As Delaney headed down the road out of Striaton, she had to stop herself from skipping again. She was still glowing from her win the previous evening, the sun was shining brightly, the road to Nacrene was winding, there were birds chirping somewhere - what more could she ask for? She was pretty much straight out of some children's cartoon or something.

She was just past Striaton when she noted a daycare on her right, but shuddered at the thought of small children as she grabbed her ringing Crosstransceiver. Children made her nervous - it was part of the only child thing. It was her goal to get past the daycare unnoticed, because with her luck, somebody would've had the insight to give them pokemon and they would want to battle. She ignored the tots out playing on the playground completely as she answered the call with a smile, assuming it was her father checking in after their talk (and her freakout) yesterday. Instead, a much younger male with wiry blonde hair and electric blue eyes filled her screen, and Delaney squealed. "Dax!"

"Delaney Christa Caldwell," he said with a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry I haven't called before now."

"No, no, it's okay!" Delaney said quickly. "I kind of thought you didn't want to talk to me."

"I didn't." And there was the unapologetically blunt Dax Briley that she knew. "But I just missed you too damn much, and also, I didn't think you would answer anyways and I could just leave a nice message. But anyways, that in the background does not look like a house in Nuvema Town… Not like I've been there, but it does not look like a house period. Where the hell are you, Delaney Christa Caldwell? Out for a run?"

"Shhh," she said, looking around to make sure nobody had heard Dax. "Delaney Christa Caldwell is not supposed to be in Unova. It's Christa White that you're speaking to. I'm, um… travelling. I just left Striaton City, if you know where that is."

"No clue," he admitted. "But wow! I'm excited you finally listened to me! I knew you would eventually! Any new friends yet? Or cute boys?"

"Not a single one of either," Delaney chuckled, deciding to let Dax continue to think his insisting had been the cause of her new journey. "But I did just get my first gym badge. Arceus, it's been so long since I've said that."

"Think of it as your ninth," Dax suggested. "That will probably make you feel like less of a newbie."

"No," she said quickly. "This journey is new." She paused and then burst out into another grin. She was so excited to finally be talking to Dax, despite what had transpired the last time they had talked. "How's the Frontier? And what happened to the guy from last time?"

"Oh, we happened to meet again at the Battle Factory," Dax said with a sigh. "It was there that I also met his girlfriend."

"Bummer," Delaney said as she turned the corner past the daycare… Only to see three people on the path up ahead, and the straight black hair on one of them was a dead giveaway on who she was about to be dealing with. She groaned in dismay. "Ugh, can I call you back this evening when I get to Nacrene?"

"Not a problem," he said with a grin. "It was nice getting to talk to you at all. I do miss you."

"I miss you too," she said with a chuckle. "Call you later." She hung up just as she reached the group. Cheren was looking serious as usual, while Bianca had her arm around a much younger girl who was in hysterical tears, much like Bianca had been the last time Delaney had seen her.

"Oh Christa, thank goodness it's you!" Bianca cried, despite the fact that she had been all but cursing Delaney's name last time they had battled. "We need your help!" And with that, she turned to the younger girl. "It's okay, Christa can help us. She's a really strong trainer - maybe even stronger than Cheren!"

From the looks of it, Cheren resented that remark, though Delaney was hoping he wasn't about to freak out and yell at her, since she wasn't the one who said it. "What do you need help with?" Delaney asked carefully, making sure not to agree to this without knowing what she was heading into.

"A couple of guys in weird costumes just came by and stole this little girl's lillipup," Cheren said pragmatically. Delaney felt her breath catch in her throat. No. Not again. She was not doing this again. She crossed her arms in front of her and narrowed her eyes at Cheren. "They ran into that cave over there. If we hurry, we should be able to catch them."

"No," Delaney said. Cheren and Bianca turned their heads quickly to look at her in utter confusion. "Cheren, you're a strong trainer. You can take them."

"Christa, please," Bianca said, pleading with her eyes. Judging by the look on Bianca's face, Delaney might as well have just hit her, or stolen the lillipup herself. The blonde girl looked absolutely wounded at the thought of Christa not helping.

"No," Delaney repeated firmly. "This is not my problem." And with that, she turned her back to them and continued to follow the path she hoped would lead to Nacrene, the winding path that had been so appealing earlier.

