Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

There had been one tiny silver lining to the raging black storm cloud that was my previous life on the streets: there were only three gangs in the Mauville alleys and all they really cared about was fighting each other. If you were a street kid who minded your own business, the gangs rarely bothered you unless they got in in their heads to try and recruit you. I went out of my way to ensure this wasn't the case. The last thing I wanted was to be caught up in someone else's pissing contest, or worse, get arrested. But besides the three really serious gangs, occasionally a couple of kids would get together thinking they were gonna start a gang of their own. These were the wannabes, and they didn't usually last long. Most of them were all bark and no bite, and liked to get in your business. I got pretty good at spotting the wannabes after a while; I knew which ones were jokes and which ones I should really avoid. Anyways, the reason I'm telling you this is because my first thought when the two trainers in their bandanas and striped shirts stomped up to me was: damn, even outside of the streets there are wannabes.

"Hey! You!" one of them shouted. She was a skinny kid with a hungry look in her eyes. The black bandana that tied back her hair stood in stark contrast to her pale, freckled skin. She stomped forward confidently towards me with a swagger to her step that she probably thought made her look cool. It just made her look like she was in danger of falling over and she almost staggered into her companion, a boy with scraggly hair and a ripped jacket. Both were wearing dark bandanas and blue-and-white striped shirts. They even had ripped pants: the surefire way to make yourself look tough.

"Oh, hi," I said, opting for the uncontroversial statement. It seemed to catch them off guard, because they paused for a second. I guess most people wouldn't greet two probably-gang-members with just a 'Hi', even if they were wannabes. I shoved my hands in my pockets and made sure to look relaxed. I wasn't going to let a couple of rookies intimidate me. "What's up?"

"That Skrelp!" the girl seemed to be quicker on the uptake than her partner. She pointed at Bubbles, who burbled happily at the two of them. "Where'd you find that Skrelp?"

"A breeder gave it to me," I said. I thought it was a pretty normal thing to say, but both of them bristled as if I'd insulted them personally. The boy took out a strange device and flipped open the case, appearing to scan Bubbles with it quickly. He swiped his finger across the screen, raising an eyebrow at whatever information he saw.

"Toxic Spikes and Scald. Skrelp don't learn those without breeding," he said. "Definitely part of the stock we were supposed to pick up." he looked up at me, eyes narrowed. "This Skrelp wasn't sold to you and you catch can't them around here. Did you steal him?"

"No!" I protested. Geez, steal a sandwich and a couple pairs of socks, and suddenly everyone's looking to pin you as a thief. "I wouldn't steal a Pokémon. You get jail time for stuff like that. The breeder just gave it to me."

"Liar," said the girl.

"No lie," I said earnestly.

"Quit screwing around!" the girl took a step closer. "You have no idea what you're messing with. That breeder shouldn't have given anything to you because he has a secret contract with us. That Skrelp was supposed to be our Pokémon, got it? So how'd you get it? Why'd he give it to you? Where's the rest of the Pokémon?"

Oh. Huh. So the breeder had been doing more than releasing rejects into the wild. He'd been part of a deal to sell specially bred Pokémon to whatever wannabe gang these two were a part of. But he'd chickened out and dumped them all. I couldn't understand why. They weren't exactly intimidating. Still, I didn't really feel like getting caught up in their business.

"I think he dumped the rest of the Pokémon in a lake. It's a bit south from here." I pointed towards the direction I had last seen the breeder. "Are we done here?"

The girl squinted at me. The boy frowned and poked at his scanner, staring at Bubbles. Eventually, she nodded grudgingly. "Fine," she said tersely. "We'll let you leave—" Let you? Man, these two had pretty huge egos for a couple of grunts acting a lot tougher than they were. "—on one condition. Hand over that Skrelp to us."

I glanced down at Bubbles. It had wound itself tightly around my leg and was staring nervously at the two of them. "Uh, why?"

"This Skrelp's our team's property," said the boy. "He was specially bred for us to use. Give him here." he held out his hand, gesturing towards me.

