Well, hello, new format. How are you? Welcome back to the slightly revamped version of The Fighter, which I fondly refer to as "The Fighter 2.0". Have fun re-reading, or welcome if you're new, and expect writing quality to jump up around chapter eight :)

Disclaimer; I do not own Pokemon or Ed Sheeran's song This, much as I would love to.

"This is the start of something beautiful; this is the start of something new."

–This, Ed Sheeran

My eyes creak open to a bright wash of sunlight flooding through my open window, a soft summer breeze blowing against my cheek, and the incessant beeping of my alarm clock. Groaning, I roll over and clumsily slap at my small bedside table, trying to shut the thing up.

I flail around desperately, knocking several knick-knacks off of my table, before I finally manage to hit the off button on the infernal device. Sighing, I roll over, relishing the warm cocoon of my bed, and I bury my face into my pillow, muttering something along the lines of, "Five more minutes!"

The one day that I need to be up just has to be the day after the night that I can't sleep. Staring at the ceiling and constantly checking the glowing red digits on the clock didn't really help my insomnia, either. Why was I awake so late last night anyways? And why did I have to be up . . . ?

A bolt of remembrance shoots through my groggy mind, and I groan loudly. Today is the day Professor Juniper gives Cheren, Bianca, and me our first Pokémon. Pokémon! I attempt to leap out of bed, but only manage to become helplessly entangled in the blankets and sheets, which leads to me landing painfully on the floor.

. . . Right in time for Cheren to walk in. His navy gaze lands on my disheveled bed, then my alarm clock, which is hanging by the wire from my table, and then me myself, sprawled on the floor. He does the most predictable thing he can. He laughs.

"Oversleep again, did we?" I narrow my eyes at him, and childishly stick out my tongue. "Shut up, Specs," I say, referring to him by his nickname from when we were kids. Even at seventeen, the name still sticks.

"Not that I mind seeing you just out of bed, but next time, tell me when you're going to do that sort of-" "OUT!" I yell, pointing to the open door while trying to disentangle myself and get up off of the pink and purple carpet.

He complies, eyes twinkling with mischief behind his nerdy glasses, neatly shutting the door behind him. I sigh, and begin the arduous task of getting ready for our big day.

After ten minutes, I'm pretty sure I look presentable. Giving myself a once-over in my mirror, I recoil in shock. This isn't Touko White anymore. This is an independent girl setting out on her first journey.

My long, chestnut hair is pulled back in a tight high ponytail, and I've left long strands to hang loose, being too lazy to redo the whole thing. I have my pink-ish bag sitting ready by my bookshelf, and my black bracelet is snug on my right wrist. I'm wearing almost indecently short shorts with the pockets ripped out, courtesy of my mom's Liepard. White tank top under a black vest, and a pink and white baseball cap swinging from my finger, I'm a different person.

This is only confirmed by Cheren bursting in again after a muffled, "Are you decent?" Not like he cares that much. We've known each other for so long, the regular girl-boy things kind of just fade out.

He walks in, does a double-take and says, "Where's Touko?" I, being the lovely friend that I am, smack him upside the head and tell him to shut up. "Ow!" he moans ruefully, rubbing his scalp gingerly where I hit him.

And then, only then, do I realize what he's holding. A gift-wrapped blue box tied with a green satin ribbon and sealed with a fluffy green bow. It takes all of my self-control not to tear open the box there and then.

Cheren probably sees the glint in my eyes, because he intervenes. "Touko, you know we should wait for Bianca to show up before you open that." I open my mouth to protest indignantly, but he cuts me off. "I know when you have one of those stupid plans." I shut it again quickly.

But the box has Pokémon! The date has been circled on my calendar for ages, a huge red ring of marker with my looping writing all around it. June 21st, the first day of summer, already evident from the Pidove chirping outside.

I look at Cheren, and he looks back at me. Our gazes land on the Wii sitting inconspicuously in the corner. "Matchup Mashup?" I ask him innocently. "Oh, you're on," he says, and we grab at the remotes. "Of course, you know I'm going to kick your ass, right?"

Cheren responds by launching me into the fiercest game of Matchup I've ever played.

We're halfway through a Dragon-Steel battle when a blond rushes through my door, trips over my dresser and crashes into me. I stumble backwards, hitting the Wii, and losing the intense game Cheren and I had been engaged in. "You owe me ten Poké," he says vaguely.

"Bianca!" I moan. "We were kinda in the middle of something. . ." "Ooh," says Bianca, raising her eyebrows suggestively. "I should leave you guys to it, then. . ." Cheren goes red and Bianca giggles, making her way over to him.

Being in such close proximity to Bianca makes Cheren turn even brighter red, and I stifle a laugh behind my hand. They both are so obvious about each other, and yet neither wants to admit it. It's hopeless, really.

I figure I have to do something to diffuse the, ahem, "sexual tension" in the room, so I clear my throat loudly. "Um, Pokémon, guys?" This sends both of my best friends flying over to the little table as though their lives depended on it, even calm, reserved Cheren.

