Hey, this is my second Fanfic. I'll be working on this one at the same time as Path of Heroes, interchanging updates. I'll explain in detail after the chapter. It's Pokémon, takes place in the world of Pokémon Special (Pokémon Adventures in the US), and includes my OC-Zircon. I'll explain the timeline at the end along with my future plans. With out of the way, here it comes! Thanks for reading!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokémon, whether it games, manga, or anime.

Defiance

Chapter 1: The Journey Begins

January 20th-New Bark Town, Johto-6:59 PM

Zircon's POV

I stared at the clock on the wall as the second hand taunted me, seeming to go by ever so slowly, as if testing my patience. 'Just one more minute,' I thought as the minute hand moved closer to the 12 at the top. 'I've waited 5 years, I can wait one more minute.' I closed my eyes and waited for the clock to ring 7 times, signaling 7 o'clock.

"IT'S FINALLY TIME!" I yelled jumping off my bed.

Dad left around 5:30 PM in his car, and if traffic moved smoothly enough, he should be at the Violet City train station by now. In a couple hours, he'll be in Olivine, taking a boat to Hoenn for his business trip. That means, with Mom and Jade out wherever they are, there's no one to supervise me. Dad said his trip will be about one week, so I've got a week to get out of here.

Oh yeah, we haven't met. The name's Zircon. Zircon Idaisa. I live with my family in the edge of New Bark Town in Johto. It's a nice place, but like anyone 5 years younger than me, I'm itching to get out of here and go out on a Pokémon journey.

You heard right, I'm 5 years late on my quest. Right now, I'm 16 while all my friends left when they were 11. Why's that? Well, what happened is that my mother is rather overprotective. Back when I was 5 or 6, not sure, the whole Mask of Ice revival fiasco happened and she kept anyone of us from leaving home for a good year. Then, 5 years ago, right before I was about to graduate from the Trainer's school over in Violet, and get my Trainer's license, Team Rocket tried to stage yet another comeback that once again, threatened to throw the region into chaos. So, all those years of preparation went down the drain when my mom heard about that on the news. Jade, my sister, was lucky. She turned 18 about 2 years ago, and Mom decided she was old enough to live her own life, make her own decisions, and let her go on her own quest. So, I've been trapped at home ever since, and this time, I don't think Mom's gonna budge. Not until I'm 18 that is, and that's a bit too far away for my liking.

Whether she's home or not, she has a method of making sure I never leave home. She's got the entirety of New Bark on her "watch Zircon while I'm gone" list. From every mom in town, to every shopkeeper, to even some of the children, I'm practically under house arrest. She's even got good, old Professor Elm under her spell, which means I can't even get a normal starter like everyone else. Now, one might wonder how one woman has so much power over everyone in our town.

Well, if you'd turn on the TV, you might see why. Titanium "Titania" Idaisa is the winner of the previous triennial Pokémon League of Kanto and Johto and she's a top contender for the next person to take down the Elite 4. Yep, among the hundreds of Trainers in their teens and 20's, a 46 year-old woman is the one known as "Johto's Infallible Wall." This accomplishment has earned her the respect of everyone, the title as the "pride of New Bark Town," and thus the ability to turn the entire town into a maximum security prison for me. However, there is a silver lining to this.

Fortunately for me, while she and Jade are out trying to accomplish their own goals, the only line of defense I have to break through to achieve freedom is Dad. Now unlike Mom, Dad isn't some hotshot Trainer. In fact, he isn't a Trainer at all. He actually works for Hoenn's Devon Corporation and after marrying Mom and moving with her to Johto, he's now in charge of starting up Devon's Johto branch. He's more than willing to let me out on a journey, but Mom wears the pants in this family, so he can't do anything about my situation. He lets me be home alone, knowing that if I try to leave, someone will spot me and call my Mom, who in turn, will find me in a couple hours and give me a one-way ticket back to my room.

However, for the last year, I've planned a route that will get me around all of New Bark without anyone seeing me, giving me my one shot at freedom. With Dad gone, all I have to do is get outside New Bark, and the rest will probably work itself out. Although if I leave the way I am now, I'd probably be found out after too long as eventually someone will know I'm missing. I'm figuring that I might have to get a new identity and change my appearance, but if that's what it takes, I'll do it.

However, it might be a bit difficult to do so, because I really stick out in a crowd. While I can use contacts to replace my much more noticeable glasses, I'll need very strong color contacts if I'm going to completely cover my reddish-brown eyes. As for my hair, even if I cut it from the large ponytail I've grown out and dye it from dark brown to something completely different like blonde, there's one small detail. My Mom's side of the family has a somewhat odd noticeable feature: no matter how our hair is cut, a small tuft of hair somehow seems to shape itself atop of our heads. The only way to hide that genetic giveaway it to shave my head, and I'm willing to do a lot of things to escape, but I'm not willing to shave my head. I'm hoping I can get a haircut that can hide that well enough that it just seems like it's a messy hair day. If that doesn't work out, well, most Pokémon Trainers wear hats or something, right?

