Sorry this chapter took me a while to update - I've been kinda busy lately. Enjoy!

"Ow. Okay, ow. Jayce, call off your stupid...thing."

We're well onto Route 32, as a sign tells us. It's mostly rocky terrain with large boulders, however, patches of wild grass grow here and there, and I know that if I want to find a wild Pokemon, all I would have to do is walk to the center of one and wait.

Jayce has released his Pokemon so they can walk with us, and one of them - the green-and-purple one that floats - keeps pulling my hair.

Jayce just grins. "She's just playing."

"Well, it hurts." I push her away from my head. "What is she, anyway?"

"She's a Misdreavus. A Ghost-type Pokemon." Jayce cups his hands and encircles the ghost carefully, then sets her on his own head. She shrieks happily, grabs two fistfuls of his hair, and yanks it hard.

"That doesn't hurt?" I ask, horrified.

"Nah. Just tickles a little. She's cute, isn't she?"

"Adorable." I'm not sure if he catches the sarcasm or not. I turn and point at the plant Pokemon with the yellow, bell-shaped head. It's ambling along on thin, root-shaped legs behind Jayce. "What's that one?"

"Bellsprout. He's a Grass/Poison type mixture. He's a little bit younger than the others, but he's already pretty strong." Misdreavus grabs a fistful of Jayce's hair again. "And then the last one is Mankey...he's around here somewhere..."

I turn and point. "There?" Jayce's white-furred Pokemon is scrambling up a nearby rocky cliff face, hopping from boulder to boulder on nimble, brown appendages. "Are you okay with him just...running off like that?"

Jayce grins. "Oh, he'll come back. Mankey!" he calls up to the Pokemon. It turns and looks expectantly. "Be careful."

The furry creature nods solemnly and continues hopping up the cliff.

"He's a strange one," Jayce says as we continue along the route. "He likes to be alone. I think he likes to feel independent or something. He's a Fighting type, like Machoke."

I hear something like loneliness in his voice when he says Machoke's name, and I look up at him. "Do you miss him? Machoke, I mean?"

"Well...yeah." Jayce admits. His expression is incredibly serious considering he's wearing Misdreavus like a hat. "He's been with me kind of constantly ever since I was little. I mean, these guys - " he gestures to his Pokemon around him - "these guys are amazing, but Machoke...he'll always be special, I guess. If there was a way to go back and get him, I'd do it in a heartbeat." He stuffs his hands in his jeans pockets.

I feel kind of guilty. Technically, it's my fault that Machoke isn't here with us. If I hadn't run off in Cherrygrove, Jayce wouldn't have been separated from Machoke...

But then I wouldn't have started this journey. And I guess I wouldn't have really known Jayce at all. So it's really beside the point.

I can't help but feel guilty, though.

"Hey!" a voice shouts from our right. I look over and see a kid quite a bit younger than me grinning at us from in front of a large boulder. "You've got Pokemon - wanna battle?"

I look up at Jayce. "Do we?"

"He phrases it like that, but we don't have much of a choice unless there's some kind of emergency," Jayce admits. "It's common etiquette. The towns in this part of the region are pretty small, and not many people leave to become trainers, so route battles aren't as common around here. It'll probably get more intense the more we travel." He smoothes down his hair, which Misdreavus promptly grabs again. "Anyway, it'll be good for you. You're going to have to do a lot of training anyway, if you want to beat more Gym Leaders."

"Right." I sigh. Obviously, I have to battle to train. Because I'm a trainer.

"Let's go!" the kid shouts, and hurries forward excitedly. "Go, Rattata!" He tosses a Pokeball forward and a small, purple, rat-like Pokemon appears in a burst of white light. The Pokemon gnaws on its lower lip and stares at me with red eyes.

"Okay, Splash, get ready," I order, and my Totodile obediently hops in front of me, sizing up the Rattata.

"Rattata, bite it!"

"Splash, hit it with a Water Gun!"

Splash's jaw unhinges and a blast of water smashes into the rat Pokemon, making it stumble backward.

"Come on, Rattata!" the boy urges his Pokemon. The Rattata leaps into the air quickly and sinks its teeth into Splash.

