Buck stared out at the night sky from the bedroom window, holding a brown, fluffy Pokemon in his arms and only taking in half of the commotion going on in the other side of the room.

As the group had returned to the Pokemon centre, Mira and Cheryl had realised that they'd forgotten to register all their caught Pokemon in Cheryl's Pokedex, and so all three of them agreed to sort it out after the wild Bidoof had been picked up and all four ate a scrumptious dinner.

As they had picked up the Bidoof, however, it seemed to be particularly clingy to the trainer who had carried it in his arms to safety, sitting on his lap back downstairs while he had been lounging on a particularly soft cushion.

Buck realised it really cared for him, and became attached to the furball. Everyone agreed that it was for the best if he captured it, since their bond was already beginning to grow, but just before Buck encased the Pokemon in a normal Poke ball offered by Mira, he suddenly became extremely picky and claimed that the aesthetics of the said Poke ball clashed with the brown colours of the Bidoof, and wouldn't be good for a contest appeal at all. Cheryl had thought for moment, before offering him a Nest ball and saying that in her eyes, it suited the Pokemon perfectly.

The rest was easy to decipher.

Buck's train of thought was interrupted by Cheryl calling his name.

"Hey, Buck, Come on over! Stop daydreaming, this is really fun!"

Buck grinned faintly, before hopping off his bed and sitting down on the floor with Cheryl and Mira.

"Buck," Mira told him, "could you please put your Bidoof down, just for a moment? It needs to be registered."

"Sure thing."

He placed the brown Pokemon in front of him, where it promptly sat down and began staring back at Buck with a questionable look in its eyes.

"Don't worry, Bidoof," Buck told it, "a Pokedex isn't dangerous."

Cheryl aimed the Pokedex scanner at Bidoof.

"Bidoof," she said softly, "turn this way now."

Now reassured by Buck's words, the small furball turned to face Cheryl, a smile on its face being partly hidden by its two giant front teeth.

"And three... two... one... there we go!"

A small pause occurred while the Pokedex processed its newfound data, before it began spewing out information.

"Bidoof, the Plump Mouse Pokemon. Bidoofs tend to make nests beside water. It gnaws on rocks and trees in order to keep its front teeth from growing too long."

As the Pokedex continued spewing out height and weight calculations, Bidoof, now knowing its job had been completed, made to find its way back to Buck's lap and settle down inside it.

"Well... that's interesting," Cheryl said. "We're gonna have to find something for that little guy there to chew on if it needs to."

Buck gently lifted Bidoof from on top of his legs. "I think I've got an idea."

He made his way over to his bag, before unzipping it and scavenging inside it for something.

It wasn't long before he brought out the item he was looking for.

As he drew it from his bag, Mira and Cheryl caught a glance at what he was holding - a white, oval-shaped rock.

He brought it back over, found his place on the floor again and gave the rock to Bidoof, who instantly began munching on its surface.

"I found this rock ages ago," Buck told them, "back when I still lived in Hoenn. I was extremely young at the time, but kept it with me for all my life. I brought it with me to Jubilife as almost a lucky token, an item to reassure me that my contest routine that I'd been practising would go alright. Now it turns out it has a secondary use."

Mira and Cheryl watched the Bidoof try to bite through the rock with a hint of amusement on their faces.

The Bidoof tried to get a particularly large part of the rock by leaning back, but the weight of said rock caused it to overbalanced and fall onto its back.

Mira and Cheryl burst out laughing, while Buck smiled and lifted the Plump Mouse Pokemon back into its sitting position.

During all the commotion, none of them spotted Happiny's Poke ball, which had been placed outside Cheryl's bag for Pokedex registration, beginning to twitch uncontrollably at the presence of the rock.

Later that night, the three of them all called it a day on the celebrations and sent themselves off to bed.

However, none of them were trying to get to sleep. All three were lost in thought.

As Mira stared at the wall beside her, she thought about her journey so far. Already it had taken turns she wasn't previously expecting - a new travelling companion, plus another who was only meant to be staying temporarily, had joined her, she had been nearly destroyed by a cave-in, she had met new people -welcome or not - and captured new Pokemon, and she herself couldn't quite believe it. Her dreams of going on an adventure back when she had been younger were finally coming true.

And she wasn't even in too much danger this time.

Mira hadn't quite told Cheryl the entire truth of why her family moved to Sinnoh from Kanto.

