I awoke to the incessant screeching of my alarm clock. This was the fourth time I had hit snooze as opposed to turning it off and getting out of bed, and the alarm was starting to get on my nerves. I had been having the most wonderful dream about... Well, that doesn't really matter, does it? No really, it has no bearing on the subject at hand. Let's move on.

Reluctantly, I managed to drag myself out of my nice warm bed. As soon as my feet hit the cold hard wood floors, I considered exacting some form of violent revenge against the alarm clock. It took all of my groggy willpower, but I refrained. I can't really afford to keep replacing those things. Anyway, the sun wasn't up yet, so I had plenty of time to make coffee before heading over to the lab where I work as the professor's aide.

Waking up before dawn is a rare occurrence for me, and I decided to celebrate it by using the expensive coffee I had gotten for my birthday. It was imported from Hoenn, and tastes like sunshine and distilled joy. Also, coffee, but mostly the joy thing. It is a bit more extravagant than the coffee I normally drink, so I normally only make it on really special occasions.

While I waited for my distilled joy to brew, I perused some files Terry had given me. Apparently he wanted to test whether magmar really did have an average body temperature of over two thousand degrees. I was certain that it was an old wives tale, as such a temperature would be more than enough to cause anyone standing next to the magmar to burst into flames. I used to live on Cinnabar Island, and have seen a magmar or two in my time. Not once did I end up bursting into flame, nor have I seen anyone spontaneously catch fire around a magmar. I.E. the body temperature of a magmar cannot be nearly as high as people claim, but Terry wanted to test it out anyway. Really, I think he just bored. We hadn't gotten much in the way of research material in a while.

Or rather, when the Professor outsourced his pokédex project by putting it in the hands of his grandson and grandson's friend, it left us lab aides with little to do aside from cataloging and fact-checking.

I poured my coffee into a to-go cup and made my way to the lab. It was a particularly cold morning for the late spring. I suppose it wasn't unusual. It had been raining on and off for a couple days now. Last night had brought us a storm. The weatherman said that tonight would be the last rain for a while. I hoped that was true.

At any rate, the lab was much warmer. It was days like this that I truly appreciated the professor's need to heat the lab a bit more than I would consider strictly necessary. As I set my coffee down on my desk the professor came over to greet me.

"Hello, Leaf." he said brightly.

"Oh. Good morning, professor." I replied.

"Before you get started, I have a small errand I would like you to run for me."

"What sort of errand?"

"There is a package waiting for me at the post office in Viridian City. Could you go pick it up for me?"

"Uh... yeah. I think I can handle that."

That was not a small errand, and he knew it. Viridian was an hour's walk from here through wild rattata and pidgey territory. I didn't even have a pokémon of my own to defend myself from wild pokémon attacks.

"I'll get the repels." I sighed. I hate repels, for much the same reason wild pokémon hate them. They smell like battery acid and pain.

"Oh, there won't be any need for that."

I paused. What was that supposed to mean? Surely he didn't intend for me to go without the repels. I had seen what a rattata could do to someone. That would be suicide, and he knew it.

The professor was beaming at me, and much to my irritation I couldn't tell what he was thinking. I put on my mot diplomatic smile before proceeding.

"I'm sorry?" I asked.

"You see, I've been thinking. You've been working for me for a while now, haven't you?"

"'Bout two years now."

"Remember those pokémon I gave to Red and my grandson?"

"Sure I do."

"Well, there were three of them in the shipment that came, weren't there?"

"Just where are you going with this, Professor?"

"How would you like a partner?"

"I... what?"

"A pokémon partner. Would you like one?"

"What... like..."

Oak smiled kindly at me.

"Exactly like."

"Just like that?"

"Well, if you would prefer not to, I could always ask Terry. I just thought it would help in your research."

"No. No, it isn't like that at all." I stammered, "What I mean to say is I'd love a partner."

