[Pokémon] Adventure in Crest (Rated T)

It's a lovely morning in the region of Crest. Above the land, the sky is blue, thin white clouds silently roll by, and the ocean's breeze is as soothing as ever. A teenaged boy sat on the sandy beach. His eyes are closed as he enjoys the music of the calm sea, and the breeze, of course. He rest his back on a sleeping Girafarig's back, which is right behind him. The small beach, aside from the sea, is also covered by thick trees, and from the looks of it, it seems that the teenaged boy and the Girafarig are the only foreign creatures in the area, and it seems that they plan to stay there for a few more hours. The POKéMON living in the area appeared to have gotten used to this morning set-up.

The peaceful scene and the quiet melody were ruined after loud rustling noises were echoing out from the forest. The sound is familiar to the POKéMON's ears, yet they flew out of sight. Later, two humans came out from the forest, and were now standing side by side on the sand. One of them was a male. He has black hair, black-coloured eyes, and he's wearing a blue shirt, blue jeans and black shoes. The female one has black long hair, reaching her shoulders, black-coloured eyes, and she's wearing a white shirt, a black jacket, dark-blue jeans and black one-inched heel shoes. Both are in their teenage years, and both were staring at the guy and the Girafarig.

"Hey. Are you Joseph?" asked the dark-voiced male.

Joseph, the one who was sitting on the sand, was startled by the sudden voice. No one has ever come there to look for him, except for his two brothers. He looked to his right and saw the two humans, who were now walking towards him. They stopped a few feet away from him. As Joseph stood up, the Girafarig slowly woke up.

Joseph has brown-coloured eyes, and dark-brown hair, almost completely covered by his grey-coloured bonet. He's wearing a grey t-shirt and dark-blue pants, and white flipflops.

"Ye-yes, I'm Joseph." he said, with a bit of a broken tone on his voice as he rubbed his neck. Clearly, his throat is dry. The Girafarig stood beside him and faced the two newcomers neutrally. Its tail is still asleep, though.

"We spent twenty minutes around Starlight Town looking for you." the female said, with a calm yet cold-hearted-style tone on her voice. "The professor's in Comet Town, so you better hurry up."

"The profe---wait...! But I cancelled my application!" Joseph replied in surprise.

"Look..." the female said, interrupting Joseph's attempt to continue to whine, "A lot of us were waiting for YOU to show up. If you won't show up, we and the others won't be getting our starter POKéMON". She then closed her eyes as she crossed her arms. "It's rare for the professor to hand starter POKéMONs and PokéDexes around here. We're the lucky few to be chosen, yet you're going to ruin our chances of ever starting our own journeys. Not just the three of us, but to the others as well". She finally opened her eyes, seeing Joseph's irritated expression. "I hope you can live with that." she continued.

The Girafarig, looking all worried, looked at him. He felt a bit guilty, but also incredibly pissed at her for making him feel guilty.

"Fine, I'll go." He replied angrily, giving a smile on the male's face, while the female only replied with a cold-hearted stare, which pissed him even more. He opened his mouth, ready to say something, but decided not to as he faced the GIrafarig beside him. "Sorry Rose. Time to go..."

"You already have a Girafarig..." the male teen said. "Why did you sign up for a starter POKéMON?"

For Joseph's ears, that was a stupid question. "Oh, I'm sorry..." he said sarcastically as he and Rose walk pass them. "...I wonder why I CANCELLED my application a month ago...?" The two teens said nothing as they followed him towards the forest.

They were all quiet as they walk through the forest. It took them only a few minutes to get out of the forest, and they are now in Starlight Town.

Starlight Town is a quiet and peaceful little farming town. The landscape is flat, the houses are built from wood, and the town's full of farms. Along the way, they come across a number of townspeople who seem to know Joseph, and all of them asked the same question, "Why are you heading home early?" Joseph could only reply them with an awkward laugh, and scratching his head.

They entered Route 1 after climbing down a small ledge that separates the route from the town. They're now heading east to Comet Town. In the north, a large mountain stood, and in the south, a forest of thick trees, probably the continuation of the forest from the beach. In the middle of the route stood a three-meter high grass that almost covered the entire route.

"So I suppose we won't be using these eeky repels now, huh?" Joseph overheard the male whispering as they're about to go through the grasses. He may not look like it, but he has a very good sense of hearing, but wondered, why didn't he heard them when they arrived at the beach. 'Oh well,' he thought.

Rose knocked a couple of aggressive Rattatas and Poochyenas along the way, while flying types simply flew away when they come close. Other wild POKéMON either ran away or just ignored them. Why is he protecting these two, especially that annoying girl, he wondered.

After a few minutes, Joseph and Rose came out from the tall grasses, and the first thing Joseph saw was the lone house standing on the foot of the mountain. It's meters away from where he is, but he can hear sounds of plates and forks rubbing against each other. He thought that whoever was inside must be either eating or lazily washing the dishes.

"How long do you plan on standing there?" the female asked, but he ignored her and went back to walking. And after a few more minutes of walking, they finally reached Comet Town.

Comet Town is another one of those boring towns with nothing, except, this town has a gym where trainers challenge the town's gym leader. So, this town is a bit busy with trainers coming. Business here is okay. The town square is where visiting trainers battle one another for two reasons: to practice their battle skills before challenging the gym leader, and because the POKéMON Center stood right in front of the square, and that's where Joseph and the other two teenagers are heading; to the POKéMON Center, where a group of teens are waiting for something. One of them noticed them approaching, and he quickly informed the others, who were all dead-bored, who suddenly got up and somehow got their energy back to full.

