Life is full of surprises

Dusting yourself off, you step outside of your old apartment complex for what's probably the last time. After giving a quick but somber salute, you start to head off towards the mine.

Looking around as you walk, you give a soft smile at the hustle and bustling of the growing city. It ain't much to look at, but over the past year even you have to admit it's been starting to grow on you. You remember back to when you were running around here with Galactic, it was more of a crowded town than what you could call a city. Meant for the coal miners and their families, over time various shops have opened up to better accommodate the miners, tourism came in for the museum, and Roark's Gym stood proud in the center of it all.

It's not surprising to see that it grew so fast, but looking at it now? With these large apartment buildings, a school, they even put in a church! It... Kind of unnerves you for some reason. Something about that Arceus thing that they worship just rubs you the wrong way. You smile and look about at all of the people doing their daily lives. It's almost surreal to see them doing their own things, living their own lives with their pokémon. As you pass through the market street, you decide to look at the various shops and vendors since you were given 100 Pokédollars to start you on the right foot. You pick up some canned goods, mainly fish and various fruits, when a glint in the next vendor catches your eye.

It's an odd necklace at a jewelry stall. Simple iron chain, pale yellow gemstone, not any valuable gem that you know of so you assume that it's either a hustle or just a pretty stone someone decided to make a necklace out of. The chain seemed too thin for any real resell value, not much good metal on the thing. You scoff and tear your eyes away from the cheap necklace, since it couldn't possibly sell for more than maybe 5 Pokébucks, only to realize that you were already exiting the market while wearing the damned thing.

... "Oh for fucks sake..." A quick count of your wallet says that you paid out the ass for that necklace too, there was no WAY this thing was 40 bucks! Angrily you step towards the market street again, before sighing and turning around. Not worth the effort really. Besides, better to not fight the hustler when they could just declare that you stole it and have your ass thrown right back in jail. 5 years ago, you would have done exactly that without even batting an eye.

Huh, that felt... weird to think about.

Without much more trouble, you take a slow stroll into the Mines, smiling softly as you see your now past co-workers in action. Hauling carts of rock, coal and is that a fossil stashed away in that cart? Heh. You guess things won't change much now that you're no longer part of the team. A REAL team.

You giggle softly as you walk into the mines, the memories of the past year playing back in your head. Oh, you hated this job, you still sort of do. But, after a year of menial labor with a bunch of honest, hard-working schmucks? You really get a feeling of camraderie. Even if you've had to suck each one of their dicks at least once, they still let you give an honest try at working for your meals.

You smirk softly as you see a chip in the stone floor, where you fell over the first time you lifted a pickaxe over your head. And that's the spot where you dug your first hunk of coal. Hey, did they never get to scrubbing that stain when you got swarmed by Zubats and pissed yourself!? Ugh, boys.

"HEY LU-LU! YOU WAKE UP OR YAH SLEEPWALKING AGAIN?"

You jolt at the sudden booming voice, right in your ear! You wheel around to the offending party, Bob. A big burly man, you literally could not imagine him without a pickaxe and a bushy beard. You flick him on the nose and huff.

"Oh, fuck you Bob! Don't fucking do that to me!"

He just smirks and lets out a hearty belly laugh, grinning down at you.

"Well, I wouldn't have gotten another chance, now would I have? Sad to see you leave the crew, but I think I speak for all of us that you've paid your due. I ain't never seen someone more determined and stubborn, well except for my wife of course! AIN'T THAT RIGHT BOYS? BAHAHAH!"

You grit your teeth and do your best to scowl, but your mouth just can't stop smirking as his laughter was infectious. So, you opt for cranking your fist back and giving his jaw a hell of a right hook.

You take a smirk of pride as he stumbles back and rubs his jaw, but that proud, happy smile on his face just gets wider.

"I deserved that. Damn girl, the mines have been good to you! Good to see that we've been of SOME good influence on yah!"

"Yeah, you guys really have..."

Your smirk slips to a soft smile as you raise your hand for a handshake.

"It's been... Fun. I'm actually going to miss you guys... Eep!"

You get startled as you were suddenly pulled into a tight bear-hug, only for it to quickly soften into a genuine, friendly hug. This is, not something you are used to.

"Hey, no need for sad soppy goodbyes. We're proud of yah Luna, we want to see yah leave with a smile on your face, ready to take on the world!"

He pulls back from the hug and wipes the small tears in his eyes. What? You two were close co-workers, but why is he.. Wait, why are you starting to cry? You hate this, were you two... Friends? Looking back into his eyes, you see that they are full of pride, caring and worry.

...Yes, you do consider Bob to be a good friend.

"Hey, hey!"

You blink as he wipes the tears from your eyes.

"No crying, today is a happy day. Now, go on, Roarke wants to talk to you before you head on off, aight?"

"Oh, y-yeah. Sounds good Bob..."

You sigh and pull away from the hug and start walking off. A smirk forms on your face as you call back out to him.

"Hey Bob! I'll write to you from the League!"

"BAHAHAH, now that's the spirit! I look forward to it Lu-Lu!"

With your new goal set firmly in your mind, you feel a sense of pride and readiness for the world as you march off to go find Roarke. And for a brief moment, you think that things are starting to look up for once.

You found him at the first spot you'd think to look, at the deepest part of the mine. More rather, you heard him and his dad yelling.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE CAN'T BE TRUSTED!?"

Gee, 5 bucks to guess who they're talking about.

"SHE WORKED FOR GALACTIC SON, THIS IS JUST A NEEDED MEASURE TO ENSURE SHE IS LEGITIMATE!"

Wow, something new on top of the weekly reports? Ugh, you better go stop this before it gets out of hand... Again.

"SHE'S CHANGED, LUNA IS AN HONEST WORKER, ASK ANY OF THE GUYS!"

"SHE HELPED TO TRY TO DESTROY THE FUCKING WORLD ROARK!!"

"Sir, you said you wanted to see me?"

Both of their mouths clamped shut as they looked to you. Byron scowled and he stormed off with a huff, brushing right on past you.

"The decision is final, Roark, I already got the approval of the League. You tell your inmate the details."

Yikes, you look to your poor boss with a shrug, miming a 'He Crazy' gesture, which thankfully got a smirk and a chuckle out of him. He then sighs and sits at a break bench.

"Alright, come sit down. Gotta break to you the bad news."

"Bad news? I'll be honest Roark, if you tell me I have to go through another year of probe, I don't think Bob could handle that."

You do sit down beside him though, as he smirks but doesn't chuckle. Ok, this really is serious. It takes him a few moments, but eventually he starts speaking again.

"Because they don't trust you to not just, go back to doing crimes again, you're being assigned a partner to watch over you until you collect your first two badges. And it can't be any of the mine-workers, not even anyone from Oreburgh. That last part is due to my Dad saying things like 'corrupted bias' and 'favortism' and such. Uuuugh, I hate my dad sometimes..."

...Oh. That's, huh.

"...Ok. I, don't think that's too unreasonable. Annoying, but I get it."

He groans and nods.

"Right? And I can't fight it because it'd just prove my dad right in a twisted way. The long and short of it is red hat, white scarf, he will be waiting by the Gate. You got that?"

You shudder a little but nod. Yeah, not a clothing style you want to remember, but vivid in your mind.

He nods and takes another few moments before smirking and tossing you two things, both of which you fumble to catch. Are these, oh, wow. A real-ass fucking Pokèdex and a standard red Pokèball. You press the button and a wave of nostalgia hits you as you feel it dweep and grow to fit your palm.

"Merry Christmas Luna. Open up the Dex to get yourself registered and lets catch you a pokèmon!"

Smiling softly, you un-dweep the Pokèball and reach over to hug Roark tight. He quickly hugs you back tight and pats your hair.

"...Thank you, for everything."

He chuckles softly and smirks.

"Hey, anything to get a new worker for cheaper, am I right?"

You just laugh and shove him away, which more pushed you off the bench than anything else. Much to his enjoyment coming from his laugh.

"Hey, I heard that laugh, asshole!"

You stand up and dust yourself off, before opening the Dex and place your finger on the scanner. It does some beeps and boops before notifying that you were registered, though you were given a notice that you had 12 hours to vacate the premises of Oreburgh City.

Closing it up and storing it in your pants pocket, you hold your Pokèball with a look of determination.

"I'm ready, let's do this!"