"Wonderful. I'm sure the two of you will get along just fine." the professor said as he placed the pokéball on my desk. I took it in my hands. It was somehow lighter than I was expecting. I know that pokéballs were specifically designed to be portable, but this one just felt so fragile.

I released the pokémon from it's ball, and found that I was not incredibly impressed by what came out. A small, squat little thing with a large bulb protruding from it's back. I've been studying pokémon long enough to identify it. A bulbasaur, a fine pokémon for a beginner. Their loyalty to their trainers is legendary, and I'm given to understand they're fairly easy to raise. I had never met one personally before, but I've heard how friendly they can be. This one didn't look so friendly. In fact, more than anything it just looked confused. It stared at me with the most puzzled look I have ever seen on anybody, pokémon or otherwise.

The silence was palatable. I stared at the bulbasaur, and the bulbasaur stared back at me. I turned to stare at the professor, who in turn stared at the bulbasaur. There was just a whole lot of staring going on.

"Would you like to give her a name?" the professor said. Possibly in a desperate attempt to break the silence.

"How can you tell?" I asked.

"What?"

"That it's a her, I mean. I'm not wholly unfamiliar with bulbasaur physiology. I just don't think there are any obvious markings differentiating between genders. You know, like unfeazant or doduo." I explained simply, "So, I was just wondering how you could tell." the professor coughed awkwardly.

"I'm a pokémon researcher. It's my job to know those things."

"Oh." I said suppressing my own awkward cough, "So, a girl bulbasaur."

"Did you want to give her a name? She just came in the other day, and I haven't had the chance to give her one."

"Sure, I guess." I thought deeply about what sort of name I should give the bulbasaur. I was probably going to be working together with him often, either through studying her or traveling with her. I wanted to make sure it was a good one.

"How about..." I stretched the word as I tried to think of something to call the damned bulbasaur. "Riley."

"That's a wonderful name." the professor said brightly. I smiled. It wasn't every day the professor praised me. Actually, yes it was. He is remarkably easy to please. But this time was special. I wasn't being praised for knowing how the alphabet works, or remembering to wash the beakers after I was done with them. So, I counted this one as a win.

"Come along, Riley. We've got work to do."

Riley and I walked together to the outskirts of town. It was already warming up, for which I was grateful. Making the trek to Viridian in the cold and the rain would have made the trip even more unpleasant.

I paused at the entrance of Route 1. Riley glanced up at me, seemingly annoyed by the delay.

"Haaah. Okay. We can do this." I breathed. I had made the trip many times before. Of course, all of those times had been under the noxious protection of repels or I was tagging along with an actual trainer. I guess I was an actual trainer now too. Despite the fact that I had only met Riley fifteen minutes previous, and had never gotten into a battle before.

I had seen people battle, it didn't seem too hard.

"Right! No sense hanging around here, is there?" I said more to myself than Riley, "Let's do this."

I took my first step onto Route 1. The rest of the steps followed pretty quickly. Riley and I walked for fifteen minutes in silence. I breathed a sigh of relief. This wasn't hard at all. I was just beginning to wonder what I had been so nervous about when it happened.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a flash of purple. I turned to see what was going on. A rattata, it looked like a particularly large one, was gnawing on something small and red. It took me a moment to realize what it was. A baby pidgey, so young that it's dark brown feathers hadn't grown in yet. I knew this was the way of things in the wild, but I couldn't just sit by and do nothing.

"Riley!" I called. She charged the rattata, and knocked it back. The rattata dropped it's lunch and turned on us. It's maw was soaked in blood. I noticed feathers and bones strewn about. Apparently it had a rather large breakfast.

"Keep at it!" I commanded, and Riley obliged. She slammed into the rattata again. It tried to fend her off by swinging it's tail at her, but Riley charged through once more. I guess the rattata decided that a half-eaten pidgey wasn't worth all this trouble, because it took off into the grass.

"Alright. That's enough." I called to Riley as she made to pursue it. She snorted an irritated response, and checked the baby pidgey. She seemed pleased. I guess we had managed to get there in time to save it.

