"… Froakie!" I finish. I'm not stupid. Froakie was definitely the better choice. It's a water-type, which I work well with, and it gets a move that's insanely fast.

" Good Luck!" Sue called to us as she paraded out the door. Serena and I didn't notice; we were lost in conversation.

"Hurry, Alex! We have to travel to Route 2 by dusk," Serena urged, turning to face me. I was about 20 yards behind her, ready to collapse.

" Legs, don't fail me now," I mumble as I catch up to her.

Serena led me down the streets of Aquacorde. I liked the way her wavy hair bounced against her back as she walked with a bounding gait.

We finally reached Route 2. The sun had receded halfway into the trees, and the moon was just barely visible, sitting high in the sky, watching us.

"Why don't we search the woods… split up and find a few wild pokemon to add to our teams?"

"Okay," I agree. I watched her run off, her figure disappearing into a nearby tree grove.

After about five minutes of searching, I came across a pokemon called Fletchling. I watched its small, robin-like body hop around in the grass for a few moments, then I sprung into action. "Go, Froakie! Use Bubble!" I shouted, throwing Froakie's poke ball out.

The Bubble attack hit the Fletchling square in the beak and stunned it, and allowed me to catch it with a pokeball.

I trained my new pokemon for a few hours; its level about equal to Froakie's. I went back to the meeting spot, where I promptly collapsed on the ground and waited for Serena.

I almost didn't recognize her when she came out. She looked like she was in a hurricane.

"What happened!?" I cried out, quickly standing up on my aching legs.

Serena tugged at a stray branch caught in her tangled hair. "I tried to catch the leader of a Pidgey flock and … got attacked," she said glumly between pants. "But come on, we have to… move… on…" She trailed off, and put a hand to the side of her head. Her hand came back stained a dark red.

She promptly fainted.

I don't know when Serena woke up, but I'd guess it wasn't five minutes after this that she was ready to leave and tugging my shirt sleeve. "Wake up!"

Her determined face was a sight to see in the morning. I smoothed my ruffled hair and arched my cramped back. I had spent the night sleeping in a wooden chair in the waiting room.

I heaved my tired body off my chair and we started off. We passed straight through Route 2 (During which I noticed Serena glared at the tree grove for the entire duration, as if she was having a staring competition with an invisible Pidgey nesting in the trees.)

We finally reached Santalune Forest, but standing in the way of the trail was a very large, hairy man in a black leather jacket. When he saw us, he whipped off his sunglasses and spit in the dirt on the trail in front of us. It narrowly missed the tip of Serena's left boot, and she gave the man a disgusted look.

"You gotta pay to go through Santalune Forest," he said in a gruff, yet calm voice.

Serena dug the heels of her boots into the dirt and crossed her arms. "Never! You don't have to pay money to go through a forest! Why should we pay you? We could beat you in a fair fight, any day!"

"Too bad we don't fight fair, miss," the man said, snapping his fingers. A tall gangly woman with long, jet black hair and piercing, mint green eyes came out of the shadows, followed by a purple haired man with a heavily stubbled chin. Each pulled out a pokeball containing a Zigzagoon. The pokemon growled at Serena and I, and, thinking quickly, we sent out Fennekin, Froakie, and Fletchling.

Without a word, the pokemon charged. Fennekin used Ember and the woman's Zigzagoon quickly recoiled. Froakie was pounding at the leader's Zigzagoon with streams of bubbles, but was knocked out by a Take Down attack. Fletchling had long since taken down the purple haired man's Zigzagoon.

" Finish it!" Serena and I yelled simultaneously.

Author's note: Don't forget to review!