have no concerns… But something happened last night that I think you should know about." Steven raised his eyebrows, but said nothing, so Delaney opted to continue. "Sawyer and I were going through Petalburg Forest and somebody in red and black ran past us. They had a hood on though, so I couldn't really see what they looked like. They looked kind of… suspicious, like they were running from something. But maybe it's nothing?" All of the sudden, she felt very young and dumb. She had called up Steven to tell him about somebody running past them. How stupid did she sound?

Thankfully, though, Steven didn't appear to feel that way. His kind smile turned into a worried grimace. "Did you say red and black? With a hood?"

"Yeah… Or at least that's what it looked like. They were running so fast that I couldn't even tell if it was a male or female."

"It sounds like Team Magma to me," he said. "I'll put Riley on alert. Thank you for letting me know about that, Delaney."

"Oh, of course," she said, feeling herself turn a bit red and cursing the video screen on the crosstransceivers.

"So today is Petalburg, then?" he asked. "The gym leader should also be taking care of Oldale and Littleroot to the east, so make sure to ask about them and visit if you have time."

Delaney made a mental note to do so. "Of course, sir. Is there anything else?"

"I don't know if you've made plans already for tomorrow, but I would really like you to go to Slateport and then Mauville," he said. "Slateport was hit very hard and I haven't had time to get down there with all of the rest of the chaos. The gym leader of Mauville should be taking care of it." Delaney nodded, waiting for anything further. "And don't call me sir," he said, his smile returning. "Don't hesitate to call if you have any questions or concerns."

"Yes s… Steven," she said with a grin, catching herself before calling him sir again.

"Take care, Delaney," he said and with that, the face on the Crosstransceiver disappeared. Delaney looked around the room and was surprised to see that all were still sleeping soundly. She looked at the clock on the Crosstransceiver. It was still only nine, but Delaney had been awake for hours, so it felt like much later. She sighed and decided to leave them be, but that didn't mean she was going to stay still. She grabbed her bag and went into the bathroom to get changed.

Delaney wasted no time getting ready, taking a quick shower and then throwing on a red t-shirt and a pair of black shorts. She grabbed a rubber band and put her hair into a messy ponytail. She made a face at her reflection in the mirror before bending down to grab the pajamas she had so haphazardly thrown off in an attempt to get ready quickly. She definitely didn't look so hot, but she wasn't really trying to impress on that level, so she decided to let it go. She grabbed her stuff and headed back into the room, tossing it back into the corner she had gotten it from. All that was left was to put on her sneakers and head out.

In her getting ready chaos, she hadn't noticed that one of the slumbering entities in the room had finally woken up. As she sat on the ground putting on her shoes, a long, dark blue eel-like pokemon opened her red eyes and blinked at Delaney, who was sitting rather close to where the pokemon had been laying. She slunk across the floor to slide next to her trainer, who looked up in surprise that anyone was awake at all. "Good morning Annie!" she said with a smile at the eelektross. After six months of training, Delaney had named the then-eelektrik after Little Orphan Annie, seeing as how Delaney had found her when she had been abandoned by her school in Chargestone Cave. It had been much easier for her to show affection when she was smaller, but now that she stood at nearly seven feet and weighed over 175 pounds, her affections were limited to sliding next to Delaney and curling up around her (a sort of hug, if you will).

The eelektross was much more docile in nature than most and she was more than content to just lay there while Delaney put her sneakers on. When she was done, she lazily put a hand on Annie and gave her a quick pat. Sitting down had put her in much less of a hurry to get things done.

She knew she had to, though, and so she got up, said goodbye to Annie and left with only her Crosstransceiver in tow. She made her way down the stairs of the Pokemon Center quickly and headed out the door without acknowledging any of the glances given to her by people surely wondering what Delaney Caldwell was doing in the Pokemon Center of Petalburg City.

When she and Sawyer had arrived the night before, she hadn't really looked around, but now that the sun was shining and Delaney was wide awake, she glanced around. The gym was in plain sight less than five minutes away, so really, she didn't need to pass through the streets on her way there like she had in Rustboro. It wasn't really necessary on any level, really- as far as the eye could see were perfectly intact buildings with shining fresh coats with paint and lovely foliage surrounding each structure. The only sign of construction was at a lake close by, where stone structures were going up. Though it had been hinted at that Petalburg was in bad shape when she was in Rustboro, there was not a single place that Delaney could see that had anything wrong with it. Petalburg was good to go, as far as Delaney could tell.

She made the quick journey over to the gym, where automatic doors let her in to find an empty foyer with wooden floors and two doors leading to the back of the gym. There was no sign of life anywhere. Figuring that perhaps the gym leader was in the back, Delaney headed for the doors, but both were locked. Time for a new tactic. "Hello?" she called.

