Eli awoke promptly at seven, as usual. He completed his morning routine like clockwork. He dressed in his typical attire. He treated the day like any other, even though he knew that from today on, his life would be different. Ambella Coal, the local professor, had hand picked six teenagers to go on a journey and accomplish a special mission. Eli just so happened to be one of them.

His family greeted him with smiles. They had all gotten up early to have breakfast with him. It was quite a lively spectacle. His aunt nearly tripped over and spilled the eggs. His uncle playfully teased her along with everyone else. Isabelle giggled at her uncle's jokes. His father swigged his coffee heartily. Dot sat happily on his shoulder. It was quite a rare occasion to have all of them sitting down for breakfast like this, and Eli enjoyed every minute of it.

The moment couldn't last forever, as Eli had to meet with the professor, but everybody saw him off. He was going to miss his family, but knew they could still keep in touch over the phone. After a tearful goodbye, at least for his aunt, he waved farewell to his family. With Dot on one shoulder and his satchel on the other, he made his way over to the island's laboratory.

It didn't take long before he arrived in front of the building. He noticed the professor, but no one else was around. Since he was the first to arrive, but didn't feel like striking up a conversation with the professor, he decided to just wait quietly, entertaining himself by playing with Dot. He didn't know who the others were, but apparently two girls from Isabelle's class were chosen as well. He hoped they were nice, respectable girls. The last thing he wanted was his sister to be around any bad influences.

Fiona Cole

The heat beared down on the teenager, sweat dripping down from the edges of her face. Breathing heavily, Fiona straightened her back and rested her arms above her head. She took in deep and concise breaths as her childhood companion, her Doduo, followed right behind. It was early, even for morning. Fiona had just finished her routine morning jog, cutting it shorter than usual. She had somewhere to be this morning and she couldn't afford to be late, besides, it'd be rather rude. Her house, well not really her house, but it might as well have been seeing as she was the only human inhabitant in the past two years. Luckily enough for her, monthly taxes and such aren't a problem, everything being prepaid and all. Anyways, back on topic, the house was now merely three minutes away at her current pace, perhaps one if she started jogging again.

Screw it. Her legs kicked up, starting at a casual jog before revving up to a full sprint. In about one-sixth of the estimated time, she had arrived at the front of her house. She took a deep breath, inhaling as much air as possible. By her side, her Doduo prodded into Fiona's jogging shorts, retrieving a key with one of it's heads. Thankful, she grabbed the key and opened the door, her Doduo running straight for the kitchen. Fiona closed the door and locked it before running up the stairs. Her jogging clothes felt so sticky and icky, she absolutely had to take a shower.

It was cold, refreshing, just what the doctor ordered. Her red hair, now dried, was resting lightly upon her shoulder. With a towel draped around her body, Fiona waltzed into her room, going straight for the closet. She picked out her usual attire, her black, strapless, one sleeved top and white shorts. Grabbing her pink cap from a wall rack, Fiona slipped into her comfortable moccasins positioned conveniently underneath. She grabbed a hair band from a nearby drawer and quickly pulled it back into a ponytail. Looping her ponytail into the hole, Fiona nudged her cap on until it sat comfortably upon her head.

Walking down the stairs, she could hear her Doduo rummaging through the fridge, might as well, they wouldn't be back for awhile. Fiona walked into the living room, in search for her satchel, which she had dumped on a couch last night. As soon as she found it, she was startled by a sudden voice.

"Sorry, Fiona, didn't mean to scare you there!" A rough, deep voice boomed through the computer screen behind her, with a hint of a laughter..

Catching her breath, Fiona turned and gave a deathly stare, "Oh my god, dad, you're such an *******!" A small smile cracked through, "So what's up?"

"Well today's the big day isn't it?" She nodded in reply. "Well, I don't have much time, so Fi, good luck, I love ya, and keep in touch alright? You know the number right?"

"Alright, pap, love you too, and yeah I got it. She managed a smile and waved goodbye. With a simple gesture, her father disappeared from the screen. Fiona sighed, this was pretty standard of her dad, showing up for a mere minute or two, but she couldn't blame him, he was working to support them both after all.

Her Doduo strolled into the living room, gulping down some sort of meat. Fiona didn't get quite a good look, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to. Chuckling, she pulled out Doduo's pokeball from her satchel's strap. Catching him by surprise, Doduo was sucked back into the ball before he even had a chance to protest. She placed the ball back and lifted the bag over her shoulder. The entire house was silent, this was probably the last time she'd be here in for awhile, it felt pretty odd. As Fiona walked back into the corridor, she took her aviator shades from a nearby drawer and rested them in a relatively secure position on her top.

