Chapter 2- One little lizard, one big day

I opened the door and stepped out of the house into a pleasant gentle breeze. The smell of rain was in the air and there were clouds overhead. It was going to rain later. But not even that could put a damper on my mood. I started the short trek to the professors lab, admiring how comfortable the new sneakers were. Prim definitely had good taste and i was glad for that. On the way to the lab i saw my moms raticate hiding in the bush outside of my house. I kept my distance, as the giant rat hated me and would regularly attack me. I would have no way to defend myself. Well that would change today. As i walked i started to wonder which Pokemon i would choose. Torchic was cute and when it turned into Blaziken it would have incredible attack and speed, if the one at the lab had speed boost then it would be overpowered. Mudkip was weird but cool, and when it finally evolved into Swampert it would also have high attack and decent but not least, there was Treecko. It was cool and fast, especially when it evolved into Sceptile. It would be a blur, with high special attack to boot. Well i couldn't decide there and then, so i looked at the surroundings as i walked. The swarm of Taillow had caught the Masquerain and were devouring the poor creatures remains. I felt sorry for the Masquerain but i also understood that the Taillow had to eat. natures, nature it was survival of the fittest, growlithe eat growlithe as they say. i whistled a little tune through the gap in my teeth and the taillow all turned their heads and returned the tune back to me i had discovered that they would do this when i first moved to hoenn ad was bored on a sunday afternoon sitting in the garden and i had enjoyed it ever since. i waved to mrs heath my old teacher at the trainer school as she made her way into work for another day she smiled and waved back while hurrying along a now very old torkoal that she owned and would allow to sit in the class with the pupils called shelldon.

i walked for 5 more minutes before the lab came into view and as i could see it i started to jog, feeling excited that i was finally going to get my first pokemon my friends back in kanto where i came from all started 2 years ago and now had a major head start on me and i needed to catch up.i was going to get my pokemon the week i moved in but since there was a large number of child deaths they made the legal trainer age 16 witch at the time pissed me off but it made sense.

the lab was a large grey building and it had big windows on either side of the automatic door towards the back it was completely fenced off with a woodland area no doubt a habitat for the professor to look after various pokemon sent to him by trainers over the years.

i walked into the lab into a large room with white walls and various doors leading to different locations there was a woman on reception with long brunette hair and a business suit on. the woman on reception smiled at me and said "hello love, can i help you"

"errm yeah sure i was meant to come here to collect my pokemon and register to be a trainer" i replied awkwardly.

"ahh yes first day training pokemon is it? i remember my journey like it was yesterday,"

"err yeah," still awkward, i've never been able to speak to new people.

"well just fill out these forms and after you've finished we can let you in to see the professor okay love" she replies producing a clipboard from under her desk and handing it to me along with a pen. i take a seat in the reception and sink into the cold leather remarkably comfortable chair and start working on the questions.

Name?

i scribble nial wheatley onto the line underneath

Date of birth?

09/05/1998

i scribble on through the pages of questions quickly in my usual messy handwriting and when i'm finished i hand it back to the receptionist who has started filing her nails she smiles at me and picks up the phone and punches in a few numbers.

"professor we've got nial waiting for you in reception he's filled out his forms and by the looks of it he's ready to go okay thankyou see you in a minute," chirps the receptionist putting the phone down and looking at my forms.

"oh so you're kantonese are you i thought you sounded a bit weird" chirped the receptionist trying to break the awkward silence that had occurred

"yeah, we moved here about 4 years ago" i replied also not wanting to be stuck in awkward silence

"they still letting 10 year olds become trainers over there." she questioned smiling all of the time

"errm yeah last time i checked," i replied as awkward as ever

"its just barbaric, don't ya think letting little kids like that wonder of onto almost certain death like that if i had my own way the law would be for trainers to be 21 before they could choose to go on their journey," complains the receptionist genuine concern in her voice

"well there would probably be riots if the ages were raised much higher and i arrived just as the law in hoenn was changed which means i've already been waiting for 4 years and if i had to wait any longer i wouldn't be happy myself" i shouted, pissed off that she wants to take the privilege away from people for such a long time.

she looks kind of sad and i realise that i may have been a bit harsh to her she go's back to reviewing my forms.

"sorry if what i said upset you its just that iv'e wanted a pokemon for so long now, 6 years i had to wait" i muttered looking at my feet

the receptionist looked up at me and smiled "it's alright kid, oh and by the way happy birthday" replied the receptionist with a new found vigor in her voice.

we chatted for five minutes before the door next to reception opened and a big man walked through with messy black hair and matching beard he also had a white lab coat on over the top of a navy blue jumper and a pair of brown chinos. "ahh you must be nial i'm professor birch" boomed the man sticking his hand out for me to shake. i grabbed his hand and said

"errm yeah, hello".

"why so nervous kid i'm not gonna bite ya" chuckled professor birch letting go of my hand and leading me through a door.

he led me down a large corridor smiling and greeting his employees in the lab as he walked. "so kid would you like the tour or not" asked the professor stopping in the corridor looking at me.