Joseph didn't mind the group, instead, he noticed a lone boy sitting under the shade of a tree beside the POKéMON Center. He is wearing an orange cap on his black hair, a blue t-shirt and black shorts and black flipflops. As he and Rose went towards the lone boy, the POKéMON Center's glass door slides open, and a white-coated female with long golden-brown hair came out, carrying a black handbag and a white folder, and went to the group of excited teens.

"Hey bro." Joseph said as he reached him.

The boy lift his head and saw him and his Girafarig.

"Oh, hey there big bro..." his brother replied, voice too low from sadness. Rose sat beside him, and he pets her head.

"Is...something the matter, Kelv?"

Although his brother's name is Kevin, he got used to call him Kelvin.

"Physically, yes... Emotionally, not really..." he replied as his sight went from him to the professor, who was telling something to the teenagers.

Joseph caught the direction of his sight, and immediately knew what was bothering his brother: his application was denied. The three of them looked at the professor, who sent out eleven POKéMON in front of the group. They were a Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Pikachu, Eevee, Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, Treecko, Torchic and Mudkip. The nine teenagers looked incredibly excited, except for that darn black-haired girl.

"I really wanted that Chikorita..." Kevin slowly said, staring at the cute yet nervous little grass type. "I'm sure no one will choose the poor guy..." he continued as they saw the Charmander was sent back to its POKéBall.

And it seemed that his brother was right. The professor already called eight names, and all that's left was Chikorita, Squirtle and Eevee. Joseph heard his name being called by the professor.

"Here!" he shouted with a smile. He quickly faced his brother and Rose. "Rose, stay here." and he ran towards the professor. Rose wanted to come with him, but Joseph told her to stay.

"You're quite taller than I imagined. How old are you?"

"Seventeen. Turning eighteen next month!"

"Oh, then advance happy birthday. Consider this as my birthday gift to you then. Please choose your starter."

Joseph kneeled down to have a good look at the three remaining POKéMON. The Eevee was happily sitting as it is wagging its tail. Both the Squirtle and the Chikorita were shaking nervously. He really wanted a Cyndaquil, or an Eevee, and oh, look, an Eevee, looking all cute and happy! What luck! He thought that cancelling his application was a bad idea. Damn, that Eevee is so cute! Joseph's eyes were totally glued at this little guy. The only thing left was for him to start drooling. Finally, he stood up, took a deep breath, exhaled, then he faced the professor with a smile.

"I want the Chikorita, please~"

The others were shocked to hear his choice, while the black-haired teen male sighed in relief. Kevin, Rose and Chikorita were surprised to hear his choice.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure! I really wanted an Eevee..." he explained as his sight slowly went to his brother, still couldn't believe his decision. "...or a Cyndaquil, but there's something about this cute Chikorita that made me want to have him..." and his sight went back to the professor. "...or her."

The professor just smiled and returned Chikorita to its POKéBall.

"Take good care of her."

"Oh, so this little guy's a she? Sure, I will."

The professor handed him Chikorita's POKéball, and he quickly ran towards his brother while the professor was about to take something out from her handbag. He sent out Chikorita after he reached him and Rose, and introduced her to them.

Later that morning, the professor already took off with her Pidgeot, and the teenagers were either battling in the square, or already heading home to the other neighboring towns. Kevin and Chikorita were playing earlier, but now, the cute little leaf is asleep on Kevin's lap. He and Joseph were still sitting under the same tree.

"Hey, big bro..."

"Hm...?"

"I thought you wanted an Eevee."

"Who told you that I didn't?" he replied, smiling.

"Well... You had your chance earlier... But, why'd you pick Chikorita?"

"Whoever said anything that that little cutie is mine?" he replied, still smiling.

"Wh-what!?" Kevin was surprised. He couldn't believe it. "Y-you're...abandoning her!?"

Joseph was shocked to hear his conclusion. He quickly gave his brother a soft and slow punch on his cheek.

"That Chikorita's yours, dum-dum!" he said with a weird expression on his face.

Kevin coulnd't believe it. His older brother gave him his dream starter POKéMON. He was about to thank him when a female teenager came in front of them, and her sight was locked on Joseph.

"Would you PLEASE stop giving me that mean look o'yours!"

She said nothing as she took out from her a pocket a red poketbook-like thing.

"This is a PokéDex..." she informs him as she hands it to him, which he angrily took. "I'll assume that you already know what it does. Anyway, the professor was suppose to give it to you, but you left right after you got your Chikorita."

"Gee, thanks, but let me correct you on one point. This Chikorita belongs to my brother."

She crossed her arms and was about to say something when a black-haired teen male just arrived.

"Sis, we should go. I need to train my Eevee for the gym battle tomorrow."

"Oh, so you two are a brother and sister, huh?" Joseph asked as the female faced her brother.

"You're right. My Squirtle needs some training as well." she said, and soon, she faced Joseph again. "My name's Erika, and this is my brother, Eric."

"Erika and Eric, huh?" Joseph said as he stood up. "Well, not-sure-what-to-feel to know you two. Anyway, this is my brother, Jude Kevin."

"Hi." Kevin greeted them. Eric replied with a smile, and both walked away without saying anything.

"Wow. They're REALLY friendly, huh?" Joseph said as he sat down again. He puts his hand on his sleeping Girafarig's back, and his other hand, still holding the PokéDex, he extends it to his brother. "You wanted to beat the League, right?"

