The Journey Has Already Begun!

As soon as Snow reached the counter for the Pokemart, a young newcomer for the job is sorting out the items into their correct sections in order. He would turn around and notice that he has customers waiting for him. He would let out a light squeak and bows at him politely along with any other guest that may appear as well.

"Hello and welcome to the Pokemart. How may I serve you?"

Rai would chuckle a bit as well seeing that the mart was inside the Pokecenter, guess ya learn something knew everyday. She nodded her head in agreement with Snow, however would find it a bit odd that he would want to accompany her though she didn't really mind in the end. Another new friend to add to the group.

"That's fine and all but tell me, what is your name?"

She said while walking over to the mart counter. She would gently touch Snow's chest while responding to the clerk's question.

"Ah yes, I am here to pick up an item left for me by Nurse Joy. Would you happen to know anything about this?"

"I'll take two repels please."

Snow asked, spending all of the cash he had. This economy was ridiculous when two repels cost 1000 PKs. He's glad he didn't need to drive, no doubt gas prices were just crazy. Hell, it cost 1000000 PK for freakin' bike. Digressing on the situation, Snow took a look at Rai.

She was gorgeous. Snow couldn't remember when he had seen anyone as beautiful as her, not even when he was younger in Stardust City. Her hair, her eyes, her curves, it all entranced Snow. It made him speak before he thought when he asked to travel with her. They hadn't even exchanged names yet. He wondered if this is what true love at first sight was, or maybe he was just looking too much into it. Like he said, he didn't even know who the girl was.

"My name is Snow Rozalyn. It's a pleasure to meet you. Your name?"

As the two waited for for their items from the clerk, Rai would have been studying Snow as he spoke. By his actions she could already tell that he was a well spirited person, though not much else. Not thinking too much into it at the moment, she would answer his question as to who she was.

"Rai Retsaki, and it is a pleasure to meet you as well."

Not knowing what to say afterwards Rai would force a smile while scratching her head. Not a moment soon after, a question would come to mind.

"Oh yeah! So what were you doing out near that cave?"

The shopkeep turned towards Rai to answer her question.

"Why yes. Young Nurse Joy did leave you a generous gift for your hardship. Give me a moment."

The shopkeep goes under the counter to reach for the gift box and places it on the table. The box unwraps itself and reveals a Lucky Egg inside of it. He would hand it to Rai.

"Here you go, madam. One Lucky Egg."

He then took note upon Snow's request.

"Two repels coming right up, sir!"

The newcomer shopkeep turns around to grab two repels out of the shelves and hands them to Snow. He would press a button to automatically deduct the amount the total cost out of his account.

"Is there anything else you guys would like?"

Snow rose an eyebrow.

"If you got anymore Lucky Eggs to give out, I'll take one of those too!"

He was surprised that they had actually given one away so soon. He knew that there were a few Luck Eggs in Luna Mountain Town but even with his scavenger skills he'd never found one.

"I was going to investigate what the ruckus was. Everyone keeps saying that the pokemon have been going crazy in the Mountain so I was wondering if it had anything to do with the Dark Descendants."

Snow said the name low. He didn't know how many people actually knew about them or not. But he saw that Rai had a pokedex which meant she would be dragged into this as well sooner or later. A small spark, something that would not rise up again for a while probably, would ignite in Snow. Just thinking about the people who killed his parents coming after Rai ticked him off for a moment, but it was only a fleeting feeling.

As the Luck Egg unraveled itself from the box, Rai's eyes would glisten with amazement. She had heard of Lucky Eggs before but never once thought that she, of all people, would come across her.

"Oh my, a Lucky Egg!!"

She said while taking it in hand before giving it to Luke.

"Here Luke, this will help you along our travels. I want you to keep it with you at all times."

Luke would smile at the Lucky Egg given to him as he took it up in his paws. Rai then turned towards Snow. She had no idea who the Dark Descendants were so this would be a good time for her to ask.

"So that's why that Steelix attacked us so viciously... But who are the Dark Descendants?"

The shopkeep listened to his request and went down to see if there were anymore in storage. Luckily, there was one more Lucky Egg underneath the cabinet that had a note attached to it. The note says:

"Whoever ask for this last Lucky Egg gets it for free. The next package everyone else will have to pay."

He took the note off and placed it in the cashier bank for future reference, handing the Lucky Egg to Snow.

"Here you go. Last one in the shop."

Milestone Unlocked: Free Rare! 200 Exp. (1/10)

"Whoa, seriously? Sweet!"

