I give you the third chapter. Had actually started on this on Sunday, but was then in a slight stump, waiting for a ranger character and whatnot. And then I had a test. Blah blah blah. It's here now, and though I do prefer the previous chapter, I do like this one. It is necessary, and is not too filler-ish.

The waiting room was surprisingly quiet. If Shawn were to imagine one, there would be a great deal of panic. Crying children would be abundant, perhaps because they were missing a favorite television program, or a pokedoll had been taken from them, or maybe the excruciating pain of having a noodle shoved up their nose would be too much for the young ones to bear. Elderly people would be present, obviously, since their bodies were decaying a quicker rate than they would like, and cannot sit through the ache of arthritis, and other similar diseases. And then, for added effect, there would be that random person who has some ailment, some injury that was so ridiculous and obscene, that the entire staff of nurses and interns would have their eyes on the patient, sniggering behind closed doors.

Instead, the waiting room was filled with only one other couple that he did not know; an older couple who was intent on reading some cooking magazine. It appeared to him that the reading material of the room was intended for older audiences, considering that neither he, nor Friday seemed to be able to pick up a book. The two were flipping through reading material earlier, and neither seemed capable of finding something they liked.

Actually, he mentally corrected himself. Friday was reading a gossip magazine earlier, but I guess there are only so many times you can go through one. He wouldn't know, nor was he curious enough to try.

The albino girl was tapping her index finger against the arm of her chair impatiently. The little rhythms she'd start were arbitrary and would suddenly cut off to some other unnamed tune. He found his mood somersaulting from annoyed to intrigue to impatience. From the occasional glances from the couple strategically seated as far from the duo as possible, he could easily guess they didn't particularly care for her sound production.

He rolled his eyes and groaned, leaning his head against the white wall. He knew it was rather cliché, but he found himself wishing for more color in the hospital room. It was way too dull. There weren't even any kiddy toys to fiddle about with. He was bored.

A sudden growl caught his attention. Friday was rubbing her forehead.

He wondered what was wrong, but dared not ask. Ever since they had arrived, she had been deep in thought. He felt that it would be unsafe to intrude on the inner workings of her mind. Shawn stroked his chin, playing with the feel of his facial hair. He wondered what it felt like to have a bare chin. It had been a while since he had shaved his face fully.

Ah, but if he were to correct the current status of his facial hair, he would require a razor, which he currently lacked. A pokemon who worked for the organization was sent over to collect their luggage to their hotel. They had nothing with them at the moment. Not even their pokemon (apparently the hotel did not allow for any pokemon who were not hired labor, so their partners would be staying at a little day care). He felt weird not having the familiar weight in his jacket pocket. His delibird was not going to like being away; little guy was just a baby. Maybe his zangoose would look after it…

"What kind of idiot breaks their hand on someone's jaw?" Friday grumbled. Shawn's eyes flickered to her, unsure if her question was rhetorical. "I mean, he clearly has … muscles, but it was his jaw for crying out loud …" She rolled her head. Apparently whatever stupor she had been in had passed, for she was now talking.

"Someone with a marked propensity for getting into trouble?" Shawn offered.

Friday blinked several times, and then allowed a laugh. "You have no idea how appropriate that statement is." He shrugged with an impish grin. Perhaps his boredom would no longer be a main feeling.

"Considering the way he threw himself on to … Davion," he had forgotten the blond's name for a second. "I'd say that I have a pretty good idea." Shawn challenged.

Friday raised a brow, debating if she would take the bait. If there was bait. She wasn't really sure what was what ever since Sir-Kiss-a-Lot launched himself on to her. She concluded some storytelling wouldn't hurt.

"Doubtful." She leaned back in her chair, folding one over the other with her hands clasped. Shawn adjusted his seat as well, a lazy but somewhat curious expression adorning his face. "He has gotten into fights with much more dangerous characters."

"More dangerous than male strippers?" He asked dryly.

