Aw, thanks for the reviews everyone. They motivate me to continue with the story.

Now, I was in a bit of a predicament when I first thought of this chapter. Like, what would happen? What would make this game so dangerous? Well, I had some ideas, but now, I have the perfect setting. You'll just have to wait to find out for yourself.

This chapter will just announce the partner pairs. Next chapter, things will start to pick up. Apparently though, this chapter is quite long itself.

Capture the Flag

Chapter 3: Fateful Choices

Celadon City; April 13th 7:30 AM

All of the Dex Holders were gathered at the outskirts of Celadon City, waiting for Blue to arrive, so that they would prepare to depart to the Sinnoh region. It seemed that she was the tardiest of them all, quite surprising, actually. As they all waited for her arrival, the Dex Holders talked amongst themselves.

Each of the Dex Holders had somewhat prepared for the field trip. Many of them brought food, water, and their desired Pokemon. They were also quite curious in what their partners would be. After Blue delayed the announcement of their partners until today, their curiosity built up substantially.

10 minutes later, the Sinnoh Dex Holders suddenly saw a small speck of light in the distance, and the shadow seemed to be one of a floating balloon Pokemon. Of course, the clinging shadow was none other than Blue herself, holding on to her Puriri.

"Hiya!" The brunette hollered cheerfully to her fellow Dex Holders, carefully letting go of Puriri's paw, and landing smoothly on the pavement.

"Damn, what took you so long?" The goggled boy asked impatiently, swinging around his billiard cue.

"Because Gold, I had to make special preparations. I have to be prepared as well, you know?" She pouted, prompting to return her Puriri.

The Dex Holders sighed. Blue was seriously getting on their nerves.

"Anyways..." The brunette smirked as she pulled out a hat from her purse. "It's time that I announce our partners, shall we?"

Many of them were feigning interest and started intently at the leather hat, wondering who they'd probably want to end up with. But of course, everyone had that small feeling of hopelessness, that if fate followed them, they would be with the person who they despised to be with the most. All of the Dex Holders thought of that one person they would hate to be with, and prayed to the sky that they wouldn't be paired up with them.

"Now...I can't keep you waiting any longer, right...?" Blue slowly and carefully pulled out a small folded piece of paper from the leather hat, and tried to draw suspense to the upcoming announcement. She purposely glanced a peek at the slip, smirking quite noticeably, prompting the Dex Holders to be extremely nervous, and started to pray for themselves.

"First off, it's..." She paused to take a quick breath. "...the one and only Gold!"

Gold smirked. "I guess I'm that special, isn't that right?"

"We'll see...hehe." The brunette muttered and giggled silently as she slowly pulled out another slip of paper, and carefully began to unfold it.

"Please, let it be someone else other than me..." Crystal whispered, with desperation in her voice. "If I am with that flirty freak again, I swear..."

"...And..."

The bluenette gulped.

"...Gold's partner will be...the one and only Crystal!"

Crystal swore she saw a devious grin from the Kanto Dex Holder, but she decided to ignore it. If she purposely placed the pair together, then she'll find other ways to take revenge against her.

"Yeah! I'm with Super Serious Gal!" Gold hollered cheerfully, placing his arm around her shoulders. "We're definitely going to win, isn't that right?"

"We definitely won't..." She muttered under her breath. But, unfortunately, Gold was able to pick up on that.

"Aw, Super Serious Gal, don't be down! I promise I'll annoy you as much as possible!" The goggled Dex Holder grinned.

The next thing he knew, he took a painful kick to the shin.

"AGH, DAMN IT CRYSTAL!" He yelled, hopping on his other good leg. "THAT HURT!"

Blue grinned at the pair while she began to pull out another slip of paper. The Dex Holders all grew quiet as her lips turned upward.

"Next up, it's the Johto Dex Holder, Silver!"

Silver nodded silently, awaiting the next call.

As she began to pull out another piece of paper though, she heard frantic footsteps approaching the Dex Holders.

"WAIT! I'M SORRY I'M LATE!" A voice hollered quite loudly as it neared.

The Dex Holders looked around the area, and saw a girl limping towards Blue, gasping for breath.

"Oh, Soul, you're here!" Blue greeted the girl cheerfully, as she helped the brunette up to her feet.

Apparently, a few days ago, Blue had called her old friend Soul, to see if she wanted to join them in their field trip. After not seeing her for about a year or so, she thought it would be nice if she joined along with the Dex Holders. Besides, Blue had thought that Soul was a strong trainer, as she battled well, and had decent strategic skills. In addition, she was exceptional at the Pokealthlon, as she was was in the top 25 at one point. Although she wasn't a Dex Holder, Blue invited her anyway.

"Who's this chick?" Gold asked, while grinning sheepishly at the brunette.

As Crystal sighed in annoyance, Blue smiled as she began to speak. "Everyone, this is my old friend, Soul. She'll be joining us in the trip as well! Besides..." She averted her eyes to Silver. "I think she'd be a suitable partner for Silver~"

Both Silver and Soul glared at the devious brunette, as she laughed selfishly to her own victory.

"Now, shall we continue?" Blue asked, grabbing the attention of everyone once again.

She pulled out yet another piece of folded paper, and she began to unfold it, revealing a certain someone's name.

"Next is...Yellow!"

Yellow smiled nervously at her friend as she gently adjusted her hat, revealing more of her face. She wanted to be with that certain someone, and almost everyone knew who it was. Of course, except that person himself, the oblivious and handsome fool, who was quite slow when it came to love and relationships.

"Yellow's lucky partner will be..." She smiled at Red, who although had no idea why she was smiling at him, proceeded to smile back at her.

"...You guessed it. It's Red!"

