Everything around the two teenagers went completely silent. Rachel's shoulders grew tense, like they were lifting an invisible weight. She held her breath, and judging from the lack of noise in the room, so was he...
Suddenly Rachel was drowning; drowning in a room without any water in it. She couldn't squeeze air into her lungs to drive away the water. She didn't see anything different about the place she was in, but she knew there was water and it was going to kill her. Rachel looked up, and she saw him, staring with scared eyes into her dying ones. He took her hand, hoping to comfort her. Rachel gratefully tried to smile in appreciation, even though her vision was already blackening around the edges. With her other hand she clutched her necklace. Just before she passed out, Rachel saw his eyes widen, as though it now was his turn…
Five days previously…
Rachel caught up to Andrea close to school. "Hey," she panted, almost tripping over her baritone horn case. "Wait for me."
Andrea's long dark hair barely rustled as she turned her head. "Careful there." She grinned. "You should go back to playing trumpet." Her smaller, lighter instrument case lightly bumped against her leg, as if in agreement.
"Yeah, well." Rachel shrugged. "It's not like anyone else is playing baritone." It was the only reason she'd taken up the baritone that year.
"Next year," Andrea suggested. The two girls approached the band room of Twinleaf High School and set down their instruments.
Twinleaf High isn't a particularly large school. Being in the suburbs of Jubilife City, Twinleaf itself is farther away from the action than most other towns. The tall skyscrapers and busy streets are another world away from Twinleaf Town, with a population of just enough people to need its own high school. Nothing of much importance regarding legends and great pokemon happen there, except the duo who'd saved Sinnoh had originated there. It was normally a quiet place.
Today was not normal.
"Rachel," Andrea said, a slightly tense tone in her voice. "Ra – WATCH OUT!"
Rachel turned in time to jump away from the oncoming car. Her baritone horn was safely against the wall by the music room door, but the car had screeched to a stop right where she'd been standing. The vehicle was the strangest thing Rachel had ever seen: it was aqua blue and scaly-looking, with a ridged hood and pointed trunk. Bright red spikes ran along the top of the car, down the middle. The front could have passed for the jaw of some reptilian creature, complete with fang-shaped headlights.
"What in Arceus's name?" The vice principal came barreling around the corner. From what Rachel had seen of him, he was a short, quick-tempered man with a loud voice and a scary frown. "Hey! Get off the campus!" He hollered at the car.
The driver's door swung open. A lady straightened out of her seat. Her calm, gentle face was inlaid with crystalline blue-green eyes that knew just how pretty they were. Light brown hair framed her face, twisted into an elegant knot atop her head. She wore casual sneakers, a green skirt, and a white t-shirt. Over all that was a light blue lab coat.
"I'm so sorry," the lady said apologetically. "It swerved out of control, I didn't mean to nearly run you over." She was addressing Rachel now. "Please forgive me." She was being relatively formal with her.
"It's… It's all right," Rachel stuttered. What were you supposed to say to someone who nearly ran you over?
"Oh," the vice principal said, the anger clearing from his face. "Are you our guest?"
"I am," she told him. "I'll go find a place to park, and I'll get set up for today."
"That would be great. We're honored you chose to come here," he said kindly. The lady nodded and folded herself back into the oddly shaped car. It backed up and rolled around the corner in search of an empty bit of sidewalk curb.
"That was close," Andrea muttered. Rachel was still shaking. "Who was she?"
"That's a professor from Unova," the vice principal said, overhearing Andrea's comment. "She's come to Twinleaf to do something special with us."
"What is it?" someone else asked. Rachel looked over: it was Jonathan, the trombone player. He was waiting for the band room doors to open as well.
"You'll see later," the vice principal said mischievously, walking away with a smile in his eyes.
Rachel had been tense and excited since the vice principal left, and was constantly reminded of the professor's presence throughout the day. Her first period English teacher wrote the assembly schedule on the board; second period's science teacher mentioned Unova's unique pokemon and evolution in passing; in third period her distracted math teacher went on and on about Unova for about twenty minutes before realizing she had to teach a class still. Finally, Rachel made it to homeroom, when the assembly was going to take place.
