Deep breaths Knux. Deep breaths, and you'll get through this just fine. At least, that was the mantra Knux had in his seventeen-year-old head as he walked down the street in Goldenrod, trying to not look too suspicious. It wasn't hard; Goldenrod was one huge city, and the bustling people that lived within it really didn't give the time of day for any other passerbys as they went along their business. Knux blended in well; he was a young man like any highschooler with standard brown hair and slightly-noticeable deep green eyes. But his own invisibility was lost to Knux, who was having a slight panic attack. The brown haired male really didn't know the layout of the city very well; he'd lived in Mahogany Town most of his life, and that place was a small tourist-trap of a town with it's greatest appeal being the Gym and Lake Rage to the north of it. To a small-town kid, the city seemed like a gigantic, scary place with everyone glancing at you and just knowing you aren't one of them. But Knux kept up his mantra and simply tried to keep the famous Radio Tower in sight as he made his way along, stopping every so often to pull out the sheet of paper he'd scribbled an address on inside his pocket.

Knux had gotten the address from the recruiter for Team Snagem he'd met way back in Mahogany Town back home, and had traveled quite a way—mostly by hitchhiking and hoofing it—to get here. All the young man had were what he'd packed and what the requiter had given him: a pokeball, a Snag Machine, and a Raticate. Not much to work with, but hopefully Knux wouldn't need anything else, because the rest of what he owned was mostly wrinkled clothing and a few spare bucks stashed in his old backpack. But back to the point. The address. He was looking for a business building in the business district, so the poor young man was wandering around for quite a while, feeling the heat of the day seep up from the cement through his sneakers and into his feet. It wasn't hard to image just how fried and egg would be on a day like this as he walked with greater urgency, looking at the numbers on each tall building and trying to find the code that matched up with what he'd been given. Eventually, he found his needle in the needle stack, and hesitantly went inside. Wow ... who knew AC could feel so good? At home, it was cold or cool most of the time, only heating up in the summer months. And even then, with a nice lake a small hike away, it wasn't that bad. But in the city, the heat built and boiled, and Knux was more than glad enough to walk into the very slick-looking interior to the building, passing the leery security guard complete with intimidating Growlithe. The young man gulped, feeling even more timid, and hurried to the welcoming secretary's desk. Though, the blond lady really didn't seem all that 'welcoming,' in his opinion.

“U-um excuse me, Ms,” Knux began, while the woman chewed boredly on a piece of gum, mouth smacking, “I'm here to here to get the location of the ... 'problem' people I was sent here to ... yeah ...”

She raised an eyebrow, and the silence stretched out from behind Knux's pathetic fragment of a sentence. The awkward moment was make even more-so when the woman blew a bubble, gum popping loudly in the bleach-cleaned interior room. “Go to the ghetto.” She stated this as if Knux were either slow or retarded, them pulled out a fashion magazine with well-known Elesa—a Gym Leader in Unova—on the cover.

Knux fidgeted a bit. He knew that much; it was just that he'd been told to come here for the exact locations of which hoods were where. Each one had different pokemon—the fifteen different gangs each using one starter pokemon as their main battle partner and also a sort of living symbol as to which gang they were in—and he'd been hoping to be able to easily find the one he wanted without having to battle half the thugs in the city to see which pokemon they had. “A-actually, I was hoping you'd tell me--”

“Ghe-tto,” She said extra slowly from behind her magazine barrier. Knux sighed to himself, but decided it would be healthier to leave before he got that Growlithe sicked on him. Outside in the heat yet again, Knux looked around dismally. Now where would he go? Well ... might as well just snag a 'mon from whatever group of hoods he found first. It didn't really matter which starter he got, as long as he got one. All were good enough, though he'd been really hoping for one in particular ...

