Author's Note: Hey, I know what you all might be thinking. "This is just a rip off from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald plot written with your own characters and you're not going to have much creativity with it, therefore I won't bother to read it." Wrong, I actually do have quite a few plans for this plot. Not to mention that Tales of Flame and Anomaly (respectively written by Buwaro and Dark Magician Girl Aeris) are great fanfics that you need to read if you're reading this one. At a later point you'll see why (And don't you dare go OMG SPOILER on me in your review (should you choose to write one); you still don't know what we're doing plot-wise so nyah).

And now, on with the chapter! I've taken up enough of your time!

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I had no idea exactly why I woke up. I didn't feel too hot or cold, I wasn't under attack or anything like that, and I wasn't sleeping on a rock either... I just woke up naturally. It was strange; I couldn't put my finger on it. When I checked my watch I saw that it was four in the morning. Great, there go four perfectly good hours of sleep, I sighed at that thought before looking up to the tree Jack had made a bed of. He looked comfortable, I couldn't help but smirk at how cute he looked when he was asleep. It'd probably piss him off if he found out what I was thinking about, so instead I entertained myself by looking up to the stars, laying flat on the ground so that only the sky was ahead of me.

All of the stars shining brilliantly, it was nice to get lost in their patterns, but it wouldn't last. I got too involved with my own thoughts to really notice them anymore, things like the city ahead kept coming at me. Dad... why did you get so angry with me over that? They were just a bunch of Poochyena... I could feel my eyelids sliding lower as my view of the sky blackened, maybe now I could go back to-... no, I was getting myself too depressed over thoughts of Dad. I just didn't understand why he got so upset over it, I honestly had never seen him get that riled up over anything before.

However, something finally gave me the incentive to stop sulking over Dad's reaction to my own actions; something was moving around in the bushes a few metres away. I blinked and slowly crawled out of my sleeping back as the rustling got more frequent, it also seemed to be moving towards bushes closer to me. When I was on my feet I ended up letting out a startled yelp. Why? Because the three Poochyena from earlier that day jumped out of the bush and began charging at me. Just barely did I manage to dodge the three attacks they threw at me, but unfortunately I wasn't prepared for what came next.

The piercing sensation in my left arm caused me to cry out while frantically trying to withdraw it. Something was biting me viciously; I could feel hot blood begin to seep into my coat's sleeve and teeth digging into my skin. Tears were almost blinding me by this point but I could still see the pokémon that was trying to tear off my arm; apparently the smaller pokémon had a Mightyena on their side. It was growling and glaring at me while trying to rip my arm right from its socket, but eventually I was able to throw it off of me.

"Ah... damn it..." While breathing heavily I sunk to my knees and grabbed the bite mark on my arm, feeling even more blood spilling onto my hands as I caught sight of the Poochyena and Mightyena surrounding me. It was scary, exactly how violent they were being when I did so little to them earlier... I couldn't do much about anything at this point. A sense of hopelessness began to come over me as I looked around, Jack was still sleeping and I had no other pokémon... My eyes clamped themselves shut as I heard the Mightyena launching itself at me, I had no choice but to take the brunt of the-

"Mudkip, use Water Gun now!"

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Truth be told, I was just about to interfere. I thought Alexa would be able to handle things without me but I was going to get up and play hero when the Mightyena started attacking. But, something really caught my attention; the name Mudkip was far too familiar. I ended up jumping to my feet and down onto a lower branch to get a better look at the scene; Alexa had turned just in time to see the Mightyena get thwarted and the remaining Poochyena glaring at the attacker along with its trainer. But, this Mudkip was different than the one I had just separated from; this one was a lot stronger by leaps and bounds, I could tell that from its appearance alone. It looked serious and ready for battle, its scars on its hide proving that it wasn't afraid of getting hurt. It almost made me shiver before I looked up to inspect the human it was traveling along with.

This one was a human male; that much I could tell right off of the bat. Probably not much older than Alexa either, but he seemed far from delicate. But, as I learned earlier, appearances can be deceiving... I couldn't help but smirk as the thought of this guy running away from the slightest sign of danger came into my mind because of that quote. However, those thoughts vanished when the guy ran forward and helped Alexa to her feet before getting her out of the middle of the battle, looking at her arm with a frown before turning back to his Mudkip, "Mudkip, keep going! Keep them busy long enough for me to treat this brat!"

The brat comment pissed off Alexa, but she wasn't about to complain, something that made me shake my head. It didn't matter if he had just saved her from a brutal attack; she should have said something if what he said really bothered her. I didn't get why she kept her mouth shut but I didn't ask questions, my attention once again being caught by the fight below. That Mudkip was putting up a tough fight but I could tell it was going to lose if it didn't have some help; the Mightyena might be down for the count but it still had three Poochyena to deal with and didn't look all that well. Almost as if it had just come out of a different fight and had jumped straight into this one. When I saw the damn thing trip and fall forward, I ended up jumping down and pounding my tail onto two of the Poochyena at once, instantly knocking out both of them. It was almost satisfying but I couldn't stop there; the runt of the litter was still going after the fallen water pokémon.

It happened so fast, my running towards that puppy before I slammed it into a nearby tree. It had shaken me a bit so I wobbled a couple of steps before everything stopped spinning, I could see that it had also knocked out the third Poochyena. Behind me I could hear Mudkip getting to its feet before it spoke to me (it was then I could tell that it was a female one), "Thank you kindly stranger, I haven't had a chance to recover from my last battle so I had nothing left to throw at them."

"You're wrong if you think it was you I wanted to help," I rolled my eyes at the obviously idiotic pokémon before I approached Alexa and the other trainer, giving the latter of the two a glare before I began to inspect the former's arm. Blood was seeping through the bandages they had put onto her arm, wonderful.

