A/N: Sorry I haven't updated this for a while; I've been away. Anyway, on with the story!

Also, thanks to Cheetah Inferno for being the beta for this chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon; it belongs to Nintendo, Game Freak, etc. All of the OCs and the Doren Region, however, are mine.

Zane stood on the rocky ground at the edge of the lake supporting New Pallet Town, surrounded by small trees. There was a breeze; he could feel it ruffling his hair, cooling his skin, and causing the useless lower portion of his jacket's left sleeve to dance. This dancing, in turn, brought his mind back to his jacket, and thinking about his jacket reminded him of just how itchy it was feeling around his neck. He started tugging at it with his hand, trying unsuccessfully to get a little relief from the itching.

Helen stood about twenty feet away from him, watching her opponent with some amusement. "What's the matter?" she taunted playfully, breaking Zane's focus. "Getting a little hot under the collar?"

Zane turned to face her, desperately wishing he had some sort of snappy insult to fire back. Sadly, nothing came to him. "Let's just get this over with!" he shouted, disgusted with the badly clichéd statement, even as it left his lips.

"Alright, alright," Helen said in the tone one might use with an impatient five-year-old. "Just let me explain the rules first. It's very simple. We each send one Pokémon out to fight the other person's Pokémon. The winner is the one whose Pokémon knocks out the other person's Pokémon first. Do you think you can handle that?" she asked, mock concern dripping from her voice.

"Do I look like I'm five to you?" Zane snapped.

"Well-," Helen began.

"Don't answer that," Zane said quickly, guessing what Helen might say. "Let's just fight already!"

"Let's," Helen replied, taking a pokéball from her belt and tossing it into the air. "You're up, Spheal!"

Helen's pokéball opened, releasing a round, blue, furry Pokémon with two small fangs. Two small, useless-looking feet protruded from its white underbelly.

"Spheeeeeeal!" the Pokémon cried, tucking its legs in and rolling in a circle.

Zane laughed. "If that's all you've got, I'll have you beaten before you know it!" he yelled, drawing his own pokéball from his pocket and opening it quickly. "Wraith, go!" The Cyndaquil appeared in a flash of light, looked at its opponent, and shrugged. Semi-transparent blue flames erupted from its back, making the already insubstantial-looking Cyndaquil appear ethereal.

"I'll let you have the first move, Zane," Helen said confidently. "If you know anything about battling, use it." She crossed her arms. "Surprise me. Or at least, try to surprise me."

Zane snarled and scratched his head. He knew more about battling than she gave him credit for; he was sure of it. After all, he'd seen trainers battle with their Pokemon in exhibitions back home in Olivine City. Some of them had used fire types, just like Wraith. Now if he could just remember what those trainers told their Pokémon to do…

Suddenly, a thought popped into Zane's head. He nearly slapped himself. Of course, he thought, every fire Pokemon knows this move! Why didn't I think of it before? Zane stopped scratching his head and issued his command."Wraith, use Flamethrower!"

Wraith turned his head to stare at his trainer in confusion.

"Come on," Zane coaxed, "use Flamethrower!"

Wraith kept staring.

Zane's eyes widened. "You don't know it? Okay, then," he said eagerly, "let's try something else."

The Cyndaquil shrugged and spun to face its opponent.

Zane took a deep breath and issued another command. "Okay, Wraith, use Fire Blast!"

Wraith eyed his trainer with a second confused look.

"You don't know that one either?" Zane asked, crestfallen. "Darn, what do you know?"

Helen glared at Zane. She couldn't even force herself to laugh at something this pathetic, and she was getting sick of waiting. She'd just have to turn his attention back to the battle.

"Spheal, use Powder snow," she whispered.

Spheal took a in a deep breath, causing its stomach to swell. It held the breath in for an instant, then leaned forward and blew a flurry of brilliant blue snowflakes out of its mouth, which shot toward Wraith.

"Hey Wraith," Helen hollered, just a second too late. "Look out!"

The Cyndaquil turned around just in time to be knocked on its back by the fast-moving snowflakes. With machinelike deliberation, it rolled back onto its feet and shook itself, sending small, half-melted snowflakes flying from its fur.

"Hey!" Zane yelled. "I haven't attacked yet!"

"So you expect me to sit here while you rattle off a bunch of moves your Cyndaquil doesn't even know?" Helen said in an irritated voice. "Not gonna happen. Try 'Tackle' this time, Zane!"

"Okay, I will!" Zane shouted, starting to get annoyed himself. "Use Tackle, Wraith!"

Much to Zane's relief, Wraith didn't turn around to stare at him in confusion. This time, the Cyndaquil lowered its head and charged straight at Spheal. At about ten feet before colliding with its opponent, Wraith curled into a ball and began to advance even faster.

Helen's lips curled into a smirk. "Dodge it, Spheal!" she ordered.

