STARTING NOTES: Rating: Teen, possibly higher if it gets bloody. Some cussing and possible sexual connotations, though nothing hot and heavy.

RULES: Going by general Nuzlocke Rules and a few other restrictions.

- One pokemon per route.
- No trades except in-game trades - they don't count as a per route pokemon. Probably won't become main party pokemon unless I need an HM slave.
- Naming all pokemon.
- Only items I find or held items to be used. The sole exception is pokeballs.
- EXP. Share/Lucky Egg/etc. can only be used by pokemon that are 5 or more levels lower than the highest levelled pokemon in my party.
- KO = Boxed for the rest of the game.

DISCLAIMER: Pokémon and the franchise do not belong to me. I do this for fun, not profit and this is the only disclaimer you're gonna get.

That said, let's do this!

Pokémon Basics... People live aside pokémon in this world. The people that battle pokemon are called Pokémon Trainers.

"Ugh, I already know this! Is this all the information they send out? Seriously?"

Lucille shut off the computer and turned to look around her room. She'd left the television on, listening to the Pokénews. As a soon-to-be rookie trainer it was a good idea to keep an ear out for what was happening in the world of Pokémon, or so her father had told her many times - during the few times he was home, that was.

Sighing, she stood and stretched. Soon the peace of the morning would be destroyed by Barry - a blond-haired boy she'd met the day her family had moved to Twinleaf. She'd been trying to get rid of him ever since. Well, not really trying so much as hoping he'd grow bored of her company and leave on his own. She didn't want to be mean, after all, and he had been nice enough to take her under his wing, so to speak. They'd been the only kids of their age group in the small settlement, so it was only natural that they'd stuck together.

A slammed door from below signalled the arrival of her over-eager friend and grabbing her beanie from the chair she headed to the lounge room to see what he wanted. Another loud slam sounded as she reached the room. Door slams were a common occurrence when Barry was in residence.

"Mum? What did Barry want?"

Her mother, once a well-known Water-pokémon trainer, looked up from the news report on the television. She was still quite pretty despite the hard life she'd lived, and her steel-grey eyes shone with mirth as she regarded Lucille.

"That boy needs to learn to slow down a little! I could hardly make out what he was saying before he took off again. Something about an emergency. You'd better run after him and make sure he doesn't get into any trouble. Just, be careful not to go off the path! You know how dangerous wild pokémon can be!"

Lucille nodded. The large crescent-shaped scar on her back from a wild Pidgey attack when she was four made sure she remembered quite well just how dangerous they could be.

Pulling on her beanie Lucille stepped outside and took a deep breath. The late autumn air stung her cheeks, reminding her that though it had been a warmer than usual year, winter would soon to be there, covering the grass with a light layer of snow.

Across from her house a young girl played with a charmander doll, dressing it up in a bonnet. Her mother was watching from the window. The family had recently lost their oldest son in a freak pokémon accident. Lucille felt sorry for them, though she really didn't know them that well. They'd only moved in a few weeks ago. The community was slowly growing from the two-house settlement it had once been.

"Hey Lucille, looking for Barry? You two are pretty tight, eh?"

A burly man stepped out of the house next to Barry's. Ian was in charge of Twinleaf's fences and paths - a jolly man who liked poking fun at everyone and everything. It had been his Nidoking who had saved her from the Pidgey when she was a child and he'd been transferred to Sinnoh along with her parents to aid in the creation of the Twinleaf settlement seven years ago.

She'd always thought of him as another member of the family and he'd treated her like a niece, often saying that since his own family were so far away he'd had to adopt himself another. Lucille had always liked him and one day hoped to be as strong a trainer as he was.

"Did you see him come past? Mum says he ran in screaming something about an emergency, then took off again."

"Nope, sorry. You might want to check with his mother. Arceus knows how she deals with him! I've never seen someone who got so worked up over nothing! That said, I'll be having dinner at your house tonight. Your father's dropping by and I need to catch up with him about a few things."

That stopped Lucille short.

Her father, though a good man, had rarely been home once he'd been promoted. It had been hard for her mother to adjust to the new workload at first - as co-founders of the settlement they'd had to split the work between them - and now she had to wade through all the paperwork, politics and pressure alone. Her hard work had paid off, though. Twinleaf had finally been added to the newest Sinnoh maps as a proper town! (She was still having trouble convincing the pokémarts to open premises there, though.)

"Dad's coming back? Why didn't Mum tell me!"

"No idea, Squirt. Maybe she wanted to make it a surprise. Oh, which reminds me, when you see him remember to act surprised, okay? I don't think I was supposed to tell you."

"Okay, Ian. Well, I'd better go before Barry runs up screaming about something else."

"Right then, see you tonight, Luci-bell! And remember, act surprised!"

"Don't call me that..."

Lake Verity was quiet in the midday heat. The cool of the morning had long burnt off and now the only sounds were the chirrup of Kriketots, a soft flapping of wings and the gentle lapping of the lake itself.

Lucille found herself rubbing her arm where Barry had run into her on his way out of his home. They'd finally met up and he'd dragged her along to look for some non-existent creature at the lake. It wasn't that she didn't believe in Gyarados', in fact she'd seen one on the boat during the journey to Sinnoh, sunning its large body on a far-off rock. No, it was the idea of there being a red one that had her cynical.

