It all began in the dead of night.

*Ring-Ring!* *Ring-Ring!*

"…What the…" Vicente grumbled into the pillow, blindly grabbing for his X-Transceiver. He held the screen to his eyes, squinting to the blue light.

"…Who the hell calls at four-in-the-morning?"

Vicente took a brief second to think of answering the call, but couldn't recognize the number. He threw the thing across the room, and flinched as a heaping pile of textbooks took a tumble from his desk.

*Ring-Ring!* *Ring-Ring!*

"Sonova… Fine!"

He shuffled in defeat for the X-Transceiver. "Hello?" He asked with a yawn.

A cheerful woman's voice answered him. "Is this Vicente Torin?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Speaking."

"Hi, Mr. Torin! Sorry to disturb you, I'm calling as a representative for Pro-"

Vic groaned. "I'm sorry, I'm not interested in purchasing anything this night, thank you."

"No, wait! This isn't –"

*Boop!*

"…sigh… for Arceus's sake, don't telemarketers sleep?" He muttered as he bundled up the scattered university textbooks; Poke-Philosophy and the Humanities, Historical Studies, Chemistry... papers had spilled from every book, each scribbled with incomprehensible notes and doodles.

*Ring-Ring!* *Ring-Ring!*

"Oh, for the love of- It's four in the freaking-morning!"

He slammed the books on the desk. "Really? I mean, do you really get paid enough to call people at four o'clock? Let a guy get some sleep, dam- oh."

He hadn't realized that the woman placed a video call the second time. He made a double take; she was a blonde woman, very pretty-faced, with a Musharna sitting on her head.

Wait, what?

"Mr. Torin, I'm not a telemarketer. I'm a TA for Professor Juniper." Her voice was less cheerful now, but not yet angry. Her Musharna, however, was giving him a death stare that could make a Dusknoir run for its life. "I'm sorry for the hour, but the Professor called me. She needs to speak with you. It's an urgent matter, from what I've been told."

'…Well, shit.'

"…Mr. Torin, did you hear me?"

"What? Oh, sorry, yes!" Vicente shook himself out of his stupor, "Why is there a Musharna on your head? Wait, I'm sorry, that was rude of me. Agh… Yes! Right!"

'Smooth Move, Vic.' He'd never seen two things more confused in his life. He could feel his cheeks getting hot.

"I'm sorry, Miss..."

"Bianca," she said irritably. He hadn't meant for it to sound presumptuous, but he didn't dare to try and fix it. The Musharna began to curl up in the large, green beret on Bianca's head, and lost interest in the student.

"Bianca, where would the Professor like to meet?"

"In her office."

"Okay!" Vicente tried to scoop up as much of his dignity as possible. "I'm on my way! Thank you, Bianca. I'm sorry for hanging up on you," he added quickly.

"I'd put on some pants before you go," she said bluntly.

*Boop!*

He let out a heavy sigh, and placed the X-Transceiver on the twisted bedsheets. "…either I'm getting out of writing my term paper, or I'm royally screwed."

"I'd bet on screwed," a voice said from across the room.

Vicente flinched. "How much of that did you hear, Karlos?" He asked his roommate as he jumped into a pair of jeans. 'Hell, how'd he stay asleep for that long?'

"Enough to know that it doesn't matter what time of the day it is, you don't have game."

Karlos dodged the empty Pokeball flying toward his face. "You can't aim either. What'd you do, anyway? It takes a lot to piss off Juniper."

He pulled his arm through a jacket sleeve, "I didn't do anything! And who calls at four o'clock in the morning? What professor's that crazy?"

His roommate shrugged. "Hey, if you don't make it back, can I have your laptop?"

Vicente let out a fake laugh, and gave him a gesture on his way out.

Hello! I'm glad to see you've stopped by. Welcome to the Nuzlocke!

Before we get too far into this, I thought I'd say a few things. Of everything that I've written, this piece is the furthest out of my comfort zone (hopefully, the quality of this story won't reflect that). The Nuzlocke that I will be writing about is the first that I've ever attempted, and… and…

…okay, I'll cut the bullshit. This is going to be really rough. I'm terrible at playing games with challenges like this. But, playing a Nuzlocke is supposed to strengthen the bond you have with your team – and give them more character than they previously had – and I need the practice for writing good characters and action scenes. That, and I've had a blast with what I've played so far, so, why not keep going, right?

Enough tiptoeing; what IS a Nuzlocke, anyway?

Well, a Nuzlocke is a player-defined way to play a Pokemon game; a challenge, if you will! It takes the simple rules of the game and… tweaks them a little.

The general rules for most Nuzlockes are the same, but each has its quirks. Here are the rules I adhere to as I play (and write):

1) If a Pokemon 'faints' in battle, they are considered 'dead', and must be released (UNLESS it's due to a battle in an institution, like the Battle Subway; I mean, there's got to be a LITTLE levity here, right? … Wrong? I don't know. If you've got any suggestions or thoughts, lay 'em on me!).

2) A Pokemon can only be replaced by another Pokemon – and it must be a WILD Pokemon, not one deposited into storage (automatically stored is a different case) – if it has died. In the case of HM-using Pokemon, a Pokemon may be swapped with an HM user temporarily, if absolutely necessary. This Pokemon cannot participate in any battles, however, and must be swapped with the original Pokemon as quickly as possible.

3) If all of the party members faint, its game over; for the playthrough, AND the story!

4) Bred Pokemon cannot be used (this may be explained in further chapters).

5) Only the first encountered Pokemon in an area may be caught, excluding Legendaries. This Pokemon may only be added if there is an empty space in the party, due to a death or to a shortage of the maximum six team members.

a. In the course of the game, ONE Legendary Pokemon may be used; multiple may be caught, and sent to the PC box (not deposited), allowing for a choice.

…Aaaaand yeah! That's about it. If you've got something to say about the story, a recommendation, or just want to chat, shoot a message my way. Thanks for taking interest in the story! Chapter Two should be coming soon.