There was plenty of long grass on route 1, meaning plenty of wild pokemon. I really didn't want to walk through it.

"C'mon, what are you waiting for, find someone to battle!" whined the Torchic, bouncing around impatiently.

"I don't want to battle," I growled back, already beginning to lose my patience.

"Why not?" Asked the Torchic. He finally stopped hopping around, pausing to stare at me with his head cocked to one side.

"Because," I said.

"Because why?"

"Because I don't want to!"

The Torchic tilited his head one way and then the other. "That's not really an answer," he said.

"Yeah, well, it's the only one you're getting," I muttered.

"But if we battle, then I'll get really strong and we won't have to worry about anything!" He declared.

"Or you could die," I snapped back, much harsher than I intended.

The Torchic was quiet for just a moment. "Yeah, that's true," he said. "But I won't! Because I'm super-special-powerful-strong."

I snorted. "Yeah right."

"Seriously! I'm—"

He was interrupted by a wild Poochyena leaping out of the grass in front of us, barking in challenge. Without missing a beat, the Torchic engaged it, staring it down as they circled each other.

"Just you watch, Trainer Lady! I'll show you what I can do."

"What you're gonna do is get out of the way," I barked as the Poochyena surged forward to attack.

"Whoa!" said the Torchic, and retaliated by swiping his talons down the Poochyena's face. It yelped as the claws raked its sensitive nose, before loosing a howl to re-invigorate itself. It came at the Torchic again and this time scored a hit, knocking the smaller pokemon back.

"Hit it in the face again," I urged the Torchic, despite myself. He complied, striking at the same spot as before and setting the Poochyena whimpering and covering its face with its paws, getting up a moment later only to flee into the grass.

"Woohoo! Did you see that? Wasn't I awesome?" whooped the Torchic. I was surprised to find my heart pounding.

"That was...not bad," I said, more to myself than him.

"Toldja," he said, puffing up his feathers in pride. "Hey Trainer Lady?"

My attention snapped back to him. "What?"

"Are you gonna give me a name? Trainer's are supposed to give us names, ya know."

"Yeah, I know. And the only thing I'm giving you is back to Professor Birch."

"Awwww, c'mon!"

We continued this argument up on through Oldsdale and to the north, where Brendan was allegedly waiting. His white hat came into sight as he stood peering intently into the nearby river, scribbling into a notebook.

I motioned at the Torchic to shut up as I greeted him. "Hey, Brendan, what's up?"

Brendan glanced over at me. "Elize? Shh, I'm watching a school of Carvanha," he said.

I glanced down into the water. "Those things are freaking ugly," I said.

"I think they look cool," whispered the Torchic from down by my feet. I shot him a glare.

Brendan now seemed to be checking all of his pockets for something. "Arrgh, I could have sworn I brought some," he muttered before looking up at me. "Hey Elize, d'you have any Pokeballs? I thought I brought some, but..."

I showed my empty hands and shrugged. "I'm not a trainer, don't carry 'em."

"You're not?" Brendan asked in surprise. "But your dad's—" I scowled. "Okay. well, if you're just starting out, I got a pokemon from my dad too. Wanna fight?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the Torchic practically radiating excitement over this suggestion. "Yeah, whatever," I sighed.

Brendan grinned. "Go, Mudkip!" He cried, sending out his own pokemon, a blue mud-puppy thing.

"Do your thing, bird," I said with a vague hand-waving motion. The little guy went at it with a vengence, distracting the Mudkip with a shrill growl and then scratching at it with his sharp claws.

"Don't let it get you," said Brendan. "Lower its defense!"

"Finish it off before he can get another attack in," I found myself ordering, and to my surprise, it worked. The Torchic came away, bruised but triumphant, while Brendan returned the exhausted Mudkip to his Pokeball.

"Wow," said Brendan, obviously impressed. "If that's your first time fighting a trainer battle, you did pretty good."

"I didn't really do that much," I said, less out of a sense of modesty than of the desire not to get roped into more battles. "Oh yeah," I said, suddenly remembering, "your dad told me to come and get you. You gotta go back to the lab."

Brendan smacked a palm into his forehead. "I totally forgot! Those things were coming in today...sorry, gotta dash! I'll meet you back at the lab," he called over his shoulder as he took off down the hill.

