Anyssa gave her best friend a wide grin. "And what's the problem with that?" She asked, tilting her head to the side. "We could have a whole troupe. Exploring, having fun. Grand adventuring. Who knows! Maybe we'll uncover a dastard plot and our party of trainers and friends will have to band together to take down an evil organization!" She giggled at her own imagination. "And your friends wouldn't have to stay with us; they could come and go. Our numbers would fluctuate." Anyssa was rocking back and forth on her feet now, waiting for Eugene to get back with a yea or nay.

"It's just we may end up with too many people to get anywhere. And I don't want to keep Bill waiting." Her eyes went dreamy slightly. "Er... ummm. Okay, I have no excuses. Let's have a party on the road!" Elizabeth blushed, "We could always pick up some of your friends as well, though it's to bad that Ryoma kid isn't here."

Anyssa shrugged. "We might run into him. I don't really have very many friends that would tag along with us, actually. Seems like you were more on the friend front than I was. I've got Lyra, pretty much, and she can't leave the ranch. Lyra or Ryoma." She counted on her fingers how old he might be. "Ryoma would be... seventeen or eighteen by now. He was fourteen when I met him."

"Well make some friends and drag them with us." Elizabeth compromised as Eugene came running back towards them.

"Mom said its okay to go with you guys, I just have to come back if I get an emergency phone call." He was now holding a duffel bag filled with supplies for traveling. "Let's go have some fun!"

Anyssa cheered. "Yes! One more pitstop here and then we can continue on our way through the forest to Pewter, then on to Cerulean." Anyssa paused a moment. "Eugene, if you get an emergency phone call while we're in Unova, do you have a way home?"

"Mom gave me her Charizard to fly back on emergencies. She loves her fire pokemon." He grinned at giving them a hidden tip to beating his mom in battle when they chose to go after badges. "So if I have to I'll be able to fly back with him and make it back in a day or two."

"Sweetness." She started off to Lyra's younger brother's last known address. She was suddenly very glad she had chosen a squirtle for her starter pokemon. She grinned at Lizzie. "His house is right there, if I recall," she told the two, pointing to a brown house with a bright blue door. "I stayed with his older sister, Lyra, on a ranch for four years," she told Eugene.

"That's kind of an ugly house." Elizabeth commented witzzyhout thinking. Eugene snorted. "Well gee aren't you rude Lizzy."
He than turned to Anyssa, "Was it fun there? i'd love to know what you do on a ranch." He seemed genuinely curious, after all he was a spoiled gym leader's kid, and he didn't leave the city very often. he was finally old enough to be let off on his own though, and he intended to learn everything he could on the adventure.

Anyssa shrugged. "It was definitely busy. Lyra's house pretty much is lakefront, so she takes care of a lot of water pokemon there. We had a schedule, feed them in the morning, play with and exercise them as much as possible, take care of the ones sick or pregnant, gather whatever they made to store and sell later. She had some miltanks, too, for extra money. I wasn't the only one she let stay there to help out, but I definitely stayed the longest." She hopped up the steps to the blue door and knocked loudly.
A kid with messy black hair opened the door, squinting into the daylight. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" he deadpanned.
Anyssa checked her phone. "Three in the afternoon."
He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Three people for every hour I overslept. Fabulous. To whom do I owe the pleasure?"
"Owen, cut the crap. It's me. Anyssa."
And he shut the door in her face.
"Well," Anyssa breathed. "I think that went... great."

"Sounds like you had a good time... though with a lot of work." Elizabeth stated, following her best friend up the stairs much slower, 'seriously. who paints there brown house's door blue. That's ugly...' She muttered to herself.
She watched the exchange in silence, and than her eyes darkened as the door slammed in Anyssa's face. Marching up to the door she banged on it. "That is the rudest thing I have ever seen! You get your snobby nose back out here and apologize! Just because you overslept and can't get your lazy ass out of bed is no reason to treat an old friend to a closed door. She wanted to say hi!" She yelled at the door. Pausing only momentarily to catch her breath for some more argumentative language.

"We came all this way just to see you! But if your to high and mighty to get off your Ponyta than maybe we'll just spread some lies about you, maybe call your sister and tell you how cruel of a person you've become. Now open this door if your man enough to keep your pokeballs!"

Eugene's face drained of color, "Yo... don't you think that's the wrong tactic for getting him to reopen the door."

