Chapter 1 - Shipwrecked

**Chapter 1 - Shipwrecked** is the first chapter of Rejuvenation and takes place directly after the Prologue, starting the moment the Protagonist arrives at Oceana Pier.
After evading capture by Team Xen by the skin of their teeth, the protagonist ends up in Aevium's East Gearen City with nothing but a trainer card to their name. They meet new friends and rivals, all the while the mysterious threat of Team Xen lurks in the shadows.

## Chapter Summary

### Arriving at the lab

Shortly after being saved by a mysterious Talonflame, the protagonist arrives on a dock in drizzly Oceana Pier. There, they meet the owner of said Talonflame, a woman named Tesla von Brandt from Terajuma Island. She expresses relief at being able to save least one person from the shipwreck, and consoles the protagonist, explaining that Team Xen wasn't always a threat to the region. After asking them what their next move is and suggesting they head to the city, Tesla leaves on Talonflame for the crash site to search for more survivors.

Arriving in East Gearen City from Oceana Pier, the protagonist heads straight for the laboratory where they find a somewhat impatient Amanda waiting for them at the laboratory. They're then introduced to Jan, one of the League Administrators along with Amanda. As the protagonist enters the door in the back, they briefly bump into a blonde-haired girl, who apologizes but quickly hurries away afterwards.

Once entering the lab, the protagonist meets professor Jenner, who abruptly ends a video call upon realizing that he has company. He introduces himself, only for him to be cut off by Amanda once he starts explaining what he does. The protagonist is then able to choose a starter Pokémon and subsequently challenged by Amanda to a battle upon making their choice. As they meet up with Jenner again, a young man named Ren appears. He introduces himself as the professor's assistant and challenges the protagonist to a battle. After the battle, Ren compliments the protagonist on their strength and leaves to hang out with his friends. Jenner asks the protagonist to go to Route 1 to meet up with his daughter Melia, as he feels it would be better if someone were there to look after her. He gives the protagonist payment in the form of a Pokédex and the Cybernav and wishes the protagonist luck as they leave.

Leaving the lab and making their way east, the protagonist stumbles into the yard of a purple house, hearing loud music playing from it. A short exchange between a girl named Veronica and her mother begins, which ends up with Veronica being thrown out of her house. She asks the protagonist to get her one last Pecha Berry from the Berry Emporium. Upon being given a "Pecha berry" from a disgruntled shop owner and giving the berry to Veronica, she’ll find out that the berry was filled with wasabi. The two share a laugh and Veronica asks the protagonist to call her Venam instead, and invites them to hang out with her friends at the Abandoned Sewers.

### Exploring the city

The protagonist makes their way south to the Abandoned Sewers. There, they meet up with Ren and Venam and the group proceeds into the Sewers. It turns out that Melia never was in Route 1, due to the train towards Route 1 being out of order, but in the sewers instead. The protagonist teams up with Ren and make their way to Melia and Venam. As the pair approaches the room where Melia is, the power in the sewers flickers and locks them out of the room. After resetting the generator, they're able to enter and once inside, the pair finds Melia and Venam. She mentions the protagonist looks familiar, before recognizing them from lab. Venam says that she is more interested in how the experiment with the trash bags is going. Ironically, as soon as Melia brushes off the experiment as a failure, a Garbodor and two Trubbish pop out of the generator, deeming their experiment a success. The Pokémon attack, and upon victory Venam catches one of the Trubbish while the other two flee. Melia claims that while happy they won, they would’ve been safe regardless as she pulls out a briefcase, saying Jenner told her to unlock it with a code in case of trouble. The group then goes separate ways: Melia goes off to Gearen Park to take some photos, Ren goes to Magnolia Library to study, and Venam invites the protagonist to challenge her Gym.

Once making their way through Venam's gym and battling some familiar faces, the protagonist challenges Venam for a gym badge. As they stand on their podiums, an unnoticed, mysterious girl takes a seat on the right side, with Ren and Melia taking seats on the left side. Once defeated, the protagonist receives the PoisonHeart badge from Venam. Upon exiting the gym, they're invited by Melia to accompany her to Goldenwood Forest.

### A trip to Goldenwood

Once arriving at the train station, the protagonist will meet up with Tesla again. After some reassuring words from her, she will buy them a lifetime ticket to Route 1. They then meet up with Melia and they head into Goldenwood Forest. The pair spend the day together, and then enter Goldenwood Cave.