"Great," I said, hands on hips. "Now what?"

"Aren't you supposed to be there too?" Piped up the little bird at my side.

"Ugh. He better not try to make me do some crazy errand again," I muttered.

An hour later...

"Ah, Elize, you made it back! I was just telling Brendan about the mission I was about to give you two," said Professor Elm.

Damn. Barely through the door, and there he went again...

"I'm all ears," I said heavily, reassuring myself that I whatever it was, I could always say no.

Yeah right.

The professor held up two hand-held computer-looking gizmos, beaming excitedly. "I just recieved these pokedexes from Kanto! Now, a pokedex is like a pokemon encyclopedia..." He prattled on and on about how the Pokemon in Hoenn hadn't been properly catalogued, how he wanted me and Brendan to tour the region and collect data. "So how about it?" Asked the professor, holding out the two pokedexes.

Brendan instantly reached for his, but I stayed put.

The professor gave me a questioning look. "Having second thoughts?" He asked.

I wanted to tell him that I didn't even have first ones, but for some reason my mouth scrambled to cover me with a polite response. "Yeah, sorry, I mean, I just moved here and I'm not sure if my mom would want me running around Hoenn," I lied. Hell, she'd probably pack my bag herself, say I had to go "find myself" or something.

"Oh, that's too bad," mumured the Professor, frowning.

"You could at least ask," suggested Brendan. I supressed the urge to step on his foot.

The Professor brightened up. "Yes, I'm sure if I had a talk ith her, she would understand. Why, I'll call her right now!"

Double damn. "Oh, no, you don't have to-" I started, but he was already reaching for the phone.

"Hello? Oh hi, Mrs. Leblanc, this is—huh? Oh, yes, yes, my wife is fine...Yes, your daughter's right here with my son, and actually I was thinking of giving them each a Pokedex." There was a sudden enthusiastic outburst on the other side of the line that I could hear even from where I was standing. I winced. The Prof chuckled. "Yes, I'm sure he'd be delighted to see her too."

They were talking about my dad, I was sure of it. Dread gripped me in its steely jaws as I imagined the emotionally-restained display of fatherly love I was sure to recieve if this venture went through.

After chatting for a few more moments, Birch asking if the move had went well, telling my mom where the best place to go for groceries was and all that jazz, he hung up the phone and turned to me and Brendan with a smile. "It seems like she's happy to hear you're finally starting out on a journey of your own," he said. "I wish I could see the look on your father's face when you show up at his gym!"

It took everything I had to supress that shudder that went that ran through me. "Yeah," I said.

The Prof handed me the Pokedex, and then forcibly turned both me and Brendan around by our shoulders. "Don't let me keep you two young adventurers! The world is a wonderful place! I'm sure you'll see many amazing things along the way..."

"You ain't gonna see a thing for a week if you don't get your hand off," I muttered under my breath, but the Prof was getting all misty-eyed and didn't pay any attention.

"Go forth into the world!" He cried, pushing us towards the door. "The world...of Pokemon!"

"Wow," I said when we were outside. "Your dad's a drama queen."

Brendan adjusted his hat self-consciously. "Tell me about it," he said. "Oh yeah, and he told me to give you these." He handed over five red-and-white standard league-issue Pokeballs.

"Uh, thanks," I said, dumping them in the bottom of my bag.

I looked around. The town was pitifully small, the only Trainer route being the one I came off of earlier. "Where the hell are we supposed to be going?" I asked.

"Um...I guess...wherever we want?" Brendan tried.

"I want to go to my room and never come out again."

"I'm not really sure that's an option."

"Great. Where are you going?"

Brendan looked thoughtful. "The routes lead through Oldsdale through to Petalburg, and then Rustboro...it's all searoutes from there unless they finished that tunnel from Rustboro to Verdanturf."

I sighed. "Is there any way to go around Petalburg?"

"Not really."

I swore inwardly, and then out loud too for good measure. "Sacred birdshit."

"Uh, what?" said Brendan, perplexed.

How old was this kid? "It's, y'know...swear words. Y'ever hear of 'em?"

"Of course I have! I've just never heard that one before."

I remembered belatedly that I was in Hoenn, not Johto. "Sacred bird. Ho-oh. Top of the Bell Tower and all that. It's a Johto thing."