"Can I help you?" a young man's voice came over the intercom. Delaney jumped. She had never seen a gym with a system like this.

"I'm here to see the gym leader," Delaney called. She was forgetting what they had said his name was back in Rustboro, though she was sure they had mentioned it.

"We're not taking challengers at the moment," the young man's voice replied. "Sorry. Have a good day."

"I'm not here to challenge anyone," she called back. "My name is Delaney Caldwell. I'm uh… here to talk about rebuilding and… stuff."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" the voice replied, suddenly sounding nervous. "I'll be right there."

Delaney stood in silence for a few minutes, looking around. On one of the walls, the only one that was not blank, was a list of challengers who had successfully won the Balance Badge. Delaney began to read down the list, eager for something to do. Leslie… Tashi… Brendan… May… Wally… Quinn… Betsy…

One of the doors suddenly flung open and a young man with dark hair and a white knit cap poked his head out. "Miss Caldwell, I'm so sorry about that," he said, biting his lip. "Please come on back."

Delaney smiled at him as she followed his lead. "It's no problem, really. And please, call me Delaney."

"I'm Brendan!" he said, enthusiastically shaking her hand before leading her through a series of doors that led to the gym leader's chamber. A middle-aged man with dark hair and dark eyes sat in an armchair looking at the door, obviously expecting her.

"Oh, are you… both gym leaders?" Delaney asked, a bit confused.

"Brendan is my apprentice," the man in the chair said as he rose to greet her. "Pleased to meet you, I'm Norman."

"Nice to meet you, Norman," Delaney said with a courteous smile.

"Norman has already been asked by Steven to be a part of the Elite Four when the rebuilding is over," Brendan said. "I'll take over the gym when he does."

"We're not supposed to talk about that," Norman said curtly. "I take it you've had a chance to look around Petalburg?"

"Only briefly," Delaney admitted. "But from what I can tell, everything looks perfect. Why don't you tell me a bit about you guys have done?"

"We didn't really have much damage to begin with," Brendan stated. "We had some wind and rain damage to roofs, a couple windows were blown out and there was a little bit of flood damage from the lakes, but that was it."

"Very minor damage," Norman said with a nod.

"Our main problem has been with crime… At least until Norman and his zangoose took over. Things are in a lot better shape now… Mostly. Something did happen yesterday," Brendan said with a frown.

"A home on the western side of town was broken into yesterday. Most of the household was gone, but one young man was still home and he was injured by the assailant," Norman said gravely. "We spent most of the afternoon trying to locate them and when we did, they took off running towards the Petalburg Forest. Brendan ran after them, but he couldn't catch them."

Brendan's face turned crimson with embarrassment. "They were really fast," he muttered under his breath.

"That must be who we saw in the woods!" Delaney said, thinking out loud. "My friend and I were coming out of the woods last night and somebody in red and black ran past us into the forest."

"I didn't even get a close enough look to see what they were wearing," Norman admitted. "But I'm sure that was them." He turned to Brendan. "Did you see them?"

"Yeah, they were in red and black," Brendan said, nodding. "I think it was a girl, but I'm not too sure because they had a hood on."

"We couldn't tell," Delaney said with a grimace. "How is the guy that was hurt?"

"Wally is fine. The worst of it seems to be a concussion from hitting his head getting out of bed," Norman said. "He's a frail young man anyways. Always has been, ever since we moved here."

"Wally? I wouldn't really call him frail anymore… He's taller than I am now," Brendan said.

"He pestered me for weeks about helping him catch a pokemon when I first moved," Norman said with a chuckle. "Moved to Vendanturf with some relatives because he was sick, but he moved back after his journey. Got sick again, from what I heard from May. She was the one who ended up going with Wally to catch his pokemon and they became friends, but I think they lost touch awhile back. She's a lot more patient than her dad, that's for sure."

"Is your daughter a trainer, sir?" Delaney asked politely.

"One of the best," Norman said with a proud smile. "She's in the Hall of Fame for beating Steven Stone, but she turned down being Champion. Wanted to travel some more, she said… Her spot ended up going to that Wallace," he said disdainfully, his smile fading. "We're lucky that he's gone now and we've got Steven back. That man could've never led us through this. Corrupt son of a bitch."

"Tell her about the dams, Norman," Brendan jumped in with a big grin at Delaney. Something told her he had heard Norman's furious ranting about Wallace more than a few times. Delaney chuckled.

"My apologies," he said formally. "Yesterday one of our gym trainers, Jody, met with Mr. Stone of the Devon Corporation and he has agreed to help us with funding the creation of dams around the lakes in Petalburg to prevent any future flooding. We want to make sure Petalburg is as secure as can be for years to come."

