A gentle whisper of waves came in from the windows of the pokemon center. The sun was rising and casting its brilliant light upon the gentle waters near Dewford. The town itself was still asleep, too early for humans and pokemon to be up. The air was quiet and the breeze was cool and mild, white clouds visible in the sky, moving slowly along with the wind.

Riven and his pokemon were awake, filling their stomachs with food. Today they were going to challenge Brawly, the Dewford Town gym leader. Still far too early for the gym to open, the trainer and his pokemon sat on the beach once more, directly in front of the pokemon center. The waves were calm, just as they were last night. The horizon was a wondrous sight, sending calming signals to him and his pokemon.

Riven sat there and stared out at the rising sun. No nightmares tonight. He had slept perfectly fine, something he hadn't been able to do in a long time. No cold sweat or shivers, no hair standing up on the back of his neck. Nothing. It felt strange….not dreaming. He was perfectly fine with not having nightmares, they certainly weren't the best thing in the world. Far from it, actually. He stood up, stretching his body. He had time to himself and there was hardly anyone else on the beach.

Might as well. I need to have a clear mind today, Riven thought as he practiced sword's dance in the sand with his pokemon. Considering that Brawly's gym was a fighting type gym, his companions would need to know how to counter and dodge moves at close range.

White Queen was a dark type, and as such, she would be the most susceptible to their fighting type moves. She was at a disadvantage and had no super effective moves against the fighters. He did have Mischief though. He can cause the most damage, being a psychic type. Fighting moves will do minimal damage to him and he can teleport across the stage while blasting them with psychic. Relying on him alone would be a mistake, though.

Always have a secondary strategy in case the primary one fails. Things almost never went how someone wanted them. He learned that from the numerous amount of times plans went bad and landed him and the rest of his fellow unfortunate bastards in nasty situations.

Practicing for three hours, he went back to the center and bathed. Exiting the center while shaking his wet hair, he looked across to the gym. There was a damn line of trainers that extended out into the beach, waiting to get a shot at Brawly. He had seen nearly all of them on the ship and instantly gave up on the thought of challenging the Knuckle Badge leader. There was no way in hell that he would be able to fight him today. Brawly took on three challenges daily. There was about fifty people lined up to fight him. That meant that it would be about three weeks before he could even have a chance.

Disappointed, he plopped down on a chair in the pokemon center. Nurse Joy looked at him oddly. "Hey, why so down today?"

Riven peered up at her.

"Brawly fights three people a day. There is fifty or more people lined up in front of the gym, and here I am." Fuck.

Nurse Joy made a face and tried to reassure him. "Well, you can train a little more then. It doesn't hurt to be more prepared!" She cheerfully smiled and went back to her work. "Dewford is great for training and improving your focus! There's also plenty to do around here if you feel adventurous."

She does have a point. The travel guide said that there was a cave around here where stone collectors find evolution stones. Perhaps I can find a dawn stone in there? The young man stood up, mind made up. He turned to his pokemon, who were currently in the process of grooming themselves. "We are going to Granite Cave. I want to see if I will be able to secure myself a dawn stone for this one here." The Kirlia's eyes went wide and he twirled a bit, clearly excited. Aine stopped washing fire over her feathers and White Queen stopped licking her paws.

"Onward!" He proclaimed, and marched out of the center with pokemon in tow.

The cave was on the edge of the island, more or less on the rocky side of the place, surrounded by rock and hard ground instead of sandy shore. Riven was surprised to find a small forest around the cave, carefully obscuring the cave from view. It had taken him quite a bit of time to find, before he caught a glimpse of a dark opening and headed in its direction. There were no signs next the entrance or anything. No shoe prints or dirt trails. Completely deserted. That was…odd. The entrance was tiny. Tiny enough to hardly call it a proper cave mouth.

The inside was pitch black and wet, the sound of dripping water reaching his ears. Riven just hoped he wouldn't fall through time again and end up somewhere even more confusing. On the flip side, it would suck if he went back.

Aine shot forth a burst of fire to light a makeshift torch that he had made in preparation for this expedition. The orange glow of the torch revealed the immediate surroundings. Rock everywhere. Well, it was a cave. What the hell was he expecting? A valley of flowers and clouds?

The group walked further in, a little claustrophobic feeling welling up inside all of them. The walls were getting progressively narrower. Continuing further, they felt a slight breeze to the right and squeezed through an extremely tight opening in the walls. All four of them gaped at the sight of what they just discovered. This was not Granite Cave. This was a completely unexplored cave.

Maybe.