"Okay," the band director, Mr. H, exhaled. "We have to make it to the multi-useless room by – Oh shoot," he said, looking at the clock. "Let's go! Bring your backpacks!"
Rachel caught up to Andrea between the band room and the building right after it. "I wonder what we're doing," she said excitedly, playing with the charm on her necklace.
"Can't be too boring, being from Unova and all that," Andrea pointed out.
They found seats on the cafeteria benches in between Lily and Grace. Rachel waved to Miranda, a friend who was in another class, as she came in. As the rest of the school found their way in, they talked about the professor: apparently she was a world-renowned expert in pokemon, and she specialized in Unova's. Unovan pokemon were nowhere near as well-known as pokemon from most other regions.
"I heard we take a test of some sort, and some people get picked out of everyone to go to Unova," Grace said seriously.
"Wait, really?" Jonathan turned around. "Where'd you find that out?"
"I asked an assistant before school," Grace recalled. "They told me three or four students would be picked, but I wasn't supposed to tell anyone because it would ruin the surprise." Her last three words were said with playful scorn.
"Hear that?" Jonathan asked, elbowing the person next to him. "You get to go places like the person you're named after."
"Really?" Lily asked jokingly. "Who's gonna be your girl?"
Lucas mostly ignored them. After the incident at Spear Pillar, he'd been getting hero-referenced left and right. Jokes about Dawn Hikari and Giratina were common, but Lucas and the guy who went with Dawn to save the world weren't much alike. The boy in front of her had black hair, was quiet a lot of the time, and played the tuba. He wore clothes that didn't catch attention – a dark t-shirt, jeans – and couldn't have been caught dead wearing a scarf or a bright red beret. Lucas was also younger and shorter than the college-freshman hero. The final difference was that Lucas Kouki had a girlfriend (Dawn, naturally) and Lucas Zhang did not.
"Ally will be his girl," Jonathan said without missing a beat. Lucas pretended to punch him.
*insert feedback here*
"Good morning, students," the principal spoke through the microphone. She was standing next to a projector, in front of the Unovan professor. "I hope you've all had a wonderful day so far." Without pausing to wait for the answers that were sure to follow, she went on, "I'm pleased to introduce our special guest today, who has come here all the way from the Unova region. Professor Juniper, welcome to Twinleaf High."
"Thank you," the professor acknowledged with a smile. "It's an honor to be here. I really wish I were here to talk about my work, but I'm afraid we're pressed for time and we need to get right down to business. Short introduction…" she ran her hand through her lab coat pocket and pulled out an index card. "Here it is. "
Reading off it, she said, "In Unova, we are coming upon scientific breakthroughs left and right, despite not having easy contact with the rest of the world. We'd like to share some things we've learned with the rest of the regions, so we'll be taking a few kids from Sinnoh, to start. This means you. Some of you will get a free trip to Unova for between several weeks and a few months. Unfortunately, we can't bring all of you there, though we'd love to, so we're giving you a short quiz to see who we'll bring along. It's not the sort of quiz you can cheat on, but answer honestly and we'll pick out who can relay their knowledge of Unova based on that. Do you all have binder paper…?"
Rachel took out a sheet of paper – two, really, since Jonathan had run out and needed one. She wrote her heading on it – Rachel Myers, homeroom band – and looked up expectantly. The first question was projected up on the wall:
Are you familiar with Unovan pokemon? Rachel barely stopped herself from snorting.
1) Nope.
Do you have a favorite pokemon (from any region)? Rachel brightened; this she could answer.
2) I like umbreon and latias or latios. Infernapes are cool too.
Describe your most distinguishable non-physical trait in one sentence. This made Rachel think for a few seconds.
3) I'm insanely competitive because I always want to do the best out of anyone.
She didn't particularly like the answer she ended up writing, but felt it was all right.