Three years ago, Team Rocket had been at their highest peak in Kanto. The team wasn't a nice group of people at all - they would steal Pokemon, sell them for money, abuse them and, as one member of the Pokemon school had told her, apparently killed a Pokemon for seemingly no reason. There had also been rumours of them searching anyone for Pokemon, even if they didn't have any. At that time, Mira's mother had kept her at home, not allowing her to go to the school and only letting her go out if she accompanied her. It had been a nerve-wracking experience, but was solved in a sudden moment that Mira had the privilege to see herself.

She and her mother had been simply wandering through the city that day, going to buy groceries. Their walk, however, had been interrupted by an extremely interesting scene occurring outside the Viridian City Gym.

Several police cars were parked by the doors, and being walked out of said doors in handcuffs was none other than the Gym Leader, Giovanni.

As it turned out, the man was responsible for Team Rocket's actions, since he was the head of the organisation without anyone outside of it even knowing. His cover had been blown by a young trainer who had seen him working for the team before challenging him. Mira never knew the young trainer's name or even what they looked like, but she still thanked them from the bottom of her heart.

Mira's mum had been delighted, and for three years Mira continued to go to the school and enjoy life paranoia-free.

Before, about six months ago, things escalated again.

Apparently, Team Rocket had been regrouping in the Johto region, literally next door to Kanto, and the odds of them spreading to Mira's home region had been extremely high.

Her mother was devastated. She had been planning for Mira to start her Pokemon adventure, and just before it was ready, the fear had returned and stabbed at her heart.

Not knowing what else to do, she had fled Kanto with Mira, away from everything they had previously been accustomed to, to a region which she hoped wouldn't be as dangerous.

And the rest is history.

Mira hadn't exactly lied to Cheryl. She had just left out information she wasn't willing to talk about.

Buck had tried to let himself be embraced by the clutches of sleep, but gave up long ago.

For some reason, his mind kept wandering to back when he was a young kid in Hoenn, where he had been more naive to everything and his Baltoy had only been his companion for a few weeks.

Back then, he had never heard the legends of the Weather Trio - Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza - and he had no real reason to, either. Everything had been simpler - he hadn't realised how tough it'd be to plan for being a master coordinator, he hadn't realised how much his life would have to be twisted, he hadn't thought he'd need any other proper friend in his life other than his brother.

That simple outlook on life was shattered the moment Team Aqua and Team Magma both made moves that could've possibly destroyed everyone in the whole world.

It had been a simple, normal day. His brother had been helping him work out a contest strategy as they both sat outside in Slayeport City, when the sun had been beaming and the boat business had been booming, when before anyone could even react, the earth suddenly juddered.

It was only for a fleeting moment, but just about everyone in the city stumbled, most civilians tripping up over their own feet and sprawling across the path, Buck and his brother included.

Once the two had regained their senses, they instantly rushed back to their house and asked their parents nervously about what they should do.

Weather reports from the Route 119 weather institute later that day claimed that one side of Hoenn was growing oddly warm, while the other had been raining considerably more than the typical shower. Both these reports, coupled with the tremors the whole region had felt in the same day, had told Buck's family all they needed to know.

A storm was brewing. And it wasn't a pretty one involving rainbows and dewdrops. From what Buck had been able to gather from reading up on Hoenn's lore afterwards, it was highly likely to involve earthquakes, extreme weather conditions and two demigod-tier Pokemon duking it out somewhere in the Sootopolis area.

Buck's family didn't want to stay somewhere that was highly likely to become a war zone for natural disasters at all, which led them to move to Sinnoh, a place that was meant to be safer since it contained no natural-disaster-causing Pokemon, genetically modified psychic DNA creatures, giant birds with the potential to cause mass death or anything of the sort. At least, that was what Buck's brother had told him. He wasn't sure if all of them were true, but if he was honest with himself, it didn't matter much to him these days.

A few days after the move was complete, news had come in about how Hoenn was doing. Apparently Groudon and Kyogre had indeed awoken, and for a short amount of time the Hoenn region had been stuck in polar weather conditions and constant tremors, but the issue was resolved when help came in the form of three people - a young trainer who said they'd rather not go on television, a man who was known for being the son of the Devon Corporation head and the champion of Hoenn, a contest star who had a knack for battling. Together the three of them had managed to summon the guardian of the sky, Rayquaza, before it flew down and broke up the fight that had occurred.

Since the champion of Hoenn had been one of Buck's inspirations to go out and become a coordinator, this had further influenced Buck into practising hard, before just a day or two ago, he was finally allowed to begin his adventure.