Yellow immediately blushed with embarrassment, desperately trying to cover her face. Deep inside though, she was extremely happy that she was with Red, and was relieved that no one else would be taking him but herself. She silently thanked destiny, and walked over to Red, smiling brightly at the black haired Dex Holder.

"Hehe, I kinda had a feeling that we would end up as partners.." The Kanto Dex Holder smiled nervously, rubbing the back of his head, prompting the blonde girl to softly giggle.

"I-I guess so..." She quietly whispered, immediately pulling her leather brimmed hat downwards, in order to cover the extremely crimson red blush that spread across her delicate cheeks.

Blue kept thinking that fate had something to do with this sudden pair up. First off, everyone so far had been paired up with the person that they liked, or could tolerate with, in Silver's perspective. They were extremely lucky, and this wasn't just some coincidence that she could brush off. This match up happened thrice in a row, maybe not for Silver, but it was extremely unlikely that Soul would end up running late, and her appearance happened right after Silver's name was called. Coincidence? Nah, it was definitely fate.

The brunette immediately felt a sense of relief throughout her body. If fate was messing with the matching pairs, and matched each person up with the person that they liked, then she could be with the person that she always wanted to be with...

Her heart began to beat loudly as she nervously pulled out another folded slip of paper from the leather hat.

"N-Next up is..." The Kanto Dex Holder stuttered as she placed her hand to her heart. "...Oh, it's Sapphire." The barbarian immediately stepped towards Blue's direction, awaiting her soon to be partner's name to be announced. The problem was, she had this small feeling in her gut that she knew who she was going to be with.

"Sapphire, the Hoenn Dex Holder, will be paired up with Ruby, her fellow rival!" Blue grinned at the couple, as they immediately exerted a negative reaction against this pair up.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" The Hoenn Dex Holder cursed as she stomped towards him, ready to give him a piece of her mind. "Why am I always with you? You're such a sissy, and you always throw insults at me! You're always acting like a selfish brat who cares about no one else but himself and his beautiful Pokemon!" She hollered angrily at her partner.

Ruby immediately felt a piece of his pride slowly fall down the drain. He grew discouraged. "Why are you always with me?! I feel the same too you know! I'm always with a rude, foul-mouthed barbarian who doesn't know how to act accordingly in front of her fellow seniors! Actually, you act like this in front of everyone!"

Sapphire tried her best to rub away the incoming tears coming from her eyes. "Ruby, you bastard! Take that back!"

"Young love these days." Emerald muttered under his breath, sighing loudly in annoyance as Ruby and Sapphire continued arguing. He was quite accustomed to this. In fact, everyone was. Ruby and Sapphire were often arguing about something every single time they were together. Whether it would be their Pokemon, their seniors, or even about the stupid weather, they would always get worked up about something.

Blue tried her best to ignore the arguing couple as she pulled out another piece of paper from the hat. She raised her voice in order to drown out the yells from the two Hoenn Dex Holders.

"Next up is Platinum! Now, who will she be with?"

Platinum immediately bowed to her fellow seniors.

Next to her were her "bodyguards", Diamond and Pearl. Although both of the Dex Holders had wanted to be with Platinum, as she was the only one they actually knew, Pearl knew that Diamond wanted to be Platinum's partner, as it was obvious about Diamond's attraction to the heiress. Unfortunately, they were in the same situation as Yellow with Red; the heiress was extremely oblivious to his feelings, and only thought of him as a close friend. Of course, Pearl wanted to change that. If Diamond were to be paired up with Platinum, then maybe she could start to like him. Especially when they would be alone most of the time, things were bound to happen.

"And Platinum's lucky partner will be...the one and only Diamond!"

The heiress smiled at Diamond, relieved that she was with her close friend. On the other hand though, she felt a pang of guilt for her other friend, Pearl, as then, he would have to be paired up with someone he didn't know too well, and it saddened her. Diamond sensed her guilt and gently held her hand, smiling back at his Lady.

Meanwhile, at the back of the group, along with Red and Yellow, the Viridian Gym Leader sighed as he crossed his arms. He wanted to do anything to not be with the pesky girl, but, as he suspected, the chances of him being paired with her were raising as she announced each partnership. Now, after Diamond and Platinum, the only people left who were still without a partner were Blue, himself, Pearl, and Emerald. He silently hoped that he was with either Pearl or even Emerald. Then again, if he was paired with them, Blue would probably do something about it.

"Hehe, next up, it's my Greenie!" She smirked at the Gym Leader, and he sighed loudly. "I wonder who he'll be with..."

Everyone knew who he was going to end up with. It was quite obvious.

As she pulled out a small piece of paper from the leather hat and read the name, her eyes seemed to drift downward for half of a second. Suddenly though, she smiled, and continued anyway.

"I knew it! I'm going to be with Green!" She jumped up in the air, excited and satisfied. He swore that on the slip of paper, he saw the letters "Pe", but couldn't confirm his suspicions as she hurriedly threw the slip onto the ground, along with the other pieces of paper.

"Pesky girl..." He muttered under his breath.

"Lastly, the only people left are Pearl and Emerald! So that means that they'll be partners!"

Pearl and Emerald glared at each other. Apparently, their bossy and somewhat arrogant attitudes seemed to clash.

Blue sighed, but smiled nonetheless. This really was going to be an interesting game. She looked up at the sky, and took a deep breath.

"It was fate...huh?"

Gosh, this chapter was freaking long! The ending was a bit rushed, well, because, it was too freaking long! I hope next chapter, the field trip actually begins. The simple game of Capture the Flag will immediately grow crazy. But, that will happen...next chapter. Hopefully.

I added a bit of shippyness in this, so it wasn't exactly useless, right?

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter.