Emerald C. Rowan grabbed the collar of his jacket, pulling at it to straighten out the piece of clothing.

“Another year, another festival.” He chuckled as he made sure every inch of the open clearing had been ready for what the Mayor of Viridian City and the Center for Pokémon Activities had in store for this year’s version of the festival.

He had heard some gossip from some of the other volunteer rangers that the idea for this year went beyond the moss stone’s first glow under the full moon and the first flight of the Butterfree that had been dwelling inside their shells. The Viridian Forest was their Safari Zone, a place that not only paved the way to Pewter City, but also represented the best of times in a Pokémon trainer’s life. Emerald was just glad he could take the time off his personal adventures to volunteer his help. How long would it be until everyone from Pallet Town, the Orange Islands, Cinnabar Island, Fiorello City, and everywhere else would come to Viridian Forest to participate in a night of games, adventure, and wonder?

The others told him the festival would have its opening tomorrow, but he still couldn’t believe it, but that was the benefit of being excited. As he took a light break from his duties he pushed the rake down into the ground with a wide, optimistic smile as he looked into the distance.

“It’s going to be great.”

Lochlan Newton's journey to become a new gym leader in Kanto had began pretty rough so to say. He made it to Viridian City with no major hiccups until trying to battle the local gym leader. He was told that the leader of the gym had gone on some sort of vacation for the time being, with the idea finally clicking in his head that the gym leaders were people too with lives of their own. The young trainer had stayed in town for two extra days, having spent the nights at the local Pokemon Center and the day time traveling and exploring the city, along with pathing out his trek to Pewter City.

The blonde trainer was told that the only way to Pewter City was through the Viridian Forest, but that he should hold off on heading to the next city as they were going to host a wonderful festival inside of the forest that he might be interested in. He had one more day left until the festival would begin as he stood grounded on the dirt path of Route 2 with his fluffy companion in the midst of an energetic battle.

"Bo!" Lochlan shouted, calling out to his eevee. The bright, youthful trainer was in a battle with a wild rattata that had sprung up on the duo as they were wandering the route, startling the pair with a gutsy tackle. "Get it back with a tackle of your own!"

The chestnut colored fluffball shouted in understanding as he charged forward, attempting to deliver a forceful tackle directly at the purple rat that had done the same to him, but it managed to roll to the right and dodge the attack. As the rattata rolled backwards it shook off the dirt, flipping itself and wagging it's tail at the eevee tauntingly.

"We won't let that slide, bud, don't worry!" Lochlan said. "Let's show him something that he can't dodge! Swift!"

Bo roared as bright yellow stars began popping out of thin air around him before he tapped his feet on the dirt in the direction of the rattata. The stars followed a mere second after, flying quickly at the rat without a seconds notice, sending the rat flying a few feet back.

The rattata shook off the hit as it snarled back at the pair, rolling to its feet, and charging at them yet again. This time though, the purple rat was flashing in their direction, speeding and picking up momentum as it got closer.

"Let's take it head on, Bo!" The trainer commanded. "Go and use tackle!"

Another growl escaped sounded off from the eevee as it lunged itself forward at the speedy, purple flash. The sound of the two tiny Pokemon bashing each other in the head sounded painful as the impact happened in seconds. The two rolled away from the force of the collision, with Bo quickly standing up confidently at what he assumed was the defeat of his opponent, who was slowly backing away into the tall grassy fields.

"You did great!" Lochlan said as he ran towards his partner. Petting him, the trainer took out a small pouch from his bag and handed his eevee a dried berry treat. "We should probably get some new friends before we battle the next gym, shouldn't we?"

Bo nodded in agreement as he chewed away at his treat in delight.

Raising her arms above her head, Netali stretched out her limbs to limber up. Behind Netali, a small goat with a grass pelt trailed her with a skip in its step.

It had been a long day, especially for Netali and her Skiddo. The two of them had rose early out of bed, even though the festival's grand opening was tomorrow. Still, if Netali was going to follow through with her parents' request in exchange for them allowing herself to go on a grand adventure, she needed to be an early bird to get the best spot within the festival grounds.

After some searching and maybe a bit of pestering, Netali managed to secure a small place to advertise the Viermetz ranch. The stand wasn't spectacular by any means, but it was quaint and capable of being noticed by any spectators or festival goers.

All that mattered now was the advertising part, but there would be no one to advertise to until tomorrow.

Therefore, Netali chose to take a stroll through the nearby Viridian forest with her family's Skiddo. For a grass Pokémon, the forest could be seen as dangerous, especially with bug types like Beedrill or flying types such as Fearow flocking in great number. Even with such dangers lurking within the forest, Netali was adamant that her Skiddo could out run their opponents, or even outlast them.

"We should probably get some new friends before we battle the next gym, shouldn't we?"

