It has been two years since The Pokemon League’s revival. While protests were still on-going, many of the anti-League policies have been overturned over the years. The Johto region was the first to reopen its gyms for the public. It was only a matter of time before the other regions would follow suit. Only Hoenn had yet to fully repeal the ban on competitive battling.

As of now, The Kanto region has twelve gyms in service. Out of all the gym leaders from the region, only Lt. Surge returned as a gym leader. However, the people of Fuchsia city were more than proud of Janine accepting a position among the elite four, assuming the role her late father held so many years ago.

As of today, only 20,000 men and women across the regions have registered and received their Pokemon licenses. While this number is certainly well below the glory days of The League, it was a good start.

Today five young new trainers are riding comfortably on a chartered bus with Celadon City as their destination. These young trainers are complete strangers to each other, but they are each connected by one thing in common. Three months prior, they each received a letter from a Mrs. Amelie Friedrich. Each letter contained a ticket needed to travel to Celadon as well as an invitation to assist Mrs. Friedrich with a task. There was also a promise of a great reward should the task be completed.

A young lady of thirteen years of age sits towards the back of the bus. Her choice in seating was strategic for the purpose of observing the others. She periodically steals glances from the others but spends the majority of the trip staring at the invitation that she received in the mail.

She sighs as she brushes her red hair bangs away from her eyes, unveiling more of her Ransei features. Her name is Sylvia Rosesong, a ninja in training and heir to the Rosesong Clan. She rereads the letter once more, careful not to disturb the six tail fox sleeping peacefully on her lap.

Her thoughts go back when she had received the letter in the mail. She recalled her surprise and confusion, having received such an offer from a stranger. Her parents, on the other hand, were not as surprised. They had explained to her that Mrs. Friedrich had been a friend of the family. However, when she questioned her father how exactly they knew each other, he had only gotten embarrassed and refused to answer the question.

Sylvia would later find out from another member of her clan about the truth of Mrs. Friedrich’s relationship to her family. It would seem that years ago, Mrs. Friedrich had paid a visit to the clan. During said visit, Sylvia’s father had challenged her to a drinking contest. The two had bonded over the competition. However, to his shame, he had lost the contest and hasn’t lived it down since.

The story of the drinking contest conflicted with the image of a refined and respectable lady that Sylvia had previously built up in her mind. Even now, on the bus ride, she struggled to settle on a mental image of who Amelie Friedrich was. In truth, she had been hesitant to accept the invitation and had only done so because of her grandfather’s advisement. He had told her it was an opportunity for her to serve the clan.

“To serve the clan…” She absent-mindedly muttered under her breath, just audible enough to disturb the six tailed fox’s sleep. “Apologies Amelia. I didn’t mean to wake you.” She caressed the vulpix as it repositioned itself on Sylvia’s lap.

Sylvia continued with her routinely observance of the other passengers. Most of the others were boys that appeared roughly around her age. There was only one other girl among them. She had been sound asleep for the duration of the ride thus far, and Sylvia didn’t think much about her but still kept an eye on the girl.

The girl was about a year older than Sylvia. Like Sylvia, she also had red hair, but it was kept short in a more tomboyish style. Her skin was tanned golden brown and her clothing was of the fashion trends from Sinnoh with a theme of colors of autumn. She had chosen this color scheme deliberately for her name sake.

Her name was Autumn Mikon. She had traveled a long way from home to by accepting this invitation. Her connection to Mrs. Friedrich was a simple one. Her grandparents were simply close friends.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Autumn’s grandfather was a globe trotter and she always wanted to follow in the old man’s footsteps. So when she received the invite, she jumped at the chance to travel without hesitation.

Sylvia, having decided the sleeping girl wasn’t an exciting watch, shifted her attention to the boys. It seemed that each of them kept to themselves during the trip. Out of the three boys, one, in particular, caught the ninja’s attention.

The boy had a very young and boyish appearance. In fact, he looked to be the youngest one among the passengers. But it wasn’t the boy’s age that held Sylvia’s attention, there was something special about him that she couldn’t put her finger on.

Every so often, the boy appeared to be saying something. No one else seemed to be able to hear him, but Sylvia noticed the distinct movements of his lips that indicated that he was indeed talking. To who or what, she couldn’t be certain.

The boy suddenly looked over towards Sylvia, which caused her to instinctively to avert her eyes from him.

Had he noticed me watching them this whole time, Sylvia wondered.

The Truth had was linked to her suspicion of the boy’s uniqueness. Unbeknownst to the other passengers, the boy was accompanied with ghost candle Pokemon. The Litwick had turned itself invisible to everyone save for its master, Damien Black. It was the litwick that had noticed Sylvia watching its master and informed him of it.

Damien was from Lavender Town and a member of a long line of mystics that kept and maintained Lavender tower. Decades ago the tower was bought out and converted to a radio station. It was Mrs. Friedrich’s financial contributions that allowed the tower to be restored to its former glory. Which was why the young boy was making this journey now. It was an opportunity to repay the debt his family had owed.

Damien shrugged when he looked back to find Sylvia looking elsewhere. He reassured his litwick that it was likely just being paranoid before taking a glance around at the others. His eyes fixed on one of the other boys, curious as to what he had been doing.

This boy, like Autumn, was also dressed in clothing of Sinnoh’s fashion. For the majority of the bus ride, he had been tinkering with some of his pokeballs, modifying them in some way to improve the success rate of capture.

His name is Liam Watt. Like Autumn, he had traveled from a great deal to accept the invitation. Prior to his journey to Kanto, he had been working as a messenger in Hearthome. However, since the League’s revival, he had a desire to join a group of specialized rangers stationed in Kanto. It’s not entirely clear of Mrs. Friedrich’s connection to Liam, but she provided him the opportunity to pursue this goal.

While Liam seemed to be completely focused on this task, both Damien and Sylvia turned their attention to the remaining passenger. He was an older boy with a scar that ran down his face. This was a remnant of his first encounter with wild pokemon. This encounter left him hospitalized for a few days, but when he woke he had discovered that the same accident left both his parents in a coma.

With uncertainty in his future, the boy had no idea what to do or how to pay for his parents’ treatments. He managed to gain the sympathy of a breeder who helped support him. During this time he would gain a fascination for steel type pokemon. The timing was right, for when the League started to come back, he saw an opportunity to save his parents by competing.

Now this boy, Drake Daggeri, is staring out the window, watching the scenery go by as the bus makes a turn into Celadon’s wealthy residential district. A smile is ever-present on his face as he dreams of his future as the next Pokemon champion.

These flight of fancy is interrupted as the bus comes to a sudden stop in front of a large mansion. All the passengers turn their attention to the mansion, with the exception of Autumn who was still asleep in her seat.

“This is your stop kids.” The bus driver opened the doors. “Good luck to you in there.”

With that cue, the young trainers began to disembark from the bus. Again with the exception of Autumn, who is then awoken with a loud smack upside her head. Her Petilil had been sitting quietly next to her this whole time was the one who smacked her awake.

Autumn’s cheek was still red with the tiny hand print as she hastily tried to keep up with the others who had already left the bus.

Now the youths found themselves standing before the grandest building in all of Celadon, The front gates were flanked by two Machokes dressed in butler outfits. They appeared to be exceptionally well behaved, for Machokes. They seemed to have been expecting the arrival of the young trainers who now stood in a group with questions of who exactly their host was and who were the other trainers? Were they to become friends, colleagues, or even rivals?