Crystals glowed from the inside, a pale blue color emanating from them. Spears of blue hung from the ceiling, looking dangerously ready to fall and impale someone foolish enough to step under them. Even the floor was lined with the shiny mineral, producing a glass like crunch whenever it was stepped on. All four of them were entranced by the magnificence of the cave. They walked along the edges, seeing more tunnels leading further in. The strange part was that these tunnels looked nothing like natural tunnels or even tunnels made by pokemon.

What the hell is this place? Riven questioned, looking at more crystal filled rooms. After an hour of heading further into the cave, Riven and his pokemon exited a single tunnel and slipped, falling downward.

"Oh, fuck!"

Riven rolled down the slope, feeling sharp crystals cutting his exposed skin, leaving cuts and scrapes along his arms and face. He finally stopped and saw White Queen and Aine skid down on their feet. They were fine. Mischief was right next to him, having teleported as soon as he slipped.

The trainer picked himself up with a groan, looking like a complete mess. His black pants were stained, his vest was dirty, his hair disheveled, and his arms cut up and bleeding. Ignoring the several cuts on his arms, he looked up. He had fallen in quite a large distance down. The spot where he slipped was hardly visible. At least the crystals provided light. He could see fine in the dark but the light made it easier regardless.

"Now where are we?" His pokemon all shook their heads, seemingly as lost as he was. There was one huge tunnel, with blue light coming from the end. "Should we?" Riven asked, his paranoia was screaming at him to just pick up his shit and go. Right. As if he could magically appear all the way up there again. It was go forward and find an exit or die, or try to climb back up and still die. The first seemed a bit more appealing.

He approached the light filled entrance and slowly reached out, trying to see if anything would attack him when he got closer. His pokemon were right behind him, tiptoeing cautiously.

Riven had a sinking feeling the rest of them were using him as a shield in case things got nasty. It was difficult to think that they'd leave him to the elements and dip, but he was pretty sure they weren't above it. Riven was always preaching survival over honor anyway, it was time to see if he would take his own advice.

All four of them stepped through the light, appearing inside the biggest crystal room in the cave thus far. It was pretty large, twice the size of a pokemon center itself. The most astounding part however, was a small pool with a single spear-like pole coming out of it. On the tip of the spear sat a perfectly spherical blue orb. It had markings and lines running along it, glowing white in contrast to the enrapturing sheen of azure. He wanted to touch it.

But decided against it. It was placed much too perfectly. Whoever made that, it was obviously man made, nature did not conveniently place a pole in the middle of a room holding a seemingly important object. Trap. Trap. Trap. It was until he sat in front of it for a good ten minutes that he figured to hell with it.

Probably dead anyway, might as well. He picked up the sphere, removing it from its place with a clink. The sphere glowed brightly and Riven was out cold.

Haona saw him drop and nudged him with her head. Bib put his head near his trainer's heart, listening for a beat. He heard a steady pumping and gave Haona and Aine a relieved nod. "He's fine. Just unconscious. Must be that orb he picked up." The three pokemon stared at the blue and white orb, which was still glowing rather brightly. Bib prodded it with a finger, surprised to see it fail to react to him.

"You think it's showing him something?" The Combusken speculated, seeing her trainer's left eye move from right to left under his eyelid.

Haona continued staring down at the human, still a bit worried. "Whatever it is, someone put it here. But who? Seriously, there's no pokemon or people down here. It's possible we're the first ones to come in here in a long time." The cave felt different from the moment they set foot inside. It felt…..ancient and untouched. The sphere in the middle felt even more so.

All three pokemon stared at the orb in Riven's hand.

Images flashed through Riven's mind as he lay unconscious. A man and a woman could be seen walking into the cave, speaking in an unintelligible language. They walked through the cave, before coming to the large room he was currently in. They spoke to each other, faces filled with determination. They were armed and had long flowing robes with similar markings to those on the sphere. Setting the jewel in its place, the pair walked in front of it, speaking to it in a strange tongue. The orb glowed white and locked itself in place.

Both held each other in an embrace for a brief moment, and it looked like the woman was crying.

The two headed past the pole and exited through a crystal staircase behind a large crystal formation. Stepping outside, they left through a carved door, depicting strange pictures of something that looked like men fighting each other. He saw an image of them placing another one of the orbs in the spherical groove outside the door, locking it in place. They turned back and the image faded.

