The crimson beam of light erupted from the unassuming ball, constricting and contracting to create a blurry outline of the creature that Zane hoped would pull him through this misadventure. At first it was just the basic shape of the Pokémon that could be discerned, standing true to what the picture in the magazine had shown. The creature was bipedal, standing at around half of his six foot height and was humanoid in shape save a slightly more rotund head along with the intimidating talons that lay in place of its forearms and toes. Eventually, the crimson tone began to dissipate, and Zane could begin to make out more detailed features; such as the midnight hue of its fur, its rather feline appearance and the single feather that adorned its right eye. His gaze was not fixated on these features as much as the creatures eyes, which were a darker crimson than the light that had originally engulfed it. These glowing orbs were currently wide out of shock, leading Zane to temporarily wonder what it would be like to exist in one of those tiny spheres...

A period of silence followed in which the Sneasel took in its surroundings, shrugging off its initial shock far quicker than Zane had anticipated. Zane knew that this may be the crucial moment that would decide the pattern of the rest of his adventure... but having decided to ignore the female trainer's claims that this Pokémon would be difficult to get along with, he stayed in his relaxed manner, sprawled on the bed and watching silently from afar. After all, it's not like this creature would hurt him, if they let a bunch of pesky twelve year olds pick up these things they couldn't be all that dangerous. Eventually, the Sneasel's gaze settled on the inanimate figure of Zane.

Zane failed to notice three crucial things that would have alerted him to the Sneasel's intentions. Firstly, its gaze narrowed at the sight of the human in front of it. Secondly, it visibly tensed up upon the discovery of his presence... and finally, a visible smirk gradually spread across its lips. Sitting up, Zane decided to introduce himself to the Pokémon, opening in a rather nonchalant manner. The whole awkwardness of speaking to people didn't really apply when you were speaking to a presumably semi-sentient creature, so the forthcoming speech came easily to him.

"Right then, let's get a few things straight...actually, come to think of it, I don't know if you understand Hoenn...but from here on out I'll be going on the assumption that yo-"- he was interrupted by a clawed foot connecting with his nose and pushing him with surprising force back against the wall, gouging a shallow cut in his cheek and knocking the breath from his body due to complete shock. The creature meanwhile had pushed off from his face with its foot, completing a neat little back flip, landing on the floor with ease. Without another look at its supposed new master, the Sneasel span around and darted out of the carelessly open in door of the cabin. In his rather dazed state, Zane could have sworn that the creature had flipped him off before it had exited the cabin.

Clutching his head in agony, Zane managed to roll off of the bed and onto the polished white floor, still gasping for breath. Gradually, he pulled himself up to his feet, head pounding but breath now managing to squeeze its way into his lungs. For a moment he debated whether to chase after the Pokémon... sure, technically the thing was his, but someone else would probably stop it before it did too much damage, what with the cruise liner being infested with new and experienced trainers alike.

"Fuck it," Zane grumbled to himself, "Hope that bastard thing gets caught by someone else..." He collapsed back onto the lower bunk, chasing after the Pokémon would have been too much effort anyway. Plus, if he went outside he'd have to deal with the mocking gaze of all those outside... made especially bad by the fact that the majority of those people are four years younger than him. As much as his lethargic attitude would suggest, he grudgingly cared what others thought about him... even to the extent that he'd invest effort into changing people's opinion of him. But right now, sitting back and relaxing would probably minimise any possible damage to his reputation.

With the benefit of hindsight now on his side, Zane relented that he should have got the fire chicken thing... odds are it would be a little less aggressive (he'd pay good money to see THAT jump kick him in the face) and even if it tried to attack, worst case scenario would be a roast chicken meal. In his current situation however, Zane couldn't help but admit he'd been backed into a corner... his last chance at lethargy had seemingly evaporated. Perhaps he should have put more effort into making a good first impression? Fortunately, in the recent years he had become an expert at shoving important life-changing situation to the back of his mind, so he quickly found himself falling into a midday lull upon the lower bunk, appearing (quite rightly) to a confused onlooker to be completely unconcerned by the escape of his first Pokémon...

****************
Laughter fills the eerily blank expanse. It begins to recoil from the sound, but it is everywhere. In an instant it is blinded by a burning light. Pictures present themselves to it, random memories flitting through the expanse like insects. A child, brimming with hope, confidence and idealism... face obscured. Another, same child but taller, gazing intently at his surroundings with an enamoured smile spread across delicate lips. Final image, a reflected face, eyes hollowed by longing for something unknown. Tears gather, anger roams. It knows this emotion all too well, it is the anger that rises like magma through a volcano when it is confronted by an emptiness it cannot easily fill. Self-awareness spreads through it... the images fade; reality comes crashing down like a waterfall.