"Scratch it, Splash!"

Splash reaches up and claws the Rattata from her body, growing low. Her reptilian eyes narrow as she waits for its next move.

"Rattata, use the terrain! Bite it again!"

Use the terrain? I watch as the rat hops nimbly up onto a nearby boulder and launches itself at Splash, biting her again with sharp teeth. This time, she has a harder time shaking it off. She's obviously getting tired.

"Hang in there, Splash. Water Gun!"

The blue crocodile blasts the rat with another jet of water, and it slams into the boulder it leaped from and sinks to the ground, dazed.

"Finish it off! Scratch!"

Splash charges up to the rat and swipes at it a final time, knocking it out.

"Hey, you're pretty good!" The kid grins at me, returning his unconscious Rattata to its Pokeball.

I flash him a quick grin, but my eyes are on Splash as she sways unsteadily. She's not in good shape. "Thanks."

"Yep! Well, I'll get out of your way - guess I'm going to have to train more if I want to challenge Bugsy. See you around!" He waves and trots back in the direction of Violet City, presumably to heal his Pokemon.

I scoop up a wobbly Splash and turn to Jayce. "Bugsy?"

"He's the Gym Leader in Azalea Town," Jayce says. "Bet you can't guess what type of Pokemon he uses."

"No idea," I say dryly, rubbing Splash's head. "Please tell me it's a nickname. What kind of horrible parents would name their child 'Bugsy'?"

"I can only assume it's a nickname," Jayce grins. "It's a little too convenient that he grew up to be obsessed with bug-type Pokemon." He nods at Splash. "Is she okay?"

"Not doing too well," I say. "Should we go all the way back to the Pokemon Center?"

Jayce shakes his head. "Didn't you get a bag from Joy, too?" He gestures to the one on his own back, and I remember that the bag has Pokemon medicine in it. "Does yours have potions in it?"

I slide it from my back. "Is that what this is?" I pull out a purple spray bottle.

"Yeah. That should do the trick."

I gently squeeze the trigger and spray Splash. She squints her eyes and shivers as the cool spray hits her, then shakes herself, looking refreshed.

"All better?" I ask her, standing up. She responds with a sunny smile, and I grin. "Then let's keep going."

We walk in silence for a while, disrupted only when Mankey returns, scrambling down a rocky slope to join us. Jayce smiles when he sees the serious-faced Pokemon.

"Oh - Hazel," he says a few minutes later, as the afternoon sun seems to be cooling. "Something I noticed when you were battling that kid - know how he used the terrain? With the boulders and rocks and stuff?"

"Yeah," I say.

"Well, that's basic strategy. When you train, you might want to work on that with your Pokemon. It can only help you in battles." He pauses. "And...speaking of training, you're going to need to do a lot of it if you want to beat Bugsy in Azalea. He's pretty tough. I'm thinking, like...a day-to-day schedule?"

For some reason, his advice rubs me the wrong way, but I don't say anything. Does he think that I'm not good enough to go up against Bugsy? "I thought you said you don't battle that much. How do you know so much about it, then?" I say - okay, somewhat accusatorily.

"Well - I don't, I guess." Jayce sounds somewhat taken aback. "I mean, I battled more when I was younger...I just thought maybe a more defined training schedule would help you out."

I don't say anything, but I'm still feeling annoyed. I'll be fine. I don't need to train so intensely. I mean, a schedule? Seriously? I beat Falkner, didn't I?

We walk as the sun starts to slip lower in the sky, and I start to wonder what we'll do if we don't reach Azalea before sundown.

Up ahead, I see a metallic, bridge-like structure spanning a grassy path. "What's that?" I ask.

"Not sure," Jayce admits. "I think they're train tracks or something. They're probably coming from Goldenrod City - that's the biggest city in the region."

We keep heading down the path, passing underneath the cool shadow of the tracks. I'm starting to feel exhausted. Splash yawns widely, and her jaws snap back together with a click. How much farther do we have to travel?

Then I hear a sharp, human cry, and it jolts me wide awake.

"What the hell was that?" I look wildly around, expecting an axe murderer to leap out from behind a craggy boulder.

