AN: This time I hurried up with my update^^. Finally, we are getting on with the story and of course, the Wild Area is an important part of it. Besides, the area is not a 100% layout like the games. Please enjoy reading this.

For Hop, it was always about becoming a legend. He always called each adventure he had to be just another part of it. A tale to be told to future generations. And for each legend, there was a different start to it.

And each start was unique in its own way and for him and Thara was the real start of their own legend.

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First stop: The Wild Area.

There are many things known about it. Many people had been there and made it through. Many had said that the area was scary, much more so than what they expected. Though nothing general was explained. Thara wondered where the problem was. It was just a giant area filled with a bigger variety of pokémon.

How hard can it be to go through it?

That was what she was thinking when entering the Wild Area without anything to worry about. Now that she was desperately running away from machokes things were different. They threw anything at them that came into their reach. But it was not only them. Smaller pokémon like rookidees were attacking them. Usually small and timid they would not attack like that. Back then in Postwick, the ones were just so few in number that they chose to flee instead of attack.

With such a large number coming from the sky it was a whole new story. They were fast and had a surprising amount of force behind their attacks. Probably making use of gravity to increase their power. Their beaks were sharp and left horrible scratch marks on Thara's face. They even tore through their clothing leaving cuts behind. Hop desperately shielded his face while making scorbunny attack. With amber, it should have a somewhat bigger range to target. Unfortunately, that did not help at all. Neither did sobble.

"I fuckin' hate this place!"

Why did she sign up for this? Why?

She pouted. After getting around somewhat safely they managed to find a proper spot to camp on. While Hop prepared everything to cook curry she was sitting on a matt. Resting her head on her knees, she was exhausted. And to top it all off they did not catch anything. Nothing at all. When trying to get to one pokémon a lot more of them appeared and attacked. She looked up into the sky. While it was cloudy there were no signs of rain. Though it might do so at some point. Camping as a whole was annoying but when it rained? That was just horrible.

She took her phone out, but the server here was not the best therefore she had no internet though she still had some pictures saved. And one of them was the picture of a growlithe. A pokémon she really wanted to have so badly. But with that gloomy weather, there was only a little chance for her to encounter one. She would rather skip this place altogether but that was not an option. Eventually, Thara wondered if her pride was even worth it all. There was no point if she ended up failing miserably.

She glanced over to Hop. He was already cooking and had all of his pokémon out. His scorbunny, his wooloo, and rookidee. Alongside them were her pokémon too, they needed something to eat after all. Her sobble played with wooloo and yamper, which her mom gave her shortly before they left Wedgehurst. Her budew snuggled into her lap. She had also caught a rookidee but decided she wanted to have a different flying-type in her team and left it behind.

I am not like him she thought, I am not a good trainer. Even though she received a lot of praise from Leon the girl just could not get to accept, that he meant what he said. It made her think that maybe he was just getting excuses for endorsing her. Maybe he had only done so to make her accompany his brother. So that Hop did not have to go alone.

The first day was already a whole lot of garbage. She could hardly relax with all the scratches and bruises she had. Not to mention that her clothes were ruined. "Oi!" She heard Hop shout, "Don't sit around so lazily! You need to help too!"

Thara grunted heavily when standing up. Yeah, a garbage day.

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It did not seem to improve for the next few days at all. The days were almost the same as the first one. With the difference that they had understood when to leave and how to avoid bigger and more dangerous pokémon. They were running out of time and reaching the one-week point, without catching anything at all. They really had to get on with catching something.

However, the clouds never moved on, they got even denser and greyer than before. It surely will rain soon.

Thara again sat on her mat. Tired and sleepy she just had no will to get up and even train her pokémon. Not like Hop who was still able to run around. He trained them by making them fight each other. He did take this all a lot more seriously than Thara could ever do. Nighttime was hard, the diurnal pokémon may withdraw from their sight but there were plenty of nocturnal ones that were even more annoying than the others. Sleeping consisted of wariness. You could not fall asleep completely, you needed to get up when danger lurks around. And they had to get up many times during the night.

At this point, she had bags under her eyes. She must have looked horrible. The good thing for her was that Hop had not caught anything either.