From what she knew about water type pokémon - and she knew a bit thanks to her mother - most tended to be either blue, green and grey - or orange in the case of Magicarp. The colour red made you stand out too much in the water and standing out would get you eaten. Nature had its own way of dealing with the more flamboyant creatures, which was probably why it was so hard to find a Goldeen, she supposed. Though really, nothing explained Magicarp.

Maybe they just taste bad?She thought with a smile.

Watching the water was nice, but not very exciting. For once Barry was quiet, keeping watch for any large ripples in the water. It had been pure genius of her to tell him that fish ran away from too much noise, she thought. Of course silence didn't last long when Barry was around.

"Hey, Luci! What type of pokémon do you want first? I want a cool one that spits fire and can run fast and is so strong he can knock over walls! That would be so cool!"

Lucille watched her friend in silence. He bounced on the balls of his feet, his blond hair brushing his flushed face as he waved his hands in wild gestures. As long as she nodded every now and then, maybe threw in a "Yeah" or "I know" once in a while he was content to babble on. It was kind of... cathartic sometimes, just letting him talk. It wore him out after a while and then they'd just sit in silence, enjoying each others' company.

"Oh, hey! What do you suppose that is? I didn't notice it before!"

Jerked out of her musings, Lucille watched Barry approach the edge of the path. He was pointing at something glinting in the brush, close to the tree-line. Adjusting her knee-highs as she got up, Lucille squinted at the item, trying to get a better look. It seemed to be rectangular, whatever it was.

"Come on, Slowbro! Let's see what it is!"

And with that Barry jumped forward, into the overgrowth.

"Wait! Barry, it's not safe! Oh, Arceus, he's going to get us both killed!"

Lucille groaned as she took off after him, stepping lightly on the heavy layer of brush that could be hiding anything. It was one thing to watch pokémon from a distance, quite another to actually invade their territory without protection of any sort.

"Hey! Look, Luci, it's a suitcase! Cool! I bet it's filled with hidden treasure or something important! Oooh! Maybe there's 10 million pokedollars in it! You could pay me back all that money you owe me! Let's open it!"

"All that money you say I owe you..."

She grumbled under her breath as she reaching Barry's side, grabbing his arm and trying to make him crouch. Soft rustling from the trees made her very aware that her back was unprotected and she could almost imagine that her scar was itching. Barry's loud voice echoing across the lake didn't help her feel any safer.

"Barry, shut up! We don't want to wake anything that's sleeping. Oh, we shouldn't be here..."

He must have realised that she was scared because he lowered his voice and crouched close.

"Don't worry, Lucille, we won't be in here long enough for anything to grab us. Let's just peek inside and then we can see whether it's worth taking with us or not."

As he pressed the latch to open the case a sudden screech rang out from above. Two Starly, apparently startled by something, swooped down on the teens, claws outstretched. Falling backwards, Lucille landed heavily on her side, something hard and smooth under her shoulder. Barry was yelling, waving his hands in front of his face, trying to beat off the Starly that attacked him.

The other had flown into the sky, getting ready to dive again. Lucille scrambled to find something, anything, to protect herself. The opened case lay nearby, papers covering the ground and two round balls rolling away. Grabbing the closest one, she threw it at the bird attacking Barry, hoping it would distract it and give him time to recover.

Instead there was a red flash and a small pokémon appeared out of nowhere. Tiny and blue, with little flippers and a crown-like marking on its face, a small bird appeared and smacked straight into the Starly. Startled, it took to the sky, watching the battle warily from above.

Lucille had next to no time to notice this, however, as the other Starly had swooped at her and started scratching at her arms and face.

"Barry! Help! BARRY!"

Screaming, she fell backwards, landing awkwardly. The bird followed her down, only to retreat a moment later, regrouping with its friend above. A small beast, vaguely resembling a turtle with a sprout on its head, had leapt back as she tried to get to her feet. A hand grabbed hers and pulled her up.

"Luci! Luci, are you okay? I'm so sorry! I didn't mean-"

Trying to catch her breath, Lucille eyed the two Starly. Their beady eyes shone and some message seemed to pass from one to the other. Something soft pressed against her leg and she looked down to see an odd looking... arm? flipper? A small blue bird looked up at her with large, gentle eyes and she felt something pass through her - almost like an understanding.

Sudden screeches from above announced the return of the Starly as they dived together.

"Hey, little green! Attack that bird again!"

Barry's command and the subsequent tackle made by the green little creature next to him made something click into place for Lucille. She spared a quick look at the small penguin-esque creature next to her then stood and pointed at the on-coming Starly.

"Little penguin thing! Attack that bird!"

At her command the small penguin launched itself at the Starly, bringing its flipper down hard on the other birds wing. With a screech the Starly crash-landed near the lake edge. It looked up at Lucille, something like respect in its eyes. With a quick flick of its wing to check for damage it launched itself into the sky once more, this time flying away, across the lake.

"Phew! That was scary. And my arms are all scratched up, too! Let's hurry back onto the path before anything else comes and attacks us, Luci!"

Barry grabbed her arm, leading them back towards the path. She couldn't be bothered taking back her arm and let him. The little blue penguin and the small green beast followed behind. Just as they were about to reach the path a shout rang out.

"Hey! What do you kids think you're doing in the long grass?"