So, that's my plan. Yeah, it might seem like it's not all the way thought out through, but it's what I've managed in the past year. Step One: Get out of New Bark. Step Two: Make it to Violet City. Step Three: Go to Violet's Trainer's school and pass some sort of GED equivalency test of sorts to get my Trainer's license. Step Four: Get a starter Pokémon and begin my journey. Step Five: Don't get caught. Genius, right? Besides, even without Professor Elm's cooperation, I've got the starter Pokémon covered.

I head out to my back yard and let out a series of whistles. Out of the bushes, a Pichu popped out and jumped on my head. I laughed as I put him down. "Pete, stop that, come on."

Meet Pete. He's a wild Pichu I met when I was around 12. After saving it from some wild Pokémon that were bullying it, we became close friends who hung out in the backyard when no one was around. I kept Pete's existence secret from everyone because if anyone found him, boom-Pokéball, he's caught. So, I helped him find a way to get around outside the main routes Trainers usually travel. When I first met him, he always carried around some round stone for some weird reason. I don't know what it was, but it seemed special to Pete, so I got some rope and fashioned it into a little necklace for him to wear around his neck so he wouldn't lose it. We made a pact later on that when I became a Trainer, he would be my starter and he would have his own special Pokéball: a Luxury Ball I got from Dad as a souvenir from Hoenn.

"All right, the day we have prepared for is upon us," I started as Pete tried to pretend he was a soldier and I was the commanding officer. "With Mom, Dad, and Jade away all at the same time, this may be the only chance we have of getting out of this cage we call home" Pete nodded his head in agreement. "All right, you know the plan. Use the outer routes to maneuver your way to Violet City. I'll sneak my way out and make my way through the main routes. When I get there, I'll take the exam at the Pokémon Trainer's School and get my license. When I'm ready I'll call you with our special whistle, all right?" Pete cried his signature 'Pi, Pi, Pichu!' in response.

This was my only chance. If I failed, security around this town would double, and I'd have no chance to get out. I also only had 3 days to get the first part of this plan done. If I didn't get to Violet and get a license by 3 days, I'd have to go back home in order to get there by the time Dad gets back. I've got no time to lose! It's now or never!

"Move out!" Pete scurried back to the forest to make his way to Violet City. I went back in the house and grabbed my backpack and got my Swinub bank. I have been saving for a long time for this, doing odd jobs around New Bark and resisting the urge to spend any of my allowance and I think I finally have a good amount of money. Upon reaching Violet, I plan to go through a drastic makeover in both wardrobe and physical appearance in order to create a brand new identity for myself, so I needed enough cash for that. Afterwards, I'll probably make cash off Trainer battles and such, so I'm covered. All I had to do was make it there.

I put on some darker clothes and a pair of shades to try and blend in the background. It was around 8 and starting to get dark out, therefore giving me my cover to get out of here. I tried mimicking the stealthy maneuvers I've seen in various spy movies in order to make my way through town without being seen. Over the past year, I've memorized everyone in town's daily routine. It was a mundane task, but because of it, I had the perfect route out of here. Every time someone should be passing by a certain area would be my cue to hide. When they weren't looking or they passed by, I dashed to the next point on my carefully designed path.

There were a couple of close calls, but before long, I saw the clearing that lead the way to Route 29. Now all that was left was the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper was the name given to the woman who watches this small exit from the town from day to night. I've heard that almost every region's 'starting town' has someone like her, making sure children don't run out into the grass without a Pokémon they can call their own and wishing starting Trainers good luck as they make their way off on their adventures. Anyway, she was diligent in her job and I knew I was number one on her "doesn't get past this line" list.

I debated whether or not to throw a rock to get her attention and making a break for it, but I'm pretty sure that she'd probably be smart enough to find out the origin of the rock's throw, be it dusk or not. Plan B would have been to get Pete to go and distract her, but Pete's already started off to Violet. I could wait for her to go home for the night and take my chances dealing with the nighttime Pokémon, but I was hoping for an easier solution. Wait, she doesn't have someone to take over her shift for her, right? Oh crap, how did I forget to account for this?

"Hey, Hikari," a voice from inside town called out. I crouched deeper in my hiding spot, just peeking to see what transpired.

"Hello, Kouta, what's up," the gatekeeper whose name seems to be Hikari asked.

"Well, I just heard from Professor Elm that he just gave away his last starter for the day, so no one should be coming by without a Pokémon for protection," said the other person who I'm guessing was her brother or something. "Your job for today is most likely done." YES! Arceus has heard my plea and has sent down a way to get out in the form of a reason for Hikari to leave her gatekeeping duties.

"But what happens if someone tries to sneak out without a Pokémon or something. If they get hurt, it'll be my fault," she asked, worriedly. Damn it Hikari, just take the bait and get out of my way!

"Don't worry, no one's dumb enough to head out unprotected this late at night." Someone's underestimating how dumb I can be apparently.

"I don't know…" Come on, just get going!

"If you're really so worried, I'll cover for you." NO! Kouta, you were supposed to help me! Arceus! What happened? I thought he was supposed to help me!

"No, I don't want to put you through that," Hikari started. Wait, this could still happen. "Are you sure I'm good for today?" Yes, yes, he is.

"Sure, even the last person who got their starter is waiting 'til tomorrow morning to get a move on. Now come on, dinner's about to be served." Hikari looked one last time out the gate before nodding her head and followed Kouta back to their house.

