It was a peaceful afternoon on Rt. 101. The bird pokemon sang cheerful songs while zizagoons and poochyenas frolicked in the grass. Suddenly a enraged shout shattered the soothing atmosphere as a frustrated pokemon trainer covered in dirt, leaves and twigs emerged from a bush. Said trainer then collapsed in front of a young treecko that was lounging against a tree.

"Tre.." The Treecko began but before it could finish the trainer snapped her head up and growled.

"Don't. Say. Anything! If you'd help me find a pokemon we'd be at Oldale by now. This is your fault Ike!" The young trainer, now revealed as Anya, snapped. Standing up she tried to brush the dirt off her clothes with little success since her hands were also dirty. Ike sighed and finally stood up from the spot he had been sitting at the better part of the day. Climbing back to his usual shoulder perch he began to pull out twigs and leaves from Anya's hair.

'And the morning had started out so promising.' Anya thought sadly. She had woken up early (or on time as her mom liked to say) and gotten ready in record time. Then, with Ike perched on her shoulder, she and her mom headed over to the Professor's lab. In no time at all she had her pokedex, 5 pokeballs, a map of Hoenn, and some basic travel supplies in a small backpack. Goodbyes had been exchanged and then Anya was off on her own. She decided that her first step should be to get another pokemon and with that had begun to search the grass of the route.

That had been about 6 hours ago. After the first hour Ike had gotten bored and sat against a tree. Anya sighed wearily, it seemed like all the pokemon had gotten wind of her search and had hidden from her. Ike, having gotten her hair clean, sniffed the air for a minute then gestured to a nearby bush. "Tre ko. Koko treeeeeecko." he said while simply pointing at the bush.

"You know I can't simply throw a pokeball at a pokemon unless it WANTS to come with me." Anya replied as she reached calmly for her backpack that had been next to Ike's resting spot. "Besides I don't even know what it is." Slinging the backpack on the shoulder Ike wasn't on she began to walk away from the bush towards Oldale ready to call it quits. Ike, however, had a different idea.

Launching himself off Anya's shoulder he dove into the bushes with a fierce battle cry. "IKE! " Anya yelled as she turned around. Fumbling in her pockets for his pokeball and cursing herself for not asking for one of those special pokeball belts at the lab Anya ran towards he bush fully intending to recall Ike. Instead, before she reached the intended shrubbery Ike appeared. A smug smile was attached to his face as he dragged out the pokemon he had sensed hiding. Anya shook her head at her starters actions before looking at the bundle of dark fur Ike had dragged out. It was a Poochyena and a young one at that. It looked to be as small as Ike and starved since Anya could swear that she could count each of its ribs.

"Poor thing." Anya whispered as she finally pulled out Ike's deactivated pokeball along with an empty one. Quickly she activated the empty ball and tapped the poochyena's head. The small puppy like pokemon was sucked in and the ball jerked around in Anya's hand before letting out a small ding to indicate the capture was successful.

"Come on Ike. We need to get this poor thing to the pokemon center." Anya said while returning Ike, much to his hatred. 'I'll deal with that later though.' Anya thought as she quickly made her way to the Oldale pokemon center.

Sorry about the wait. Yada-yada excuses excuses. Though I really am sorry. My writing muse seems to leave suddenly for extended vacations.