Hey guys, girls, and any other creature of mythological proportions. I'm back! Sorry about not updating a lot, but I have a very good reason. Procrastination. Yup, no writers block, no broken computer. Complete and utter procrastination. :P

Now, I have finally gotten off my ass to get back on my ass to write this! :D

Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, or whatever you celebrate this time of year, and I'm gonna try to get another chapter for one of my stories out before Christmas.

Now let the story finally continue~

Chapter 3: Striaton City

Black began walking out of the town, and he was slightly annoyed. He had seen several people release their Pokémon just because some bastard in a cloak said that they might be hurting Pokémon by keeping them in Pokéballs.

While it might be true that some people are abusive towards Pokémon, most act just fine towards them. He didn't understand why someone would all of a sudden want to change something that has been going on for hundreds of years.

Most people seemed reluctant to let their Pokémon go, which at least meant that they still loved their Pokémon, but they were idiots to think that they were doing what was best to help their Pokémon.

A Pokémon who lived its whole life as a pet does not have the instincts to survive in the wild.

He had been walking on the path to Striaton City, when he heard someone call out, "Hey you!"

He turned his head and locked eyes with the person who had called him. He gave a small, almost unnoticeable smirk when he saw the youngster he had locked eyes with shiver slightly under his piercing gaze.

"You're a trainer, right?" the youngster asked.

He nodded.

"All right, then I challenge you to battle! Go, Patrat!" The youngster yelled, sending out a small rat-like Pokémon.

He wordlessly sent out Nova.

"All right, Patrat use bite!" the kid all but screamed. Black almost sighed at that.

He almost silently told Nova to wait until it opened its mouth, and then shoot an ember inside of it.

That took out the Patrat in one hit. Black almost sighed at the sad attempt the trainer made at battling. His opponent walked away and grumbled something about being beaten twice in two days.

He continued to walk along the path for a while, stopping to battle any wild Pokémon that challenged him.

That was until he slammed his foot into a rock.

After letting out a series of curses, he look down at the offending rock. When he saw it, he noticed how weird it was shaped. It looked like a normal rock on the edges, but it also looked like there was something stuck in it.

After staring at it for a couple seconds, he decided to take it with him, if only so it didn't crush anyone else's toes. He picked it up and put it in his backpack.

As he continued to walk, he began to notice the forest was thinning out. The air got slightly less clean, telling him a city was nearby. He saw the sun beginning to set, the orange hues falling on him.

As he got to the steps of the city, he noticed the stairs, the trees, and basically the entire area around him was scorched, flattened, etc.

White was here, he mused, only she could cause that kind of damage.

With a silent chuckle and a shake of the head, he walked up the steps, aiming to head for the Pokémon center.

As he entered, he walked up to the Nurse Joy, and handed her his Pokéball. He pointed to the room keys off to her left, in hopes that she would understand. After a few seconds of staring, she figured it out, and with a quick "sorry" she handed him the key, and told him which room he was in.

He walked away, wondering whether or not to ask for his sister, seeing as she was probably still here, but decided against it. He could wait until morning.

After he woke up, he went out to get his Pokémon. Trading off the room key for the Pokéball with Nurse Joy, he went across the center to get breakfast.

After eating, Black walked outside, wondering where White could be. He started walking through the streets, bored, trying to find her. Eventually he got to a park.

While he was absentmindedly staring at a fountain, he noticed something on the edge of his vision.

When he turned his head to fully see what it was it eyes widened slightly in surprise. There was no mistaking his sister's large brown ponytail and white and pink hat.

He saw her scowl as she passed an old man near the exit of the park, and he broke off into a sprint to catch up to her. But right as he got to the old man, the man grabbed his shoulders and stopped him from moving.

"Hold up," he said, "You can't go"

He turned to glare at the man, who flinched, but didn't back down.

"Only trainers with one gym badge can pass this point, if you continue on as a trainer without a single gym badge, other gyms won't accept your challenge, and trainers won't take you seriously without getting at least one gym badge."

He glared at the old man more.

"That," he said after swallowing, "and the Pokémon League Association doesn't allow registered trainers without a single gym badge to leave a town in a gym in it," He squeaked out the last part.

Black grit his teeth and sighed angrily, but decided his sister could wait a couple more days to get her X-transceiver.

At least now he knew why his sister glared at the man.

Black was about ready to punch someone.

He just missed his sister thanks to an old man blocking the road, and now he was told to go train in the Dreamyard to the east of town, since he apparently wasn't strong enough to challenge the gym yet.

And his foot still hurt from the day before.

He sighed and looked up at the sun. It was a little after noon, so he figured he would go train a little in the dream yard after lunch. He looked to his right shoulder and scratched Nova's neck a little, and listened to him purr in pleasure.

Black sighed. This would be a long day.

As Black walked through the ruins, he couldn't help but be impressed by the amount of Pokémon that were living there. He didn't think many Pokémon would want to live in the ruins of a factory.

He heard some shuffling to his left, as well as a familiar feminine voice sounded from that direction as well.

"Munnnaa! Munnnaa! Come out come out wherever you are!" The voice sang.

Black then heard the voice scream and then a loud crash. He sighed and shook his head.

He turned toward the direction of the scream and walked towards it for a bit, before he found a blonde girl in orange and white cloths with a green beanie on her head. It took him a second but he recognized her. Bianca. One of White's friends, the one who started her journey with the rest of them.

She was sitting on the ground, rubbing her head with a pout on her face.