The seal-like Pokémon curled into a ball, similarly to Wraith, and rocked its body to the right, causing Wraith to fly right past it. The Cyndaquil, however, made a prompt U-turn and slammed into Spheal's stomach just after it had unrolled itself, causing the Clap Pokémon to roll several feet back. Spheal gave a cry of pain as it flew backwards, landing on the hard ground.

"That was awesome, Wraith!" Zane shouted, exulting in his small victory. "Hit it again!" He turned to Helen, a smug look in his eyes. "Not so cocky now, are you?"

Helen flashed a smug smile back as Wraith charged, trying to hide her shock. Spheal's stomach had looked badly bruised, and it wore a pained expression on its face. No Cyndaquil should have been able to hit that hard. Most shouldn't have been able to make the U-turn Wraith had. Helen grinned. Maybe Zane was clueless, but his Pokemon was still a possible threat. It was time to finish this.

"Spheal, no more holding back!" Helen commanded. "Use Water Gun!"

Spheal grit its teeth and sucked in another deep breath, immediately releasing a powerful jet of water. The jet slammed straight into Wraith, soaking it and knocking it backwards, causing it to roll out of control and crash into a small boulder with incredible force. A trickle of blood oozed out from the Cyndaquil's right leg, just above the knee.

A worried expression crossed Zane's face. "Wraith!" he yelled. "Come on, Wraith, don't give up now!"

Almost as if hearing its name had given it strength, Wraith forced itself to its feet with a quiet, "cynda."

"That's it, Wraith!" Zane said, hoping to encourage his weary Pokémon. "Come on, try Tackle one more time!"

Wraith nodded and ran at Spheal, ignoring the pain in its leg. It closed the distance with amazing velocity for a Pokémon, what with its wounds. In three seconds it had cleared three feet… Seven feet… Twelve feet…

Zane and Helen watched in amazement as Wraith continued to charge Spheal, gaining speed by the moment. Despite its wounded leg, Wraith was almost within striking distance. The determined little Cyndaquil ran up to Spheal, the fire on its back flaring ever higher.

"Spheal, dodge-" began Helen, but her command was unneeded.

Wraith, exhausted from its wounds and effort, collapsed on the ground as the flames on its back flickered and died.

"Again," Helen prompted cheerfully, poking Zane lightly in the back as he clumsily bandaged Wraith's leg.

"No way." Zane said, not trying to hide his annoyance. "I agreed to apologize to you once , not three times a minute."

"You agreed to apologize if I won," Helen persisted, "but no one ever said you only had to apologize once. Now say it again."

Zane growled. "I'm sorry," he snapped insincerely.

"Once more," Helen directed, "with feeling."

Zane sighed. After about fifteen minutes, Helen still wouldn't stop forcing him to apologize for his attitude back at Professor Alder's lab. Telling her to shut up wouldn't work (he had tried that several times already), and it was very hard to tune her out. He'd never get Wraith's leg fixed up, let alone getting the Cyndaquil conscious, if he didn't get her to stop bothering him.

Zane sighed and turned to face her. "I'm sorry for acting like a jerk, okay?"

"Good." Helen said. "Now, once more, and really grovel this time."

"Don't push your luck!" Zane snapped. "And stop gloating! It's getting annoying."

"Gloating?" Helen asked, feigning innocence. "I'm not gloating. I'm just asking you to apologize."

"The way you're doing it, you might as well be gloating." Zane muttered, turning his attention back to his unconscious Pokémon. "Now just leave me alone and let me fix-"

"Zane!" came a hollow-sounding voice. "I'm glad I caught you. I was worried you'd left."

Zane looked up to see Professor Alder walking over to him, carrying a small silver box.

"Funny," Zane said, turning back to Wraith, "I thought you'd be glad if I left, Frank- err, Professor… Wait, why would I be leaving?"

"Well," the professor said, coming to stand behind Zane, "it's obvious that that Cyndaquil of yours needs to be toughened up, and you won't find any opponents in New Pallet Town-"

"Other than me," Helen interrupted.

"Other than Helen," Professor Alder amended, "so I figured that you'd want to leave. After all, you'll never be much of a Pokémon trainer if you just sit here."

"Quillllllll," whispered Wraith, who had just woken up. The small Cyndaquil turned its head and stared at Zane expressionlessly. Zane picked Wraith up and turned to face Professor Alder.

"Well, where am I gonna train Wraith?" he asked. "It can't stand up to much punishment. It only took Spheal two hits to knock it out."

"That's because Spheal has an element advantage over Cyndaquil," Helen explained, speaking once again in a tone that one might use when speaking with a five-year-old. "Most Poké-"

"Stop using that tone!" Zane snarled. "And what's an 'element advantage' anyway?"