"Oh. Yeah, we don't use that one."

I was intrigued despite myself. "So what do you say in Hoenn?"

Brendan shrugged. "'Great Skies', 'Great Deeps'...or just 'Deeps', I guess."

"That is so lame," I snorted, vowing silently never to say anything that sounded that dumb, ever.

"Well, the...the ocean is such a big part of the region, and the weather is..." Brendan was trying to defend his pitiful homeland, but I had already lost intrest.

"Okay, so are we leaving this dump or not? I want to get this over with."

Looking at his watch, Brendan sighed. "I suppose we should get going." He glanced sidelong at me. "So, um...did you want to travel together, or...?"

He looked a bit wary. The reluctance was mutual, because I had no intention of going anywhere with this straight-laced Camper Laddie. I felt kind of bad for being a dick to him all of today just because I was in a bad mood, though, so I said. "I dunno, you actually seem to have a plan in mind. I was just gonna go off and do my own thing."

He looked a little relieved and a little disappointed. "Oh. Well, I'm sure I'll see you down the road somewhere," he said. He waved and turned to go. "Well, have fun with your Pokemon."

"Yeah. You too. I guess." I muttered the last part as he took off towards the entrance to Rt. 1.

I stood in front of Professor Birch's lab, weighing my options. I didn't have any travelling gear, but I didn't relish the thought of facing my mother right now. I deliberated for a few more minutes before an idea struck me—I loosed my Pokemon from its ball.

"Bird," I barked. "We're going to my house. Distract my mother."

The little thing shrunk back in terror. "What?! Her? Can I like, tackle her or something this time?"

"No," I said. "Just look...cute, or whatever."

"But I don't want to!"

"Shut up, I don't care."

An hour later I was on my way with the minimum amount of maternal doting over and the maximum amount of useful stuff I could carry on my person. Like money.

"That sucked," complained the bird, his feathers all ruffled from being fussed over relentlessly by my mother.

"Deal with it," I said, as we walked up the path leading to Oldsdale. I didn't bother going into any of the tall grass, so thankfully, we didn't run into anything.

Oldsdale, just like before, was a depressingly small town almost as pathetic as Littleroot. Pretty much the only thing remotely interesting there was a Pokemart, and a Pokemon Centre too. Guess I'd be needing to look out for those from now on...

"Where we goin', Trainer?" asked the bird.

"Shut up, not a Trainer," I said tiredly.

"But the lab coat guy said you were! So did your crazy mom."

"So what?"

"So," said the bird, puffing up his feathers, "you gotta give me a name!"

Rolling my eyes, I said, "If I give you a name, will you shut up about it?"

"Yeah! Promise," he said, eyes glittering so adorably I had a sudden urge to drop kick him. I resisted.

"Fine," I said, and then realized I had absolutely no inspiration. There was a Mart, there was the PC, a house, the crazy footsteps dude...no help there. I rubbed my forehead. "Hickory," I finally said. It was the first thing that came to mind.

There was a pause. "Hickory? Is that...that supposed to be it?"

Strangely, I found myself annoyed at the disappointment in his tone. "Yes," I snapped, "So get used to it, bird!"

"But, but it should be something awesome, like Deathlord McKill!"

"I think I just got stupider from hearing you say that."

"No way, it's cool!"

The argument continued until I realized we had exited town onto the wrong route, and consequently that I was actually arguing the relative merits of the name "Murderfull" as opposed to "Grapplemaster".

"This is stupid," I declared, "and also, we're on that pointless dead-end route."

"Oh, yeah," said the bird. "Better go back!" He immediately leapt off the short ledge we had been walking along the edge of. Straight into the tall grass.

"Hey!" I said.

"C'mon down," he replied cheerfully, barely visible through the thick grass.

I scowled, hesitating. "I'm going to put you back in your Pokeball," I warned.

"I wanna fight! Come on!"

The ledge wasn't tall. My feet already brushed the grass when I put my toes out over the edge of it. It wasn't such a big deal to pummel wild Pokemon, I supposed, as long as it would shut the damn bird up. I hopped down.

"Woohoo! All right! Now let's go find someone to beat up," the bird cheered, dashing into the grass. No more than a second later, he yelped "Oops, sorry! I mean, hey!"