Stepping out the door, Fiona could see the volcano in the distance. Fortunately for her, the house was situated somewhat nearby Ms. Coal's laboratory. At the most, it was an intermediate walk, talking 45 minutes perhaps?

Time to well, kill time. Let's see, who else was going to be there this morning? Err... names were blank, yeah she wasn't great on that cater gory. If anything though, she knew there were at least four others, wait was it five? Five, she decided, definitely five.

Suddenly, she felt a slight tingle against her thigh where her bag was. Reaching into the satchel, Fiona pulled out her phone revealing a text message, from a random number?

##########: Hey Fi, babes, Mona here. I really, really need some advice on this... blah blah blah blah blah.

Fiona chuckled, the text had reminded her although it was already summer and she was no longer confined to long, monotonous hours of dealing with complete turds this was a great chance to completely get away from said turds. What a great opportunity, seriously. She wanted to throw the phone away, get a new one and not have to deal with the unwanted texts but she had no choice. A few valuable contacts were in that phone and surely she couldn't remember them all until she got a new one. Tucking the phone back into the satchel, Fiona looked up from her walk.

There it was, the laboratory! Wow, that went by fast. By the door, Fiona could make out a figure, a human figure? Getting closer she realized it was indeed a human figure, in fact it was Ambella Coal! And who was that next to her? Was that, Lt. Surge? No, no it couldn't have been, Surge was more muscular than this guy. Was he some sort of Surge wannabe or something? Bad Fiona! she thought, she hated whenever she judged people but it was just sort of happened, like a reflex. As she approached, Fiona gave a polite smile and wave.

"This is the millionth time I've read this sign... It never gets better..."

"Goon!"

Fonse takes a small letter out of his pocket, which is damp because of the ridiculous heat that has been around lately... It's so hot that he's actually considering taking his scarf off.

"Bla, bla, bla, lab, bla, bla, bla, meet, bla, bla, bla, Ambella." Fonse says while quickly pronouncing only the words he considers important.

"Goon!" The brown raccoon yells, as cheerful as always.

"Well, it shouldn't take us a lot before we find the lab..." Fonse whispers, putting the small letter back in his pocket.

The duo begins to walk around the island... There wasn't much that called their attention, as the island itself was very boring at Fonse's eyes. Goony Goo was happily hoping behind him as they slowly approached the Pokemon Center. They stopped next to it as Fonse pulled an Oran Berry and threw it at Zigzagoon.

"Eat." He said in his cold-voice tone, yet Goony wasn't hesitant of eating something at all, as he quickly devoured the small berry.

He still couldn't process the fact that he was chosen by Ambella Cole, or the fact that he would have to run around Kanto like those 10 year old kids who just got a Rattata and think they're the masters of the universe... Fonse let go a sigh before leaning against a wall of the Pokemon Center. He's still unsure of how his mother convinced him to accept... After all, journeying around is not something he's very willing to do... But his mother said it would be a nice experience, and she's never wrong with assumptions...

His thoughts were interrupted by a small drip of sweat that ran all over his face, clashing with his scarf. I hope there's conditioned air in the lab... Or else I'll flip tables, he thought.

"Let's go Goony Goo..." he suddenly said while stepping away from the wall, Goony Goo jumped with joy and began following him quickly after that.

They had soon finally arrived at a white building, which he was sure was the lab, as there were already some people outside of it, with a woman dressed in red which was surely Ambella Coal.

He decided to not pay much attention to any of the persons around, not that he really wanted, though, he just wanted to go somewhere where the heat is not as ridiculous as fast as possible, so he leaned against a wall while Goony Goo laid over his shoes, preparing to take a nap.

This... Is... So... Boring.

Before too long, a couple more people began to show up. This first was a teen girl. Eli recognized her from around town, though he didn't know who she was. She gave a polite smile and waved. He silently nodded and gave a small wave back. She seemed nice enough, but looked too old to be Isabelle's classmate. She was probably a grade or two below him.

The next person to arrive was a guy who was not at all dressed appropriately for the weather. It must have been uncomfortably hot dressed in that attire. He didn't seem to acknowledge the others, only briefly glancing at them before leaning on a wall in the shade. A Zigzagoon followed behind him, then laid down on his trainer's feet.

Eli stared at the Zigzagoon as it was about to fall asleep. It was so adorable, he couldn't help it. He really wanted to go over and pet it, but that would be rude. His trainer didn't seem too friendly, so he probably wouldn't be okay with a stranger petting his Pokemon. At least Eli had his very own cute Pokemon to keep him company. He cradled the Azurill in his arms.

Hopefully the others would arrive soon so they could begin whatever mission they were to do. He wasn't any good at starting up a conversation. Perhaps someone else would.