And since then, he had met two girls who now felt extremely important to him. He knew that he was only meant to stay with them until the three of them reached Floaroma Town, but they now felt like they were treating him as a proper companion, and a new friend.

Now, Buck thought, what if he told them tomorrow that he wanted to be more than a temporary companion?

For lack of a better thing to do as she gazed at the ceiling, Cheryl brought Turtwig closer to her and stroked it gently as it snored quietly.

She had been so nervous earlier on that day when Turtwig was nearly stolen by Team Galactic. She had no idea what they'd do to it, whether they'd treat it kindly or harshly, and whether she'd ever get a chance of seeing it again or not. The little green turtle had become extremely important to her, and she didn't know how she'd be able to cope with it being taken away by such an unkind organisation.

As far as Cheryl could remember, she had been extremely sensitive to Pokemon being harmed in any way. She guessed it stemmed from her childhood.

As a young girl, Cheryl wasn't old enough to stay in her mother's house on her own, and even back then her dad was off on a Pokemon trainer's journey. Due to this, she had to stay in Eterna City's Pokemon centre every evening and weekend after going to the trainer's school. It had been pretty luxurious, always having a warm, clean room to sleep in and extremely tasty meals each day, but it also came with its disadvantages.

At this point, Cheryl couldn't count the amount of times she had been forced to witness Pokemon who had been severely injured, whether it be from battles, accidents or reasons she didn't even know about at the time. And the reality had been impactful on such a young girl's mind.

Fortunately, one thing had been able to get Cheryl through all that.

Eventually, she opened up to her mother about how she didn't like having to witness so many cute creatures in pain, and her mother understood.

Since then, Cheryl had always held a book while at her mother's work, and she would lose herself in the lore of Sinnoh, the habits of the local Pokemon, and even some fictional stories with role models that she could root for. It was a way to distract her from reality, and it also managed to educate her on so many things she would've taken much longer to learn otherwise. She really had a lot to thank those books for.

When she turned ten years old, she was finally allowed to stay at her mother's house on her own. She was given a Happiny to keep her safe, and told to come back every couple of weeks to see her mother.

The next four years felt like they flew by. In that time she met Barry, saw Lake Verity for the first time and many other things alongside that, but it didn't stop her from executing the same routine once every so often of travelling to Eterna City and staying at the Pokemon centre for a day.

That is, until the day she had found Mira, passed out in the path.

At the time she had been extremely shocked at the young girl, before regaining her composure and rushing over to her side. She had no idea how she'd carry the girl anywhere, but then she remembered the nearby Abra

Abra had obliged. However, Cheryl had panicked as she thought of where to go, the first place settling in her mind being her house in Twinleaf.

And that moment was when Cheryl finally began doing more eventful things with her life.

And she was loving every minute of it, just as long as everybody and everything she cared for was safe.

All three of them did eventually fall asleep, but early in the morning they were welcomed with a harsh awakening by the gleaming sunrise.

"Ugh..." Mira said out loud, "why does the window have to be there? Just where the sun can burn into Mira's eyes at stupid-o-clock in the morning..."

Buck replied from his own bed. "Because of confusing logic. If I were them, I'd put it on the roof or something. At least then it will only be blinding when we've already left at midday."

Cheryl chimed in. "Yeah, we should make a petition or something, to replace all windows facing the sunrise with roof windows. I'm sure that would kick off perfectly."

Silence began to surround the atmosphere, before all three of began laughing.

After Buck caught Bidoof, all three members of our trio found themselves registering Pokemon into Cheryl's Pokedex after forgetting to at an earlier date. Afterwards, as all three tried to sleep that night, thoughts about their past kept plaguing them. Will their stories of their lives before this adventure play a role in future? Will they tell their full pasts to each other or keep them a solemn secret for the rest of their lives? The journey continues!

Hello dear reader! Please forgive me, for I have released the part a day late once more. This time it was actual real life getting in the way instead of me forgetting, though, so I guess I have a somewhat excuse. This style of chapter writing will probably not come in again, at least for a LONG time, so if you don't like it then you can be grateful, but I just wanted to try a new way of writing. I also wanted to ground the trio's backstories without having them all exposition-dump each other. While this is still technically and exposition dump, it just felt a little smoother this way - their backstories are all rather sensitive topics that you wouldn't tell someone after only knowing them for a few days, and I wanted a reason for all their insecurities to exist to be shown early on. If this way of writing isn't appealing to you then I'm sorry, but if you like it then awesome! Next week we'll be back to the normal format, and we'll have foreshadowing, the return of Book Nerd Mira and certain characters making their comebacks!