Hey everybody! Good news! This story now has over 5000 views and 50 reviews. Also, I graduated high school! I should be updating more regularly now that it's summer! Also thank you to my reviewer, GamerGirl54321 for giving me my 50th review!

Sam had some potions in his bag. This time, when he used one on me, it wasn't enough so he had to use another. Rae assured him that since I was getting stronger, I'd start needing more powerful stuff. That made both of us feel better.

Once we exited the train, we rested in an overnight room at the station. We had to be ready for the last leg of the journey to Vermilion and a full day later, we were. I was feeling about ninety percent after rest, good meals and those two potions.

So we set off.

I nearly walked into a Ratatta who was nosing around for food. It didn't look too powerful so I was ready to knock it out when Sam called me back.

"Nova, hold on, I want to give Poison a little battle experience before Vermilion! Let's go, Poison!"

"Nido!" Poison emerged from his Pokéball.

"Poison, uh, use Double Kick!"

Poison, nervous, started to approach the Ratatta backwards to hit him with his back legs.

Gold groaned. "Not like that, moron, he'll know exactly what yer up to!"

"Rrr!" The Ratatta charged with a Quick Attack and caused Poison to involuntarily somersault back. The Nidoran regained his footing and shook of the hit.

Ratatta came in for the second Quick Attack but the rodent's face became the landing pad for two direct kicks.

"Should be super-effective…" I heard Kurt say, hoping the Nidoran had been successful. The Ratatta stumbled back and dropped unconscious to the floor.

"Yes!" I cheered as Sam ran over to congratulate him. I tried not to feel guilty about what I had told him in the train.

Next, we encountered a Pidgey. Since Poison was tired from his match, Sam called out Missile, who seemed grateful to stretch out his wings. The battle remained dangerously close until the end. Finally, Missile ended it with a well-placed Fury Attack. Sam recalled the worn-out bee Pokémon.

Not a few minutes later, another Pidgey appeared. I stepped toward it and immediately, it started using Gust.

"Nova, use Quick Attack!" I charged at it as fast as I could. When I stepped away, I looked at the downed Pidgey in shock. The pidgey was knocked out in one move.

"Nice, Rusty, your first one-hit KO," Gold nodded, impressed.

"…KO?"

"You don't know what a KO is? Jeez, Rusty, didja live under a rock?" Gold laughed. "It means Knock Out. You knocked him out in one hit."

I grinned. "Alright then." I was happy that he was impressed and even happier that I had gotten my first one-hit KO.

It only took ten minutes in the Pokémon-packed path that was Route Six to encounter another Pokémon. It was an angry Bellsprout.

"A grass-type! Rae, what's strong against Grass?"

"Uh, fire and ice, poison, and flying and bug."

"So Missile has a double-type advantage, huh?" Sam held Missile's Pokéball thoughtfully.

"Yeah but I don't think he's in well enough condition for another battle right now," Kurt reasoned.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Sam put Missile's Pokéball back on his belt.

"I'll do it." I told Sam, stepping forward toward the wobbly weed Pokémon.

Sam smiled. "Alright then, Nova, use Shadow Ball!"

I charged and released the purple sphere.

"Watch out!" A vine was rapidly approaching. The Vine Whip pushed me back a couple feet but I remained standing and relatively unhurt.

"Bell!" It whipped its vines again and I felt them wrap around my body tightly until it started to hurt, forcing me to release my grip around its arm.

"Vv…" I winced breathlessly.

"Bite!" It took me a moment to secure my feet on the ground, but when I did, I shoved myself forward and knocked the grass type out with a quick bite. Triumphantly, I stepped out of the Bellsprout's limp vines.

"That's how you do it," I remarked snidely to Gold. Gold just laughed at me.

"Fine, you take the next battle then," I called back at him.

And he did.

When we were stopping for lunch, Sam sat on a rock. It wouldn't have been a problem had a tail not been resting on that rock. A tail that belonged to a monkey Pokémon who shrieked and charged at us as Sam yelled apologies back at it.

"It's no use!" Kurt yelled. "Mankey will chase us until we get tired. They never stop chasing someone who makes them angry!"

"What?" Sam suddenly stopped an spun around to face the Mankey. "That's crazy!" Gold ran up only a few feet in front of the raging Pokémon.

"Do you want to battle him, Gold?"

"Duh," Gold retorted, cracking his knuckles.

"MAAANKEY!" The primate's open hand came down on Gold's shoulder.

"Hey, fight fair!" Gold grunted, taking a half step back to re-orient himself.

"Rrr!" Mankey, crazed with rage delivered a powerful Fury Swipes attack but Gold curled up just in time to avoid most of the hits.

Sam had broken out of his surprised state by now and was back in trainer mode.

"Roll back and use Defense Curl again!"

To my surprise, Gold obeyed without hesitation. The Mankey sprung at him and delivered a scratch that barely scraped Gold's brick armor.

