Quartz walked through route three taking a look at the scenery, not rushing like Lapis had done, heck she ran through the route so fast that he didn't even see where she went. He was probably one quarter through the route when someone jumped out of a tree and caught him by surprise.
"AH! Sorry, just wasn't expecting that, who are you anyway and why were you in that tree?" asked Quartz.
"Never mind that I was just waiting to make an entrance, now how about we battle huh? said the guy.
The guy looked the same age as Quartz and Lapis, had spiky hair, but not to outrageous, he also had a backwards cap on his head with a brown overcoat and regular jeans.
"Fine, I guess that must've taken some effort to wait in that tree for someone to come by, so I'll battle you I guess." said Quartz.
So the battle commenced the guy had a Snaklion, the grass type starter, so Quartz figured he just started his journey, this time Quartz used Magikan obviously because Dratinsplash had the disadvantage. With Magikans physic moves the battle was easier than it would've been without them.
"Looks like you win man, thanks for taking me up on my request anyway, I tried to battle some chick a few seconds earlier but she just ran past and man she could run." said the guy.
"Oh yeah, Lapis, she's quite the eager girl, friend of mine." said Quartz.
"You know her? Anyway that's not important, how about we exchange phone numbers dude, it's rare that anyone would see a pokémon like Magikan out here so early in their journey." said the guy.
"Oh yeah, well me and Magikan go way back." said Quartz.
So Quartz started telling the story of how he and Magikan met. It was a cloudy day when Quartz was nine; he was walking down the mountain path, the path that let trainers walk down the mountain to the ground level route one, when he found Magikan lying there, being injured by a ghost pokémon known as Gengar, Quartz tried to help the Magikan, but instead the Gengar focused its power on Quartz and almost changed him for the worst but the Magikan regained his strength and fought off the Gengar furiously despite the type disadvantage. After that Quartz took it back to the pokémon center and healed it back to full health they had been partners ever since.
"Neat, wish I could've had a partner before I started my journey." said the guy.
"Yep, now about exchanging numbers." said Quartz.
"Yep, let's do that now." said the guy.
The guy started to step over but halfway during the short few steps he tripped over a big root sticking out of the ground.
"You alright man?" asked Quartz as he helped the guy up.
"Yeah, I'm just clumsy, by the way before we exchange phone numbers, name's Slate, pleased to meet you!" said Slate.
"My name's Quartz, pleased to meet you too man." said Quartz.
So they exchanged numbers and Slate went forward into the grass saying something about training to challenge Pohatu City's gym leader.
Quartz continued on the route and battled a few more trainers; none had the enthusiasm of Slate though. Still, Magikan and Dratinsplash gained some battle experience and looked like they had learned some things about battling. He reached Pohatu City after a few minutes and took a look at the city before him.
While Kopaka Town was colder and had more snow because of its mountain location, Pohatu City was the mining capital of the region, no, the world. At the south end of the town was the entrance to the Onua Mines, the largest mine in the world, it had every mineral you could ask for, though it was dangerous since you could get lost in the tunnels just because it was so huge. Pohatu city itself looked like Oreburgh City in the Sinnoh Region, it was covered in nice stone, except Pohatu City's Stone was brighter than Oreburgh's stone. Pohatu city was also the first city to install two gyms into its layout, one in the Onua Mines, and one on the surface in Pohatu City, the first gym badge was earned at the Onua Mines' gym, you had to come back to face the other gym. It wasn't too hard to figure out what pokémon each gym used, the one in the mines used ground, and the one on the surface used rock. Either way Quartz had the advantage since he had Dratinsplash. The first thing he did was heal up at the pokémon center and then he made his way to the Onua Mines.