She smirked. "Well, to say they were more dangerous would be pushing it. Male strippers are in a dangerous league of their own. No, I'm talking about taking on ice cream men at the age of five." Whatever Shawn had been expecting her to say, it was not that. "You see, when we were younger, we lived in Saffron City." Shawn chuckled knowingly. "Yeah you know what I'm talking about – eccentric people who are convinced they're psychics are all over the city. Trust me, I know way more people of that genre than I'd like to."

"I can imagine."

"Yeah, so anyways, we're both five, being twins and all, and on every – I think it was on every – Tuesday we would go out and buy ice cream. Normally we'd just go down to the shop, but on this particular Tuesday – I'm beginning to think it was a Wednesday, though – the ice cream truck was trolling along pretty early. Hain thought it'd be cool to make a change and get popsicles that were pokemon-shaped. So we chased after it, for about a block or so, and then finally it came to a halt."

"And what, they didn't have his favorite ice cream?" Shawn asked.

"No, no, let me finish." Friday rolled her eyes. She felt inclined to whack him for interrupting her so much. "So we chased after the truck, but since we were like, friggin' tiny, by the time we got there, the whole truck was packed with a sea of kids. High schoolers even, which meant that we really had competition. Thanks to our…" She gestured to herself. "Looks, and cute factor, we were able to squeeze our way through the crowd to make our orders. Now, this ice cream truck guy, he saw us sneaking in, and for one reason or another, found it necessary to discipline us for cutting through, because five year olds aught to know better."

Shawn inclined himself away from Friday slightly. He was sensing some old animosity that had never been cleared up.

"But see, he wasn't the sort to just request for us to leave and all that, oh no, he was the kind to go and act all natural, smiling at us with a toothy grin, taking our money and getting our ice cream cones. He then went and proceeded to hold out some fairly melted ice cream and dropped it in our hair. He said it was to cool down our self-serving hot heads. The ass." Her hands were clenched. The couple was no longer reading their magazine, but glancing up at her with wary expressions. They also seemed interested in the tale.

"So … what did your brother do?"

She paused, her eyelids fluttering several times as she realized why she was originally telling the story. "Oh, we jumped on to the truck and started clawing at the guy with tooth and nail." She grinned. "He had to get stitches after, and our case held up in court."

Shawn furrowed his brows. "…What case?" Harassment? Failure to meet the needs of the customer. Perhaps child abuse? He tried to recall the details of child abuse laws concerning non-family members.

"Pedophilia, obviously."

From her smug expression, he assumed that who ever had been representing them was either told an interestingly different story or flat out lied to the court. As far as he could tell, there was nothing sexual in anything she had previously described.

"Ah." Cause there was no other response that he could come up with.

The two were seated in awkward silence. Neither could come up with a continuing topic starter, and opted for strained silence. Shawn mentally played out different ways he could have proceeded with a conversation, never acting, since no solution seemed to qualify (and by the time he did come up with a good response, a good five minutes had past). Friday was left to her thoughts once again, and a shroud of mystery hung over her.

Shawn slumped in his chair, mussing with his bangs. How long did it take for two guys to get patched up after a little brawl, anyways?

A female furret yawned widely before outstretching her paws and then her hind legs. Her eyes fluttered sleepily, uttering another yawn, before sniffing at her trainer. Lyra felt the shivers of a yawn coming on, and half heartedly tried to fight it. She offered an annoyed look at her pokemon. She leaned against the large pokemon, sleepy from the flight over. Her state of impatience had come and gone: she was now sleepy, and enjoying her moment of peace.

She twirled a dyed blue streak in her hair. Her hair was coming undone. She took off her glasses, purposely setting them to her side, and then shook out her pony tail. She ran her hands through her thick, wavy brown hair, using her fingers as a brush. She then pulled her hair back once again into a low ponytail. She felt for her glasses, her furret nudged them to her, and she took the item gladly. Lyra vaguely patted the pokemon in thanks.

She had been looking for the ranger assigned to pick up those from the Hoenn region, but apparently there were flight delays going about, so the sky traffic was out of whack. She had no idea where the ranger originated from, but she assumed that the ranger was on one of those flights. Or was stuck in traffic. Or had gotten lost. Or had simply forgotten about his or her duties.