"Gold, Rapid Spin!" Sam commanded, just as Mankey prepared another Low Kick.

"Quick, end it! Use Rock Smash!"

Gold knows Rock Smash?

The shrew Pokémon put one arm out to defend himself and used the other to reach far behind him. The resulting swing connected between the Pokémon's eyes and it fell back, unconscious.

"Great job, Gold!" Sam cheered. "Do you think I should catch it? I seemed pretty strong."

"No way!" Gold shook his head. "He's got no honor!"

Sam sighed, "Alright, I guess not then. We'd better go before he wakes up."

Vermilion City was a nice city on the ocean.

I know because when we arrived, I ran towards the salty smell and skidded to a stop at the sight of the ocean's vastness. It was gorgeous. We all stared in wonder while the sun set. I had never imagined how beautiful the sun could look reflecting off the water.

Finally, when the sun had sunk and it was growing dark, Rae yawned and suggested we go to the Pokémon Center.

"Nurse Joy! How are you?"

"Fine thank you, would you like me to heal your Pokémon?"

"Yes, please," Sam unloaded his Pokéballs onto the tray, "Up you go, Nova." Sam said, patting the counter.

I shook my head.

"We should probably call it a night then, huh Nova?"

I yawned.

Sam laughed, "And tomorrow, we'll train for the Gym."

"'Help, little Timmy's gone and fallen in the well again. REWARD: 70 P.'" Sam read. "What are they doing, waiting for someone to respond to this?" Sam sweat-dropped.

"We don't have any grass or water types to pull him out, so we can't exactly do anything." Rae said.

"That or are you turned off by the 70 Poké reward?" Kurt teased.

"Sorry to interrupt, but are you related to Jenny, by any chance?"

I nearly jumped off Sam's shoulder in surprise. A tanned woman with thick, long red hair stood behind them. She looked athletic and around twenty years old.

"Who're you?" Rae asked.

"Sorry, you can call me Ace," Ace shook hands with the three trainers, "I just noticed how much you look like Officer Jenny."

"They're—well, a few of them are my cousins. Actually, this town's Jenny is my cousin—so is Celadon's, Viridian's and Lavender's. My name's Rae."

"Nice to meet you. Are you all trainers?"

"Sam is, the guy in camo is Kurt and he's an adventurer. I'm training Pokémon for the Police Force."

"Interesting. And you're looking for a job?"

"Yep," Sam said.

Ace looked thoughtful. "Well, I usually don't recruit newbie trainers, but you all seem to have good heads on your shoulders and if you're related to my best friend, Jenny…I'll let you in."

I twitched my ears, intrigued.

"…In?" Kurt asked.

"Follow me," she said. Hesitantly, we followed her into a nondescript but well-maintained building. She flashed an ID card and a guard held the doors for us. I hopped off Sam's shoulder as we entered.

Ace started to explain as we walked down a long hallway.

"I'm a member of the Pokémon Missions Corp. It's a guild of trainers closely affiliated with the government. In lower ranks, it's more of an odd-jobs set up with a flat pay rate or allowance once a week. When you get promoted, you can go on missions and fight Teams like Rocket or Aqua."

We entered a small room that I decided must be her office and she sat on a couch. The three trainers followed suit.

"Some people who work here are technicians or intelligence but the people who go out of the file are the Task Force. That's us."

"That…that sounds amazing but I can't. I want to fulfill my dream of becoming a Pokémon Master," Sam told her sadly. I nuzzled against him.

"You don't need to stop collecting badges or traveling. This is the HQ but there's dozens of smaller bases around the world that you'd only have to stop by after a big mission or for new gear.

"You'd be given a TaskFinder. It's smaller than a Pokédex and you can get a virtual job bulletin on it. It's synced to your location. Occasionally, you'll get a mandatory job, to make sure you're earning the right to the payroll but otherwise, extra jobs are extra money. And when you rank higher, you'll start going on Missions. It's good experience for battling or police Pokémon."

"Wow!" Sam said, delighted. I wasn't completely sold and neither was Rae.

"Is there anything else? Besides Poké and experience?"

Ace grinned. "You're very clever. That't the same question Jenny asked before we joined. You'll be able to enter crime scenes, assist police investigations and take better jobs that on the general bulletins.

"In addition, there are ranks. For trainers, you start as Trainees, then Rookies, Members, Officers, Knights then Missionaries. For Pokémon it goes from Normal Rank to Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and finally Legendary."

I jumped onto Sam's lap, completely intrigued. Ace grinned and continued.

"There are 1,850 Task Force Pokémon in the world right now—about 50 trainers per region. Of those, only 600 Pokémon are ranked. 400 are Bronze or higher, 150 are Silver or higher, 40 are Gold or higher, 16 are Platinum or higher. But only three have made it to Legendary Rank. It isn't easy, I'm afraid," Ace frowned slightly.