"What kind of person are you?" Cheren yelled after her furiously. "How can you be so selfish?" The young girl with them began to wail.

"Team Plasma's going to get away!" she sobbed.

"Don't worry, I'll go get your lillipup," he told her.

"Cheren, are you going to be okay?" Bianca asked worriedly.

"They're a bunch of losers in costume," Cheren scoffed. "Really, how tough can they be?"

Delaney began to run.

This wasn't about how Delaney felt about Cheren and Bianca. It wasn't about how much she did or didn't like them. It wasn't even that she just didn't want to. Team Plasma was not her problem, and she was not about to make them her problem, because this is how it starts.

It starts with something simple, something easy. "Help, this goon just stole [insert item or pokemon here]. Please help me get it back!" It's not too hard, the goon is easily disposed of, and they're really grateful, and it feels nice to be someone's hero and retrieve what is rightfully theirs.

It only goes downhill from there.

"Well that wasn't a long journey." She had plopped down in the grass at the side of the road, panting and clutching her side from the brief run. It almost made her cringe to think of how out of shape she was from the months of doing absolutely nothing.

"I'm still on the road," Delaney said briskly. "Or I was a minute ago, now I'm just… sitting. Something just happened. I'm pretty sure I'm an asshole."

"Calm your pretty little head and tell Dax what happened," he said. "I still love you even when you're an asshole."

Dax's topaz-colored eyes were frowning at her. "Not to be all judgmental here, but… I'm about to be all judgmental. Don't you think that was kind of a dick move?"

"I don't care." Delaney did her best to look like she really didn't care, but she still felt bad. Going to Dax for some sort of validation of her feelings really hadn't been the best move, even if he was the one person who could sort of understand the situation. His sense of morality was too rigid to see circumstance. "I am not getting involved in this."

"But they needed your help."

"Cheren and Bianca are strong enough trainers to handle the likes of them. Do you really think they're that strong if they're picking off children's pokemon just outside the city with the first gym?"

"Well you have a point, but it would've been the go-"

"Well I'm not a good person and I don't do the right thing," Delaney interrupted. "And it's over now, so let's talk about something more fun. Tell me about the cute boys there!" Not like she had ever really been the romantic sort, but if there was one thing to get Dax to pull a 180, it was talking about his various hook-ups and boyfriend hopefuls, because unlike her, he was a total sap for that stuff.

"Arceus, it's been awhile and I don't even know where to begin. Do you remember Kevin? Or…" Delaney smiled as he began his rant and smiled where appropriate. Dax was alight, and it was almost like the good old times. Almost.

It had been bright and sunny when Delaney had walked through the arch leading out of Striaton City. As she reached a sign that welcomed her to Nacrene City, the lights were on in the artsy lofts that made up the town, and the people that walked the streets wore jackets, as the temperature had fallen after the sun went down. It was still a lovely night though, and the streets were alive. Despite the events of the day, Delaney found herself smiling as she walked through the doors of Pokemon Center.

She handed her pokemon to the nurse on duty and asked for a room key, if there were any available, before taking a seat in the waiting area. She was disheartened to see the headline announcing the one-year anniversary since Team Galactic's takeover in Sinnoh. Apparently Unova cared about this blatant ratings grab as well. Despite her curiosity, Delaney didn't pick up the paper, didn't flip through to see what they had to say about Delaney Caldwell. Christa White figured it was unnecessary torture.

This time, when the nurse called the name Christa, Delaney's head snapped up instantly, and she went to collect her pokemon and room key. It bothered her slightly to think of how accustomed she was getting to being called Christa White, but it also meant that there was a very slim chance that anybody would take a guess at who she really was, and that was a good thing (or at the very least, it would please her father). She was more than happy to take Perry, Charlie and Dibs, the drilbur she had caught in Wellspring Cave once she was certain that Team Plasma, Cheren and Bianca had all vacated the area, as well as take the key for her room (she was getting rather lucky with not being forced to camp - not that she was complaining). The night was still young- perhaps there was something Delaney could do to redeem what had been an overall not very good day. All of those people on the street had to have something to do, right?