Out of the corner of her eye, Thara spotted something. Something orange flashed by quickly and its color caught her attention. Maybe that was it?

The girl sat up as fast as possible and followed the small creature. All exhaustion vanished in an instant. There was no time for her to think anything through if it was gone, she would not get another chance.

Pushing her way through thick grass, which was hard when you had to crouch down too. But she needed to be stealthy and careful. She made her way through to a more or less open field with very few trees in there. And there it was, sitting near the tree base and licking itself. It was small, not too small though. Its fur shone so beautifully, and the black stripes made it even more astounding. Growlithes were beautiful but this one was even more.

Thara wanted it, she really wanted it. Never had she shown so much interest in one thing. This will be hers and only this one. She readied her ball and sobble.

.

"There, there" Hop let his hands wander through wooloos wool. Petting it and hugging it. Showing all of his affection for it. Though scorbunny started to become jealous. It pushed through from under his arms and started snuggling into his chest. "Sorry." He smiled sweetly at it while using his other hand to pet it. Rookidee flew on his head, reminding him that it was there too. "Sorry, guys." He needed to adjust there were more pokémon with him than wooloo.

The purple-haired boy stood up, stretching his body. He started to get tired the lack of sleep hitting him too. His determination was stronger than that and helped him keep up with things, but he did it for Thara too. She needed someone reassuring her. Especially seeing how easily she got demotivated. Speaking of her she was gone. He couldn't see the striking red hair anywhere around Thara was gone. He looked back and forth multiple times just to make sure she was not nearby. Where could she go?

He decided to go search for her. The place is dangerous and Thara is not quite made for something like this. She will need his help.

"Argh!"

He heard her voice, not too far away from their campsite. Quickly the purple-haired boy rushed over to see if she needed something. He turned around a tree and found Thara there, though he retreated and hid behind. Carefully he looked over. Thara seemed to be out of breath and her sobble seemed to have a hard time fighting a growlithe. It was pretty beaten up by it.

Yet her eyes were burning. Burning with determination. Refusing to give up. Though that growlithe was pretty tough. Resisting water attacks like that surely would make a strong addition to Thara's team.

Hop stared in awe, he never saw Thara like that. Never had she ever been interested in anything so much. She looked amazingly beautiful at that moment. Or at least he realized just how stunning Thara was.

Thara threw another ball. With more force and more pitcher-like throw. She must have improved her throws while being at it. She hit her target which got sucked into the ball. A moment of silence and nervous waiting. The ball shook a few times until finally, it came to a stop.

"Yes!" The girl shouted, jumping in joy. She ran to her ball and collected it. Never had she been so into something and the satisfaction that came from it was worth it. Now all she needed to do was find firestone and turn this one into an arcanine. Though taming it beforehand was a better idea.

She heard clapping. Turning around she saw an approaching Hop. Looking just as happy as her. "Awesome, Thara!" he praised. "You've got the task done, now I cannot fall behind too much."

"well still I am first" Thara teased.

Suddenly the ground started rumbling. Making it hard for them to keep a steady posture. They tried their best to stay and not fall over. Near Thara, the ground started crackling and eventually breaking. Bits and pieces flew through the air, the girl barely dodging.

"Watch out!" Hop screamed. He panicked when seeing the scene before him. without any thought, his legs started carrying him further and rushing to the girl's side. Next to her, an onix appeared, glaring dangerously at her. It was giant, much more than any pokémon she had seen. Onix being huge was nothing new, but this was her first time seeing one in person. And it made her freeze in place. What to do now?

Hop grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her out of the way just in time for her not to be crushed by onix's tale. And not stopping. He kept running and dragging the girl with him, barely dodging another slam of onix's tale. This time it ripped up a tree easily out of the ground. Thara could finally move on her own and ran alongside Hop.

This was no joke, no dream, and certainly no misunderstanding. They were in life-threatening danger. One hit from that swipe and they will be done for. Crushed to death and probably never be found.

Was it always like this? Were trainers before them just in as much danger?

How can it be that they were allowed to enter?

Leon's word flashed through their minds. It will be dangerous.

He did not mean the gym challenge as an entirety but more so the Wild Area. A hit of realization came to them. How could this requirement be allowed? They were not warned by any of the Marcros Cosmos employees. They never gave them a proper guide, neither anything to fend of dangerous pokémon. Nothing. All they got was a given route to follow.