As they enter Goldenwood Cave, the protagonist teams up with Melia to explore the cave. Upon reaching the end of the cave, Melia will inspect a wall with glyphs on it, which then collapses and uncovers a secret area. There, the protagonist will have a picnic with Melia, and reveals that she is moving to Grand Dream City to become a Normal Type Gym Leader soon. After rhetorically asking if they would like to come with her, Melia challenges them to a battle. Once she is defeated, a blue-green light covers the area briefly, followed by a sudden quake, prompting the pair to make their way back to the forest.

### Team Xen's invasion

Upon returning to Goldenwood Forest, they find that Team Xen has appeared in the area suddenly, and they're out to kidnap Melia.

One of the grunts then brings out a Shadow Meowth. Melia then tells the protagonist to open the briefcase, only to find what looks to be a Snag Machine inside. Melia asks the protagonist to try and catch the Meowth from the grunt to confirm this. Upon capturing the Meowth successfully, she then tells the citizens to hide in the cave until the situation is resolved. The protagonist and Melia team up once again, and after battling their way through some more grunts, the pair finally make their way to the person in charge, only to be stopped right before reaching him by two strange grunts by the names of Eli and Sharon. Upon their defeat, Eli and Sharon chase Garbodor, who had suddenly appeared to distract the duo.

With no more obstacles in the way, Melia and the protagonist confront the man responsible for the invasion, who introduces himself as Zetta. He informs them about the portal behind him, calling it a Dimensional Rift. Zetta explains that they can be used as weapons of mass destruction and contact with one can wildly transform a Pokémon as a reaction. Zetta challenges the protagonist, and upon his defeat he demonstrates what he explained prior, awakening the Gyarados within the rift, which causes the protagonist to get dragged into the rift.

They awaken on a rainy dockside. Making their way north, the protagonist finds a lone Magikarp. Upon touching it the Magikarp gets knocked into the water and turns into the massive Gyarados seen earlier. As the battle begins, a faint image of Melia appears, saying that she won't let them fight this thing alone. After the battle ends, the duo escapes mostly unharmed. To search for safety, the two quickly head back to Gearen by train.

### Escaping the danger

Once back in Gearen, the pair make their way to the laboratory where they eavesdrop on a conversation between a red haired woman named Madelis and Jenner. The conversation reveals the professor was working with Team Xen this whole time, only being charged with taking care of Melia temporarily, among other things. Melia, enraged, has enough of the conversation and confronts the two of them. A battle ensues between Madelis and Melia, but ends up with Madelis being victorious. In a last-ditch effort, Melia commands Hapi to use Metronome, which ends up using Teleport and teleporting the two away to an unknown location.

In her rage, Madelis says that she will report Jenner to *her*, though of whom she speaks is unknown. She also warns the protagonist to not interfere with Xen's business. Shortly after, Ren enters the room. Jenner explains the situation and asks if the protagonist and Ren could go to Route 2 to search for Melia, when the rest of his sentence is cut off by a mysterious voice. The voice berates Jenner for trying to send two kids to clean up a mess he created and sends him to a mysterious dimension as punishment. The voice also warns that if the duo decide to look for Melia, they will be traveling the path of despair. Ren and the protagonist make a plan to warn the gym leader of Sheridan Village of the events and solicit his help, as well as Venam's to look for Melia.

## Locations of Interest:

* East Gearen City
* Route 1/Goldenwood Forest + Goldenwood Cave
* Gearen Laboratory
* Chrisola Hotel
* Magnolia Library
* Goldenwood Grove + Arceus Shrine

## Trivia:

* Before Version 13, the Goldenwood Forest storyline came before the fight with Venam (which would mark the end of the chapter).
* In Chapter 1 and its sidequests, you’ll find cameo appearances of characters that have important roles later on in the story, such as Flora, Dr. Jenkel, Saki, Karen and Rorim B.
* In prior versions of Rejuvenation, Venam’s gym had different appearances. You can find these older gyms by doing a hidden puzzle in Venam’s gym, doing so will unlock a passageway to Gearen Alleyway. As a reward for your efforts, you’ll get a special cutscene with Venam where she explains that the boarded-up buildings were her previous gyms, and additionally you can get a Seviper egg and a Zygarde Cell.