I do not own Pokémon. Nintendo, Gamefreak and Creatures Inc. Do. Dak, Chris, Lancer, and other random characters that are obviously too stupid to be official are mine, so don't steal them. (Like you would anyway, Kind of stupid me putting this in here.)

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The boat to Johto was much larger than the last, all means of passengers and Pokémon were on, making for a more interesting ride, but Dak had the look that it really didn't matter who or what was on the boat as long as she was going forward. Perhaps forward in her journey, forward in her life, or maybe just in a different place. She contemplated the life she was living just a few weeks ago, seeming like an eternity while she was on the water.

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"Franklin! I just don't get it! Why the heck can't I…" Dak screamed at an obviously ticked off parent.

"Dak! If I've told you once I've told you a thousand times! You're not responsible enough! Do you remember that damn caterpie that you tried to take care of? Do you remember what happened to it?

"She ran away," Dak said with a tear in her eye, "Kata ran away."

"There you go again!" Franklin said, the already stern look on his face getting even worse while he wagged his finger in the teenager's face. "There you go again naming it! The damn bug! You couldn't even keep it for one week! Not even for one week! You didn't even have the decency to tell somebody about it! What if it hurt you? What if it tried to kill you?"

"It was a caterpie."

"It was a wild pokémon!"

"She was my friend!" Dak said as she slapped Franklin's hand out of her face, "She was more like family then you are! She liked me unconditionally! It didn't matter what grades I got," She stepped forward, and Franklin backed up. "She didn't care what I was writing in my diary… Or how I looked, or… Or how popular I was!"

"Then why did that wild… beast, That thing! Run away?" Franklin said when he crossed his arms, almost triumphantly.

"Thankfully this…" She took a small card out of her pocket, "Right here…" The card she held up was her Pokémon trainer license, "Can legally tell you to shut the…"

Chris awoke with a happy tear in his eye to an almost magical assortment of cursing and swearing.

Dak grabbed her backpack and charged out the door of the Hayslip residence. She believed that not only was she right, but by the look she left on her father's face; he may have thought so too. Besides, she believed she couldn't waist her time arguing with Franklin, she had a boat to catch!

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"Hay…?" A hand nudged at Dak's shoulder.

"Hayyyy…?" The hand shook her a little harder.

"WAKE UP!" A voice called Dak out of her sleep, which seemed like a nightmare to the girl. She jolted her head up from the glass table she had it on, sitting in a chair with so many markings and figures, it was obviously more meant for show than comfort. The voice said "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare…"

"Sorry! Sorry!" She said slightly panicked, being jolted out of sleep fast to find the voice came from another passenger. The voice turned out to belong to a boy who looked a little older than Dak. His sandy blonde hair was messy and contrasted the black jacket he wore, along with the dark green kakis. The jacket was open slightly, revealing a few red lines going various ways on a white t-shirt. His skin wasn't exactly tan, but darker than a fair skin-tone. "Sorry about that sir…"

"Woahwoahwoahwoah." The kid shook his head and waved his hands in protest. "Don't call me sir, man. We're like, the same age or something."

"Alright… Sorry, eh…" She said, slowly regaining her awareness to her surroundings, and realizing she didn't know the kid's name.

"Name's Lancer." The boy said. "Mind if I sit here real quick?"

"Yeah, sure Lancer, Why the heck not, hm?" Dak said, motioning for him to sit down next to her.

"Thanks, eh… Sorry, never got your name." Lancer said as he pulled a chair out to sit on.

"Dak. Just call me Dak." She said, brushing the hair that had been in her face out of the way.

"Alright then." He said as he sat down. There was an awkward silence for about five minutes as they looked around, never really making eye contact. Lancer broke the silence when he said "So… Why are you headed to a place like Johto?

"I'm a trainer, well, kinda…" Dak said. She tried to explain that she wasn't a true trainer due to the loss of the important ingredient that made a trainer – a Pokémon to train.

