The morning sun shone brightly on the streets of the small town of New Bark. Puddles dotted the the sides of the streets from the rain the night before, and Ally found herself dodging them carefully despite her new boots. They had been advertised as waterproof, but she realized that she wasn't quite ready to test that theory. Not on her first day. Her first day as a pokemon trainer. She suppressed a shiver, her eyes lighting in excitement. She was 18, and had graduated the day before. Her parents had not been okay with her starting a pokemon journey at ten (very few parents were okay with that) and they were no more pleased with her decision to do so now. But higher education could wait. Heck, it could happen online while she was traveling.
She hitched her pack a little higher, settling the weight more comfortably on her hips. She had had her whole life to consider which pokemon she would choose as her first partner. Not that that really made it any easier to choose. There was far too much to consider when one was thinking of, essentially, a lifetime partner.
The Professor had agreed to hand her one of his research pokemon in exchange for her logging information about pokemon locations and moves into the pokedex that he would be providing her with. It was the standard deal that Professors across the world made with new trainers interested in the rare pokemon that they held. The trainers benefited because the pokedex compiled information from other pokedex across the region to give the trainers more information about where to find wild pokemon and type advantages that their pokemon may have against a newly encountered challenger. And of course they got a high tier pokemon to base their team around. The Professors benefited from the exchange with virtually free and reasonably accurate field researchers.
Ally glanced around herself, noting that the sky was mostly clear. There wasn't supposed to be any rain today or the next day, though she didn't set much stock in that. Weather in Johto was not easy to predict, especially if there were any pokemon around that knew the move rain dance. Her hands tightened on the straps of her backpack. The pokemon lab was just around this corner. Her steps faltered a moment. This was real.
The lab was actually not that prominent, nor that awe inspiring. Nestled in among the other shops in the downtown area of New Bark it sort of just blended in. Only the sign above the door 'New Bark Town Pokemon Lab' held any clue as to the buildings purpose. A clear glass door marked the entrance. Ally took a deep, steadying breath, and walked through.
The entrance of the lab was sterile, just tiled floor and white walls with a handful of potted plants scattered here and there. An assistant sat behind a desk, busily typing into a dual screen monitor. He paused at the beep that Ally's entrance caused and looked up, blinking as his eyes adjusted.
"Hello. You must be Ally. Welcome. I'm one of Professor Elm's laboratory assistants. If you'll follow me I'll introduce you to him." The young man stood and walked through a door next to his desk, only pausing long enough to ensure that she followed. They walked down a long hallway, closed doors leading off of it until they came to the end of the hall and entered a large room. One side of it held shelves full of pokeballs, computers and various machines scattered along the other walls. Potted plants were spread sporadically around the room, perched on convenient shelves and window seals. The Professor sat behind a rather cluttered desk, head resting on a hand as he peered tiredly at the computer screen in front of him. He was rather young himself, appearing to be in his early thirties. Half moon glasses perched on his nose, and his sandy blonde hair was rumpled as though he'd only just woken up. His red rimmed eyes, however, spoke of a long morning.
"Ally is here to see you Professor." The assistant said, causing Elm to glance up. He smiled and thanked the assistant, dismissing him. Standing he beckoned Ally over and gestured at a small table set off the corner of his desk. On it lay three pokeballs.
"Ally, welcome. Here for your first pokemon?" She nodded, though he did not wait for her answer. "I have laid out my available pokemon for you, the balls are labeled with their species and type." She stepped closer to the table as he picked up a small cloth bag and a device from his desk. The little red and white pokeballs were indeed labeled with the species they contained and a small symbol to show their type. A water drop on the top of a ball labeled 'Totodile'. A single flame on top of the ball labeled 'Cyndaquil'. A leaf on the top of a ball labeled 'Chikorita'. Her heart began to pound.
This was it.
"You will of course get the standard package for agreeing to help me with my research. A pokemon of your choice, at level five. Five pokeballs, a registered pokedex, and a pokemon trainer license." He handed her the small bag containing her standard pokeballs, then a rectangular device. "That's a new issue pokedex. It will double as a phone for you." She glanced at it as he quickly ran through its standard operations. It was a touch screen device, around three inches wide and maybe four and a half long. It was heavy, nearly a centimeter deep. She hefted it, then turned her attention back to the table of pokeballs. The Professor had stopped talking now and stood, patiently waiting for her to make her selection.
"I..." She raised her hand to the table uncertainly. "I think... I will go with this one." She said, deciding to go with her gut. Forget worrying about type advantages and disadvantages. Her hand settled on the pokeball with the tiny flame. Her lips curled into a grin.
"I choose Cyndaquil."