****************
Zane groaned loudly as he grudgingly woke up, clinging to his pillow in the hope that he could fall asleep again. He hated dream like those, in which his self-conscience's sole aim seemed to be to confuse him with visual metaphors or some shit. Obviously the images were of himself, appearing to depict the trend of decline in his mental outlook. It was a sad part of your life when the deepest part of yourself seemed to hate you. Zane was brought out of this rather depressing string of thought when he noticed someone was standing beside his bunk. Who the hell could that b-

"Arceus! You're a bigger scumbag than I had ever guessed! Not only do you let your partner come sprinting out of your cabin, but you don't even TRY to get her back and then you go to sleep like nothing had happened at all?! Honestly I'm not sure whether you deserve to have her back after that performance, it being YOUR job to look after her and everything, which you CLEARLY can't handle!" The rest of the intruder's speech was lost as Zane groggily tried to sit up on his bunk and shut out that annoying shrill voice. He guessed from the pitch that it was a girl... but the question still remained who the hell it was. More importantly though, why'd he leave the door open again? Oh, right...because he couldn't be asked to shut it... damn he really was lazy.

"You're not even listening to me, are you?" the voice further interrogated, really beginning to annoy Zane. Opening his eyes, he discovered to his horror that it was that over-enthusiastic girl from before...Red...Ross... or something like that. He groaned when he realised that he couldn't gain any satisfaction from punching HER in the nose; he'd been hoping for some weedy over-zealous twelve-year old or something... you know, someone that he wouldn't feel guilty for hitting.

"Uh...maybe?" he muttered confusedly. Zane was surprised at how terrifying the girl looked, her cheeks were so red from anger that he guessed she'd been trying to wake him up for a while. She seriously looked like she was going to beat the crap out of him.

"Right!" she yelled, beginning to pace the length of the bed as she proceeded to rant, "Now that you're awake, maybe you can explain to me why the hell you're sleeping at a time like this?!" Her interrogating voice reminded him of a stereotypical drill sergeant, and he had to resist the smirk that wanted to reveal itself at such an analogy. He responded very bluntly, which on second thought may not have been the best tactic.



"Didn't have anything better to do." His response obviously didn't go down well with Reece...Rex... or whatever it was, he could have sworn a vein must have popped in her head by the contorted expression of rage on her face. Maybe she was bipolar, she certainly had been a tad nicer before.

"What!? Taurus-shit, there is no way you can be THAT damn laid back. Hell, I've seen Slugma react faster than you do! You're going to be a trainer for Arceus' sake! Letting a Pokémon run away just because it's a bit on the frisky side just isn't right. Damn, I was SO wrong about you!"

The aura of disappointment that literally clung to this trainer roused emotions to Zane that felt completely alien to him, he suddenly felt the need to defend himself. Rage began to course through his veins...what right did this bitch have to preach to him about her way of living, not everyone could be so damn perfect?!

"Now just hold the hell on!" he exclaimed, stopping Rose dead in the build up to yet another rant. Zane's mouth seemed to outpace his mind, as his mind was still in shock at the fact that he was actually arguing with someone. "What legendary-given right do you have to come in here and preach your values to me? But you know what, it's irrelevant because you're preaching to the converted, princess. I hate my mentality. I hate the fact that I have no drive to do anything. I despise those qualities about me. But you know what, people are different. Some people have the willpower to change themselves, but I'm not one of them. I've tried to change myself, and failed. I came on this journey out of necessity, so I'm sorry if I don't act like a "good trainer". So I humbly apologise that I don't meet your expectations princess. Now would you kindly get the fuck out of my cabin, take the Pokémon or leave it, I really couldn't give two shits either way!"

If only he could have taken a picture of the girl's face, her reaction to that emotive display was priceless and Zane found himself taking a sadistic amount of pleasure from the knowledge that he probably scared the crap out of her. But this temporary flare of happiness faded quickly and was replaced by a similar shock to what the girl appeared to be undergoing. He'd just argued in his defence... he couldn't remember doing that ever before?! In an instant the anger dissipated and Zane regretted what he had said, he now sincerely hoped that he had not hurt the trainers feelings too much...he wasn't even sure what he had been shouting about.

In the stunned silence Zane also noticed that she'd really done very little in comparison to what others had done to him... leaving him preoccupied with the question: why the hell had he reacted so strongly? I mean, people had said a lot worse things to him in the past. It was like this random stranger had known exactly what to say in order to incite his rage, and in the perfect tone as well... had she done this deliberately? The sudden change in expression on the girl...Rose! That was her name! The change in expression on Rose's face would have certainly suggested this, if he had noticed it.

