My excitement was unfiltered the next day and I really just felt like cheering for myself. I woke up Flare, who was a lot warmer than when she was an Eevee, and slid out of bed. I quickly put on another pair of skinny jeans (blue this time, gotta switch it up) and an almost navy blue t-shirt.

Dad was waiting for me in the kitchen, with a special birthday breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and hash browns. Flare sniffed the air and concluded that she would partake in the feast. The three of us sat around the table and dug into the sweet and salty -ness of the food. Between mouthfuls my dad tried (and failed) to keep up a conversation.

"Sho how doesh mah lovely lady fweel on dis fwine day?" he choked, "It bet you fweel purdy special." I almost choked on my own food from laughter.

"I'm feel great Dad. I can't wait to get out and see the world! Do you think I should try to go for the gym badges?"

"I don't shee why not…"

"Can I ask you a question, though? Am I allowed to skip gyms and come back to them if I feel like it?" I was really afraid that I wouldn't be prepared for some gyms.

"Uhrmm… Yesh, I think sho. But just remember that you need eight bashges to get to da Elite Four."

"Of course Dad, thanks." We fell back into silence and piled the food in. Even Flare had seconds and almost had thirds. After having thirds I felt as fat as a Snorlax.

"No more Dad, no more food…" I grumbled. My dad laughed and nodded. I think he gained 5 pounds, too, by the looks of it. Flare licked her lips and burped. I stared at her and she gave me a glance of what looked like embarrassment. I laughed and we walked out the door with Dad tailing us. Flare caught a bit more stares as we trekked to the lab, I guess the townspeople hadn't seen Flare's transformation yet. It was fine, since I'd be leaving them this afternoon.

"Okay," my dad started, "It um… seems I have no clue where Birch keeps the extra pokeballs and Pokedex's." I literally face palmed. "Let me go and find him, alright Ari?" And with that my dad sashayed out the door. It was then I noticed that the lab was pretty empty; it looked like the other researchers were out studying with Birch. I crept to the back of the lab to the enclosures that held all of the starter Pokemon. I peered into the first enclosures which were all small marsh lands. The temperature in these cases were a bit cooler since the Mudkip lived in there. I saw a couple baby ones skipping around and I giggled. Baby Pokemon are so darn cute. I just wanna squish their faces. Flare even casted down her internal flames a bit so she could get close. She was starting to be able to control her body heat, which was gonna be good in case anything happened on our journey.

It was then I heard the front door of the lab open and close quietly. There were a couple low voices echoing out into the hallway where we were standing. Flare and I listened close to the unfamiliar inflections.

"The boss is gonna be so happy when he finds out we just snagged a bunch of rare starter Pokemon." This voice was low and male.

"Yea, and good thing we came when we did! There's no one here to try to stop us." This voice was higher but still a male's. I quietly returned Flare to her pokeball. I peered around the corner of the hallway and almost gasped. There standing in the middle of the lab were 3 guys and 1 girl, all dressed in black muscle tees, with light blue shorts and jackets. Each of them wore matching blue bandanas with what looked like a white skull and crossbones painted on the front. The first one who had talked had curly short brown hair and a beard, muscular, and tall, while the second one was shorter and had short, blonde hair. The other guy had long red hair in a ponytail, and the girl had long, purplish hair going a bit below her shoulders. Who were these guys? I didn't know them, but I sure as crap knew that they weren't going to lay a finger on any of the baby Pokemon in the lab. Not if we and Flare had anything to do about it.

"Hey," I called out as forcefully as I could, "None of you are gonna get your filthy paws on the Pokemon. You have to get through me and Flare first." I beckoned them closer with my hand. The 4 weirdos started laughing. I narrowed my eyes.

"Hahaha, you think you can defeat us little girl? Step aside and just let us through, we don't wanna cause any trouble. And we certainly don't wanna hurt your precious Flarie, whatever it is!" The lower voiced guy grunted, "Do you even know who your messing with? We're Team Aqua for Arceus' sake!" The name of their group clicked. Now I remembered. I'd heard of these guys on the news and in the newspapers. Team Aqua was just a group full of teenagers who had just gotten off the beaten path, who were filled with "world domination" crap. But unfortunately, these people didn't exactly look like teenagers. I had to still keep my confidence up, though.

I snorted, "Yea right! I could beat all of you with just one Pokemon! Flare, come on out! It's time to show these losers how it's done!" I threw the pokeball out towards them and a beam of white light turned into Flare.

