AN: Cards and card games in this pokemon universe are the same as those we have on Earth. For example, Blackjack is played in this chapter, which is a real world card game.

I walked into my room, inspecting the twin sized bed, the fat television, the wooden table with two chairs, the couch, and the bathroom. I heard someone taking a shower in there.

I made myself comfortable and sat down on one of the chairs, and inspected the three intruders. One had short red hair, one had long blue hair, and one had short green hair. They were all staring at me intently, as if they were expecting me to say something.

"So. Who are you people?" I tried, doing my best to sound calm. Inside, I was fighting a turmoil of anger - why were these people invading my room! I wanted to sleep so badly. At least I had filled my stomach with food I had taken from the boy.

"You aren't Siegal?" The red haired boy asked.

I shook my head. "Nope. Now can you answer my question?"

They all looked at each other and nodded. Then they simply walked out of my room, shutting the door behind them.

I shrugged, unsure of what that was all about. I guessed they might've just walked into the wrong room. Then I noticed all of the stuff in my room; there was luggage, strewn clothing, half empty water bottles, and the cards they were playing with, still atop my bed.

In confusion and frustration, I threw all of the cards on the ground, and tucked myself under the soft, white sheets, setting my backpack next to me. I knew the door would be locked; pokemon center doors automatically lock when closed. I closed my eyes, getting myself ready to enter a blissful sleep...

Then the bathroom door opened.

My eyes shot open. I had forgotten about that person in the bathroom! I quickly hid under the bed, wanting to see, but not be seen. That was a basic strategy we learned in trainer's school; it was useful for dealing with an unknown entity.

Out came the same boy I had beaten up earlier. At least he had all of his clothes already on. I looked at his face, and winced at the black eye and numerous red bruises.

The boy looked around, his mouth open. "Where did everyone go?" He wondered aloud. He noticed the cards on the ground, and his eyes widened.

I quickly looked at the boy's belt. He had no pokeballs on him. That would mean I could gently subdue him, and go down to the nurse to straight up ask her why seemingly everyone in Hoenn was residing in my private room. I didn't like having to hurt him again, but I needed to in order to get to the bottom of the situation.

When the time was right, with the boy's back turned, I tensed my muscles to leap out from under the bed and grab his ankles. However, the three kids from before walked back into the room, closed the door, and noticed the cards on the ground.

"Micah! How dare you ruin our game!" The green haired girl yelled, glaring daggers at the confused boy I was a second away from subduing.

"What do you mean! Tt wasn't me!" Micah protested, taking a step back.

"Oh yes it was… oh wait, it's probably that boy," The blue haired girl said.

I froze in place under the bed as a murderous glint settled into six eyes. Micah still seemed confused. "What boy?"

"The one who just came in. He's hiding under the bed," the red haired boy said. "His foot is sticking out. I'm surprised you didn't see it."

I sighed and got out from under the bed. "Hello everyone."

Micah looked at me, and his eyes bulged so much, I literally thought for a second they would fall out.

"You You You!" He yelled. "You little ?&%$! Go &*%$ yourself in a garbage can, you piece of &^*$!"

I laughed nervously. "Little kids shouldn't be saying stuff like that…"

The blue haired girl scoffed. "I would assume by Micah's reaction that you are the one who beat him up," She said to me, her voice clear and strong, her gaze absolute. "I have something to say to you."

I gulped nervously. "It was an accident, my hand sli-"

"Shut up!" The blue haired girl shouted. "Listen. I just wanted to congratulate you. Little Micah here actually has been practicing martial arts with his Meditite his whole life."

Micah blushed. "He caught me by surprise, all right! If it was a fair duel, I could easily beat him up!"

I stared at them, confused. The green and red haired kids had walked off to sit in the two chairs, where they took out a deck and started playing cards over the table. My table.

"Focus!" The blue haired girl said.

I looked at her. "What?"

"Do you want to play cards?" She asked, her voice changing to an almost sweet tone.

I raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Look, I'm really confused. How did you guys even get into this room?"

The blue haired girl sighed. "Basically, that green haired girl with the glasses over there," she pointed to the green haired girl. "Her name is Kyra. She hacked into the pokemon center system and covertly registered her trainer's license to allow access into this room. It was randomly picked," she said.

"Eh? That's possible?" I asked, unsure of whether or not to believe that a teenager could hack into the pokemon center security system.

"Yes. Me and that red haired kid over there, his name's Tyson, we're in a travelling team with Kyra. We all decided to stay in this room for the day and play cards in it," The blue haired girl said.

"And why couldn't you just legally get this room? Its free for trainers…"

"We had a fourth member, his name is Siegal. We hadn't met him yet; we contacted each other online. We were supposed to meet here. We discarded the door's automatic lock, by the way."

I scratched my head. "So I just happened to be unfortunately in a room where a bunch of kids decided to meet up illegally?"

"Yep. Oh, and Micah here is a kid we found on the ground a few hours ago. We took him in because we're nice," The blue haired girl said.

"You wanted to just pretend we didn't see him. I'm the one who took him in," Kyra said, her eyes never leaving her cards. He didn't need to yell though, as he was only a few meters away.

Micah walked out of the room, muttering a thanks, and said he was healthy enough to return to his house.