After placing the three pokeballs and the room key in her trainer's bag, Delaney walked out of the Pokemon Center, glancing around. The lofts and cobbled streets gave Nacrene an artsy feel to it. She smiled to herself as she paced away from the Pokemon Center. Musicians played outside of doorframes and fluorescent bulbs lit up galleries filled with pictures of people and pokemon. "It's you again," she heard someone say behind her, but she ignored it. She had met so few people that it wasn't really possible that the speaker could be talking to her. She continued to walk, and passed the gym, which was still brightly lit up. Maybe the leader would still be ready to battle… Maybe that was where she should be heading.

"Christa, right?" The voice was back. Delaney spun around, only to see the guy with long mint green hair that she had battled in Accumula - her first Unova battle. His name was… N, if she was remembering correctly, though she was sure she wasn't, because after all, who only had a single letter for a name?

"Right," she said with a small smile. She hadn't realized she had made a big enough impression on anybody to have them remember her. "And you're N. We battled in Accumula." Or at least she hoped he was N. If he wasn't, this was about to become very embarrassing.

"I remember you," he stated. Delaney couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not. "Your pokemon spoke to me. I'd like to hear their voices again, if that's okay with you."

Delaney wasn't sure if this was some sort of act, or if this guy really believed that he could somehow really understand her pokemon that well. She often got the drift of what Perry and Charlie were trying to communicate to her, but she wasn't even remotely under the impression that she could understand them, or that they "spoke to her" without ever speaking. Somehow, she found herself playing along with him, saying "sure, but this time it won't be such an easy battle" (and then inwardly cringing at how stupid the words that she had actually spoken aloud were - since when had she become such a cliché?).

N was frowning as he grabbed a pokeball and released a small blue and black tadpole. "Trainers are so quick to battle," he said softly with an air of disapproval on his breath. Delaney also frowned as she took out her pokedex to check out the unknown pokemon. She didn't understand how he could be so critical of trainers battling when he himself had pokemon and battled. Capturing pokemon only to make friends with them (as he had claimed during their first battle) was one thing, but it had been N who had challenged her to battle the first time. That made him no better than she was.

"It didn't take you too long to agree to the battle," Delaney pointed out as she checked back at her pokedex, which informed her that her opponent's pokemon was called tympole, and it was a water-type pokemon known as "the tadpole pokemon" (she never would've guessed). Thinking for but a second, she called out Charlie, who was wagging his stubby tail as he was released, a determined glint in his small eyes. Since battling Cilan in Striaton, Charlie had battled with a new sense of focus, one that Delaney was pretty grateful for. There was no doubt in either her brain or Charlie's that this tympole would soon be done for.

As Charlie slid back, unable to battle any longer, he was still wagging that tail at her. Delaney smiled at him, told him he had done a wonderful job and recalled him back so that he could rest. The timburr that had knocked Charlie flat was eagerly preparing to continue battle, but his trainer had a look of wide-eyed concern written all over his face. "Is he going to be okay?"

Delaney looked up at him. "Charlie? He'll be fine. A little resting and he'll be brand new," she said with a smile.

"How can you claim to care about your pokemon when you just let them get hurt over and over?" N asked, his tone becoming angry.

"Charlie's just tired, and maybe a little bruised up. He needs to rest and heal up and then he'll be fine," Delaney stated indignantly. "I care very much about my pokemon. How about you, N? You just commanded your timburr to attack my lillipup. Don't you love all pokemon? Why do you battle then?"

"Release one of your other pokemon." It was a statement, not a question.

"Excuse me?"

"One of your non-injured pokemon. Release one of them, so I can speak with them." N was adamant.

There was no sense in fighting further. Delaney grabbed both pokeballs of her other pokemon and released both Perry and Dibs. "Here. Converse all you want, N," Delaney stated with a roll of her eyes.

N bent down to wear Perry and Dibs stood, both clearly confused. "Can I ask you some questions about your trainer?" N said softly. Delaney was surprised by the change in his tone of voice. No longer was there frustration or indignance- just a bit of a childish giggle and a smile as he continued to speak in a low voice. The two small pokemon were animated as they made noise and waved their small arms.

And the more they spoke, the quicker N's smile faded.

"I don't understand," he said, more to himself than anyone.

