A feisty lillipup hit the ground as a spry eevee knocked into it. Carmen, the offspring of Bianca's stoutland and his own liepard (yes, how ironic- a dog and a cat, he knew), had stood her ground well, but it was time for Cheren to admit defeat. The green-eyed blonde in front of him who reminded him more than a bit of Bianca looked at him with wide eyes, waiting for his reaction to the loss. Finally, he smiled. "Congratulations! You battled well!" he said, extending his hand for her to shake.

She took it eagerly. "Thanks! You're really tough!" she said. Cheren nearly chuckled, nearly told her that she would soon find that in the grand scheme of things, Cheren's pokemon weren't really so tough after all, not compared to what she would face out there.

"That's a strong eevee you've got there," Cheren said, looking down at the cheerful pokemon.

"My daddy caught him on his way home from work one day! He's a businessman in Castelia!" she said pridefully. "I named him Banana."

"That's a, um, interesting name," Cheren said politely, resisting the urge to give her an odd look. "So it's my duty as gym leader to bestow upon you the Basic Badge. The Bas-" He was cut off by the ringing of his Crosstransceiver. "I'm sorry, Megan, would you mind waiting a moment?"

"Of course not!" she said with a smile, more than content to stare dreamily at the shiny new badge that Cheren had just handed her.

"Hello?" Cheren answered. He was surprised to look down and see the smiling face of Rosa, a trainer he had battled months before.

"Cheren? You know how you told me if I had questions about pokemon I see that I could call you?" she asked hesitantly.

"…Yes," Cheren said, though really, he didn't.

"Well I'm on my way to Opelucid to battle the gym leader and I ran into this pokemon on the road and I'm not sure how to approach it," she said.

"Where exactly are you?" Cheren asked, trying to think of what pokemon she could have possibly run into.

"I'm on uh, route 13," she said.

"Can you describe the pokemon to me, Rosa?" Cheren asked, unable to remember what pokemon made their home there. It had been so long since his own journey and he usually didn't travel out that far anymore.

"Can I just show you?" she asked.

"Well, sure, I guess that works," Cheren said. The picture on the Crosstransceiver moved away from Rosa's face and was blurry for a moment as Rosa tried to find a good view of the pokemon that confuddled her so.

Within a moment, a stoic-looking aqua blue pokemon appeared, a stern glare upon it's facial features. It's distinct yellow horns that appeared to be almost thunderbolt-like gave its identity away immediately. "Holy shit," Cheren muttered, forgetting the young girl that was standing directly in front of him.

"Is everything okay, Cheren?" Rosa's voice asked, though the picture of the legendary pokemon in front of him was unwavering.

"You seriously don't know what pokemon that is?" Cheren asked slowly.

"Is it rare?" Rosa asked.

"Rare?" Cheren wanted to ask her if she was an idiot. Seriously, she was from Aspertia, the very city Cheren was in right now. She had grown up in Unova, just as he had. How was she so damn clueless? "Rosa, how did you find that pokemon?"

"It was just sitting here in the middle of the route," she said. "It kind of growled at me at first and I got scared and went back to Undella Town and then I came back and it was still here. It's been just watching me talk to you on the phone."

"Why is Cobalian just sitting in the middle of route 13?" Cheren asked.

"Cobalion?!" Megan, the novice trainer that he had just battled, squealed.

"So it's good?" Rosa asked cluelessly.

"Rosa, why don't you just stay right there and I'll meet you in about twenty minutes?" Cheren said exasperatedly. He hung up from the call, only to find a very excited young blonde girl bouncing around in front of him.

"Gym Leader Cheren, can I go with you?!" Megan asked, green eyes shining.

"Maybe you should go find a nice mareep or something," he said absentmindedly. "Congratulations again." And with that, he hopped on his unfezant from journeys past and set off for Undella Town.

All in a day's work for Cheren.

Author's Note (10/26/12): So my birthday is next month and while my best friend was in town last weekend, he got me the very early birthday present of White 2, which is excellent because I've been dying to at least play through so I can figure out what I want to incorporate into the plot of SYOF. I have spent the last week or so playing through it while I've had free time and for the most part, I've found it rather enjoyable.

However, last night, I left Undella Town and stumbled across motherflippin Cobalion just chillin in the middle of route 13 and I cannot figure out for the life of me why this is considered normal and nobody freaks out. I know the dude that used to reside in Mistralton Cave says that Cobalion senses that things are out of whack when he pops out of nowhere right before Chargestone Cave, but COME ON. And then Terrakion and Virizion are just popping up in the middle of routes and nobody in the vicinity questions why a legendary pokemon is just wandering around? Nope, I don't buy it.

Also, the first thing I thought upon seeing that you can now call people on the Crosstransceiver is that Cheren must get a lot of phone calls from novice trainers, especially since he's considerably less obnoxious than the Cheren of yesteryear. Poor, poor Cheren. And poor, poor Cobalion. I still can't figure out what's wrong with Mistralton Cave. Meh.

Also, apparently our new female protag's name is Rosa. So there's that.