Brendan's POV

"Hey... good battle." I looked up and saw a boy, the one who I had just battled (obviously).

If you don't know who I am, you might have been living under a rock for the past thirteen years of your life. And no, I'm not being an arrogant jerk. My name is Brendan Birch, and I'm from none other than Little Root Town. My father is Professor Birch, the regional professor for Hoenn. It's been bugging me for the past few months that nobody knows who I am... they all know me as "Birch's son". So, I've been spending a lot of my spare time training and battling, signing up to battle in Battle Towers or to compete in the Pokemon Leagues, trying to make a name for myself. A name that I can be proud of.

And so, here I am. Sitting in the Sinnoh Battle Tower, looking up at the kid I had just beat. And I don't mean to put him down, he put up a good fight, despite the type advantage on my part.

"Thanks, you too," I said and shook his hand. Might as well introduce myself— he seemed decent. "I'm Brendan."

I don't look much like my dad, so how people even recognize me as his son is beyond me. My dad is not only bigger than me, but we seem to contrast in every way possible. I have jet black hair while my dad has brown hair. His hair is neat and trimmed, while mine turns into a wild mess in front of my face when I take off my hat. His eyes are a dark brown, mine are a deep red. How do they know?

The boy's eyes lit up. "Brendan... Birch?" He asked, looking somewhat shocked. Figures. I just nodded. "Dude, I saw you in the Hoenn League like three years ago, then again in the Johto last year!" He smiled widely. "You're Professor Birch's son too, right?"

"Uh, yeah," I managed to say. Woah, no one has ever said anything like that to me. I'm not sure if I'm flattered... or kind of weirded out. Whatever, someone knows me for me.

"I'm Lucas," he says, tossing another smile. He wore a blue poketch on one wrist, his hands were bare. Underneath his vest-thing was a pale blue shirt, his vest was navy with a white stripe across the front. Around his neck was a red scarf; his cargo pants were green. On his head was a red hat with a pokeball emblem on it that covered his short and slightly messy navy hair. Just looking at his outfit made me realize that I needed to switch my outfit up a bit. It's not my fault that I've been wearing the same outfit for a while... I just never thought of changing it.

The boy... Lucas, sat down on the bench next to me. "So... where're you from?" He asked awkwardly. I was genuinely surprised that he didn't assume that I'm from Little Root, were my dad's lab is.

"You seriously don't know?" I said, realizing that I came off as more conceited then I had hoped for. Damn, now he thinks I'm an cocky snob. "Err... you know... everyone just guesses that I'm.. uh... from where my dad's lab is...?" Wow, way to fix the situation. I mentally slapped myself. I hate making the wrong impression almost as much as how hate that people assume that I'm going to become some pokemon professor or something. Okay, lets try to fix the situation again. "Uhm, I'm from Littleroot Town."

"Oh, cool!" Lucas said with some enthusiasm, despite the awkward edge to his voice. "I'm from Sandgem Town myself. I work as an assistant to Professor Rowan, who surprisingly gave me a break, but I decided to sign up for the battle tower. Like oh, why not?"

"Assistant? Doesn't that..." How do I put this nicely? "...suck?" Oh that was smooth. He looked down.

"Uh, sometimes I guess. Well, it'd be great to be a real trainer. I almost never get to travel or anything... I've never been outside of Sinnoh." He said sheepishly, still looking down.

"Really?" I burst out first but then realized that it seemed... inconsiderate I guess? I don't know. "Oh, that must be hard." It did seem impossible. To never be able to leave Sinnoh and be confined to a lab all day? It's harsh. I don't even like helping out my dad half of the time.

It was then that an idea struck my mind. "Uh, Lucas? How about you come to the Pokemon Center with me? I wanna call home and... uh... tell them... that I won."

"Way to rub it in," Lucas said, smirking playfully as he did so. "Sure, I'll come with you to the pokemon center if you want." Boy, he had no idea what's going to hit him.

Lucas' POV

Why Brendan dragged me to the pokemon center, I don't know. I pretty much sat there, nibbling on a Rage Candy Bar trying to be cheery, watching him talk on the phone to random people. First to his father who's the awesome Professor Birch, then to some boy with green hair and a Gardevior, then later to a girl with an green bandana and a beautifly. He spoke to some other people too, but I seemed to loose interest after that.

"Sure, I'll tell him. Okay... Bye Professor." I heard Brendan say, finally. I wonder what Professor he was speaking to? Maybe Professor Oak, he's pretty famous, right? Or what about Professor Rowan? God... that guy may be sixty or something but he's still enough to scare me.

Brendan walked over holding some box, looking rather pleased with himself. Probably because he had won against me, after all. But I don't blame myself for loosing, I barely get a chance to train with all the work Rowan has me do.

"Hey! Nice... erm... box?" I grinned somewhat sheepishly. Well, it's not like I could say, 'Hey man, what the hell? You just made me wait an hour so you can talk on the phone. Not freaking cool.'

"Thanks, its has some of my new clothing, thank god." He said, looking happily at the box. It made me want to look down at my clothing. I got my clothes pretty recently, just a few weeks ago, tops. I think I'll be good for another few months. "Anyways, we gotta head to Sandgem. Professor Rowan wants you 'immediately.'" Brendan made air quotes at the word 'immediately' and lowered his voice some. I started to crack up despite the fact that I'm awfully scared and confused.. Professor Rowan only says that he wants someone 'immediately' if he wants to fire them.

