Dedicated to -Asterisk- for the awesome (first) cover!

It was around the middle of the day the next day when we arrived in Fallarbor. The town and surrounding area were a sharp contrast to where I had been before: little vegetation and a lot of dirt. If it wasn't for the wind blowing dust in my eyes I don't think I would've minded it though.

My feet ache. Is travelling always going to be so tasking? Once I saw the pokemon center my eyes locked on and I raced towards the air conditioning.

"Hey, wait up!" Flora called, breaking out into a run to catch up with me.

Thunk! I fell back on the ground in pain. I looked up to see a rather irritated looking man staring down at me. He was standing in the doorway, and I could tell that I ran into the wrong person.

"Watch where ya' goin' kid!" The unhappy man stared into my eyes, as if expecting a response. I just stared back, and I suppose my lack of reaction let my disinterested face leak out. "What's that funny look for, eh? Ya' wanna' fight?!"

I stood up a brushed myself off. Flora caught up. "What did you do now?!"

Don't say it like I cause you problems often!

"Oh, what do we have here? A pretty girl with..." The man looked at her sash. "Only four badges?!" He burst out into laughter. "Ya' think ya' own the place or something just because ya' have four badges?" He opened up his vest to show us his five badges and pokeballs.

She didn't say anything, and I was the one who bumped into you.

The man pulled out a pokeball. "Teach them a lesson, Machamp!" Out of the capsule popped a four armed pokemon that looked like a pro wrestler, and certainly had the build to be one.

Flora grinned wickedly. "Have it your way! Come on out, Truffles! Let's show this guy some manners!" A few seconds later the Swinub was rolling across the ground from a punch. "Return!"

Of course it was going to lose, it's a stage one pokemon against a fully evolved one with a better type advantage. Didn't you learn anything in school? I saw a tear fall from Flora's eye. You're getting all worked up from a battle you gladly got into? That's when I came to the realization that I now had in it within my power to fight back. I felt my teeth grit into a smile. "Hey, you think you can stand between me and the great indoors?"

"Eh? What was that? Ya' think ya' can beat me?!"

"I don't need any badges to beat a punk like you!" I reached back into my backpack and felt around for my pokeballs. A steel and rock type like Aron doesn't stand a chance against a strong fighting type like that. "I guess it can't be helped, come on out, Salamence!"

"Wait, zero badges?! Salamence?!" The punk almost looked sorry to pick the fight for a second there.

However, what came out of my pokeball was not a Salamence. Instead, I found myself with a Bagon that looked almost as inexperienced as me. Ehhhhh?! This is what you left me with dad? Man, you're so useless!

"Hey! Ya' think ya' can mess with me kid?! No way, Machamp, use Mach Punch!"

Thankfully, I remembered a key piece of information about Bagon from my dad's many rants about pokemon. "Bagon, block with your head!" The little guy took the huge force straight to his head, making his feet dig into the dirt a little as he absorbed the impact. The little pokemon didn't faint, though, and just held his position.

A few people from around the town started peeking out of the houses and looking at us.

Machamp and his trainer looked shocked that the punch didn't immediately knock Bagon out. Quickly, I pulled out my pokedex and looked at Bagon's entry. "Keep using Mach Punch!" Four arms of fury started flying back and forth and Bagon, who took each hit straight to his steel-hard head.

"Bagon, use Rage then Leer as many times as you can!" After Bagon's fit of Rage, it became a battle of the same moves over and over. Quickly, Bagon's anger exploded as his health dwindled. Machamp looked more and more frantic to get the little dragon away from him.

Please be high enough level for this! "Quickly, use Bite!"

"Use Low Kick!"

I briefly saw Bagon's eyes look at me in confusion, and Machamp's kick landed, sending Bagon flying. He skidded across the ground a little bit, and I ran over to him as the dust cleared. Fainted. "Return." I knew that bringing out Aron would be a fruitless effort, even against a weakened Machamp, let alone his other four pokemon, so I got a hold of myself and admitted defeat. That was stupid of me. Why would I want to be a part of a pokemon battle anyways?

"Serves ya' right. Actin' all high and mighty. Come back Machamp, it's time to hit the road." He walked away, laughing at his accomplishment of beating a newbie.

Flora walked over to me, obviously also disappointed in the turn of events, but with a little twinkle in her eye. "That was fantastic! You really are good at this!"

My pride had taken a hit. "Na, I didn't stand a chance in the first place." Gaaahh! What was I even trying to do, show off to her at how much I could lose or something?!

"I think you're both right." A lone spectator walked out of hiding and came towards us. He was wearing a green suit, spotless black gloves, and a fedora with a green stripe going around it. His inquisitive, small, dark eyes softly met ours, and his swept back black hair hinted that there was a little bit of a rebel inside of him. "The name's Daron, may I ask that you share a cup of tea with me?"

A random guy? Sure, why not. "As long as there is air conditioning."

He motioned for us to follow, and he led us to a strange two storied building with a domed top. Opening the door, he yelled upwards. "I brought guests Cozmo!"

I could hear something crash down to the floor. "Come in, come in! I hope you didn't bring the usual two without warning me first."

Daron laughed and hung his hat and coat up. "Don't worry, it's a different two this time." He looked back at us. "Come on in, don't be shy."

We came in, and the first thing I noticed was all of the papers. Diagrams, blueprints, random mathematical calculations, incoherent scribbles, everything one could imagine was here, there and everywhere on some piece of paper. Papers on tables. Papers on the floor. Papers stuck in the sides of books. The level of clutter was impressive. The second thing that I noticed was the huge telescope on the second floor and the second floor itself. You could see the contents of the second floor on the first, as the second floor only hung over about half of the first, and was connected by a ladder. The telescope up there was huge and almost completely white, and was pointing towards the ceiling, which appeared to be able to open up when needed.