Lyra sighed heavily, rolling her head to one side. She couldn't find her luggage, either. She had been frantically looking around earlier, but the receptionist said the organization picked up her stuff. The idiots failed to tell her where to find them, though. What a pain.

She sifted through her carry-on bag, the only possession she had with her, and pulled out a folder. The flipped through the information given in the schedule. It had arrived in the mail, right before she left the other day, but until then, had not found herself inclined to start reading through it.

She skimmed the pages, looking for a phone number, or some way to contact an adult. Nothing: only given names and slight information on their area of expertise. She muttered some incoherent words. The packet was useless as far as she was concerned. She tossed it to the side for added effect.

"I hope whoever is running this joint finds us, Scout."

"Hey, dudes…" Hain and Davion looked up from where they had been seated. A larger man in a red uniform with white gloves and black slacks trotted up to them. He shook his colored hair: a natural black with red-dyed tips. He looked from one to the other with a slight frown. "What are we supposed to be telling your parents, what with you going off to the hospital within minutes of arriving, huh? There happens to be piece in the contract about kids getting into fights…"

Hain scowled. "He was making the moves on my sister." The ranger blinked in surprise, and turned to Davion, who had rolled his eyes in turn.

"You've been getting it on with chick-a-dees already? You're a real pimpin' dude, aren't ya?"

The blond shrugged. "Yeah, whatever."

The ranger ignored the boy's vague response. "Well, seeing as how you two have managed to be beating the snot out of each other, we're going to assume that you've gotten it out of your system." The two gave him a suspicious expression. "We're going to hope you have, anyways, because this is a non-refundable program. Your parents have had to pay their money for this, and here you all are, making friends through bodily harm. Not very smart, dudes. Not at all. So, pretty much," he clasped his hands. "No more fighting, or you're getting kicked out, understand?"

"Yeah, whatever."

The ranger took Davion's nonchalance and Hain's silence as an affirmative. "Righteous. Now get your wounded asses up, cause higher ups are already mad about the confusion with the delayed flights and all that jazz."

Hain cradled his wounded wrist that had been put in a sling. The bone had a minor fracture apparently. He wasn't sure how he managed that one. Usually his attacks on people were spot on. He also was debating on whether or not he was more upset about the damage he had taken (fractured wrist from punch, bruised lip being elbowed, and bite on shoulder from sister) or pleased with the wounds Davion was able to take in (badly bruised jaw, slap and bites from sister). While he was happy his sister had dished out some attacks, he was annoyed that she had turned around and bit him, too. With her warped perspective, he had no idea why she had acted the way she had.

Davion grunted, adjusting the ice pack being held to his face, and followed the ranger. The two boys shared a glare for a moment, neither really wanting to walk in sync with the other, before the ranger gestured for them to follow.

Friday and Shawn were waiting, as well as a girl with brown and blue hair. She was seated off to the side, and was the only one not to stand up when the three entered the room. Davion's brown eyes flickered to hers, but only for a second.

She cocked her head, wary of the two boys. The ranger had found her earlier, waiting outside of the port, completely confused on how she had gotten to there. There had been a large crowd of people, and she had somehow gotten swept away and quite literally shoved outside. She was unsure of where to go, and eventually stored away her pokemon, and ventured inside to ask one of the receptionists for help.

The ranger had taken note of her; "Blue-dude, are you Lyra Smith?" When she answered an affirmative, he had swooped over, and dragged her along, explaining how there was a current mix-up with flights and fights. Because other rangers were running late, she was going to have to go with him to the hospital: apparently two boys had started fighting, oddly enough, without their pokemon.

She could only assume that the two miscreants were these two.

What she found interesting was the parallel between the two males. Her attention was split: one was an albino, and before meeting his sister, she had never met one before. Naturally, the apparent difference had caught her interest, especially when she noticed his eyes were red, like his sister's. She found the imagery both intriguing and a little intimidating. The color was less striking than false, colored lenses that some people would wear, but still stood out to her.

