Sixteen year old Logan Billingsley stood outside Juniper Labs in Nuvema Town. He took a breath and knocked.
"Just a second!"
After some loud banging and a few words Logan assumed were vulgarities in Unovan dialects, Professor Juniper stood in front of him with the lab door open slightly, looking really tired for one in the afternoon.
The woman smiled, "Ah, hello. You're Logan, right? Here for a pokemon?"
The boy pulled his vibrant blue hoodie back up onto his shoulders before smiling at the professor, "Yes please."
Juniper gestured behind her and opened the door, "Come in then. The nursery is in back. And, ahh, sorry about the mess. Ever since another trainer took the Snivy that mediated them, two of the oshawott and tepig haven't been able to stop fighting. I was actually trying to pull them apart when you knocked."
Logan's stormy blue eyes widened a little in surprise, "I guess you'd rather I take one of them, then?"
The professor looked at him and smiled, "As much as I'd appreciate it, I'd rather you don't do anything stupid and get yourself hurt, so unless one of them takes an immediate liking to you, I'll have to say, no."
Logan smirked a bit and said, "Fair enough professor."
The two reached the nursery, and while it wasn't the worst mess Logan had ever seen, (that honor went to his sister's room), it was up there. Beds were everywhere, their stuffing strewn about, plastic toys were torn, and that was to say nothing of the smell involved in having several baby animals in the same room. Logan eyed the professor and muttered, "I see what you mean, Ma'am."
Professor Juniper smirked and whistled loudly. At the noise, several pokémon stirred from the dens in the corners,allowing Logan to see his choices. A white and green serpent with ornate leaf patterns, accompanied by five smaller green beasts, though these stood on small legs and had a larger single leaf on the ends of their tails. On the serpents' left, was a blue behemoth, with whiskers forming a moustache, armoured shells on its legs and webbed tail, with another shell on his head, with a large blade spiking out. Its young were bipedal, though their limbs seemed barely developed enough to hold them on land, and they only had a single shell on its front, which, due to being shaped more similarly to a flattened clamperl than any kind of appropriate armour, served little obvious purpose. The final Pokemon were orange and brown, boarish creatures, with the large one Logan assumed was the mother, standing on its hind legs, with massive black forearms, and a blazing beard, it's chest was covered in the same black hair as its forearms with a gold band, young who stood on four legs, bore gold only as a crest below their massive ears. Professor juniper noticed the analytical look on the teen's face and said, "Let me know if you have any questions about these guys."
Logan brushed his brown chin length hair back and asked, "So what exactly are these guys called, and do they have any secondary types? Their primaries are pretty obvious."
The professor smiled a little, "the perks of older pupils. The grass type line are serperior, with their young being called snivy; they're grass monotypes. The water types are samurott, and the young known as oshawott, pure water types. And finally, emboar and tepig, which gain the fighting type in the middle of their evolutionary cycle."
Logan scanned his options, unsure how to proceed. He favored the water type's effectiveness in battle over those of the other pokemon, but he felt Serperior would hold more strategic value with versatile camouflage abilities, and there was something to be said for the raw power apparent in emboar.
In the end, however, there would be more green pokemon, and more with monsterous power behind their movements, but looking at a map of Unova did not give him much hope of strong water types.
"I choose Oshawott."
The young water types all swelled with pride, as Professor Juniper nodded a little, "Alright. Now get down to their level and let them come to you. You can choose any of them, but it's easier to keep them calm if they bond with you in a safe space with people they trust-their mother and I- close."
Logan nodded and sat down with his legs crossed, holding out his hand for the pokemon to smell, though the small pokemon all ignored it to swarm him, taking him surprise enough to knock him down. One stood out as the first to jump by a couple seconds, and had a bit more power behind it than the others. Logan suspected it was the one who had troubles with a tepig, considering the professor seemed rather tired after dealing with them, and with those fights they'd be more powerful than the others.
The teen scratched the small pokemon's chin and smiled, "You're the fighter here aren't you?"
The boy looked to Professor Juniper and said, "I'll take this little one, Ma'am."
The professor frowned slightly, "I thought i told you not to take one of the ones that got into fights? Anyway, now that you've made your choice, I'm sorry to have to burden you with legal mumbo-jumbo."
Logan groaned, "aagghh; all right."
Professor Juniper reached into one of her lab coat pockets and grabbed a device that looked like a cell phone and said, "So, this is a pokedex. As i'm your benefactor you recieve one as well as access to official files on the same level as a trainer studying under a gym leader- level one access. The pokedex lets you learn about pokemon species, monitor your own pokemons' energy, and operates as a communication device between you and I. I can program contact with other pokedexes but you'd be on your own about a cell phone. It also holds the codes that gym badges actually represent. You'll learn more about that if and when you battle the Striaton gym."
Logan nodded and stood up. He made to reach for the device but Professor Juniper shook her head and continued.
"However, that sponsorship does restrict you a bit. As your parents aren't active in Unova, I'm the final authority on anything you may do, and should you do something illegal I can and will have your trainer's license revoked. Further, should I ask you to do something, you're contractually obligated to carry it out to the best of your ability."
The brunette woman tapped on the Pokédex a few times and handed it to Logan, the screen showing the same message the Professor had given him, as well as a signature line. After he awkwardly fingered a signature out, he attempted to hand the device back, though the Professor stopped him again. She handed him a belt of five pokeballs from off the wall. Further, she opened a closet and handed him a brown backpack with a grey sleeping bag on top, and a canteen strapped to the side.
Finally, she handed him a green card with his picture in the upper left corner, his identifying information- name, five foot eleven, brown hair, blue eyes, that stuff- and in big, black lettering, was 'Trainer's License.'
Professor Juniper patted his back, and said, "you're officially a trainer, Logan. Congratulations."