A peculiar looking man in a lab coat gathered up fallen papers on the second floor, and after that was done climbed down his ladder, still carrying a stack of documents. His brown hair was a little lopsided to the right, and was very messy. "Hello, I'm Professor Cozmo! Oh, I suppose you already knew that..." He nervously looked at Daron.

He laughed. "You never do get any less awkward, do you? I found these two making their way to the pokemon center when a battle broke out... I'm sorry, what were your names?"

"Flora."

"Elron."

"Ah... So I found Elron here, who has no badges of his own, holding off a trainer with five of them."

The professor seemed to know what was going on now. "And that piqued your interest?"

"Yes. It isn't often that you find a trainer with so much natural talent."

"I see... I'll make the tea..."

"Thanks." He made the tea for us and after we all had ours Daron put down his cup. "I'd like to offer you a job, Elron. You see, I'm here in Fallarbor to study the ashes from Mt. Chimney. By studying these ashes, I hope to learn more about Regigigas and the creation of the other legendary Golems. Are you familiar with the legends?"

"Yes," I said, "I studied them once upon a time in school."

Flora tugged on my shoulder and whispered in my ear. "What are you guys talking about?"

Daron laughed again. "Looks like someone doesn't know. That's okay, I'll tell you. Long ago, the legend tells of Regigigas, a mighty titan, pulling the continents apart with its own power. It's also said that it is responsible for the creation of three other legendary pokemon: Registeel, Regice, and Regirock, from lava, ice, and clay respectively. However, the people feared its incredible power, and sealed it away. I'm interested in finding out more about this pokemon, including where it was sealed away and the like, and in order to find that out I am travelling and studying each of the three golems. Right now, I am looking at the lava of Mt. Chimney as the possible source for the creation of Registeel, and am thus looking at the soot from the volcano."

I blew on my tea and took a sip. "So what's this have to do with me?"

"That's the spirit! It's simple, I want you, and your partner if you want, to help me in my research as lab hands and companions on my future journeys. I could always use more help, especially from a sharp mind such as yourself."

Quitting this silly journey to get a job as a simple lab assistant? "Sign me u--"

"We refuse!" Flora stood up and slammed her hands down on the table, startling Cozmo. She looked mad.

"W-what's wrong with the nice man's offer? You don't have to accept it too."

"That's not the point!" She stormed out of the house.

"Excuse me, I'll be back." I ran after her. Daron just patiently sipped on his tea and the professor scurried over to some notes, acting like he was working.

When I caught up with her she was pouting under the shade of a tree. I'm not too good at these sensitive things, but I still gave it a shot. "What's wrong?"

"Don't worry about it, it's nothing... You can go accept that offer..."

I wanted to take her up on that, but something told me that wasn't the right answer. "No, tell me, what's wrong."

She sat in silence, but I didn't leave. After seeing she wasn't going to do anything, I took seat next to her against the tree.

After a few minutes, she spoke up. "I just... you know... was happy to finally find a travelling partner again after all this time. There's no one our age who would be willing to travel me because of my skill level... and it's too lonely for me on these trails to go by myself everywhere. Sure, I see people in the cities and have my pokemon with me, but sometimes that's just not good enough. Maybe I should just stop being a trainer and find myself a job..."

I wanted to say "well you have a job offer already," but I once again held back because I knew that would not be the normal person answer. I didn't answer for a little bit, but I eventually came up with one. "Let's meet in the middle. Let's continue on our journey for a little while, and once we've had our share, let's get jobs."

"...When will we have our 'share'?"

"Hm... How about we settle for challenging the Elite Four?"

She stopped sulking and looked at me in the eyes with a countenance full of surprise. "The Elite Four?! Are you crazy?! We'll never get to that point!"

"Then you never have to end the journey, do you?" I smiled. At this moment I was brimming with unfounded cockiness. "Besides, now you have me, who apparently has a lot of natural talent, so you might have a chance." I gave her a wink.

The happiness came back to her, and she burst out into a fit of laughter. "You're a riot! Alright, fine, we'll just do that!"

-----

"There you have it, there's our decision."

"That's a shame, but I guess it can't be helped. I assume you'll want to work with me once you've grown into a trainer worthy of challenging the Elite Four?"

"Of course. Lab work has always came natural to me after all."

"Very well. I look forward to working with you, and I'll keep in touch."

"How will you keep in touch?" I didn't own any sort of portable communication devices since I was used to being a shut-in.

"Oh, you don't have anything? Hey Cozmo, do you still have those old pokegears?"

The professor stumbled around, almost tripping on his work. "Yes, yes. I can find them for you..." After a moment he came hobbling back with two watches, and handed them to Daron.

"Thank you Professor. Here, you two take these. They're a little old and imported from Johto, but pretty soon Devon Corps is supposed to be coming out with a new kind, so you shouldn't have to wait too long before you can get something nicer."

We took the devices, exchanged numbers, thanked them for everything, and got on our way.

Daron called out to us as we left. "Don't keep me waiting and get better quickly! I know you can do it!"

And so, after a stop at the pokemon center, we made our way out to our next Flora chosen destination, Rustboro City, using Fallarbor as our jumping off point. After all, we can't both challenge the Elite Four until we both had eight badges, so we went to go get me my first one. What could possibly go wrong?