'Sup. This is the first chapter of a fic I have been working FOREVER on. I really hope you enjoy it; I've been tweaking it a bit before I posted it and I have deemed it fit for the public eye. I will probably update weekly for a little bit, before I get back to actually writing it.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokèmon.
I loved this time of year.
Many of the people who lived in New Bark Town hated it, because it meant that snow was on its way, but I loved the fall. The world was quiet, preparing itself for the slumber of winter.
It was the month of October, should I recall correctly. The air was cold and crisp, and the people bustled around the town, chopping firewood or doing other miscellaneous tasks.
Me? I wasn't doing any of that.
As always, I thought today would be like any other. I stared out of my window, watching the horizon. The pale blue morning sky I had woken up to had transformed into a murky gray blanket of rain clouds. Ugh.
My mother calling me from downstairs startled me from my reverie.
"Lyra, dear, could you come here for a moment?"
As I arrived downstairs, I saw my mother hang up the phone, a puzzled look on her face. "Oh, Lyra, there you are! That was Professor Elm on the phone. He said he wanted to see you over at his lab as soon as possible."
"Did he say what he wanted?" I asked. My mother shook her head. "He just said he wanted to see you."
I sighed. I was used to doing errands for Elm (going to Cherrygrove to do his grocery shopping comes to mind). As I figured, this would be just as boring.
I nodded at my mother, grabbing my bag and heading out the door. A frigid wind whipped my hair around my face, a blanket of brown hair covering my eyes. I pulled the hood of my coat up, pulled my hair back, and set off.
Elm's lab was about a ten-minute walk from my house. The rain had set in, so as to avoid getting completely soaked, I ran to the lab instead of my usual strolling pace. Had I not been running, I probably would have seen the red-haired stranger peering through the window of the lab.
I retreated from the rain as fast as I could into the warmth of lab. Elm was sitting at his desk at the far end of the room, whilst his aides rushed about doing this or that. I flipped of the hood of my jacket back, and walked back to his desk. I noticed that the machine in the corner of the room, which was normally empty, had three pristine pokéballs in it.
"Oh, Lyra! I wasn't expecting you here so soon. I'm sorry; the lab is kind of a mess." He said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly as we glanced at the papers strewn about everywhere.
"Its fine, Professor. What did you call me in for today?" I inquired.
"Oh! Thank you for reminding me. You see, I'm going to a conference on Pokémon life cycles here in a week or so. Mr. Pokémon, a fellow researcher, told me he would be unable to attend, but wanted me to take his research with me to the conference."
"Okay, why do you need me?" I interrupted.
"Well, I'm incredibly busy here at the lab, making sure everything is taken care of for my departure. That's why I need you. I wanted you to go his house and get whatever research he has, and bring it back here."
This improved my mood a bit. It would only be for a little while, but it would be a delightful change of pace. Elm must have seen the thoughtful look on my face, for he quickly piped up with another offer.
"I know you go to Cherrygrove a lot, but I know this is the first time you've been any farther than that. Things are dangerous out there, so I want you to take one of these Pokémon with you.
They're very young, so I think it would be good for the both of you, whichever one you decide to take."
I grinned. This was making a sweet deal even sweeter. But, which one would I pick?
"Can I look at them, Professor?"
"Of course you can!" He walked over to the machine, and pushed a small, blue button on the top. At once, two little forms had appeared on the floor of the lab, yawing and stretching. One of them looked somewhat like a small, green dinosaur, with a large, bright green leaf atop its head. It was a Chikorita. One looked like a small mouse, with blue spots on its back and wafts of smoke coming from its nose. Cyndaquil. These two were both just walking around, observing their surroundings, and me.
Wait. Where was the third one?
"I saw a third pokéball, Elm. Where's the last one?" I asked. Elm sighed at my request. "The last one is….a bit destructive." He gestured to the side of his desk, hidden behind another machine ever so slightly. It looked like someone tried to throw his desk into a wood chipper.
"A baby Pokémon did that?" I was surprised. With how calm these two were, it seemed unlikely that a baby could have almost eaten his desk in half. "Can't I see him?"
Elm shook his head dejectedly. He handed me the last pokéball, and told me to take him out of the lab. So I did. The rain had not let up since I went inside; I stood under the eaves of the lab, and released the last Pokémon. It was a small, blue alligator, a Pokémon I recognized as Totodile. He stared at me quizzically, before looking up at the sky and producing a happy, squawking noise.
Obviously, he liked the rain.
Distracted, I didn't realize that he had torn a hole in my shoe before he already done it. Suddenly, Elm was beside me, with an 'I told you so' look on his smug face. "You're lucky he didn't eat your whole shoe, Lyra." I glared at him, grabbing the Totodile and hoisting him up to eye level. Elm looked at me, astonished. "Lyra, did you know you're the first person he hasn't tried to attack since we got him?" I looked at the little blob of blue in my arms, who was chewing on a piece of my shoe. I laughed. I kinda liked the little guy. "Why don't you give him a name?" I grinned, looking up at the raindrops dripping off the eaves.
"His name is Rain." Obviously, I had the most creative sense of nicknaming.
Elm chuckled. "Excellent. You should probably go and tell your mother before you leave." I nodded. Wouldn't want mother getting worried, now would we?
