I don't own anything.

"Fire Blast!"

A mad grin, a blue haze.

Heat and flame.

Green and white.

Darkness.

"He's breathing!" The shout forced me out of the dream and back into reality, my eyes snapping open to see a cleaner standing over me, a sailor in the doorway. My eyes darted around the room quickly, taking in all the details. I was still in a cabin. A boat? Two people in the room, one Pokéball among them. A sailor. Water-type? My hand inched towards the third ball slot on my belt, but I grasped at air, my hand going through the spot where Elding's ball had once been.

Then it all came back to me. I was on the ferry to Virbank City, Elding was gone, and so was the rest of my team. My hand briefly brushed against the shiny new Pokéball on my belt, a young Trapinch stored inside of it. It gave me some measure of comfort.

That comfort was short-lived as the pain slammed into me. None of my wounds had been life-threatening on their own, but they had piled up. It didn't help that I hadn't had them treated yet, and that I'd pushed my body beyond the brink all of yesterday. I needed to get to the Pokémon center.

"Sir?" My eyes snapped over to the sailor in the doorway. I was really out of it if I hadn't even noticed him calling out to me. "We've arrived in Virbank City, sir. You will have to leave the ship." He told me, though I could hear a hint of sympathy in his voice. I couldn't spare the energy to talk, so I just nodded and rolled out of the bed.

I swayed on my feet as I stood, but I doggedly began putting one foot in front of the other. When I brushed past the sailor, though, he grabbed my arm. The grip wasn't that tight, and normally I would have wrenched my arm out before throwing him to the floor, but I couldn't even muster any resistance.

Suddenly, my arm was slung over his shoulder, and he propped me up as he helped me walk off the ship. Loathe as I was to admit it, I was grateful for the help. "Come on kid, let's get you to the Center." The man said, all but dragging me along.

"Not a kid." The words came out slurred, and I hated it. I might have only been eighteen, but if this sailor knew the things I had done, he wouldn't be calling me a kid, he'd be calling the police.

The next couple of minutes passed in a haze. I wasn't sure how long he carried me for, but eventually I was dropped on a stretcher in a large white and blue room. Pokémon Center my tired mind provided.

"Get me an IV!" I heard the shout, and I turned my head slightly to take a look at the person caring for me. It was a Joy, the family resemblance was uncanny, even here in another region. The Joys, just like the Jennies were apparently the product of some kind of genetic quirk, which made all the female members of the families look virtually identical.

There were more than a couple of crackpot conspiracy theories going around that they were actually some kind of manmade Pokémon that was mass-produced to fill vital occupations that had shortages. The fact that nearly all of the Joys worked in the Pokémon centers and nearly all the Jennies joined the police sure as hell didn't help them there.

I tried to shake the idle thoughts off before they ran away from me, I had to focus. I watched as a needle was jammed into my arm and an icy cold spread from there. The feeling of a foreign fluid running through my veins didn't last long, though, as everything began to go black.

I drifted in and out of consciousness for the next couple of hours, vaguely recognizing the pink and cream blob next to my bed as an Audino. I had only ever seen one in person before, when I had joined an attack on a pair of trainers from Unova. For all the healing capabilities of the species, they lacked the aggression and offensive power to become true threats out on the battlefield.

"Ah you're up!"

My eyes snapped over to the entrance to my room in the Pokémon center. It was similar enough to the rooms in Sinnoh's Pokémon centers that I instantly knew where I was. White walls with burnt orange accents scattered around. The only real difference was the hints of blue that I was unused to seeing in the places of healing.

Then my eyes came across the woman in the doorway. Tall, little muscle tone, fit but not a fighter. No Pokéball holster on the belt, bulge in the pocket hints at a Pokémon but not a professional battler. I reigned myself in with a deep breath and forcefully directed my eyes at her face. It was a Nurse Joy, not an enemy combatant.

She looked like most of her family, with long, pinkish-red hair and cerulean eyes. But I had come to learn that while the Joys all look alike, they weren't identical. For one, this one had her hair running down her back instead of wearing it in the elaborate hairstyle I was used to seeing from them. Her face was different as well, and I had learned that most of the differences could be found there. Her cheekbones were high, and her jaw and chin were sharp in a way that I couldn't help but find attractive.

"Are you okay?"

I looked her in the eye as she called out to me again. I had drifted off again. Before another train of thought could start up, I replied, quite eloquently. With a grunt. Mostly because I wasn't sure if I was okay. The pain wasn't as pronounced as it had been, but it wasn't gone. Instead, it had become something of a backdrop. A constant ache that wasn't all that bad if I laid still, but moving pulled at the tight muscles and freshly closed wounds, sending shocks of pain lancing through me.