To further add to his odd coloring, he had an aura of aggression about him. He held his posture oddly: his back was almost inclined to full height, except for his shoulders that curved forward in anger. His right hand was cradled in both a sling, and by a clenched left hand. The albino boy also had a bandage on his lip. She vaguely wondered if his attitude was because of his current predicament, or because that was just the sort of person he was.

The person next to him, she noticed for somewhat different reasons: even with the apparent swelling of the left side of his jaw (she couldn't tell how bad it was until the ice pack in his hand shifted slightly), his looks were striking. Even as a wounded man, he stood with a lazy, yet confident stance. Merely battle wounds that were of no concern to him. If anything, he looked nonchalant. He moved the ice away from his face for a moment to toss his head so that he could shake his bangs out of his brown eyes. She almost smiled. He had really pretty eyes.

The she noticed his legs and nearly doubled over in shock. He had a baggy hoodie on, which only emphasized the shortness of his denim shorts. He seemed to be prone towards shopping in the wrong section of the store: ladies only. If it weren't for his body language that oozed testosterone, she'd wonder if he was a drag queen in passing. The shaved legs, no matter how in shape, did not help his case.

"The dudes have been retrieved, ladies and gentle-dudes. Let's get going." He then paused. "Oh, I'm Bear, by the way. Ranger Bear." He then trotted along out the door, expecting the teens to follow him obediently.

The five blinked simultaneously.

Shawn turned to Friday and mouthed: "As in 'Smokey the Bear'?" Friday snickered and shrugged. Hain turned to her questioningly, but followed the two out the door silently. Davion swagger close behind Lyra whose pace was speeding up because of his close proximity.

She wasn't sure if he was trying to get her to speed up, was trying to get around her, or was simply more accustomed to smaller personal bubbles. As she followed the little group out the door, through the hallways to the eventual outside world, she attempted to move about, giving room for him to move past her, and the like, but he continued to shepherd her. It was not until she turned to look at him, she was met with a blank expression. She raised an unimpressed brow. Davion sighed, and then with a slight exaggeration of his step, moved into step with her.

She turned back to face the other three ahead of her, chatting. She wasn't really interested in being so close to him, but at least he was not longer walking on top of her heels.

Her eyes traced him out of the corner of her eye. She inwardly smirked at the imagery of his right hand in his pocket: the pants were so short that the tip of the pocket that his hand was tucked in was peeking out from beneath his shorts. She found it curious that a male would be inclined to wear such skimpy clothing. It was hardly comfortable for her to wear, and it was socially acceptable, for what reason would he?

Her focus returned to Bear, who was waving them over to a black van. She assumed the blond was from some place really hot. Or perhaps was an exotic dancer. Or lost a bet (but he looked way too comfortable for that to be the reasoning).

"Alright-y dudes, let's get going; no worries, all your stuff is in the back. He swung around the front of the car, getting into the driver's seat. Friday opened the door for everyone after her brother made a move to do so, and realized his handicapped state. Hain made his way to the back of the bus, followed by Friday who situated herself next to him. Shawn gestured for Lyra to go ahead of him. He made a move to do the same for Davion, but the blond gave the tiniest of inclines in his head to hint for him to go inside. Shawn shrugged and followed in, seated in the middle, whereas Lyra was sitting alone in the front.

Davion climbed in and simply sat in the front row: closest to the door, and leaving one seat in between himself and Lyra. Instinctively, she situated herself further from him.

Bear started up the van, and as he turned around to back up, he instructed, "Why don't the lot of you introduce yourselves?"

"Um, Shawn." The black haired boy behind Lyra raised his hand slightly, and offered a smile.

"Lyra."

"I'm Friday, this is Hain."

"Hnn."

Lyra turned to Davion expectedly. He turned to her, and then looked back out the window. She frowned slightly. What was his problem?

Friday rolled her eyes from the back of the van and leaned forward. "What, not so friendly now, are you?" Lyra turned questioningly to the girl. "Careful," the girl was grinning, but her eyes flashed dangerously. "He could jump you at any second."

Lyra whipped her head to the blond, eyes wide. Shawn's voice saying "well that's somewhat of an exaggeration …" sounded like an echo to her ears.