I kept watching until both were out of my sight. All right, if I start now, I have a chance that I'll make it to Cherrygrove before nightfall! I sprinted towards the entrance to Route 29 at full speed. It's finally here! Step 1, compl-

"HEY KID, LOOK OUT!" A man on a brown bull Pokémon with multiple tails was charging directly at me until it crashed. The collision made me fall face first into the dirt road of Route 29. As for the man, he fell off too, but the bull kept running until it crashed into a tree and its horns were caught in the trunk. He sat up rubbing his head and said, "Ow, my head hurts like hell." He then turned to me, "Hey kid, you OK?"

"I'll live…" Usually, I'd be frustrated about being run over by someone who can't control their Pokémon, but Step 1 was accomplished, so I was in too good a mood to let him ruin this. Luckily, our collision didn't cause enough commotion for people in town to come checking what happened, don't know how or why and don't really care at this point, so my cover hasn't been blown yet. In any case, at least I'm out of New Bark and as of now, my adventure has officially begun.

The man got up, dusted himself off and stretched out his hand to me. I took it and he helped me up and then I looked at him as a whole. He must have been somewhere around 20 years old or so, only being about a foot taller than I was. The most distinguishing feature was his jet black hair with bangs that sprouted like wildfire. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a red-zip up sweater and jeans. I looked into his eyes, a golden yellow, either concerned for my well-being or worried that I might do something like press charges. "You sure you're okay, little man?"

"Little ma- , never mind that, I'm fine." I'm 16, I'm not that little.

"If you say so…" He mumbled and reached for his belt. 'Pokéballs, he must be a Trainer.' I thought to myself. He picked up his baseball cap and dusted it off before putting it on backwards. With the black cap with a yellow stripe in the middle, he looked very familiar; however I couldn't put my finger on it.

He pulled out a Pokéball and pointed it towards the bull. "Alright, Tauros, you are clearly in need of training." The bull turned into a ball of light before being called back into the ball. Through the top half, I could see the bull, apparently called a Tauros, wiggle its head around, glad to be free from the tree. The man sighed and attached the ball back to his belt. "Oh well, back to Super Serious Gal you go." He then turned to me.

I straightened myself out and looked him in the eyes, trying to keep my composure. "So, what do you need?"

"Nothing really, I just wanted to apologize for Tauros here. I'm trying to train him for someone and he's been quite a handful." He then let out a small chuckle.

I sweatdropped at his demeanor, 'He's totally trying to turn the subject from the fact that he almost killed me…' I sighed and said "No, it's cool"

"By the way, why is someone like you out here so late?" Oh no, have I been found out? "Eh, you probably got your reasons, right?"

"Yeah…" Cue another sweat drop. This guy is pretty chill about someone with no Pokémon just wandering through a place infested with creatures that could attack me at any second. "Well, I'll be on my way, be careful with your Tauros." I started walking away quickly, 'Better go before he starts thinking rationally about me wandering through unprotected.'

"Hey, wait up!" Damn it! Almost there! He ran up to me. "Hey, where are you going?"

"Well, I was going to Violet City, but I think I'll stop at Cherrygrove for tonight so I can get a fresh stop in the morning, why?"

"Forget that." Why? What happened? "It just so happens that I'm going to Violet, too! I'll help you out. I'll give you a lift on one of my Pokémon, and you'll get there tonight! Think of it as an apology for what happened earlier." He began shuffling through his backpack, looking for something.

"No you don't have to…" I tried to protest before he pulled back out that crazy bull. If he thinks I'm riding that thing, he's insane.

"Come on, it's the least I can do! Don't worry, you won't be riding Tauros, I'll give one of my own Pokémon. Don't worry, they're actually well trained." He threw me a Pokéball and a stick. I looked inside the Pokéball and saw a blue manta-like Pokémon through the transparent top half. "Meet Tibo, he'll help you fly to Violet. This way you can skip Cherrygrove and Routes 30 and 31." His huge grin helped me feel calmer about the whole idea. I guess if I got a chance to skip unnecessary routes, why should I refuse, right?

He threw the Pokéball, and out came Tibo, a species whose name was Mantine as I found out, who stretched its "wings."

"Um, what is this for?" I asked, pointing out the stick. I gave it to him and he swung it, as it extended and revealed a billiard cue. He gave back to me and went back to rummaging through his bag. "Okay, cool trick, but what do I need it for?"

"To attach these guys," he said with a smile as he handed me about 20 Pokéballs all connected by some sort of fishing line. Inside each of them was a small gray fish Pokémon.

"Why do you have so many of these on you? Aren't you supposed to only carry six Pokémon at a time?" I asked him.

He laughed and said, "Well, yeah you can only keep six Pokémon on you at a time, legally." Oh crap, I've teamed up with some sort of criminal. "However, the legality of the situation only really applies when you battle someone or enter a tournament of some sort. Outside of battles with other Trainers, you can carry as many as you want. The 'only carry six at all times' rule they have is more of a…suggestion."

"Okay," I sweatdropped at his relaxed response to my question.

"Besides, I don't really use these guys, they're just here to help Tibo fly," he told me as he stretched out the fish line holding the Pokéballs together.