The door opened and Owen stood off to the side, shirt on and coffee cup in hand, gesturing for them to file in. "I need to be awake if I'm going to deal with Anyssa."
She curtsied. "My pleasure," she sneered. "I see you're still a jerk."
"Four years ain't gonna change that."
"Obviously. Owen, this is my best friend, Liz, and her friend, Eugene. We were just stopping by on our way to Cerulean to see Bill."

"Well it should." Elizabeth hmphed in reply, walking straight through the door. "You should not treat friends like that."

Eugene nodded, color slowly regaining in his face, "Yo."

Anyssa went straight for the living room, sitting down on one end of the couch and letting her bag fall to the floor next to her. Owen sat in the recliner.
"I didn't even know you had left the ranch," he said, turning on the tv (volume kept low) to the News. "Help yourself to some coffee, if you'd like."
"Yeah, I decided to leave. Didn't want my life to be stagnant anymore. So I'm officially on my own adventure and I now have a squirtle and a pidgey. After we're done visiting around here, Lizzie and I are gonna book it over to Unova to see my Dad and explore that region, too." She grabbed a water bottle from her bag, uncapping it and taking a long gulp.
"Lyra's going to want to see you before you go." Owen gave her a look that pretty much said, 'don't make my sister any more sad than she already is'.

(my computer froze on me last time i opened this. didn't even get to read it cause it restarted. xD )

Elizabeth slid her headphones back up on her ears and leaned against the wall watching Owen with glaring eyes as she turned up her music. A look that said 'I don't trust you right now.'

Eugene on the other hand sauntered into the room and plopped down on the couch completely reclining. Arms spread wide, one over the arm of the couch, one over the back. He started to lift his leg up onto the couch as well like he did at home... But thought that might be offensive so tried to play it off as stretching before sitting with them wide apart. "Does that mean that we have to go to a ranch now too?"

Anyssa shrugged. "I figured we'd fly there after seeing Bill, then Unova. Of course I'm not going to leave without telling Lyra what I'm up to. I have her phone number, but that's a bit impersonal for someone who lived with you for four years."

Owen suddenly sat up straighter in his chair and turned the TV up. "Guys, listen!"

The camera was focused on crowd reactions at the moment, but swung back to the reporter to show a completely decimated PokeCenter. "The center was attacked five hours ago; the resulting damage is believed to be the work of a crime syndicate known as Team Renhet. Our researchers have told us that the name comes from a dead language and means purity. Thankfully, Nurse Joy was not in the center at the time, and surviving pokemon have been rushed to the nearest care center, but unfortunately there are four pokemon dead, and still three more unaccounted for. This is the second Pokemon Center Team Renhet has attacked and they have yet to deliver any kind of threat or message of why they're doing this. This has been your update from Castelia City, Unova."

The image changed to a regular reporter from Kanto, looking more grim than usual. It wasn't often reporters in any region had to give bad news on this scale. "As she said, that was Lyndsay from Castelia city giving us the update on this new Team Renhet. They first attacked a PokeCenter two weeks ago in Nimbasa, resulting in seven pokemon dead, four still in critical condition and over twenty with minor injuries. At this point we can only speculate what Renhet's motives are-"

Owen turned the TV back down and sat back in his chair, sighing. "I can't imagine the horror those people have to go through, burying their pokemon."

Anyssa was horrified. She had no idea what was going on in Unova. God, Owen must have thought she was crazy a few moments ago. "A group of thugs called Purity are attacking Pokemon Centers? What in the hell?"

Lyra's younger brother smoothed his hair back, glancing at his phone. "I got the phone call for the Castelia attack right after it happened. My friend, Detective Declan, and I talked a bit, and we think attacking the PokeCenters is for publicity. They went for Castelia and Nimbasa, the two biggest cities in Unova. If they're going to release a message about their intentions, it's going to be soon. We've tried sending people out to be secret agents, but Renhet is so far underground that nobody knows who they are, or where they're located."

Anyssa glanced at Eugene and Lizzie. She supposed she should have told them beforehand Owen had gone to school to be a detective and had recently graduated. Declan had come to the ranch once, and she was glad he had been stationed where he wanted to be.

Eugene nodded, "Ah cool." He turned looking at the television and his mouth opened in shock. Shifting into a more upright position, no longer lounging as he stared at the TV screen in horror. "You've got to be kidding me. Who can be so horrible as to do something like blowing up a Pokemon Center!" He took a deep breath to control his rage and than realized he'd lost his cover. Leaning back he put his hands to the side saying, "I mean, that's totally not cool."

