*I do not own Pokémon, nor Pokémon Reborn for the matter*

*This story is directly inspired from the fangame of the same name*

*Please note that this is a rewrite of Chapter 1, as I found it to be, well, quite bad. I have gotten better with the next chapters, so I wanted to update this one to the same quality as the others. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did when I wrote it!*

Day 1, 8:00

In the train station, the slightly overweight attendant was patiently waiting for anyone to come at his counter, in order to either validate a ticket or to ask him for information of some kind. He had the look one would expect from a man stuck behind a counter as a way to win his life.

He was pulled out of his boredom-induced lethargy, though, when someone arrived in front of him out of breath, barely being able to stop their momentum in time. The attendant recoiled slightly from the surprise and glared at the newcomer.

It was a rather young-looking woman, or at least he assumed she was. She had quite a well-toned body and she was sporting a pair of baggy grey pants with a white sleeveless shirt, which contrasted a lot with her tanned skin. She then passed her hand through her blonde mohawk before sighing and standing with her hand on the counter.

The older man cleared his throat before averting his gaze and realising that the young woman had gotten a ticket out of a pocket. Taking it, he examined and began to type on the small piece of paper as he asked the ebony blonde a few question.

"Alright. What would be your name, miss?"

"Ari Allaway." She seemed to have mostly regained control of her breathing, opting for slow and deep respiration instead of a quick one. The attendant then continued his interrogation as the sound of typing filled the otherwise silent area.

"Age, Destination?"

"19, Reborn City."

At this, the man stopped moving for a second before lifting his gaze back into the girl's eyes. He had a quite astonished look on his face, his eyebrows raising. His lips tightened a bit before his head dropped a little.

"Listen, young lady… I know that the new Pokémon League has opened and all, but I really advise you to think twice about it." Normally, it would be frowned upon for him to do this kind of thing, but the man felt that the girl needed some kind of reality check.

"The region is still the hellhole it has been since a decade. A lot of trainers are attracted to this kind of novelty, but-"

However, his attempts at reasoning with her were only met with an annoyed glare as she snapped the now completed ticket from his hand.

"Try telling me something I haven't heard a million times yet. I don't think you can, sir. Where is the train?"

After he reluctantly showed her the right direction, he sighed as she prepared to depart.

"Hurry up, miss. It's scheduled to go in five minutes…"

She did not respond to his last piece of advice, but her accelerating pace indicated that she had at least heard him well.

As Ari finally embarked in her designated wagon – the last one of four –, she began to observe its interior a bit. The walls were decorated with a nice, if plain red velvet, with the benches and seats had a similar ornament, but theirs had some motifs. The benches of the wagon were positioned so each would face another, with a wooden table being placed between each pair.

The most notable thing about the wagon, however, was the fact that it was almost entirely empty, with only a young man sharing it with her for the moment. Since she had arrived so close to the departing time, she doubted that anyone else would arrive after her.

She then redirected her gaze to her only companion from this station to Reborn City, who was currently looking out the window with a neutral expression and one of his arms hanging behind his bench, analysing his features a little bit. He looked fairly young, no more than 18 years old, but his face presented quite a sharp nose and chin. His hair was messy and extremely dark, with the dim lights of the wagon and the stronger one coming from the morning sun creating yellow reflections on it. He sported a pair of dark pants with a white shirt which didn't look dissimilar to her own and he wore a black jacket over it, which he kept open, for some reason. Around his neck was some kind of golden chain, although with the general look of the rest of his clothing, she assumed that it was more likely colored this way with some dye instead of a genuine precious metal. Ari also noted that he was quite thin, compared to her more firm body.

At first, she considered leaving him alone and sitting down at some corner, but the prospect of her having to endure this ride without any kind of distraction didn't please her at all. Instead, she would at least try to make some kind of conversation. When she settled on the bench facing his, he seemed momentarily distracted from whatever thoughts he was having. He then observed their surroundings for an instant. Apparently, he hadn't realised yet that they were the only two passengers in this particular part. Once he was finished, he gave Ari a slightly confused look before resuming his blank staring at the window.