"N, by battling, we become friends with pokemon. We help them unlock their potential and they help us unlock our own," Delaney explained.

"Do you really believe that your oshawott is happier with you than it would have been with its family?" N asked, his voice becoming angry again.

"I don't know that. I do know that he lived in a pokemon lab before I got him and he was spending his time in a pokeball on a shelf and yes, I believe he's happier with me than he was on that shelf." Delaney paused, taking a deep breath. "I'm not the best trainer, N. I'm sometimes impatient and sometimes, yes, I push my pokemon too hard. But I know they're my friends first and foremost. Some trainers don't think like that. You probably encountered some of them and that's why you are how you are, and I'm sorry. Those trainers didn't deserve to have pokemon."

With that, N grabbed a pokeball and recalled his timburr, who had been looking at him quizzically since N had ceased to battle and began talking instead. "I'm sorry, my friends," he muttered.

"N, what are you doing?" Delaney asked.

"I don't want to battle anymore," was all he said, and with that, he walked off, leaving Delaney, Perry and Dibs to stare after him in utter confusion.

"What?" was all Delaney could say. In all of her time training, she had never once had her opponent just walk off in the middle of the match.

"Still talking to yourself?" came another voice from behind her. Delaney spun around, only to see the trainer with the lillipup whom she had battled before reaching Striaton City (Cream was her name, if Delaney remembered correctly) leaning against the post of a nearby building. "You've gotten a lot better. I'd challenge you myself if I didn't see the way that guy's timburr totally smashed down on your lillipup. He's a weirdo."

"Were you watching the whole thing?" Delaney asked, a bit unnerved. The idea that somebody had been watching her without her knowledge scared her. And why didn't N say something? From where he was standing, Cream had been directly in his sightline.

"What can I say, a random street battle was the closest thing to entertainment here," she said with a smirk, shrugging her thin shoulders "Even better when I saw it was you battling. I was hoping I'd see you lose, but unfortunately I didn't get that pleasure. I can't believe that kid just walked off in the middle of your battle."

"It was… definitely weird," Delaney muttered. "Are you here to battle the gym? Maybe we can battle tomorrow as practice."

Cream laughed. "Gym? Please. I've never seen the point in battling them. You train, and you stress and you agonize over what? A shiny hunk of metal? I find much more worthy things to fill my time."

"And what would that be?" Delaney asked, genuinely curious. She had taken the green-haired girl's words to heart - she remembered all too well wondering why she was doing the gym challenge in Sinnoh, when none of the badges ever seemed to matter to her.

The smirk on her face vanished. "I… I don't know," she admitted. And then the scowl returned. "But the badge thing? A waste of time. Do you know how few trainers actually complete all eight and get to the Pokemon League?" Yes, Delaney did know. Out of all the trainers she had battled, only herself, Dax and a small handful of others actually made it all the way. "You have to have a special kind of talent for that, and you're not going to get there by winning just because your opponent walks off."

"Well good thing I can win with my opponent still present at the end," Delaney said with a grin. "You proved to me a few days ago that I could do that."

Cream rolled her eyes. "That was a fluke," she said. Cream appeared to think for a moment, and then moved from the pole that she had been leaning on. "I've got to get to Castelia by the end of the night," she said finally. "I hope that gym leader really lays into you."

And with that, the green-haired girl was gone.

Delaney looked down at Perry and Dibs, who were still standing there, rather puzzled. "Well, it seems like every time we go out for some fun, we get interrupted," she said with a chuckle. "Let's just go back to the Pokemon Center. This has been a rather eventful evening." The two trailed behind Delaney as she began to head back.

Eventful evening indeed.

There they stood, all in a line. Their voices were low, and their attention so focused that they hadn't even heard Delaney walking up towards them. They were plotting something, but she didn't know what, nor did she want to know. Delaney figured the forest adjacent to Nacrene would be the best place to train for her upcoming battle at the gym, but with Team Plasma there, there was no chance in hell that Delaney was going to get the training she needed there. Besides, with their blockade, there was no way for her to get past them.