"Alright," Helen said insincerely, just barely changing her tone. "What I was going to say was that not all Pokémon have element advantages over Cyndaquil. To clarify, an element advantage is when one Pokemon has an advantage over another because of their elements. Water Pokémon, like Spheal, have an advantage over fire Pokémon, like Wraith here. Fire Pokémon have an advantage over grass Pokémon, and so on. Get the picture?"

"Of course I do!" Zane lied. "I just needed someone to refresh my memory." In reality, Zane had never understood what an element advantage was. He had heard the trainers in Olivine talk about them before, but he had never known what they meant until now.

"Glad to help," replied Helen, once more adopting her talking-to-a-five-year-old voice. "Now what do we say…?"

Zane sighed. "Thanks," he muttered. "Now stop treating me like I'm five."

"Now, then, back to my request," interrupted Professor Alder. "If you want to train Wraith to be stronger, you'll have to leave New Pallet Town and travel throughout Doren. If you're going to do that, there's something I'd like you to do for me."

"Then stop beating around the bush and get to it," Zane said. "What do you want me to do?"

"Well," the professor began, as though speaking to a lab assistant, "Doren appears to be a large region, and I have no idea what sort of Pokemon live here. I'd be very appreciative if you were to travel around Doren and document the sorts of Pokemon that you meet. It would be a massive help to my research."

Zane quickly caught on to the tone in the professor's voice. "I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"I knew you'd see it my way," Professor Alder said, putting the box he was carrying down on the ground and opening it up. "Don't worry," he added, seeing a worried expression cross Zane's face, "it's not as though you'll have to wander around with just a sketchbook. I've managed to find something much more practical."

Professor Alder reached into his silver box and pulled out what appeared to be a small, red cell phone with a pokéball inscribed on the front. He opened the device and handed it to Zane, who struggled to hold both Wraith and the device in his arm. Zane finally gave up on it and, giving Wraith a pat, returned him to his pokéball.

"This," he said to Zane, "is a PokéAPT."

"A PokéAPT?" Zane echoed.

"That's pronounced 'poh-KEPT'," Helen corrected. "It stands for Pokémon All-Purpose Tool. A simple acronym for a simple mind," she finished, patting Zane on the shoulder much as she would a dog.

Zane ignored her. By now he had figured out that there was nothing he could say that would make Helen stop talking. Besides, he was more interested in examining the PokéAPT at the moment. The small device appeared to be structured almost exactly like a cell phone, with a screen on the top part and a small keypad on the lower part. The screen currently displayed an image of a pokéball on a jet black surface, along with some white text at the bottom that read, "no Pokémon selected."

"The PokéAPT has two major uses," Professor Alder explained. "I'll need you to use it to identify Pokémon, but it can also be used to send messages."

"How does that work?" Zane asked, intrigued.

Professor Alder shrugged. "Basically, it works just like e-mail. I wouldn't get too attached to it, though. We've been able to set up a digital messaging network for PokéAPTs, but it's sketchy and unreliable at best. The best way to send a message is to send it out to everyone and hope that the right person gets it."

"All right," Zane said. "So you want me to go out and use this thing to find out what sort of Pokémon live here. Okay. That sounds simple enough. Where do I go now?"

"A good place to start looking would be Jade City, to the east," Professor Alder suggested. "There's a gym there where you can toughen Wraith up. I can lend you some supplies to get you there in one piece."

"All right," Zane said, hoping to sound a lot more certain than he was. "Let's go pack. Looks like I've got a long trip ahead of me."

Zane stood on the rocky ground, almost exactly where he had stood when he battled Helen, hitting his head with his hand. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed this road earlier. It was practically calling for someone to travel it. Maybe I didn't notice it because I wasn't thinking about it, he rationalized. Satisfied with his own explanation, Zane shifted his backpack and started walking.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Helen's voice sounded through the air like a high-pitched, not necessarily welcome flute as she ran towards Zane, her own backpack swaying on her back as she moved.

Zane turned to face her, laughing and shaking his head. "Are you still planning on coming? I figured that after what Professor Alder said, you'd be dead-set on staying here."

Helen shrugged. "No way! Do you know how long it's been since anything exciting happened here? Besides, just because I have to give you some respect doesn't mean I can't laugh from the sidelines when you screw up."

"Shut up."

"'Shut up'? Is that the only comeback you have?"

"Shut up!"

"Okay, okay," Helen said playfully. "Just remember that what the professor said about respect works both ways. You have to be nice to me, too. Now, let's get going, shall we?"

As the two walked off on the road to Jade City, Zane was dealing with mixed emotions. Part of him was exuberant; here he was, starting the life he had always wanted to live, but had never been allowed to. How could he not be happy?

At the same time, part of him was groaning. Here he was, far from home, slogging across a continent no one knew existed on an errand for a surly researcher. And on top of that, he had to do it while putting up with a girl who annoyed him as much as he annoyed her.

This was going to be a long trip.