I waded my way through the grass towards the ruckus, cursing my descision to wear shorts today. "What in the hell d'you think you're doing, bird?" I called.

"Justaminute I'm—whoa! Hey, cut it out!"

I waded faster, scowling. Luckily the really thick grass thinned out before I got to the bird, and I got a clear view of the proceedings, consisting of my bird getting chased around by another bird, which was blue and flying after my bird on its long narrow wings.

The device I got from the Prof pinged from the front pouch of my bag, and I dug it out.

"Wingull, the seagull Pokemon," chimed an electronic voice, going on to state it's habitat, diet, and a bunch of other crap I didn't care about.

"Trainer! Do something!" cried my bird, dodging a blast of water from the Wingull. Oh yeah, he was a fire-type.

"Stop being a Dogs-damned coward," I said. "Dodge the water, then attack while it's recovering."

The Wingull let out a squawk and shot water from its beak again. "Now!" I barked to my bird, and he froze, letting the Wingull keep flying overhead. "Tackle!"

The blow sent the Wingull toppling down to the ground, my bird landing on top of it. "Just keep pecking it," I said. He complied.

The Wingull's beak was longer, nailing my bird in the face when he leaned back to attack again, and he was pushed off. The Wingull staggered to its feet, clearly exhausted but still standing. My bird got up too. "Hey Trainer," he hissed to me, "they look tired. I think you can catch 'em!"

"Yeah, but do I want to?" I said.

This didn't seem to have occurred to him. "Yeah, but...you're a Trainer," he said uselessly.

The Wingull was in pretty rough shape. Plus, if I was actually going to go to Petalburg, or anywhere, really, I'd probably need more than just a pint-sized football-shaped bird.

"Whatever," I said, digging in my bag for a Pokeball. "Distract it."

"HEY! I'M TOTALLY GOING TO ATTACK YOU AND STUFF!" yelled my bird, hopping up and down. The wingull looked perplexed.

My hand closed around a smooth spherical shape, and I whipped my hand out of the bag. "Okay," I muttered, "here goes." I threw it.

The Wingull's eyes widened in surprise as the bright light of the capture net burst out of the ball and enveloped it. The ball toppled to the ground, twitching once, twice...and went still. The bird and I stared at it, waiting. Nothing happened.

I hadn't realized I was holding my breath until I went to draw a new one in.

"Oh boy!" shouted the bird, "another team member! This is soooo cooool!"

"Great, another annoying thing to follow me around," I said, but my heart wasn't really in it. My first capture, huh? I mentally chided myself. Yeah right. I was only in this 'til my parents stopped nagging me about it. "We better get back to the PC in town."

After the Wingull got healed up at the Center, we hit the real road to Petalburg.

"You gonna name her?" asked the bird. Wait, pidgeyshit, there were two birds now. Hickory, I relented grudgingly in my mind.

"Yeah, whatever, I'll call her—"

"Wait! You can't just tell me, you have to tell her!"

Sighing, I released the second Pokemon to join me on this ill-fated journey. "Hey, I'm your trainer, I'm calling the shots here and blah blah blah, hope you don't have any expectations, 'cause I'm probably not gonna meet 'em."

The blue bird stared at me through its weirdly glossy, expressionless black eyes. "So...you're a trainer?" she said.

"No," I said.

"She's actually really good!" chirped Hickory, completely ignoring me.

"Shut up," I told him. "So what, you want a nickname or something?"

"Oh...sure," said the Wingull.

I shrugged. "Abby, then."

"Okay," said Abby the Wingull, totally impassive.

I turned to Hickory. "Okay, you see there? That's the kind of attitude I'm looking for."

He stuck his tongue out at me.

"C'mon, we're going to Petalburg," I said. "Keep a low profile, I don't want my dad making a big deal as soon as we get to town." I turned and began walking.

"Don't worry, she's not all that bad," whispered Hickory behind me, presumably to the new addition. "And she's awesome at battling!"

"Great," said Abby, with absolutely no change in tone. I was already beginning to like her, despite myself.

The party so far:

Hickory (Torchic)

Abby (Wingull)

A/N: First party member's a go. Phew. I'm not used to writing really long stories, but I decided to give this a shot. Elize isn't exactly the nicest person around, but if we're lucky she'll improve, with the magic of character development! ...If we're lucky.

R&R, please! And thank you, also.