"Whatever you say, man. If you can help me out, do whatever you have to do." After leaving home, I'm technically going to be on the run anyway, so I guess bending some of the rules shouldn't be out of the question.

"That's the spirit; now let's get you ready for takeoff!" He swung the fish line of Pokéballs releasing a school of these fish Pokémon, he called them Remoraid, and they sort of connected to Tibo. He explained to me that most of them were turned backwards so they could fire water to propel the Pokémon forward. Two of the Remoraid up front held the pool cue to make it like a hang gliding-like kite. "Tibo's not called the 'Kite Pokémon' for nothing!"

"So I grab on here, like a hang glider, right?" I asked, pointing to the middle of the billiard cue. He nodded and gave me the thumbs up. I gripped both my hands on the cue and prepared for takeoff. "All right, here goes noth-" as soon as I got both hands on the Remoraid began their spray of water propelling me into the air at an incredible speed with no warning. I gripped tighter knowing that if I fall off this thing, I'm getting a one-way trip to the nearest hospital. "How do I steer this thing?!" I yelled down at the guy.

"Lean in the direction you want to go!" he yelled from below. I tried leaning left and the thing made a turn so sharp I could guarantee it was exactly 90 degrees. "You're going too sudden! You gotta ease into the turn!" I tried taking his advice and tried slowly turning and got Tibo to turn smoothly. However, I was too scared to turn again so I decided to just stay in these leaning positions which lead to me flying in circles. After flying in circles for a while, I decided to experiment in leaning in the other direction. With that, I turned that way. It seemed to be getting easier, so I think I'm getting the hang of it. "All right, that's the way! Tibo, fly him the quickest route to Violet City you can go!"

The kite Pokémon acknowledged his Trainer's command and made a sharp turn breaking the constant circles we were going in and then dived down towards the trees at a lower altitude in order to double its speed.

"HEEEEEYYYY! HOOOOW DO I GO UUUPPPP? WEEE'RREEE GOONNA CRRRAASSHHH!" I yelled as we flew down. The G-force of the wind as we dived down made it difficult for me to talk.

"PULL UP!" the man yelled from far down below. I did so and the Mantine did a 180 and started climbing straight up.

"HELP ME!" I screamed. Maybe I really shouldn't have taken this ride!

"Oh this is getting out of hand," the man on the ground pinched his forehead as he shook his head. "DON'T WORRY, I'LL HELP YOU OUT!" He picked up another Pokéball and threw it into the air. "TOGEBO! HELP ME OUT!" He hopped on the weird white bird-fairy like Pokémon and flew after me. Okay, he's going to let me hop on that thing and get me off this ride. "TOGEBO, AIR SLASH!"

"WHAT?!" the Pokémon he was riding fired several pressured gusts of wind at Tibo and me. Due to my constant squirming, we were able to dodge them. "ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?"

"DON'T WORRY!" he called back at me. "AFTER WE SHOOT YOU DOWN, I"LL CATCH YOU!" There is no way I'm leaving my life on the hopes that this guy catches me. I guessed that since pulling up made Tibo go up, pulling down should make it go down, right?

My guess was right and after straightening it out, my speed doubled and I constantly looked back in order to fly this thing out of way of the attacks launched at me.

"SIT STILL!"

"NO WAY!"

The man frowned, and then smirked. "I didn't really want to have to do this… TOGEBO, AURA SPHERE!" The Pokémon he was riding fired a blue orb right at us. I turned and just barely dodged the orb. As I went back to focusing on flying this thing, the orb turned in mid-flight and came back after us. I managed to keep it from hitting me, but it hit some of the Remoraid, knocking them out, leaving Tibo's flying a bit wobbly and slowly but surely, we started to lose altitude. I looked back at saw the man had a maniacal look on his face, an evil smile on both his face and his Pokémon's, as they charged up another one of those undodgeable 'Aura Sphere's.'

"Please, have mercy!" I pleaded with him.

"FIRE!"

With each Sphere, thanks to my piloting, he only took out some Remoraid. Unfortunately, my inexperience in dogfighting began to show when he finally landed a hit on Tibo's right wing. We spiraled out of control until we crashed into a small tree. Thankfully, we had already lost enough Remoraid for the altitude and speed to be low enough that our crash wasn't too disastrous. As I coughed up grass, the man landed his Pokémon right next to us.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, helping me up.

"Well, other than being flown through the sky on some crazy Pokémon, getting shot out of the sky, and then crashing into a tree, I'm fine, thanks for asking," I said as I got up and adjusted my glasses.

"Once again, sorry about that," he apologized. "In any case, you were bound to crash eventually."

"What do you mean by that?!" This guy needs to work on his apologies.

"Did ya know how to land?" Whoa, he has a good point there. He rubbed his left shoulder and said, "Trust me, it ain't no walk in the park." He shrugged and continued, "Anyway, for a first-timer, you handled flying Tibo like a champ! Speaking of which, Tibo, Togebo, come back." With that, he took out two Pokéballs and returned the two Pokémon.

"Hey, by the way, how come I couldn't ride that other Pokémon? That one seems pretty sane," I asked him as he returned the 20 or so Remoraid.