Irwin Macalister
Cinnabar Island
---​

It was a quiet morning, Irwin slept soundly in his bed without a care in the world. He thought that the day would probably go about like this for the remainder of the day. However, he would soon find out how wrong he was. Or rather than 'soon', how about, 'right now'? Irwin gave off a dissatisfied grunt as the blindfolds to his windows were unmercifully snapped open. He squinted at the light that was bellowing in through the window, but with his typical facial-expression it may be hard to believe that he could squint more that he already did. Despite that, he still manages to do it.

The red-haired teen peeked out his head from under the thin bed sheet currently covering his body to find a familiar shape standing before him. The figure of his mother met him with the usual smile that was covering her lips, some liked to say that this was the most striking resemblance between Irwin and his mother, and he could agree on that.

"Good morning Irwin." She said and walked up to his bed.

"Urrgh, why so sudden with the wake-up call mom?" Irwin chuckled tiredly.

"Because today is a special day, remember?" His mother chuckled back.

Irwin tried to muster all of his brain-power in order to answer this question. However, as it was early in the morning, Irwin found himself unable to muster such power and gave up after a few seconds of thinking.

"I'll bite, what is it?" Irwin answered. Wait, 'I'll bite?' That's strangely old fashioned, isn't it? I mean, who uses it anymore? Anyways, Irwin's mother looked at her son without seemingly changing her facial-expression,

"Today is the day of your new journey!"

***

The morning moved on at its usual pace and order. Irwin got up from bed; he put his clothes on and then ate breakfast. He had already packed all of his stuff in advance, clothes, toothbrush and some other stuff. Basically, he had packed everything essential for journeying throughout the entirety of Kanto. Irwin had fret a bit that his backpack would overpower him and thus become very hard to carry. As he slipped it onto his back before walking to the door, Irwin felt that it was moderately heavy. Or at least light enough for him to carry it without much problem.

"Goodbye sweetie…" His mother said as Irwin walked up to the door. He looked at her but said nothing for a while. The teen examined his mother's face, it was on the border to becoming old, and it had a few traces of soon-to-be wrinkles around the mouth-area and the forehead. Her eyes looked both happy and sad at the same time, presumably because her son was going on an adventure, all alone. Or rather, with people he probably didn't know. Irwin could tell that his mother was afraid of losing him, just like she had lost her husband. The death of Irwin's father had really taken a lot out of her, it was almost as her only reason to live after he died was to take care of Irwin. Although she usually beamed with happiness towards others, it was mostly just a façade. In reality, Irwin wasn't sure if leaving her would also cause her death, so he had been hesitant to agree on the whole thing. However, he had indeed been chosen and it was his duty to help out someone in need. Well, at least it felt like the right thing to do.

"Goodbye mom…" Irwin said and hugged his mother. He wasn't the tallest teen alive, but he still reached very well over her.

"Are you sure you've got everything?" His mother asked, "You know it's important with-"

"Towels, toothbrushes, clean clothes among other things, yeah I know mom. You've told me like a thousand times throughout my life." Irwin said with a smile.

"I just want you to be as safe and sound as possible, you know that?"

"Yes, I know. After all, what mother wouldn't think like that?" Irwin said.

His mother smiled and gave him one last hug and kiss before he went out the door with Gex by his side. The Treecko and Irwin waved goodbye before they disappeared in the mass of people that usually gathered on Cinnabar Island in the summer.

***

"It is nice outside, isn't it Gex?" Irwin smiled at the green lizard walking beside him. He liked to spend these moments alone with the Grass-type, it kind of felt like they were getting closer and closer to each other.

"Treecko." Gex replied.

After walking for a while, the duo got up to their necks in tourists. Irwin mused that they now must be close to the market, if they weren't already there. It was pretty hard to tell whether or not they actually were in the market-place, it was that many tourists. Irwin decided to return Gex for a while so that his green little companion wouldn't get swept away by the steady stream of people. The Treecko was mildly happy about this.

After getting out of the heavily crowded market-place – but not before buying some pretty nice cookies though – Irwin and Gex arrived at the place where they were supposed to be. The teen observed that there already were some people there. The first one Irwin noticed was a girl who looked, well, pretty average. Hey wait… Wasn't she in his class or something? Maybe, Irwin hadn't really paid much attention to her before if that was the case. She had red hair though, although it wasn't flare-red like his, it was still pretty nice he guessed.

Next up was a dude who looked very muscular. Wait… Was that Lt. Surge or something? Nah, it couldn't be him, this dude was too young. He seemed to radiate a pretty tough aura, like that tough aura that could rip a person to shreds in about 0.10 seconds. Irwin made sure to not get on this guy's bad side, which could prove… Fatal, to his lifespan.

Then there was this other dude just standing around, looking bored as all hell. Maybe Irwin ought to cheer the dudemanbro up a little? Whatever the case, he seemed to be a bit chubby as well. However he didn't seem the least bit jolly. Ah, whatever.

