The Start of a New Journey

Leon stood by the railing, his hands firmly gripped. His trusted partner, Totodile, stood on his shoulder looking out at the waves.

"We're almost there mom..."

 Days ago he had departed from Olivine City, back over in the Johto Region. He recalled the image of his parents waving goodbye, and his little sister running down the dock wailing her arms about in her own way of saying farewell. Leon was now on his own and nothing will stop him from achieving his dream. Totodile hopped of his shoulder, causing Leon to snap out of his deep thought.

"What is it, Totodile?"

 The Pokemon rubbed his belly and let out a small growl.

"Oh! Okay Totodile! Let's get something to eat."

Vanil had been starting her journey from the Sinnoh region, and curses she thought the place was cold. She was thankful that Hoenn was a much warmer region than home. However, she'd miss it. Home was home, after all.

Her partner was stored safely in her Poke Ball, but it was rattling madly. Vanil released her Bagon and upon his release... Plonk!

The poor Bagon keeled over. It let out small noises, and she could only recognise those sounds as sounds of hunger. "Come on, Bagon." Vanil picked him up and headed to the buffet to get some food to eat. She too was hungry.

While she was picking out food, she noticed someone with a Totodile, seemingly doing the same for his Pokemon. "Feel better?" she asked, and Bagon let out a satisfied sigh as he wolfed down some more food. Pokemon like him had a big appetite, it seemed!

Leon gently fed his small Totodile one piece of Pokemon food at a time while moving down the buffet line. He prepared a plate for himself and his Pokemon while also picking up some utensils.He headed for a table by the window, until he bumped into a girl with a very hungry Bagon, it seemed.

 "O-oh! Sorry about that!" He apologized to the fellow trainer. Totodile hopped off Leon's shoulders to observe the odd looking Pokemon. It didn't look like one that would be very common in Johto, that's for sure. He took this chance to register this new Pokemon in his Pokedex, which had been upgraded to register Hoenn Pokemon by Professor Elm.

 "Bagon, huh? Woah, it's also a Dragon type too!" Kneeling down, he patted the Pokemon's rock hard head.

"Oh no, it's no worries!" Vanil laughed as she picked up some food onto her own plate, watching her Bagon and the Totodile look at each other curiously. Her Bagon poked Totodile's chest, enjoying his reaction.

She rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah. This is my Bagon. His name's Guweyn," Vanil said, introducing her little Bagon which her parents had given her. "He's cute, isn't he?" she said with a sheepish smile.

"Oh uh... my name's Vanil. What's yours?" she asked quickly as Vanil realised she'd probably started rambling again, tilting her head at the new trainer all the while.

His eyes scanned the information that the Pokedex had to offer. He finally was brought back out of the trance by the young girl before him.

"Vanil? W-well it's nice to meet you..My name's is, uh, Leon.",He brought out his hand, gesturing for a handshake. Meeting new people wasn't always one of Leon's strengths, he didn't even know how he made friends back in Johto.

"So, are you heading for Hoenn too?" The boy said, attempting to spark up a conversation. "Me and my partner are just starting our adventure today..., his sentence began drifting off as he noticed that the little innocent looking Pokemon was getting into some mischief at the buffet area.

"Nice to meet you Leon!" Vanil grinned, reciprocating the handshake. It didn't appear that she minded much his hesitation, and took it in stride. To her, Leon did seem a little shy.

"And yeah. My parents said I should start my journey in their old home region," she explained. "That's why I have a Pokemon from Hoenn as opposed to one from Sinnoh." Vanil stopped herself there. She was starting to ramble again.

"Hey, what are you doing, Guweyn?" The Bagon looked up at her curiously, holding a piece of what looked like brownie in his stubby little arms. He appeared to be eating much more than he should've. Quite unhealthily too. "Come on, you can't just keep on eating all that sweet stuff. It's bad for your teeth. Then you can't bite people you don't like as hard."

The confusing thing would be the fact that Vanil even allowed her Bagon to bite people he didn't like in the first place. It was something to wonder about at least.

"What about Totodile?" she asked, looking over at the crocodile Pokemon.

"Totodile! What did I say about eating so much!" The trainer ran over to his Pokemon, trying to stop it from overeating. "You need to stay on your diet! You were doing so well too!" Struggling to keep Totodile in his arms caused him to fall backwards, releasing the grasp on little gremlin.

   Totodile ran around the boy on the floor, mocking him and his failed efforts. "Fine..You win this round.." He got up from from the carpet floor, dusting his clothing from any signs of dust or dirt. After digging into his pocket, he pulled out a Pokeball, Totodile's Pokeball.

