Disclaimer:

Jordan: Hello again, back to my POV, once again…

Camilla: …the author does not own Pokémon.

Jordan: Camilla!

Camilla: What?

Tall Tales of Tohjo

Brock had decided to join us through Johto, that I was glad for, Tracey had decided to stay with the professor. Professor Oak didn't mind.

I left with Brock and Camilla who I met in Viridian and now were on the first path in Johto.

People think Johto started once you entered the first town, but the route between victory road and the first town of Johto is where Johto starts.

Johto felt different to Kanto, it had an almost alien feel to it. It wasn't my home region, but it just felt off, like something bad was going to happen.

'Hey buddy, sense anything?' I asked.

'Pika.' He said shaking his head.

I trusted Pikachu, but something just felt off as soon as we entered this route.

Brock was looking at his PokéNav plus, I know that we didn't have Johto's map installed on our PokéNav's, maybe we would get the map installed at a later point, apparently there was no functionality in the Orange Islands to do with PokéNav's at all.

I wondered what Brock was looking at, but I didn't ask as I was still being cautious.

Camilla also looked nervous, like something bad would happen.

I looked at Cubone and realized that it had still not evolved or even attacked anything, it had been over a year. Cubone was saved by Camilla in Lavender town, that was a whole year just before my third Gym battle and now we were entering our third year travelling together, Camilla and I would have been travelling together for two years in a few months.

Two years since we first met, two years since we became friends.

Camilla had her hair cut, it was now cut quite short, it fell to just above her shoulders, but it was still in curls and she was still wearing her signature fedora hat, her clothes were different from the Orange islands, her foster parents must have given her new clothes. I now understood why they were worried about Camilla, and why meeting me may have been a bad idea, but they didn't mind me now, they knew I'd be able to keep Camilla safe, even if I couldn't say the same for myself.

Camilla was wearing brown lace boots, that came to halfway up her shin, a white short sleeved shirt with a black collar tucked in a deep blue knee length dress. She was wearing a grey fleecy jacket.

She had a white tote bag slung over her shoulders and a Pokéball belt strapped around her waist.

I was wearing a purple t-shirt with yellow paint splatters with most of the left shoulder being yellow, but you couldn't see it as it was under my aqua coloured hoodie. The hoodie was primarily aqua with a white collar and aqua hood, the bottom of hoodie is a bright pink. The trousers I wore were denim blue jeans with small tufts of rips on them. My trainers were white trainers with grey on each side. The bag I had slung over my left shoulder that fell to my right side was a primarily orange two tone messenger bag, the bottom half of the flap was black, underside of strap was also black. My cap was black with a white top with black beak, the underside of the beak is red. There is a shield on the front on the left side with a grey Pokéball logo, I also had a green feather accessory on it.

The cap that I got for my birthday was almost destroyed, my mum gave me a new one, she had brought all these clothes for me and they were a lot comfier than I thought they'd be. Brock was wearing what he wore what he was wearing the last time we saw him, the murky green top with a brown jacket over it and dark orange trousers with black shoes, he also had the same rucksack. You could carry loads of supplies in that, not like mine or Camilla's.

This route is said to be treacherous, not many people are brave enough to travel it, they just get transport some other way, but since we had a bad experience with flying and they didn't have a train active, or a boat that goes to Johto, this was the only way.

We walked in silence for a few minutes before Brock exclaimed.

'Whoa!'

I almost jumped out of my skin. I saw Camilla was shocked too.

We were both thinking the same thing, I could tell from he way she looked toward me.

'What is it?' I asked, turning to face Brock, he had a brochure. I swear he used them more than the PokéNav plus.

'It seems that before we reach the first town there is a place called Tohjo falls.' He replied.

'Tohjo falls?' Camilla asked.

It seemed like an interesting place and even before we reached the first town.

'Where is it?' I asked.