Riven awoke to two pairs of red eyes and one orange. Aine lifted him up. Dusting himself off, he muttered to himself. "That was weird. You would think that these things would show you some pretty amazing things. But no." It only showed him how to get out. And some strange people. They could be anyone. He had never seen or heard of them back in his time, he assumed they came after his …time. It sucked, not knowing whether these things were older or younger than you.

Compared to everything else, I am a walking artifact. He thought to himself, amused by the irony of the situation. In fact, it would kind of sting if he was technically older than most of this crap. Pocketing the small blue orb, he searched around for an exit. He went around the room, climbing onto crystals and falling, repeatedly.

Haona, Bib, and Aine just stared. They snickered every time he fell. Bib and Haona were making bets as to how many times he would fall. Aine just ignored them and continued snickering at her trainer's failures. The human fell again.

"How many times do you think he's going to fall on his ass?" Haona asked Bib, who had a hand over his mouth, having just witnessed their trainer fall four feet straight down onto his bottom.

"I don't know but I hope it goes on for some time!" The mischievous little psychic giggled.

Riven turned around, sick of hearing the snickers of his pokemon. "QUIET, YOU EVIL CREATURES. STOP LAUGHING AT MY MISFORTUNES! I AM YOUR TRAINER." The trainer yelled, frustrated with his futile attempts at finding an exit. He had forgotten where the exit was, he was too distracted with what the people in the vision were wearing. Glowing clothes were pretty cool, honestly.

His pokemon heard his outburst and finally hollered in laughter. Annoyed, Riven climbed onto the tallest crystal and looked over to the other side. There was an exit! Jumping down from the crystal he frowned and waited a moment for his pokemon to calm down. Once their childish laughter subsided, he finally announced, " I found an exit. Right behind there." He pointed one finger at the large crystal formation, a triumphant look on his face.

Walking up to the formation, he tried pulling away a bit of rock from the cave wall, the space was much too tight to squeeze through at the moment. Although it was a bit useless, considering it was solid damn rock. "Damn, my blades would get ruined if I tried to slash through this thing." He got an idea. "Aine, kick the hell out of it."

She cried loudly and absolutely pummeled the mineral. It was causing quite the stir. Riven, Haona, and Bib had to cover their ears. When she was done, the crystal was now in pieces. About to say something, the ex soldier held his tongue, hearing a discomforting rumble. He swore that it sounded like a cave collapse.

"The hell was that?"

The rumbling got louder. Was it- No, no doubt about it, it was a cave collapse. Dust began to fall from the ceiling. The entire cave shook and suddenly, the crystal protrusions on the ceiling looked a little more delighted to give them a big, spiky hug. They fell like spears, nearly impaling Mischief who just managed to teleport away. Riven shouted, "RUN. GO, GO, GO!"

The four ran into the tunnel and upwards at full sprint, coming to something cold and very solid. Catching his breath, Riven ordered Aine to breathe out a puff of flame, orange light illuminating the door he saw in the vision. It looked exactly the same, having no signs of weathering or rusting.

"Whoa. The markings look exactly the same as the ones on the orb. Whoever made this designed it to be quite sturdy." He tapped the metal, left eye surveying the strange markings on the door. He was not telling Steven about this. He would probably lose it and come down here straight away. Riven wanted his own concerns resolved first. He could care less about that blue haired Devon CEO. What was a CEO anyway?

He fished around inside his bag for the little blue thing, and inserted it inside the slot. The door shined and seemed to fade, leaving only the orb floating behind. Riven was now sure that this was sorcery. Modern technology was fascinating but this seemed supernatural. The door faded. Doors just do not do that.

Taking the orb back, the door suddenly reappeared, startling all four of them. They turned around, only to feel like they were being watched. Then they heard little squeaks. Then lots of them. Not good.

The cave was much darker this time. Even Riven's eyes had difficulty seeing what was making that noise. Whatever it was, it was less than pleased. Slowly and softly whispering to his Combusken, he held up another torch. " Aine, light the torch, then shoot some embers straight ahead." She lit the torch. The light showed nothing. The group failed to notice a small group of winged pokemon behind them, clearly aggravated. The fire type blasted forth more flames, which flared outwards, revealing scores and scores of purple bat creatures.

More hordes of pokemon. Great. All three of his pokemon and him stood in place, sweating nervously. Zubats. The bane of cave explorers everywhere. They also sucked blood. He had ignored a warning that a snotty kid had given him back in Petalburg.

