Chapter 2 - Old Friends

"Eevee! Defense curl! Hurry!" Hannah's eevee quickly obeyed. Both pokemon had gotten several good hits on each other and neither was backing down. The battle was testing both pokemon's skills as well as their trainer's skills.

"Zubat! Use leach life!" Zubat swooped out of the sky and attempted to latch onto eevee. Eevee quickly leapt out of the way retaliated with a tackle. Zubat was knocked out of the air and onto the ground.

"Now's our chance, Eevee! Use quick attack!" shouted Hannah at her pokemon. With blinding speed, eevee charged zubat and head butted it out of the field. Zubat was clearly unconscious. "Yay! We won!" Both Hannah and vulpix dashed out onto the field and onto a dazed but happy eevee. The challenger returned his zubat to his pokeball and mumbled a thank you for the battle and sauntered off. Cameron walked over to Hannah and hugged and kissed her on the cheek.

"You did very well and used a nice strategy by using offensive moves defensively. I told you my techniques would help. I'm proud of you." Cameron told her.

"Sheesh! You sound like my mom... I'm glad I have you with me for support though." Hannah looked up into Cameron's eyes and leaned forward into his arms. They kissed for a moment and they hung in each others' arms for several minutes.

"Well... erm..." said Cameron clearing his throat, "We had better get going if we want to get there and back home by at least dark."

Cameron and Hannah had been visiting Professor Elm since he had visited their school in Cherrygrove City. It was how the two had met. Both were avid enthusiasts in the field of pokemon research. Now that it was summer, the pair often went to his lab in New Bark Town. They had been studying the pokemon in the area and would report their findings to Prof. Elm. Cameron had received a pokedex from Prof. Oak while in Kanto.

Cameron opened the door and already he spotted something out of place but very familiar. It was a backpack. A plain, red, girls backpack next to a blue one with a green stripe. It wouldn't have caught anyone else's eye except Cameron's. He was very familiar with it. Then came the unmistakable laugh. She was here.

"I wonder who's here with the Professor" commented Hannah after hearing the voices and laughing. She looked over at Cameron who looked pale and dead. He was staring at the backpacks. Hannah shook him gently, "Cameron, what's wrong?" It took several shakes to rouse him.

"I... I uh.. I know who's here... The Professor is busy... We should probably just go home."

"Don't be silly! I didn't walk all that way just to turn back because you're too shy!" Hannah smiled and pushed Cameron ahead.

Cameron crept forward past the endless book cases containing almost every book dealing with pokemon known to man.

In front of the two was a Professor Elm, a boy, and a girl, both about the same age as Cameron. Professor Elm waved at Cameron and Hannah when he saw them and the other two kids turned around. The girl had bright, orange hair which she kept in a ponyta tail sticking out from the left side of her head. She appeared somewhat tomboyish and her eyes went wide. The boy had short, black hair and what appeared to be lightning bolt shaped marks under his eyes.

The girl squealed and shouted, "CAMERON!" She leapt on to him, almost knocking him down, and hugged him. Cameron made rasping sounds from being squeezed too hard and tried to breathe. The boy narrowed his eyes in displeasure but didn't say anything.

"H.. Hello Misty." Cameron managed to sort of exhale his words with very little air left in his gasping lungs. Misty relinquished her death grip on Cameron and stepped back. Hannah stood next to Cameron, awestruck.

"Ah! So you two know each other?" questioned the Professor.

"Actually, us three know each other..." mumbled the boy signifying himself, the girl Misty, and Cameron.

"Oh, hello Ash." said Cameron with a slight hint of disdain in his voice. "What might you two be doing in Johto?" Cameron's demeanor and tone suggested he was shocked to even think that he would have seen either of them again.

"We're delivering a rare egg to Professor Elf for Oak." chimed in Misty. "Actually no one has ever seen one of them before." Cameron seemed uneasy to even look at Misty.

Hannah regained her composure and rummaged through her backpack before pulling out a notebook. "Well... here's those notes we collected on the sentret nesting grounds..."

At that Cameron said, "Well, now that that's all done we'll be on are way!" Just as Professor Elm was about to protest, Cameron grabbed Hannah and stepped out the door one hundred feet away in a single step.