'Its near the end of the route, but its pretty big and according to this, quite expanse, people have actually gotten lost in there, but there's loads to explore in there.' Brock explained. 'Its apparently name Tohjo falls because there are crashing waterfalls inside that are breath-taking and can keep you captivated for ages.'

Well, if it was the waterfalls that made you get lost, then I'd like to steer clear of the waterfalls.

'Any chance we can avoid it?' I asked.

'Jordan!' Camilla scolded.

'What?' I asked.

'You're going to ignore an opportunity that would help fill up our Pokédexes?' Camilla asked.

She was right there could be Pokémon in Tohjo falls that we had not yet recorded in our new updated Pokédexes.

'Camilla, the chance of that is very slim.' Brock said. 'But, Jordan, I know I said that people got lost, but that's only because they strayed from the path, it should only take us a few minutes to get through.' Brock told me.

That reassured me, but I understood why people would stray from the path, exploring a vast cave would be interesting, there may be many great Pokémon as you ventured further in, but the more you ventured in the easier it would be to get lost.

'Even if you wanted to avoid it, it's not possible, there is no way around it.' Brock said.

'What does Tohjo falls look like?' I asked.

'I guess it looks like that.' Camilla said.

She was pointing to a large mountain; I could see the entrance a few metres from us. It was dark inside; I couldn't see much from here.

'That's Tohjo falls all right.'

'Cue.' We heard Cubone call.

We all looked at Cubone, it was wriggling wildly in Camilla's arms, like something inside Tohjo falls was bothering.

'Anything bud?' I asked Pikachu.

Pikachu just shook his head, he couldn't feel anything, I didn't understand how Cubone, could, maybe he was agitated, but he never seemed this agitated before.

Cubone wiggled so much that he jumped from Camilla's arms, he landed on his feet on the floor and began to run into Tohjo falls.

'Cubone!' Camilla yelled and ran after Cubone.

Brock and I ran after her. Once we entered we didn't stop running. We couldn't admire the way Tohjo falls looked, not while we had a bigger problem, but I could see stalagmites and stalactites protruding from the ground and the cavern roof. I could hear water trickling, but I couldn't see from where, I saw Cubone up ahead, I didn't know how we hadn't caught up with him, he was a baby, how was he so fast.

He disappeared in a small crack in the wall, it was easy for him, but it was hard for Brock, Camilla and I to squeeze through. So much for not straying from the path.

Once we got though we came up to another cavern room, it looked like the first one, but with this one there were two waterfalls that were at the back wall.

Cubone was standing in the middle, it sounded like it was arguing with something that we couldn't see.

'Rhydon, stop this pesky pest from making any more noise.'

We all stopped dead in our tracks.

No! It couldn't be.

I would never mistake that voice for anyone else's.

He couldn't be here. How could he be here?

Giovanni stepped out of from behind a rock as his Rhydon appeared from a Pokéball.

He looked at us, his faced morphed into shock before returning to its evil smirk.

'Jordan Hale and Camilla Brook.' Giovanni smiled.

How did he know Camilla's real name.

Camilla and I were both shocked.

'You needn't look so surprised.' Giovanni said taking a step forward. 'It wasn't hard for my executives to find out everything we had on you.' Giovanni explained.

'You killed my parents!' Camilla yelled at him.

'Yes I did.' Giovanni said in a calm voice.

'You destroyed my life, took it away from me! A three-year-old girl shouldn't witness something like that!' She yelled.

'It was necessary.' Giovanni said shaking off her accusations.

'Necessary!' She yelled. 'How was it necessary?' She asked still with her voice raised.

'I couldn't get them to spill my whereabouts or plans to the police, no doubt they would betray me as soon as I let them leave.' Giovanni replied. I didn't understand how he could be so calm when Camilla was yelling at him like this. 'Miss Brook, if you wouldn't mind ceasing this quarrel for a moment.' Giovanni said.

Camilla had her mouth agape; I could see she was furious. Absolutely fuming. I had never seen her this mad. She had tears rolling down her face.

