Raven rested his head in a nook on the branch he was leaning against. His fingers were laced with each other, sitting in his lap. He had put his gloves back on for climbing, but there was a small cut on his left thumb where a stray branch had caught it. Berri sat on his head, amusing himself by tying knots in the boy's hair. Raven noticed, but he just shrugged it off.

He was sitting fairly high up in a majestic oak tree, where the branches had started to turn and twist in various directions, more often than not creating rather comfortable places to sit. The tree's trunk shot up out of the ground for at least seven feet with no growths, the branches only jutting out at around eight feet. The leaves were dark green and thick, both shading him and assuring him that he wouldn't be seen.

He could hear the police rustling through the forest from what seemed like all directions at once. They might have actually been all around him, or it might have been his ears playing tricks on him. Occasionally he saw the classic blue uniform rushing past the gaps in the leaves, but not too often. They were most likely looking for him, if what Jenny had said was anything to go by. All he had to do was wait them out. He leaned forward, making Berri wobble dangerously on his head, holding onto his hair for support."Ow ow, hey now," Raven said, grabbing the snorunt and setting him in his lap. "I think that's enough."

Berri grinned, shivering as he always did. "Sno, snorunt!" After a moment's pause, he looked around curiously. "Snorunt?"

"Nah, it shouldn't be too much longer," Raven said, following the pokemon's gaze. "To be honest, though, I'm surprised it's been this long. I expected them to think I left the forest…"

Not a moment after he finished his thought, he heard a very distinct whine. Furrowing his brows, he looked down alongside the oak's trunk. There, he saw a very sad looking growlithe holding her paw up pleadingly at the tree's base, looking at him with a face only a true puppy could make.

"You?" Raven asked, his mind racing. The police must be searching for the growlithe, not him. "You ran away, huh?"

The growlithe pulled her paw back, sitting on her haunches. She whined again, Raven finding himself wanting to do anything to make her happy. He was snapped out of his reverie by the shouts of the police officers, several sounding like they were close. Thinking quickly, he looked around the ground, seeing little more than dead leaves and roots. Several of the tree's roots had overgrown, sticking out of the ground and creating small hovels underneath them. He pointed toward one of the bigger ones. "Quick, hide there!"

He repeated himself with a little more urgency when the puppy didn't respond, just looking up at him desolately. Berri stood up, Raven backing off slightly so he could stand. "Sno, snorunt!"

The growlithe's eyes widened, suddenly looking afraid. She dove into the small crevice, squeezing herself inside just as Raven heard one officer stumble over a bush and swear quite audibly.

"Aw, damnit. I just cleaned my uniform…" He heard a masculine yet not quite mature voice say.

"Not like it helped any," a feminine voice said. The taunting expression was evident without even seeing her. Raven frowned, trying to peer through the leaves at the duo.

"Oh, shut it," the boy responded. Raven heard him brush himself off and assumed he was looking around. "I wonder if anyone else has found them yet."

"Doubtful. Most of the officers are as clumsy as you," the girl said. Raven rolled his eyes, not liking this particular individual. His train of negative thoughts ended prematurely, interrupted by static crackling out from a radio.

"All officers report to the rendezvous outside the forest." With a click, the static vanished as soon as it appeared.

He heard a sigh of relief coming from the girl. "Finally. What a waste of time that was."

The boy grumbled but didn't respond. The two headed off in the direction they came, the crunching of leaves under their shoes fading off into the distance.

Raven waited patiently for another minute after the sounds disappeared before moving. He picked Berri up, setting him on a branch beside him. Pushing himself out of his sitting position, he grabbed a branch that extended out to his right. He used it to swing back up slightly, letting go and landing with a thud, hunched over. Standing up straight, he groaned as his back made a few unpleasant sounds. Stretching his arms, he rotated his shoulders and took in a deep breath. He turned back toward the tree, holding his hands out for Berri. The snorunt wasted no time, hopping out into Raven's open arms. Raven swiftly placed him on the ground, crouching down beside him and looking toward the base of the tree. The growlithe peered out at them, her eyes asking if it was safe.

Raven held out a hand, beckoning her toward him. "Come on, you can come out now." She looked around, and began to crawl out before her eyes landed on Berri. She hesitated, moving her paw as if she was about to creep back in.