Lizzie had her headphones just below her ears as she watched the television and the rooms reactions. She just stared quietly in disbelief. "You're a detective? No wonder I didn't trust you."
She shrugged like it was no big deal. "So Team Renhet should reveal themselves soon? We should go after them! "

Anyssa sucked her cheek into her mouth. "I definitely agree with Lizzie. We should go after them."

Owen shook his head. "They're blowing up PokeCenters. I have no idea how strong they are and you just started your adventure, Anyssa."

She shook her head. "You can't stop me, Owen. My dad's in that region. If he gets hurt, I'll go nuts." She looked at Lizzie, the same determination glinting in their eyes. "Trainers topple evil crime syndicates all the time, right? We can go where the law can't."

"Damn it, Anyssa, if you're going to be stupid at least allow me to give you my and Declan's number." Owen held out his hand for her phone. "Your's too, Liz, please."

Lizzie rolled her eyes and popped a very loud bubble at Owen. "There's two of us, and we're awesome. and we have this reject tag along who is a gym leader's son. I think we can handle ourselves."

"I'm not a reject!" Eugene protested jumping up from the couch and turning around angrily at Lizzie. "I could take out any challenge thrown at me!"

"See. We're all set." She grinned looking at Owen, and rolled her eyes again. "Fine, fine." She flipped her phone open out of her pocket and strode forward plopping it in his open hand."

Owen bent over the phones, programming in the numbers. "Better safe than sorry. Lyra'd drown me in her lake if I ever let anything happen to her favorite person." Anyssa smirked at the comment as Owen handed the phones back. He scratched his head. "I'm one of the detectives on call for the CVS area. If you have any trouble in those cities, call me. Or just call me anyway. Declan won't really be able to help way over in Unova. Let me know when you leave Kanto?"

Anyssa stood up, re-tightening the straps on her bookbag. "Sure thing." Owen ruffled her hair- she grimaced- and then walked them to the door.

"Don't let your loud mouth get you in trouble, Pinkie," Owen teased, winking at her and shutting the door.

Anyssa blinked before bending over in laughter.

Lizzie re-pocketed her phone and followed Anyssa outside grumpily. 'Cool' Eugene not to far behind them, who was just a little bit grumpy and confused at the moment. He wasn't sure if he had been insulted, or used.

"Don't even try." She said pointing a finger at Owen as he ruffled Anyssa's hair. "damn cocky detective" she stated, sticking her tongue out as the door closed. And than realized where there next destination was and covered her now red ears with her headphones. Though the music wasn't on very high at all.

"We should be able to get through the forest and to Pewter at a reasonable time, right?" Most PokeCenters had bunks for travelers. It was four PM now, so maybe they'd get there by nine or ten PM? She didn't much care for the forest at night, but she had her trust squirtle, so she wasn't too worried. Plus Lizzie and Eugene.

"oh yeah for sure." Lizzie rubbed her arm in nervousness. "Unless we run into team rehnet. Than we may have a bit of a delay as we kick there sorry butts."

"That would be completely awesome yo!" Eugene agreed. "But we probably want to be through the forest before Dark if we can. I only have fire pokemon. Wouldn't want to start a fire. " He laughed and stuck his hands in his pockets, starting down the path.

Anyssa followed him. "It seems like Team Renhet is a Unova threat for now? Although I don't doubt they'll appear here, too. Team Rocket was global, too."

Man. People are crazy. She sighed.

"I haven't heard much about Team Rocket lately. They out of existence finally?" She walked along next to her friend thinking out loud. "With all the stories of how they kept getting their butts kicked, it'd be about time they were disbanded."

Eugene nodded in agreement. "Yeah I'm pretty sure they're toast now. To they stood no chance against starter trainers, they couldn't possibly still be around." By now he was walking along next to the girls, hands in pockets. But he was mostly staring at the sky day dreaming, only half listening to the conversation. He could even hear some bird calls in the distance, probably a flock of Pidgeys. But the sky, and the air seemed empty for the most part today.

Anyssa decided she didn't want to catch any pokemon in Viridian Forest, choosing to save her items for when they got to Unova. It wasn't like money was a problem, really. She got paid for all the work she did on Lyra's ranch, and she only spent it when she bought mail to write letters, so for all intents and purposes, she was loaded. Although she did leave her mother a hefty amount just in case the money she was getting from Able wasn't enough. Dusk fell right as they exited the forest which was good since she definitely didn't want to camp in there. The trees were so clumped together it had hardly felt like the sun was still up at all.

"I want to rest a little and have a snack? Pewter ain't going anywhere and since we're out of the forest, I don't think we have to worry about anything."