It was not as if she necessarily believed what the other girl was saying, but she still was wary of the guy. It was weird how he sat, legs extended, closed off, yet at ease. His head was leaning against the window, as if trying to sleep. His legs were splayed out, occupying a great amount of space so that she was inclined to draw her own legs together.

She offered a smile to the boy behind her, who also seemed drawn toward himself, but not disinclined toward interacting.

"So where are you from?" She turned her head to meet bright blue eyes. Apparently she was able to open him up for some small talk.

"Um, Lilycove." She answered.

Shawn's guarded eyes brightened in recognition. "Ah, the Hoenn region. Surprised you made your way over here." She shrugged with a slight smile.

"It's not like we're not going to take a detour back home." She pointed out. "And it's not that far."

Shawn scoffed. "Uh, yeah it is. I know that a lot of people will string its proximity together with the Johto and Kanto regions, and yeah, in comparison to Sinnoh, it is closer. But it's not actually that close, I'd say there's a good three hundred sixty miles from one location to the other. Hence, we're not that close."

Lyra was taken back by his correction. "O-okay." She made a move to face forward again. There was a reason she didn't care for interacting with people. And she wasn't in the mood to argue.

"How's the weather there? I hear it's pretty warm, so it's pretty wise of you to bundle up. Davion there, I had to tell him to put on a sweatshirt." She tried to imagine the blond in even lighter clothing, but could only come up with male stripper attire.

"Ah, that was nice of you." She allowed.

He shrugged off her halfhearted compliment. "So, is it as warm as they say?"

"Um, I guess? It's warmer than Violet City, but I suppose that's not really saying much."

"You moved from there, I take?"

"Yeah, when I was younger."

"You dyed your hair." The two paused in the interrogation: Davion's attention was on Lyra. Unreadable.

She frowned, but nodded. His statement was odd, as if he was aware that it hadn't always been blue. Beyond the obvious of 'no person is born with blue hair so obviously it wasn't always' and into the realm of 'you've changed because I've seen you before'. She always considered herself good at reading people, but because of his aloof attitude toward seemingly everything, she was having a hard time gauging him.

"Um, yes, it's dyed."

"Obviously," muttered Shawn.

"When?" The Davion boy seemed prone to one-worded responses.

"Uh, earlier this year: when I turned seventeen." She had intended to give him minimum information, but her age slipped out in the process. From the way that his eyes flickered with recognition, and with a sense of achievement and understanding, turned away, she knew she was missing something.

"Pretty young, then, huh? I'm nineteen, so it's kind of funny to hear." She realized in slight amusement that his age was the first piece of information that he had provided about himself. Besides the fact that apparently he was an informative person. She shrugged.

It did not take long for the conversation to die out, after some further emphasis on her young age. She wasn't really in the mood to talk. He did have somewhat of a point; her plane ride had been long, and she wanted to sleep. The older boy seemed to get the message when her head kept lolling to the back of her seat.

Friday and Hain proved to be much more interesting company. The female of the two twins had little sympathy for her brother's wrist, if anything she seemed to be more inclined to poke fun at her brother's expense.

"Hey, moron, should we go find some caterpie to make a cast for you? To make sure you don't go hurting yourself again." Friday smirked.

"Ha, ha, ha. You're so funny." He grumbled. Shawn couldn't help but smile to himself in his observations.

"Come to think of, we should get you a full body cast. Seeing as how you're so delicate, and all."

"Don't make me hit you."

"And break your other hand? I wouldn't chance it, brother dearest."

"It's a fracture."

"Oh, excuse the technicality."

An otherwise long ride turned into one that seemed to last minutes. The buildings in the city quickly grew in size: they were headed to Saffron City, the metropolis of the Kanto region. From what Shawn had read from the itinerary, they were going to be staying in a newly built hotel for a couple of nights. He wasn't sure what they were going to be doing in their stay, since the guide was somewhat vague. Though as he noticed, in the midst of the twins' playful banter, that the sun had already set, he found that he did not particularly care. He figured he could follow Davion and Lyra's move and go to bed.