I hurried back home, dashing through the raindrops, my new friend happily running besides me.
Well, at least someone was enjoying this.
As I arrived back home, I immediately realized that my mother was not there. All the lights were off, and a small note was taped to door. I said something akin to that she was going to town; don't forget your pokégear, be home for dinner, blah blah blah. Well, I guess this meant that I could head straight to Cherrygrove.
I slipped my pokégear onto my wrist, and ran to the outskirts of town. Elm stopped me momentarily as I ran by his lab to give me his number. One thing I noticed, in the wild that is known as Route 29, is that Pokémon will stop and take time out of their short lives to fight. I thought that maybe it had something to do with the fact that I had a Pokémon now, but, who knows?
The road to Cherrygrove City was a short one. The route smelled of freshly cut grass, and Rain's skills at fighting had improved a little bit. While he was much more adept at simply scratching foes into submission, he seemed to enjoy squirting enemies in the face with Water Gun.
My arrival in Cherrygrove was a bit more abnormal than usual. An older gentleman was standing at the gates, smoking a cigarette, while I walked past. He seemed to notice the fact that my shoe had a gaping hole in it, and held out his arm to keep me from walking past. I glanced at him quizzically, before he looked at me with a smirk on his face.
"Hello there, Miss. What's a young lady like you doing running around with shoes like that?" He said, dropping his cigarette and stepping on it. We both stepped underneath the archway at the entrance to town. It wasn't really like I could get a whole lot more wet.
I looked down at my shoes. While I had known that my shoe had a hole in it, I didn't know that they looked this bad. The shoe that Rain tore apart had the soles coming out of it, and my sock was absolutely filthy, along with the rest of the shoe, probably from running in the rain. My other shoe was equally filthy, but at least my sock was relatively clean.
"My Totodile tore a hole in it, and I was running in the rain." I murmured. The man laughed jovially. "Well, miss, you're in luck!" He said, reaching into the pocket of his coat and pulling out a business card. I took it, glancing over it quickly. Apparently, this guy's name was Gent, and he worked guiding newcomers, like tourists, through the city. Why anyone would want to tour through Cherrygrove, I'll never know. It was kind of a boring city.
"But, not only am I a tour guide, I am also a shoe salesman! And do I have a great deal for you! You see, if you pay for a single tour through Cherrygrove, I will give you a free pair of shoes." He said. To me, it sounded a bit like extortion, but I really needed a new pair of shoes.
"How much does a tour cost?" I inquired. "A mere 50э!" He said. Well, I had didn't have much more than fifty dollars, but it was well worth it if I could avoid the wrath of my mother if she found out about my ruined shoes.
"I'll pay it."
My tour through Cherrygrove was kind of interesting. He showed me some old buildings in the more industrial area of town. We walked by the ocean near the west side; Rain enjoyed playing in the waves.
At the end of my tour, he gave me my shiny new running shoes, like he said he would. If felt nice to put them on, after running around with a hole in my shoe for more than three hours. He also gave me a map card for my pokégear, saying that I would probably need it if I was going out past Cherrygrove. He was probably right.
The forest north of Cherrygrove wasn't much different than the forest I was used to walking through. But it felt different. Maybe it was the feeling of adventure, of seeing things I hadn't seen before. On my way to Mr. Pokémon's house, a man stopped me as I was running by to give me an apricorn box. He said it was because I thought his house was so pretty. I looked like any other house to me.
Before I knew it, I was at Mr. Pokémon's house. Almost immediately, I knew something was wrong. None of the lights were on, and unlike my house, there was no note lovingly taped to the door. I carefully knocked. Was he asleep? Was he not at home? A million different thoughts rushed through my head as the door opened slowly after the first knock.
The inside of his house was even worse than it looked from the outside. There was a fine layer of dust over everything, as if no one had lived there for quite a while. I tried to flip on a light of some form, but none of the lights were working. There were shards of glass scattered everywhere on the floor. I was suddenly very, very glad that I had spent the time to get new shoes. I returned Rain to his pokéball, as I didn't want him getting cut.
A small amount of light was peeking out from underneath a door in the very back of the house. Stepping over shards of glass, I went over to investigate. The door, thankfully, was unlocked. This room, unlike the others, was completely spotless and dust-free. Papers were very neatly organized on the desk, along with some sort of small red device. I recognized this device immediately as a pokèdex, a device used to identify the species, gender, ability, and natures of pokèmon. A sheet of paper was underneath it. One of Mr. Pokémon's research papers? I glanced over it.
For all my years of research, I have never found something quite so extraordinary. As we have known, unrestrained Pokèmon battles often result in serious injury to the pokèmon, or even death. But, I have found a - The paper was torn here, diagonally cutting off the notes.
I pushed the phone button on my pokégear. Elm was calling.
"What it is, Elm?"
"Oh, Lyra! It's terrible! Just terrible! Someone...get back here as soon as possible, Lyra!" He hung up on me.
I grabbed the pokèdex, the slip of paper, and ran out the door, only to trip on a box left on the front step. The box was tiny, small enough to fit in my bag, and labeled Goldenrod Daycare Service! Handle with care! I grabbed that too, as I was eager to get away from this house.
Rate, review, etc. Hope you liked it. I also apologize for any formatting or spelling errors.