I journeyed through the forest, carefully avoiding humans but encountering several Pokémon along the way, which Engelbert and Sachel made short work of. We met one of those catlike Pokémon that N had been with, and I named her Malayeka. She spent most of the rest of the walk to Striaton trying to trip me by weaving figure-eights around my legs.

I had just stepped out onto the pathway just outside of Striaton when a young woman bumped into me. "Oops! Sorry!" she exclaimed. "I wasn't watching where I was going!"

"'s okay." I mumbled, nonchalantly.

"What were you doing in the woods, anyway? It's dangerous out there!"

"I thought I saw something shiny, and it wasn't too far into the woods, so I checked it out. I was mistaken, though. It turns out it was nothing after all." I responded easily, chuckling a bit. That was one of the answers I had come up with to answer that very question, and I felt quite proud of myself when it worked flawlessly.

"OHH! Well that's understandable! Oh, my name's Bianca! What's yours?"

"Leigh." I answered and extended a hand. She took it, and said, "Well, I have to run- I've got a date in Striaton- see you later!" And with that, she took off, leaving me smiling and shaking my head. It felt good to smile.

I walked into Striaton, noticing how alone I felt without my friends at my side. I went and replenished my supplies at the store, then wandered around for a while, snacking on an apple and just getting the feel of the town. I had been here before- this was where I'd gone to school, after all- but I hadn't really paid attention to the town before. After finishing my apple and throwing away the core, I shrugged and walked into my old school.

The inside was very school-like: blank white cinderblock walls with some posters here and there, trying to make something totally impersonal more homey. I walked to the end of a hallway and peeked into the art classroom to see if my old art teacher was there. She wasn't there, but someone else glanced up from the book he was reading to see who had intruded. I started to leave, mumbling an apology, but the stranger asked, "Leigh? What are you doing here?"

I turned back and took in the not-so-unknown face and said, "Hello, Cheren. I was in town and used to go to school here, so I came to see if the art teacher was in."

He laughed. "She left a while ago to go get something to eat. So what brings you to Striaton?"

I shrugged. "Trying to find a job."

He considered this. "Well, with your opinions I would've thought that you'd have joined Team Plasma."

I chuckled at that thought. "I said they had a point, not that they were right." I corrected.

"Oh, good." he countered jovially. "If you had joined, I might've had to arrest you"

"You what." I said flatly.

He chuckled a little. "I'm a member of the Regional Police. I'm surprised you didn't notice." I wanted to bang my head against a very large, very solid object very slowly as I spotted the cliché shiny badge that all police officers seemed to wear.

"Oh." was my only response. "...So, Team Plasma has been officially outlawed?"

"Mmmyep." He said, adjusting his glasses and making them flash. "A few people tried to 'befriend the Pokémon' like Plasma was saying to and got attacked by some Plasma grunts last week, and it's a pattern that's continuing so far in vastly different places, so we know it's not just a few isolated grunts. So the higher-ups outlawed the entire group." He chuckled, then said, "But you don't want to listen to me ramble. Maybe we'll talk later, okay?"

I merely nodded, then left the building, eager to go somewhere, anywhere that didn't have people anywhere near it.

I walked into a fenced-in and secluded area, overgrown and untended; it looked like it had once been a park of some description, but had been abandoned. I walked in and it took all of three seconds to figure out why as one of those cat-things lunged for my face. I whistled and Engelbert came rushing out, intercepting the cat-thing and knocking it backwards. Then Sachiel popped out of the undergrowth and attacked it, killing it in seconds. The sound of caterwauling assailed my ears and I turned around to find Malayeka entangled with another cat-thing. Sachiel snuck up behind it whilst Malayeka distracted it and finished it off, too.

Three rats that looked like Engelbert jumped at me, and Sachiel, Malayeka and Engelbert took one each to attack and finish off.

I heard a cry and saw a boy, looking at me and then at the brush, looking frightened. I began to walk over to him, motioning to my friends to stay put, but he ran for the entrance to the park, dodging around me and my Pokémon and looking like the devil himself was after him. I looked back at the brush he had been looking at,just as it burst into flames. I had Sachiel douse the fire before it spread, and then peered into the charred hole it had made. I pulled back fast as a soaked fire-monkey came rushing out, looking like it was spoiling for a fight. It skidded to a halt, looked at me, questioningly, then ran over to my friends, chattering loudly. Then it cautiously approached me.

"Do you want to come with me, little guy?" I asked. It nodded at me. "Okay then, let me see... I think I'll call you Nathaniel." It chattered happily when I said the name, so I assumed he liked it. "Alright then, I think I'll go-"

"You'll be going nowhere, mister, except jail."