Ephaura was never very 'normal' growing up, no matter what your definition of normal is. While her friends loved pokémon like Jigglypuff and Clefairy, Ephaura preferred Murkrow and Mightyena. While her peers dreamed of becoming great pokémon trainers, Ephaura wanted to join Team Rocket. Ephaura wasn't a very ordinary child.
When Ephaura's friends left home at age ten, ordinary for a trainer, Ephaura stayed at home originally; you needed to be at least sixteen to join Team Rocket. At age eleven, she finally decided to go traveling; she would need a strong team before she decided to join Team Rocket.
By the time she was 16, she was fully prepared to join Team Rocket, as long as they would accept her. Ephaura was already headed off towards the Team Rocket base. She had built a mighty strong team consisting of a Murkrow, Mightyena, Houndoom, Seviper, Umbreon, and Rhydon.
Once there, she was immediately accepted after showing off her team. She took her uniform Giovanni gave her and slipped it on over her clothes. The uniform consisted solely of a long black cape with a scarlet 'R' on the chest. It also had a black hat with another scarlet 'R' on the brim, though Ephaura chose not to wear it; it was the only piece of the uniform that was optional.
"No, thank you. I really don't like hats," said Ephaura, fixing her long, dishwater blonde hair.
"Very well. Head into that room over there," said Giovanni, pointing to a silver door with red writing carved in it.
Ephaura walked to the door, reading the inscription. 'Cards'. Ephaura opened the door cautiously and entered the room. It was all black, with another door on the far side, and one dim light shining in the center of the room. Under the spotlight was a small computer desk with a laptop and printer, and two large machines on either side of the desk. An old man was sitting at the desk, busily typing away.
Ephaura unsurely sat down at a small wooden chair several feet away facing the desk.
The man at the desk pressed a button on the laptop and a bright light flashed in Ephaura's face like a camera's flash.
The man typed away at his laptop for almost 10 minutes, like he was coding something. Finally her looked up at Ephaura.
"Name?" he prompted.
"Ephaura."
"Spell?"
"E-P-H-A-U-R-A."
The man typed in her name and clicked the mouse a few times.
"Current Team?"
"You mean...the pokémon I have with me now?" he asked unsurely.
The man frowned. "Yes." He said, mumbling under his breath.
"Murkrow, Rhydon, Umbreon, Mightyena, Houndoom, and Seviper."
The man clicked away at his laptop, as two copies of Ephaura's trainer card were printed.
The man put the first copy in a file cabinet, and put the second into a machine that cut out the card perfectly.
"Fill this out." He said, handing Ephaura the card and a pen.
"The back."
Ephaura flipped over the card and filled out her name, birthday, and pokégear number. She then 'signed on the dotted line', and gave the man the card.
He put the card into a lamination machine and copied the back to put into her file. Then he gave the card back to Ephaura.
"Go." Said the man, pointing toward the door. This one had 'Training' written on it. Ephaura opened the door and saw a training ground, similar to a boot camp's obstacle course. There was one man instructing two others through the course.
"You're mean!"
"I can't breathe!" complained Jessie and James.
Ephaura walked up to the drill sergeant.
"Go over there and run through the course. You have 5 minutes to complete it," he said, not even turning around to look Ephaura in the face.
Ephaura quickly ran over to the beginning of the obstacle course.
"3... 2... 1... Go!"
