Here was a girl, a crazy girl, who wore a cornucopia of vibrant colors plastered around her body. She snatched her precious stuffed animal – who's name Ryan could not possibly remember – into her hands, all while beaming furiously towards him. Clearly, she had been using it to lure out a real Pokemon of the same species; one that she wanted to catch. There it was now, slithering through the bushes much like a snake. But it was much more graceful than any one-eyed snake could be, Ryan knew that for sure. It was a Dragon. It was a Dragonair. And Ryan would catch it.

The small girl's face contorted into an expression which complimented her attire of clown vomit quite nicely. Seeing the boy opposite her throw his attention toward the bush made her react in reflex to save what was rightfully hers. She snatched, quickly, three dragon balls from her sparkling belt and threw them toward Ryan (though if one was a keen observer, one might reckon she had thrown them at him). Out popped three of the finest Pokemon this Pokeworld had to offer. Ryan quickly scanned them with his PokeDex, finding them to be a Vaporeon, a Drowzee, and a Spearow. Blimey, Ryan thought. These would be his greatest test yet.

Still, as he stepped forward to combat Sophia's army, Ryan felt a sense of calm rush over his body; an air of confidence, if you will. He looked down to his three, equal, Pokemon standing on either side. He nodded to them, before throwing his voice back to the girl:

"Abra, abra bra ah abra!" Ryan shouted to, unsurprisingly, Abra. His Pokemon nodded back, and then jumped like twenty-seven feet toward the enemies.

"Golduuuuuck! Duck duck duck!" Ryan screamed again, this time causing Clawey to spring up in likewise action.

"Ieiieieeeeeeieheiiehsieh!" Ryan bellowed, shaking the very trees that stood around them. Since Matata was a flying Pokemon, she couldn't really jump twenty-seven feet like the others, so she just flew there.

Ryan's confidence in speaking in PokeTongues had disallowed him knowledge of what his Pokemon were actually doing, or if their strategies were paying off, but that was unimportant. The real goal of any trainer was to just catch 'em all. So he let his Pokemon do their thing, and turned his attention toward that slithering snake. He got down on all fours, and began stalking it like any good trainer would do. He found the Dragonair to be so slow, that even in his crouch-walking through the bushes, Ryan could easily gain on it. When he was within a few feet, he pounced, jumping on the creature, wrapping his two little arms around it, and swinging himself back and forth in a manner not unlike someone trying to extinguish themselves from being on fire.

He tackled that beast good. After a few rolls, Ryan heard the Dragonair cry out, and go limp. Puzzled by this, Ryan sat up, and peered forward. Then did he see a large bloody gash on the Pokemon's otherwise light belly. It was a fresh, open wound, as it still bled. Ryan noticed he too had been doused in the creature's blood. But that did not concern him. He had seen it wounded, and that was enough for the boy to lose his whimsical disposition. Ryan jumped up, and ran to the Dragonair's head.

Kneeling down, he spoke softly, "Hey, you're hurt… Oh, jeez. That's pretty bad. We need to get you to a Pokecenter!"

"Neeeee..." it groaned.

"Here," Ryan said, taking out a spare Pokeball, "Let me catch you, and I can take you to one."

"Neeee! Eee!" it whined in distress, pulling away from Ryan as far as it could.

"It's not a trick, I swear. Please… you'll die if I don't help." Ryan said, exacerbated. The Pokemon didn't seem to believe him, as it continued to slowly pull itself away from him. Ryan stood up and followed it, this time raising his voice, "Look, I just want to help! I won't keep you if you don't want. We'll just take you to the PokeCenter to get you fixed, and if you don't want to stay with me, I won't make you! You can go back into the wild once you're better! I'm just trying to help."

At this, the Dragonair stopped, and quipped softly before turning to Ryan. It raised its long head off the turf, to the trainer's height, and stared into his eyes. He could see it fighting to even stand up, for its wound had made the creature exhausted. Though he didn't fully know the meaning of this gesture, Ryan took it as what he had hoped. Raising trembling his hand with the Pokeball in it, he opened it; in an instant, the dragon Pokemon closed its eyes, and let itself be sucked inside.

Pocketing the Pokeball, Ryan ran back to the trail only to find his three Pokemon in the midst of a battle. He would be lying had he said he remembered what they were doing. So much had happened since he had sent them to battle Sophia and her minions. He noticed his Pokemon were completely dominating Sophia's. Yet, he didn't have time to gloat over the pompous girl.

"Guys, we have to go! Now!" Ryan shouted.

The three looked up with faces of 'oh come on!', but seeing the pressing concern of their master, stopped the slaughter. Abra and Co. jumped off of the beaten Drowzee, Vaporeon, and Spearow and loyally followed their master off.

Evidently insulted by the sudden lack of attention, Sophia pouted her lips and chased them down.

"Stop! You can't just leave right when I was about to beat you!"

Ryan shrugged her off and continued jogging ahead.

"Hey, hello?! Are you listening to me?"

Ryan sighed and slowed to a walk, "Look, I have to go. It was great battling you, but we'll have to finish that later."

"Ha!" Sophia proclaimed proudly, victory flush in her face, "I knew it! You're running away, coward! You couldn't beat me. Yes! That means Traxus Rex is mine!"

"Who?" Ryan asked.

"The Dragonair, you dummy," she responded with contempt.

"Cool. By the way, do you know where the nearest PokeCenter is?"

Sophia stopped her jubilation for a second to process the question. "You can either go to Fuschia City or Cinnabar Island."

Ryan shook his head. "Well, I just came from Fuschia City, and that's pretty far back."

"Then go to Cinnabar Island!" Sophia said, again using her contemptuous voice, "It's just that way, south. You can't miss it. All you need is a Pokemon with surf to get there."