Then, the intercom of the wagon emitted a high-pitched beeping sound before a feminine voice came out of it.

"Attention, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to depart in the direction of Reborn City. We ask you to take a seat before the train starts moving. Thank you for embarking on Reborn Rail Lines!"

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the train began to move with a slight screeching sound coming from the friction between the wheels and rails. Once they had picked a little speed and the station was out of view, Ari sighed and stretched a little, making herself comfortable on her seat. The young man in front of her, for his part, glanced once more around them, looking specifically in the numerous empty seats. He then shrugged and began to mess around with a piece of paper, which Ari realised that it was his own ticket.

After a minute of uncomfortable silence, Ari decided to break the ice and smiled at the boy before attempting to start a conversation.

"Hello, young man. The name's Ari, what's yours?" He then diverted his attention from his improvised toy onto Ari as he responded.

"I'm Vero. The future Champion of Reborn."

"So, I guess you want to join the Pokémon League as well, am I right?"

He looked at her, his eyes suddenly lighting up with an unexpected enthusiasm as he nodded.

"Yep. I heard that the new league was quite the challenge, so I figured I would try it out. You know, completing the other leagues just isn't the same thing as before…"

"You've already completed one?" Asked the blonde, crossing her legs as she positioned herself to take most of the bench for herself. It wasn't as if it would bother anyone, anyway.

"No, but I don't see the point in doing so. You know, when Kanto and Johto opened their combined league, it was revolutionary! Beating the league was a big deal, at the time. It took months before anyone defeated the Elite Four!"

"Yeah, but then they got beat by two kids in a row…" Ari added with a smirk, which caused a small giggle from her interlocutor.

"Now, you beat the Elite Four, or even the Champion, and it's nothing. You're just one of many who didn't want to take the job with all its shitty responsibilities…" Rambled the young man, his gaze drafting into his surroundings with no particular fixed point. "But with Reborn, it's different! Trainers from all around the world, with so many gyms!" His smile only grew wider with each passing second. He certainly was passionate, Ari thought.

"Yeah, but when you think about it, isn't it just more of the same?" Asked the ebony blonde, which caused Vero to nod slowly before leaning forward towards her with a smirk.

"Not exactly. I have heard of the stuff they have prepared. There will be a gym for each known type, and they'll all have a battlefield which will advantage them in some way. Personally, I think it's cowardly, but it just makes it more rewarding."

"Yeah, I guess."

Vero then nodded slowly in anticipation before looking back at Ari.

"Are you going to challenge the League as well? Well, I can't see any other reason not to…" He laughed a little, dismissing the question.

"In fact, I am not really going to…" Under Vero's questioning look, she elaborated. "I mean, officially, I will. However, it's an old friend of mine who will challenge the gyms and whatnot." She then re-arranged her hair a bit before continuing. "My kind of thing is more amongst the outdooring side of the trainer thing. Exploring caves, remote areas, you see what I mean?"

"Oh, yes, I guess I do. It's often a good way to find rare Pokémon. You have friends who live in Reborn?"

"I came from there. I and my parents moved out when I was 11 years old."

"I see. Well, if I meet them, we could have a battle, for sure."

Silence imposed itself once again for several minutes afterwards, with both trainers-to-be trying to find ways to entertain themselves before they arrived at their destination.

Occasionally, a discussion would spark out of nowhere, at which occasion Vero and Ari would talk about some recent events in the world, or they would do some trivial talk. However, the topics never quite reached a more personal level, as both interlocutors had plenty of baggage that they weren't willing to share with a complete stranger.

The ride continued like this for almost an hour before the train entered some sort of tunnel into a mountain. Vero looked up as the sudden darkness completely blinded him. Ari, however, could feel her heartbeat accelerate in anticipation, just like someone who would come back home after a long time.

"We're under the Teknite Range." She said.

