Evergrande City.

The ultimate destination of every trainer in the Hoenn region. In just a short time, trainers from all over the world will gather here and compete for eternal glory and everlasting fame.

The streets of Evergrande are lined with shops, eager and willing to ply their wares to any trainer accomplished enough to simply be standing in the city. Trainers from foreign lands have set up training areas to instruct willing students and their Pokemon in abilities and attacks of which they have never heard from before. The Pokemon League itself has opened it's doors, lending their seemingly never-ending flow of information to any and all looking to get the scoop on their competition.

The city is buzzing with anticipation.

Evergrande Stadium is waiting....

"Man, in Indigo I came here so late, that I didn't have time to check out the stuff they had to offer. This'll be nice. First things first, though."

Moritz goes to look for a restaurant.

Not fifty feet in Evergrande, Moritz hears a familiar voice calling over from the shade under a tree.

"Hey, Moritz!"

It's Valter, obviously.

"Oh, hey Valter!" Moritz calls back. "Got here before me, huh? Has anyone else that we know arrived yet?"

"Just me. And Suryc as well, so far." Valter commented, muttering.

"Oh, I had a question. How did you get your Rhydon to evolve?"

"Someone gave me an item, and said it would make my Rhydon stronger. When I gave it to him, he evolved! Kind of a boring story, but that's pretty much it. I think the guy called it a "Protector", or something like that."

"Hm, alright. Well, I'm going to see about booking a hotel room." Valter stated and promptly left to do just that.

"See ya."

Moritz goes back to looking for that restaurant.

Cerise points at a fancy steakhouse. "How about that one, Moritz?"

"Looks good to me, let's go."

Valter finds a fairly nice hotel with a sign that reads: 'Eight Badges = Free Boarding'.

Sounds like good bet to me.

Cerise grins at a sign that reads "Eight Badges Eats Free".

"Oooh, I'm gonna love this city..."

Once inside, they find the entire staff awestruck by the eight badges they each hold.

"Well that was easy." Valter comments, going in and asking about a room.

As Valter enters the hotel, he accidentally knocks over a young girl.

"Ow!" She says. A quick glance at the girl reveals that she's got long orange hair, and is wearing an emerald dress.

Valter flips himself up quickly and gets ready to block an incoming blow.

Somewhat necessary.

The little girl, who appears to have scraped her knee, begins to tear up. She sniffles as she rubs her injury.

Valter relaxes his guard slightly.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Valter said, looking at the little girl with legimate concern.

"I-it's o-okay." The little girl says through the sniffles.

Taking a better look at her, Valter would be astounded to see, the girl is practically Chalcedony in miniature.

The girl climbs to her feet, somewhat shaky. She wipes away her tears. "I'm sorry about that. It's my first time being in a big city like this all on my own." She extends a small hand out, "I'm Silica!"

"I'm Valter." The trainer replies, shaking Silica's hand.

Silica smiles, and then notices his eight badges. "Oh, are you going to be competing in the tournament? Neat! I've got my eight badges too!"

She pulls her hair around, showing Valter a hair clip with all eight badges attached to it.

Rith Enters Evergrande...and Wanders around aimlessly. Rith has a bad case of wanderlust as apparent by how many times he walked across Hoenn for no reason.

"Either these guys are easily impressed, or there really aren't that many trainers here yet." Moritz whispers to Cerise.

"Shh!" Cerise whispers back, "Don't ruin this for me!" He picks up a menu.

"I'll have that...and that....and that...and that...and that....oh, and some of that, and that..."

This might take awhile.

"Don't cry to me if you can't eat it all. And if you DO, I ain't dragging you out of here. No complaining if they don't get the order right, either!"

Once Cerise (eventually) finishes, he orders his food as well.

The skinny-as-a-rail Cerise manages to wolf down everything and anything in sight.

And doesn't appear to have gained a single pound. Where did it all go?!

Anyway...

"Ahhh....that was great. Where to next?" Cerise says, as exciteful as ever.

Moritz shrugs. "We can always just look around. There's not much else better to do since the tournament won't be starting anytime soon to my knowledge."

Cerise shrugs, "Sounds okay to me."

The two march down along the street, when suddenly....

"Hey Moritz!" A shockingly familiar voice says from behind him.

"Hey..."

Moritz turns around, hoping to Celebi it isn't who he *thinks* it is...

"Yeah, I am. Say, you don't happen to be related to Mauville's gym leader, are you?"

Having finally gotten the last speck of dirt thrown on him by that odd, odd yellow-shirted, blue-haired girl, Taylor had finally made it to Evergrande. He wanted to take a look arounfd the place, maybe do some shopping... but first thing's first, his meat shields were all down thanks to that random attack and near-death experience so the trainer made his way to the pokémon centre. So long as he doesn't get lost or distracted.

With so few trainers in town, the Pokemon Center is unsurprisingly low-staffed.

As Taylor waits for his Pokemon to be healed, a woman with short, dark purple hair struts in, acting like she owns the place. She pushes Taylor out of the way as she approaches the main counter. She speaks with a strong accent.

"'ello? Yes, you 'zhere! Quickly, tend to my Pokemon! Zey are much more important zhan zis rabble's!"

"You mean Chalcy? Yep! She's my big sister! She taught me everything I know!" Silica says, cheerfully.

You should find someone else better to pray to, buddy. It's Mike Chumpy, eyepatch and all.

"S'up, dude! You gettin' ready to compete too? Awesome, man!"

As he walks down the streets of Evergrande,Rith sees that the city is still pretty quiet. The streets are mostly empty, save for a young boy with red hair, who seems to be making a Pokeball float in midair with psychic power.

Rith walks up to the kid and looks down at him "Nice Trick Kid, keep training and you might get as powerful as Sabrina someday."

"Oi!" Taylor yells, stamping his foot in front of the woman, making a loud stompy noise, "More important? MORE IMPORTANT!? I just so happen to be the centre of the universe, you... you old hag. Rabble indeed. And your accent sounds fake."
The white-clothed trainer dons a broad grin and crosses his arms, "Actually... Could you say 'the ants in france dance mainly in my pants' in that accent? C'mon. That way everyone'll benefit from it. Especially me, which is the most important thing."

"Sabrina? That twit's no match for me!" The youth says, grinning, though not taking his eyes off the Pokeball.

The red glow around his hands intensifies a little bit.

"Old 'ag!?" The woman shrieks. "At ze very least, I am not ze one with a bag on my 'ead!"

"hey now,Sabrina is awesome, I never met her myself since never did the Kanto Badge Challange, but you don't get to be a gym trainer by being a pushover."

"But... but it's stylish," Taylor whines, fiddling with the end of the large head-tail-like part of his Banette mask bag thing.
"If you want, you could have it, you need it more I guess... to cover up that ugly purple hair... and your old hag wrinkles. Seriously lady, facelift. Or maybe one of those claws that attatch to the back of your head that pulls at your skin..."