Cheren grabs the note left for us, scans it, and then drops it and looks at us expectantly. "What?" I say, when no answer is forthcoming from Bianca. "I don't know all about these Pokémon adventures, Cheren. I'm not a walking dictionary like you."

Cheren immediately goes into a long explanation about how there are three Pokémon in the box, and they are different types, and how they will be our partners, and so on. Meanwhile, Bianca and I have already pulled the ribbon off of the box.

"Hey, Bee," I say. "Put this on your head." "Ooh!" she exclaims, and sticks the bow onto the top of her green beret. We both collapse into giggles at how ridiculous she looks, completely ignoring Cheren and his spiel.

"So, shall we choose our Pokémon?" Cheren says, and then looks at us. Bianca is lying on the floor in her white and orange dress, with a green bow in her hair, giggling about some joke about three Patrat and a bar. Cheren turns to me in defeat.

I look up at the word Pokémon, and retrieve the box with the little creatures inside. "I call dibs on choosing first," I say, not really caring if I sound childish. "Awww!" calls Bianca from the floor. "Come on, Bee," Cheren says. "They were delivered to Touko's house." "By you," Bianca grumbles, but she lets me open the box.

Three small capsules sit wobbling in a swathe of tissue paper, and I sit, letting the reality wash over me. I'm getting my very own Pokémon. The hushed sense of awe is broken by none other than Bianca. "Well? Choose one!"

My hand hovers over the first ball, and I get an immediate sense of determination radiating from it. Nope. Too focussed. That one would be better for Cheren. I switch my position so that my hand is hovering over the second ball, and a giggling, laughing presence fills me. No. That would be better for giggly, bouncy Bianca.

So that leaves the last Poké Ball, and I'm starting to worry that maybe none of the Pokémon suit me, and that I'll have to wait another year, but as soon as my hand comes into contact with the plastic surface, I know that this is the right one. A calm, refreshing sense comes from it, and I close my fingers around the capsule. "This one," I say confidently, and I press it to my lips, then toss it high into the air. Out pops a little snake-y thing, grass type I think. I love it instantly.

The little creature is long-ish and slender, with a snake-like snout and wide, intelligent amber eyes. It has a green kind of jacket design down its waist and back, ending in a leafy green tail. "Snivy," she says, puffing out her chest and waving a frond of a hand coolly towards me. "T-Touko," I say.

The Pokémon -Snivy- walks over to me and drapes herself over my shoulder. "Sniv," she says, and snuggles into me. "Aw! What a cutie!" says Bianca. "I call next!" Without even pausing, she grabs a Poké Ball at random and chucks it into the air.

"Oshawott!" A little blue otter pops out of its capsule and looks at Bianca curiously. After evaluating her for a second, the Oshawott bounces happily over to her. "Osha!" Bianca's eyes light up, and she claps giddly. "I'm going to call you Rayne, okay?"

The Oshawott, Rayne, cocks his head to the side, thinking. "Wott," he announces with a smile. Cheren looks at Bianca in disbelief. "Seriously? Just take a Pokémon, why don't you?" he says, but I know he's joking around. "It's okay. I wanted Tepig anyways."

Cheren pulls out the last Poké Ball and carefully throws it into the air. A little orange pig emerges witha flash of light and an audible pop. "Te-PIG," it says, and Cheren goes off downstairs to formally introduce it to himself.

Then Bianca decides that we should battle. Inside. Let's just say that the results were as expected (I won) and that my room was completely and utterly destroyed. "Oops," says Bianca as she takes in the footprints on the ceiling and the smashed furniture,

"Oops?" says Cheren, bursting in again with his Tepig, whose name is apparently now Majesty. "You kind of destroyed her room, Bianca." Lovely, oblivious Bianca. "Oops," she repeats, more apologetically.

Of course, she can't stay on one topic for more than a minute, so the next thing out of her mouth is, "Touko should battle Cheren!" Well, okay. My room is already trashed as it is, so why not?

Snivy and I win again, without destroying too much else, and we leave Cheren looking pretty dejected. "Don't worry, Cheren," Bianca says, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It was your first battle, after all." Cheren shrugs, and then he gets that look that I usually have, the one that says, "I'm about to do something incredibly stupid." "Race you to the lab."

So that's how my mom ended up with the three of us landing in a pile down the stairs, in the middle of our living room. She looks at us, her face unreadable, and then bursts out laughing at us. Thanks, mom.

"Um. . . Ms White?" Bianca starts. "We kind of destroyed Touko's room. . ." To my surprise, and our probably obvious relief, my mom just smiles. "That's fine, dear," she says to all of us. "I'll clean it up later." Wait, WHAT?

"And I also have something for you three," she continues. WHAT? This day just keeps getting better and better. . . "Here's your Cross-Transceiver, but most people call it an Xtransceiver. It's a video phone, with some attachments. You'll be able to figure them out by yourself."

Bianca lets out a whoop of joy. "Thanks, Touko's mom!" Cheren is a little more dignified. "Thank you, Ms White," he says smoothly. "Thanks, mom," I say, strapping the blocky device to my left wrist.