Just as I was congratulating myself, I heard a furious shriek and then the frantic flapping of wings. As if on instinct I called out to Riley.

"Move!" Riley had dodged out of the way of a really pissed off pidgeotto. She tried to tackle it as it was retreating into the sky, but it was already too late. She simply couldn't jump high enough to get to it. That was when I realized that I hadn't exactly thought my cunning plan all the way through. Riley couldn't defeat an opponent that she couldn't hit.

"You alright?" I asked as I looked for obvious injuries. Riley seemed angry, but otherwise fine. I glanced up to see the pidgeotto gearing up for another dive. "Good. Come on!"

We knew we couldn't defeat the pidgeotto, so we ran. As far as I'm concerned, running and living is a perfectly acceptable alternative to dying in a hopeless battle.

The sudden attack had gotten me all turned around, and I didn't have time to get my bearing straight before we took off. I didn't know where we were running, I was just hoping that we could put enough distance between ourselves and the pidgeotto that it would lose interest in us.

That... didn't happen. Instead, my foot caught on a stray root, and I ended up sprawled out in the mud. I rolled over just in time to see the pidgeotto diving straight for me. I would really like to say that I was waiting for the right time to strike, but in all honesty I had just frozen up.

Just before the pidgeotto hit me a flash of red crossed my vision. I blinked. Somehow the fact that I was not pidgeotto food wasn't quite sinking in. I stared at the pokémon that had saved me. A bright red lizard, that my brain slowly worked out was a charmander. It's attack had damaged the wing of the pidgeotto. Riley jumped into the fray. The two of them made quick work of the pidgeotto. When the battle was finished Riley trotted over to me. I was relieved to see that she was fine.

"Are you alright?" somebody asked me.

"What?" I asked looking at him. He seemed to be about my age, with shoulder-length black hair and a gentle smile. He offered me a hand, which I took.

"Yeah. I'm fine." I said, "Just a little turned around. Which way do I go to get to Viridian?"

"Actually, I'm heading that way myself, why don't we walk together?" he suggested.

"Sounds good. I'm Leaf, by the way. This is Riley." I gestured to my bulbasaur.

"That's an unusual name."

"I know."

"Oh sorry. I'm Remy, and that's my partner Ignis." he said sheepishly. Personally, I think that Ignis is a much more unusual name than Leaf, but I opted not to say that out loud.

"Nice to meet you, Remy, Ignis." I said as I tried to wipe some of the mud off my clothes.

"You've got some dirt on your face." he said gesturing to his own. I wiped my face furiously.

"Better?"

"Yep."

"Cool. Shall we get going?" He nodded and started walking. I followed after him. The four of us walked in silence for a while.

"You know, a bulbasaur really isn't the best choice against a flying-type." he said finally.

"No kidding." I laughed, "I wasn't looking for a fight. It just sort of worked out that way."

"How long have you been a trainer?"

"About a half an hour. You?"

"Half an hour, and you're already getting into trouble?"

"Who are you, my mother?"

"Sorry. Sorry. I've only been at this for a week myself."

"So you're new to this as well."

"Yeah. I came out here looking for a new partner. Ignis is great, but a team of one isn't going to cut it if I'm going to take on the League." I nodded. I had never really considered taking on the League myself, but I knew plenty of people who had.

"It's going to be difficult. Are you sure that's what you want?" I asked. He didn't respond to my question one way or the other.

"So, what are you headed to Viridian for?"

"Oh. I'm going to pick up something for the Professor."

"You mean Professor Oak?" he asked with wonder in his voice. I remember the days when I would have sounded the same way. It's difficult to be in awe of someone when you spend every day being annoyed with their filing habits, or more accurately, lack thereof.

"That's the one." I replied.

"Wow. Is he as great as everyone says?"

"He's nice enough." I shrugged, "Brilliant scientist and all that. Of course, his lab is always a mess. I spend all day organizing the files just to have to do it again the next."