Raven tilted his head to the side, glancing at Berri. He wasn't giving the most encouraging of looks. Raven nudged him. "Hey, be nice. Just because you hate fire…" He turned back to the growlithe, beckoning her again. "Come on out, he won't hurt ya."

Nervously, she inched out of her hovel, coming up to Raven's open hand. Expecting her to sniff him, he was surprised when she pushed her head into his hand, rubbing her fur against it. Smiling, he scratched her ears. "Atta' girl… why didn't you stay with the police?"

Pulling her head away, she whined again. Raven shrugged, not as used to her as Berri. "Well, I don't know why you'd want to follow me. Don't you want to be free?"

She let out a series of grunts and whines, the pleading expression returning to her face. Berri sighed. "Sno, snorunt sno sno."

"Hmm?" Raven asked, turning to him. "But…" He looked at the puppy pokemon, unable to resist that face. "Oh… fine. You can come with me."

Her face brightened up considerably as she hopped into his lap lapping at his face. He laughed; her warm fur was a stark contrast to Berri's cold cloak. "Hey, hey, calm down!" He rubbed his hand over her head, the puppy reacting by nipping at his fingers. He laughed again, pulling his fingers out of reach.

He could feel his side growing colder, glancing down at Berri, who did not look happy. "Oh, come on, you can't say she's not cute, she's a puppy!"

"Sno," he said simply, turning away. The growlithe's ears drooped, looking down at the ground. Raven propped her chin up on his finger, grinning.

"If you're gonna come with me, you can't be sad, alright? There are too many happy things in life to be sad!" The puppy glanced up at him innocently. He shrugged. "I'll take that as a yes. And, hey, Berri."

The snorunt turned slightly, still looked rather miffed. Raven pulled him closer, giving him a hug and ignoring the rather odd feeling of his lap being almost uncomfortably warm and his side rather chilly. "Don't worry, having another companion will be fun. And she's a girl; maybe you'll even come to like her!"

Berri looked at him incredulously. He shook himself, dropping the temperature yet again. Raven grinned, rubbing his knuckles against the cloak. "Just you wait." He picked up the growlithe, setting her down beside him. Standing up, he glanced around, placing a hand on the tree's trunk. "Now… how do we get out of here?"

He glanced down, noticing the growlithe chewing on his jeans. Berri was already walking away, in the direction the two cops left. He rolled his eyes, smiling. "Lots of fun."

...

He walked out of the forest casually, as if he had just taken a stroll. Berri had grudgingly agreed to be carried again (mostly due to laziness) and was sitting on his shoulder. The growlithe was walking alongside him, sticking as close as she could without tripping him. Not that he didn't find himself stumbling over red fur every few steps. Even though he had followed what he assumed to have been the officer's trail, he hadn't seen them outside the forest. Maybe they had given up? It seemed unlikely, but the police in Kanto might be run differently than in Hoenn. Though, there wasn't much pokemon theft in Hoenn…

He stumbled, his leg caught by something. Berri groaned as he almost fell off again, though being used to it by now. Raven grinned at the puppy pokemon, who had started chewing on his pants leg again. "You know, I think I have a name for you now." The puppy glanced up at him, not letting go of his pants. "Chewie. How does that sound?" She just tugged on his pants again, growling cutely. He laughed, jerking his leg away only for her to dash after it. "Yup. That'll do nicely."

As he walked along the same street he had originally walked down, he didn't notice anything different about the neighborhood. The kids he had seen earlier weren't there, but there was the occasional pedestrian. The sun was just about setting now, and he realized just how much had happened since he woke up that afternoon. He glanced down at the newly dubbed Chewie, who was trotting alongside him merrily, having lost interest in his jeans for the time being. He didn't expect to pick up any new pokemon in Kanto, let alone one on the day he arrived there. And while he half-wished she would decide to be free and live out her life, half of him wanted to keep her. He thought again of the empty pokeballs in his bag, shaking his head. He'd let it play itself out.

As he neared the pokemon center, he could tell that something was going on there. He could see several police officers standing outside, many of them looking identical to Officer Jenny while others stood out. He groaned. "Man… looks like we have to leave town already. I was looking forward to a bed…"

"Hey!"

He turned, spotting the girl from earlier waving at him. She started toward him, and he took a step back, wondering if it was a good idea to talk to her again when he remembered he owed her a few apologies. He stood still, smiling at her. "Hi there."