Then we had the final guest for the party so far, a woman looking about 25 years old. This just had to be that Ambella Coal chick, either that or a really old… mission-outcarrier… What was the appropriate word for what they were anyway? In any case, Irwin decided that the best option would be to greet everyone in a nice and friendly manner, right off the bat. He would've considered trying to do a high five with somebody; however the presence of the Lt. Surge-looking guy made him nervous enough to not attempt to pull that stunt. Instead he raised his hand in sort of a "distance-greeting-manner" and said with a third of his mouth full with the remains of a cookie and a happy expression on his face,

"Eeeeyy people, what's up?!"

Zigzagoon was sneezing, and Fonse had considered taking his scarf off for once, but that was an absolute no-no. Seeing Zigzagoon lying in the floor was quite the cute sight, he couldn't deny it, he even smiled for a second while seeing it, but he quickly snapped out of it, he couldn't afford having the other thinking he was weak...

"Eeeeyy people, what's up?!"

Fonse turned his sight towards the person who said the previous words. It was a rather jolly person, apparently eager to meet them. Fonse did knew that he would be socializing with the people that would gather around, but he just was too bored to do so... He's still willing to give it a shot, though...

"Not much at all..." He replied with what seemed to be a failed attempt to smile.

Suddenly Goony Goo stood up, moving his head all around, as if trying to find something, he started smelling the floor, walking all around desperately following the smell of something... Following him with his sight let Fonse with a chance to see the others with more detail...

First one he saw was a girl with black hair and green eyes, followed by the person who had spoken before, who had red hair, a seemingly ginger girl, and finally, what seemed to be a Lt. Surge clone, Goony Goo stared at this last one person for a while, only to get back in his hunting. Eventually, the Zigzagoon found what he was looking, or rather, sniffing for, a small chunk of an Oran berry. Disappointed, the raccoon went back to where Fonse was and laid back over his feet, quickly falling asleep.

As Fonse stared at the raccoon, he couldn't help ut wonder who would show up after them, it was apparently a girl named Deandra, but Fonse has never heard of her before, just as he hadn't ever heard of those who where with him...

"Aipom! Aipom!"

"Wait! Wait!" Deandra ran behind her overly eager Pokemon, less than conditioned for this unexpected cardio workout. Butler, her Aipom of many years, ran ahead of her; large smile on his face, tail bouncing behind him, collar tag jingling, and wind through his fur. He was always like this, overly excited about everything, or at least looking for a reason to run, get up, or just plain ol' go. She hated it and loved it at the same time.

Today, she definitely hated it. Her backpack of supplies was overly heavy and it was hot outside. It had been hot out all of the time lately. Her parents had over packed her and kept her up with this thing and that and her brother asking to come along didn't exactly speed up the process. They could have just driven her here, but the excuse of the day was "You could use the exercise." Exercise. She was going to be in the woods for who knew how long! Plenty of exercise would get done. No need to speed up the process, but what arguing could be done to the only two people in the world that care about you for more than your looks and your money? None, especially if they were like her dad and his stubborn, "I'm serious," face. Deandra huffed, not having got a break to walk since she stepped out of the house. Butler (or Butsy as Deandra did and was embarrassed to call him (though only in public)) was considered a pet instead of a Pokemon, so instead of being stuffed in a ball all day, he was given a collar instead. Unfortunately that didn't mean he could run around, especially since more people liked to steal Pokemon than they did dogs, despite the fact that Pokemon were literally everywhere and were about as easy to find as kicking over a rock or stepping into grass that hadn't been cut for about three days. Still, people went out of their way to make schemes to catch the same Pokemon that others grabbed in two dollar nets, and that's why she could let him out of her sight. He had a Pokeball so no one could peg him with their own and say he's theirs, but he was never in it so, to Deandra, it was irrelevant and forgettable. The handy device was currently packed, but she forgot about it almost as soon as it had gone in there.

"Butsy!" The little Aipom didn't listen. He was on his way to the lab, as if he even knew where it was. Deandra had to admit, he was pretty accurate. Many times Deandra had walked by the place and pointed it out to him. Maybe he knew his way a little bit. Whatever the case was, he'd taken a few wrong turns, which also explained their wasted time. If he weren't so fast, she probably would have been there by now. This surprise workout, however, didn't quite do the job of ruining this day. She would be meeting with Ambella Coal and then this new adventure would begin. It was pretty cool, but also a lot of work at the same time. There were a couple extra things she wasn't particularly interested in, but she'd get through it somehow.