"Who would have thought it? Am was right..." she muttered faintly, so faintly that the sentence completely breezed past his ears. Nodding her head, she then added a conclusive, "You'll do!" before unclipping a Pokéball from her belt and dropping it on Zane's lap. "We'll have to work on that attitude though, you chose a real bitch of a Pokémon too...ah well, that'll just make things more interesting I guess!" she chirped gleefully, hopping onto the top bunk.

Hang on...what? The sheer change is direction that this conversation had taken had completely thrown him... never before had he met someone...so...unusual. I mean he'd literally just screamed a rather confused and emotion driven speech in her face... and not only had she failed to respond to it, but she seemed completely unfazed, more than that, she seemed to be pleased that he broke in such a way. Also, what the hell did she mean by "You'll do"? Apparently the confusion of his mind was mirrored in his facial features, as Rose picked up on it pretty quickly.

"Yeah...I have that effect on people a lot. I just think that's because everyone else's minds don't work as fast as mine, but hopefully you'll catch up eventually. We'll be spending a lot of time together after all!". The tumultuous clouds that rumbled his mind now appeared to part, and the glorious light of a plausible question broke through their ranks.

"...Err...we'll be seeing a lot of each other?" he ventured, his voice not emitting the confidence with which he had envisaged asking such a question.

"Well duh! You head really doesn't work too fast, does it? Not that it really needs to though. But at any rate, we'll be exploring the Unova region together! How can we not spend a lot of time together when we're travelling together, silly?" Rose replied, beginning to bob up and down on the bunk above him in excitement, the springs of which started creaking annoyingly. Zane didn't want to come off too rude in his reply, still feeling a bit embarrassed by his earlier rant, but really he couldn't help but be as blunt as possible when it came to expressing his bewilderment at such a prospect.

"And... how exactly did you arrive at the conclusion that we'll be travelling together?" From the exasperated sigh, Zane could imagine the bizarre girl rolling her eyes at such an apparently inane question.

"Arceus, I hope I'm not going to have to spell EVERYTHING out to you. Look at this way, even you admitted that you're a desperately lazy waste of space, which in itself is a pretty damaging thing to a prospective trainer's chances of...well, survival, I guess. Add to that problem that you're sole companion will either try to ditch you or kill you...I'm thinking that without the supervision and guidance of an experienced trainer, you're odds of survival are...pretty damn slim." Shit... again, Rose had made a good point... now that the facts were in front of him and pretty hard to ignore, Zane could see that his life may actually be on the line here. But putting it in this... odd example of a trainer's hands really didn't seem like a much better choice. I mean sure, she probably had some degree of experience and he didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth... but the whole idea of it set alarm bells ringing through the dominant "judge a book by its cover" section of his mind.

"I guess you have a point..." he relented, pausing awkwardly for a few seconds before continuing carefully, "But...just how experienced are you actually? No offence or anything! It's just...that, well...you don't SEEM like the...type of person who'd be a...great trainer?" A cheer leader or drug addict maybe, but definitely not a trainer of any esteem. Quite frankly, she didn't seem mentally stable enough to stick to a single goal long enough to get anywhere.

He soon regretted voicing his concerns as she poked her head down from the top bunk to meet his gaze. Her normally calm blue eyes suddenly held a tumultuous quality as they narrowed. It seemed absurd that such a delicate looking girl could strike the degree of fear that now resonated through Zane's heart.

"...What are you trying to say?" Rose asked in an unsettlingly calm tone, an unnerving smile placed gently on her lips. Zane didn't respond, not trusting himself to speak out of fear. "Hmm...? Because I thought you were trying to suggest that I don't have what it takes to be a half-decent trainer. Perhaps I was wrong, but just in case, need I inform you that I stopped your companion from running away on my own? Or had you not considered that?"

Crap! What was this girl, a mind reader or something? He hadn't even considered how she had managed to stop his Sneasel from getting away. If what she said was true, that was admittedly pretty impressive.

"I didn't think so. But just in case you're still in doubt about my abilities, I've got my résumé right here..." Her face disappeared back up to the top bunk for a while, and after a faint period of time in which Zane could only hear a faint rustling, her face reappeared along with two hands, each of which held two small, rectangular containers. Guessing that she meant for him to take them, Zane gingerly reached out and took each one. Under her close supervision, he opened both of them, and was honestly shocked when he discovered eight polished pieces of metal residing in each of the two containers. She spoke again, but this time her voice conveyed a hint of pride.

"Hope to add all of the badges from Unova to that collection. Any more questions about my capabilities as a trainer?" There was no denying it; Zane's original expectations of this trainer had been completely shattered. Fully completing the Pokémon League in two separate regions was a rather impressive and intimidating feat. Arceus! She could even be at a Champion level!