Hearing a male voice, Netali and her Skiddo were alerted to the presence of another trainer nearby. Honing in on the voice, Netali noticed a blonde-haired trainer in the process of feeding his Eevee a dried fruit treat. Rather than be caught staring, Netali stepped forward in the direction of the boy, eager to challenge him to a race. After all, it had been awhile since they had a good challenge over speed.

"You there!" Netali called out, pointing at Lochlan. "I bet my Skiddo can outrun your Eevee to that tree and back! Care to take me up on that bet?" The pink clothed girl continued, placing her hands on her hips. Netali's Skiddo followed with a guffaw, apparently just as confident as its trainer.

Karin Shinamon had been growing restless. After parting ways with the Pokemon Academy she had spent so much of her time in she was finally ready to stretch her legs and get far from Viridian City. But with the festival just around the corner, the pink-haired young woman had decided that maybe she could delay her journey north by a few days. Besides, she would be lying to herself if she wasn't a little bit nervous about the idea of traveling by herself on her personal journey to catalog every single creature in the world and learn more about them than any other pokemon researcher had in history. Her fellow classmate, Marion, had told her that she should meet up with a “cute boy” at the festival and make an excuse so she could tag-along with him on whatever ambition they wanted to do. But then again, Kari wasn't as thirsty as Marion; nor was she the kind of girl to be good at any sort of social interaction.

But maybe dumb luck would throw her a bone?

Stressing herself over the thought before getting a good night's rest was probably a bad thing – but before Marion could suggest anything she had bolted from the academy to get some “me time” in the forest – close enough to the festival area that was being finished, but far enough to not have to deal with any sort of social anxieties... or so she thought.

“Eh?” She uttered, hearing the sound of voices nearby.

As she turned the corner of a winding path that's when she saw it. A girl with chestnut hair and a boy with blonde hair. They were talking about racing their pokemon partners? Kari found it interesting. Without thinking she took a step forward and spoke, not understanding how rude or creepy it was to just speak without a hello or anything.

“Traditionally, Eevee's have the higher run speed! But you might have a chance considering a Skiddo's legspan is well suited to long strides by comparison. The terrain here is pretty flat, so that's a factor too. It's a hard call to say who could win in a race!”

Surprised by the voice of a girl in a bright pink jumpsuit, Lochlan stumbled back. She spoke with confidence and issued a speed challenge between Bo and her own Pokemon, a skiddo. The trainer side-eyed his partner and smirked with his own confidence. "I'll take you up on that!"

His partner nodded with an equal amount of confidence, raising his paw into the air, pumping himself up for his race. But as the two were preparing themselves for the challenge another voice chimed in, one from a girl in a cute and fashionable hat, catching the blonde trainer off guard once again. "Oh," he mumbled as she explained her thoughts on the race.

Lochlan himself didn't think too much about the skiddo's stride in comparison to Bo's, but he figured that maybe the nimbleness of his Pokemon would style on over his opponents. Biting his lips with a bit of nervousness, mixed with anxiety, and the possible thought of losing this little challenge excited Lochlan. This was what being a trainer was all about, doing things to showcase your Pokemon's talents and strengths.

With a wide grin, Lochlan turned to the girl in the pink jumpsuit, "We're ready to go!"

The race began as Lochlan watched Bo on with anxiousness. His little brown fluffball darted for the tree that the girl had pointed to, sprinting as fast as he could to it and back again. From where Bo was in the lead as the two neared the tree. "You got it, Bo!"

Netali held a smug grin as the boy agreed to their challenge. There was no way that Netali and her Skiddo would lose to an Eevee!

"You're on!" Netali chimed in response, but before the race could begin, the duo and their Pokémon were interrupted by the appearance of a third party. Apparently, the girl must've been a researcher as she took an interest in the race, and began to spout off things like "run speed" and "leg span." Being part of a family that bred Pokémon for speed, the facts that the girl spouted off tended to be information that Netali already knew, but she saw it as a place to boast.

"Heh, as if my Skiddo would lose! We've trained since the beginning to feel the need for speed!"

Once the Eevee's trainer was ready, Netali had her Skiddo line up beside the other Pokémon. Their opponent appeared anxious as he bit his lip, which only served to further boost Netali's confidence. Netali trusted her Skiddo, after all, and she was certain that they would win. Every Pokémon at the Viermetz ranch was trained to be a worthy competitor destined for greatness, including Netali's Skiddo.

As the race began, the Eevee was clearly in the lead. What the girl had said was true, that Eevees are generally faster than Skiddos. However, this time, the Skiddo involved had been trained for speed, and the fact that her opponent had chosen to sprint right out of the gate instead building up to an even pace didn't help, either. "Now, Skiddo!" Netali shouted, ordering her Skiddo to increase his speed once the two Pokemon rounded the tree.

The method Netali used was simple, and it was going to allow her to win. Due to the fact that the Skiddo kept to a pace unlike the Eevee, whom chose to go for a direct sprint, the former had retained more energy to expend later, while the latter suffered from having already expended a greater amount of energy.