'My quarrel is not with you, it with Mr Hale here.'

'Me?' I asked looking at Giovanni.

'Yes, you humiliated me…'

'No.' Camilla said from next to me.

'Excuse me?' Giovanni asked.

'No. Your quarrel may not be with me, but I have a quarrel with you.' Camilla said. 'I have so many things that I wish to say to you, to do to you, unimaginable things, so you feel even a tiny bit of how I felt when you killed my parents.'

'How dare you!' Giovanni raised his voice.

He was looking at Camilla.

If Camilla wasn't furious before now, she definitely was now, she was shaking with pure rage, like she would jump Giovanni and kill him on the spot.

'Rhydon take care of her.'

Rhydon walked forward, but Cubone ran toward Rhydon and began hitting it with its small bone.

Rhydon swiped it away with one of its paws.

Cubone flew through the air to my right and landed on the floor, unable to move.

'Cubone!' Camilla yelled in concern, she lost her rage and immediately ran to Cubones aid.

'Now, that's out of the way.' Giovanni started. 'Where were we?' He asked rhetorically.

'You humiliated me, in front of every Team Rocket members. My executives even saw their leader as weak, so I decided to destroy you, but your father came in to save you. But this time he won't save you, you are all by yourself. No-one can save you this time.' Giovanni said bringing out a gun and pointing it to me. 'And once you are dead I'll kill the girl too, something I should have done after I killed her parents, one mistake I made.'

We heard a whoosh and a clank before Giovanni dropped his gun, holding his and in pain.

'Ow!' He exclaimed.

I looked toward my right and saw that Camilla's Cubone had thrown its bone perfectly, it was standing in front of Camilla with is hand in the air as if it expected its bone to come back. Not a moment later Cubone started to glow and it grew in size. This was unexpected, Cubone had done nothing, but be as a baby normally was, in its mothers care, but now it was to evolve and actually stand up for its mother. As soon as the glowing stopped a Marowak was in Cubones place. It had one hand on the ground and one hand in the air in a fighting stance, It was looking toward the ground. Marowak caught a bone that seemed to come out of nowhere. It looked up toward Rhydon as if it was challenging it to try attacking it again. I was sure that Marowak wouldn't be strong enough to take on Giovanni's Rhydon, Marowak had only just evolved.

Marowak ran toward Rhydon and hit it round the face with its bone. Rhydon staggered a few steps before regaining its balance, Marowak landed behind Rhydon.

'Bone club.' Camilla called.

Marowak hit the back of Rhydons leg and it fell to one knee.

'Rhydon, magnitude.' Giovanni called out.

I knew he was going to get angry at Camilla in a second, how a girl of her age was managing to easily beat his strongest Pokémon.

'Marowak, earthquake.'

Rhydon jumped and created a shaking, but Marowak jumped and caused an even greater shake, the room shook violently as both moves connected.

We all fell to the floor, normally I was able to withstand the shaking, but this was two moves with immense power tackling the other and they both created tremors, one more than the other.

A fissure was created next to Giovanni and his Rhydon, the shaking was too much for them that they fell in.

'This isn't the end Jordan Hale; I will find you and you will die at my hands.' Giovanni roared as he fell down a fissure that had just been created in this room. I heard his maniacal laugh fade into nothingness.

I hoped that was the end, but I had almost no doubt I would run into him again. Giovanni always found a way to find me, but this time there was a possibility that he may be dead.

Marowak turned to Camilla who immediately embraced her newly evolved Pokemon.

'Thank you for saving me, Marowak.' Camilla said into their embrace.

'Than you for saving my life too.' I said coming up behind Marowak.

Marowak turned to me nodding its head.

'We should leave guys before anything else colossal happens today.' Brock said.

'Yeah, I've had enough of big events happen today.' I agreed.

'Well our hunches were right earlier.' Camilla stated, standing up next to her Marowak.

She was right, we had both felt something bad was going to happen and it did.