Do you have any features that are not you, but you consider to be you? Interpret this question any way you like.
What the heck, Rachel thought with a frown. Features… Like looks? She glanced at her necklace.
4) I usually wear a necklace with a shell-shaped charm on it. I really like it and sometimes play with it when I'm bored.
What's your best subject, gradewise?
5) Math or PE.
What's your favorite subject, in terms of material? Rachel looked at this question with newfound respect; most people associated a person's favorite with their best, and inquired about them both in one question. But her preferred subjects weren't the ones she did best in, except maybe band, where she had an A.
6) Band or science.
Rate how athletic you are, from one to ten (ten being pro athlete). Rachel gave herself a seven and a half.
What sports do you play? This includes dancing and martial arts, for example.
Easy, thought Rachel. 8) Softball, volleyball, and dance.
Have you ever wanted or pretended to be a pokemon? Rachel had to smile at this.
9) Yes.
If you found out you made it onto this trip and could bring one friend, who would you bring?
"Write Ally," Jonathan whispered loudly, earning himself an elbow in the stomach from Lucas.
10) Grace Bell or Miranda Vera.
"That's the last question," Professor Juniper announced. "Would you all turn in your papers to the edges of your rows?" When this was done and all the pages were collected, she smiled. "Thank you all for participating. We will have the results of who gets to go to Unova out by tomorrow. Until then, have a nice day."
The day passed fairly quickly. Jonathan stopped making Sinnoh hero jokes partway through band, to Lucas's relief. Rachel's mind kept drifting off to the quiz again, and hoping that she'd be picked. But then again, there were plenty of students to pick from. She was just getting her hopes up as usual.
The next day, in homeroom:
"Let's record Andromeda today," Mr. H. suggested. The recording went well, but the office paged someone halfway through the song. It was halfway through the bridge between the slow section and the second fast section, so Mr. H. waited for the section to be over before stopping. They listened; the page was over already.
"That's wonderful," Mr. H. said sarcastically. He turned off the music recorder and turned it back on again. "All right, let's try this again."
The PA turned on again, right at the beginning of the second and final fast section. Mr. H. cut the band off earlier this time.
"…please come to the office." The PA then clicked off.
Mr. H. huffed. "They hate us, don't they?" he said in wonder. "Beginning," he announced, restarting the recorder.
This time the phone rang. Mr. H. didn't even bother stopping the band this time – they kept going all the way until the end of the piece, ignoring the phone call. "For all those interruptions, you guys did pretty good," he complimented.
"Yeah!" Jonathan cheered. The phone rang again.
"Why not interrupt us again? We don't mind," Mr. H. said, going over to the phone. "Hello?" he said with a dangerously pleasant tone. There was a pause. "No, we've been trying to record the same song since the beginning of the period," he said lightly, but a hint of annoyance came through. "We didn't hear –" he listened. "Oh, I see. I'll tell them that." Mr. H. hung up without another word. "The office wants you, you, and you," he said, indicating Andrea, Rachel, and Lucas. None of them moved; just sat there in surprise. "Bye," he said again.
Rachel stood up and glanced at Lucas, two seats away. Between the baritone player and tuba player, there was only one other person (Jonathan on trombone). Jonathan gave them an inquisitive look; Rachel shrugged in return. As she reached the door, she vaguely noticed Lucas glance at Ally, a flute player with long, wavy hair and a warm smile. Andrea held the door open for them.
It was cold and windy outside the music room. The weather had turned rainy over the course of the morning, so the three walked underneath the alcoves of the buildings.
"Andrea, did you do something bad?" Rachel wondered mischievously, trying to break the silence.
"Nah, it was Lucas," she replied immediately.
"What did I do?" Glancing over, Rachel found an amused smile on his face.
They reached the office. Andrea held the door for Rachel and Lucas, and they stepped inside.
The secretary looked up. "Oh, there you are. I thought you three would never come. Professor Juniper is waiting for you in that room," she said sharply, pointing to a closed door.