"Hay! A fellow trainer, huh? The catches are better in Sinnoh, I don't think you should've left…"

"Johto's further from Fiore." She glared at Lancer, obviously pissed.

"Arceus…" He looked down and said "Another angsty trainer from some other place just so she can prove herself or something. You got a beef with your parents, don't you?

"Well, One…" Dak replied before being interrupted.

"And let me guess, you're the only one who believes in you?"

"No! My brother…"

"And for all your life, you've never had a break, huh?"

"Hay, buddy!" She said, just trying to get the nosy kid out of her buisiness. "I'm not like that, kay? You know anything about Fiore?"

"Yeah." Lancer said. "It's an island with Pokémon from all over.

"And…?"

"That's it. Why didn't you start there?"

"No league." She sighed. "Perfect for old people and idiots who are happy to not do anything with their lives." She said as she got up from her seat and walked off.

"Hay! Wait!" Lancer said as he got up and started following Dak. "Look, I didn't mean anything by it. I'm just tired of idiots using Pokémon to run away from their dads or boyfriends or whatever…"

"Look, Lance." She said, doing an about-face to look the boy in the eyes. "I just feel like angsting all over today, and I'm kinda pissed. Buzz off."

"Hay. I'm sorry. It's just I've seen a lot of emo trainers coming through here lately…"

"And you thought I was one of them?" She looked at him stern in the face, like she was going to say 'Well I'm not!,' (Which, quite frankly, would make her seem more emo.) but instead started laughing. Lancer looked at her like she was crazy before she said "I'm sorry, man. I'm just kinda up tight fight now, ya know? It's not that he was…" She had a look as if she was in thought before saying, "No, he was pure evil," with a smile on her face, "But that's not why I'm out here. I like the region. That's all." She said before Lancer started smiling too.

"Well, alright then, Dak."

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The word 'Terrified' didn't do justice to the way that the new trainer felt about a flight on a Tropius. The other trainer just laughed as Dak gripped onto the fruit Pokémon for fear of falling, or the pokemon being too tired from the weight. Lancer just carried on with his conversations normally as if she wasn't paralyzed with fear. Dak caught a few phrases such as "Scared, Huh?" And "…But that was just in Sinnoh…" And "Only another hour, Then we're there," perhaps the best news Dak got on a five hour fear-fest scraping the heavens. The grip that Dak had on the Tropius obviously affected the flight patterns, which was usually countered by its master yelling something, which made Dak grab harder. A slow decent suddenly made Dak loosen up to a point, letting the Tropius land gracefully. "Be glad it's clear today" Lancer said as he jumped off his Pokemon. Dak didn't even bother trying to jump off, just sliding off of the Pokemon to the hard ground, a strangely rewarding feeling. Dak stood up, shaking the whole time, and Lancer just laughed and pet his Tropius before breaking off one of the fruits from his neck and tossing it to Dak, who didn't even notice the fruit before it hit her in the face. "Not too bad, now was it?"

Dak bent down and picked up the fruit, not feeling like talking.

"Alright, then…" He said with more laughter in his voice. "Well, I've got to get to Cherrygrove." He turned to his Pokémon and said "You think you got enough energy to get to Cherrygrove." It let out a unconvincing "Tropiii…" before the trainer said "Of cource you do." He hopped back on before saying, "If you need another lift, just call me!"

"Y…Yeah Riiiight…" Dak said rather meekly to Lancer. "Thanks…"

"Alright then! Off to Cherrygrove!" Lancer ordered as Tropius took off looking slightly tired. Dak shivered and waved as it took off, simply to be polite. She turned around to see a building, and laughed while jumping around, while a really weird look fell on anybody's face who passed her.

It wasn't exactly the building that overjoyed her, but the sign on the building.

'Johto Pokémon Research Laboratory,' it read.

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Okay, Well, That was lame. I originally had something about them getting off the boat, buttttt…. It was not good at all. So, I did a page of work for NOTHING. WOO. Chapter three has action, I PROMICE. No. Lancer is not Lance. I just realized the name of the elite four guy while I was writing.