The Key Airstrip was relatively new, and as the only airstrip in Orre, it was buzzing with acitivity. Everyone was looking down at their pamphlets, so many were pushing and shoving their way out of the plane, with a lot of "excuse you"s and not a lot of "sorry"s. They bustled down the stairs to the metal ground, and looked around at the new sights. It appeared to be in a mountain cavity with various long strips of metal that served as runways. A small building sat near the exit, as a front desk of sorts.

Lauren looked down at her pamphlet, admiring the thought they put into decorating the silver-rimmed text. Apparently the first matches took place tomorrow evening in a town call Phenac. A picture of the city was printed below the text, featuring an oasis-looking place with tiled ground and canals with fresh water. It looked like paradise, but it could have been exaggerated. Nevertheless, Lauren found herself grinning ear to ear at the thought of getting a chance to go there so soon.

The crowd of trainers shuffled out of the airport, all chattering excitedly about their first battle.

...Only to be greeted by a foreboding desert. With sandstorms.

Some vacation this turned out to be. It would take hours to cross the desert, even with a pokémon that could stand it. Sure, Phenac City looked like paradise in the pamphlets, but sandstorms made it sound like dystopia. Many groans were heard, coupled with the rumaging through bags to pull out goggles. Some resourceful trainers brought out pokémon that they could ride, all of them rock, ground, or steel types. Not too long after, they were all off.

That, is, all except Lauren, Eleanor, her pichu, and an unknown asian girl.

"Damn. How am I supposed to make it in time for the tournament now?" the stranger said, crossing her arms defiantly. Eleanor sighed herself, eyeing Static and her own pokéballs wryly. Lauren took that moment to squint at the stranger's trainer card, depicting her name in black bold letters. Chyna Zevvy.

"Don't ask me. This is a nasty sandstorm, and I don't have any pokémon that can take me across safely. I mean, actually, Blaze might be able too, but I want him to rest before-"

"Blaze?" Lauren inquired.

"My charizard..." Eleanor responded rather quietly as her fingers traced over her frontmost pokéball. Chyna raised an eyebrow.

"Original name for a fire-type," she simply stated, walking forward. Eleanor piped up.

"Hey! You aren't seriously considering walking who-knows-how-many-miles without a decent pokémon to ride, are you?" Eleanor shouted after her. The girl stopped for a few seconds.

"Yeah! I'll have you know that I do have a rock-type perfect for riding!" she yelled back. Lauren and Eleanor glanced at each other and shook their heads.

"Then why don't you let it out?" Eleanor said with a huge grin. The stranger tightened her goggles, trekking on.

"...I don't want you to see him. I want my pokémon to remain secret in case, uh, I have to battle you in the tournament!" Upon hearing this, Eleanor let out a "yeah right" before shrugging and running up to her, Static in her coat and Lauren following closely behind.

"Oh well, we're only walking in one of the most dangerous deserts in the world. No big deal." Eleanor stated. Chyna shrugged.

"Well, how bad could it be?"

6 hours later..

"I've had it with these Arceus-damned sandstorms in this Arceus-damned desert!"

Chyna was gasping frantically, running in short bursts of three yards before having to rest for a couple minutes. Lauren and Eleanor looked on forward at the miles of sandy wastes, then back at their new companion an amazement. The girl hadn't even properly introduced herself, yet somehow seemed to be comfortable stating her opinions in the most straightforward way possible, others' opinions of her be damned.

"I mean, it just keeps going on, and on, and on, and - you know what, we're taking a break." Chyna finally plopped down, utterly defeated. She pulled out a half-empty water container and downed the rest in seemingly one gulp.

"Exhibit A," Eleanor stated smartly, pointing to Chyna, "The fate of those who pride themselves in their 'self-confidence'." Chyna shot her a dirty look, but protested no further. Lauren pulled out a black pokénav, and fiddled around with it for a few seconds before letting out an exasperated sigh.

"Looks like we have about twenty or so miles. At the pace we're going, that's about..." Lauren mumbled the rest of of the sentence under her breath. "...yeah. We can't exactly afford a break; do you know how dangerously cold deserts get at night? Even if we could leave a fire-type out, we'd still have to deal with an injured pokémon in the morning with the sandstorms and all...and sand in our sleeping bags to boot. Yeesh."

Chyna scoffed in protest, but nevertheless got up and trekked onward. Before stopping.

"What now?" Eleanor asked, arms crossed. Static peeked out from her coat but jumped back in after getting buffeted by the harsh sandstorm. Chyna merely pointed in the distance, at an old outpost. Score!

The three girls rushed ahead, not even caring how exhausted they were anymore. Nearly tripping in the thick sand, they finally came to what they thought was an outpost, to find several mere yards of neatly-arranged tiles. An tall man kneeled on top of them, observing them like a biologist would a new species. But that wasn't what interested the three, oh no. Beside him, not even a yard away, stood a jeep.

"Arceus be praised!" Without any prompt, Chyna ran over to the car, practically slamming herself into it. This caused the thing to loudly emit several obnoxious beeps. The man, hearing the commotion, looked up at Chyna before running after her.

"What the - what are you doing to..." He stopped mid-sentence, seeing the sweat and the raw scratches on the three. Lauren blinked at him in amazement. Squeaky Voice Guy. She started tearing up. Never had she ever been so excited to see a tall prepubescent-sounding creeper in her life. She almost wanted to hug him!

...Well, almost, anyway.

"Okay, yeah, then. You're those trainers who I invited here...? How'd you get way out here? You know what, scratch that, how'd you get way out here without pokémon to ride on?"

Lauren was the first to respond. "Well, we got off the plane six hours ago and there was no transportation to the next town, so-"

His mouth opened so wide at that moment, eyes bulged, and eyebrows raised.