He merely raised an eyebrow at her before clearing his throat. She jumped, startled before looking at him with a confused face for a second, before she broke into a grin.

"Black!" she yelled excitably, jumping up and giving him a hug, before shivering and jumping back, though she didn't lose the grin.

"What are you doing here, I didn't think you'd get to this city today! Oh, while you're here, can you help me catch this Munna. It's pink and small and cute and it floats all around, and it's got its powerful mother protecting it, and I don't want to tear their family apart, so I want to ask for it to come with me, but I can't seem to find it anywhere!"

He blinked slowly, trying to process what she had just said. And he thought White talked too much. It was no wonder he barely saw Bianca. He would probably die from listening to her talk.

He finally nodded after he was able to process what she said. He figured he would help her find it, because after all, he had nothing better to do.

They searched for a while, with Black battling everything that got in their path. He had figure since he was originally here to train, he might as well do that.

Just as the sun was setting and Black was about to give up, he noticed something pink out of the corner of his eye. He turned fully, and when he saw it he tugged on Bianca's arm and pointed to it. She squealed and raced towards it.

When he saw her talking joyfully with the Munna, he figured his work there was done.

He left without another word.

Not that he said any to begin with.

Black walked towards the gym, or restaurant as it seemed, determined to win on the first try. He was not spending another day in this city.

He had already been stopped on the way to the gym by a woman in a lab coat named Fennel, who gave him what she called a C-gear. Apparently Professor Juniper wanted him to have it, even though he was sure he wasn't going to use it that much.

He sighed and shook his head before entering. He saw tables and waiters everywhere, it looked almost like a regular restaurant, if not for the giant curtain in the back with a massive fire symbol on it.

He had done his research on the gym, and you get to the gym leader by battling waiters and waitresses while figuring out the curtain puzzle.

When he reached it he saw it was rather easy, simply choose the type on the button that was super effective against the type on the curtain.

He stepped on the water button, and the curtain opened. It was time to begin.

He was standing across a field from three men, one with green hair, one with red hair, and one with blue hair.

"Welcome to the Striaton City Pokémon gym" said the green one suddenly.

"I'm Chilli! I light things up with fire type Pokémon!" said the red one.

"I'm a water type specialist, and my name is Cress," said the blue one, "Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"And my name is Cilan. I like grass Pokémon." Black had to stop himself from face palming at the last one. He then continued talking, "Um, as you see… the reason the three of us, um, are all here is, well, er…"

Then Chilli suddenly spoke, "Oh enough!" Thank you. "Listen up!" Already listening. "The three of us will decide whom you battle! It'll be based on your starter Pokémon!"

Then Cress spoke up, "That is indeed the case. It looks like you first chose a fire type, which means you will be battling me. What incredible luck for you-you get to battle the best among the three of us."

He stepped forward, as the others stepped back. "Go, Lillipup!" he yelled, as the small dog-like Pokémon emerged from the ball.

Black silently sent out Nova. He used his left hand to grab the right side of his hat and pull it down so only the lower half of his left eye was showing.

"Battle, BEGIN!" the referee yelled.

"Lillipup, tackle!" Cress yelled. Black resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It doesn't help you if you blurt out what you are doing to your opponent.

He almost silently said, "Use string-shot on the ground, then jump away right before it hits you."

As Nova did as he said, Lillipup ended up stuck in the string shot still on the ground. The string was still connected to Nova's mouth, so without giving his opponent any time to react, he silently ordered an ember.

Cress watched the battle, wondering why the trainer didn't say anything, before right at the last second his Pokémon dodged the attack. He was amazed at the Pokémon's reflexes, but what amazed him more was when he noticed his Pokémon was stuck on the ground.

Right as he was about to give his Pokémon a command to get out of there, within a millisecond there was a trail of fire leading from the Pokémon to Lillipup, as his Pokémon suddenly caught on fire, and fainted a couple seconds later.

He returned his Pokémon, congratulating it on trying its hardest. He then looked at the challengers face for the first time since the battle started, and shivered when he got a glimpse of the half of the icy soul piercing eye. He shivered slightly before sending out his next Pokémon, his Panpour.

Black watched the blue monkey as her trainer yelled out for her to use a water gun.

He silently said to Nova, "Use string shot at the ceiling, then swing to it and use ember point blank, then use leach life before swinging away again."

As his Pokémon complied, he watched the leach life went unnoticed by the gym leader. He hoped these gym leaders were sub-par, he really didn't want every battle to be this easy.

He kept on telling his Larvesta to dodge, until the energy drained from the enemy was enough to get it on one knee, and he had Nova release another ember, before the Panpour finally fainted.

As they both recalled their Pokémon, they walked and met each other in the center.

"That was a great battle," He said to Black, "I now present you with the Trio badge, to commemorate this victory."

He handed Black a badge that had three gold diamonds connected together with a different colored gem in the center of each. Black nodded at the gym leader, before putting the badge in his badge case and walking out the door.

He was never one for conversation anyway.

Black ran past the guard at the edge of town that had stopped him earlier, one hand showing him the badge, the other flicking him off.

As he got out of sight of the city he slowed down to a walk, and breathed in the scent of fresh air the city just didn't have.

He sighed, scratching Nova behind one of his horns. He was never going to catch White at this rate.

Hey, sorry for the shorter chapter, but just be glad I got it out. I really wanted to get at least one chapter out before Christmas. Also, the next chapter will be from Red's point of view. Anyway, Happy Christmas, Merry Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate, don't forget to give someone a half-eaten stick of celery.