The beginning of a journey to nowhere!

Shade passed overhead as a rather rag tag group walked out of the rather auspicious laboratory. They'd heard about the pokedexes that were being handed out, and had decided to make New Bark town their first stop. A cool afternoon's breeze pulled at the open black jacket and white shirt beneath. Blue eyes were focused on the red device in his hand. An electronic encyclopedia to record information about the various Pokemon they would encounter throughout their journey.

You have such interesting devices... Rei intoned mentally so both Raven and his companion could hear. She stood almost waist tall to him, so it would be fairly easy to miss the small, blue dog looking Pokemon. Raven paused in his walking to glance down at it.

“Yeah,” He replied aloud, as he tended to when no one else was around. Well... Aylene was there, but she knew as much as he did about Auras. Or rather their abilities with it, so he didn't mind it so much. His attention shifted back to the Pokedex. “Just one look through this device and it tells me a little bit about the Pokemon. It should help us a fair bit for dealing with wild Pokemon and the like.”

Though, he honestly hoped it wouldn't come to dealing with wild Pokemon. As nice as it would be to have some nice travel companions, Rei and Aylene were enough. Speaking of which... He turned and glanced back to make sure she was still following. He didn't want to lose her right at the start of their journey! That would just be all kinds of bad omens and whatever else he could probably think to call them.

Aylene was practically jumping up and down in excitement, her eyes fixed on the small blue device she was holding. It was a pokedex which was given out to trainers starting their journey. The best thing about it is that it was free meaning that they can spend more time buying FOOD! The thought made her want to jump and do funny summersaults right there and then but apparently, she had to act like an adult as Raven would usually say. She puffed her cheeks in a “so not cool” fashion before following him out of the laboratory, occasionally skipping, her eyes never traveling away from the device.

Her violet hair was tied up in twin tails, a hair pin on her head, keeping her bangs from falling in front of her face. Her clothes were rather pretty even though she is the one who claims it to be, but it was certainly convenient for the type of person she is. She was about to jump on Raven from behind when she felt a hard whack on her head, thanks to Ralts or Jade as she calls him. “Oww What on earth was that for, Jade?” she whined out loud, not bothering to communicate with her pokemon via telepathy. All that he did was glare and turn away from her with an hmpf and she returned it before doing the same. Her Jade was just like his father, and a lot less like her. He was responsible and mature where all she cared for was having fun. She guessed that he was probably telling her to behave.

Aylene bumped into Raven’s back as he seemed to be talking with his friend Rei. Putting her tongue out and giggling out a sorry, she took his pokedex out of his hands before examining it as well. Their pokedexes looked the same except for their color. His was red while hers was blue which she liked a lot. “Hah! Look at that, my pokedex is cuter than yours!” she exclaimed before tossing it back to Max, earning another whack from Jade. “Jaadeee!” she started whining while jumping up and down. “Not cool!” “Start behaving like a girl already!” he barked back at her through telepathy to which she stubbornly answered with a no. She knew that Raven was hearing their argument and that he took secret pleasure from it. After all, who wouldn’t like her and Jade’s hilarious conversations?

“Let’s start our journey, Raven!” she started, slinging an arm around his neck before dragging him along.

As he was turning around, Raven found his companion crashing into him. Then she grabbed his Pokedex... He wished sometimes she wouldn't just instantly give into her impulses, but he made no real move to stop her either. However a frown appeared on his face as she threw his back to him. He caught it and quickly slipped it into a pocket on his travelers back with a sigh.

“Ay-chan,” Raven began with a small shake of his head. He normally let Jade handle dealing with Aylene's antics because that's how they bonded as trainer and Pokemon. But the Pokedex was important! “These things are probably really expensive despite us getting them for free. I'd appreciate it if you didn't just throw them around. If we take care of our tools they'll take care of us.”