She headed back in the direction of Nacrene, only to notice a small patch of grass that she hadn't noticed on her way into the forest. She also noticed that the patch of grass wasn't lined on the side opposite of her by trees, but by open space. Perhaps she had a place she could train after all…

Delaney had one hand on the pokeball that contained Perry as she wandered through the grass. To her surprise, it was not open space on the other side- it was more grass and a large boulder, with trainers surrounding the area. A few blackbelts were sparring with their pokemon while another trainer sat on a smaller rock, watching them. His appearance was atypical of most trainers-other than being more attractive than anyone else she had yet encountered in Unova. He just looked a bit too well-groomed to be very serious about traveling. His bright green polo shirt was without holes, his jean shorts weren't frayed or holy either and his white sneakers had but a few grass marks on them and a bit of mud on the soles. His curious grey eyes that followed the pokemon as they kicked and punched traveled to Delaney as she approached the area.

"Looking for a battle?" he asked, eyebrows raised. "I will, but I'm not going to lie to you, I'm really not feeling it right now, so I will probably frown the whole time."

"I'm not going to force you," Delaney chuckled, trying to force herself not to turn beet red like she often did when talking to guys. "Are you a new trainer?"

"What gave me away?"

"Your shoes are too nice." She lifted her leg up on the rock to show him her own shoe as a comparison. It was amazing they still formed to her feet at this rate.

His eyes widened. "Well it's a good thing I'm not battling you if you have that much experience." He frowned at his sneakers and attempted to rub off a grass stain. "My manners are shit, sorry. I'm Andrew."

"Christa," Delaney said, fiddling with a lock of her hair. "What are you doing over here if you're not battling?"

"Just watching," he said. "You can learn a lot from these guys."

"About fighting?"

"Among other things," he said with a chuckle. "Look at how in sync they are with their pokemon. It's just awesome." He stared at an older man kicking in time with the blue humanoid pokemon about a foot and a half shorter than himself, also wearing a karate gi and a blackbelt. "Sorry, I'm kind of nerding out. It's exciting to see people who make training an art form. Not really something I'm good at, so I just admire it in others instead."

"No, it's okay!" Delaney said quickly, her eyes following the trainer and his pokemon. "I should probably get to training if I'm going to challenge the gym tomorrow."

"Oh, a gym trainer?" Andrew grinned. "Well now you have to win tomorrow so I can eventually say I have a friend who won a badge from… Shit, I don't even know what this gym leader's name is. I just got here this morning."

"I don't know either," Delaney admitted. "Some trainer I am."

"Some trainer indeed…" Andrew said thoughtfully. "Well hopefully I'll run into you later, but if not, good luck on your journey. I'm sure at the very least I'll be hearing about you someday."

Delaney once again grasped Perry's pokéball, ready to leave Andrew and get back to training. "You owe me a battle, you know. Our eyes did meet, and you know what that means."

"That I'm very fortunate you didn't use that bullshit to make me battle in the first place?"

"Right!" Delaney laughed.

"So there, now I have an excuse to see you again," he said with a mischievous grin. "Now go train hard for whoever this gym leader is."

Reluctantly, Delaney said goodbye and waved, heading back into the tall grass. She released Perry at last and the small otter looked at her expectantly. Delaney was smiling brightly. "That was the first person I've actually gotten along with in Unova," Delaney informed the oshawott, pointing in the general direction that she had come from. "I know you can't see, but he's over there. His name is Andrew, and he was totally cute, and I think he was flirting with me but I'm really bad at this sort of thing, so I'm not sure."

"Wott?" Perry was puzzled. This was a side of Delaney he was not quite familiar with. Delaney wasn't very familiar with it either.

"Sorry, I'm being a girl. Let's leave the talk of cute boys for after we get our next gym badge!" A grey and white bird (Delaney recognized it as a pidove) landed right in from of Perry, who looked up at her eagerly, ready for sparring. "Let's go!"

Author's Note (06/24/14): Just want to give a huge thank you to you all for the great constructive reviews I've been getting. It's actually really helpful to me to continue to improve as a writer, and that's why we're all here, right? So it's been really awesome and I'm very appreciative of all my readers and reviewers.

Also a thank you to Maddiepink5, who submitted Cream as an OC way back when for the original TCatG, for continuing to me to allow to use Cream, and a huge thank you to my beta, Noteleks.