"But I can't... That's your PokéDex..."

"And that is why I am giving it to you" he said. Kevin took the PokéDex. "Besides, I'm not really into battling. I'm more onto travelling, but, if I do travel, where will I sleep during the night? Heck, we can't afford a tent, or even a rolling bed!"

Kevin grabbed his brother's hand and puts the PokéDex back on his hand.

"And that's why you need this PokéDex, so you can sleep inside a POKéCenter."

"But, don't you want to?"

"Yeah, I do, but, I think I'll wait for Jorex to turn ten."

Joseph took the PokéDex with a weird expression.

"But, that's a year and a half from now..."

"I know, and I can wait." he replied with a smile.

---oOo---

Inside a lone house in Route 1, located at the base of a mountain, Joseph and Kevin, along with their mom and their youngest brother, Jorex, are enjoying their mother's all-time favorite Pecha Pie Delight for their lunch. On the corner of the room, a Chikorita and a Girafarig are eating with their fare share of the pie as well.

"I'm thinking of visiting grandma and grandpa in AceWood Town." Joseph said as he took his glass of Oran Juice.

"That's a good idea." his mother replied after swallowing her last spoonful of pie.

She gets full real fast, and gets hungry real slow, one of the greatest mysteries in Joseph's life, which he's convinced that he'll never solve in his lifetime. Jorex is eating with his bare hands, already having purple syrup around his mouth. Kevin is using a fork while Joseph, like his mom, is using a spoon.

"I wonder how's their daycare." Joseph asked to no one in particular before eating another spoonful of pie.

He remembered the time when he was still four. His grandparents payed them a visit, and gave him a Pokémon Egg. Kevin was still one year old at that time, and Jorex was still with the wind. He could now only remember bits and pieces of his long wait for the egg to hatch, but when it did, he stared at it so close, that when a pink little nose came through the cracked shell, it touched his forehead.

Joseph looked at Rose, a Girafarig, who is lying on the wooden floor, happily watching the busy-eating Chikorita.

After they ate, their mom is busy washing the dishes. Kevin is cleaning their dining table, and his Chikorita is helping him out. Jorex is playing an old POKéMON Adventure game on their television through their seven-year old game console. Jorex and Kevin wanted a new one, but they couldn't afford the latest one. It's also extremely rare for the new games and new consoles to arrive in the region of Crest.

Crest is composed of two main islands. It's a small and remote region, located east from the Kanto region. It's almost invisible in the world map.

Joseph is busy packing his things in a medium-sized black backpack. Rose is standing beside him, simply looking at the things he's packing.

'I heard that trainers get prize money when they defeat gym leaders,' he thought as he folds his blue raincoat. 'Maybe I'll be able to get some room training Rose while travelling. And then, we could go and face gym leaders. Then, I could save up enough money to buy them a new game console...'

He looked at his youngest brother, sitting on the floor, with a pillow on his lap where he rest his two hands while holding the controller. He was then joined by Kevin, who sat beside him as he took the player two controller. His Chikorita lied down on his lap, facing the television screen as Jorex chooses the Two Player option. Joseph loves his family so much that he swore to himself that he'll do what it takes just to see their smiles.

'Why don't we try and challenge the gym in Comet Town?' a young feminine voice echoed in his mind.

Joseph turned to Rose, who was staring at him. They have been together in her whole life, that somehow, she was able to connect her mind with his, enabling them to talk to each other through minds. Though convenient, Joseph also finds it annoying, for he no longer has the privacy of thinking. His family already knew their connection.

'It's very close from here, plus, she uses normal-types.'

"Rose," he said as he went back to folding his clothes. "even if you could easily lift them away from you, their a gym leader's Pokémon. They're bound to be stronger that those in the wild..." he explains as he zips his backpack close.

'We won't know unless we try, right?'

"True, but I think we should do some training while going to AceWood Town. That way, we could heighten our chances of winning..."

"So, you're going to collect badges, big bro?" Kevin asked without turning his head to face him. He's playing as a Pikachu, and is in trouble against Jorex's Phanphy.

"Combine your Growl and Tail Whips..." Joseph suggested.

"I know, I know... But he's rollout-ing me like crazy."

Jorex couldn't help but give an evil laugh.

"Switch out?"

"We're on a no-switch-out rule..." Kevin replied, barely dodging the rollout.

"Then you're doomed." he laughed. "Just faint to shorten your struggle..."

"That's not how a trainer does his battles."

"Yeah, true, but that's just a..." Pikachu was finally hit by the rollout attack, and is now lying flat on the ground. "...game..." and before Pikachu could stand up, it was hit by another rollout attack, draining its health points down to zero.

"Well, that sucked..." Kevin said as his trainer returned Pikachu. "By the way, you didn't answer my question yet." he said as he's browsing on his five available first-form Pokémon. "You're gonna challenge gym leaders and collect badges?" he asked as his trainer sent out an Oddish.

"Only-first-form rule?" Joseph asked, chuckling a bit as Phanphy started to use rollout, and is fastly approaching the tiny Oddish.

"Yep." Kevin replied as the Oddish throws sharp razor leaves at the approaching Phanphy.

"Anyway, collecting badges is like..." he thought of a nice excuse to hide his true intentions as to why he wanted to challenge the gym leaders, "...a small vacation from travelling..." he lied.

"Oh. Then, you better work fast..."

"Why's that?" Joseph asked, completely puzzled.