My master has a point. Rei piped up after a moment. She pointed to the Pokedex that Aylene was holding before walking forward, stopping only when she was directly in front of the other trainer. Bright eyes focused upwards, but despite the chastising they were filled with amusement. While this trip might be fun and games, it will also be dangerous. Any tool you have will help us protect you.

“It's okay, Rei,” Raven waved his hand dismissively. He threw the pack over his shoulders and motioned for them to start following after him. “Once she sees how useful it is she'll take better care of it. Just look at Jade! She takes exceptional care of him despite how she acts sometimes.”

Be that as it may, Master, Rei's mind voice sounded slightly annoyed, however her body language betrayed nothing of how she felt. Sure, Rei wasn't very strong yet, but she carried herself like she was. I think you are too lax with her sometimes...

Ahh it seems that she has done it again! She just made her friends mad at her although she knew they weren’t really mad at her. Raven, of course had a point about the device being useful, but call it a bad character, Aylene didn’t care much about stuffs like these. If she could get the necessary tools now, she would probably open up the pokedex to see how it’s made. That’s the type of curiosity she carried around, it seems. And she was no foreigner to a pokedex. She has seen it many times with her father although he never really let her have it for he probably knew that she would break it at the next chance she got.

As Raven said about how she took care of Jade, the little green pokemon rolled his eyes and shook his head in a no. The pokemon was just joking though. Despite being very immature, she never failed to take care of Jade. She made sure that her pokemon was safe before thinking of herself and as Rei started scolding her, Jade put a hand on her shoulder in a sign of telling her to stop scolding his partner. “That girl must be nuts, but I don’t want anyone else scolding her but me and if you would let me do my job...” saying that, Jade jumped up high before whacking Aylene again. “OW JADE!” Aylene started again, clutching her head as it started hurting. Giving her pokemon a sideways glare, she lunged at the tiny thing, trying to catch him while he dodged her.

“Jade! Get back here! Ow why do you always hit meh?!” she wailed again, clutching the spot where Jade hit her again. “You are an abusive pokemon, I tell you!” she kept complaining, sitting down cross-legged on wherever she was standing, uttering how it wasn’t fair. “Stop acting like a kid and I might stop whacking you” Jade replied, crossing his arms over his chest. “That’s not possible!” she answered back, still rubbing the place her favorite pokemon decided to hit her.

Turning her head to raven, she gave him an innocent look, a look that said “I don’t know anything!” before putting out her hands for him to help her stand up.

Raven let out a sigh as soon Aylene was chasing Jade around. They really were such a handful... but he didn't mind it so much. It was because of them that he was able to leave Goldenrod behind. He turned and let them goof around for the time being, as it wasn't even noon. They'd made good time getting to New Bark town. It was a partially cloudy warm summer's day. The shade of the cloud they were under began to lift as a small smile pulled at his face. Such an open sky was pretty hard to find in Goldenrod.

Meanwhile Rei silently backed down upon Jade's protest. She didn't normally like to admit it, but they were a team... Even if it was a little different from a normal Pokemon team. Still, Jade could be rather annoying at times. Right now they needed Aylene to focus and constantly bonking her on the head didn't seem to be working. For a Pokemon that was supposed to be smart he sure was being dumb.

Upon her exclamation that it wasn't possible Raven was snapped from his thoughts. He turned only to see her ever innocent look that she used whenever she wanted to get out of trouble, and was even asking for help getting up. He couldn't help but smile slightly as he reached down and pulled her up. Once she was on her feet he let go of her and turned towards the gate.

“Rei, Jade, Ay-chan,” He began with a small nod. Then as he continued he threw his right hand forward as if ordering them to move forward. “We can't stay here all day! There's a whole wide and wild world for us to see. And we won't see it if we're standing around here playing!”