"Now, what's this I hear about a race. . ?" my mom says. We're gone so fast, I'm sure there are images left where we were standing. Bianca stops outside my house after Cheren is gone, and turns to me. "Touko, I have to grab some stuff first, okay? I'll see you there."

Bianca starts walking down the dirt road, and then I remember the race. Swearing under my breath, I sprint after Cheren. We meet, panting, in front of Professor Juniper's lab, and I recover first, seeing as Cheren has asthma. "Let's call it a draw, yeah?" "M'k," comes the muffled response from behind the inhaler beside me. I roll my eyes and set off to fetch Bianca.

When I get to Bianca's house, I see something that honestly, I was kind of expecting. Bianca and her dad are having a face-off in the middle of the living room, while her mom is standing off to the side in the kitchen, watching the whole thing.

Bianca's dad has always been really overprotective, but I never thought he would try to stop Bianca from going on her adventure with us. "You're staying in Nuvema Town, and that's final!" Bianca takes a step back, but her voice remains steady. "I'm going, and I'm going NOW!" she yells, and storms out of the house.

Then she sees me, and pulls her floppy beret down over her eyes. "Let's just pretend that never happened, okay?" she murmurs, then rushes ahead of me to the lab.

I meet my friends outside of the lab, by the little wind propeller. As I draw near, Professor Juniper comes out from between the sliding doors and invites us in. As we stand there, she gives us the whole talk about what we got Pokémon for, our journey, the Pokédex, Gym Leaders, etcetera. . .

By the time she's finished, Snivy is out and playing with my hair, Rayne is blowing large blue bubbles around the lab, and Cheren is the only one who's actually paying any attention.

"So, did you three get all that?" she asks us, and for some reason, I don't like her tone. It reminds me too much of the condescending tone my dad used with me before he abandoned my mom. I couldn't care less about where he went. "Yes, Professor," we chorus back sweetly.

"Good!" she beams, reaching behind her to get something off of her overflowing desk. "Where did I put them. . ?" she mumbles to herself, sifting through stacks of paper. I notice three Pokédexes being juggled by Rayne, and I smirk to myself. That's probably what she's looking for.

After five minutes of this, Rayne looks about ready to chuck the machines at Professor Juniper's head. "I'm so sorry, I swear to Arceus I had them right here. . ." she says, her neat brown bun of hair becoming not-so-neat. "Um, Professor?" I say finally.

"Touko, not now," she says, and I feel a hint of anger bubble up inside of me. "But Professor, are these the Pokédexes?" I point at Rayne, who hastily drops them and hides behind Bianca. In a quick movement, Snivy slips off of my shoulder and catches the machines, handing them resentfully to the Professor.

"Oh!" she says happily. "There they are!" I try not to make a face, and Cheren and Bianca laugh silently at me. "So, here you are," Juniper says, passing out the little consoles. "These will keep track of all the Pokémon you see- but I've already gone over this! I'll see you on Route 1 to show you how to catch Pokémon!" With that, she bustles out of the building, leaving us alone. Never a good idea, that.

Cheren and Bianca immediately burst into loud laughter, causing the scientists to shush them and causing me to give them an icy glare. "Your FACE!" Bianca manages to choke out between gasps for air. Cheren has tears streaming down his face, and he's gasping for air as well.

Rayne, Majesty, and Snivy seem to think this whole ordeal is pretty funny too, so they start pointing as best they can at me and start laughing too, which sends my friends into further conniptions.

Eventually, it's impossible for me to keep up my glare any longer and I start laughing as well, so when my mom walks in through the electronic doors it's to find three hysterical teenagers and three hysterical Pokémon. "Oh, Touko!" she exclaims. "I was just looking for you!" Uh oh.

"You forgot your Map!" she says cheerily, with no mention whatsoever of my room and our previous battles. "Oh, right, my. . . Map. . ?" I trail off, unsure of what, exactly, getting a map entails. What map? "And I brought some for Cheren and Bianca, too, so you don't have to fight!"

She pulls out three maps from I don't want to know where, and hands them to us. I scan it over. Accumula Town? Icirrus City? Seriously? What's with all these cloud names?

My mom snaps me out of it by giving me a huge hug and whispering in my ear. "Promise to come back, okay?" I know what she means. She means that she doesn't want me to leave like my dad did and never come back.

Then she pulls back, bright and cheery again. "Have fun, kids!" she says, blowing us all an imaginary kiss, and then walking back to our little house with the neat green planters.

There is a moment of silence as it sinks in for all of us that we are leaving home. Home with the sparkling blue ocean, the beautiful summer wind, the chatty people and the little white flowers.

Bianca breaks the silence. "Touko?" "Mmm?" I say, staring out at the waves, across the endless sea to where I'm sure other regions await. "Your mom is pretty cool." In response, I grab her hat and start sprinting towards Route 1, Bianca and Cheren in close pursuit.

This is going to be quite an adventure. And I, Touko White, am determined to make the most of it.

Remember to review if you liked it, darlings, and review even if you didn't. Really, I insist.