"Um, you do realize they were offering free train rides to Phenac, right?"

The three just stared dumbly.

4 hours later...

As it turned out, Squeaky Voice guy, Arceus bless him, took the three into his jeep as an apology for not putting the "Free Train Ride" note in big, red letters. Everyone had just finished dressing their wound, and Lauren and Chyna somehow ended up in an intense argument. How Eleanor and her pichu could sleep through it, no one would ever know.

"This is your fault, Chyna." Lauren looked at her opponent straight in the eye, her left eye twitching. "If you hadn't rushed ahead into the desert, we wouldn't have ended up like this."

"Hey, you two didn't have to run after me! In fact, I might have preferred it if you didn't! Wait, how do you even know my name?"

"Irrelevent." Lauren prompted her to continue.

Anyway, all you two did was slow me down, especially you! A break every ten minutes? Seriously?" At the end of her rant, Chyna let out an exasperated sigh.

"It was the harsh desert weather! I was only looking out for your well-being, especially since-"

"My well-being. My well being? That's the biggest pile of crap I've ever heard. In fact-"

At that moment, Squeaky Voice Guy decided that it was a good time to literally slam on the breaks. Both Lauren and Chyna crashed forward, and ended up nearly crushing their faces against the headboard.

"Welp," Squeaky Voice Guy said, stoically as ever, "That worked out quite nicely."

Naturally, several seconds later, the girls stopped arguing with each other in favor of yelling at him.

2 hours later...

Phenac City was as beautiful as the pamphlets promised, as it turned out. Tall white walls embraced the city and kept out the desert's hazards - notably, the sandstorm. Streams of crystaline water danced through the canals and ended in small waterfalls that were recycled into the town's main spring. The buildings were white and concrete, and a good size, at that. Each of them was situated next to one or two palm trees planted in the only bits of sand allowed in the otherwise yellow - tiled city.

As it turned out, each of the competitor got their own room in a rather sizeable hotel, which included a television set, bathroom, bed, refridgerator, and even a small stove and fireplace. Having finished her shower and, Lauren put on her new clothes, changed her bandages, and turned on the tv to Phenac City's only channel to find that the tournament had already started without her.

"Crap. Should really sign in." With that, she rushed off, not even bothering to turn off the tv.

Phenac Stadium was definitely something to write home about. It took place in a large, white dome with water spouting from it, and the inside was decidedly more impressive. The rows could hold up to one thousand people, but only half of them were occupied (it was only the first match, after all). She walked up to a professionally dressed lady in a small enclosure who had her sign her name. Phew. Now that that was out of the way...

"Now, Dreamer, Hyper Beam!"

A blast of orange light shot out from a random direction, narrowly missing Lauren. Shit, shit shit shit shit shit! Well, that's I get for loitering in the stadium, she thought, quickly dashing in the front stands to observe the battle. She squinted, and managed to see the combatants. One was a bronze-haired girl about her age wearing a white hat and white sweater. A black belt sat atop her light blue skinny jeans. She also donned a pink messanger bag.

She appeared to be controlling a gallade. "Dreamer." Huh. Interesting nickname.

Her opponent looked decidedly less skilled. He was obviously a newer trainer, from the way he conducted himself. He was a pale-skinned dirty blonde wearing various combinations of grays and blacks. A silver eevee stood in front of him.

"Good job, Eevee! Now, quickly, use Attract!" The eevee jumped forward, somehow landing on the gallade. All the gallade could do was stare as the eevee shot a trio of red hearts at him. The female trainer's fists clenched.

"Shake it off, Dreamer! Then use Close Combat!" The gallade hesitated before it started shaking his head back and forth really quickly, but the eevee merely giggled in reponse. However, it seemed to be losing its grip...

"Eevee, don't let it shake you loose! Sand Attack!"

With that, eevee flung its hind legs at the gallades face, kicking up pebbles of sand from what seemed to be hammerspace, and gracefully jumped off.

"This is ridiculous... Dreamer, use Psychic to hold that thing in place, then use Close Combat!" Gallade nodded, and his eyes started glowing blue. Suddenly, the eevee was swept into mid-air. Her little feet moved back and forth in a vain attempt to stop herself from floating away. With astounding speed, Dreamer the Gallade dashed up to the little eevee, but stopped, a faint blush evident on his otherwise ivory cheeks. The female trainer facepalmed.

"Dreamer, just, return." She rumaged through her bag and pulled out a great ball, and threw it.

However, when Dreamer was returned to his pokéball, it caused the eevee to crash land, instantly fainting it. The girl shrugged, smiling at how it turned out.

The boy pulled out a pokéball and called back his eevee, looking frustrated. The referee raised his right flag.

"And so, Evelyn Hughes from Kanto has defeated Yorick Sanders from Hoenn! "

The girl, Evelyn, walked across the stadium to collect a commemoration pendant, while the boy merely stood there slumped. Then, the strangest thing happened.

A blaring alarm sounded, and flashing lights were everywhere. A crowd of men dashed into the stadium, armed with various guns of all shapes and sizes. A single buff man stepped forward with a mega-phone.

"Evelyn Hughes. You're under arrest for the mass murder of two dozen pokémon."

Oooh, cliff hanger! Who is this Evelyn Hughes, and what has she done to attract the attention of the police? Has she really murdered all of those pokémon? Tune in next chapter!

Also, a note: just because your character loses a battle, doesn't mean they're kicked out of the fic. It just means that they won't be in the tournament anymore. Heck, some of them may even play important roles later on!

Credits:

Eleanor Morris - DeadlyThunder195

Chyna Zevvy - MewBladeXxX

Evelyne Hughes - Gentle Blossom

Yorick Sanders - Dodgerjoey