"Oy, sleeping-dudes, time to get up." Bear was moving his arm behind his chair. Vaguely aiming to wake up the sleeping teens. "We're driving in, and I'm not lugging your butts up."

Davion moaned as he lifted himself off the window. Apparently a light sleeper. Or he was never fully asleep in the first place. He raised his arms to the ceiling of the vehicle, and pressed against it as a stretch. The three that had been awake the entire ride watched him with amusement. He resembled a more docile snorlax.

Oblivious to the watchful eyes, he turned to the sleeping girl next to him. She had curled up on the seat in her sleep, inches away from him. He placed a careful hand on her shoulder and nudged at her to get up. She grumbled incoherently, but blearily seated herself in an upright position. Davion retracted his hand as if he had never touched her in the first place.

The van made a turn, pulling up to a large building. Surrounding the double doors outside the entrance were a collection of machokes and machamps. "Are they going to help with the luggage?" Shawn asked.

"Yeah, pretty useful pokemon, aren't they?" Bear grinned over his shoulder. "Now get out of my van."

A collection of awkward, tired scrambling ensued. Particularly when the machokes began to get impatient, and literally took the sleepy Lyra and Hain, the two slowest moving of the group. Hain spewed a slur of insults, which only encouraged the large pokemon. Lyra didn't take much notice towards being manhandled. She was too tired to care.

Shawn, Friday, and Davion walked in sync with one another. When Davion allowed for a slight shudder, Shawn turned to him with a knowing sigh.

"Told you it was cold here."

"Yeah, whatever."

Like mareep, the teens were guided and separated into different rooms that they would be sharing. The only two who occupied the same room were Hain and Shawn, neither complaining toward their current roommate. The rest had roommates that had yet to arrive.

"Told you there were some flight problems earlier." Bear had explained.

Davion had shrugged, returning to his room, moving past the double beds, cuing Lyra and Friday to do the same after a couple of 'goodnights'. Davion stripped himself of his sweatshirt and shorts before rummaging through his carry-on bag. He pulled out two pokeballs, releasing a growlithe and zangoose.

The growlithe shook its mane grumpily. It disliked the confinements of its pokeball, and was not used to being carried around in it for long periods of time. He nipped at his owner to remind him of his distaste. The zangoose scowled, equally displeased, but instead took to the closer of the two beds, and lay across it.

Davion patted the growlithe, and then headed off to the bathroom. He needed to clean himself up. The earlier activities had left him smelly, and he knew he smelled of sex (his pokemon were not fazed anymore, but merely quirked a brow at it). He scrubbed himself hard with the bar of soap provided by the hotel. His skin turned from a slight brown to a dark red in a matter of seconds, despite the cold water spilling down on his back. He shook his watered down hair, continuing to rub.

Ten minutes later, he emerged from the shower, reaching for a towel to dry himself off. He shook the water out of his wet hair, and continued with further hygienic cleaning. Davion left the bathroom with damp hair, minty breath, and free of his towel. He slid under the covers of the bed that the zangoose had settled on top of. The growlithe had joined him.

Davion patted the two pokemon as the snuggled up on either side of him. "Flight attendant's left now." He slurred. A ghost of a smile flitted across his face. The zangoose nestled closer to him. "Gone."

Sorry, no smut in this chapter. XP

For those of you submitting new OCs, would like to remind people I ONLY accept through PM. Also, would love more ranger characters. But that does not mean I'm no longer accepting campers/students, cause I'd like more of those, too. Preferably from Hoenn and Sinnoh, cause those regions need more love. Also, try to have trainers with pokemon in the same region. So it makes sense and whatnot. And for those of you who have sent me characters and they haven't appeared yet, they will soon. Sorry if you're anxious for the wait. For those of you whose characters have appeared, hope I am portraying them in an image that you like (not expecting to get identical to what you imagined, just going by info given to me).

New characters:

Lyra Smith - xXKaminari-TsubasaXx

Gaberiel "Bear" Ursada - Magicarp. Glub glub