Hey, you're gonna go cave exploring some time right? Well! If you do that then you better pack some repels. Zubat and Golbat are CRAZY when it comes to people disturbing them. You can't even walk three steps without getting attacked! Oh and they suck blood, so you better get some good quality repels or you're screwed. See ya around old man! Little son of a bitch. He called Riven an old man the entire time he was homeless in the park. The worst part was trying to sleep with his damned teasing. The kid was annoying. He had shrugged off his warning, thinking that it was not as bad as the kid made it out to be. Seeing the walls lined with the bat pokemon kind of made him wish he should have just swallowed his ego and bought some repels.

Hindsight really was perfect.

The light from the torch awoke the Zubat and they uncoiled themselves from each other, screeching loudly. Suddenly every single bat in that narrow pass was staring directly at them, even without eyes. Silence remained for a few seconds before the Zubat horde let out an ear piercing cry all at once.

Riven sighed. "Really?"

A backpacker was resting outside of Granite Cave when he heard screaming. A black haired young man with a white splotch on the right side ran out flailing his arms about like a mad man. An Absol, a Combusken, and a Kirlia also shot forth, flailing about just as ridiculously as their trainer. Hordes of Zubat were swarming the poor group. The nocturnal creatures eventually realized that they were getting hit by the sun and quickly went back inside the cave. The young man was finally left alone, twitching and waving his arms up in the air, muttering something under his breath. He continued sputtering for sometime, which amused the backpacker.

"Why does this always…son of….I hate bats….no repel….." The younger trainer murmured, patting himself down and shivering. Then he turned back toward the cave. "FUCK YOU AND YOUR SHIT, ZUBAT!" He picked up a rock and spitefully flung it into the cave mouth. Something inside hissed back and the rock came flying back out a few feet from the entrance. The trainer fell back onto the floor, staring up at the sky and trying to breathe.

The backpacker was speechless, he couldn't speak from how hard he was laughing. Composing himself, he spoke to the younger trainer, who looked like a Krookodile had death rolled him. He was cut up, bruised, and dirty. With bite marks freaking everywhere. His pokemon were no better, looking dusty and half-chewed out as well.

"Heh heh, that was funny to watch."

The boy's head lifted slightly, staring at him. "What?"

"Nothing. It was just funny seeing you come out of that cave and scream like a little girl." He started to chuckle again. "How did you manage to get the biggest horde of Zubats I've ever seen to attack you like that?"

"I woke them up from their beauty sleep, i guess. I seem to attract hordes of pokemon everywhere. First Scyther, then Ariados, and now Zubat. Would anyone like to go next?!" The boy complained, lifting his arms into the air before letting them plop back down on the floor. "Fuck me dead."

"A Scyther and an Ariados swarm attacked you?" The backpacker was stunned. How wasn't this kid dead yet? Those were deadly pokemon, even for experienced trainers. Hordes of Zubats couldn't compare to the lethality of a small Scyther swarm.

"Oh, yeah. The Scyther attacked on my first day as a pokemon trainer, on route 101. The Ariados attacked in Petalburg Woods when I got lost and tried to find an exit while ignoring a warning sign." He concluded quickly, playing off the fact that he had been hospitalized for a week following the Scyther attack and nearly died. The second one was his fault though.

"Wait, the sign in the woods that explicitly warns trainers not to go to that side of the forest?"

The black-haired trainer flushed a little. "I may be slightly stupid."

"That's uh... wow. You must be made of some pretty strong stuff then, to make up for being an idiot, considering you're not dead yet. That means we're gonna have us a battle!" The backpacker took out a pokeball, and threw it up in the air, revealing a Graveler.

"GRAV!"

Riven sighed, telling Aine to take this battle. "Beat him into the ground, please. I will just-" The backpacker sputtered as the trainer immediately fell asleep on the ground, finding the rocky ground as comfortable as a bed after his Zubat ordeal.

His Combusken utterly smashed the backpacker's team, happily beating his rock types into the ground with double kicks and low sweeps. She was a jittery one and was full of energy. He sighed. Well, this was a largely fighting type dominated area. His rock types were at a huge disadvantage. His attempts with Brawly went over about as well as trying to put out a forest fire with a spoon of water. That Hariyama was tough as heck.

Staring at the sleeping trainer, he asked his pokemon, "Can any of you wake him up?" He didn't want to accidentally wake him up and get punched. That happened to him before, when he tried to wake up a buddy he was traveling with to Mt Coronet. Black eyes weren't very good for his face. Or his devilishly good looks. Mostly.

The trainer's Absol replied with a curt, "Sol." She trotted over to Riven and stomped a paw onto his stomach. The boy shot up, gasping for air. White Queen turned around and gave the backpacker a blank reply before walking back alongside Bib. Their trainer looked pretty pissed. He was leering at them, until his Absol stuck a tongue out at him.