"Wow. This is… unexpected…" I said after a few seconds.

"I'm Arice, by the way," The blue haired girl said, outstretching her hand. I shook it awkwardly.

"So is this Siegal yet to come?" I asked, striking conversation. I didn't feel tired anymore; I was actually interested in finding a way to leverage these three people to my advantage. Maybe I could mooch off of their resources for a while? That would've been nice, considering I had barely any food or money on me. Then I realized what I was thinking. I wish I didn't always think of how to cheat people. That's why I've had no friends!

"Yes," Arice said. "In the meantime, Tyson and Kyra, can the two of us borrow that table?"

"Ugh, fine," Tyson grumbled. He and Kyra got up and snuggled under the bedsheets. My bedsheets.

"Oh god, This room is so trashed…" I muttered, sitting down on a chair. Arice sat on the other, and pulled out a new deck of cards from her jeans' pocket.

"Why am I playing cards again?" I asked.

"To pass time," Arice said, rolling her eyes, as if it was the most obvious reason in the world. "We're going to play Blackjack."

I agreed, as I'd played the game before, then an idea came to my mind. "Let's bet five pokeballs. Loser gives it to the winner."

Arice raised an eyebrow, and she smiled. "Wow, neither Tyson nor Kyra think betting on cards is enjoyable. I'm starting to like you. But aren't those stakes a little too mild?" She said, licking her lips. I leaned backwards in my chair. "If I win, you give me everything in that gray backpack of yours. If you win, you get to join our group, where you will get trainer coaching, resources, and much more."

I realized that winning would let me gain the chance to make new friends; joining a training group would mean I would have human friends I could have conversations with! "Agreed. Best of one game?"

Arice nodded. "Kyra, you deal and shuffle," Arice said. Kyra got out of the bed and did as she was told, her eyes closed the whole time. Is this girl even human? I wondered.

"You may go first," Arice said. I looked at my two cards. A '6' and a '7'. Since aces were either one or eleven in value, I had a 8/13 chance of going bust by getting a total of higher than 21 if I drew another card.

"Hit me," I said. A score of 13 almost never wins unless the opponent goes bust, and judging by the confident smile Arice had, she wasn't that bad. Of course, Blackjack was 90% luck though.

Kyra handed me a card from the deck. It was a '4'. I gritted my teeth. "Bad luck?" Arice inquired softly.

"Stay," I said. I had a score of 17. Not great, but hopefully good enough.

"Hit me," Arice said. Kyra handed her a card from the deck. I saw that there was a tiny discoloration on a corner of the back of the card. I narrowed my eyes.

"Aww, I'm bust," Arice said. She showed two '10's and a '5'. "I had a '10' and a '5', and after that, I got a '10'. Oh well," she complained.

I took her three cards and saw that it was the '5' that had the discoloration. I pointed it out to Arice while Kyra went back to bed. Tyson was already snoring.

"I see, I was wondering if you would notice," Arice said.

"So, why? You could have cheated to win!"

"I actually wanted you to join our team. Only if you noticed the discoloration, though. I would have just thrown you out of the room if not. The three of us could use someone with good observational skills."

My heart warmed at the compliment. "Thanks… I guess…" I muttered, then I told her my name.

"I see. Well, welcome to our group! We can do introductions later, after we sleep for tonight," Arice said cheerfully.

"Uh, there's actually a complication here…" I told Arice everything, from not getting a starter at my trainer school, to becoming a criminal, to coming into this pokemon center. I released my Poipole to show it to Arice, although it simply floated without an expression, looking at me the whole time.

"What bad luck… well, you are a bit naive," Arice said. "That nurse was probably lying. She just wanted you to give her the beast ball so she could sell it."

I blushed. "Oh. and she gave me the beast ball first so I would have given it to her willingly, making it seem like she had the right to sell it…"

Arice nodded. "We can now sleep." She got up and starting walking towards the door.

"Where? The bed is taken already… My bed…" I asked.

"Kyra hacked the adjacent room. The two of us can sleep there," Arice said, rolling her eyes.

"B-But, you're a girl! We can't sl-sl-sl," I stuttered.

Arice laughed. "It's fine. Kyra sleeps with Tyson all the time. Nothing has happened. I've always slept alone, though. Looks like that will change!"

I sighed, returning Poipole to its Beast Ball and gathering my things. I entered the adjacent room, which was a nearly exact replica. And the two of us got in bed, Arice in the middle and myself huddle on the edge.

I thought about the day, and how hectic it had been. I thought about Ray, and how I couldn't know if he was even alive or not. I thought about my starter, whose personality wasn't very outwardly. I thought about Micah, and how I felt a knot in my stomach when I think of how I beat him up and took his stuff. I thought about the three kids with dyed hair colors, and how I had somehow joined their group. And I thought about Arice, who was sleeping in the same bed as me… something that went against every principle I had learnt and believed in as a child.

When Arice fell asleep (which didn't take that long), I got out of the bed and slept on the small couch. I went to sleep, having nightmares of losing in a pokemon battle to an eight year old. Then I remembered that was in reality. Why in the name of Arceus couldn't I have a normal life?

Chapter 3 MC/age/pokemon changes:

new MCs: Tyson, Kyra, and Arice. All age 13. Their pokemon are unknown.