Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.
Note: This is a story based on my OC from my Nuzlocke run of the hack of Polished Crystal version. The Pokemon that will appear in this are Pokemon from that run, though it gets off on a much different start than the game does. Obviously.
FIC START!
Part One
Although she had been sent to bed for the night, Lucia could not fall asleep. She pulled her blanket up towards her chin as she heard the storm raging outside her window. The droplets splashed against the glass, some even seeping in through the cracks of her windowsill. She rolled over, turning away from the window, but the thunder crackled and lightning flashed enough to light up her entire room for a few seconds. Her walls were mostly barren, save for a calendar that hung by a rusted nail. It only reminded her of what was supposed to be coming up soon. She wanted to sleep as tomorrow was such a big day, but with the storm outside, it wasn't exactly easy. She sat up, pushing her blanket off to the side, walking slowly to her door. As she put her hand upon the brass doorknob, voices on the other side yelled so loudly they made her jump even more than the thunder that boomed above their house.
"The boss says to deliver the egg tomorrow. They'll reward us based on whatever's inside it."
"We staked out the Day Care outside Goldenrod for days to get this egg! It better be enough to at least get us a promotion past being a damn grunt!"
"You really want to be involved with the Rockets after all this?"
"It's the best way to make money around here. With you being a part of the Dragon Clan, you have access to some of the rarest Pokemon in all of Johto... we could be making money by the truckload if you just snatch us a good few Dratini eggs from the den."
Lucia shuddered as she overheard the conversation.
"I can't say I'd refuse the money, but..."
"You're concerned about Lucia."
"Well..."
"Don't worry about her. Eventually, she won't be our problem anymore. On a kid's tenth birthday, they all leave to go be Pokemon trainers, and Lucia's is coming up very soon. We ship her off to New Bark, and there you go. She's gone. No more morality pet for us."
Lucia felt tears form in her eyes. She sniffled a few times, shaking her head in disbelief. Were those really her parents? Is... is that what they thought of her?!
"But she will be a part of the Dragon Clan, same as you. She might even be able to get a free egg from the Den."
"You would steal your own daughter's own birthright!"
"Hey, I can't argue with the money they're offering for Dragon Eggs. Turns out all those gambling bigshots want to win Dragons, and they'll spend more money on that than the drugs we were peddling in Kanto three years ago."
'No...' Lucia thought as she headed over to her drawers to pull out clothes. 'If I'm not wanted, then I don't want to be here anymore!' She pulled out a pair of pants and a shirt, snatched her one jacket from the closet, and changed from her pajamas into them. Then she reached for her backpack that she had worn to school every day since she started it. The bag was old and frayed in many places. Lucia grabbed a few of her things, her Spoink-bank full of coins, and whatever else she thought might be important.
When she couldn't hear the loud voices outside her room, she opened the door just a little. She began to tiptoe slowly through the hallway. She still couldn't hear any voices. She turned to the kitchen and saw that her parents were outside talking to someone else wearing all black with a huge 'R' in the center of their shirts. She turned just a little, seeing the egg wrapped in a blanket on the counter. That must have been the egg they mentioned earlier. The egg they were going to sell to their boss. Whoever he was. The egg was cute, with a pattern that almost looked like stars all over it. Lucia had seen eggs within the Dragon's Den before, when they had a family ritual years a while back, and those eggs didn't look anything like this one. Without even thinking about it, she snatched the egg and put it in her backpack, and took off for the back door as fast as she could manage.
As she ran, she could feel the rain as cold as ice through every piece of clothing she wore. She bolted into the mountain crags behind her house, and when no one was looking, she snuck off through to a line of trees that led to a route out of town. If they ever found her after she pulled this kind of stunt, she'd never be able to sit again. The bruises on her legs now would be nothing compared to the ones she'd be getting. Lucia ran as fast and as far as she can, sticking to places where she couldn't be seen. Her hot tears streamed down her cheeks, unable to comfort her. This was the coldest she'd ever been in her life, even though she lived in one of the northern-most towns in Johto. At least she felt safe when she was carried through the Ice Cave. The comfort of safety was enough to make her not feel as if every bit of heat from her body had been sapped from her, not like this rain did now...
She had no idea how far she'd managed to get before she fell into a pile of mud face first. For a few moments, she didn't want to get up, but she noticed there was a dry place nearby under a few trees. Lucia made sure that no human could see her from here before she decided to sit there. She pulled everything out of her backpack and took inventory, though most of it was all wet, including the blanket that was wrapped around the precious egg. She wanted to dry it off, try to warm it up. Lucia knew that eggs needed to be warm. How could she keep it warm? What could she do?! She held it, and then she started to cry again when she hugged around it.
"Can you believe it, egg?" she asked. "My own parents wanted to ship me off to New Bark so I could become a Pokemon trainer... so I wouldn't be their problem anymore.." She hugged the egg to her, hoping she could give it some warmth that way. "It's wrong to run away, but... clearly I'm not wanted..."
She sniffled loudly, noticing that a few furry Pokemon had come up to her very slowly. Lucia was shivering.
"Huh?" she cocked her head to the side. A sentret crawled up to her, ruffling its fur up against her. It was dry and extremely warm. "You don't want to get wet," she said. "And if they find me, all those Rocket people will take you... to do who knows what..." All she knew about the Rockets was what she overheard. These people were mean, stealing eggs from the Day Care and the Dragon's Den, selling newborn rare Pokemon to rich people for tons of money or using them as a force of violence against whoever they didn't like. She wouldn't want these cute, kind critters to be taken advantage of or stolen from their homes. But a few more of them came and snuggled up to her. Slowly, she could feel the warmth gather within her. Even if she was wet, her insides weren't super cold anymore. "Thank you... all of you... Do you think you can help me keep this egg warm? I... I don't want the Pokemon inside it to die." They wrapped those huge fluffy black and brown tails around the egg, too. "You're all lifesavers..." she whispered, yawning.
