Arden had been training for days, in a way that was nearly nonstop. Every morning he'd leave Vermillion Pokemon Center to go train in the grass around the city, and he wouldn't return until the evening, when his pokemon were completely beat. He was afraid to challenge Surge again. Afraid to be so miserably beaten. One evening, while he waited for his pokemon to be healed, he told another trainer waiting in the Center about his crushing defeats at the hands of the city's gym leader.

"Yeah, Surge is a tough guy," she said. "Why don't you just go to Celadon city? The gym leader there's Erika, and I hear that she's far easier to beat."

"I can't get into Saffron city to get to Celadon."

"Well," said the girl. "There's a tunnel to Celadon just outside Saffron's gate to the east. If you go to Lavender town, you should be able to reach it."

"What?" said Arden, standing up quickly. He pulled at his own hair. "Why did no one tell me I could get to another gym without going through Saffron? Argh! I am so out of this stupid city!" He ran to the counter.

The nurse smiled, lifting his pokeballs out of the machine. "Your pokemon are fighting fi—"

Arden snatched the balls from her and ran out of the pokemon center. He ran through the tall grass north of Vermillion, startling the pokemon and angering the trainers. He dashed to the underground tunnel, and pushed on the door, still running. The door stuck, causing him to slam into it. He fell backwards, hitting the ground hard, his nose bleeding. Stiffly, he sat up, wiping the blood away with the back of his hand.

"Oh, Kanto," he muttered. "Just when my anger fades, you remind me why I hate you so much."

He stood up, and rammed his shoulder into the door, forcing it open. Muttering to himself, he started through the underground path, tripping and stumbling in the darkness. He emerged at the other end to the low, grassy cliffs south of Cerulean city. He resumed his path north, jogging, past the Daycare where he'd sent his magikarp. As he got to Cerulean proper, he ran out of breath and had to stop and rest a while. He sat down in the shade of a building, and rested awhile, releasing his vulpix to keep him company.

"Hey there, Blazer," said Arden, patting the yellow vulpix's head.

"Vul," said Blazer, closing his eyes and rubbing his head against Arden's chest.

"You certainly are an affectionate guy, I've noticed over the past few days," said Arden. "You don't miss your old trainer at all?"

"Vul." Blazer shook his head, and licked Arden's cheek.

"That's funny," Arden said. "Because Gentry had a different trainer, and he's still got separation anxiety from being traded."

"Vuuulpix," said the pokemon, resting his paws on Arden's lap.

"So, tell me, Blaze," said Arden, scratching at the blood that had dried under his nose. "How'd you get to be yellow? Is that, like, a birth defect, or something? Are you magical? Oh—are you a genie who's been trapped in the form of a pokemon? Was the person Thief stole you from the one who trapped you in this form? Is that why you're so lovey-dovey all the time? Do you need the reciprocating love of another person to turn back into human form?"

The vulpix cocked his head to one side. "Pix."

Arden sighed and patted the yellow vulpix's head. "Don't worry about it," he mumbled. "I, uh, I have some problems sometimes, where my brain goes on auto-pilot and… Well, it's a bad habit that I'm trying to get better about."

He stood up. "We should get going. I'm sure that the, uh…" He paused to look for a sign. "That this Cycle Shop doesn't want us loitering around." He blinked, and then reached into his pants pocket. "Oh! That voucher Thief snagged! I can get a bike!"

"Vulpix?" asked Blazer, following him around to the front of the shop.

"And then, I won't need to do so much running," said Arden, opening the door. He entered the interior of the building, followed by his stolen pokemon.

A man at the counter looked up. "Hey," he said, indifferent to his new customer.

Arden slammed his bike voucher on the counter. "Give me a bike!"

"No need to abuse the furniture," said the clerk, picking up a collapsed bike. "I mean, you could've just handed me the coupon. Here."

Arden took the bike and looked at it. "How do I…?"

"Pull here and there. There you go," said the man, showing him.

"This is pretty light weight," said Arden. "Is it going to hold me?"

"It's made for traveling. You'll be fine. Nice day to you."

Arden left, wheeling the bike along beside him, with his vulpix padding obediently along behind. Once he was out of the shop, he got on the bike and started pedaling. Blazer ran along beside him as he rounded the edge of Cerulean City and started along the winding path which led to Lavender town.

"Wonder what Lavender's like," he said as he cruised along the hard-packed earth. Mountains and cliffs rose on all sides of them, and he passed several pokemon trainers battling each other. "I mean, I heard stories about it from my big brother, but… Well, Gaius was always a bit of a blow hard, so it gets difficult to tell when he's telling the truth and when he's just making up stories."

"Vulpix," said Blazer, sprinting along beside him.

"You're a good listener, Blaze," said Arden. "That's what I like about you. You don't interrupt me every five seconds like Gimp, and the fact that I can't understand a word you say means if it doesn't matter if you're trying to give me advice."

"Vuuul!" squealed Blazer, wagging his fan-like tail.

"I don't want to offend you or anything," said Arden. "But I just—and, mind you, this is just a vibe—but I just can't shake the feeling you haven't got a lot between your ears. Not to call you slow but… I think you might be a bit slow."

"Vul?"

"Hey, don't worry about it," said Arden. "Unless it starts making you a pathetic wretch in battle. Then I'm going to have to trade you. But you won't mind that, I guess. I'm sure you'll warm up to anyone."

"Vulpix!" shouted Blazer closing his eyes. He licked Arden's elbow as he ran.

"Yeah… Not really disproving my point, but okay."

A/N: Hi, all. I want to thank everyone again for reading. Even if I don't respond to every review, just let me say that every review is meaningful to me and I greatly appreciate that you take the time to read this, and that you take even more time to think of something to say and say it.

I wanted to point out, in case you haven't looked at my profile lately, that I've put up a link to a picture of Arden and his (fully evolved) team. The picture is hosted on my DeviantART account, and I plan to put up more pictures--portaits of Felicia, Dixie, and maybe Gaius and their respective teams, as well as pictures of them interacting with each other. These pictures may contain spoilers for the story, or they may contain rosters and plot ideas that get nixxed before showing up.

Anyway, if you're interested enough in this story, I'd recommend you keep an eye out for that extra material. Thank you so much for reading, once again.