"Oh, you mean Togebo? Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it." I was going to ask why when he mentioned for me to look at its Pokéball. Through the top half of the ball, I saw a devilish grin on the Pokémon, much like the guy's grin earlier. "Yeah, Togebo really only lets those whom it trusts completely ride him. I still can't get him to trust my girlfriend, so we got to take separate Pokémon to fly places instead of just taking one," he said, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Great, so in any case I was stuck with the uncontrollable kite,' I thought to myself. Then, I realized in this entire ordeal, we had no idea where we were. "Hey, uh… do you know where we are?"

The guy looked around before smiling. "Seems you have a good sense of direction when it comes to crashing." He pointed at a gate showing to passage from Route 31 to Violet City. As he chuckled at his own joke as I breathed a sigh of relief. 'I'm already at Violet City! I'm making great time on my plan!'

We entered the city at around 10 PM, all the city lights lighting up the night sky. Now, I've been to Violet before with my family, but I've never seen it like this before. The lights of shops and towers was awe inspiring, like one of those cities depicted in those crimes shows on TV.

"Pretty neat, isn't it," the man said, noticing my expression. "If you're impressed now, just wait 'til you see Goldenrod, now that's a city." He looked back at the city before asking, "So, it's getting pretty late, where you headed?"

I looked at him confused, "What do you mean?"

"I mean do you have someplace to stay? Don't tell me you came here without a place to crash for the night?"

Well, originally, my plan calculated that I'd be here sometime tomorrow. "Well, I don't really know. How about the Pokémon Center, they usually let people rent some cheap rooms for the night, right?"

He scoffed and looked at me incredulously, "Dude, you need a place to legit get washed up, you're a mess."

"Let's not forget how I got like this," I told him. It was his crazy Pokémon that crashed me into a tree.

"Oh, yeah. Again my bad," he grinned. This is all a joke to him, isn't it? He straightened his face and said, "Alright, how about I find you a room at the best hotel in all of Violet. Don't worry 'bout the cash, I'll cover it. Think of it as 'sorry' for the crazy night I've put you through."

I thought about his proposal. It was a good deal, however the last offer he gave me got me in the condition I am now, with dirt all over my clothes, my appearance disheveled and my backpack missing a strap. "No, you don't really have to do s-"

"Don't sweat it, I'm glad to help. I mean I did pretty much put you through hell today."

"Didn't you have something to do here as well?" I'm not sure how much more of this guy's 'hospitality' I can take.

"Oh, I was planning to meet up with my girlfriend and go out for a quick bite," he said. "However, since it's so late, I'll probably just drop by and say hello, then fly home for the night." He smiled and turned to me, "So, I've got enough time to help you out, one last time, all right?" I could really use a shower and a decent room to prepare for tomorrow and if he's willing to pay, who am I to say no? Besides, everyone deserves a second or third chance every now and then, right?

So, I took him up on his offer. He asked around for a good place to stay and decided he'd rent me a room at Hotel Bellsprout. It was pretty close to the infamous Sprout Tower, and was a good walking distance from both a lot of the best shops in the city and also the Trainer's School, both key targets in tomorrow's plan. This time around, we just walked instead of trying to ride the bucking stallions on his Pokémon team. Upon reaching the hotel, he was greeted by the people there almost as royalty of some sort.

"Greetings, Mr. Kaito," the guy at the front desk greeted him. "How may we help you this evening?" So that's at least his last name: Kaito. Hmmm, sounds vaguely familiar, but why?

"Can you fix up a room for my buddy here? Something not too shabby, but not too pretty. Pretty much get him a room for him to spend the night and wash up. And try to get him something with a view too." He looked at me and winked, giving me the thumbs up.

"Can I get the name?" the man at the front desk asked. I was a bit hesitant to answer, because the last name Idaisa usually waves a red flag, with the strongest Trainer in Johto being my mother. Thankfully, Kaito, I guess I'll call him that for now, answered for me.

"Just put everything under my name," he said. "I kind of owe him for well…why he looks like that." He pointed at me and the front desk guy laughed and nodded.

"Oh course, getting in trouble as usual, aren't we Mr. Kaito?" the front desk guy joked.

"Wouldn't be myself if I wasn't," Kaito said as they shared a laugh. I don't really look that bad, do I? I looked at one of the mirrors in the pillars and saw they were right. All my clothes had grass and dirt stains. There were twigs in my hair and my backpack almost destroyed. This room he got me better be worth it, 'cause I need all the fixing up I can get! As if he heard my thoughts, he tossed me the keys, and he basically told me what he paid for, a one bedroom room for one night with breakfast downstairs in the morning. "If you really want it, I guess you could order some room service tonight," he said. "Just don't go overboard."

I nodded and bowed. "Thank you very much, I really appreciate it." This was totally worth the let's say 'challenges' he put me through today.

"No prob, like I said, it's the least I could do." Kaito began. "By the way, how long you planning on staying in Violet?" I wasn't really sure. I was mainly coming here to get my journey started. I knew Violet City had a Gym, and maybe after I got my license and trained a bit I could test my luck against the Gym Leader. I knew the Gym was Flying-type and since Pete was an Electric-type, I would have an advantage.

"Not sure, probably from a few days to couple weeks," I told him, trying not to reveal all too much.