Lucia fell back onto the dry patch of grass, letting the sentrets cuddle up to and on her and the egg she clutched to her for dear life. She yawned, unable to stay awake any longer.
...in the morning...
Sunlight fell between the brances of the trees, landing on her face bright enough to wake Lucia up. She sat up. All the sentrets had left her, which was fine. At least now she was mostly dry except for her coat and her hair. Only thing that was missing was the egg! The first thing she thought of was perhaps she had been found by other people, and they stole the egg but left her there! That wouldn't surprise her if that was the case. Seemed like something the Rockets would do. She looked around, worried. "Eggy?" she asked, knowing it was only an egg and couldn't talk back. "Eggy!" she called out. "Where are you, eggy?!"
The sentrets that had warmed her up last night came back, One of them pointed over at a nest they had made out of twigs and leaves, holding the egg.
"Eggy!" Lucia exclaimed, smiling. "Thank you! All of you!" She kneeled down next to the egg, giving a gentle pet to every single sentret that had gathered around. "You've done so much for me and for eggy. I wonder... what could I do for you guys in exchange?"
The sentret closest to her pointed at a tree different from all the other trees nearby. In the branches swayed many a berry, ripe for the picking.
"You want some berries? But can't you climb trees?"
"Sen, sen, tret. Tret sen!" it replied.
"Is it a tree that you can't climb?" she asked.
The sentret nodded.
"I'll see what I can do, too, then," Lucia said, standing up to check out the tree. It was covered in all sorts of thorns all the way up the trunk, so there was no way she'd be able to climb it to get the berries for the sentrets. "Don't worry," she said, nodding. "I'll figure out how to do this..." She picked up a stick that looked like a fork towards the end of it, trying to use that to shake the branches hard enough to get the berries to fall. Eventually, there were berries falling, and all of the sentrets were happy! They called out more sentrets from the forest, and the more berries Lucia knocked down for them, the happier they all became. "...well then! Maybe that's the whole reason you saved me at all..." she said, almost laughing at that. She sat back down next to the egg and just stared at it.
Soon, she heard voices in the distance, and not Pokemon voices, either. She gasped, snatching up the egg and her backpack, rushing to hide deeper within the trees. All the sentrets abandoned their berries to hide from the humans, too. No one knew if it could be friend or foe.
"Children can be overstimulated by the idea of going on their journeys once they hit ten," a woman's voice said. Lucia was relieved that it was not the voice of her mother. From what she could see, the woman was not wearing clothes of the Dragon Clan or the uniform of the Rockets. "Perhaps the girl just ran off on her own because she was just super excited about it."
"No... the authorities in Blackthorn say that the family she ran from are... troubled, to say the least," came a man's voice. "Clearly, she was running away from them, not to get a head start on her Pokemon journey," Lucia looked at the man. He wore glasses on the tip of his nose. "The leader of the Dragon Clan called me to tell me that she was running in the direction towards New Bark since I was supposed to meet her today anyway..." He sighed. "Poor girl could be starving and or hurt out here."
"Professor," the woman said. "Look... someone's been here..."
The professor looked around before calling out, "Lucia? Are you here? I know you're scared... I'm Elm from New Bark Town. You don't want to go back home. I know that. You can come to New Bark and get your Pokemon License with me."
Lucia stepped out from the brush, clutching the egg to her chest.
"...you're Lucia?" Elm asked.
She nodded.
"Come with me," Elm extended his hand to her. "According to what I've read about you, today, you're ten years old. That means, you can be a Pokemon trainer and you don't have to go home."
Lucia took a step towards him again but one of the Sentrets walked with her. "No," she said down to it. "You stay here with your friends, okay?" But it didn't want to stay. It smiled up at her and wrapped around her feet with its huge bushy tail. "Please stay here. I don't want you to get stolen and used by the Rockets."
"...Rockets?" Elm's aide asked, confused. "Were they not disbanded three years ago?"
"I've heard disturbing rumors," Elm said. He didn't want to say it aloud in front of a child, but honestly, its possible she could confirm all of his worst fears regarding that evil organization known as Team Rocket. If that was the reason she ran, he didn't blame her. "But..." he turned back to Lucia. "You know if that Sentret likes you, then you could keep it."
"But since I don't have my license, I can't catch Pokemon."
"Well, if it wants to come along, we can keep it until your license is ready and you'll be able to catch it," the aide said with a smile. "So, Sentret, what do you say? You want to stay with Lucia?"
The Sentret nodded and rubbed up against Lucia's legs again.
"That settles that. So come along."
"But... you don't get it..."
"What is it that I don't get?"
She bit her lip before continuing. "My parents. They said that they could easily steal my Pokemon if I ever got a rare one!"
"...as long as you have a Pokemon registered to a pokeball that is linked to your account within the system, your Pokemon cannot be stolen. They would have to get the ball to be able to do anything with it. As long as you hold its ball, the Pokemon is forever yours," Elm explained kindly. "So you have nothing to fear about that."
"Are you sure...?"
"I'm absolutely positive. Please, Lucia. Being out here without resources or Pokemon is dangerous. And... I fear for what would happen to you if the Rockets ever found you again..." He could see the bruises on her legs. They were not kind to children or Pokemon, it seemed.
Lucia put her hand in Elm's, believing she could trust him. "Then..." she said quietly, "...I will go with you."