VIII. Kanto I

Water cascaded down the steps of the Pokémon Mansion, taking with it the fainted bodies of several Koffing and Muk. At the top of the stairs stood a girl in a blue tank top, with a red skirt that extended below her knees and matching light blue boots. A massive sunhat covered her head, and she held a Poké Ball in her hand, breathing heavily.

"Okay… three more levels…" She said, attempting to get her heartbeat under control. Her breath rang in her ears and her hands were shaking. From inside the Poké Ball, her Seaking looked at her nervously. She tried to run her hand through her hair to calm herself down, only to feel nothing there. Laughing ruefully, she straightened herself up and put her arm down. This was how she trained, presenting herself as defenceless and launching herself into it as quickly as possible. She couldn't afford it any other way anymore.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spied a pink blob moving towards her. Ditto. Almost instantly, she threw Seaking's Poké Ball at it.

"Seaking, Waterfall!" She yelled, echoing through the abandoned space. Instantly, Seaking coated itself in water and charged towards the Ditto, knocking it out instantly. "Good."

She quickly returned Seaking before the fish Pokémon could suffer the effects of being out of water, and resumed waiting. She swayed on her feet slightly, and closed her eyes. By her Pokénav, she hadn't slept for at least 12 hours, and that had died several hours ago. Maybe she should just call it a night…

She heard something. More importantly, she smelled something. She opened her eyes, and saw a Koffing looming right in her face. Before she could react, the Koffing started expanding, a light glowing out of the holes in its gaseous body.

Oh no.

Quickly, she threw out the Poké Ball in her hand, summoning a confused and terrified Seaking, who went for a Waterfall but was nowhere near fast enough. She screamed, putting her hands over her head and stepping back.

"Butterfree! Help us out, please!"

The Koffing exploded, and the girl looked up, seeing Seaking flopping on the floor, but still moving. She called it back to her Poké Ball instantly and looked at her savior, who was repeatedly apologizing to his Pokémon for throwing her into a powerful attack like that. Even bent over slightly, he towered above her, a gentle giant with neat blonde hair extending down past his ears and almost completely covering an emerald eye on the right. He wore a blue shirt with sleeves coming down to his elbows and a black, long-sleeved undershirt under it. His other, visible, azure eye was rife with worry, which he had now turned to her.

"Are you alright, Kayla?" He asked. "And what happened to your hair?"

Kayla reached for her hat and took it off, revealing a pixie cut that looked like it had been done by a Scyther. "I cut it off. After… after the eighth gym. I needed to do something to remember them, so I did this. I bought the sunhat afterwards. How did you know where I was, Cas?"

The boy called Cas sighed. "Your hair was so pretty... and you stopped messaging me a few hours ago, and with a weakened team I thought something was wrong, so I came here from the Sevii Islands as soon as I could. It looks like I got here just in time, yeah?"

Despite everything, Kayla smiled. "Yeah. Thanks. What were you doing in the Sevii Islands, anyways?"

"Training." He simply said. The two of them had been travelling together for seven years and he was still the same soft-spoken person of few words. Sometimes she wondered if she was more aggressive in groups due to years of having to talk for two.

"Funny, so am I. Mine seemed remarkably more life-threatening, and I didn't even go outside." Kayla said, trying to force some humour into the situation. Neither of them laughed.

"You… you do have other Pokémon, right?" Cas asked. The way he said it, it sounded more like I didn't almost watch you die, right?

"Yeah. I've got Kadabra and Tangela with me, too. Everyone else is gone." Her voice broke over the last word, but she didn't cry. She was a firecracker before this, and that still lingered. Maybe she'd start burning again one day, but right now she needed to hold onto something, and sadness would do.

Cas hadn't moved since he'd called out Butterfree, and was now just looking at her. She didn't see pity or any sort of emotion in his face, which she'd expected. "Would you like me to take you home?"

"I'm not going home until my hair grows back. Mom's going to kill me." This made him crack a slight smile, and she knew that he was relieved even if he didn't outwardly show it much. "And your league challenge is in a week, do you really think I'd miss that?"

"If you're going to be alright… then no." Cas said.

"Besides," Kayla started. "Who's going to help you if there's a crowd?"

That got a genuine smile out of him. "Come on, it shouldn't take us more than five days to get there if we leave now."

She fixed her sunhat on her head and the two walked out of the mansion, careful not to slip on the stairs.

Notes:

Aaaaand we're back! I'm going to blame a combination of school, writer's block, and lack of motivation for why this took a month. In this chapter, we meet two of the last major characters who haven't shown up yet, and one of them almost gets seriously injured. I hope I'm writing this pandemic thing seriously enough, I'm not sure if I am or not. Regardless, this is the last pure introductory chapter in the story, so every new chapter is going to develop the plot or characters from here on out.

Enjoy!