"Wow," Delaney said, definitely impressed. Somehow, it hadn't occurred to her to ask about plans for the future when talking to Mr. Stone in Rustboro- he had seemed so on top of the building that it had seemed kind of a given that they were probably safeguarding against any incidents in the future. She definitely appreciated how open Norman and Brendan were about what exactly they were doing with their time.

"Is there anything else you need from us? I think we covered everything…" Norman said, looking at Delaney expectantly.

"We haven't talked about Oldale and Littleroot yet," Brendan said, shooting a look at Norman.

"Oh! My apologies, Miss Caldwell, I'm sure that was your next question," Norman said, looking a bit flustered for the first time since Delaney had arrived.

"…Yes," Delaney said with an awkward smile. Even though Steven had told her very specifically to ask about Oldale and Littleroot in their conversation, she had indeed completely forgotten about it. She was assuming that Oldale and Littleroot were other cities, but she wasn't totally sure. Maybe they were like the Twinleaf and Sandgem of Hoenn? "I'm not very familiar with Hoenn, do you think you could give me a bit of background information on them before you tell me about your work there?"

"Oh, of course," Norman said. "Littleroot is a small southeastern town where our local professor lives, as well as a couple other families- including mine. Oldale is another small town about five minutes north of Littleroot. Steven asked us to take care of any repairs that needed to be made to both Littleroot and Oldale because we're the closest gym leader to them. Since I've been doing a lot of work here, Brendan's been in charge of Oldale and Littleroot. He's doing a great job."

"Thanks," Brendan said, a bright, satisfied smile coming to his face. "I haven't really run into problems in either place… Littleroot just had a few broken windows from strong winds and Oldale had some flooding from the north… Less than five minutes away from Oldale is a waterway that connects to the other side of route 103 by Slateport… So with the storms, it was kind of inevitable that some flooding would happen, but it's mostly taken care of. Steven said since the waterways aren't a part of Oldale, he would make sure some sort of dam is installed up there. All of the buildings have been painted and had some minor repairs, so they actually look better than they did, especially my dad's lab!"

"Lab?" she asked, curious. "What does your father do?"

"Brendan's dad is Professor Birch. For awhile it looked like May was going over the gym one day, but Brendan showed real initiative when it came to training with me and May ended up wanting to travel, so it all worked out!" Norman said with a glance at Brendan that could almost be described as fatherly.

"That's great!" Delaney said. She stood up, ready to call it a day. Clearly they knew what they were doing in Petalburg. "Is there anything else you can think of? Or is there anything you need from me? Any questions?"

"I think we covered everything," Norman said, relegating back to his more formal tone of earlier. "Thank you for stopping by to see us, Miss Caldwell."

"Of course! It was a pleasure to meet you both!" Delaney said, stopping to shake both Norman's hand and Brendan's. She moved to walk towards the door.

"I'll walk you out," Brendan said. "I need to head back to Littleroot."

"Tell May to give me a call!" Norman called behind them as the two young adults exited.

"Going to see Norman's daughter, eh?" Delaney said with a teasing grin. "Is she your girlfriend?"

"No!" Brendan said quickly, turning bright red. "May has been my best friend since her family moved to Hoenn!"

"Best friend, eh?" Delaney raised her eyebrows. "That blush does not say best friend to me, Brendan. It's okay, though, your secret's safe with me."

Brendan most definitely looked embarrassed and he swallowed hard as he began walking away from the gym. "Thanks. It was nice to meet you… I guess since you're an Elite Four member, I'll be seeing you again sometime."

"Looking forward to it, Brendan!" Delaney called back to him as they separated and Delaney headed towards the Pokemon Center. It was a quick walk and within moments Delaney was going through the door and bounding up the stairs to her room.

"Del!" she heard from below her. The brunette turned around to see Sawyer sitting on a couch in the main lobby with both of their bags. His shirt was scorched at the bottom.

Delaney hurried back down the stairs. "Sawyer! What happened?!"

"We may or may not have gotten kicked out of our room," Sawyer said with a nervous smile.

"What did you do?" Delaney asked, crossing her arms and looking down at Sawyer. "Were you trying to play with Marvel again? I told you that she hates hide and seek. It makes her angry."

"No, I learned my lesson after what happened in Olivine," Sawyer said with a grimace.

"I've never seen an old woman so angry…" Delaney said thoughtfully. "But anyways, stop side-stepping this. What happened?"

"You were the one who brought up Marvel!" Sawyer argued, still avoiding the issue at hand.

"Sawyer," Delaney said, her tone clearly meaning business.

"It wasn't my fault!" he groaned. "It's just that Flapjack has a cold." Flapjack was Sawyer's flaaffy, and also his partner in crime in most of his 'accidents'.

"What does Flapjack having a cold have to do with you getting us kicked out of our room?" Delaney asked.

"He may or may not have started a small electrical fire," Sawyer said, cringing as he looked up at Delaney. "And we may or may not have thought it was a good idea for Perry to put it out and Perry kinda sorta blew a window out with the water he shot at the fire."