Deandra had to reason with herself that this running game wasn't going to end anytime soon and she'd need to speed up to have any luck. Forcing herself farther than she wanted to go, Deandra turned on her afterburners and gained some speed. It didn't get her where she wanted to be, but with more trying she eventually caught up to her Aipom and snatched him up, much to his surprise. Deandra almost immediately let herself drop into a sit on the ground, holding Butler, who wanted nothing more than to leave again, and trying to catch her breath. She hoped that this wouldn't be a repeating experience.

The transition from the ground to Ambella Coal's lab was, Deandra hoped, not too long, though it was somewhat of a hassle trying to restrain Butler the entire way. When she got there, whatever meeting she was arriving to had already started. She hoped she didn't miss anything too important, but maybe not.

"You might have heard the rumors about the gym leaders..." Ambella stated, going into a little rundown of the gym leader's new disposition and showing a little display of her resolve. Their "mission" (why did it have to be a mission? This didn't exactly seem like an operations kind of deal, did it?) was to go scout around an area even hotter than it already was over here. She was suddenly glad that her mom had her pack a bottle of water or two (though it was in no way cold--figures) in the side pockets of her backpack. Butler seemed to be particularly interested in everyone who was around while Deandra herself wasn't. She noticed Auryn, which meant she wouldn't be totally alone in this mission thing, but everyone else was a stranger and at the moment she didn't take much time to see who they were past their face, hair, body, and clothes. Little tickets were passed out that apparently went to the Seafoam Islands, a place she was all too familiar with from family trips. She smiled a little. It was a good place to be. Putting her ticket in her pocket for safe keeping, it wasn't really hard to predict that Deandra would be confused by the "pokedex" part. They got Pokedex? And they had email? She knew what a Pokedex was. Everyone knew what a Pokedex was. It was the coolest thing no one could have (actually, no one but them could have, if she assumed correct) and only the most fascinated people knew everything about it. Deandra had liked the idea of it, but never did serious research on the device, maybe that's why she didn't know it had email. For a moment she wondered if it had texting too and considered asking, but there was something about being late and asking questions that didn't exactly go together for Deandra.

Instead of making noise she kept quiet, assuming a Pokedex was probably on its way to her hand. She looked around at the other members, already sure that their judgement on her promptness was at flare, but not exactly caring either. Her eyes landed an Auryn and she made a small smile again. Maybe she'd fill her in if no one else would? Deandra looked away. Maybe. Possibly. Hopefully.

Fiona Cole

Swear to god, this was one of the most awkward assortment of trainers, herself included, Fiona had ever seen. You had one Surge dresser fellow, a relatively big kid, a chubster, a little girl and of course Fiona's ridiculous self. There was definitely a slight bit of awkward just floating around in the atmosphere, the thought causing her to chuckle.

She snapped out of her laugh, and then unexpected to her, Ms. Coal spoke. Wait a second, wasn't there suppose to be another trainer? Fiona looked around, only spotting the same four that were there a minute ago. She decided to forget about it, if whoever was suppose to be here was late, they'd get here eventually.

Fiona's mind drifted off, so when Ambella pulled out a Pokedex from a nearby bag, her eyes lit up with a surprise. She had heard about these things before, they were pretty well known and were seldom given out. Were they each getting one? She had her eyes fixed on the dex the entire time, thinking of ways of how to customize her's, if she was even going to get one. Was it even possible to customize a pokedex? Suddenly, Ambella outstretched hand was upon her, holding out a pokedex of her own. A huge grin crept on her face as she gladly took it. Instantly Fiona began to examine it, flipping it over and back and whatnot. She thought about playing with it, but that would've been rude, Ms. Cole was still speaking after all. Wait a second, these things can send emails!?

"You might have heard the rumors about the gym leaders." The mention of the gym leaders sparked her attention once more. Indeed she had, who hadn't? They were all on some sort of out of the blue power trip or something of the sort. For a moment, Fiona looked up, noticing a girl coming into view. She was a bit shorter than her, her hair, more like her bangs, were purple, the rest of it was black. Piercings covered a decent portion of her face. Fiona grinned, most people frowned at the sight of piercings, but she thought it was pretty cool, pretty goddamn cool. She liked this girl already, and she hadn't even spoke to her, she didn't even know her name!

Ms. Coal had finally finished her informative speech, and Fiona began to recount what she had just heard. Her, their "mission" as they were told, was to scour the base of the volcano, in search of wild pokemon inhabiting the area. Data of said pokemon would then be recorded into her pokedex for further research. After they had their share of exploring, they were to board a ferry that would apparently take them to the Seafoam Islands, before transporting them to Fuchsia City. Fuchsia City... Her hometown. The thought of her visiting it enticed her, how much had it changed? Or had it changed at all? She had no real childhood friends, in fact she doubted she'd remember anyone or vice-versa. Guess it really wasn't that interesting, just another bump in the road. She tucked the tickets in her satchel.