Rachel didn't need to see Andrea's excited look to guess what was going on. Just in case, she didn't get her hopes up.
The professor greeted them with a warm smile. "How are you guys? Take a seat." Rachel sat on one side of Andrea, opposite Lucas. "We had a nice time reading your surveys," Professor Juniper said lightly. "All three of you show potential for the project we're working on currently."
Wait... Rachel's heart skipped a beat. Is she saying...?
"Would you three like to come back to Unova with me?" the professor concluded.
Rachel glanced at Andrea, who was grinning broadly. Lucas's eyes were shining.
This is crazy! We're going to Unova! Rachel realized.
Two days later:
"Bye! Have fun in Unova!" Grace said, waving to Rachel.
"See you later! Don't be too mean to Elina," Rachel said to Grace. Elina was a younger clarinet player who was too arrogant and annoying for people to like. Grace was lucky enough to sit next to her.
"She won't get hurt too bad," Grace joked.
Rachel ducked into the professor's strange car, which she'd learned was supposed to resemble a pokemon called feraligatr. Andrea was on the other side of the vehicle, and Lucas had the seat in the far back to himself. Rachel greeted them and shut the door behind her.
"You guys ready?" Professor Juniper confirmed.
"Yeah."
"Doesn't matter, we're going anyways," she said cheerfully, pulling away from the school.
The last two days had been an excited panic. Signing forms had been the least of it; they also had to promise to actually learn something there and try not to get too far behind on other subjects. This was no problem for Rachel – She'd been in a competition a few years back that covered this year's science course, they never did anything in her English class, and math came to her almost naturally. History would be troublesome, but she was going to be excused from PE (no mile runs! YES!) as long as she ran or something most days. There wouldn't be a band competition for about five months, so that was sort of all right, although all of their playing techniques would decline while they were away. Other than that, they had to pack clothes. That morning had been so rushed, Rachel had nearly forgotten her shell necklace, but now it was dangling safely below her throat. Speaking of the necklace…
"Rachel, I forgot to say how awesome your necklace is," the professor said.
"Oh – thanks," she said awkwardly. Her right hand traveled up to play with the tiny brass shell almost unconsciously.
"On your quiz you wrote that you aren't familiar with Unovan pokemon," Professor Juniper recalled, stopping for a red light.
"Yeah… I'm not," Rachel agreed, glancing at Andrea. The older girl was looking at the professor with a curious tilt of her head.
"Did you know the shell on your necklace is like a pokemon's?"
Rachel's eyebrows flew up. Really? she wondered. "Which one?"
"It's a Unovan pokemon called oshawott. They fight with a shell on their chest called a scalchop, similar to the one on your necklace. Oshawott is a water type starter pokemon, like Sinnoh's piplup."
"I never knew," Rachel said wonderingly.
The car found its way across town to the dock on Lake Verity. Parked by the shore were sailboats, motorboats, a large ship or two, and… a plane?
"It's a seaplane," Professor Juniper explained as they got out of the car. The dreary weather from the day before was still there, blowing her hair slightly astray. "It flies, but it floats on water too. It's convenient because we're aiming to land on the southern ocean."
Rachel shivered as the wind whistled past her ears, whipping her dark, shoulder-length hair in every direction. They loaded the plane with their bags and got into the passengers' part of the plane.
Seven hours later, they had sighted Unova.
"I never knew how far away this place was," Andrea muttered tiredly. It was four in the afternoon in Sinnoh, they'd been in a plane since ten in the morning, and they still hadn't had lunch. Rachel was half asleep, but she forced her eyes open to watch the landing. The plane gracefully glided down and skimmed the surface of the water. As it slowed, Rachel was aware of a distinct bobbing feeling, like of a boat.
The plane-boat hybrid floated towards the shore – Unova's shore, Rachel realized. This was Unova, the place she'd heard of but never seen with her own eyes. The place they were arriving at was a busy harbor, supposedly south of the professor's hometown. On either side of the harbor stood a cluster of cherry trees, barely starting to blossom. The port itself wasn't very big, but several ships and yachts were parked along the concrete strips, making it surprisingly busy for its size. The sky was clear, but the chilly air indicated that it was definitely winter here, too. At least it wasn't raining.
