Wait—what?!
"Hold on a second," the girl objected, holding a slender palm up towards the white-haired man's moustached face. Her facial expression... well it wasn't pretty. It was actually as ugly as a pretty face could get. Pure frustration radiated from her green eyes as she flicked her slim ponytail over her shoulder and onto her back. "You're saying I can't have a piplup?"
"Well yes," the man grunted, brushing the hand from his face. He wore a lab coat, which covered most of his upper body, and some fairly professional clothes beneath. "I can't just send every trainer who comes to me off with a new turtwig, chimchar or piplup, can I? I haven't got the resources, nor can I hatch so many eggs every day. And before you ask, no you cannot have a Pokédex. I only had three, and I gave them to three other trainers. This is not a factory, it's a laboratory."
"Professor Rowan, please," the girl beseeched, letting the hand just brushed aside fall to her side. "I need this pokémon. My mother's very sick and if I—"
"Your mother's perfectly healthy; I talked to her this morning on the phone before you flew in," Professor Rowan interrupted, moving his left leg to turn around and head back into the laboratory behind him. "I'm very sorry, young lady, but I can't help you. You'll have to catch something else. The north route had a varie—"
"The north route has starly, bidoof and shinx. I don't want one of them. I want a pip..."
"As I said, I can't help you." His gruff voice came over the top of the girl's once again.
"...lup," she finished, folding her arms and pivoting. "Fine. You know what? I'm going to write a letter. Yes, you heard me. I'll write a letter to the Bureau of Pokémon Research and they will fire you."
"Oh, please," the professor half-grunted, half-chuckled, heading back into the lab. "That Arielle Leroy... so impatient."
"... what does "bureau" mean, anyway?" the girl growled as she skirted through the sand-littered streets of Sandgem Town back towards home, thin ponytail the shade of a bonsly bouncing behind her. She just wanted her piplup, why did the old man have to be so mean? Slowing down, she pulled her arms up before her in imitation of someone big and masculine and bopped from left to right as she said in a mock Professor Rowan voice, "'I can't just give every trainer a pokémon, can I?' Please, I'm no ordinary trainer. I'm Arielle Leroy! The most beautiful, talented and powerful trainer-to-be in all of Sinnoh! Surely he could see that!"
"Floaroma?" the Staraptor Man assumed as he counted the money she had just handed him. He had a kind of stout figure that annoyed her. She didn't really know why.
"Yeah," Arielle said sulkily back. "Can you make them go faster, though? I don't want to be in the air for any longer than an hour."
"No can do, missy, my staraptor aren't trained for speed, but for strength. You'll have to deal with it."
Okay, it was one thing to tell the future most powerful and beautiful and talented trainer in Sinnoh that she had to deal with a slow staraptor, but calling her fat like that. "My staraptor aren't trained for speed, but for strength" – just who did this guy think he was?! Even more cheesed off, the girl scrambled into a basket, fumes practically blasting from her ears. She remained this way for the rest of the way home. A whole hour and a half away. An aeroplane would have been faster.
And when she fell out of the basket at the Floaroma Staraptor Man's feet, her mood could only worsen. The sweet aroma of home wasn't even enough to calm her. She needed the comfort of a baths and some cookies and a long session of her father's pokémon contest tapes. It was either that or she got a piplup as soon as she walked through her front door.
Instead of a piplup, though, she got a farewell party.
There were about twenty people of varying ages squashed in a small, flower-decorated living room, every one of them grinning under a pink banner with blue script saying, CONGRADUALTIONS ARI!
Arielle felt her reaction was quite calm for her. She took in a nice, big breath and then yelled for half an hour about how insanely pathetic Professor Rowan was and how her mother didn't warn her about there being no pokémon left and how the stupid Staraptor Man wouldn't make his stupid birds fly faster. With that all said, she stormed through the corridor and into her room, followed by her mother who sat beside her as she buried her face in her pillow.
"Ari, honey, just because you can't have a piplup, doesn't mean it's the end of the world," she said quietly, yet just over the muffled sobs and groans her daughter occasionally let out. "Please stop crying. I-I'll get your father to catch you a better pokémon. A-a buizel or somethi—"
"But I don't want a buizel, they're too big and-and annoying and mean," Arielle cried into her pillow, squirming like a wurmple on its back. "I want a piplup! P-I-P-L-A-P."