With next to nothing going on, Fiona decided it was time to head off and get to work. Besides, she wasn't too crazy about getting to know the others, at least not now anyways. Well, maybe the piercing chick, but she didn't seem too crazy about getting to know anybody either. Feeling a bit of badassery coming upon herself, she grabbed her aviators and swung them on in one fluid motion. The green tint from her shades would've impaired her vision if she wasn't so adjusted to them. Fortunately enough, the volcano was close by.

Fiona found herself standing ten feet away from the volcano, she peered up to look at the massive rock formation, it towered over her in an intimidating fashion. She almost feared another eruption, but she was pretty excited about the chance to finally get out and catch some pokemon. The worry was soon cast aside. Looking about, Fiona found a manageable hill, leading up to the slopes of the volcano. Jogging over, she carefully made her way up it. Boy, she could've definitely used some sneakers at the moment. It was tough climbing up a hill in moccasins. Finally she made her way to flat, even land. Dirt covered the majority of her ankles giving her an odd sensation throughout her legs.

The land was far from beautiful, it's rough rocky terrain was in contrast to the lush jungle area surrounding it. Perhaps she'd pay a visit to it after her business here was down. Fiona walked and walked, no pokemon in sight, she thought there was one a second ago but it just turned out to be a strange rock formation. Gosh was she pissed when she found out she'd been duped, by a rock of all things! In her little outburst, Fiona had managed to trip over another rock and dislodge her left shoe. It was like these things were out to get her! Right before she hit the ground face first, she able to break her fall with her hands and knees, scraping up her knees with several scratches.

"Dammit... You would think rocks weren't so cunningly violent." There was a tint of annoyance residing in her face. That subsided as soon as she felt air brushing against the sole of her foot. She did some sort of half laugh, half pissed combination, "Yeah... no, I seriously need to get a pair of sneakers."

Realizing her moccasin had fallen off, Fiona proceeded to stand up and as she got up to one knee, a definite noise could be heard sneaking up behind her. She had no idea what it was, it was in no way familiar to her. All she knew was that it was there, it might've been the wind, but she wasn't taking the chance. With the right hand supporting herself, her left hand slowly made its way towards the strap of her satchel. Her fingers climbed up the attachment, latching onto Doduo's pokeball.

After a couple more people had arrived, the professor began her mission briefing. It was certainly an interesting situation. Pokemon were showing up where they weren't normally found, and he had to help collect data on them. Not only that, but the Gym Leaders were acting much differently. He needed to figure out what was causing this. Midway through, the last trainer arrived. It was one of Isabelle's classmates, too. The least she could do is arrive promptly on time.

Once Eli got both the Pokedex and the ferry ticket, he proceeded to the volcano. It was an area of the island he didn't usually go to, so it was a bit strange exploring the area. He began wandering the jungle, thinking he would have a better chance finding Pokemon there as opposed to on the upper part of the volcano. However, he looked all around, but didn't run across any Pokemon. Perhaps he just had bad luck. Finding a large rock nearby, he sat down on it. Dot was still on his shoulder, but had fallen asleep.

Deciding not to disturb her, he decided to check out the Pokedex. It was certainly an interesting invention. It was like a pocket computer with a shared network between the other Pokedexes. Or was it Pokedexi? He made a note to learn the plural form of Pokedex in the future. While the messaging feature was convenient, it didn't look like he could email his family from it. He would just have to use a regular computer for that.

As he was examining the Pokedex, he heard a rustling from the bushes behind him. He gently nudged the Azurill to wake her up. It was likely a Pokemon, so they needed to be ready for a battle. Dot hopped off of Eli's shoulder and onto the ground, looking energetic as ever. Shortly afterward, a Pokemon emerged from the bushes.

Irwin Macalister
Cinnabar Island
---​

It was a warm day to say the least, and as Irwin held up his hand he could feel the small pools of sweat slowly forming under the arm belonging to said hand. It was a bit disgusting, but Irwin chose to ignore it. After all, everyone else here has got to be a bit sweaty right? Whatever. It seemed like only one person answered Irwin's – as he liked to think – pretty rad gesture. The kid seemed to be older than Irwin, or was he? It was kinda hard to tell actually. In the end, the flare-haired teen decided to just leave it at that the kid was around his age. He was also a bit chubby this kid, but unlike Irwin he didn't seem to be so jolly. His hair was dark and it seemed that the owner of said hair was feeling quite fed up with the hot weather, and honestly Irwin didn't blame him. It also seemed that the guy had a Zigzagoon – a Pokémon normally native to Hoenn – by his side. Maybe him and Irwin were a bit similar? Maybe they'd be good friends? After all, this was the only person who seemed to have the courtesy to respond to a slightly corny, but still good greeting.