"YOU! GAH! DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO WAKE ME UP VIOLENTLY?" He shouted at his dark type, who was looking at her claws. She certainly had an attitude. Professors often told starting trainers not to catch dark types unless they were ready or experienced enough to handle their behavior. Many dark types found it humorous to hurt their trainers or act obnoxious. Dark type trainers had to be very patient but it was well rewarded, dark types were powerful in their own right. The boy stood up and ruffled his Absol's fur, "Stupid woman." She headbutted him in the stomach, sending him lurching over.

The backpacker smiled. He couldn't get interaction like that from his pokemon. They were rocks. They just….stood there. If they ever tried, they would probably break his wrist. The other guy recovered from the headbutt and cleared his throat.

"Wait. What happened to the battle?" He asked, a little lost and drowsy. His Combusken jumped into the air, making kicking motions. Then his Kirlia pointed at the backpacker and made a fist and an open palm. He closed the palm around the fist with a simple, "Kirl, kirlia." It roughly translated to, combusken just curb stomped his team. The black haired trainer mouthed an 'oh' and turned back to the backpacker.

"I fell asleep during the match, that was fairly rude of me." The backpacker shrugged and brushed it off.

"No problem. I'm sure you must be tired after cave exploring anyway. I've been in plenty of caves myself, it gets me worn out pretty quick. 'Specially if you have a crazy horde of Zubats after you." He laughed whole heartedly. "Well, want to have some lunch? You look pretty beat up."

Riven was a bit cautious, naturally, it was not a good idea to trust strangers. Although, this guy seemed friendly enough. He was hungry. No, not hungry, more like starving. "Sounds good."

Both men and their pokemon sat around some rocks, eating some vegetable and berry soup. It was delicious. Actually, any meal was mostly delicious if you hadn't eaten in a while and got chased by angry pokemon out of a dark cave at high speed. The backpacker was named Benjamin Thern. Apparently he was originally from the Sinnoh region.

"Benjamin, why did you stay in Hoenn?" Riven asked, curious as to why he would leave his homeland behind.

"Ben is fine. I didn't stay in Hoenn on purpose. I came here to visit a girl I was dating a while ago and purchased a one way ticket on accident. I didn't have enough money to go back so I stayed in Hoenn. That was roughly three months ago, I think. She broke it off two months in, apparently she was into girls but never told me," the backpacker explained. "I had ideas and she didn't like sharing. Could have been a wonderful experience. Shame."

Riven eyed him dubiously. "What have you been doing this whole time then? Do you not have enough money to go back?"

"Ah, I thought since I was in this predicament, I should go explore more of Hoenn. Unfortunately, I keep getting stuck with ferry mix ups. I was supposed to head to Slateport from route 104 but ended up here in Dewford instead. I don't mind too much though, this place is tranquility incarnate."

"Not going to challenge Brawly, then?"

"Well, I did. And I got smashed. Rock vs fighting is a bad matchup for my pokes, unfortunately. I'm a casual pokemon trainer. I'm more focused on the travel part than the battle part. I like seeing new places, you know? Battling is just a side thing."

"I see."

"Enough about me though, what about you? What's your name?" Ben asked, wondering what this trainer's story was.

Riven mentally paused. He had to think of something. If he said what he did with Steven, Ben would think he was a lunatic, just like everyone else he told his story to. "My name is Gray. I grew up in uh, Littleroot. I became a trainer about two or so months ago."

Ben was surprised. "You have an Absol and a Kirlia in less than two months? Either Daddy's rich or you're something else."

"No daddy here. Or mommy. They died when I was young."

"Oh, sorry. That was uncalled for." Ben looked a bit down now. He didn't want the trainer to relive any memories if there were any. Lots of people lost their parents, they were never the same. Some of them went insane, others just became depressed and shut down. Being from Sinnoh… he could only imagine.

Riven held a hand up, dismissing the comment. " No sense fretting over something that already happened…it just makes a person bitter and hateful. That hate can….consume you."

"Ah, well, I'm still curious as to how you got an Absol and a Kirlia so quickly. I can assume that Combusken is your starter? Not too many Torchics running around the wild."

"Correct. I saved both of them from a Mightyena attack." Before Ben could ask, Riven pulled out one of his blades and unsheathed it. He looked at the backpacker with a stern face. "I did what I had to. I did not want to see them die, not to a sadistic pack like that. I grew up with Mightyena. I know when they display sadistic tendencies. They play with their food."

