Chapter - 5

Twelve year old Ryan Kingston and his twin brother Matthew were

restless in their shared bedroom. Their mother had told them to go to

bed early to get some sleep before their big day, but how on earth

could she expect them to sleep on today of all days? This was the

day they had been waiting for ever since they had been little boys:

the day they'd get to go out and begin their own journeys with their

very own Pokémon. It was expected of nearly every boy and girl

when they reached the age of twelve to set off on their own journeys

and find out what the world had in store for them, and for the twin

cousins of the Champion of Arcana, they weren't an exception.

Ryan tossed and turned endlessly in his bed, his thoughts swirling

with ideas of him joining forces with Michael and the Elite Four and

taking on great evils the likes of which Arcana had never seen

before. Even though he had no experience with training and raising

his own team of Pokémon, he was sure that it would come as

naturally to him as it did to anyone in their family line. After all, there

was a reason why the Kingston family was so revered in Arcana.

Though looking relatively similar to Michael, Ryan was shorter and

far less built out than his older cousin. He and Matthew were

fraternal twins, not identical, as each took a little bit from each gene

pool they came from. Ryan took more after their mother, Alison, with

a bit pluckier of a physique and a pair of big and soft brown eyes.

Matthew, conversely, looked more like your average Kingston and

took more after their father, Robert Kingston. He was slightly taller

and more physically bulkier than Ryan, even though he was the

younger of the two brothers. His eyes were more of a traditional

shade of Royal Blue, a trait he often boasted about when comparing

himself to the likes of Michael, their father or their late grandfather

James. Matthew too, was distracted by the thoughts of their

upcoming Pokémon Journey to care about sleeping. His thoughts

were filled with ideas of him having the world's strongest team and

taking on and defeating all who challenged him, including his cousins

in the Pokémon League. He was determined to prove himself the

best, even if it meant he would have to rival his brother Ryan.

No surprise, of course. The youngest of the Kingston grandchildren

had a lot of expectations put on them, with how well their cousins

were all doing. And thus, because of what the others had done and

down to a natural sense of sibling rivalry, Ryan and Matthew were

both brothers and rivals at the same time. They cared for one

another, to be sure, but all the caring in the world wouldn't mean

much if the two would be pit against each other at some point in the

Pokémon League Championships to be held at the Arcana

Colosseum outside of Titanio City. They would train together, work

together and fight together to earn their shared dream of becoming

the League Champion and succeeding the legacy put forth by their

grandfather and cousins.

"Hey, Matt?" Ryan whispered to his brother, daybreak still a bit away

from their view. "Are you still awake?"

"Duh" Matthew retorted. "You didn't think I'd let you beat me to

getting our Starting Pokémon, do you?"

Ryan laughed. "I'm pretty sure we're going to all be given a Pokémon

at the same time, though."

"Well, someone's gonna have to get theirs first" Matthew pointed out.

"What makes you think that we're going to be the only two there?"

Ryan asked. "I'm pretty sure Holly, Addy and Tommy will also be

there to get their first Pokemon with us."

"So?"

"So, Julia may want to give Addy and Holly their Pokémon first, since

they're both girls and all."

"C'mon, Ryan" Matthew snickered. "Chivalry is ancient. If we're the

first ones there, we'll definitely get the best Pokémon that Julia has

to offer. And I want you to pick after me so we both have the best

chances at taking on the Gym Challenges."

"Remember what Mike always says" Ryan reminded his twin. "It

takes more than a strong-looking Pokémon to become a great

Pokémon Trainer."

Matthew flung his blankets off of his bottom bunk and rose out of

bed. "This is taking too long, we need to be there now!" He hurried

for his dresser and began to put on his outfit he would wear on his

journey, a white t-shirt with a black vest and blue denim jeans, along

with his trusted baseball cap turned backwards. "I'm gonna go make

sure Mom has some coffee. You should go wake her up."

Ryan looked from below his top bunk of their bunk bed and down at

their alarm clock on his desk. "Matt, it's only 5:26! Mom said to stay

in bed until after 7:00."

"I'm sure she'll understand" Matthew answered quickly. "Now hurry

up, dude!" With that, Matthew burst out their bedroom door.

Ryan rolled his eyes and tossed his comforter off of him. He inched

his way over to the steps that led down to the ground level and slid

down them. Once on the floor, he gathered his own traveling outfit: a

green and black striped t-shirt, a pair of tan cargo shorts and his

customary green and black bandanna. Once he looked himself over

in their mirror, he then followed Matthew out into the hallway and

nervously walked up to their parent's bedroom. He peered inside the

door. Their father had already left the night before to set up his own

gym in Charizark Town with the upcoming Arcana Pokemon League

Season, so it was just their mother asleep on the King Sized bed.

He quietly shuffled his way over to their sound and sleeping mother.

After working up the courage to wake her, he nudged her. "Mom?"

Alison shifted slightly and turned over, he back now facing her son.

"Mom? It's time to get up."

Alison again turned over and sighed to herself. "I'm pretty sure it

isn't, Ry."

"Matt said he wanted to get there as early as possible" Ryan

explained.

Alison remained still on the bed. "And until I hear that coffee machine

going, I'm not getting out of this bed." She fixed her long black hair

on her pillow and dozed back to sleep.

Ryan slipped out of their mother's bedroom and Ryan came to the

balcony that overlooked their kitchen. Matthew was already pushing

every button on their mother's coffee machine to try and get it to

begin brewing, getting more and more frustrated with every passing

second. "Why won't this stupid thing just BREW?!"

"Mom isn't getting out of bed until the coffee is ready" Ryan warned

his twin.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?" Matthew fired back.

"Do you think we should call Dad?"

"What can he do?"

"I don't know, maybe help us get the coffee machine working?"

Matthew stopped for a moment and began to ponder. "Or maybe…

he can tell us that we should just go by ourselves and let Mom

sleep."

Ryan looked back a their mother's bedroom and gulped. "I'm pretty

sure she would want to be there for us."

Matthew looked to his brother. "And she can meet us there. But we

need to be the first ones there."

"Dude, our cousin is the champion and his girlfriend is the Professor.

I'm sure we won't miss out on any Pokémon."