However there was something about the way he answered Irwin's greeting, it seemed as if he had made an attempt to smile, but the attempt had failed. Hmm… Irwin immersed himself in thought, why was it so that this guy had failed to smile? Had something happened to him recently? Was he always a little sad about stuff? Had his parents abandoned him to become tomorrow's time travelers from the past? Had- No, no, no, this doesn't work at all! Irwin knows that he can't think like this! Without music to stimulate his brain, all of the things he can think up are just plain nonsense! Let's see… What music should we take? The good thing about Irwin is that the flare-haired teen's brain can work quite well as a playlist for many kinds of music ranging from what you'd hear on the radio to obscure stuff that not even hipsters would get their fingers dirty with. A good song for- oh wait, seems like Coal is talking right now. Better listen to her!

After Ambella had finished her speech, Irwin stood a bit breathless. Gym-Leaders… are becoming evil? The teen suddenly understood that this mission involved far more than he had thought at first. And now, he was unsure if he really was up to the task. While Irwin was spacing out like a moron – probably playing some music in his head, that's fitting to how he feels now – he was handed a PokéDex. The flare-haired teen looked down on the red device in his hand. He knew about PokéDexes, I mean who didn't? But the thought of actually owning one had never before crossed his mind. With this, Irwin felt like oceans, no, EONS of knowledge were coursing through his body. This thing could inform him of whatever attribute a Pokémon could have, it was simply… amazing. As he heard the professor say that they were to record – preferably catch – a whole bunch of Pokémon, Irwin's mind drifted away from the evil Gym-Leaders for a second. Now he stood and could only marvel at the sheer thought of catching an ocean of Pokémon, how much wouldn't that cost with all the PokéBalls and stuff? The flare-haired teen started to sweat a bit harder at the thought of all the money getting washed away, but then again Ambella said that her researchers would fund them, so it probably wasn't that bad.

After the explaining was all good and done, it seemed like the final person chose to arrive. Irwin threw a glance at her for a second. She seemed to be wearing baggy pants and a hoodie, in this weather? That's borderline to insane! Also, she had a hat on? Who was she trying to be, MC Warmer? Oh dear Arceus that was terrible! That joke didn't even make the slightest bit of sense! Irwin slapped himself mentally for even having the thought of coming up with such a joke, so instead of telling it and looking like a complete tool, he banished the joke to the deepest depths of his mind. Now where was he again? Oh yeah, the girl who arrived late! He decided to leave her for a moment and instead focus on his PokéDex. Irwin flipped it open and began to stare and poke at the functions like an idiot.

Meanwhile, Gex was starting to feel extremely bored with this stupid meeting. What did the human even say? Something about "Shmym-Bleeders"? "Rhym-Askfdjers?" Whatever it was, it seemed highly uninteresting. So instead of wasting any brainpower on pretty much anything, the Treecko started making small jabs in the air to show his Trainer that he was bored and wanted something to do.

"In a moment Gex…" Irwin said distantly as his Treecko pulled off some jabs in front of him. The Grass-type grunted and stuck out his tongue at his Trainer. "Well, at least it isn't a kick in the shin like he used to do." Irwin thought. He remembered very well the first time the two met, he had tried to issue an attack to the Pokémon, but instead it ended up kicking him in the shin and it would continue to do so for the two out of three years that he had been in Irwin's care. Faint traces of bruises could still be seen on the flare-haired teen's legs after those incidents, but he himself never thought about it much. He was a jolly fellow without much sorrow after all.

After checking out some of the stuff on his PokéDex, Irwin decided to maybe socialize with the fellow who had answered him earlier. He seemed like a pretty nice – albeit maybe grumpy – guy.
"Hello," he said as he walked up to the dude, "That's a pretty cool Zigzagoon you have there, seeing as they're pretty hard to come by here I'm a bit curious of how you got it." Irwin flashed the guy a friendly smile to show that he was a pretty nice and harmless guy, as if his whole appearance hadn't given that away already.

Fiona Cole

In a flash of light, her Doduo appeared behind her, facing the presumed threat. The noise from earlier came into clear definition, it was a growl, and now it was a constant growl. Much like a growl of Pokemon attempting to protect something? Fiona pulled off a quick but sloppy 180, standing herself up in the process. Her eyes lit up as she laid eyes on the Pokemon. A Growlithe and it was cute as hell, even if it was menacingly growling at them, it was still adorable to her. Doduo on the other hand, wasn't as captivated as Fiona, but be plenty sure that the Growlithe had his attention.