"Flarrreeeeeeeeon!" she called out. I managed to see that some of the team members gasped. I didn't know why really, but I did snicker at their ignorance. Didn't they know what a Flareon was?

"Great, now we'll get a special Flareon, too, boys!" remarked Purplehair girl. Yeah, right. "Go, Poochyena!"

"Go, Zubat!"

"Poochyena, come on out!"

So 3 against 1. Because that was fair. Whatever, I was still going to beat them. I didn't know why Redponytail didn't call out a Pokemon, but at this point I really didn't give a Treeko's tail.

"Flare, use quick attack on the Poochyena to the left! Then ember the Zubat!" I shouted. I watched as Flare raced and zigzagged towards the dumbfounded grey dog, and Flare landed square on her mark. Purplehair's doggy was down for the count. She called it back to its pokeball and she preceded to, and I swear, to pretty much froth from the mouth. That girl has some serious sore loser issues.

Meanwhile, Flare had also hit the ember mark on the Zubat, but not before Beardface's Poochyena gave her a solid tackle. The Zubat tried to use leech life, but Flare dodged it and the attack ended up hitting the poochyena. Let me tell you, that was pretty funny.

"Flare, finish off the Zubat with another tackle, and ember the Poochyena!" Flare gave a nod and raced towards the Zubat. The ugly blue thing with wings tried to get out of the way, but Flare still hit it and the bat had lost. I smirked as annoyance registered on Blondie's face as he called his Zubat back.

Now, it was just down to Beardface's Poochyena and my Flareon.

"Poochyena, tackle!" But before the attack could even register in the Poochyena's mind, Flare's ember reached it, and it went out like a light.

The 4 Team Aqua members stood there dumbfounded, and finally my dad and Birch strolled in the door. Way to go for them to be late.

"So Ari honey, I…" My dad took in the scene in front of him. Let me picture this for you: here I was, standing next to Flare, who was breathing heavily and had a couple scratches, in front of 4 dangerous (not really) members of the notorious Team Aqua, with a fainted Poochyena in between us. Not to mention that during our battle all of the Pokemon knocked over numerous lab papers.

"Whathappenedhere? Whoareyou, whyareyouherewithmydaughter? Aren'tyouTeamAquagetoutofmylabnow, ohwaiti'mgoingtocallthepolice!" screamed my dad. Next to him Birch just looked like he was in a daze. I just grinned sheepishly. The Aqua members had the most terrified expressions plastered on their faces.

And then 10 minutes later all 4 gang members were in handcuffs and Officer Jenny and her colleagues were escorting them to the Police Station. Birch handed me a potion to use on Flare and she become quite jubilant after it was applied.

"I'm so proud you defeated all of their Pokemon with just Flare, Ari," remarked Birch, "It looks like you really are ready for your journey!" My dad just sulked in the corner, still mad that 3 strange guys had been in the same room as me all at once. Gotta love them over protective parents.

Birch walked over to his desk and pulled out a small square of red and a hand-sized string bag. "Here," he said, "This little machine is your Pokedex. It can tell you about any discovered Pokemon, anything about your own unique Pokemon, like he or she's level, and is also an I.D. card, so do not lose it. And in this bag are 10 empty pokeballs that you can use to capture any wild Pokemon. Now did you pack everything into your backpack?"

"Yes, Dad, I did," I commented sarcastically, "I think I have everything I need." I turned towards my real dad and hugged him.

"So you're completely sure that I can go?" Because hey, I didn't want to get a call in Oldale Town saying I had to come back; that would just waste time.

"Yes, I've deemed you worthy. But don't get into too much trouble, okay? And vidchat me once a week."

"How about once every 2 weeks unless I'm a forest?"

"Close enough…. I'll miss you Ari. Now you go out there and make me proud." I could vaguely see tears getting into my dad's eyes. "Also, just in case… you uh, get lost or Flareon faints, I want you to borrow Talon, okay? You already know him anyway, and I just want to make sure you're safe this whole time…" He pulled out a great ball and threw it up. Out came Talon, my dad's Noctowl. I gave a small sigh then a grin.

"But I can't promise you that I'll always have him out…" I said knowingly. He shook his head. "It doesn't matter, as long as you have him with you, okay Ari?"

"Deal." I gave him another longer hug, returned Talon to his pokeball, and then Flare and I walked out of the lab and into the unknown territory of what was Route 101… Yep, Route stinkin' 101, the very first trail.