"We're here," Professor Juniper spoke for the first time in seven hours.
As they descended the plane's steps, a man in a uniform came over to them. "Excuse me! Since you all just arrived in Unova, I'll need to see your passports." He noticed Professor Juniper, and backtracked. "Ah. I'll just need their passports or yours with a signature."
Our passports? Rachel took a worried glance at Andrea, who was frowning.
"They don't have passports yet. I'll sign." The professor took out a small booklet and showed it to the official, then signed a form he produced from a folder he'd been carrying. "Only a few people have this power," she said with a certain pride to her voice. "Just the head professor and champion of each region. Everyone else needs their group to have passports. In Unova, you can't even leave the region without a passport. Either you're a native-born citizen of Unova who registers for a passport, or you travel with a professor or a champion. You guys have me," she said for good measure, with a twinkle in her eyes.
The official walked away and the group unloaded the seaplane. Each of them had only bought along one bag, so they didn't have much to carry the short distance to the professor's lab.
"You guys will love Nuvema Town. It's essentially just like Twinleaf, right outside a larger city," the professor said cheerfully. "It doesn't have a lake with a legendary pokemon inhabiting it, but it's very quaint and attracts many new trainers. The Nuvema Town Harbor is nowhere near the largest in the region – that honor belongs to Castelia's port – but it's certainly an important spot around here…"
The professor was in particularly good spirits, even after that insanely long plane ride. Rachel was feeling exhausted, probably from the fact that it was nearing half past three and none of them had eaten lunch yet. Oh, and her butt hurt from the plane ride. And she was going to get serious jet lag… Which reminded her that it probably wasn't 3:30 pm in Unova. Doing some mental calculations with the time zones, she estimated that it was probably half past nine in the morning, which explained why the professor didn't notice hunger.
They came upon a concrete walkway bordered by bricks. It lead them up a wide, sweeping hill with grass and flowers on either side to a large, modern-looking building. A windmill stood right by it, turning effortlessly despite the building being right beside it.
"This is the lab," the professor explained. The outer front consisted of mostly windows, with an arching automatic glass door in the center. A bright orange roof topped it, and despite the loud color, it fit in perfectly with the rest of the lab. They walked up a narrow concrete path that was damp from the lawn's sprinklers into the lab.
Rachel turned around. The front of the lab let in as much sunlight as possible, giving the front room a light, spacious look. Several sofas and a coffee table dominated one side of the hall, and a receptionist's desk rose from the floor right in front of them. To either side of them there was a clear automatic door: behind one was a sterile-looking white hallway, and behind the other was another wide, open room with lots of windows letting in light.
The receptionist at the counter looked up. She was a petite blond lady with slim glasses and a headset like a pilot's. The lady currently was talking to someone through the microphone on the headset, but she noticed the professor and nodded in greeting, gesturing at the door to the other room as she continued to talk. Rachel tried to pick up on what she was saying, but it was one of those conversations where you have to be listening from the start to understand anything. The receptionist was talking about merging something with something else, and a test that would happen soon. That was all Rachel heard before following the professor into the next room.
"Welcome to the Nuvema Town laboratory," Professor Juniper announced. "Andrea and Rachel, you have room Snivy, and Lucas, your room is the Tepig room. Get settled in and I believe it's lunchtime," she finished with a spark of amusement in her eyes.
Hi! Novas is a remake of a story I started and stopped in a few months. This one, though, has lasted much longer already, so you don't have to worry about it going away anytime soon.
Andromeda is a level three song for Concert 1 or 2 band. It's by David Shaffer, and it's really neat. I played it last year with Andrea in my band. She got the trumpet solo. Look it up if you get bored/want to listen to some awesome music without words. I think I'll try to include a song title in each of my chapters, just so you can hear them.