'Your ESP was active when we entered Johto?' I asked.

'That means your Aura must have been active too, Jordan.' Brock said.

'Then I don't know how we couldn't sense that the other had a bad feeling.' I replied.

Maybe it was because our abilities could only sense one thing, and that was the bad feeling, our abilities couldn't sense two things just yet.

'You both know your abilities aren't due to you yet, it just flares up every now and then.' Brock reminded us.

'Me should probably go then, don't want to stay here any longer than necessary.' Camilla said.

We started to walk to the small space we crawled through earlier and Camilla stopped.

'Marowak?' She asked. 'Are you coming?'

Marowak looked to her with a sad expression and shook its head.

'Maro.' It said.

Camilla went back to it and gave it one last hug, but this time Marowak returned it with just as much love.

Both Brock and I understood this was goodbye, this would be hard for Camilla, she had taken care of Cubone and it had taken so long to grow up and had only been a Marowak for a few minutes, but now it was going to stay in Tohjo falls to keep the peace and help any injured Pokemon and guide people away from this room and on their own way to the exit.

This would have been hard with any one of my Pokemon, if I had to part with any of them, but especially Pikachu. He would be the hardest to say goodbye to, he was my best friend.

Both Camilla and Marowak let go after a minute or so.

Camilla ran in the opposite direction, she crawled through the small space and we ran after her.

I knew she was crying and I knew this was hard for her, to her Marowak was still a baby, imagine losing a baby, that's how distraught Camilla was.

As soon as she got through the other side she stopped and I caught up to her.

I embraced her and she cried into me.

Brock came through a few seconds later.

He nodded to me in understanding, he probably knew what it was like, he had to abandon his siblings to pursue his dream, sure his dad was back, but he cared for them for so long and some of his Pokemon had to be left behind.

Camilla and I let go and she wiped the tears away from her eyes.

'Let's go guys.' She said.

She obviously didnt want to talk about what had happened and Tohjo falls was the last place she wanted to be at the moment, we all started toward the exit.

Tohjo falls wasn't as spectacular as I thought it would be, but this caverns ceiling was really high, there was a ledge on the side opposite to the entrance that went the whole way across the cavern, but it was halfway between the floor and the ceiling. I could hear the crash of water up there, maybe there were a few waterfalls up there, or maybe it was something else.

Whatever the case I didn't want to stay here and find out, at least not after that incident involving Giovanni he was probably planning on returning team Rocket bigger and better than before.

There was one thing that he said that stuck in my mind: "This isn't the end Jordan Hale; I will find you and you will die at my hands." I don't know why this line was stuck in my head, it stood out more than it should.

Of course Giovanni would try and return and rise to power once again and it would be possible that he would find me again, or I would fall into one of his "traps", and he said I will die at his hands, this was farfetched, he did continuously want me dead. And he had tried three times now and I had been close to death all three times. The first time he had me admitted to hospital, the second time after trapping me, my friends and my mother in Viridian gym he battled me and went against his word, he was going to shoot me, but my dad came in and saved all of us. And now the third time he tried to kill me with a gun, Camilla had saved me, her Cubone evolved into Marowak and was sweeping the floor with his most powerful Pokémon, Rhydon.

'Thanks for saving me Camilla.' I said as we neared the end of Tohjo falls.

'You're welcome.' She replied, 'but it was Marowak who saved you, not me.' She replied.

'Now we're even.' I said.

'Even?' Camilla asked. 'How are we even?'

'I saved your life, you saved mine.' I replied.

'No.' Camilla replied. 'We are most definitely not even.' She continued. 'You didn't just save me, you saved hundreds of people almost the whole of Kanto owes their lives to you.' Camilla said.

I looked at her in confusion.

'Camilla is right, Jordan. You've saved your friends lives countless times, but you've saved almost everyone in Kanto at least once, and all those trainers you didn't know on Mewtwo's island you saved their lives.' Brock told me.