Ben averted his gaze from the blade, a very rare sight in today's time. He had heard of the Kanto smiths doing fancier stuff than a simple machete but he never imagined he would see a genuine custom blade, much less one that had already drawn blood. Looking at the trainer across from him, he looked odd. Like he didn't belong. It was similar to when you tried talking to an old timer about their time. It was the same feeling, but one hundred times worse. The kid couldn't be any more than eighteen, from his estimates. And the stiff speech was odd. "Well, I don't blame you. If pokemon wanted to kill me, I'd sure try my best to kill 'em back. 'Specially with what happened in Sinnoh recently." He shivered slightly. Ben smiled, lightly reaching over and patting Riven on the shoulder. The trainer tensed, but otherwise didn't react.

Riven hardly cared much for what happened in another region, let alone this one, so he neglected to ask. He was apathetic about most things in general, really. He just wanted to find out what in the hell happened to him and go travel or something. He still felt pretty lost, truth be told. He had no idea what to do or what he wanted to become. Becoming the champion seemed like something everyone wanted to do but it never particularly struck his interest. What did champions do?

"Berry stew, huh?" Riven remarked instead, tasting sweet pecha in the broth and other roots, vegetables, and dry noodles. He had a bit of a sweet tooth, and pecha berries were a weakness of his. Bland food was common when trying to survive in the wild, as well as the army he was a part of, so sweets were a rare treat. Shit, anything with a flavor was a rarity.

"Yup. It's a traveler's go to wilderness food. Take a pot, heat up some water, put some berries in, crack open a box of pasta and presto! You got a meal," Ben said, stuffing a spoonful of the stuff into his mouth. Killing pokemon was a crime in Hoenn, unless the pokemon was known for killing people. As long as it wasn't on the main routes, hunting was fine. Trainers often lived off the land, with the unspoken understanding that in order to feed large teams, some pokemon had to be killed for sustenance. The younger kids were always the more squeamish ones.

He had heard stories about Hoenn's lethality when it came to the wilderness though. It had many pokemon capable of killing people, and had comparatively more wilderness than city compared to other regions. That's why most people steered clear from the wilds there. He figured this Gray guy just grew up in some really obscure place.

"Meat tastes better," Riven stated, not giving two hells about stupid modern laws. He got chewed up for it by Amy, before her stomach betrayed her and tempted her over to the dark side. "Surviving on berries is a horrible existence after a while. Meat keeps you alive for longer."

"You hunt on the main routes? Don't pokemon rangers come after you?" Not only was this guy armed and dangerous, but he had blatant disregard for laws too. Granted, this wasn't Sinnoh. The new laws back there were pretty strict, almost on par with Unova's. Hoenn was a lot more laid back, considering they were all one with nature and stuff.

"If they did, I'd knock them out and be on my way. Not too difficult." A single dark brown eye stared back into Ben's. "And someone has to report you first. Split a kill with a hungry trainer and they will rethink that. Done it already with a girl near Petalburg. Long as no one sees, they hardly care about a few dead Taillow. Or Linoone. That was messy the first time."

Okay, maybe inviting him to lunch was a bad idea. Trying not to make things awkward, Ben asked a generic, but straight forward question. "What are you going to do, Gray? Like plan wise, I mean. Traditional circuit?"

The other trainer made a fist and rested his chin on it. "Hmmm. Sort of. I have been wondering that myself. For one… challenge Brawly and get my second badge. Then head to Mauville, visit a friend and then head to Forina." He motioned to his Kirlia, who was lazily sitting on a stump and floating food to his mouth, again. "I heard there are dawn stones there. And I do want a Gallade. They look strong."

Ben was once again, stunned. "Forina? The dawn caves right?"

"I guess?" He really had no idea. Steven told him so he just figured he would find out when he got there. People kept telling him to get a flying pokemon because climbing was too hard. Tsk, what a bunch of girls. As if a little cliffs will deter me. He expected Ben to ask if he had a flying type with him.

"Do you have a flying type?"

There it is. Riven shook his head.

"Are you fucking insane?"

Mhmm. "That depends on the day," Riven grinned. He was starting to enjoy this. He finished the last of his soup. "Thanks for the meal, Ben."

Ben was a little more than just unnerved at this point. He had a potentially insane guy with blades in front of him that seemed delighted in making people squirm. Dangerous? Certainly. He stuck his hands into his pack and pulled out some money, in fear that Gray would skewer him with that sword. "I umm….forgot to pay you for beating me."