"Okay, I'll be in town every now and then, so we might end up running into each other again, so I guess I'll see ya around!" Kaito said as he made his way out. He was a weird guy, but he helped me get this far in only one day, so I gotta thank him for that.

After going up to my room, I took a shower and cleaned up some of the scratches from earlier. In my now crushed backpack, I got the change of clothes I brought with me. Although wrinkled from earlier events, they weren't dirty. However, my Swinub bank was smashed with coins and bills scattered all over the bag. I was planning on buying pretty much a new identity tomorrow morning, so it was only a matter of time before I smashed that thing anyway. I was a bit hungry, so I got some room service, but I felt I shouldn't take advantage of the situation, so I ordered the cheapest sandwich I could find on the menu.

By around 11, I had changed, cleaned up, eaten, and gotten my stuff prepared for tomorrow. I had a crazy day: I got out of New Bark, met up with Kaito, had the whole flying fiasco, and now here I am, at classy hotel, just waiting for the next day. All in all, I felt like it was a successful first day of my journey which was only beginning. As I finally laid down on the bed, my eyelids grew heavy. I guess I needed my sleep after a long day. Right before I fell asleep, I murmured, "Step 2, complete…"

January 20th-Icirrus City, Unova-10:50 PM

Normal POV

Meanwhile…

KA-BOOM!

Up on a hill on the outskirts Icirrus City, an explosion created a massive hole in the wall. The blizzard going on outside began blowing inside the house, dropping the temperature inside drastically.

THUD! CRASH!

A bald man in his mid-40's wearing a black leather jacket with the picture of a Krookodile on the back and jeans, was blasted against a china cabinet which caused all the plates to fall down and shatter. He had several tears in his jacket, cuts on his face and bruises along his body obviously made from a powerful Pokémon. In front of him stood a green-humanoid Pokémon that punched him from one side of the room to the other with its right arm. The Pokémon's left arm seemed to have a sword amongst the elbow that extended as it grew fiercer. The fear in his face was clearly noticeable as he slowly lifted his aching head to face the green swordsman Pokémon and its Trainer.

The Trainer was mostly hid by a silhouette, with the only clear thing the man could see were his eyes: filled with hatred and red as blood.

"I'm going to ask you one more time, and if you lie or avoid the question," the Trainer began, "you're dead." The animosity in his voice made the air thicker and harder to breathe than usual. "What's your affiliation to Team Rocket?"

"It...it...it long time ago," the man on the floor stammered. "I go Johto, be part Team Rocket, yes?"

"So, you were part of the attack on the Pokémon League 10 years ago?" the voice, filled with venom as its owner began to inch closer to his target.

"No, no, no," the man on the floor pleaded. "Yes, I member. However, long trip from home country make me late. When arrive, Team Rocket bye-bye a go-go. Job no more." The eyes of the man standing above him continued to flare in rage, so he decided to continue, in hopes of keeping his attacker from releasing any of his wrath upon both his house and him. "So, I come back. I decide, I make new Team Rocket in home country."

"SO," the Trainer's voice elevated with more malice began, "Are you the one responsible for the SHIT this region has recently gone through with…" he paused as he took a breath. He spoke the next two words with intent to kill regardless of what the man's answer would be. "Team Plasma?"

"NO! NO, NO, NO, NO!" the victim began yelling. "Yes, I plan to make new Team Rocket. But I come home and fall love, yes. I marry then have son. I no more try build Team. I now work at company in city!" His eyes were wide with fear and begging for mercy. The green Pokémon's 'elbow swords' had extended to a length now worthy of being called swords and were pointed at his throat.

"So, you are NOT responsible for the just recently defeated Team Plasma," the silhouette began. The puddle of a man on the floor quickly nodded his head like a bobble head figure shaken up by a child. "AND, while a member of Team Rocket, you were uninvolved in any of their schemes…"

"Yes!" the man shouted, hoping for his life, that this threat would begin to fade. "All I has is candy bar they want sell, that and old uniform."

"The one with the "R" on it, right?" the Trainer asked, his voice once again rising in volume and wrath. The red lights disappeared before the man, as this Trainer closed his eyes. The face of this Trainer, although unseen by the man in the dim lighting, slowly showed a growing hatred lighting a fire in his heart. The teeth were clenched tighter and tighter before grinding against each other like flint and steel when trying to make a fire. Both hands clenched harder and harder as if trying to crush a rock into sand. Finally, the eyebrows continued to crease as memories flashed back to the Trainer until the eyes reopened, an even brighter red than before. The fire in his eyes was hotter than ever, with not a single speck of mercy able to be seen. The man on the floor saw his eyes and knew what was coming and closed his eyes and prepared for what was to happen. The green swordsman Pokémon looked at its master for how to continue and prepared to attack, his glare being all the orders it really needed. "Kenshi, end this. Psycho C-"

"Daddy?" A young boy, around the ages of 5 or 6 wandered in the room with wide eyes at the sight: a giant hole on the side of his house and his father face to face with a Pokémon ready to kill him. His mother soon came in and scooped him up and turned him from the scene protecting him from the Trainer who had attacked their home. The man on the ground turned to his family, hoping to see them one last time before the sword sliced through him, which never came. The Pokémon noticed its Trainer wave his hand and stopped its attack inches away from the target's throat. The kid turned his head and locked eyes with his father's assailant and as he did, the shining red eyes slowly dulled down until they were more of a reddish brown than a deep red.