"The Pokémon League is looking for strong and skillful trainers to become the brand new Elite Four members."

"Really? That's new. But what happened to the previous Elite Four?"

"You don't know? They disappeared three months ago after they finally destroyed Team Rocket."

He thought about it for a while.
Is that why he hasn't heard anything about the Elite Four?
Did they really just disappear out of thin air?
That sounds really impossible. But...

"But that doesn't mean that the Pokémon League stopped their search." Kevin said as Jorex's trainer sent out a Torchic.

Torchic. That reminded Joseph about Jorex's love for a Torchic. Jorex saw one of the League battles overseas a few months ago, where a Blaziken defeated a trainer's Charizard. Since then, he is dying to have a Torchic.

Joseph smiled. Now he has another reason to travel.

"Well..." Joseph took a deep breath. "...I don't think I want to be an Elite Four."

"Why's that?" Kevin asked after Oddish jumped away from an Ember.

"Well, it's boring to sit around waiting for trainers to challenge me..."

Kevin just chuckled while their mom approached Joseph. She handed him a five hundred dollar cash, which shocked him.

"Goodness...! What's this for!?"

"It's your pocketmoney, silly. You're not planning on travelling empty-handed, right?" she smiled.

"But, I'll...we'll be staying in a PokéCenter. Their services are free, right?"

"Of course, but you also need to eat and buy other items you need."

She's right, he thought. He was about to thank her when a Chikorita was sent out.

"Starter-versus-starter rule?"

"Yep." Kevin laughed evilly, although facing against a Torchic would spell trouble.

"Anyway, thanks mom. But I'll return it when I get back!" he hugged his mother.

And he then went to his brothers and gave them a last-in-a-long-time annoy hug to bother their game, and soon after, he left their small house, and he and Rose went straight to a cave, which was meters away from their home. Rose is walking beside him, and soon, they reached the cave of Mount Starlight, but something was troubling Joseph, and after he figured out what it was, he ran straight back home.

"Back so soon?" his mother asked.

"I forgot my backpack..." he replied, breathing deeply. Rose caught up to him, annoyed.

'This cave hasn't changed a bit...'

"And how in the world would a cave change itself?" Joseph asked, laughing a bit.

They have been walking through the dark cave of Mount Starlight for almost two hours now. They were able to see where they're going with Joseph's flashlight. Along the way, they managed to remove large boulders blocking their way, and they have encountered some aggressive wild POKéMON which Rose easily defeated, both made possible by Rose's psychic ability. They have also met a few wild POKéMON who ran away when they saw them, while some ignored their presence.

Soon, they saw the exit up ahead, the only light from all the darkness, aside from Joseph's flashlight. They stopped after noticing another light meters away to their left. Joseph focused his flashlight there to see what it was. The light came from a torch, being carried around by a teen girl wearing a white hat and a probably-blue-fitting shirt and a skirt. She noticed them and quickly ran towards them.

"Finally, a human!" she laughed as she reached them. She soon carelessly threw away the torch she was holding behind her as she fixed her long brown hair.

"Um..." Joseph stared at the torch, still burning and lying on the cave floor. "...aren't you gonna put that fire off...?" he asked, worried.

"Nah. It'll be out soon..." she replied as she turned to her left. "Oh! The exit!" she cheerfully said. She then faced him, "M'name's Krystal."

"Joseph. And this is Rose, my trusted partner and friend." Rose bowed.

They began walking towards the exit while Joseph was still focused on the torch.

"Wow, a Girafarig. So you're a trainer? How many badges do you have now?" she asked, very eager to hear his answer, and seemingly not minding him not looking at her, but at the torch.

"Actually..." he slowly replied, and sighed in relief after seeing the torch's fire was finally out. "...I don't have any...yet..."

"Oh, I see." she sounded a bit disappointed, but she later smiled. "Not to brag, but I now have three, and I am on my way to Spring Field for my fourth badge!" she said in excitement as they walked out of the cave, and now, they found themselves inside a forest; a quiet and gloomy forest.

"Aw..." she frowned as she stopped a few meters in front of Joseph, who turned his flashlight off. She was staring at the tall grasses up ahead. "I hate the tall grasses."

Though it was gloomy, it still provided enough light for them to see, and since her back was on him, Joseph was able to have a good look at her shapely body, and her shiny, but full of bandaide legs. Rose looked at him with a grin, though he probably didn't notice her.

Krystal quickly turned to him, and at that moment, she quickly caught the direction of his eye, and her mood quickly swung. Joseph looked at her eye-to-eye, failing to notice her changing mood.

"You're travelling to collect all eight badges, while wearing a skirt?" he asked with a tone of innocence.

"I wear what I want to wear!" she angrily replied and quickly turned her back on him and walked through the tall grasses grumpily. Joseph just followed her.

As a boy, he couldn't resist to look at girls. It's probably human nature, but at least he can control himself, unlike other boys he met in his life.

'Say something...'

'What? Why...?' Joseph thought. Both he and Rose were having a conversatoin through their minds.

'She's clearly angry at you.'

'Look, I'm no pervert, if that's what she's thinking.'

'It's pretty obvious that she thought about it.'

'It wouldn't help if I tell her. She probably wouldn't believe me, anyway...'

'Just tell her, or you'll lose her...'

'Well, bu---wait!' that made Joseph look at Rose, who was walking beside him. 'I'm not looking for a girlfriend, if that's where you're going!'

'You will eventually look for a mate...'

'And that's a few years from now.'