Riven shrugged, "I did fall asleep during the battle, so technically it was not my battle. Right?" He grinned. Skirting loopholes in laws was always fun. Besides, the man's ragged appearance showed the horrible signs of poverty and in general homelessness. Or maybe it was just being a again, he didn't look much different at the moment. Riven looked like he fell in a dust pit, rolled around in it, and slept on a bed of glass.

Ben's lips pulled into a half smile. "You're a crafty one, aren't you?"

Riven scratched his head. "Oh yes, very sneaky. I surprise myself sometimes."

Ben nodded slowly, snorting. "Sure. I can tell you're going to go somewhere, Gray. Maybe not the pokemon League, but somewhere. Well, aren't you going to challenge Brawly? What're you waiting for, man?"

"The other fifty trainers ahead of me to finish," Riven deadpanned. "It will be about three damn weeks before I can even get a shot at the badge if Brawly only lets three people or so challenge him a day. So here I am, cave exploring. You saw how that went." Scyther be damned, he hated Zubats more than anything now. Partly because they were the most annoying things in existence. They were nasty, ugly, sucked your blood, and constantly harassed the party. At least Scyther just wanted you dead. He could live with that. Less creepy too.

Ben laughed, still picturing Gray's face as he tried getting the Zubat off him, swinging his arms around like a flailing Magikarp.

"You're picturing me in one of my biggest lowlight moments of my life. You suck." The backpacker broke out into hysterical laughter, confirming Riven's guess. Even Riven's pokemon weren't amused.

Haona was a proud Absol. She couldn't possibly stand being ridiculed by another human. She went over and bit Ben in the shin before regally, and dramatically, turning away with her head held high. He unleashed a barrage of curses and rubbed his leg, surprised by her attitude.

"Jeez, you deal with that on a daily basis?"

Riven nodded, "Pretty much. She acts like a real human girl. The bratty kind. But she is really soft underneath all that. I named her White Queen because she reminds me of those stuck up Queens that just love to push people around. And she has white fur. Not the most creative of names, but hey, it was partly out of spite."

Ben only shook his head, grinning at the sight of such an unorthodox team. An insane and potentially dangerous trainer, a lazy Kirlia, an energetic Combusken, and a regal Absol that bullied the insane one. It made no sense. But he'd seen even more dysfunctional teams before. The champion of his region started off with a team that half wanted to kill each other at first. He only had a Graveler and a Shieldon. Rock pokemon weren't high maintenance at all, and seemed to lack the more obnoxious personalities.

He and Gray exchanged numbers. Even though Ben thought Gray was a little crazy, he seemed like a pretty chill guy after spending a large part of the day talking with him. They bid each other farewell and headed back to town.

Riven walked through the doors of the pokemon center, feeling a bit tired. Not hungry at least, but rather exhausted. Ben had been a pleasant fellow. He was not an asshole and reminded him of Amy, another trainer he had encountered that was not a complete cunt. Irritating perhaps, but tolerable and amiable for the most part.

He froze as he noticed Joy's face. She stomped out of the reception desk and stopped in front of him. She shook him, hard. Riven could intimidate most people, but not Nurse Joy. She was scarier than most men when she was angry, and she certainly scared him.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU, YOUNG MAN? YOU LOOK TERRIBLE! TELL ME THIS INSTANT!" She demanded, drawing attention from the other trainers in the center. She was shaking the boy violently at this point. His head bobbed back and forth, shaking some dust loose from his hair.

"I uh...er…fell?" He replied weakly. Joy looked appalled at the pathetic attempt of an excuse. While not technically a lie, it wasn't the whole truth either.

"YOU FELL? YOU LOOK LIKE YOU GOT TRAMPLED BY A HERD OF TAUROS!" She exclaimed, checking his torn up arms and face. "You need to go wash up as soon as I take care of these cuts and scrapes. What in god's name were you doing?"

"I went cave exploring and I kind of…fell." Her glare demanded truth. "Really far down?" The glare was still there. "About fifty feet?" He continued before Joy could shake him again."Then I got attacked by the biggest horde of Zubats I have ever seen." He swore that most of the trainers in the center were snickering at that comment. Everyone knew about Zubats and caves, except this idiot.

"He didn't have any repels," whispered a kid to his friend who was snickering alongside him. Riven shot them a menacing glare that promised bloody murder. The kids took off to their room, still laughing at him.

"Oh, my. Granite Cave can get dangerous, it isn't the first time that it had a cave collapse. Some people have died in there. Be careful!" She scolded him in the medical room, while subsequently dumping alcohol on his arms. He howled like a wounded Mightyena.