"Doduo, look a Growlithe!" Fiona was very pleased with her first Pokemon encounter, she had to catch this. Doduo, was far too busy being glared at by the dog to even respond. The thought of the puppy Pokemon even being a dangerous adversary hadn't even crossed her mind, but in the case of Doduo's, it very much did. The bird Pokemon appeared hesitant, almost afraid of Growlithe.

This time, the Growlithe growled even louder and bared its teeth and the trainer and Pokemon. Fiona glanced over at her Pokemon, which at this point was nearly emanating obvious fear. Annoyed and confused by the unusual cowardliness, she poked one of the heads roughly, much like the time she had been poked during their first encounter. Doduo reacted almost instantly, nearly stabbing Fiona in the eye before pulling back. She sighed, smiling, that seemed to do the trick. The fear was gone, but there was still a trace of hesitance left. It seemed she would have to make due with it.

"Alright... use Growl, show that Growlithe you can be just as intimidating!" Disregarding his own hesitance, Doduo reared both of his heads back and lunged them forward, roaring out an equally fierce growl. The Growlithe was caught by surprise, it's own growling coming to a halt. It definitely didn't expect to get a taste its own medicine. It quickly snapped out of the little trance it was in and roared out. It wasn't intimidating, it was more like a battle cry, or something someone would grunt or scream out to get the last repetition of a workout set. Fiona was sometimes guilty of that when she did her squats, it was far from an attractive action. Anyways, she decided to take the opportunity to strike.

"Quick attack, Doduo!" In a burst of speed, the Doduo slammed into the roaring Growlithe. Torquing his round furry body in such a fashion that his heads remained unharmed. The pup hit groaned, totally unprepared for the sneak attack. It hit the ground, it's body rolling around from the extra momentum. Rolling itself back onto it's feet, the Growlithe held a low growl, this time in anger more than anything. In retaliation, it spat small bullets of fire, several of time hitting their marks. Doduo winced in pain and the Growlithe slowly inched it's way closer.

This gave Doduo ample time to recover from the hit, and when the Growlithe decided to strike, he was ready. Suddenly, the canine sped up and bared it's sharp teeth, as it reached within two feet of the bird Pokemon, it leaped up with a gaping mouth. Fiona wasn't sure what to do, but one move just kept making it's way into her mind.

"Quick attack again!" Doduo nodded, taking two steps and launched himself up in the air towards the Growlithe. In a hectic collision, both had dealt a considerable amount of damage. Growlithe was once against struck in the chest, but not before sinking its teeth into a chunk of Doduo's body. Both of them hit the ground hard, falling not so far from where both had taken off. Growlithe was so far the stronger of the two, he had appeared to sustain less damage throughout the fight than Doduo had, and jumped up. It proudly walked over to Doduo, who was attempting to stand himself up.

The Growlithe roared once more and loomed over Doduo, before going in for another bite, this time for one of the necks. In a panic, one of the bird Pokemon's heads shot up, stabbing the dog with his beak. Annoyed by the defiance of her Doduo, the Growlithe snarled it's teeth and went in for another bite. Once again another peck was thrown, thwarting the canine's attempts to bite him. Again the pecks commenced, this time both heads in unison. Growlithe was able to dodge one, but in it's movement, lowered it's head, and something else right into one. The Growlithe shot up in pain, howling. It was gruesome, the peak had definitely punctured one of Growlithe's eyes, maybe even blinded it in that eye. It rolled away in pain, it's paws covering the eye and groaning out.

Fiona winced in disgust. "Oh god, that can't be good." She had no intention of that happening, nor did her Doduo, for he immediately shot up with worry and regret in it's dark eyes. She wasn't exactly sure if it would help, but she had to try. Scrummaging through her satchel, she pulled out a standard poke-ball and threw it at the Growlithe. Hitting one of it's hind legs, the ball bounced off and the pup was sucked into it. Being far too concerned with the status with it's eye, the Growlithe made no retaliation to being caught. The ball clicked, assuring Fiona that the Pokemon had been caught. She ran over picking up the ball, inside, the Growlithe was still rolling around clutching its eye in pain. She held it tightly in her hand as she turned to Doduo.

"We have to get him to a Pokemon center!" How had she known the Growlithe was a male? She didn't, it just appeared that way by it's aggressive nature and fighting styles. But now was not the time to ponder over such thoughts. Doduo nodded one of it's heads and and motioned with the other to follow him. Lucky enough, Doduo knew his way around the unsettled parts of the island and could easily guide them back to town. Fiona herself was a lost cause when it came to out of city ventures. Doduo slid down the cliff-side limiting his own speed so Fiona could keep up. In this situation he would've preferred to have carried her, but she was much larger than her younger child self. Fiona took off after her Pokemon, sliding down as gracefully as she could in her footwear. They took off sprinting, clearing through the obstacles of the island jungle. She glanced down at the ball, hoping things would turn out better than they looked.