But first: to find a gang member. Preferably one that was alone. Knux thought the snag machine on his arm felt a bit heaver—though it was a very comfortable model, lightweight and hardly noticeable beneath his long-sleeved jacket—in the stiffing heat outdoors that had only seemed to get worse after his time inside the business building. The young man pulled out the Raticate's pokeball, looking at it. He only had one pokemon and one chance at catching whatever starter he managed to find on the thug he found. There would be no do-overs. He didn't have the money to buy another pokeball besides the one he'd been given, and Knux highly doubted the recruiter would give him another for free.

With another sigh, the brunet went off and hoped he'd be able to find a gang member before he melted from the heat. First of all, Knux wandered around alleyways, slowly making his way too the less-mainstream and more dubious side of Goldenrod. He felt nervous, uneasy, and sure he looked like a chicken ready to be roasted: or, a kid ready to be mugged. Maybe it was his worn clothing and flat, near-empty pack that made him look like slim pickings; not worth the trouble to mug. Either way, Knux wandered down one alley—and ended up face-to-face with someone he was sure was a gangster of some sort. Hopefully, one that was a part of one of the hoods of his 'mission.' But right now, all Knux felt was nervous. He'd never been in a real pokemon battle. Sure, every kid dreamed of becoming a pokemon trainer and knew the basics of it, but Knux hadn't been one of the few to actually live on one of the Pokemon-Challange sponsoring towns—like New Bark—that gave out free starter pokemon and pokeballs at age ten. He hadn't even lived near one. No; he'd gone to school, and flunked out. Hence, why he was here right now, trying to join Team Snagem.

The hood member looked a bit surprised when Knux pulled out a pokeball, but only grinned at the nervous sweat on the brunet's forehead. “Hehe; you feelin sick dude?” The grin widened as the punk—hoodie sweatshirt not unlike Knux's jacket wrapped around his waist in this heat, muscled arms showing off coiling Rayquaza and Gyarados tattoos—pulled out his own tiny pokemon container and twirled it on his finger like a baseball. “You'd better be. I'm about to hurt up the heat, so you'd better give me all your stuff or melt.”

Knux gulped, wondering idly how much hairgel had been used in the making of the gangster's mohawk before throwing his pokeball without a word, a large bristle-furred rat bursting out. The brunet was amazed for a moment at the creature: it actually looked like a formidable pokemon in real life. Raticate were not often seen in top-class battles, so it was often assumed the rat was a weak pokemon; a creature to be looked down upon. But, looking at this one before his own eyes, Knux felt a slight burst of confidence. It was well-trained, even if he wasn't, in the art of battling. But the brunet jumped a little—yanked out of his thoughts—when the punk scoffed and threw his own pokeball, the prize coming out in a burst of light. Knux looked at his opponent’s pokemon with a bit of shock.

It was the starter he'd wanted. Smooth, bright orange skin with a lighter pale-yellow underbelly, and a proud flame burning on its tail. Charmander. Sometimes mentioned as a pokemon that was 'hard to train,' but Knux couldn't help but look at the fire lizard and smile, picturing all of the strong and formidable Charzard's he'd seem in televised Pokemon Tournaments. Knux looked over the pokemon, taking in the strong flame and deep blue eyes … beautiful. There was an odd spinal bump on the lizard's back though, and Knux wondered if that was normal … But the Charmander attacked, giving Knux another jolt back to reality as Raticate took a direct Scratch attack, but held strong. The newbie's respect for the rat pokemon grew even more, and he shouted out his first command: “Raticate, use Bite!” The recruiter had told him the attacks the pokemon knew before handing it over and sending the possibly to-be Snager on his way.

The Charmander squealed in pain, arm caught between the gigantic front teeth of Raticate, but pulled free, stumbling backwards back towards its trainer, the punk, who was now frowning. The gangster had underestimated the Raticate, as many novice trainers who fight just to scare civilians do. With a shout, he ordered the Charmander to use Scratch again, but Knux had warmed to battling by now and quickly told Raticate to use a Quick Attack, making the punk choke on his own order as the Charmander took a hard hit and fell to the ground. Knux knew it was now or never. The Raticate—an evolved and strong poekemon—was more than a match for the punk's fire lizard. It was weakened, and the time was right. The brunet pulled out the pokeball he'd been given—Sang Machine making him flinch in surprise by humming to life at the contact with the pokeball, charging it with whatever energy that allowed it to catch another trainer's pokemon—and threw it at the fallen Charmander.