Jayce freezes. He quickly returns each of his Pokemon to their Pokeball. "I don't know," he says quietly. Another scream pierces the air, and it sounds like - it sounds like a kid. It's coming from up ahead in the distance.

I don't think.

Before I know what I'm doing, I've grabbed Splash and I'm sprinting toward the sound. My heart is pounding in my ears, and I know I'm being impulsive and stupid, and that there's probably something really dangerous behind the scream, but it occurs to me that the only reason I am on this journey is because I was impulsive. Maybe it's not such a bad thing.

I'm not sure if Jayce is following me. I hope he is. I reach a curve on the rocky path and turn the corner sharply -

And there's a group of people dressed in black standing there. Rockets. They've surrounded themselves with Pokemon - I recognize a few Zubat, Ekans, and Rattata among the Pokemon - and there's a little girl in the coils of one of the Ekans. Tears are streaming down her face.

A small crowd - ten people or so - are clustered to the side of the black-clothed criminals. I recognize the white attire of Pokemon Center workers on most of them, although there are one or two people who look as if they are travelers who just happened to be caught up in this. The red roof of a Pokemon Center is visible nearby.

"Just hand over the Pokemon," one of the goons calls. "We promise that we won't harm the girl if the Pokemon are given to us."

"Splash," I gasp, out of breath from running. My brave little Pokemon leaps from my arms, and I toss out Marie's Pokeball as well, thinking of nothing but saving the girl.

I pant, skidding to a stop, and watch as Marie and Splash attack the Ekans. Marie keeps her distance wisely, firing embers, but Splash claws angrily at the snakelike Pokemon. She doesn't seem to want to use Water Gun, probably because she's afraid of harming the girl.

"What the - " one of the criminals sputters. "Where did these Pokemon come from? Ekans, get rid of them!"

The snake hisses angrily and sinks its teeth into Splash's side. I try to scream, but I'm still breathless from my sprint, and it chokes in my throat. Splash is tossed aside like a ragdoll, and lies still.

The goons are turning around confusedly, and a few more order their Pokemon to attack Marie. She goes down with a cry as a small group of Rattata pounce on her.

Now, no one is paying attention to the Ekans or the girl it is squeezing - and it's squeezing her tighter in its confusion. She struggles for breath, looking terrified.

Don't think.

I get up and run, diving at the Ekans and struggling to pry its coils from the girl. I hear shouts of surprise from the Rockets, but all that matters is the child. She's so small. My pulling at the coils is only making the snake squeeze tighter, so I try and hit its head.

Yes. The Ekans jolts backward in surprise, loosening its coils, and the girl is free. I act quickly, pulling her from the loose coils, adrenaline making it an easy task.

The Ekans whips its tail.

Ow.

I stare at my hand. A small, thin spike is embedded in it. The skin around the spike throbs purple beneath the surface. My whole hand aches, and it feels heavy. I have to let it drop into my lap.

There's chaos around me. Pokemon are moving, fighting, Rockets are running away. I'm not sure what's going on, exactly, but the heavy, achy feeling is spreading up my arm like someone injected me with lead. I blink, and I'm lying on my side. I wonder vaguely how that happened.

I wince. Now my stomach hurts, like when I had the flu when I was little. Mom let me stay in bed then. I should be in bed now.

There's someone standing over me, but my eyes aren't working right - there are big black spots in the way. What I can see is kind of fuzzy.

Someone's lifting me. I don't know how they can lift me when I feel so heavy - a million pounds, probably.

"I'm probably going to throw up on you," I try and inform the person carrying me, but my mouth doesn't work right. That kind of irritates me. Why won't I work?

My eyelids lower. I'm really, really tired. I've had a long day, and now my stomach hurts. I should rest.

As I slip out of consciousness and my aching body shuts down, I am dimly aware of a male voice that sounds pretty familiar...and it doesn't sound very happy.

It's saying, "Way to go, Hazel."

Seriously, though, if you're still reading and have been from the beginning, I love you. Without you, Hazel would never have made it out of New Bark. Special thanks goes to RoseWing-chan, for being there from the very beginning and always giving such positive and helpful reviews(: You're great! Everyone, please keep reading and reviewing!