Slightly irritated at the fact that he was just man handled by Nurse Joy, he set his clothes to go wash in the wash room and went to shower.

One day down, twenty more to go.

After three weeks of training and preparation, Riven was finally able to get a shot at Brawly. He was a bit nervous at first, hearing disconcerting stories from disappointed trainers about how brutal Brawly's pokemon were. So, generally, he had a right to be wary. After all, only ten of the fifty trainers that had come to challenge him had succeeded.

The gym had been laughably easy. He just used Mischief, who was easily able to sweep most of Brawly's team with psychic and confusion. The only problem had been that damn Medicham. He used White Queen for that since Aine would have a weakness to its psychic and Mischief knew no non-psychic moves. She was able to get a good mega horn in after locking the Medicham's feet in ice.

The surfer handed him the Knuckle Badge and told him something unintelligible about a giant wave something or other. He was unable to decipher Brawly's supposed 'bro' talk. While it sounded something remotely similar to English, he couldn't quite make out most sayings, deciding to stand there, stupidly nod his head and smile when it seemed appropriate.

Proud of his newly earned badge, he supposed he should head to the docks to buy a ticket for Slateport City. With luck, the trainer would be able to get on today and arrive in Slateport a week later.

Unfortunately, as all things went when it came to his dear good fortune, it turned out that the ferry for the seaside city was not scheduled to arrive until two bloody weeks from now. Which meant he had to stay on Dewford for another two weeks. Paying rent every day for fourteen more days was a definite no. It was going to be two weeks of homeless wilderness sleeping from here on out. Not that horrible. The weather was nice and on an island there were a limited amount of things that could come and tear a piece out of him. He preferred the sounds of the waves and the night, they were soothing and all.

He spent the next two weeks residing in Brawly's gym, watching him battle trainers that were rematching him in hopes of winning a knuckle badge. Some of them put up great fights and lost by a hair, while others had crippling type advantages that Brawly's pokemon simply pulverized. An interesting match was against Sinnohan trainer named Seab with a Lucario. It fought well and managed to beat the gym leader's Hariyama for the win. It kept oddly staring at Riven though, sneaking judging glances at him like he was some sort of demonic creature. Is it something on my face? What is that thing's problem with me?

White Queen growled back, prompting the Lucario to turn away. Now that he noticed the Lucario's behavior, he remembered that the Medicham also looked at him that way, eyes full of hostility. What was up with that?

Brawly would often talk to him after the gym battles, surprisingly wise. Despite his near code like bro speech, he gave genuinely sound advice. He also told Riven to shorten his words more so he didn't sound like a high born snob. Brawly's way of telling Riven to loosen up involved many mentions of waves and "feeling the flow".

Apparently, he was more wound up than a Whismur at night. It took him a week to get used to it but he had started to use contractions quite often as a result. They made it easier to communicate and made him seem more normal, something Brawly also suggested him to do, since he had a face that could scare children.

Riven had to admit that Brawly also wasn't such a bad person either. In fact, he was much like Ben. They were understanding and pleasant to be around. Just like with Roxanne, he gave a farewell to the fighting type gym leader and a promise of a rematch. Before he left for the ferry, he made sure to pay one last visit to old man Samuel. The old man hugged him and told him to hurry up and become champion before he died, that way he could feel proud about something before he went. Riven felt strange, being hugged like that. But he didn't mind, Samuel deserved it, after everything he had been through.

Stepping onto the ferry, it would be a week before he arrived in the port city. The sky was clear, no storm clouds in sight. It would be a smooth enough voyage. Leaning on a rail, he wasn't depressed like he had been coming to Dewford. He felt joy and excitement, wondering what the city had in store for him. Mischief was next to him, thriving off the positive feelings from his trainer.

Riven felt someone bump into him and turned to the source of the distraction. His joyous mood came crashing down, realizing who he had just encountered. It was that Elu kid from the Petalburg Woods.

"HEY! IT'S THE ASSHOLE WHO CUT MY POKEBALL IN TWO!"

"Oh, look it's the snotty nosed brat who tried to cheat me out of my money."

"REMATCH, DICK!"

"We can't battle here, idiot. You're going to get swept with an all bug team, you know."

"SO WHAT? WHEN WE GET TO SLATEPORT, WE BATTLE!"

"If it's quick enough, then we could get it over right now and you can stop bothering me. Also, can you stop yelling?"

"NO! POKEBALLS NOW!"

Riven sighed, then laughed as Haona swept his team. Again.