'But I let you get captured.' I retorted.

'And where are we now?' Brock asked. 'Are we still captives of some evil or bad wrongdoing, or are we walking with you because believe it or not you saved us?' Brock asked.

Why did I keep doing this? I kept on putting myself down and then my friends kept pulling me back up again, they were as stubborn as I was, but in a different way. I didn't make it easy for them, if I kept putting myself down then they'd eventually give up and let me wallow in self-pity and that wouldn't do anyone any good. Between the pros and cons the pro's outweighed the cons greatly.

'I do need to stop putting myself down.' I said. 'It's not helping either of you.' I replied.

'No, its one of your flaws, thinking whatever you manage to do you're not good enough.' Brock told me.

'And, I'll try to work on that.' I replied.

We arrived at the opposite side of Tohjo falls to where we entered.

I was glad to be back outside. I did not want to go in there again, sure it was an experience, but I would have rather avoided it.

My hunch of uneasiness earlier was spot on, but now I knew why I was uneasy, now it felt like the weight had been lifted.

Maybe my aura had activated in low power mode, telling me something was off, or maybe I just had a feeling something bad was going to happen.

I could see a town not too far away as I stood on top of a hill, I looked down toward it, but we realised Brock had stopped, so we turned to face him.

'Would you both please tell me what happened back there, all of it.' Brock said looking between us. 'You have some explaining to do, Mr Hale and Miss Brook.' Brock told us.

Camilla looked at me.

'You can trust Brock, Camilla, he deserves to know if he's going to be travelling with us, you can't really deny what you said wasn't what you said.' I told her. 'I know it's hard, but we can trust Brock with this.'

'Yeah, starting with your name.' He said. 'Brook? I thought your last name was Foster.'

Camilla cringed.

'Oh a touchy subject.' He mused. 'You don't need to tell me.' Brock said.

'No. it's best that you know.' She replied.

'And how long has Jordan known?' Brock asked.

'A few months.' I replied.

'You must trust him a lot.' Brock said.

'With my life, he's my best friend.' Camilla said.

She looked toward me, and I felt heat rushing to my cheeks, Brock didn't notice, he was still looking at Camilla.

'My last name is Brook.' Camilla started. 'I use Foster because I am a foster child.' Camilla said.

Brock didn't interrupt, not like I had. I had a bad childhood and a really bad experience with team Rocket, worse than Jordan's.' Camilla continued. 'Giovanni shot both my parents when I was three years old. I managed to escape, and my foster parents found me and took me in, they are the only other ones who know about my past.' Camilla said.

Brock let that sink in.

Camilla's version of that to me a was a lot more explanatory than that version, Maybe she didn't want to go through what she went through when she was with me again, it wouldn't be good breaking down here, she wouldn't have that, but Brock and I would help her though it if she did decide to delve deeper inside her past.

We started walking before Brock replied.

'I am very impressed with you Camilla.' Brock said.

This confused Camilla and me.

'Impressed?' She asked.

'The self-control you have,' Brock replied.

'Jordan had motives with team Rocket, and he acted upon them, why didn't you?' Brock asked.

'If I did act like Jordan did, they might find out who I was.' Camilla replied. 'I couldn't have that.'

'But now they know?' Brock asked.

'No.' I said. 'Giovanni knew, no-one else from team rocket knows.' I said.

Both Brock and Camilla looked at me.

'You sound sure about that.' Brock observed.

'Think about it, you heard Giovanni. He said once he kills me he is going to kill Camilla.' I told them.

They both still looked a little confused.

'If anyone else knew about Camilla's identity they would kill Camilla themselves, this would anger Giovanni, either that or they would betray Giovanni because he couldn't kill a three-year old child.' I continued. 'Giovanni wants to finish what he started almost ten years ago.' I finished.

'So the people who found about me?' Camilla asked. Although I knew she knew the answer.

'As soon as he got information from them, he killed them, most likely.' I replied.