The Trainer looked at the boy: black hair and red eyes. He thought back to a young boy he knew with a close appearance whose parents died in front of him and the tragic life the experience caused afterwards. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, opening his eyes as he exhaled, once again looking at the innocent child before him. He calmed down and decided not to cause another to go through the same fate.

"Kenshi, come back." He held out a Pokéball and returned his green swordsman. He slowly walked to the man he just threatened to kill and knelt down to his level to look him eye to eye. The man, afraid of what was to happen, turned his head and closed his eyes. When nothing happened, he turned and slowly lifted the shades covering his eyes. As the man reopened his eyes, with the lights finally on, got a good look at who just attacked him.

Starting from the bottom as he made his way up he saw the figure of this unknown Trainer. Black combat boots at his feet led to a pair of jeans, with several tears as he went up. Next was a long black belt with metal spikes along it holding Pokéballs and a small pouch with a symbol he couldn't recognize. From his waist, he could see a plain, brown messenger bag that he wore slung over his shoulder. Reaching the torso, he saw a red vest, most likely built to take any sort of attack be it from a gun or Pokémon. Moving to his arms, there was a purple shirt under the vest, also filled with tears, sleeves rolled to the elbows. His hands both wore black fingerless gloves. He slowly went to the head as he saw hair as black as ash spiked out above his head and flowed down to his shoulders, spiked all the way through. He braced himself as he went to the face of this man. The man had a dark complexion and two scars, one on his right cheek and one over his left eye. He had eyebrows and black as his hair and dark bags under his eyes, signifying severe lack of sleep. Finally, he looked into the eyes, although no longer red, but a mix of red and brown. His eyes, while now they were calmed, still had nothing but hatred and anger swirling within them.

"Where were you deployed?"

"What?" The man asked confused. Just a minute ago, this man was prepared to kill him. Was he really being given a chance?

"I said 'Where were you deployed 10 years ago during the attack on the Pokémon League?" the Trainer's voice bellowed, his impatience reigniting some of the fury that was recently quelled.

"I…I...go to Kanto. Job was mess up train," the man managed to get out.

The Trainer stood up and threw a Pokéball out the hole in the wall, releasing a blue dragon with red wings, preparing to take off.

"One last thing…" the Trainer said as he climbed upon his dragon. "What news did you get of Giovanni?"

"None. Heard boss was missing even before planning."

"That's all I needed to hear," the Trainer said as his dragon took off into the skies of Icirrus City. The man got to his feet to embrace his wife and son after this life-threatening situation with only one question on his mind: 'Who was that and what did he want?'

Later that evening at a bar in Icirrus City…

It was late at night in Icirrus when the Trainer who just finished his meeting with an ex-Team Rocket member went into a bar before calling it a day. Most of the people there were guys with friends talking over their days and starting to leave to get ready for the next day as it was nearing midnight. The Trainer walked over to the bar and called over the bartender.

"Just give me a scotch."

The bartender gave him a wary look and said, "Hey buddy, you got some ID I can see?"

The Trainer rolled his eyes and gave him his Trainer ID, annoyed that he couldn't go anywhere without his age being doubted.

The bartender looked at his ID before saying, "Says here you're from Kanto, that right?" The Trainer nodded with a confused look. "Yeah, well you're in Unova, and Unovan law says you got to be at least 21 to drink." He handed him back his Trainer ID as he took it back annoyed. Back in the other regions he had traveled, the legal age was 20 at max.

The bartender was about to leave as the Trainer said, "Wait a minute."

The bartender began, "Look buddy, I told you already you got to be 21 to drink. You want me to get you a root beer or something?" The Trainer said nothing and looked at the clock on the side of the wall. The bartender followed his gaze and turned just as the clock hit midnight.

The Trainer turned back and gave him his ID once more and said, "Check the date." The bartender looked at him confused and before seeing the birthdate on the card. He put two and two together and realized since it was now January 21st; this Trainer just now became 21.

The bartender laughed as he said, "So, going out for a drink for your 21st birthday, huh? Sorry 'bout that. So, what did ya want a scotch?" He poured him the drink and tossed it down to him along with his Trainer . "Sorry 'bout that mishap, this first one's on the house."

The Trainer took his drink, saying, "No problem. Here, how about I buy you a drink as well?" The bartender smiled and poured himself a drink. He raised his glass for a toast.

"Here's to turning 21, Mr. uhh…"

"Fukushi." The Trainer said as his downed his drink before slamming it back on the table. "Garnet Fukushi."

January 21st, -Icirrus City, Unova-12:00 AM

So that's Chapter 1. This story is basically telling the story of 2 of my OC's: Zircon, the boy starting out his journey, and Garnet, a veteran Trainer tracking down member of the evil organizations and bringing his own version of justice upon them. The setting is the world of Pokémon Special (Pokémon Adventures in the US) 10 years after the end of the Gold and Silver Chapter. To relate to other chapters I'll put a list here:

RGB: 13-14 years later

GSC: 10 years later

RSE: 9-8 Years later

DPPT-2 years later

HGSS/ORAS-5 years later

(ORAS chapter has been confirmed to occur at the same time as HG/SS chapter)

This puts it about the end of the Black and White chapter and 2 years before the B2W2 chapter. To check how I arrived at these dates, check out the Pokémon Adventures timeline on Bulbapedia.