Sam stood up and extended his hand towards the red haired woman. "I'm in."

"So are we," Rae said.

Ace smiled. "Awesome, I'll grab the papers real fast."

Giddy with excitement, Sam walked over to a picture to inspect it. I climbed onto his shoulder, wishing I was taller so it would be easier.

I studied the picture too. There was a boy older than Sam (and much taller). He had black hair tied in a ponytail and a black hoodie. He had red eyes. I had only seen that in Pokémon. It was unnerving to see it in a person. With him was a Gardevoir and an Aggron.

"Who's this?" Sam asked as Ace returned with the papers.

Ace approached the picture as well. "Him?" Ace smiled. "That's Zerato."

"Zerato?"

"Yes, he's a member as well, actually he's a Knight already. A bit of a legend around here. One of the best double battlers I've ever met. I didn't last three minutes."

"Wow. Do you think I'll met him?" Sam asked, finally looking away.

Ace looked amused by this. "Probably not, he's ranked a lot higher than you. And if you do, he'll probably challenge you to a battle. He's an interesting guy though," Ace looked thoughtful. "Well, anyway here's your papers." She handed out a single sheet of paper to Rae, Sam and Kurt. "I'm going to grab you a TaskFinder."

Sam sat down and read the print. Finally he signed his name.

After that, Ace handed Sam the TaskFinder and explained it to him a little bit. I didn't pay attention to that but I wasn't going to use it anyway. Finally, we all went to a different room to take ID pictures. Even I got one.

NAME: Nova

GENDER: Female

SPECIES: Eevee

DOB: August 1

(Then there was a picture next to me followed by a little red star that none of the other Pokémon had.)

RANK: None

TRAINER: Sam Greyson (Trainee)

CURRENT: None

(Ace explained to us that since this card was digital, it would automatically sync to the TaskFinder. Current was the section where law exemptions for missions would be put, for example, assisting Police)

After looking (Sam read it to us) at my card and Gold's (which said Late June for his birthday) I turned my attention to Sam's which was slightly different from ours.

NAME: Sam Greyson

GENDER: Male

DOB: May 15

AGE: 12

(A picture of him. He didn't have the red star by his name either.)

ENTRY DATE: April 4

CAREER: Trainer

RANK: Trainee

CURRENT: None

Ace brought us back to the room and gave us lanyards for me and the other Pokémon to carry our IDs for high-security cases we might take. She told us that each trainer would get an allowance of 3000 Poké a week at Trainee level.

I knew enough about money that that would cover our food expenses and a few potions before we were broke but it was more than we'd get going on jobs on our own.

Then she told us about the free five-day training crash-course offered to Guild members for training Pokémon and going on jobs for the PMC. We signed up for that too.

The fourth day of training was much like the first three. It began by waking up early and some of us would go and spar while others would swim in the pool. The trainers would learn some self-defense or rock-climb and then everyone would eat.

Everyday I chose to spar—after Cerulean City, swimming wasn't something I wanted to re-live. If Gold or Sam had noticed my inclination towards sparring, I didn't doubt they would've have forced to me take the swim lesson. Fortunately, the only one who did notice was Poison, who was equally fearful of water.

That didn't bode well for our team however, what with me and Poison being scared of water, Gold being too heavy to swim properly and Missile being a flying bug. If we were ever stranded in the water, we'd all be relying on the buoyancy of Azurill's tail.

That disturbing thought alone was enough to repel me from the beach, but I digress.

The fourth day was much like the first three. After we ate, the faster Pokémon (among them, a friendly Squirtle, Poison, Gold and I) ran through the town.

Where as before, I had quaked at the idea of battling a Gym and would have much preferred training for weeks to ensure I had over-prepared, I was eager and almost restless to battle. Running past the gym everyday, I quickly came to realize that the charred scent coming from the large building was not fire but electrical burn. The Vermilion City Gym was Electric.

After we ran, we practiced special attacks (of which I only had two). Then we'd work on skills such as balancing on thin platforms of climbing trees. I could only scale the easiest trees. Finally, before the end of the day, we'd go over mission scenarios.

The fifth day was not like the first four days. The director of the boot camp assigned jobs to all the trainers. He put Rae, Sam and Kurt together since they'd be traveling together anyway.

I climbed onto Rae's back as she stooped down to tie her shoe and launched onto Sam's shoulder to inspect the screen of the TaskFinder that had just beeped. I recognized the words 'Sam, Rae and Kurt' at the top of the screen but the rest I didn't understand.

"Task 1: Apple Picking, Objective: Assist in Apple picking," Sam said, touching an arrow symbol in the corner of the page. A compass-like screen replaced the text.

"I guess this is what we follow, then," Sam said.

"Let's go!"

Not a particularly exciting chapter but paramount to the plot for the rest of the story-we do need them bad guys

Zerato belongs to Linch Lord.

Please review!