"Return!" With a flash of red light, the Pokemon was pulled into ball. "Sorry about that." He said apologetically.

"No need to apologise!" Vanil laughed. She had to admit that his Totodile was a total rascal, but an entertaining one. "I think I might be having the same problem," she said, pointing out her still sheepish Bagon.

"Return Guweyn," she commanded. The red beam of light hit Bagon's head and encapsulated the Pokemon in the ball.

"Oh but darn it! I got so caught up with our Pokemon that I totally forgot to start eating!" Vanil exclaimed, quickly picking up some utensils with which to eat and heading towards a table which sat near the windows.

Leon picked up the mess Totodile had made. That little guy can get so out of hands sometimes! Heading over back to the buffet area, he threw the trash away and left the tray on the counter for someone to pick up. Grabbing a brand new plate, he began piling up food. Soon after, he returned back to the seat next to the window, though it looked like that girl took his spot.

"You don't mind if I sit with you, do you?" He asked politely, trying not to offend her in any way.

"Of course not!" Vanil smiled. "I was hoping you'd ask!"

While Leon was seating himself, Vanil got to work on her plate. It wasn't that much, since she wasn't that hungry. Rather, she was focusing more on the view outside. The trip didn't seem to be taking much longer either. The boat was going to dock at a city called Slateport. The water seemed wild from what she could see, and the ship was powering through what looked like some rapid waves.

"There sure is a lot of sea," she commented. "Say, you said you were just starting out right? What were you planning on doing?" Vanil asked curiously.

Leon paused from gnawing on his chicken leg. He swallowed the last bite he took, then replied. "Yeah, well. I've been wanting to battle all the gym leaders in Hoenn, then eventually move on to the Pokemon League and Battle Frontier, though Pokemon contests also have my interest."

  He looked over to his right, where the vast, open ocean could be seen. Somewhere along the horizon was a large island, obviously Hoenn. The ship still had some ways to go, but stepping on to sweet and precious land was in his grasp.

"How about you? What are you planning on doing?"

"Haha, that's cool. Both are pretty cool things to strive for, I think," Vanil smiled a little, still looking out the window rather absentmindedly.

She turned back to Leon and said, "As for me, I'm not really sure what I want to do. Pokemon Gym challenges and contests are cool and all, but I feel like there should be something else I can do. That might just be me being picky though.

"For a start, I'll probably take the Pokemon League challenge though," Vanil laughed nervously. "I'm not that good at battling though, so I'll just have to see. I don't even know what my Pokemon wants to do!" She laughed a little more, rubbing the back of her head.

"Hm...These are all pretty big dreams...I'm not sure I can even get past the first gym." He laughed nervously. He was never that self assured, and he often underestimated his abilities. As he bit the last bite of chicken that was left, he couldn't help but feel a little sorry for punishing his Pokemon.

"Hey Totodile, come out." A red beam of light emerged from the Pokeball as it opened and Totodile appeared standing on the floor. It stretched it's small stubby limbs and let out a relieved sigh. After lightly patting his Pokemon's snout, Leon went back to Vanil.

"So what's Sinnoh like? I've only heard of it from books about it's history, though I've never really seen it in person."

"Well, you and me both then!" Vanil grinned. Well, she had an idea of how strong her Bagon was, and it had one special move which was unique among Bagon, but even then... she was worried about her own ability. Guweyn would be fine...

"Sinnoh? It's cold, cold and uh... well, okay. It's a pretty historical place, I think," Vanil replied. "I don't know that much since I haven't travelled around there myself, but from what I've heard from my parents, it has a pretty wide range of Pokemon, and a whole slew of legends attached to a lot of places."

"I lived around Canalave, so I read up a little, but that's pretty much it from what I know," she explained shortly.

"Sheesh, that place sounds boring...In Johto we have The Pokeathlon Arena and National Park. Not to mention the Lake of Rage! Haha.." He chuckled as he recalled past memories of his families' vacations. "Me and my parents used to travel a lot on vacation days, one time we even went to Kanto." Totodile sat in boredom, his owner was blabbering on and on and on. "We got to see a Gyarados when we visited the Lake of Rage too!"

"That sounds way cooler," Vanil laughed. "The Lake of Rage sounds amusing," she grinned. Figures, that you'd find a Gyarados in a place called the Lake of RAGE though. "Was it a shiny?" she asked, recalling something that had been on the new recently about a rare shiny Pokemon making an appearance.