As for characters from the manga, I plan to introduce most of them throughout the story. For example, Mr. Kaito, if you couldn't put it together, is Gold. As for Black and White, introducing them will be kind of difficult due to certain circumstances that can't be explained unless I spoil the end on the Black and White Chapter-so I'll put the spoilers in italics for those who wish to remain unspoiled can skip past.

SPOILER ALERT:

At the end of the Black and White Chapter, after N leaves on Zekrom, Reshiram begins to turn back into the Light Stone and Ghetsis pushes Black into the mix and he along with Reshiram turn into the Light Stone. After this White tries to grab the stone before it flies off into who knows where. With Black out of the picture, I'll be refraining from introducing too much of White without Black unless 2 years end up passing throughout the time frame of this story and assuming that Black is released from the stone within the events of the as-of-when-I'm-writing-this unfinished B2W2 chapter. Then I'd probably introduce Black and White-now around 16 years old.

END SPOILERS

Other things I want to point out:

Although I originally read Pokémon Adventures via the Chuang Yi translations, I'll be using the English names of the characters/nicknames of Pokémon. Why? I'm not sure, and to be honest, I don't see too much difference, thus I think it shouldn't be too much a big deal which version of the names I use. As for Lack-Two/Whi-Two/X/Y, I'm on the fence about whether I'll put them in or not as both the B2W2 and XY chapters are unfinished as of this time and let's face it: Lack-Two and Whi-Two, even when changed to Rakutsu and Faitsu for the romanji Japanese version, are pretty stupid names. As for X and Y, it's too early on in both this story and the XY chapter to tell.

Names this chapter:

If any of you previously read Path of Heroes, you know I usually put meanings behind names of characters. So I'll give explanations here:

Zircon Idaisa-In Pokémon Adventures, the character's first name usually correlates to their game and (until Black and White) their eye color (And birthstone like in R/S/E.) So, Zircon, although the stone itself can be several different colors, I'm referring to it as red in this story for the sake of his eyes. As for the last name Idaisa: 偉大さ-(idai-sa)-translates to greatness-as in 'destined for greatness'-since his mother is a previous Champion.

Garnet Fukushi-As mentioned before, his name comes from his eye color-Garnet is a reddish brown color and since his birthday is January 21st, it's his birthstone as well. As for Fukushi: 復讐-(Fukushu)-means revenge or vengeance based on his mission against all the evil teams.

As for Gold's last name: Kaito, I'll going to be straight up honest: I have no idea if there is any significant meaning behind it. I just was a fan of the story A Miscellaneous Tale of Night and Day (AMOTODAN for short) by Starran that I kinda borrowed her last name for Gold: 'Kai'-and just added a 'to' to the end to give it a bit of difference.

Lastly, as a head's up for future chapters: for the Blue-Green debate:

Green will be the male rival

Blue will be the female character

I know most of what I'm doing is following the English translation but this I won't change. Sure, in the English their names are switched, but like I said before-their names are based on eye color and the guy has green eyes and the girl has blue eyes, so those are their official names, and I feel that is too important to switch.

Note:

In this chapter Garnet started at 20 and mentioned he could drink in regions such as Kanto and Johto. Since those regions are based on Japan, I decided to use the drinking age there the same as the Japanese one: 20. As for Unova, it's known that it's based on New York City which is in America, where the drinking age is 21.

Also, I know I said there was a train station at Violet that went to Olivine in the beginning, when in the games there isn't, but:

1: The cities in both anime and manga are a lot bigger than in the games

2: This story does take place several years in the future-so imagine that they've added some stuff

3: How do people who don't train Pokémon get from city to city without some sort of transport?-Here's my solution

As for how this will work along with my other story Path of Heroes-I'll try to explain as much of what's going on as I can. I never got to updating the latest chapter of Path of Heroes for 2 reasons. 1: Since no one really voted on the poll, I didn't really know how to continue. 2: This story had been stuck in my mind, taking up all the room Path of Heroes had. So, I am planning to try alternating between the two stories in terms of updating unless I feel like updating one more than the other. Besides that, I'll be working on both stories pretty much at the same time, interchanging between the two.

After that extremely long set of explanations setting up the story, this is the end of Chapter 1 + A/N of Defiance. I hope you continue to read and enjoy! Remember to leave a review! Any sort of feedback helps! Thanks!

-MateiFire

P.S. Usually, I have drawings of my characters that show how I imagined them, but since the next chapter Zircon will be going through a large appearance change, I'll wait until next chapter to upload the pictures to Deviant Art-as always, link in My Bio.

P.S.S As a note, the tuft of hair that Zircon mentions as a family trait is basically an ahoge- which is basically when an anime/manga character has a single piece of hair that sticks up (Ex. Edward Elric-FMA, Oozora Hiro-Danball Senki W, etc.)