"Your father will go out and catch you a pokémon in the morning, I promise. And if he can't, we'll have to buy you one."
"A good one."
"Y-yes honey. A good one."
---
The 'good one' was a combee.
Arielle stared at it with the most unimpressed of all looks ever to exist and it stared back, all chipper and happy, ready to start a journey with its new trainer. The girl really had no problem with not returning the little bug's feelings.
"No thanks. Get me another one."
"Arielle!" her father almost yelled in outrage.
"Your father put a lot of work into catching you a pokémon, young lady," said her mother in the same tone, pointing her finger out at the ten-year-old's face, "so accept it now and go pack your bags."
They could see the anger flare up in their daughters' eyes. Reckless anger. Worry immediately enveloped them and as Arielle left the room with the little bug buzzing along behind her. Arielle's mother turned to her husband.
"Bill, I don't think I can let her go," she murmured, letting her pointed finger fall. "I-I mean... she's our daughter... and she's only ten. She can't go out there... it's too dangerous. What if something happens to her?"
Her parents' voices faded as she shut the door to her room behind her, locking the combee out. At least she was able to go on that journey now. She had to admit that was a plus. But with a combee. Combee were probably the worst pokémon to catch ever. They were so weak, like all bug-types, and so they were stupid. Ari might have been happier with a drifloon from near the wind works... even though they only appeared on Fridays, and today was a Sunday. And so, as she packed her winter clothes and her trainer's stuff, Ari couldn't help but mutter things like "stupid, weak combee" and "I wanted a piplup". At least she did until there was a sudden bang and a blast of wind knocking her onto her bed.
She flicked herself around defiantly as the wind ceased to see the little yellow, winged pokémon buzzing there, looking as chipper as ever. Ari's return look wasn't chipper at all. She pouted and brushed it out of the way, moving back over to her bag, zipping it up and swinging it over onto her back. The combee buzzed behind her as she headed back down the hallway, ending up in the kitchen with her parents.
"I'm set," she said blankly, not afraid to show that she still wasn't impressed with the idea of a combee as a starter. That and the fact that she had now completely given up on becoming the most beautiful, talented and strong pokémon master of all time. "Um, do you have any spare pokéballs? Trainers need more than one pokémon, you know."
"Got that covered," her father said with a smile, holding up his wallet. "I'll buy you some when we leave town."
"Wait – we?" Ari almost yelled. "You say that like you're coming with me..."
"Um, listen, Ari..." her mother began with a mixed look of apologies and worry.
"What the hell!"
Ari's father held up a hand to silence her. That always worked for some reason. It frustrated her. Her mother continued.
"Mind your language. Your father and I feel it's not safe," she said with the same apologetic-anxious look. "I would have trusted Professor Rowan's pokémon to take you around Sinnoh; they were bred for that. Combee, however, hardly make a great pokémon for travel. So your father is going with you."
"But—"
"It's not forever, just until we can trust your pokémon to take care of you," Ari's father said, trying to compromise.
"But, daddy!" Ari protested. There was no way she was going through with this. She slowed her breathing, and took hold of the combee which was conveniently buzzing next to her, all happy and stuff. "I believe this combee can do it!" She didn't really; she just didn't want to be the laughing stock of the entire trainer community. "If I can't get to the next town safely, I'll le—"
"Eterna City's a very long trek from here." Fathers were so frustrating. "Not many trainers even make it there with one of Professor Rowan's starters, let alone a freshly-caught wild pokémon. Hell, few can even make it to Eterna Forest!"
"Why not go south to Jubilife?"
"What's down there? The closest gym after that is the Oreburgh Gym, and do you really want to put a partflying-type up against Roark's rock-types?"
Damn him and his logic.
"Well... I don't care. I'm going by myself anyway, and that's final."
An hour later, Arielle stalked behind her father as he waved to his wife and the ever-happy combee zipped in circles around them.
---
Author's Note: For those reading The Child Is Light, I'm thinking of discontinuing it. If anyone wants to keep it going, don't be afraid to message me and ask. As for this, the idea had been forming in my head for a long time – even before The Child Is Light was even there, but I never made anything of it. Hope you enjoy.