But that cannot be it. Hop shook his head. No! These thoughts need to stop. They need to focus on their escape. Turning around there was onix, chasing them. And it was fast. They will be outdone if nothing happened soon. Hop needed a moment. Thara's sobble and budew were in an advantage. But sobble was all worn out and definitely not strong enough yet, same goes for the grass type. Scorbunny is at a disadvantage and wooloo being a normal type won't be much help either. So fighting was off-limits. What then?

The stone he thought, rock type, weak to water, he kept thinking rapidly, hoping to find a solution, no water type to battle, but still, there must be something!

It hit him then. "Rotom!" He called out and as he did his phone flew out of his pocket and in front of him. "Show me the map!" He shouted, hoping his rotom understood their situation, and hurried up. "What are you going to do?" Thara wondered.

"There's a lake somewhere near, we'll go there" Hop explained, "Onix won't come too close to there!"

Rotom showed the map. They need to turn west and run as fast as possible. They had to leave a few camping stuff behind, but they should be able to manage without just fine.

Onix was surprisingly speedy for its size but the lake was already in sight, just a little bit more. Hop risked another glance back and he caught onix stopping for a second and swing its tail at them. "Watch out!"

He dragged Thara with him to the ground barely avoiding the hit. They quickly stood back up and ran. Until they finally reached the edge of the lake. Onix cannot dig down near here, it would risk ending in the lake. But would it stop attacking them? Hop hoped it would. It halted in front of them. Still keeping a distance from the water.

The moment was very agonizing. As if time stopped, it felt like the end pretty much. Only one strike from this giant creature and they would be done for.

Was onix going to crush them? Was it a bad idea to come here? Had Hop done a mistake?

Hop suddenly felt something falling on his head. A drop. More started falling soon after. Rain! Yeah, the clouds had been there for several days now, finally, it rained and at the best time. The onix before them did not like it. Nervously looking around it turned around and fled. Burying deep into the ground.

They waited for a few moments before deciding to leave the lake. They needed shelter. For now, a nearby tree will do it.

"That was close," said Hop, sighing relieved. "That was too dangerous!" said Thara in a sharp voice. Hop stayed quiet. She was right, it was too dangerous. Why were there not more safety measures? Why would they even need to come here so early on in their adventure? Would it not make more sense to allow people to come here once they had strong and resilient pokémon? Something was very wrong about this place here and the rules.

They were startled by the sound of thunder. Huge lightning traces illuminated the dark sky. A lot of them. A thunderstorm.

"Great!" Thara complained, "what're we doing now?"

"Wait, until it's over?"

Thara grunted in displease, "I hate this place."

Hop laughed. At least he has something amusing to look at. He instructed Thara to go to a nearby tree and take shelter. They had come far and Motostoke should not be too far away. The redhead was good she had caught a pokémon and he needed to do so too before reaching the town. There was no time tomorrow. Tomorrow would be the last day of February and that was the deadline. Till the evening hour, they need to sign up or they'll lose that chance. It meant for them to go as far as possible and tomorrow to mainly travel too. Maybe they even have to pull an all-nighter.

A thunderstorm was certainly dangerous, he knew that it was not smart to wander around during one but he did his research and one of the additions he wanted to have in his teams appeared during one.

His eyes started to wander around. Most pokémon must have taken shelter, not many like to stay out in a storm like that. Though the lake has gotten much more active, luckily, they left it in time.

And then he spotted it. Crawling around aimlessly. Helplessly. A toxel. He wanted to approach it slowly. These pokémon aren't usually alone and neither safe to approach. Females especially can be dangerous when around their babies.

But that was an odd point, this one was alone. There was nothing there. And it looked worn out. Wounded. What could have happened?

He approached it deciding that it must be safe. He put on one glove and when near enough he tried to reach out. The small pokémon flinched and backed up. It was scared yet too tired to make an escape. Hop started to stroke his head. It tensed up and tried to shake his hand off. Eventually, tiredness took the better of him. It leaned into the touch. Hop felt comfortable enough to pull it closer. He needed to be careful though, toxels are poison-types, and one this small might not have control over its toxins at all. Getting sick because of that or even worse than that was nothing he liked to happen. The glove will protect him not only from that but also from electrocution. If it was going to help while he was so wet. Hopefully. He grabbed into his pocket and picked out a few berries offering them to toxel. It sniffed them, making sure it's edible or trustworthy, and ate them almost instantly.

Toxel snuggled more into his arms. It liked him which meant he could keep it. Though he will put it into a pokeball later.

"Are you kidding me?!"

He turned around to see an offended Thara standing behind him. She took her jacket off and held it above her head, to prevent the rain from falling onto her. Judging her expression and comment she had seen everything that happened right now.

Thara had a look of jealousy on her face. "Not fair!" she complained, "that was way too easy! I had to work hard!"

Hop gave her a smug look. "well, well. Not my fault."

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They both continued to walk ahead until they found a new tree to take shelter from. They waited patiently hoping the rain would at least lessen. It did not though and due to that, they were slowed down a lot. Not so much that they stopped moving at all but they kept walking until finding another tree to turn to and wait there. In the evening hour, the thunder finally stopped taking away the danger of being hit by lightning.

At least Hop felt saver moving on without taking shelter. Thara wanted to rest and Hop saw it on her face but the girl surprisingly never complained. Of course, she did not. Even Thara knew that they were in a pinch. So there would probably be no debate over the all-nighter.

At least both of them got their task done and caught a pokémon here so there was no reason to stop any more or get distracted. Walking during the dead of night was creepy. Creepier than Thara thought. The running zigzagoons were the least of their problems but the most annoying one. They ran around in a random pattern and it was so hard to guess when they suddenly turned their way and attacked. Aside from dark-types there were lots of ghost-types and each time one of them looked at them, it had a huge sinister grin on their face. Sending shivers down Thara's spine.

To make it through the night they rested a few times to eat something and check their pokémon over. They got lots of training done here and Thara could clearly tell that her team was a lot stronger than before but they were tired too. They needed to make sure that they'll be fine or else the next encounter will not be good.

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Morning came faster than expected. That must have come from them walking all night. With little stops but that only meant that they were close. Rotom showed them the map. Motostoke should be insight and it would if not for the thick fog that built during the night.

The air was cool and moist. Thara was tired beyond anything. Never had she been on the move for this long. One look at Hop and she realized that he must have been as tired. He would not let it on though, but even he had bags under his eyes.

They really needed to be careful. No one knows what caused the fog. It could be a natural one or it could very well be the creation of a pokémon. What pokémon lied beyond that that might use this to lure in prey. Thara walked close by Hop's side. Grabbing his jacket's sleeve. She was a little scared. Never had she walked through a place where she could not see much around her. She was glad that Hop was here and not leaving her behind.

A strong wind started slapping in their faces and giving a force to slow them down. It was harder with such strong pressure coming from it, but Hop did not slow down. Thara held onto his jacket, afraid he would disappear in this fog and leave her behind. She would lose all sense of direction, to be honest, they could not see where they were going, but they knew that they had to go straight and not turn anywhere to the side.

The wind slapped and slapped, not slowing down either but that was not important. The fog lessened and gave room for more visibility until it eventually cleared off entirely. Allowing the teens to have a view of their surroundings and in only one word: Breathtaking.

They were on a hill and levitated enough to see far into the area. Beautiful green grass stretched across the fields, only partially interrupted by a giant lake. Trees were not too many in numbers yet still enough. The sky was clear without any clouds and its shade was just beautiful. The wild area as a whole was beautiful.

The teens stood there for a moment to admire it, to take in the sight but time was scarce and not more to be wasted. Motostoke was in sight, they could clearly see the giant staircase leading up to the city entrance. A staircase that was Thara's worst nightmare.

However, Hop started running ahead. "Let's see who's first!"

"Stop doing that!"

Pokémon were everywhere, running, flying, swimming. It was just amazing. The most mesmerizing view they had ever seen.

Reaching the city was not easy though. They had to dodge rookidees flying into their way. Pelipper and wingull blocking their vision. Luckily the gyrados they saw did not bother coming at them when passing by the lake.

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And then, they finally reached the gates.