The punk's jaw dropped at the sight of his pokemon being caught, and paled with fear. Then, before the ball had even stopped wiggling, he ran. Apparently, the hoods in this city weren't unfamiliar with Team Snagem. But Knux had eyes only for the wiggling pokeball as the Charmander struggled within, fighting to get out. One wiggle … two … Knux bite his lip. If the Charmander got out and the pokeball broke … But there was a third strong wriggle, then no more. The pokemon was caught. “I did it ...” Knux couldn't believe it. A smile spread widely across his face. “I did it!”

“AAGGH!!” Knux jumped, looking at the punk, who'd been down by the raticate. The rat had seen the opponent move to make a cowardly escape, and had Tackled him to the ground, growling and bearing his formidable teeth in the gangster's face. “Get it off!”

The brunet thought a moment, then grinned. Well, the 'winning' trainer got the other trainer's money, right? And he did need bus fair to get back to the recruitment building … “Good job, Ratty,” Knux said, feeling like the pokemon deserved to be called a name of sorts; at least while he had it. Though, seeing as it really wasn't his, the name probably wouldn't stick. Most pokemon tended to just listen to their trainers, unless ordered to also listen to others.“You've really helped me out today. Just keep him still while I empty his pockets ...”

“WHAT?!” The punk was less than thrilled, but could only hand over all the cash he had while the large rodent glared at him, inches away from Bitting his nose off. Knux recalled his borrowed Raticate and picked up his new Charmander before walking off, whistling under his breath. Well, that hadn't been too hard. Maybe he'd do pretty well in Team Snagem …

Well, Knux thought that until he got chased the rest of the way to the bus station with the rest of the punk's gang hot on his heels, Charmanders and even a few Charmeleons spewing Embers and Flamethrowers at his back as he ran. “Him! That's him! That's the #$%&er who took my 'mander!” If Knux had thought the heat was bad before, now he'd jumped out of the concrete frying pan and into the Fire-Attack oven. His shoes pounded—and melted a bit—on the pavement as he ran towards his bus, the bus driver seeing the gang arrive and beginning to pull away before Knux got there, but by some stretch of dumb luck to novice trainer somehow managed to run fast enough to jump into the still-open bus door before the driver closed it and gunned the engine.

Hell, he barely got away from them, and his clothing stank of smoke as he sat down heavily in a bus seat, watching Goldenrod—and the gang—grow farther and farther away. Wait, was his hair a bit singed? Great. Just great. Well … at least that was a mission accomplished. Knux looked at the pokeball in his hand containing his new Charmander, and smiled. It was worth it.

“Oi, kid!” The bus driver yelled, startling the brunet in the back of the bus. “You gonna pay for this ride or do I have to throw you out?”

Knux sighed in relief. Bus fare? He could handle that. The young man turned to pull the cash out of his pack—and it wasn't there. Knux felt his mouth go dry. The Embers … all those fire attacks … They'd burned his pack right off of his back. Luckily, his pokeballs had been stuffed in his pockets and his Snag Machine was on his arm but … now he had no cash to speak of … Knux looked up at the reflected face of the bus driver in the mirror used to keep an eye on all passengers and gave a rather unreassuring grin. “Um … can I give you an IOU?”

Knux was tossed out on his face, and the bus drove off without him. Well, he guessed he was hoofing it back … Great. Just, great. Well, might as well start walking then.

So he did.

Too bad his shoes were so melted he had to use the last of his cash to buy a new pair on the way. He'd really have to invest in pokemon-attack-proof clothing wear from now on, it seemed … Well, if he was accepted into Team Snagem, anyway, and he was still several miles from getting an answer on that front. Either way: Mission Accomplished.