"Damn do those Mightyena ever bite hard..." Alexa muttered to herself before patting me on the head with her good arm, still smiling at me. I got a weird feeling in my stomach but I decided to push it down, "I almost thought you ran away. Glad I was wrong though, Jack."

"Jack? What the hell kind of name is that for a pokémon?" He just i had /i to butt in. I glanced coldly towards the male trainer before ignoring him completely. However, something caught my attention again, and that was the sudden, loud crash of skin against skin. When I looked to the humans again I saw the guy's face turned away while Alexa's good hand was in the air. It looked like a double-slap attack that only happened once and was far more brutal... "Just what'd you do that for?! I saved your butt just now!"

"You also called me a brat! That I could have let slide, but you went and insulted my pokémon too! That I can't just ignore," Whoo, someone had a short temper. I still didn't get why she cared more about the guy insulting me than she did about the name-calling on her, but whatever the case I had to hold back Mudkip now; she was pissed that someone just went and attacked the guy like that, I couldn't help but feel that this one was a bit too possessive...

"Relax! I'm sure Whitey's going to be okay from that!" I ended up yelling at Mudkip while trying to hold her back, and unfortunately we had the attention of both trainers as well, "Besides, it won't matter anymore over a couple of Oran Berries, eh?"

"Whitey?" Mudkip blinked at me when I said that, apparently my nickname for that guy seemed to have calmed it down enough to stop trying to charge at Alexa.

I sighed and shook my head before beginning to explain, "Yes, Whitey. The guy has white hair, or am I suddenly prone to colour-blindness?"

"No, I've just never heard that nickname for him before. Usually I call him Greg, that's what I hear other humans calling him," While blinking at me Mudkip plopped down onto the ground, the humans deciding to ignore us and were now going back to their own argument, "I still don't see why your trainer had to slap Greg like that though."

"It confuses me too," I sat down and decided to watch the humans argue with Mudkip, at least this one wasn't childish and immature. Seemed to be a bit thick but that I could probably deal with. However... it looked like Alexa and 'Greg' wouldn't be getting along properly for quite a while...

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I couldn't believe the nerve of that guy! He called me a brat when I was under attack, and I know I didn't deserve that. And when he made fun of my pokémon... that was just going too far. By this point we were beginning to walk towards Petalburg (seeing as jack-ass-named-Greg thought 'it wouldn't be safe to stay out there any longer'), Jack and Mudkip walking behind us while I determinedly looked on ahead. I didn't care about whether or not the guy actually did save my ass anymore; I really wished he would just leave. I could already tell he was an egotistical bone-head...

"Look, I'm sorry!" There he was trying to get me to talk to him. Like hell he was going to be successful at that, "Come on, you won't even tell me your name? How can I apologize properly if I don't know what it is?"

If he thought it was going to be that easy to get me talking must have been a lot thicker than I first thought. But, unfortunately, he did manage to say something to get my blood boiling again, "I'll bet it's something stupid like Alex. No wonder you won't tell me, can't say I'd blame you if I was in your shoes..."

Honestly, I wasn't sure if he was trying to provoke me or if that was him being a complete idiot. Whatever the case, it did con a reaction out of me in the sense that he earned another slap along with my shouting in his face, "My name is Alexa, and I don't care who you are or what you want so back the fuck off! I'm going to Petalburg City to talk to my Dad; I don't care what you want so leave me alone!"

There, I said it. And then I began to storm off, I could hear Jack sighing behind me and running to catch up. At least someone was on my side; if he didn't agree with me then he probably would have run off again by now. However, something hard crashed into the back of my head just then, causing me to stumble a few steps and to glare back at the person who threw it.

"Now that I've got your attention, Alexa," He had to throw a Chesto Berry at me to get my attention? That probably made me even more pissed off at him, "You don't have to be so violent! I'm sorry for calling you and your pokémon those names. Now will you stop being unreasonable and accept the damn apology?"

"You threw a Chesto Berry at my head and are expecting me to be friendly with you? Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees something wrong with this picture."

"Okay, okay," Greg sighed at me while closing his eyes, when he opened them again I noticed that they were a very nice shade of brown... but I was still mad at him, don't get me wrong! "I also apologize for the Chesto Berry. Now will you talk to me?"

"I dunno..."

"Aw, come on! What do I have to do?" I couldn't help but smirk to myself a little as I heard Greg complaining behind me, now really I was just messing with him. A part of me was still mad but I figured that this could prove to be entertaining... at least for a little while. Until he actually did something stupid again I had no reason to be mad at him, so why couldn't I simply mess with his head for a while?

"Are all girls this complicated...?"

"I heard that."

Hah, made him gulp. I honestly was thoroughly amused by this; it was going to be an interesting couple of days if this continued on. It was then that my thoughts were cut short however; he decided to be stupid and say something insulting towards me, "I guess your pride's bruised, you weren't able to take on those Poochyena and Mightyena... you really are a weak trainer, aren't you?"

"Well excuse me for just starting today! I doubt you were an expert right off the bat!" He was cowering a little now, something that made his Mudkip roll his eyes. I didn't care, he was pushing all of the wrong buttons; he pissed me off so much, not only what he said but the way he said it too! He wasn't superior, so why the hell was he acting like it? Miserable jerk...

Jack jumped onto my head at that point, offering me a Berry. I couldn't tell exactly what kind it was so I gently rejected the offer before he shrugged and ate it on his own. Greg and his Mudkip were following me silently now, why couldn't they just leave me alone...?

Little did I know that I would actually be stuck with them for quite a while.