I frowned, pretending to think for a second. Bubbles looked up at me anxiously. Even after owning him for a little while (and I decided to go along with what the boy said and assume that Bubbles was a him, even though I had no idea how he knew—maybe there was some magical sixth sense that other trainers had which I lacked), I still wasn't used to how ugly he looked.

"How about…no."

The boy looked shocked. The girl looked angry and she stepped closer, cracking her knuckles. You get arthritis if you do that too often, you know. I almost said as much.

"Hand. Over. The. Skrelp."

"Nah," I said.

"You have no idea what you're messing with," she said, baring her teeth in a grimace. "You don't want…" she paused dramatically. "Team Aqua as your enemy."

There was maybe a second of silence, then I couldn't help it. I laughed. "Is that seriously what you guys are calling yourself? Aqua? I thought you were going for a pirate theme or something, but Aqua sounds so…stuck-up. Like, a bunch of submarine scientists maybe. What the heck?"

The girl looked at her partner, who looked back at her, then both of them turned and stared at me. Both of them looked flabbergasted. The boy's mouth was hanging open slightly. "Do you…" he paused. "Do you know what Team Aqua is?"

"Nope," I said.

"Do you watch the news? Do you read the newspaper?"

"Not really," I said. I'd had more urgent things to do with my time than keep up with what some famous trainer halfway across the world had said.

"Are you serious?" said the girl in disbelief. "Did you live under a rock or something?"

"In an alley, actually," I said.

"I can't believe this," she said, turning towards the boy again. "Freaking—can you believe this?"

"Can I go?" I said.

"No!" they said in unison. The girl scowled and plucked a Pokéball from her belt in a surprisingly fluid motion and tossed it at me. A Lotad popped out. "I'll give you one more chance. Are you gonna give us the Skrelp?" she said, managing to pull off a pretty menacing voice.

I looked at the Lotad. It looked back at me with lidded eyes, foam dribbling from its wide mouth. I couldn't tell which of us was more unenthusiastic about the idea of a battle. I decided to the control of the situation.

"Bubbles, Acid." Bubbles excitedly reared up and spat a stream of poison at the Lotad, which yelped and stumbled back on six tiny legs as it was directly hit by the attack. The wide leaf on its body was withering quickly after coming into contact with the acid. Poison beats grass, I remembered. Perfect.

"Hey!" the girl grunt looked angry. "You're not even gonna respond?" The boy looked vaguely interested and put away his scanner, observing us quietly. I was relieved he didn't send out a Pokémon—if this had been an actual fight I would have expected him to take the opportunity to gang up on me.

"Uh, I did." I said. "Bubbles, use Acid again." This time the Lotad was expecting it and managed to dodge most of the attack, although a few drops landed on its soft skin. It made a noise that sounded like a complaint.

"You can't just—ugh, never mind." she turned towards her Lotad. "Teeter Dance!"

The Lotad suddenly spun around with startling agility and began to wobble about alarmingly. I blinked. Nothing seemed to be happening, it wasn't even getting close to Bubbles. Then I looked at him and realized that he was following the Lotad's movements as if transfixed, his head bobbing in rhythm. His red eyes blinked rapidly, as if he couldn't see clearly.

"Camouflage, Bubbles!" I said. Bubbles tilted his head, swaying on the spot. He made a puzzled noise, then tripped and fell flat on his snout. "Hey! What—"

"Mega Drain!" Glowing vines emerged from under the leaf on the Lotad's back and shot out with surprising speed, tangling around Bubbles. I knew from my past experiences with Roselia that they were draining his energy. I needed to act quickly.

"Acid!" Bubbles seemed to hear my command this time; he spat a stream of acid straight into the Lotad's face. It groaned and collapsed, the glowing vines retreating into its torso. Bubbles doused it with another spray of acid. The girl grunt yelped and recalled her Pokémon.

I probably shouldn't have said anything, but I couldn't resist getting another dig in. "I'm terrified of Team Aqua now, just so you know."