"What... Why does the Professor want me?" You could say I'm scared right now. If I'm fired... then my life will crumble. And I'm dead serious. If he fires me, any hope to gain respect from him is completely lost. Zip. Nothing. Nada. Respect from Professor Rowan alone could take me to so many places... And I never really did anything to make him want to fire me... yeah, I've left his briefcase out in the open a few times, and sure, I've forgotten a few things... but besides that, I've been pretty good.

Yeah, but Brendan just smirked and pulled a green and white hat out of his box. "We'll see." Oh, how informative is that. I just rolled my eyes at him.

Meanwhile, he took off the black, white and red hat which sent his dark hair flying in front of his face messily. Watching him struggle with the strands of hair was almost funny, I would have laughed if I wasn't so damn confused.

Brendan's POV

God, I hate hair. There are reasons why I wear a hat that covers all of it. It's exactly what I need every morning. To have to try to get my long-ish black strands into a hat.

But anyways, back to the matter at hand. We, meaning Lucas and I, were standing outside Professor Rowan's lab. Lucas is pretty much scared out of his mind, probably thinking that he's going to get discharged or something. Oh boy, that's the total opposite of whats happening.

But Lucas doesn't have to know that.

I reached for the door before Lucas stopped me. "W-wait!" He said, hopping in front of the door.

"What?"

"Uh... do you think that cute pokemon are stronger then others?"

"Huh? I don't know, does it really matter?"

"Er... no." I reached for the door again, just to be interrupted again.

"Lucas." I whined. I can't tell him whats going on, but I don't think I can deal with this stalling for much longer. "Professor Rowan is going to be mad when we don't show up." I crossed my arms, feeling impossibly a lot like a girl.

"Fine." He mumbled. I had to practically drag him through the door and into the Lab.

"You're late." Professor Rowan said, stepping forward. Woah, this guy was kind of intimidating. Looks like Lucas actually had a reason to be scared.

"Sorry Professor." Lucas said, looking down. He does that a lot.

"You don't do much as an assistant here."

"I-I... I'm sorry Professor."

"We don't require your services in this lab anymore, Lucas." With these words, Lucas look petrified.

"I'm sorry Professor." He repeated (sounding very much like a broken record, might I add), still looking down. I'm fighting the urge to look down too- is something exciting going on down there? A parade of frantic zigzagoons or something?

"Which is exactly why we need you- out there." Professor Rowan smiled... in a sort of creepy way. Lucas' head snapped up.

"What do you mean?" Lucas seemed pretty confused.

"You're welcome." I murmured under my breath, smirking slightly.

Professor Rowan cleared his throat. "I'd like you to catalog pokemon in other regions for us. I've upgraded your pokedex, can we try not to loose it this time?" I'm sorry but I just had to laugh. Lucas puffed out his chest.

"I didn't loose it, those galactic grunts stole it." He almost whined. Besides his little protest, Lucas seemed elated. "Wait- so you're saying that your going to let me travel and train and everything? The real deal?"

"Erm, why yes. But you must remember to do your work. Take care then, and report back to me every few months." Professor Rowan began to walk away when Lucas jumped up with joy. Literally.

"We are SO heading to Hoenn first." I grinned at Lucas... but he was too giddy to notice.

"OH, I almost forgot." Rowan turned around and nearly sprinted towards us. "Professor Oak sent a trainer from Pallet Town over to his grandson's lab in with hopes of traveling with their pokemon throughout various regions. I told Oak that the two of you could accompany them on their journey. I believe that the three of you would be helpful to one another." Say WHAT?

"Uh, okay." I said awkwardly. I mean, I'm all for having another dude to add to our trio, but since when did Gary Oak have a lab? Gee, that makes me feel like a mega slacker. He's only been a researcher for a year or two, and I've had to help my dad out my entire life, and I don't have a lab.

Glancing over at Lucas, he didn't seem to mind that we would have another person traveling with us. And you know? I don't think I care either. This is going to be some adventure, thats for sure.

(A/N: And thats the end of a weird chapter.

Just a few things I want to point out:

-If you hadn't noticed, Lucas' outfit in the anime is different to his in the games. They had to switch it up in the anime because his outfit in the games is worn by none other then the amazing (and dense) Ash Ketchum.

-As of Brendan's hair... they never really do explain it. If we go according to the Manga, he has black hair... so lets stick with that xD. But I don't like his hair when he takes his hat off in the manga. So can we go for a longer (and non green) Drew haircut? Yeah?

-I also have no idea if his eyes are really red. But hey, in the Manga his name is Ruby. That HAS to mean something, right?

-I tried to make it that Lucas and Brendan don't sound alike when they think. Meaning, Lucas may sound a bit... hyper? and Brendan might sound a little too concerned of what people think about him. But think about it- this is Lucas' first adventure, he has a reason to be jittery. And Brendan is just insecure. LOL.

-Brendan's been wearing the same outfit for... what? The past three movies he's made cameos in? It's time he wore something a bit different.

-Lucas is going to like food. Thats one thing I like about his character in the manga xD)