"Okay."

Then, Sophia stepped forward, with her chin thrust up. Lo, the jubilation had returned "See, arentcha glad I was here? After I beat you so gracefully (because my grandmother told me that's how a proper princess should act), I was so nice telling you how to get to Cinnabar Island!"

"That's great," Ryan said, barely paying attention to the babbling.

Sophia started twirling around, spinning her vibrant clothes in a whirlwind. She closed her eyes and raised her arms as she did so, because that's what all self-proclaimed princesses do. "You're lucky I'm so smart. My IQ says I'm a genius, really! I got it tested you know!" She said, humming between sentences.

But when Sophia opened her eyes, Ryan, and all his Pokemon were gone. She sighed something about him leaving out of shame, then went back to collect her stuffed animal, and go catch that Traxus Rex.

Ryan hadn't felt obligated to tell Sophia that he had taken the Dragonair already, because she was as annoying as the trees were green. He stood on the edge of the water, looking out to the sea. It was a remarkably clear day, and had been since he had left Sophia. Heck, he could see Cinnabar Island from where he stood.

Returning Abra and Matata to their Pokeballs, Ryan instead focused on Clawey, his Golduck. Being that Clawey had the move surf, this was Ryan's only option to get to the island other than paying for it; and he didn't have much money to be spent frivolously.

"All right, Clawey. We need to get to that island way out there. So you'll use surf on the water, and I will ride on you, and it will all work out, ok?"

"Duck, gol," Clawey whimpered.

"Great! Let's go!"

Ryan climbed on top of Clawey, and pointed ahead, directing his steed into the sparkling water of this glorious summer day. Now, Golducks are small beasts, closer to the size of a lynx than a water-horse or luxurious yacht. So, the mounting and riding was more than a little awkward. The Golduck grumbled mightily as the unfathomable weight of his master pressed down upon his meager shoulders. Ryan assured him they would stop for nothing, which did partially alleviate Golduck's hapless state. He just hoped they wouldn't find any water Pokemon out there who would cause the them problems. Then, Clawey went off, surfing through the water with his master on top.

It was an hour later that the vastly oversized Ryan riding the vastly undersized Pokemon came surfing into Cinnabar Island at top speed being chased by numerous Tentacools and Tentacruels. Surely, their trip had not gone unnoticed, and had it not been for Clawey's speed, they would have surely died. As the two barreled in, Clawey's momentum was too much to cancel out. The result left Ryan flung from the back of his loyal steed, and into the sandy beach of Cinnabar. While the boy himself was sunburnt, hungry, and sporting many scrapes from the landing, he gave no pause – instead, returning Clawey to his ball, and running ahead, to the entrance of the only city he could see.

There was a PokeCenter near the center of the island, where Ryan dropped the wounded Dragonair off. Nurse Joy gave him a precise time of 'several hours' for it to be healed, so Ryan went to the adjoining PokeMart and bought several healing potions, some Pokefood, and a few new Pokeballs with the money he had won from besting Koga. Then, settling down, he went to a restaurant to deal with his rumbling stomach. After ordering a sandwich, guilt overtook Ryan, and he let his three Pokemon out, and fed them too.

As the four sat there, conversing (which was more like Ryan hoping his Pokemon could understand him), there came a person who sat down on the table next to him. And her face was known to Ryan, it sure was.

"Kelly!" Ryan beamed, smiling and waving to the older girl.

"Huh? Oh, it's you. You finally got here. Took you long enough," she said, quietly.

"Hey! You were the one who disappeared after we beat Koga," he reminded her.

She shook her head, her long pink hair waving violently from side to side. "I never thought you would beat him. There was no point waiting. Besides, you didn't even want to stay in the room with me. So I thought you were going off on your own adventure."

"Naw," said Ryan, laughing, "I was just worried about my Pokemon was all. I guess it doesn't matter. We're just here for another badge, right? You prolly have yours already. Maybe after I get this one, you won't run off again. That would be awesome."

Kelly slumped her shoulders, and looked down, shaking her head. "No, I didn't beat Blaine yet. His fire Pokemon are strong, Ryan. My Wartortle was no match. I'm going to have to train for a few days here so I can go back to beat him."

"Well then, can I train with you too? My Golduck probably could use some extra practice. And that'll give the Dragonair plenty of time to heal!"

Kelly looked up, with her mouth agape, "Dragonair? You caught a Dragonair?"

"I didn't really catch him. The deal was he'd get in the Pokeball and I would take him to the nearest Pokecenter to get healed."

"You're such an idiot," Kelly breathed.

"What, why?" Ryan replied, genuinely confused.

"It's not your Dragonair if you didn't catch it."

"I-"

Kelly leaned back in her chair. "Look kid, it doesn't matter. Maybe you'll keep it, maybe you won't. But you didn't catch a Dragonair. Let's just finish eating so we can go train."

Ryan obliged, and hastily consumed his food. Thereafter, he accompanied Kelly down to the beach, where they had a nice walk before finding a place to set up at. He let out his Pokemon again, to socialize with Kelly's. While that went on, the two trainers agreed it would be a waste of their precious money to pay for another hotel, so they set up sleeping bags above the tide, and drew up plans for how to improve their Pokemon by flashlight, throughout the night.

Perhaps it was his mind playing tricks on him, but Ryan swore that, as the sun set, and everyone started drifting off to bed, he saw something in the sky. If he had to describe it, he would have said it was a pink bubble, and a large one at that. He noticed it fly about in the sky for a while, and it seemed to be playing – like a young bird plays with a walnut. And the thing started to drift closer and closer to the camp as time progressed. As Ryan fell to sleep though, he thought he saw two large eyes looking at him through the pink bubble. No, that couldn't be right, he thought. He must be dreaming.