"Not really..." he answered tentatively. One of these days, he would learn that he shouldn't take people at face-value. Rose smiled, immediately dropping the overly-serious facade and returning to her normal gleeful self.

"Great, so as I don't hear any objections against me coming along with you I'll assume that I've beaten you into submission! Come on, cheer up! I was just fucking with you back there; I'm not really that offended. Strangely, you're not the first to have such misconceptions about me." She audibly sighed at this sad truth, "People just don't seem to get me that easily." Wait, she'd been fucking with him all that time? He actually thought he'd crapped himself back there! And when the hell did he agree to take her with him? Sure, now that he knew she was a good trainer she'd be helpful... but Zane was still unsure what to make of her. You know, other than the fact that she was insane. The real question was whether he could stand having such an emotionally variable person being his only human companion in an alien new nation. But apparently she had already concluded that she was coming with him...and really, he was still too freaked out to argue with her.

"Silence again, huh? Sheesh, you're such a joy kill. Look, if you have any questions I promise I'll try to answer them seriously, if I must." Her face had now gone a peachy red colour from hanging upside down for so long, although Rose appeared to take no notice. Right...questions...questions.

"...How exactly did you catch my Pokémon?" Zane asked first. It wasn't really the question that he wanted to ask, but it was the first one that had managed to fight its way through his mouth. Rose laughed angelically.

"Oh, that? That was easy-peasy. All I had to do was get Lance to plonk her on the head. To the credit of the Sneasel, she did at least try to fight back. Most low-level Pokémon just kind of freeze when they are confronted by Lance... I guess that's his effect on people. Then I just put her in a better ball, apparently the standard Pokéballs are really cramped. And before you ask, I knew she was yours because she was running away. Not that I had anticipated it running away or anything. The only thing that confused me was that you weren't chasing after her...but I've already picked you up on that." For the first time since Rose had thrown the ball onto his lap he actually took a look at the new thing. It was predominantly black but with a yellow tint around its sides. Then he took notice of a particular word that she had used.

"Wait...her?" he asked. Rose's crimson face moulded into an expression of genuine surprise.

"You didn't even bother to find out that she's female?!"

*********
And thus a pattern of conversation was set, in which Zane said something amateurish and Rose immediately taught him the real way of doing things. This continued and repeated itself for a full hour before Zane had pleaded to be allowed to go to sleep, needing time to process all of this new information. Rose relented and allowed him to rest, although Zane theorised that this was only due to her brain starting to shut down from oxygen deprivation.

A few hours later and night soon enveloped the sky, and the cruise liner still gracefully sliced through the endless twilit ocean. Zane had long since fallen asleep, leaving Rose the only conscious person left in the cabin. Overall, she thought that the day had gone pretty well. Sure, she could have made a slightly less crazy first-impression on the poor new trainer, but she'd found it much more entertaining to see the confused expressions that constantly flitted across his face. His confusion also had the unintended benefit of rendering him unable to ask about several carelessly put forward fragments of her speech. There were some things that he didn't really need to worry about.

Also, she was sure that Zane was the perfect type of trainer for the job. He certainly fitted the criteria: relatively clueless and lethargic, yet containing the potential to revise his ways. His explosion earlier had taught her that much, and when she'd first noticed him on the small journey to the cruise liner, she had noted the look of wonderment on his face as he took in the scenery. Rose hoped that this meant he held some hidden appreciation for the natural world, which was always a plus. Most importantly though...she could tell that underneath his relatively boring exterior, there were some truly interesting emotions flying around. Hopefully once he relaxes, he'd properly open up to her...

Rose had never been a great believer in fate, purely because she didn't like to see herself imprisoned in anyway... but really the discovery of this new trainer had been one hell of a stroke of luck. Rose just hoped that Am knew what he was doing, as a hell of a lot counted on Zane and the Sneasel getting to like one another, or at least not killing each other. She sighed deeply, mentoring those two was going to be difficult...and the timing involved.

Hopefully it would all work out though...and who knows, she might even make a new friend. Although...she should probably ask for his name first!Chapter End Notes:Late? Bah, a wizard is never later, he posts a story exactly when he intends to. Yeah...sorry 'bout the slight tardiness of this chapter, what with exams coming up I've been slightly busy. As a result of said exams, next chapter will be delayed somewhat, but it will come out eventually damnit! Again, I still think my writing is somewhat rusty, and I didn't have time to thoroughly proof-read so apologies for spelling/grammar mistakes. As always hope you enjoyed the chapter and pop a review in if you've got any criticism (positive or negative)