'Just apologize...'

'Fine, fine...'

Joseph sighed, defeated.
They reached a small clearing. Krystal sighed in relief as she kneeled down and took her shoulder bag on the forest floor in front of her. She then searched for something inside her bag.

"Krystal..." he said, breaking the silence. Krystal simply ignored him, receiving no reply from her.

Silence... Now that he noticed, the forest was too quiet, but he'll deal with that later. Rose was busy looking around.

"I'm...sorry...if I was being a...perv...earlier..." he said awkwardly as he was scratching his head while looking to his right. Telling someone that he's not a pervert sounded really awkward, especially to a girl, but at least he was being honest. That somehow made her look at him. "The truth is, I'm not." he continued as he faced her, his tone more confident now. "I just thought that it wasn't practical to wear skirts, for girls, I mean, if they're travelling."

He has a good point, "I suppose you're right," she bitterly admitted. She did got a lot of cuts from the tall grasses during her travels. "And I am sorry if I judged you..."

"No biggie..."

Krystal took out a bandaide, puts it down beside her shoulder bag, and soon brought out a blue skinny jeans. Joseph sensed the obvious, so he turned his back at her and sat down.

"Thanks." Krystal laughed.

"Just let me know when you're done." he replied.

'This is gonna take a while,' he thought, 'I heard it takes a lot of time for girls to change...' and he was about to think of reasons why the forest was too quiet, until Rose spoke to him in his mind.

'Want to see what I see?'

'Huh?'

'She's on her underwear. I think that's what humans call it.'

'No.'

'I think you'll like it.'

He liked the idea, but, 'Please no, and stop teasing me.'

Rose, aside from being able to talk to him through minds, she could also transfer images of what she sees to him mentally.

"Done." Krystal announced as she fixed her brown hair.

'Wow, that was fast.' he thought as he stood up and faced her.

She's now wearing her blue skinny jeans. Now, Joseph wondered how she was able to walk with such a thing. He never understood skinny jeans. He didn't bother asking.

"How do I look?" she asked innocently.

She does look lovely, but Joseph settled with his usual response, "You look nice, I guess..."

"Gee, thanks..." she said, unconvinced.

'You'll never get a mate like that...'

'Shut up, Rose...' he glared at Rose before neutrally facing Krystal. "Anyway, let's go." And he and Rose walked pass her to lead the way.

"Do you know where you're going?" she asked as they went through the tall grasses once again.

"Of course." he and Rose nodded. "This is my......" his voice trailed off. "...I don't know how many times I passed this forest..." That reminded him of the strange silence of the forest.

"Oh, so you've been here before? How come you don't have any badges yet?"

"I'm not really into the whole collect-all-eight-badges thing. I just love travelling, that's all." he said with a smile, but Krystal probably failed to notice him smiling.

"Oh, I see. That's cool, I guess..."

And after almost an hour of walking, they finally reached the edge of the forest, and up ahead is the peaceful town of Spring Field.
Krystal ran pass them, smiling, and she stopped a few meters in front of Joseph, who was just standing still, arms crossed, and is in deep thought.

"Spring Field!" she exclaimed in joy, and she soon turned to face him, looking all puzzled, which made her feel as if something just went wrong. "Is something wrong?"

"Something's weird..." he replied, eyes locked on the forest floor. "We didn't run into any wild POKéMON..."

That's a good thing, for Krystal, but it is weird. They went through a forest after all. Of course, wild POKéMON naturally lives there. She looked at the trees, and no POKéMON in sight.

"There used to be a lot of bug types here..."

"Eew... Bugs..." she quietly said to herself.

'I think I'm sensing something...' Rose said, facing west, looking through the gaps in between the trees.

"So, whatever it is, it must have something to do with this..." Joseph said as he walked beside her. Krystal wondered why he suddenly talked as if he replied to someone. He turned to her. "Hey, Krys," he hoped she didn't mind him calling her that, "you can go ahead to Spring Field. Rose and I are going to check something out."

"Oh, um, sure. Okay..." she replied, unsure.

Joseph gave her a smile before he and Rose went to the forest.
It's getting dark now. They've been walking for almost half an hour, the sun was about to set, and the forest has become gloomier than earlier, so he needed his flashlight. Rose was leading the way.

"Goodness me!" Joseph exclaimed as they found a number of dead bug-type POKéMON, all lying down on the forest floor, bathing on their own green blood. He quickly ran towards the nearest corpse, leaving Rose stunned and shocked.

The dead bodies seemed to be forming a trail-like path, leading further in the forest. He convinced himself that whoever maniac did this will pay.

"Rose, let's go!" that somehow snapped her back to her senses, and she followed him, who already ran ahead. It only took her a few seconds to catch up to him, but she later bit his shirt and stopped, making him stop as well.

"Rose, what's the matter?" he asked, with a clear tone of annoyance in his voice. Rose didn't reply as she ran to her right, stopping in front of an old tree, where at its base lies a bloody Chansey.

'Humans... Humans...' he heard Rose's voice echoed in his mind as he rushed to her. It was probably what the Chansey was mumbling as it was slowly taking a piece off her egg on her pouch, clearly desperate to continue living. Chansey was stabbed countless times around her body, where her red blood was flowing out like small streams. She got terrified after seeing Joseph.

'Get away... Get away...'

Rose, as a POKéMON, can talk to other POKéMON, and can access their thoughts, being partly psychic type. She then lets Joseph know what they are trying to say. For Joseph, Rose is like his personal POKéMON translator.