"So you work for him."

"I help him around the lab, yeah."

"So you're trying to become a professor yourself someday?" he sounded genuinely impressed.

"That's the plan."

"So, what sort of research do you do?"

"Me? I specialize in attacks and stuff. You know, how they work and why. How they go about learning them... Sorry, I don't mean to bore you."

"You're not boring me. Your research sounds really interesting."

"It is. I spent most of my time researching fire-types on Cinnabar. Now, I guess I'm going to be researching grass-types."

"Is that why you have Riley?"

"You've got that backwards. Because I have Riley I'm researching grass-type moves."

The walk seemed far shorter when I had someone to babble about my research to. Remy listened patiently. I'm not sure if he was actually paying attention, but he nodded and asked questions at all the right times. Before I knew it we had arrived.

We decided to hit the pokémon center before anything else. It was a nice place, if a little too sterile feeling for my tastes. I knew that pokémon centers served many functions aside from just healing pokémon, although that was certainly their most famous function. They also served as cheap hotels and restaurants, and occasionally emergency rooms for trainers as well. They had other functions as well, but those could only be accessed by showing them a trainer card that had been issued by the League. I wasn't taking on the League, so those functions didn't exactly apply to me.

We decided to grab some lunch while we waited for the nurses to give our pokémon a checkup. There was no line at the cafeteria, despite it being lunch time. It struck me as odd. I looked around and realized that there was almost nobody in the center. Viridian was a pretty big place, but it only had the one pokémon center. It seemed unnatural that it would be so empty.

"Hey, why is it so dead in here?" I asked before popping a fry into my mouth. It tasted like cardboard, but I supposed that I got what I paid for.

"Oh, didn't you hear? The Viridian Gym Leader left town for a while, and so the Gym is closed." he said.

"No, I hadn't heard that. Where did he go?"

"Nobody really knows."

"Well, gym leaders are weird." I shrugged. Remy nodded in agreement I remember that Blaine had been the same way, closing his gym without explanation and going off to who-knows-where to do who-knows-what. It was always a real pain because that was the only place I could safely conduct my research back then.

We proceeded to eat in silence. I was fine with that, as I had just about run out of things to say. We finished our meal and went to collect our pokémon. Riley had been given a clean bill of health.

"How was your checkup?" I asked her. She snorted and gave me something that seemed to be an eye-roll. I hadn't realized that bulbasaurs could roll their eyes.

"That's good to hear." I said.

"What, you can talk to pokémon now?" Remy asked.

"Nah, but I think rolling your eyes is pretty universal, isn't it?"

"I guess so."

"How's Ignis?"

"He's great."

"I'm glad. Oh! I never did thank you for saving me back there."

"Don't worry about it."

"In that case, I'm gonna head out. That package isn't going to pick itself up. At least... it shouldn't." I said hesitantly as I turned to leave. One couldn't always be certain about such things when it came to packages the professor ordered.

Remy walked towards the exit with me. I guess it made sense that he wouldn't be sticking around the pokémon center any longer, but it was always awkward to say goodbye to someone before actually parting ways with them.

"Well, it was nice talking to you." I said when we made it out to the street.

"Hold on there." Remy replied reaching for Ignis's pokéball. "Leaf, I challenge you to a battle."

Team Stats:

Riley the Bulbasaur
Level: 7

AN: Hopefully these will become more interesting as time goes on. I'm referring to both the author notes and the team stats. Fun fact: I normally try to keep my team levels at a multiple of five. This level seven business just might give me a tumor. Another fun fact, the majority of this chapter was actually cannibalized from my write up of a past, failed nuzlocke of mine. Leaf was a very different character in that one. I'm not sure if I like her better or worse in this version, to be honest. If anyone is interested, I'll do a little compare and contrast in these author notes.

Frankly, I'm not looking forward to the next chapter. It was a nightmare to write, and I'm sure it's going to be a nightmare to edit. I'll post more about why in my Author Notes next chapter.