Snow called and instantly gave the Lucky Egg to Media. After hearing Rai's question Snow frowned.

"Honestly, I don't have all the details either. All I know is that they are after people with pokedex and that they killed my parents. Why or how I don't know. I'm going to New Moon Village to get more information from Prof. Jupiter. Even if you don't come with me, I'll call you and let you know what I find out..."

Snow was always living in the present, but keeping his eyes on the future. It's how he kept himself from getting hurt by others.

"If that's all you need, we can get going now. I was going to see if I could grab an experience share from this girl I know, but I'm pretty sure she's going to scold me for spending all my money. So I'm ready to go whenever you are."

After hearing Snow's answer about the Dark Descendents Rai would frown as well, feeling bad about asking the question. She knew that their were bad people out there but had no clue that there could be a group such as that.

"I'm sorry for your loss..."

She would say this with a sad expression, not usually one to talk about death as she usually associated the idea with her own parents. Though she never truly knew what happened to them.

"Yes, lets get going."

She would say while waiting to follow Snow.

[Time Skip]

"Finally, back home again..."

Yes, they were indeed back home after quite a rough journey between Luna Mountain Town and Dusk city. Man that was some messed up stuff. It's actually pretty surprising at how well those stressed were handled on her mind, as goes the same for Luke. But enough of that. The two needed some rest.

The sun was setting as the custom ring of the Pokecenter's door went off followed by the entrance of both Luke and Rai walking side-by-side. Clearly seen with torn and dirtied clothing, Rai was expecting a few looks as they both approached the counter.

"Welcome to-" Nurse Joy cut her greeting mid sentence. "Rai! What happened to you?"

The elder Nurse rushed around the counter to look at the dirty and tired Rai. Instantly putting her hands together to make them glow, she began to heal Rai's wounds. She wasn't well versed enough to heal her weariness yet, but she would feel a lot better regardless.

"Oh my! You look like you've gone through the first three levels of hell! Did you experience what Kaito went through? He came back a little before you and said something about an generator exploding in the mountains!"

Young Joy was out at the moment, leaving Nurse Joy, Rai, and the pokemart owner as the only three patrons within the pokecenter. Chansey waddled over to Lucario and also began to make its hands glow as it used "Heal Pulse" To quickly fix it up.

"Oh, uh... hehheh..."

Rai hesitantly spoke, not knowing what to say to calm Nurse Joy's worry of her. Inevitably though, she would nod her head slightly to confirm her suspicions of the situation.

"It was nothing, Nurse Joy. I should be fine with a wash and a little rest. That's all. I do have a favor to ask of you though."

She reached to one of the pokeballs at her side, plucking it off and handing it to the nurse. It contained her second pokemon; Eos.

"Could you take care of this pokemon? I caught it after it sustained a considerable amount of damage."

"I'll get right on it! Chansey, let's get going. Please follow us." She spoke to Lucario last, so that it could get a full rest instead of just a quick patch up.

Nurse Joy would disappear into the back of the pokemon center to get started on healing up Rai's pokemon.

As soon as they were out of sight, the pokemart owner would 'pst' at Rai.

"Hey, Rai! Before you decide to go home, Ion from the research lab set up an auctioning square in the Northeast corner of town, near the exit to Stardust Bridge. You can go auction off anything, items AND pokemon, or even buy rare items or pokemon! Look, I bought this issue of Game Informer for 300 pk and it doesn't come out for another two months!"

"Thank you..."

She spoke softly, very glad to see her pokemon being taken care of. Then she heard the 'Pst'.

"Huh...? Is that so?"

She said walking over to the counter of his. This certainly peaked her interest so it was nothing to pass up without a second look. She then reached out her hand while leaning on the counter.

"Mind if I have a look?"

"My precious!" The pokemart owner hugged the magazine like it was some type of special ring of power. "If you want one, go to the auction square and get it yourself!"

His tone wasn't harsh. It was more of a childish 'this is mine, no touchy'.

"Either way, do you need anything from me? You know, besides my magazine that you will never see if you value your fine red hair." He smiled way to cheerfully as he said that.

"Eh, alright then..."

She said while giving him a kind of confused look while retracting her hand. He was certainly different than the few other few clerks she met. Though she guessed that's what made them unique in their own way.

Then she leaned in closely while putting a sort of sadistic looking expression on her face. She also constantly flicked her tongue while speaking as if she was birthed by a snake.

"Or maybe I'll just have to take it from you. Hehehe..."