"Why'd you run off?" she asked, gesturing toward the cops. "They've been looking for you since then!"

"I don't trust cops," he said, ignoring her questioning look. "Hey, I wanted to apologize for being so harsh earlier, I got a bit angry with the whole situation…"

She held up her hands, smiling. "No no, I understand. I'm guessing you've had something similar happen in the past?"

"Um, yea. Something like that," he said evasively, not really wanting to get into that subject.

She just then noticed Chewie at his feet, gasping. "So she was with you!"

"Hmm?" Raven mumbled, looking down. "Oh, Chewie. Yea, she followed me."

"Chewie? Why'd you name her that?" the girl asked, trying to reach out for the pokemon only for her to edge away.

"Because she's been chewing on my pant leg every time I've stopped moving," Raven said, looking down to find that she was not, in fact, doing what he predicted. Instead, she was huddled up against his leg, looking at the police and whining softly. "Huh. Guess she doesn't like cops either… do you know how long they'll be there?" he asked, turning to the girl again.

"The police?" she asked, looking at them. "Probably for a while, they want to talk to you and I told them where I met you. I'm sure they're expecting you to go back to your room."

"Oh." Raven said, his hopes for a bed dashed again. He shrugged. "Well, guess that means we're leaving town early Berri."

"Snorunt, sno snorunt," he said with a huff. He'd like a bed too.

"Wait, what? You aren't going to go talk to them?" The girl said with a confused expression.

"No," Raven said bluntly. "If I didn't want to earlier, why would I want to now? I carry all of my stuff with me in my bag, so I'll just head out. Speaking of stuff…" he said, reaching into his bag and pulling out his room key. He tossed it to her, saying, "Mind giving that back for me?" He turned away, starting to walk back down the road.

The girl grabbed at the keys, fumbling with them for a bit before actually catching them. "Wait!"

Raven paused, looking over his shoulder. "I'm not going to talk to them, you know."

She laughed, pointing down another road. "Unless you wanted to go through the forest again, the road to Saffron city is this way."

Raven grinned, turning toward her. "What's your name?"

"My name?" She repeated, surprised. "Alisha. Why?"

"Alisha, huh. I hope to see you again sometime," he said casually, putting his hands in his pockets and walking past her with Chewie tailing close behind.

She looked back at him, seeing Berri to be peering at her from behind his cloak. He waved, his little arm making her giggle. She waved back, the snow hat pokemon nodding and turning around, sitting down comfortably on the boy's shoulder. Smiling, she turned to walk over to the pokemon center, rubbing the two pokeballs on her hip absent-mindedly.

As he furthered himself from the girl, Raven sighed. "Thanks buddy."

"Sno." Berri tuned off his false smile, folding his arms and turning to the side.

"Yea, but she doesn't know that," Raven reasoned, bending down slightly to scratch Chewie's ears. "And I don't want that changing anything for Chewie. She had nothing to do with that, and she feels like she can trust us. I don't want to hurt that."

"S…sno..runt…" Berri admitted, letting his shoulders droop. He had been kind of a jerk.

"Good." Raven brought his hands in front of him, cracking his knuckles. "So I guess we're headed to Saffron City?" Berri nodded. "Eh, I'm not a fan of big cities. It was bad enough going through Lilycove to hitch a ride here. But I suppose it wouldn't hurt to look around. Maybe there'll be a tournament or something we can get some money from."

Berri bobbed and shook excitedly. He hadn't fought like he had against the sandshrew for a long time, and he wanted more of it.

Chewie looked up at the two boys curiously, only vaguely understanding what they were talking about. "Rrr?"

"Hmm?" Raven glanced down at the puppy pokemon. "Oh, do you want to fight too?"

"Rrr?" She repeated, cocking her head to the side.

Raven paused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Actually, it'd be nice to know what you can do so I don't throw you into something way over your head. What do you say Berri? Want to do some training?"

Berri shrugged. "Snorunt."

"Yes, you have to," Raven joked. "No, if you don't want to I can just see what attacks she has."

"..sno?"

"Let's head out of town a ways before we do anything." Raven looked around, remembering that the police were looking for him. "Just think about it, alright?" He started off again, heading down the road to Saffron City.

Chewie stumbled as she took off after Raven, panting little puffs of steam happily.