Joseph quickly puts his backpack down and searched for something while Rose tried to calm the Chansey down, and convincing her that Joseph won't hurt her. And seconds later and he took out a red and white colored ball; a Pokéball.

'Good idea.' Rose told Joseph as she noticed what he took out from his bag. She quickly tells the Chansey, and after convincing her, which only took less than eleven seconds, Joseph gently pressed the Pokéball on the Chansey's forehead, and instanly, the Chansey turned red and was absorbed inside the Pokéball.

"This way, it'll freeze her current state until we get her into a PokéCenter." he said as he wore his backpack back. "Let's go!" and they continued following the trail, which led them into a large clearing, and in the middle was a small pond. Although there are dead bodies lying around, they were both relieved to see a couple of bug types alive, and were forming a protective circle near the pond. A Scyther quickly went into its striking stance the instant it saw them came out from the forest. It was then backed by a Pinsir, a Heracross and an Ariados. Rose ran towards them and tried to calm them down, and after they dropped their stances, Joseph slowly walked towards them and stopped beside his Girafarig. The bug types became silent when Joseph arrived.

'They said that two humans attacked the forest, chasing after their guardian...'

"Some guardian it turned out to be..." he quietly said to himself.

"Brrriii..." a weak voice echoed, coming from the center of the bug's protective circle.

"That... That couldn't be...Celebi...?"

A sad Bellossom came out from the circle, carrying with it a brown, weak and wounded Celebi. Joseph asked Rose to tell them to quickly get the Celebi to a Pokémon Center. After they all agreed, the Bellossom handed Celebi to Joseph, and he and Rose quickly ran back to the forest, heading to Spring Field. The bug types followed them. The Scyther flew in front of Joseph, cutting down vines and twigs that it thought might slow them down.

'Any idea who attacked them?'

'They didn't clearly saw their attacker...'

'Darn... I guess Celebi knows something...'

Joseph then thought about putting Celebi inside a Pokéball to freeze it's current state. It is still breathing, but fast and shallow, but Rose quickly diminished his idea, stating that the bug types might not like that idea at all. They kept running.

---oOo---

"Spring Field is a very, very, very lovely little town. It's located in the middle of four hills, covered by pine trees and colorful flowers, with a small river passing through the center. The people here are really friendly. On top of the west hill stood fifteen wooden windmills where they get their electricity. The electric company in AceWood finds it difficult to put power lines from their plants to this town, because of all the forested hills, they had to go up and down and up and down. Or, they could put it up on the sides of the swirly path at the bases of the hills, but, damn, I don't think they're willing to do it. And that is why the people of this town built those windmills. Wild POKéMON are also free to roam around the town. You could say that this is a perfect and lovely town, except for one little thing..."

It's a sunny morning in Spring Field, and Joseph is sitting under the shade of a tree a few feet away from a wooden fence of a ranch, and meters away in front of the town's gym. He was writing on his newly bought green-covered journal with the five Eeveelutions as the front cover's design. Rose is grazing on the grass with the Miltanks and Tauroses in the ranch. Joseph is now staring at a little girl in front of the gym's doors. She has a long and pink hair, wearing a white kid-sized shirt and white shorts and pink shoes, and was busy happy-chatting with trainers there. She suddenly ran towards a middle-aged couple who just bought a bag of bread from a local bakery, probably greeted them good morning, as what Joseph concluded.

"That little girl. She's crazily-hyper! She runs around town, calling everyone she meets as her big sister or her ..."

"Hi big brother! Good morning!" a pink-haired girl's head suddenly popped in front of his sight, scaring his soul away and loosing his grip on his pen. She quickly ran towards an old man who was watching over the cattle in the ranch while Joseph angrily glared at her, and went back to writing his journal after he picked his pen back.

"...big brother... What a bother. She just scared the sh** out of me... Anyway, that's the only reason, for me at least, that made this town almost-perfect. Hm... Come to think of it, I do think she's the only reason why this town is not perfect. After seeing those trainers in front of the gym, I just remembered." he looked at the trainers in front of the gym with pity. They're waiting for the gym leader to battle them, but, "Trainers need, and I mean that trainers REALLY need to be REALLY REALLY friendly to her if they want to get a chance to battle and get the town's gym badge. But if they won't, then that little girl will hate them forever and they're completely doomed, for she will never-ever battle them. Yep, that little brat is this lovely town's gym leader, and she's a big headache for the POKéMON League, I assume. Heh, they're probably receiving a lot of complaints from trainers because of her."

He suddenly took a look at the gym after noticing an awkward silence. Earlier, he can hear the trainers there whispering, and since there were a lot of them, their little whispers reached his ears. The pink-haired girl was already walking towards them from...the bakery, he thought.

"Our region has eight gym leaders, like Kanto, and other regions, and she's the seventh. Trainers need all eight badges for them to challenge the POKéMON League's Elite Four. But right now, the league, from what I heard, are about to have a regional tournament for eight-badge-holding trainers, and whoever they find worthy, they'll appoint them as the new Elite Four, I think..."

Joseph noticed his sudden change of topic, but, "Oh, what the heck." he said as he closed his journal and put it inside his backpack. He then wore his backpack and stood up. "This is MY journal, anyway."

He walked towards the fence and saw Rose, still grazing on the grass.

"Rose." she turned to him, still on the same spot, chewing. "I'll go and check the center. Back in a few, 'kay?"

'Mmmkay. But I'm almost done, so, I guess I'll just catch up.'