It was always fun to keep ones' spirit up, and what better way to do it than to have fun with others? Hehheh. Anyways, her expression would return to normal after a second or two as she backed off the counter.

"Haha, just kidding. Thanks for the info though!"

She said, rushing towards the door and then out of it. She would be headed straight for the described area and nowhere else.

The clerk shivered and threw the magazine into a vault that miraculously appeared behind him. When Rai dashed out of the pokecenter he sighed and wiped sweat from his brow.

"Man that was a close one! Now, back to ma reading!" He turned and tried to open the vault...but it wouldn't bulge. "No..."

________________

Outside, as she rushed towards the auction square, Rai would notice a whole shit load of tourist in town. With the biggest part of town being the Northeast, East, and Southeast areas, all along either the Stardust Bridge, Luna Mountain Harbor, and Luna Mountain Mine entrances respectively, the town was always busy.

As she neared her indicated place of travel, she would hear a man on a megaphone shouting out.

"Right now, we're selling this lovely Female Ambipom, Lv. 30! And for added grandeour, this special pokemon also knows Ice Punch and Thunder Punch! Today we will start bidding at 15000 for this rare specimen! Any takers?"

This was on the main stage, while there were dozens of other vendors also having mini auctions. Rai would be able to auction off her own items at any of the small booths that were free.

Quite the interesting sight to see so many people in town yet a hassle as well. Even so, she would be pushing past those in her way as gently as possible while still moving on. Then she saw and heard the man on main stage. It was very interesting to hear and so the event taking place, but then it sunk in.

"Fifteen-thousand?! Man, these auctions are gonna be tough. Hmm... Think I should visit one of the booths first."

And that's what she did. Rai walked around until she found an open auction booth. Then she approached it.

As soon as Rai set foot behind a vacant booth, tourist swarmed her.

"WHAT ARE YOU SELLING! I WANT IT! I WANT IT NAOW!"

"DO YOU HAVE A MAGIKARP! I NEED A MAGIKARP! I'LL PAY 10000 FOR A MAGIKARP!"

"I JUST NEED ITEMS! I'M A COLLECTOR! WHAT DO YOU HAVE??"

The questions were fast and many, yet the air of the situation should boost Rai's confidence for how gullible...er, needy these people were. She could provide easily for them and build enough money, hopefully, to get her own auctions from other people. Who knows, maybe she'd make enough money to win the Ambipom before it was sold.

"Whoa, uh..."

Rai fumbled as she was startled a bit from the encounter. She wasn't too used to such things though she thought she could handle it. She quickly regained her cool and looked in her pouch for a moment before pulling out one rare candy and waved it temptingly in front of the vender.

"You want an item, eh? How about this Rare Candy?"

"RARE CANDY!! I'LL GIVE YOU 4900 FOR IT!" One person shouted.

"THAT'S RETAIL PRICE, DON'T FALL FOR IT! I'LL GIVE YOU 5000!"

"YOU GUYS ARE SWINDLERS! SWINDLERS I TELLS YA! I'LL GIVE YOU 6000 FOR IT!"

Prices were being shouted. What would Rai do?

(It's up to you to either accept a price, set a price, or raise prices as you continue. However, if you go overboard, you will lose all your costumers and the item will become unsaleable for the day.)

"Six-thousand!!"

Boy that price sounds good, but maybe I could do better. Wait naaa, I better not push it. But, just to be safe...

"Six-thousand sounds like a good price. So how about we double it..."

Rai said while pulling out another Rare Candy. She figured that if one were worth six-thousand to this guy, then adding another could easily double the profit she could make.

"With two Rare Candies!?!"

She shouted for all to hear though she directed her words mainly towards the man who offered her the six grand.

The crowd would gasp before even more people would rush the booth.

"TWO RARE CANDIES! HOW RARE!! I'D GIVE YOU 11000 FOR THEM BOTH!"

"RUBBISH!!! 12000 FOR THEM! MY FINAL OFFER!"

"MORONIC IMBECILES! I'LL GIVE YOU 14000 FOR THEM BOTH! PLEASE, MY MANKEY IS ONLY 2 LEVELS AWAY FROM EVOLVING!!"

Offers made, what will Rai do?

And there is where she decided to sell as even she had specific safety limits. She pointed to the individual who yelled out fourteen-thousand while shouting herself.

"SOLD!! To this one right here. Sorry folks."

She then turned to him with the two rare candies in hand, more than ready to exchange them for the money that had been promised.

"Looks like you'll have one happy Mankey."