"Actually, that just reminded me! Talking about lakes, there's a trinity of lakes spread across the Sinnoh Region... and it's said that you can find three special Pokemon in the island in the middle!" Vanil exclaimed, getting more excitable as well. "Except, I don't know if anyone's seen them."

"And you even got to go to Kanto... lucky..." Exploring the region themselves certainly sounded very fun.

Just as she finished that thought, a loud blaring noise came from the ship's horn. "Whoa," she blinked, trying to regain any semblance of hearing back from that impossibly loud honking.

"Nope, it was just a regular Gyarados, but it was just as cool! And I've heard of those lakes, but I'm not aware of any special Pokemo -" Before being able to finish his sentence, the ship's horn roared. It wasn't a pleasant sound, but it meant they were finally docking.

"Yes! We're finally here!" Leon stood straight up, thrilled as ever. "C'mon Totodile!" The Pokemon was knocked out cold, napping lazily under Leon's seat. Improvising, Leon returned Totodile to his Pokeball. He fastened his messenger bag and was about to walk off, but then realized that he forgot about Vanil.

"Hey, do you want to come with me? Like, at least to the first town. It'd be nice to have some company." He asked.

"Of course! I don't mind!" Vanil said excitedly. Without another word she began to make her way out to where the passengers were getting off, waiting for Leon to catch up.

Eventually, the two of them were able to disembark the ship and take their first steps into Slateport. The salty air was only too evident when the breeze came by, the sun gently shining down, and the town was bustling with activity of people shopping in the market and coordinators flocking to the contest hall.

It seemed just like the perfect day to start off a journey. "Wow..." she mumbled under her breath.

The lighthouse stood tall, perfect for helping the large ships find their way at night. The beach down South looked like the perfect place to take a long nice nap.

  Totodile danced around the two trainers, happy to be on land and by the sea. Leon smiled, "Haha! Totodile calm down, we'll go to the beach later. I've been itching for a battle, how about it?" The Pokemon jumped for joy. Even though it was still inexperienced in battling, Leon hoped that it would pull through in a difficult situation.

"A battle with me?" Vanil rubbed the back of her head. Well, Guweyn did seem like the kind that liked fighting. "Well, sure. No promises on a good fight here though!" She grabbed her Poke Ball from the holster on her belt and threw it, releasing her Bagon.

Guweyn appeared and shook his head, looking at Vanil and Leon curiously. Did he miss something? He turned towards Totodile and tilted his head. "Uh, we're gonna battle," Vanil explained.

His eyes practically lit up and he jumped into action, leering at Totodile.

Totodile clumsily went into a battle stance. Although this would mark as the Pokemon's first battle, it was still determined and optimistic.

"Uh, do you know how this works? Do I just shout out any move?" The trainer thought for a second or two before finally saying, "Totodile, use Scratch!"

It charged toward Vanil's Pokemon as fast as it's little legs can carry it. After striking the Bagon in the face, Totodile prepared a Water Gun, ignoring its trainer's next orders.

Vanil blinked, having no time to worry about Bagon's injury and shouted, "Sidestep, then use Bite!"

Guweyn sidestepped the Water Gun as best he could in his reaction time, getting clipped on his arm. He charged and opened his mouth, attempting to bite down on Totodile's arm in return.

Thankfully, Guweyn's hard head mitigated some of the damage from Totodile's Scratch attack, although it still hurt.

"Hurry Totodile, shake it off! Literally!" The Pokemon desperately tried to shake off the Bagon, though it stood a strong grip with it's jaw.

"Try using Scratch again, while it's stuck to you!" The trainer said out of panic. With it's free hand, Totodile began scratching the Bagon relentlessly, trying to get the pest off.

"You can do this Guweyn!" Vanil clenched her teeth. "Rage!" A red glow started to surround him as he became more and more enraged by Totodile's constant Scratch attacks.

Eventually he let go and growled menacingly, backing off some distance to recompose himself before attacking. "Alright! Let 'em loose!" she grinned.

Bagon let out a roar and rushed as fast as he could, taking into account his injuries from earlier, towards Totodile, aiming to bash him down with his hard head and increased attack.

Totodile was hit hard in the abdomen, sending him flying backwards. The Pokemon tumbled down the pathway, finally coming at a halt before Leon. Although it was beaten quite badly, it struggled to stand up, then somehow found the will to continue the fight.

"Hm, alright buddy. Lets keep on going! Hurry use Water Gun on the ground!" Totodile did what it was told; the floor became wet and slippery. "Good! Now hit 'em with a Tackle!" It immediately charged toward the Bagon, showing no mercy whatsoever.