"Heh..." he grinned, "don't get pregnant by the cows."

He heard the old man chuckled a bit while Rose gave him a very nasty glare as she uses her psychic power to create a ball made out of grass and quickly threw it at Joseph's face. She quickly followed it with another grass ball, and another, and another, until Joseph was out of sight.

"Hey honey," A Tauros approached her, chuckling a bit from what she did to her trainer, "you look miiiiiiiiiiighty beautiful, I say."

"Touch me, and you'll kiss the moon."

"You look like a grass monster." Krystal laughed. Joseph was running away from Rose, and stopped in front of the bakery where Krystal just bought two pieces of Oran Bread. She hands him one after he got all the grass off him.

"Thanks." and he took a bite. "So, you got your badge?"

"Eew... Don't talk when your mouth is full!" she said in disgust as they walk towards the Pokémon Center. "But no... I lost..." she took a small bite. "Glaiza and I agreed on a one-on-one battle, since I only have my Wartortle with me..." and she took another small bite.

"Wartortle's a water-type POKéMON, so of course you'll lose. Why not try and catch a flying-type?"

"Yeah, I've thought about it, but I don't really like flying-type POKéMON..." she sadly replied, eyes down on the ground.

"Oh? Why's that?" he asked, failing to notice her sad expression, since he was looking ahead.

"When I was young, I almost died from a flock of Fearows in Route 1..." that made him quickly turn his head to her.

"Oh, um...I'm---sorry to hear that..." he turned his sight to the ground, sad. "I... I didn't know."

"I was kidding." she laughed after softly punching Joseph's shoulder, which surprised him.

"And I was fool to believe such a story..." he replied, disappointed and annoyed.

"Anyway, I don't like flying-types. I don't know why, but I just don't..."

It seemed familiar. He hates the town's gym leader without any logical explanation. Some people must hate things without really any particular reason.

'Hello.' Rose greeted him as she caught up beside him.

"Oh, hey Rose. Pregnant yet?" he joked.

Rose replied with an evil glare and walked ahead, allowing her tail to snatch and swallow Joseph's remaining Oran Bread he was holding.

"Wha---hey!" Joseph said as Krystal chuckled.

'Ha-ha! Good one, Lyn!'

Lyn is the name they gave to Rose's tail. In Rose's early years, her tail was really passive, until one day, it suddenly started talking to her, and asked what was her(the tail) name. Since then, it grew a mind of its own, but doesn't really talk much, nor do almost anything, making Joseph often times forget Lyn's very existence.

The three reached the POKéMON Center, where a blue dumbtruck was parked in front of it. Joseph and Rose recognized the driver, and greeted him.

"Hey dad!" Joseph happily said while Rose gave him a friendly growl. Krystal stood behind the two.

"Oh, hey son!" his dad poked through the open window in the driver's seat. "Hello Rose. Oh? Son, this here's your girlfriend?"

"NO!" both Joseph and Krystal shouted in unison after a momentary shock.

'Ooohhh... Joseph has a girlfriend...' Rose teased as she gave him a naughty look.

"Shut up, Rose."

'Hurry up and make her pregnant~' Rose sang as she gave him a naughty grin.

Joseph pushed Rose away while Krystal, earlier was feeling embarrased, now was finding it odd that Joseph was talking to his Girafarig, as if Rose said anything at all. Rose couldn't help but laugh.

"Anyway, dad, this is Krystal, a friend of mine."

'For now...' Rose quietly said as she looked away, ignoring Joseph's evil stare.

"Well, how ya doin' Krys? The name's Joseph!" Krystal was confused while Joseph laughed. "Yep, father and son, same name." he winked with a big smile.

"Oh, so you're like senior and junior."

"Well, more like 'the first' and 'the second'." Joseph (the son) explained. "Dad doesn't really like the whole senior-junior thing." and he then went close to her ears and whispered: "he said it makes him sound old."

The POKéMON Center's glass door slides open, and a black-dressed lady, almost covering her whole body, came out and stopped after taking a number of steps outside, and turned to face them. She's probably around her twenties, or maybe she's an old lady, but just applied make-up to make her look young, as Joseph thought. Joseph doesn't really understand women and make-up and...Rose silenced his crazy thoughts.

She was about to say something when a pink-haired girl suddenly dashed behind Joseph, Rose and Krystal, and ran and hugged the black-dressed woman.

"Big sis, don't leave!" she cried.

"Glaiza, my dear!" she said in surprise. "I'm sorry but I need to." and she was soon freed from the hug.

"Hey brat," Joseph's dad said, grabbing her attention, "send my regards to your parents."

"She's a gym leader." the black-dressed woman said, "You should treat her with respect."

"She's a kid," he corrected her with a smile, "so I'll treat her like any other kid."

She didn't say a word as she went and hopped on the passenger seat while Krystal pats Glaiza's head and Joseph, along with Rose, was giving his dad a skeptical look.

"We'll be going now son. See ya soon!"

"Sure thing dad, but uh," he crossed his arms. "who's she? Why's she going with you? And where are you two going?"

"Hey hey hey hey hey...! You act like your mom; jumping to conclusions like that. She's---"

"My name's Samantha, hello. I'm WindString Town's gym leader, and we are to deliver the corpses to their resting place." she interrupted him. Joseph and Rose were convinced that there was nothing going on with them.

"She's also an expert on spiritual healing." his dad added as he started the engine.

"I see. Oh, but dad, inside a dumbtruck, really?" Joseph awkwardly said.