"Let's check you over then." The nurse walked over to me, smiling all the while. When she stopped at my bedside, she pulled the white comforter off of me before pulling up the front of my hospital gown.

"At least take me out to dinner first." I told her, relishing in the tinkling laugh it drew from the woman as she undid some of the bandages around my stomach. The bottom layer of the bandages was stained red with dried blood, and I tensed my muscles as pieces of the scab came off along with the ruined cloth.

"Maybe some other time." She said, grabbing a disinfectant wet wipe and cleaning the wound. The alcohol stung, but I couldn't deny that the cool cloth and the nurse's soft fingers felt good.

"How does next week sound? Sunday?" I asked her, plastering a winning smile on my face. I'd be in the area for a while anyways, and I had more than a little stress to work off. Maybe it was the smile, or the boldness, or maybe it was just the fact that I wasn't wearing a shirt, but she nodded with a little hint of red on her face.

"Great! I'll pick you up at seven." I said, sticking a hand out, and she laid hers in it. I brought it up to my lips for a brief kiss. "I'm George by the way, George Smith."

"Hannah." She replied, her face growing even more red as she drew her hand back.

We talked as she worked, cleaning and rebandaging my wounds. And, for a moment, I was almost able to forget about Cyrus and his mad plans of godhood.

I was released from the Pokémon center the next day.

My wounds now mostly healed, I was let out with nothing but a warning not to strain myself too much for the next couple of days and white little I'd had on me when I arrived. I said my goodbyes to Hannah and confirmed that I would be picking her up for our date the week after before heading out.

The plan for today was simple. I had already registered with the league for this year's Vertress Conference, so my list was now a little shorter.

'Acquire' some money, buy the essentials to get started on training and maybe, if I had the time, buy some new clothes.

The first step, well, it wasn't all that hard to get at some cash in a crowded city. It dredged up memories of a time best left forgotten, but the muscle memory remained. On the busy street, I saw a man in an expensive-looking suit walk in my direction, loudly talking on the phone as he went.

I'd found my first mark.

Bumping into the man hurt, as it jostled my still-injured shoulder, but I paid it no mind as my hand slipped into his jacket pocket and lifted his wallet out.

"Hey! Look where you're going man!" I barked at him, drawing attention to my face as the wallet disappeared into the sleeve of my hoodie. All I got in return was a middle finger and a glare, but as soon as the man turned away, my own angry expression melted away into a smile.

Checking the wallet, I was pleased to find two crisp hundred Poké bills along with some smaller notes stuffed inside the flap. I quickly added it to my own and dropped his wallet to the ground. As far as he would know, it'd fallen out of his pocket on the way to work and some opportunist had lifted the cash before he found it again. If he ever found it again.

"Excuse me," I stopped one of the more relaxed passersby, an elderly man with a great walrus moustache and a thick gut. "Would you know where the nearest camping store is?"

"Ah, another young trainer, eh? Simply follow the boulevard and then take the third left. Most of the stores you'll need are along that street." The man replied, grinning as he walked off, whistling a jaunty tune all the while. Just for that, I didn't lift the fat wallet that poked out of his back pocket.

Instead, I did it to the greasy-looking man that passed me not five seconds later. Was it fair? No. But when exactly had I claimed to be fair.

On my way to the shopping street, I lifted another two wallets, but I stopped there. If four or five people lost their wallet in a big city like this, no one would bat an eye. If it was twenty people who were suddenly down a bunch of Poké, well, you could bet that the local police would be calling in Psychic aid to find the thief. It was a lesson that I had learned the hard way, and one that I wasn't keen on testing again.

Luckily, I had enough cash on hand now to buy the basics. A backpack, a small tent and sleeping bag, two large boxes of dried chow for Ground-types, a large water bottle and some water purifying tablets, a hunting knife, a pot and some utensils, some fire starters and finally some MRE's in case of an emergency.

It wasn't much, but I had survived with much less the first time I'd tackled the league. It was almost funny, that I had joined team Galactic to escape living like this, only to use those same skills to escape Galactic in turn.

After all of that, I just got myself some clothes. Basics like underwear and socks, but also a new pair of jeans, a T-shirt and a new hoodie. I could get better and more supplies later, but training came first. I needed a legitimate way to make money if I didn't suddenly have the police on my ass. And what better way to do that than to win some battles?

I just needed to whip Trapinch into shape first.

As the cashier rang me up, I began thinking up a training regimen.

Okay, I'm getting back to this after a little break. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to upload for this story, but I want to do at least one or two chapters a week. They will probably be a little longer than this one, but I just wanted to get this out of the way to get back into the swing of things.

Anyways, let me know what you think, and have a good one!