"Huh?" Although Ari couldn't see her interlocutor's face, his very audible reaction indicated that he didn't know much about Reborn's geography.

"It's a mountain chain in the Northwest of Reborn. We're going to go through the Tourmaline Desert and besides the Scrapyard, then we'll be entering the city."

"Oh, we're almost there, then…" Vero stated, resting his head on one hand. "Although, wasn't some representative supposed to come see us or something?" Vero's voice contained a slight, but discernable amount of annoyance as the train continued to go through the tunnel.

"Well, the desert is vast, I think we still have some time. Besides, it's not like we can't officialise things in the station."

"I guess."

After one more minute, the train had gone out of the mountain and a bright yellow glow came through the windows as they sped through the desert. Vero observed outside, until his eyes caught something peculiar.

It looked like a wild Pokémon, stationed on a nearby rocky formation, who was looking right back at him. Upon observing more, Vero's eyes widened as he realised just what he saw.

Ari noticed the apparent distress the boy suddenly seemed to feel, and she looked outside as well, but couldn't see quite well because of her angle.

"Is something the matter, Vero?" She asked as his face went a bit paler.

"I… I saw an Absol out there…" He muttered, leaving Ari speechless.

Absol, the Disaster Pokémon, with its magnificient white fur. It is mostly seen just before a disaster occurs, hence its nickname. It was believed before that they caused catastrophes themselves, but studies have now proven that they are actually mostly friendly and are only trying to warn humans from their oncoming doom. Ari gulped slightly and took a deep breath before trying to reassure him.

"Well, maybe it's just curious, you know? Absol are like the rest of Pokémon, you never know…"

Although, to say the truth, she wasn't at ease if what Vero had seen was accurate. She had never heard of wild Absol in Reborn before, so this may be a bad sign…

"If you say so."

As Vero finished speaking, however, the front door of their wagon suddenly opened, at which point both Vero and Ari noticed that there were closed connections between each of them. Through it came a woman, of white skin and even whiter hair, and who had a very simple white shirt and grey pants ensemble, and she came right for the seated duo – at the same time, Ari thought, where else could she have wanted to go? She sat beside Ari, who moved a bit to the side in order to make her some place.

The woman then proceeded to take the paperwork she had been carrying around and deposited them on the small table between the two seats. She looked through it and looked over to Ari.

"Hello, trainers. I am Ame, the manager of the brand-new Reborn Pokémon League, glad to make your acquaintance. We are just going to have to confirm the information I have in these…" She began with Vero's. "Here, in the cases of the people to contact in case of emergency, you have left that blank. Is that an error?"

All of a sudden, Vero's face turned hard and his look abruptly went on some random fixated point in space.

"No."

Ame nodded. She didn't need to press further.

"Besides that, I'll let you review the rest of your personal info…" She then took the rest of the papers and handed them to Ari. "… And I'll do the same with you."

After a minute or two, both wannabe trainers had completed their respective corrections and had given back the papers to Ame.

"Alright, it's always great to see some new talent coming into Reborn. I'm certain that the League will be a thorough success!"

"I certainly hope so…" Vero said, smirking. "I didn't come all the way down here to waste my time."

"Of course, some Gym Leaders might be difficult to access at the start, but these are issues that are currently being taken care of." Ame stated, which caused Vero to frown a little bit.

"Hey, look!" Ari said, pointing to the window. "We can even see the city from here now! Even the Beryl Bridge…" She continued to look, remarking that the walls of the city were getting closer.

A bit too close.

"Why aren't we slowing down, already?" Vero asked, visibly unnerved.

Ame's eyes widened and looked one last time outside. They had just passed the city walls at breakneck speeds.

The only thing she could do now was to grab both would-be trainers and put them to the floor before the imminent crash.

Since this is one of my first stories, and the only one I've publicly published, feedback would be really appreciated. I am still mostly unaware of the flaws that would be obvious to readers, so don't hesitate to tell me what you thought of this.

Positive, negative, as long as it is constructive.