"C-Chad...pick up please..." I tapped the Xtransciever with my short fingernail. My knees were tucked as close as possible to my face and my one and only pokemon sat perched atop them, flapping his wings as a means to scare our attackers. It wasn't working.

Finally the screen on the Xtransciever gave static, and finally the clear image of my brother appeared. "Chad!" I cried, which seemed to startle the two attackers and set them back a few paces. I breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing my brother's pale brown hair. He stood in a place somewhat similar to mine – grassy with leaves falling everywhere.

"Where are you?" I breathed. Hopefully he was somewhere near me, ready to burst out of a bush to scare them away. He looked around quickly and smiled. "Icirrus City. What's up, Jules?" I sighed. I had no clue where Icirrus city even was! For all I knew, it was the next city over. "I'm under attack, help me." My brother cocked his head. Behind him, his prized Hydreigon – once a Deino when he was first gifted with it – flared its nostrils. It was particularly frightening due to the fact it was a three headed dragon beast. The one in the middle also flared its fuschia skin collar at me.

I turned my wrist toward my attackers. They were wearing such devious faces, like mischievous kids just meeting their new babysitter. They walked toward us with long purple and sand-colored legs, their green eyes focused on my little bird pokemon. He flapped his wings more excitedly now, indicating how nervous he was. Cats and birds do not mix.

My brother began to laugh; uncontrollably. "What's so funny, Chad?" I turned the Xtranciever back to me and inched up further against the tree I sat under. "It's a purrloin, Jules. They're harmless. Maybe it would be best for you to train your little bird to help you clean messes at home-" I stopped him. "No! You gave me Gabbro so I could be safe when I went on my journey! I can do it." He was still laughing, so I just hung up on him.

I stood up so suddenly that my little pidove, Gabbro, had to flap his wings in order to perch on my shoulder. The two purrloins stepped back and gave a short bout of communication, meowing at each other for a moment. I knew a battle was going to start, and I didn't think I was ready.

Suddenly I noticed something. Snapped around their thin necks were little digital "collars". According to them, their health was full and they were in an excited mood. As far as I knew, once you caught a pokemon in a pokeball those were attached automatically. These weren't wild purrloins. But I was still worried about Gabbro, so stepped back and allowed him space to attack.

The purrloins were first to attack. They both chose to use growl. I noticed one of the numbers on Gabbro's collar dropped by two points. He seemed to calm down. "Gabbro!" I yelled. He snapped his wings against his body attentively.

"Gabbro, use gust!" I pointed at the second purrloin, who mewed innocently. I felt bad as I saw Gabbro flap his wings wildly around until the air almost bubbled in his wings, and suddenly the attacked purrloins fur blew back. It stumbled for a moment and shook its head. The biggest number on its collar fell two points.

The other purrloin suddenly jumped forward, claws extended. I shut my eyes tightly when suddenly I realized it stopped. It's hateful hiss ended and it stood silently, staring across the field.

"Miriam, Winona!" We all turned, including Gabbro, toward the girl racing through the tall grass. Pokemon turned away from her and gagged. It was strange. The two purrloins shifted uncomfortably and met half-way with the girl. She tackled them and rolled safely onto her back, giggling. "Thanks for watching them, Ma'am." The girl had short black hair and a knit cap on her head. The cap had purple cat ears and resembled the two cats she held to her chest.

"My name's Patricia, and back home they call me the Purrloin girl." She smiled proudly, standing up with the cats still stuffed in her tiny arms. They looked more ferocious than mischievous now, meowing in pain and frustration. "Sorry if my two girls caused you any trouble. They must've slipped off when I was at the pokemon center up in Accumula town. We were just about to go training, weren't we girls?"

They didn't answer. She shook her head and smiled. "What's your name? You from that town, uh, Nuvema?" I nodded. "Yeah. My name's Julia, but everyone calls me Jules. This," I pointed to the pidove perched on my shoulder, "is Gabbro. I got him from my big brother, all the way up in Icirrus city." Patricia grinned. "That's cool. I was just there a few days ago – the professor gave me a rare pokemon!"

My eyes widened. That was supposed to be my pokemon. Over a year ago, that was my pokemon she had. But a year ago, on the day we were to start our journey, I broke my leg. My friends waited for a few monthd, but during the middle of the summer they couldn't wait any longer and just left, and I ended up with Gabbro. I tried to react cooly though. "Really? What is it?"

Patricia reached down to her belt and extracted a pokeball. The purrloins in her arms covered their eyes with their paws. "This is an Oshawott – she's a water-type. I call her Bella. She's so sweet~" She cooed. "You seem like a new trainer, though. I would offer to battle you but I'd really like to take the girls to train more." She dropped the cats and collected them easily with her excess pokeballs.

"See you around, Jules." She giggled, skipping away again. Gabbro and I exchanged looks and looked back home. After all, if all trainers were like that, it wasn't going to be a good adventure. She was cute, happy, and peppy, but extremely annoying. I almost saw her as a rival somehow, her cheerful disposition and the fact she had my Oshawott. She would be a temporary replacement for my true rivals, also known as my best friends who left on their incredible journey a few months ago.

I ran through the path my pokemon-repelling rival went and started on my way to Accumula Town.