I do not own anything regarding Pokemon in a legally binding sense.

Chapter Two - Memories (Heart and Mind)

Time: 10:00 PM (Present)

Place: Forest

"That was the first time wasn't it?" The silence was broken, they had been staring into the orange coals, red embers, and the black night.

"That we came out here? Yea, it was."

"I can hardly believe how long ago that all seems now. It's been wild." Nostalgia washed over them all.

"It's been a long time since we've all sat together like this."

"Yeah, there's so much to catch up on."

The figures around the campfire stretch, talk, eat, and laugh. The fire light dances on their faces. As the laughter drifts into the starry night sky and the shadows of the trees shrink in around the dying fire, the Team let loose sighs of release and slowly pick up their story once more.

"Pass the chips back over here, thanks. So do you guys remember your first capture?"

"My first capture? Of course. I think all of us would. I mean. . . That was huge. Right?" Laughter, deep breaths, more laughter, and a growing sense of ease spread through each member as the stories carry on.

"Yeah, I remember mine. I remember thinking and planning after we got that map. Trying to decide what I was going to catch."

"We've still got some time. Who wants to start?"

"I guess I will."

Time: 8:00 AM (Past – 3 years ago)

Place: Packing into the van.

Now that they were trainers, they set their own schedules. No longer tied to the work- or class-a-day times, they found themselves with an enormous amount of freedom. Freedom to travel, to battle, to see the sights, and to truly immerse themselves in the world of pokemon. They had all gathered the night before, to more easily awaken and prepare for travel. Each had packed three days' cloths, pokegear, pokeballs, and a mini-cooler full of food and another full of drinks. The mini-coolers clearly did not have enough to last a full three days but hopefully they would be able to use their know-how to find food in their surroundings. After collecting everything they packed into the van to head out to the forest. The forest may not be amazingly large, but it is exactly what every trainer needs – a place to start. The forest is old, full of old foot paths and has generally static areas of certain species of pokemon. The river that runs through the forest is easy to follow and the natural growths are edible to both pokemon and people during the summer months.

As the grouped packs themselves in they begin to talk, "So what are you guys going after?" Tobias asks once the van is on the road and there is travel time to kill.

"Oh, I'm definitely fishing for some water types. I want to give Wooper a new bud."

"I think I'm going after a bug type. They get underestimated all the time. Croagunk and I know what that's like."

"I would love to catch something strong. Like a pidgeotto, something that can offset one of Sneak's weaknesses would be great too. I don't know. I don't remember any wild fighting types in the area and I'm not that interested in a bug type. But a strong flyer would be great. Aerial advantages are sweet."

"I need to get me a psyduck." John spoke from behind the wheel, not taking his eyes off the road. It gave pause to the conversation in the back of the van.

"Really, John? A psyduck? Why?"

"Dude, it's psyduck. It's a strong water type. It can use powerful psychic moves, and it's a swimmer. I can't swim with Frag."

"Powerful may not be the right word. And I think you would have more luck with powerful psychic attacks using a staryu, their evolved forms, starmie, can use some pretty strong psychic attacks."

"Eh, staryus are ugly. Psyduck is definitely what I'm going for."

"What about you, Dom?"

"I don't know. I'm going to see what I run into. I want to look until I find the pokemon I know needs to be with me."

"Cool. Joshua?"

"Well, with Doduo I can't exactly fly around, but I do have my flying-type quota covered. Not even sure I want to be riding around on the back of a pokemon anyway, and I can still get to high up enemies and use strong flying type techniques. So I guess I need to get something to cover one of my other fronts. I could do water type, but we'll have a lot of those. Or I could do a ground type, but the only one to look for seems pretty rare. I guess I'll look for a sandshrew, and if I can't find it I'll decide from there."

"Well Tobias, you started this. What are you looking for?"

"I'm not sure. To be honest I would take just about anything. But I don't know if there is anything in the forest I really want to keep, you know? I kind of feel like I'm taking them away from their home and then convincing them that they'll have a better life traveling around with some person they never met before he hit them with a pokeball." The group thought about this for a couple minutes.

"Deep." Dom nodded to Tobias.

"Yeah." The others solemnly agreed.

"I still want to catch them though." John said from up front.

"Me too."

"Totally."

"So much for that moment. . ." Tobias went back to flipping through the guide book for the forest.

Place: A rest stop off the Interstate the group makes a short pit stop to check the map and stretch their legs.

While milling around the van and they begin to talk while John and Thomas examine the map and supplies.

"You know what guys, I think they need a break too. I mean, we're cramped in a van, but this is way smaller." Cameron pulls his pokeball from his belt and releases Wooper while he talks.

"Woooop!"

"There you go little guy, stretch your legs a bit. I'm sure we can give these guys some time to rest before we get back on the road."

"Yea, that's not a bad idea. Come out, Dratini." Tobias releases his dragon to the side of the group and the light solidifies into the serpentine form of his loyal starter.

"Riiii."

"Sneak, get out here."

"Snii snii."

"Glenn, let's go."

"Frag."

"Dyne, join in."

"Crooooo."

"Char char."

"Eeee."

Once everyone had released their pokemon to stand beside them they realized they had begun to get looks from some of the other people at the rest stop. It wasn't long before some of the people walked up to talk to the trainers and examine the pokemon. A small trio of wide-eyed children were the first to speak up, no doubt it was their first time seeing a pokemon up close and personal.

"Wow! Is that a Charmander? He's a fire type. I love fire types!"

"Yeah, Frag here is awesome. Strong, fast, I even fought an ace trainer with him."

"Oh wow!" The kids beamed as John began to talk about his epic battle with an Ace Trainer that he almost won. Some of the others smirked at the story as they remembered the events differently.

Soon parents were coming up alongside their kids, and even they began to ask questions of the new trainers.

"So, you're all trainers huh? I wanted to be a trainer for a long time when I was younger. Never did get the chance."

"I think I must have entered the starter contest for almost five years running, never did get my certification."

"I want one! I want one! I want to be a trainer!" A small girl holding a poke-plush, pointed at the different pokemon and cried to her mother in joy.

"Quiet down, you may get lucky enough to be a trainer one day. It takes a lot of hard work though, doesn't it?"

The team seems overwhelmed at their first few fans. "Well.. Yeah. I mean. It is going to be a lot of work. We just got our starters."

"True, we just got them at this year's contest. We're actually heading to train with them for the first time."

"So you're a team then, right? Which one are you? I heard a little about some of them at this year's performance."

"Umm. We're Team Locust Pack, actually."

"Oh, you're Team LP?"

"L..P?"

"Yeah, Locust Pack. A lot of the people I've spoken to have just shortened it to L.P."

"Cool. Do we get talked about a lot?"

"Well, people are expecting some big things from all the trainers in our area. From what I hear one of you even got a stadium token."

"Mommy, what's a stay-dum toe-ken?"

"It's a special coin that means they did something very, very difficult while they were new trainers."

"Ohhhhh! Can we see it! Can we! Please!?"

"Quiet down now, you don't need to raise your voice at them."

"Oh... Umm. Sure, hey, Joshua, can you show them the token you won?"

"Here it is." Joshua removed from his wallet a thin, golden colored coin and showed it to the group, it glinted in the sun as he rotated it for them to look at.

"Congratulations on that, it's quite an achievement."

"Thank you."

"So you're pokemon can battle, right?" An older girl asked while she examined the Teams' pokemon from a few steps back. "Are they dangerous?"

"No, no." Tobias waved his hands to dispel the thought. "They're our friends. They can battle, but they think and fight alongside us. They aren't scary at all. Battles can even be really exciting."

"That's true I saw this one battle on TV last week. . . ." The children began speaking quickly amongst themselves of the battles they had watched making exaggerated motions and yelling.

"Oh hey, this may be a bit much, but would you guys mind doing a little battling for us before you go? We'd love to see a show, up close."

The team stared at them, it was their turn to be wide-eyed. They didn't know how to respond at first. Slowly they looked at each other. Eventually Simon spoke up, "We'd love to." That seemed to snap everyone back into the moment and they all nodded and looked at their pokemon for assurance. "Come on, who wants to battle Glenn a little. You ready, Glenn?"

"Croa. Gunk."

"I'll do it. Let's go Dyne." Dom stepped forward with Dyne, who had been hiding near Dom's feet since the crowd had gathered.

"Oh, how cute! Eevee's are so adorable."

"Thanks. Let's do this, Dyne. Ready?"

"Eeeee..."

The trainers moved to the grass behind the building, and took up positions. Simon and Dom each had their starter in front of them as the crowd took their places along the edge of the make-shift field.

Thomas spoke before the battle, trying to sound official. "This will be a one versus one, and will go until the trainers recall their pokemon and the crowd is entertained. Enjoy the show, battle on!"

"Dyne, tail-whip." As Dyne shook it's fluffed up tail at Glenn the crowd "Ooooed and Ahhhed"

John began to speak in his announcer voice, keeping a play by play. "Dom has opened with his usual Tail Whip, trying to get Glenn to lower his defenses. This is a classic move on his part."

Glenn seemed unaffected by the cute display. "Glenn, Astonish."

"Simon is going straight for the offensive, no messing around here. Little Dyne is gonna have to watch out, or he's gonna be in a heap of trouble."

Slowly Glenn hopped forward, and made his way close to Dyne. Just shy of arm's reach though he stopped and suddenly stood at his full height and expanded his poison sacs to their fullest. Just as he was at his most intimidating he through a quick jab at Dyne's left.

"Quick Dyne, dodge that and tackle him to the ground." It was too late though, Dyne flinched from the fear of Glenn's size and took a hit to his left shoulder and stumbled back a couple steps.

"Oh no. It looks like Dyne took the blow, but is still standing. He might be too scared to move though, the crowd may have to cheer him on to get him back to his feet!" John waved both his hands in the air trying to get the crowd to cheer louder.

"Come on, Eevee!"

"You can do it, Dyne!"

"Now Dyne, Tackle him before he moves away." Given enough of a running start and shaking off the fear Dyne dove into Glenn's stomach, winding him and pushing him back.

"Whoa, it looks like that little eevee packs a wallop, and Glenn felt it right in his gut. What is Simon going to do now, he's got his opponent up close, just like he likes them."

"Glenn, get him with Mud Slap!" Glenn begins to pick up fist fulls of mud and hurl them at Dyne, the graceful form dodges many of them, but finds that now it's feet are covered in thick mud.

"Well it seems Glenn is going to need some more training on accuracy, Simon. But what's this? Dyne seems sluggish with all that mud he can't keep steady."

"There's no way he's getting out of that, Astonish again!" Simon calls out with the energy of someone ordering a final attack.

"Tail whip him, trust me Dyne." Dom looks serious, his fists are clenched. He has a plan.

As Dyne tries to distract Glenn with a tail whip, Glenn moves closer and slowly begins to expand his size once more for a fearful attack.

"This could be it, Dom must have something in mind, but will it be enough to take down Glenn?"

"Now, he's close enough, tackle!" Although he isn't able to get a running start in the mud, Glenn is now close enough to land the tackle without much foot work. It's another body blow and Glenn falls back losing his attack and having to focus on keeping his balance.

"Great job, Glenn. Return."

"Shake off some of that mud, Dyne. You did well."

"That's it ladies and gentlemen, that's a match. Let's hear it for our trainers, and let's hear it for our pokemon!"

The crowd cheered loudly at the quick fight. "Thanks, LP. Looking forward to your next battles."

"Thanks everyone, we should get going. We need to train."

"And go catch ourselves some more team members!"

"Bye!"

The team packs back into the van, and the cramped quarters don't seem so small this time as they think about the show they just put on and the cheering fans. As they pull out of the rest stop, they receive the occasional honk and wave from fans driving by. It does a lot to lighten their spirits. Soon enough they are talking again, congratulating Simon and Dom on their battle and discussing what to catch with renewed vigor.