"This here truck is the only truck available in the whole town, son."

"It may be a disrespect to the dead, we had no other option." Samantha explained. "Anyway, we're wasting time."

After saying goodbye, the truck went north to the curvy and earthy road of Route 8, heading to WindString. Joseph, Krystal and Rose went inside the POKéMON Center.

"You have a great kid." Samantha suddenly said, breaking the boring silence. The truck's radio was broken.

"Oh, thanks." he replied awkwardly. "But I wish I could have spent more time with him though... I feel like I'm a bit far away from him, and to my other kids..." he said smiling, though his tone was mixed with bitter sadness, Samantha sensed.

Inside the POKéMON Center, bug and flying types were talking to each other. Four police officers were inside, probably to keep an eye on all these wild POKéMON around. Krystal was grossed out after seeing a crawling Caterpie and went back outside as Joseph went through the crowd of POKéMON to the counter. Rose just stood near the entrance.

On the counter, a green and cheerful Celebi was sitting down on the desk, talking to it's POKéMON friends.

"Is Celebi okay now?" it was clearly obvious that Celebi has fully recovered, but he asked anyway, feeling a bit stupid about it.

"Yes, Celebi has fully recovered." the nurse smiled.

Celebi turned to him and quickly flew around his head, brii-ing something that would probably means that it was thankful for him for the rescue.

The POKéMON Center's glass door slides open once again and Joseph came out, and he was followed by the floating Celebi and the group of wild POKéMON. Some trainers who were near the area where stunned to see such a large number of POKéMON, and the legendary Celebi. Some of them quickly took out their PokéDexes to take the Celebi's picture. They were soon controlled by the police. Joseph managed to get out of the trainers' captured photos by going with the crowd of trainers. Celebi slowly flew towards the forest backwards as it waved goodbye to Joseph, who in turn waved goodbye as well. Some trainers waved goodbye as well, so it was safe to do so.

After the crowd cleared, Joseph, Krystal and Rose were standing in front of the Pokémon Center, where Joseph took a Pokéball and sent out a Chansey. The wounded and near-death Chansey is now a fully healed, wrinkled-yet-jolly Chansey.

"Hello there." Joseph pats its head as Rose went beside him, ready to translate. "Sorry if I forced you to be captured, but now, I can set you free."

Chansey's smile quickly turned up-side-down. It said something that Joseph didn't understand. He looked at Rose.

'She doesn't want to go.' Rose then faced Joseph, 'She likes you. She is very thankful that you saved her, so she wants to go with you...us, I mean.'

Joseph faced the Chansey, "You sure?" and after Rose translated and Chansey said something, Rose faced him and nodded her head. "Well, why not? Welcome to the team...of...two...?" he scratched his head. "So Rose, what's the Chansey's name?"

'Chance...'

'I asked the obvious...' both Rose and Chance laughed.

Celebi and its wild Pokémon friends went back to Spring Woods. Glaiza and a number of POKéMON Rangers went to the said forest to see how they can prevent the same event from happening again. They planned on building a number of outposts in the forest for the rangers to monitor the area.

Later, an hour after noon, the police invited Joseph to answer some questions. He was accompanied by Krystal and Rose. The police station was two buildings away from the POKéMON Center.

"So, you didn't see anyone there?"

"No. There was no other person there when Rose and I got there..."

"So, how's the investigation?" Krystal asked the officer.

"Well, we did find signs of battle, and I suppose that was obvious. We also found a footprint from a shoe, but none of the shoe companies recognizes the pattern, so it was probably made from another region. It's still under process. Also..." the officer opened his drawer and took a transparent plastic bag and puts it on the table. Inside the bag was a broken purple-colored Pokéball.

"A...masterball...?" Joseph guessed. It looks really identical to the masterball he once saw on the internet in their home. He thought masterballs were not real, only made from imagination, but look here, right in front of him, a masterball.

"Correct. Whoever owned this must be seriously wanted to capture Celebi, and is probably the one responsible for the massacre. Unfortunately, we traced no fingerprints on it..."

"Well, that sucks..." Joseph sighed as he faced Rose. "What about you Rose? Were you able to go in Celebi's memory?"

The evening Joseph got to the POKéMON Center, he asked Rose to try and see the grass-type's memory.

'Yes, but it was all black and blurry... But there was a weird red symbol that she saw before she fainted...'

"Really?" he said, and he then faced the officer. "My Girafarig saw a symbol in Celebi's memory. Maybe that could give us a lead."

"Any information would be very helpful right now." he nodded.

"You know..." Krystal slowly said, making Joseph and Rose look at her, "I've been wondering for a while now, but, are you...able to understand Rose?" she asked, looking really curious.

"Yeah, but only through minds." he replied with a smile, and then he faced Rose. "Okay Rose, show me what happened..." and they both closed their eyes and concentrated.

Joseph is seeing the gloomy forest, but it was rushing towards him so fast. Rustling and slashing noises echoed though. The vision looked behind, two pursuers, but black and blurry. Fear must've made it unable to focus, and it quickly looked ahead. Finally, a clearing, where they found Celebi, but suddenly, everything went black after a very loud pound-like sound echoed from above. He then heard something hit the ground hard. The eye-like vision opened slowly, and two blurry human silhouttes approached. Everything was starting to turn black, but something on the chest of those two humans glowed in bloody red. He couldn't believe it, even after he opened his eyes.

"A red letter 'R'. Team Rocket's back..."

---oOo---