'You two need to stop this negative energy now.' Brock said.

He was right this energy was negative, but the things Giovanni said stuck in my head. I couldn't let him kill Camilla, that meant I would have to stay alive. I would if it would save Camilla.

I really should have promised her that I wouldn't die again, not for something that was now pointless.

'We have entered a new region filled with negativity, we should start this new journey with a positive start, we are so close to the first town I can almost smell how new it is.' Brock continued.

I sniffed the air.

I closed my eyes and inhaled peacefully.

I could smell how fresh the ait was here, it was so clean, there were so many smells that would have mixed and would have made a weird smell anywhere else, but here it smelled nice, the flowers pollen flew off their original place and filled the air with magical scents.

I never knew anywhere as clean as this, even Pallet and Lavender didn't smell as clean as this place did.

This place released all my negative thoughts, I forgot about why I was negative.

I opened my eyes and saw a few houses dotted around this new place.

The houses were brown, like they were made of wood with green rooftops, at the side of almost every building was a white wind turbine, each turbine stood a few feet taller than the building it was next to.

There was a building that stood out among the others.

It was white and had a green roof,the roof was a lot flatter than the roofs of the other buildings, the roof was definitely not made of wood. I knew what this building was immediately.

We made it to the bottom of the hill, and I saw a waters surface, it seemed like this was the only way to reach the new town.

This is how it would feel to enter Johto, not how I felt earlier with so much uneasiness. I remembered to back on my first day of my journey in Kanto.

I remembered that it was hard leaving Kanto, but I was so psyched to go on a journey, I thought it would be harder, leaving a town I had lived in for ten years, but now I was leaving it and it would be ages until I returned.

I guess it was easier to leave Pallet town because I was leaving with my best friend Rachel, I had spent almost everyday with her since I was seven and we had become the best of friends, it didn't feel like I was leaving Pallet town, because Pallet Town to me was being with Rachel. Now since she had left I had grown accustomed to travelling with friends, which now consisted of Brock and Camilla.

Brock and Camilla were both going through the same thing I probably was what they did when they first went on this journey, how they started, that was something Camilla never told me, how she started her journey.

'New Bark Town.' Brock said looking out at the town before us.

It was really a sight that I could get used to, but I wanted nothing more than to enter the town and start my journey through Johto, it would be official, how I wanted to feel when I started my journey into this region.

The waters surface was a few feet across. I wondered if using Blastoise was worth it, plus would he even fit? It looked too small for Blastoise to be on to let us pass, and using a fling Pokemon would be pointless because we would return them as soon as we over and that was another factor of why using Blastoise wasn't the best idea.

We were at some conundrum and I was going through all the possibilities.

I didn't want to swim because it would be for a few seconds and I would be soaking as I entered the first town of a region.

I knelt down and looked into the water and I couldn't see the bottom, the water was blue and I didn't know how deep it was.

I got back up and judged the distance before I took three long strides backwards.

Both Brock and Camilla looked at me in confusion.

I ran toward the water and jumped just before I reached it.

Once I reached the other side I almost fell in, but I regained my balance quickly, but I guess Brock and Camilla saw my stumble and probably laughed at my action.

I had misjudged the distance of the water and how far I could jump.

'You guys coming?' I asked as soon as turned around to face them.

Camilla took three strides backwards and followed my run up before jumping over the water, she landed on the side I was on, but she almost stumbled backwards, so I held her by her waist to steady her.

Brock followed our example taking three long strides backwards, but he had a longer run up as his strides were longer than ours.

Brock followed, but he needed no help from us as he made it over with a few inches between the waters edge and where he landed.

'You must be the new trainers.' A voice said from behind us.

We all turned to face the way the voice came from.

Jordan: So this ends this chapter, a lot of big things happening in this chapter

Camilla: Hopefully the next one will be a lot calmer.

Jordan: Um.. Yeah about that..

Camilla: Really, more big things coming up next?

Chapter Three: New Bark, New Start