As you wish, Master, Rei said, following after Raven taking quick small steps to keep up with his longer stride. Then she glanced over her shoulder at Jade. Make sure not to fall behind now. The last thing I want is to be looking for you because you couldn't keep up, Jade. While she sounded superior, they'd proven in the past that he was the stronger of the two. For the time being anyway.[/i]

Jade sighed as he saw her being lifted up by Raven, using him as an escape route from his constant bonking. Now, as her pokemon, he didn’t bonk her because he likes it, but it’s actually in hope of making Aylene think like a sensible person. He was aware of how clumsy and childish Aylene could get, which worried him a lot since he had a feeling that this personality will be her downfall. He shook his head in disappointment as he communicated with Raven,” You should stop helping her get out of trouble, Raven. If you keep coming to her rescue all the time, she is never going to be able to stand on her own two feet.” And Aylene decided to stick her tongue out at Jade at this. “I am standing on my own two feet, see!” she exclaimed as she started spinning around on her heels to show him that she can stand and move just fine to which Jade slapped a hand to his face. “Childish.”

Her attention snapped back to Raven as he pointed forward, talking about a wide and wild world ahead of us. Raising her eyebrow in amusement, she grabbed a hold of his hand before dragging him forward, Jade glaring at her from behind them. For some reason, whether it was with Raven or any other person, Jade was overprotective of Aylene. He felt that she can’t do anything without him and in a way, that’s true as well. No matter how much they fight, they always need each other in the end. “Please don’t worry about me, Rei. I am sure I have a better sense of direction than you even if I do get lost” Jade answered Rei in his cool voice. They seemed to be the type of friends that fought a lot to Aylene.

“Yeah yeah yeah yeah YEAH!!! Let’s go and find the different varieties of food we can get!” Aylene almost screamed in excitement as she dragged Raven along with her, mostly excited for the food rather than anything and it must have been the talk about food that made her tummy growl in response. Halting, she glanced at Raven with her big, round eyes, the same look she gave to people when she wanted something. “Food”

Raven ignored Jade for the time being, opting to get dragged by Aylene. She was still a kid no matter what Jade said. Though, she could use with acting more mature, she had time. That's when she became obsessed with food. She was hungry... again... But he was like that at her age too, even though it was only a few years between the two.

“Here,” He said as he pulled out a stick of jerky from the inside of his coat. It was still wrapped and fresh as he handed it over to the voraciously hungry young woman. Then it was his turn to start dragging her along, which wasn't all that hard to do considering that she wasn't dragging her feet on the matter.

I have to worry, look who your trainer is! Rei began, but that caused Raven to look back and glare slightly. That's when the small Roilu remembered that Raven didn't want them fighting. So she turned back to Jade and stared right at him. I'm sorry. I shouldn't say such things.

Something to eat! Aylene’s mind screamed in excitement and a big grin formed on her face as she took the jerky from Raven happily. Soon, she was munching on the jerky while being dragged around by Raven. Normally, she would be the one dragging him along even without his permission but there are times, mostly when she is busy with food that she had to be dragged by someone else.

Jade shook his head in disappointment and sighed, knowing that his friend is never going to grow up if she would be spoiled like this. And as Rei turned to him to tell him about Aylene, he first glared at her before patting her head. “It’s alright. Aylene can be troublesome but she is a very sensible person. Don’t worry.”

Aylene just gave Rei a big smile before skipping past Raven, starting to drag him along with her now. In the way she started talking about pokemon battles and how excited she is to beat a gym leader. She knew they were just traveling for now but she wanted to challenge the gym leaders of different regions so that she can improve herself and one day become a great aura trainer like her father. “You’ll never get there” Jade said in his usual tone so that he can anger Aylene to which she turned back and stuck her tongue out at him.

Walking or rather skipping for a few more minutes, Aylene stopped when she saw an old lady looking for something around the bush. She tilted her head to the side to see what the lady is looking at and found nothing. Just as the saying ‘curiosity killed the cat’ Aylene jogged up to the old lady and peered over her shoulder “What are you doing?”

She felt the lady jump and then stare at her, making her stare back at the old lady “What’s up?” she asked casually.