Speeding up, the leafy pelted Pokémon blazed past the Eevee, charging towards the finish line to win the race. "I knew you could do it!" Netali exclaimed, catching the goat creature in her arms. Digging into one of her pouches, Netali produced a brightly colored cake-like object from a case, and fed it to her Skiddo. Not wanting to be a bad sport, Netali offered one to her opponent's Eevee as well.

"Want one?"

The race ended in an unfavorable result for Lochlan and Bo, with the pair losing the race by what Lochlan didn't want to call a landslide, but wasn't a loss he should have been too proud of. Kneeling down as his partner panted towards him, he gave his Pokemon a bright smile petting and hugging him with supportive love. "You did a good job," he said holding in his own disappointment. "We can't win them all."

Of course, the trainer hated losing, but he wasn't about to showcase himself as a sore loser, at least not just to people he just met. Lochlan took the second offer the girl gave him, taking one of her bright colored treats and feeding his tired partner. "Your skiddo was really fast, I guess you weren't lying when you said you've been training for speed."

With a warm smile plastered across his droopy face, Lochlan positioned himself to give attention to both girls who were around him now. "I'm Lochlan by the way, and this little guy here is Bo." The young trainer continued feeding and petting his Eevee as he reflected on the race, still stinging from the loss.

“Um... my name is Karin!” The pink-haired girl managed an introduction of her own, though she did feel a little out of place in doing so given the fact she had kind of stumbled into the two's conversation in such an invasive way, or at least it felt invasive to her.

Adventurous nature aside, Karin was still rather bookish and socially awkward so her feelings regarding joining a conversation were admittedly very anxious. Would the two of them tell her to buzz off? That she had attempted to distract them with her matter-of-fact information regarding the physical attributes that they knew already? Would they dismiss her as a "human pokedex" like others had done in the past? These were all questions that were circling in her mind as she tried to get a feeling for the two trainers in front of her and any social cues she had missed. Though reading people wasn't exactly Karin's strong suit.

Netali returned Lochlan's smile with one of her own. "Neta—" She attempted to reply, though Netali was suddenly cut off by the other girl that had watched their race. Whomever the girl was, she had appeared jumpy, as if there had been a lot on her mind. "Netali, though you can just call me Tali," Netali announced, giving a friendly nod in Karin's direction to at least ease whatever worries she could possibly have within her head.

Sitting her Skiddo back onto the ground, Netali looked to both of her new companions. "So, I take it the two of you are here for the Festival like us?" The breeder questioned, though it was likely she already knew the answer to her question. Hundreds of people had traveled from various cities and regions for what the Viridian Festival had to offer, and these two were probably here for the festival just as Netali had been.

"Or is it something else?"

"Nice to meet you both," Lochlan said. As Bo finished the final bit of his treat given to him by Tali, Lochlan picked him up still grinning widely. "I was looking to battle the gym leader in Viridian, but I guess they're on vacation. Pewter City is the next closest gym, so that's where I was heading."

He thought to himself how inconvenient it was that the gym leader was gone, but he also figured they probably deserved a vacation. Snuggling up with his fluffy partner, the trainer figured if all three were going to head into the forest that they might as well do it together. Lochlan didn't mind company and having numbers was a lot safer, also in case he got lost. The young man didn't have the best sense of direction having gotten lost more times than he can recount with his stubbornness to keep trucking forward than moving backwards to retrace his steps.

"If you two are heading to the forest now, I wouldn't mind walking it together. I know the festival isn't for another day, but I'm pretty sure I'd get lost without a bit of help."

"A gym battle, huh?"

Truthfully, Netali did find it odd that the gym leader would be gone during a time like this. He—or she, for that matter—was probably just busy, but the breeder was quick to believe that a festival celebrating the Viridian Forest would be incomplete without the local gym leader. Certainly, such matters would be just like a musical concert without the conductor leading their orchestra.

Still, at the same time, it probably wasn't Netali's place to judge the gym leader for whatever they could possibly be up to. A breeder and a gym leader both loved their Pokémon, but each had different duties. Just as the gym leader would probably make a poor fit for a breeder, the same was likely vice versa.

Gazing towards the forest ahead, Netali began to wonder about the rest of what Lochlan had said. He had wanted to travel to Pewter City to battle their gym leader, and suggested that they walk together to avoid getting lost. The issue, however, Netali knew, was the Pokémon. Bug, Poison and Flying types existed within the forest, which would be difficult for her Skiddo to deal with if they were to be troubled by wild Pokémon. Nevertheless, Netali could be quite the hotheaded breeder at times, choosing to refuse her worries the chance to stand in the way of being seen as a coward. It wasn't like they didn't have time to kill, anyway.

"Sure; I wouldn't mind sticking around for a bit longer. Just don't get lost in our dust, too!" Netali jested, momentarily laughing at her own stupid joke, before returning her attention to Karin. "What about you, however?"