"Shut up!" she said viciously. "You attacked without warning, that's cheating."

"Cool," I said. "Is it more against the rules than trying to steal someone else's Pokémon?"

"Poochyena!" the Aqua girl seemed to have given up on carrying a conversation with me. The sleek, black canid Pokémon popped out of its Pokéball. It snarled and bared its fangs at me. "Howl!" she commanded, and the Poochyena let out a intimidating cry.

"Acid!" But the Poochyena was faster than the Lotad had been, and it easily dodged the worst of the spray. It swerved to the side and bit down. Bubbles tumbled aside at the last moment and its fangs snapped on empty air.

Acid wasn't going to work as well this time; even training with Bubbles for a little while had been enough to teach me that it wasn't a very strong attack. The boy had scanned Bubbles; he'd mentioned two other moves that he could use, right? Something about poison…

"Toxic Spikes!" I said in excitement. That seemed like an appropriately cool and powerful name. Bubbles made a weird gagging sound and spat out one small, purple, spiked object. One, as in a single purple spike. He burbled proudly. The Poochyena stared at the small spike in disdain and carefully stepped around it.

"Come on!" I said, throwing my hands up in the air.

"Thunder Fang!" The grunt called. Poochyena bounded forward, its muzzle crackling with…electricity? "Get away!" I called a second too late. The Poochyena bit down, Bubbles let out an agonized cry and thrashed about. I froze. What the hell? I hadn't seen any Poochyena who could use that move before.

"Get out of there! Acid!" It took Bubbles a second to respond, but he arched his neck and doused the Poochyena's fur with caustic purple liquid. It backed away, growling in discomfort. But Bubbles was drooping slightly, making pained noise as he tried to stay upright.

"Thunder Fang, one more time!"

My head spun. Acid wasn't going to stop the Poochyena this time. Toxic Spikes was functionally useless—just because Bubbles knew that move doesn't mean that he was good at using it. Camouflage might have helped us hide until I thought of another plan, but Poochyena was too close. Should I just go with Acid again and finish it off with Murphy? What if she had another Pokémon? No, there has to be a better option. Did the boy grunt mention anything else? Wait, that's right, he'd said—

"Scald!" I shouted. And finally, Bubbles shot a forceful jet of steaming water from his mouth, hitting the Poochyena as it charged forward and stopping it in its tracks. Finally! Scald! What a stupid name for boiling water. There had to be a better name for that attack. "Keep it up until it drops!"

Bubbles bombarded the Poochyena with boiling-hot water, sending it scrabbling backwards as it flinched away from the heat. Its lush fur grew dark and sodden with the extra weight of the water and it howled in discomfort as the hot spray hit it in the face. It toppled over.

"You win already! Quit it!" The girl grunt said, her face red as she recalled her Pokémon. As soon as his opponent disappeared, Bubbles made a tired but triumphant noise and slumped a little, still injured from the Thunder Fang.

"Good job, buddy," I said, heart still pounding in my ears. Bubbles looked immensely satisfied and hobbled over to wearily wrap around my leg. I took this as a sign that he was too worn out to continue and I released Murphy, who stretched and yawned before getting into position. I looked questioningly at the grunts.

"I'm out of Pokémon. You won, stupid," the girl said. She turned away, muttering under her breath. "…didn't even know who we were, what the freaking hell…"

I turned to look at the boy. He raised his hands in a pacifying gesture. "I haven't got any Pokémon," he said. "I'm not a battler. I'm just supposed check up on the Pokémon we got. She—" he jerked a thumb at the girl, who scowled at him. "—she's the battler here."

A grunt with a Lotad and a Poochyena. Absolutely terrifying. Team Aqua looked more and more dangerous by the second. "Are you gonna give me my money?" I asked.

"Fuck off," she said.

I didn't leave. "Uh, you have to pay me. I beat you. That's how being a trainer works. It's the rules." I held out my hand. Earning money was 90% of the reason I became a trainer, there was no way I was going to let these two bail on me just because they thought they were cool enough to work for some wannabe gang.

"We're Team Aqua," the boy stressed. "We don't follow, uh, rules."

"Yeah, what are you gonna do to us?" the girl sneered. "Aqua Grunts are made of tougher stuff than you think."

I lost my patience. No way that battle was going to be a complete waste of my time. "I'll have Bubbles burn your skin off with acid and boiling water. Or I'll get Murphy to claw your eyes out. Whatever, you can pick." No need to mention that Murphy didn't have claws. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

"What the—seriously?" the girl sputtered.

"Sure." I nodded, crossing my arms. Murphy, seemingly sensing my motives, bared her teeth and hissed. Bubbles made an angry fizzing sound, watching them with suspicious red eyes. I hoped they seemed intimidating enough. Neither of them were really big Pokémon.

The two grunts glanced at each other in disbelief. The boy sighed and dug into his pockets, fishing out a few bills. "You interested in working for Aqua?" he suggested half-heartedly. "You're a little too good at the whole extortion thing."

"I'm not joining your wannabe gang," I informed him cheerfully as he and the scowling girl dumped the money into my outstretched hand. "Bye."

The girl stomped away angrily, muttering under her breath. The boy actually had the nerve to grin. "I wish I could see the look on your face when you do a search on Team Aqua," he said a little cockily. "You'll flip."

"Haha. I doubt it. Goodbye already."

The boy backed away, but continued to talk. "We're gonna have to report this, you know," he said. "Other Aqua Grunts will hear about this. They'll be stronger than us, and they're—"

"If you don't leave in the next five seconds, I'll have Murphy electrocute you."

The boy walked away a little too quickly. Murphy made a disappointed noise, probably mourning the lost opportunity to practice her new Shock Wave attack. I watched them go and relaxed as they slowly receded out of sight. Bubbles made a happy sound and I glanced down at him. He was still ugly, but I was quickly getting used to it.

I camped out in a tent during the nights. I wasn't exactly a stranger to sleeping in tents. When I'd been living in the alleys, I'd dug an old tent out of a dumpster once, patched up the tear in its side, and slept in it for a few weeks. Mauville was mostly an indoor city, but it had been nice to have a small space to call home for a while. Then two other kids stole it when I was gone. I was still a little angry about that, even if it'd been stupid of me in the first place to leave something so nice unattended. But this tent was even nicer than the one I'd lost, even though it was the cheapest one I could buy—it was larger and there weren't any rips in the fabric I had to repair. I spread out my sleeping bag and zipped myself inside. I'd released Murphy and Bubbles to let them sleep outside their Pokéballs; Murphy was curled up in the corner and had made a nest out of my jacket. Bubbles had wormed himself into one of the pouches on the wall of the tent and had already fallen asleep.

"Good night," I said. Murphy gave a sleepy purr. Outside I could hear the sounds of nocturnal Pokémon waking up, the chirping calls of Volbeat and the scurrying movements of Poochyena. I closed my eyes.

It was still surprisingly nice, to have a small space to call home. That hadn't changed.

The night was not as quiet as I thought it would be, but I still managed to fall asleep. That is, I slept until about five in the morning, when the sun peeked over the horizon and every bird Pokémon within earshot decided it was time to loudly announce the fact that they'd woken up. I curled up in my sleeping bag for another half an hour or so, trying to get back to sleep, then realized it was useless and decided to get up.

Breakfast was prepackaged rations which in all honesty, didn't taste very good. But I guess trainers on the road didn't have to be picky, and I'd eaten far worse. Murphy and Bubbles chewed on dried Pokémon food. Murphy tried to steal some of my sausages. I fended her off successfully. Bubbles ate some of her food while she was distracted and preoccupied himself with blowing a layer of foam that bubbles over to cover his whole head.

As we headed further north, I started to run into more and more trainers. Quite a few were rookies like I was, and I thought I even spotted a couple kids I recognized from the registration session in Mauville. They battled with a weird kind of desperate intensity, like they thought they had something to prove. But there were stronger trainers too, mostly as old as I was, which made my own lack of experience even more pathetic. And a few impressively strong young trainers too. I stopped to watch a battle between a short-haired girl about my age and a small boy with blond hair. The girl was commanding an Absol, but the boy (who couldn't have been more than thirteen years old) battled with a speedy dragon-like Pokémon that was beating its opponent into the ground with ease. "Dragon Rush!" he cried, and the green Pokémon streaked into the air, diving down onto the Absol with sickening force. The Absol slumped to the ground and the girl sighed, forking over a few bills to the victorious boy. I wondered if she was embarrassed to lose to a kid so much younger than her. Then I wondered why the hell she even owned an Absol. They were bad luck, everyone knew that. A couple years ago, when I was still living on the streets in Mauville, a trainer had visited one of the city parks and sat with his Absol on a bench that a few of us street kids sometimes took a nap on. And even though the Absol couldn't have been on the bench for more than five minutes, none of us would go near the spot. Bad luck. Cam had laughed about it and purposely slept on the bench, to show how cool he was, I guess—but when night came, some old lady taking an after-dinner walk had gotten nervous and called the police on him to get him out of the park. So there. I told you Absol were bad luck.

I paused, suddenly feeling slightly disturbed. Cam. I hadn't thought about him in a while, even though I was used to running into him every other day when we'd lived in the alleys together. And Amelia—how was she doing? Was she getting along well with her Wingull, Beak or whatever she'd named it? Had she decided to do the Gym challenge? Cam probably wouldn't—he would probably satisfy himself with battling and earning enough money to buy things, even if it was the lazy way out. But he was okay with others looking down on him, as long as he had food to eat and a roof over his head. Amelia…wasn't. She'd hated the way that everyone looked down on us just for being poor, almost as much as she hated their pity. Amelia wouldn't be content with scraping by. She would want to do something big. I remembered the rush I'd felt when I challenged Wattson and thought that I understood the feeling.

Someone suddenly put their hand on my shoulder. Startled, I jolted out of my thoughts and spun around, ready to bolt or throw a punch. I found myself face-to-face with a girl around my age, her hands raised defensively. "Whoa, whoa! Sorry, did I scare you?"

"Yeah." I relaxed, feeling a little stupid. She'd grabbed me so quickly I'd expected someone to jump me. I saw a huge, hulking Aggron at her side and immediately panicked. "You don't want to battle, right? No way I could—"

She interrupted me by laughing. "What? No! You were spacing out, so I just wanted to make sure you okay. I just won my fifth badge, it wouldn't be fair if I battled a rookie."

Instant relief. "Wait, how'd you know I was—"

"A rookie?" she grimaced. "Don't take this personally, but new trainers kind of have this…skittish look to them. Like they're always ready to bolt." she patted me on the shoulder. "Everyone goes through that stage, don't worry about it."

A stage—she'd pretty much described my whole life. But annoyed as I was, I held my tongue. No use in annoying someone who had an Aggron, after all. I changed the subject. "You have five badges?"

"Yes!" she grinned. "Won my fifth one off of Flannery—she's the Gym Leader of Lavaridge. Are you heading there for your first badge?"

"Sure, absolutely," I said. I'd almost forgotten that Lavaridge even had a Gym. "I'm very prepared."

"Good for you," the girl said nonchalantly. Her Aggron had wandered off and was glaring daggers at a flexing Machamp. "It looks like my Aggron's found an opponent—I gotta go. Good luck! Flannery's nice, she uses fire-types and honestly she's probably the most easygoing Leader to fight for your first badge. I think the only Leaders who would be an easier newbie fight are Roxanne and Wattson, ha!"

With that, she left. I stood there, staring dumbly into the distance. Okay, so Flannery was nice. Great. Whatever. I was more worried about the fact that she was, uh, even harder to fight than Wattson. I was going to get pummeled. Again.

"This is fine," I said out loud.