"Is that all?" Delaney asked with an eyebrow raise.

"Well, there's a possibility that we may have been playing electric shock tag with Annie and Flapjack sneezed and got a curtain instead of Annie, but my memory is kind of fuzzy."

Delaney groaned and shook her head. "I'm going to take your word on this because you really couldn't have made this up." She flopped down on the couch next to Sawyer and looked him in the eye. "Sawyer Hale, what am I going to do with you?"

"Not leaving me alone in Pokemon Center rooms while you do business is probably a good start," he said seriously. "We both know I haven't matured at all in the last couple years."

It was hard to believe that hours before Delaney had been pondering over the changes in Sawyer. Yes, he had been forced to grow up some with what had happened in Unova, but mature? Never. Delaney sighed. "This is true. It's a good thing we're getting going to leave for Slateport in a moment and we can stay in their Pokemon Center… Or did you get us kicked out of all of them?"

"Nope, just this one!" Sawyer said proudly. "We should probably get moving though. That nurse is not at all happy with me."

"The sooner, the better," Delaney said, glancing over at the on-duty nurse who was glaring daggers in their direction. She grabbed her bag from the couch and got up, heading for the exit. Sawyer followed suit.

"Did you get everything done that you needed to?" he asked as they began to head east. Delaney figured taking the waterway north of Oldale and then going south to Slateport was probably their best course of action.

"Yeah, the meeting went really well! The gym leader really has it together. I'm really impressed with these Hoenn gym leaders," she said. "Hopefully everyone else is as efficient as this. I think this is really going to be an easy task!" And if it was, then she could really impress the Elite Four, which would be a really good thing.

It was a quick hour jetting across the small waterway to the eastern part of route 103, which was a bright, happy little place. They walked along a path framed by berry trees and flowers as the young trainers around them battled with their pikachus (as well as the little red and blue Pikachu clones that Sarah had shown her) and wurmples and beautiflys. People waved to Delaney and Sawyer as they passed by, though nobody challenged them. The sun was beginning to set, reflecting a golden light onto the trail. "Isn't this place beautiful?" Delaney asked. Sawyer nodded lazily. Both hoped they would come across Slateport soon. Delaney imagined it to be even more lovely than Petalburg had been, as it was a coastal city.

It took awhile before Delaney noticed that their path was no longer framed by berry trees and flowers. Puddles of still water surrounded by bug pokemon were becoming more and more common and Delaney cringed as she stepped down and the ground was no longer hard. Her shoes were enveloped in a muddy mess. "What the hell?" she muttered.

The further south, they headed, the more still water and mud they encountered, until finally, in the midst of the puddles, they encountered a large building that upon further inspection, was the harbor where boats had sailed. There were no other buildings in sight, not even a Pokemon Center. "There's no gym here, or gym leader to take care of things," Sawyer said as he looked around, concerned.

"Steven said Mauville's gym leader was supposed to be taking care of things," Delaney said, looking around in wonder at what was once Slateport City. "It looks like the apocalypse happened."

"Or Jaws," Sawyer said, nodding. "Except like Super Jaws."

Delaney rolled her eyes, but said nothing. It was hard to believe what had clearly been a large city had been completely wiped out besides this one building. "Well, I guess Mauville is our next stop," she said, looking around one last time. "There's no point in staying here."

"Shouldn't you maybe call Steven?" Sawyer asked as Delaney pulled out the pokeball that contained Grace, her altaria. Sawyer followed suit and released his noctowl, Busby.

"I think I need to have a talk with a certain gym leader first," Delaney said, pursing her lips. She climbed on Grace's fluffy back and took off to the north. The ground underneath them was completely dark by the time both Delaney and Sawyer had taken off on their respective flyers. It was like nothing had ever existed there.

Author's Note (8/07/12): First off, thank you all SO much for being patient with me as I finished up my summer semester! It went fabulously and I got an A on the paper I've been working on for the last week (the paper that will also eventually be used for a research grant application, senior thesis and graduate school application writing sample)... Which landed me with a 4.0 for the summer. (:

Thanks also for being patient during this beginning stretch... It's about to pick up immensely in the next chapter or two, promise!

A super thanks to my wonderful beta and friend, Noteleks! And finally thanks to you all for reading this. I love to hear what you all have to say in your reviews, but just the fact that you're taking time out of your days to read this little story that I love writing is enough to make my day!

Chapter 4 will be up much faster than this was... I start school on the 20th, but in the meantime, I've got a lot else trying to be crammed in to these last few weeks of freedom (including work, which unfortunately, never ends). I've already started in and am hoping to have it done and edited in time for a Monday release, so keep an eye out.

Thanks as always you guys, and see you next week!

~DAT