It took a few more days of journeying to reach the foot of Mt. Chimney. Closer to the volcano, the air grew hotter and hotter and covered the grass with a thin layer of soot. I ran into a lot of difficulty in my attempts to climb up the mountain path; even though I wasn't exactly unathletic, I was used to the level ground and smooth pavement of Mauville. Not steep, rocky slopes. A pleasant-looking man took one look at my dust-covered clothes and tired expression and laughingly directed me towards the cable car building. I bought a can of lemonade and rested for a while, letting Murphy and Bubbles out of their Pokéballs to stretch their legs (or in Bubbles' case, his flippers). Bubbles investigated the shiny floor and, disturbingly began to lick it after a while. He was eventually distracted by Murphy and ambled over to her, his tongue still sticking out of his mouth. Murphy shot him an annoyed look and began to spark and crackle with electricity. Bubbles backed down.

The cable car ride was nice enough, and definitely beat walking up the mountain. I leaned up against the window and watched the mountainside as we climbed higher and higher. I could see smoke rising from the open mouth of the volcano and the tiny figures of hikers struggling up the rocky ground. The ash grew thicker and thicker. Soon it was hard to see out the windows. When I got out of the cable car and exited onto the mountain peak, the soot was falling in visible flakes, like snow. A wooden sign pointed down a craggy side of the mountain. JAGGED PASS TO LAVARIDGE TOWN, it said in faded painted letters.

Getting down the Jagged Pass was easier said than done, however. I stumbled and slipped, clambered on all fours down through the ledges and uneven terrain. The grass was covered in soot that stuck to my skin and clothes. In a few minutes it looked like I'd been pulled out of a fire. And if that wasn't enough, a few wild Pokémon decided to jump out and attack us every once in a while. I kept Murphy out of her Pokéball for protection—Bubbles' flippers weren't at all suited to the uneven terrain. Murphy, however, seemed to cross the rocky ground with contemptuous ease, pausing to groom herself while I struggled behind her.

After a few hours of this, I paused, panting, to lean against a tree. I could see Lavaridge Town below me, surrounded by the trees. Finally. I whooped in excitement, throwing my arms into the air. And promptly slipped on a loose patch of dirt, sending me sliding down the side of the hill.

Stumbling and slipping, I ended up almost running down the dusty slope in an attempt to stay balanced and upright. Murphy yowled and bounded down after me. A Machop poked its head out from a patch of tall grass, saw me careening down the side of the mountain, and decided not to bother me. I yelled. There was a flat ledge in front of me, if I got there without falling I could stop—

—a man emerged from the trees, walking right into the perfect spot for me to crash into him. I yelled again: "Hey! Look out!" He turned, startled and backing away. I dug my heels into the loose dirt, stumbling and trying to stop.

Thankfully, I slowed down enough to avoid crashing into him, but I tripped over a protruding rock and nearly tumbled over the ledge. The man's hand shot out and he grabbed me by the shoulder, yanking me backwards with such force that I slammed into him, sending the two of us tumbling to the ground in a cloud of dust. And then there was a few seconds of silence as I tried to register what had just happened. Murphy finally caught up to me, leaping down to pad towards me, nosing my face carefully.

"Ow," I said finally, trying to sit up. I'd hit my shoulder on the ground pretty hard when I'd landed. Next to me, the man I'd knocked over was rubbing at his temples gingerly. A glint caught my eye and I glanced down at the ground. A small silver object was rolling away from him. It looked like a lapel pin, inlaid with a small multicolored stone. It was delicately made, probably worth more than all my possessions. I fought down the side of me that was wondering if I could steal it and sell it. Instead, I stood up, tearing my eyes away from the pin and took a good look at the man I'd crashed into.

I was not enthusiastic about what I saw.

A/N: Here comes a special boy~

I hope you're enjoying this story so far. If you've got time to leave feedback, that'd be great—I always like to hear what you enjoyed, or what you think should improve.

Coming up next: Riley is caught in an awkward social situation, runs into an old friend, and makes a new one.