"err yeah sure" i replied looking at the various paintings that are on the wall there was one with his daughter and a trainer wearing a white beanie hat i recognized as brendan battling with the rayquaza on top of the sky pillar with May using a blaziken and Brendan using his swampert.

the professor noticed what i was looking at and smiled "i see that you like my daughters painting of her and her fiances adventures" he laughed

"wait may painted that," i asked genuinely surprised

"yeah, she has a lot of spare time after they helped save hoenn and the rest of the known world" replied the professor

"err yeah i s'pose she does" i replied awkwardly like i knew his daughter when i really didn't id met her once when we first moved here and my mom told me to go and introduce myself to the neighbours.

"well anyway on with the tour," boomed the professor chuckling to himself over who knows what

the professor led me through the labs telling me about all of the various rooms that we'd passed by until we eventually reached a room labelled new trainers. the professor led me into the room. there were no windows and various chairs scattered around the room in a semicircle around a large screen and a big desk to the right of the screen. inside the room there were a few people sat on the chairs all of them about my age, there was a girl sat far to the right with red long hair wearing a pair of jeans and a hoodie she had very pale skin that was dotted with freckles on her cheeks she smiled as i walked in and gestured for me to sit next to her. i walked over taking a seat.

"hi im daisy," chirped the girl happily.

"hello im nial" i replied back to her.

"you gettin' your first pokemon today as well?" daisy chirped again

"errm yeah i am" i replied looking around the room at the other people who were glaring at me both of them looked almost identical with blond hair and blue eyes and short hair apart from a scar underneath one of their eyes the two boys were indistinguishable from each over.

"cool," daisy replied

their glares were making me feel uncomfortable so i asked daisy what their problem was

"those 2 are just a bit grumpy because you were late,"

"late i arrived at the lab half an hour before i was told to" i replied in shock

"were you told half past 9 like the rest of us?" she questioned

"yeah" i replied

"well it is now 10 40," replied daisy

"no its not" i replied checking my watch which displayed 9:40

"yes it is," shouted one of the twins in a nasally voice that made me want to punch him in the face. i looked at my watch again paying close attention this time i noticed a little 'kan' symbol in the top i face palmed and realized that it was set to kanto time for some reason. i apologized to everyone changing my watch back to hoenn time.

"ok everyone i'm going to show you a quick video about each of the pokemon you may be able to recieve here today and then we'll sort out pokedexs and trainer cards and finally you should be able to choose your pokemon." boomed the professor managing to silence us all. He clicked the screen once and it blurred into a video.

first it showed a picture of a little green gecko which i recognized as a treecko.

"treecko the wood gecko pokemon these pokemon are quite fast and are usually very proud of themselves they are of grass typing and show a liking to humid climates especially rainforests their diets consist of small bugs and berries but can eat most human foods as well, they evolve into grovyle and then sceptile" it then went on to show various scenes of treecko and its evolutions battling. the screen next switched to a picture of a little mud skipper

"mudkip the mud fish pokemon these pokemon are incredibly strong they can break giant boulders bigger than them and they are usually very docile and are of a water typing they like eating smaller fish and water plants but like treecko can eat most human foods they prefer swampy environments with high humidity and evolve into marshtomp and swampert," it then like the video prior to this one showed scenes of mudkip and its evolutions battling.

This process repeated a third time for torchic this time listing that it was the chick pokemon and that it liked arid climates especially deserts and grasslands and then explained that it evolves into combusken and then blaziken showing scenes of the 3 battling. the professor stood up in front of us and boomed "ok then, does anybody have any questions" the room went silent and nobody moved none of us wanting to break the silence.

"i'll take that as a no then," chuckled the professor only adding to the awkwardness

"so we'll go in order left to right for this next so chuckle brothers what colour pokedex's do you want," boomed the professors

the twins both looked angry "that's not our names professor," they snapped back at him just causing him to laugh more.

"sorry im terrible with names and ive got nicknames for all of ya" replied the professor

"ok, ill have black," replied twin number one

"and ill have white," replied twin number two

the professor noted this down on his notepad speaking to himself "paul and barry chuckle want black and white dex's, do you want matching trainer cards as well?" looking back up at them the nicknames only causing them to turn redder

"errm yeah sure" they replied in unison.

the professor turned to me next "ok lanky colours do you want?" boomed the professor

"what colours are there" i asked glad that my nickname wasn't as bad as the professor tapped his screen again and various small laptop like devices were on the screen and the professor listed them off in order. "red, green, blue, yellow, gold, silver, crystal, ruby, sapphire, emerald, diamond, pearl, platinum, black and white,"

"errm i think i'll take ruby thanks" i replied after careful consideration.

"lanky wants ruby, red trainer card as well?" questioned the professor noting it down on his notepad again.

"and last but not least freckles which colours do you want?" questioned the professor.

"i'll have sapphire please" replied daisy almost exactly as the professor finished speaking

"with a blue trainer card please,"

the professor wrote it down and left the room telling us all to wait here

"hey lanky" chuckled daisy

"sup freckles" i replied jokingly giggling along with her, the twins both sighed frustratedly already sore from the memory of their nicknames.

"what are your names anyway" i shouted across the room towards the twins

"i'm jacob" said the twin without the scar.

"and i'm justin" said the one with the scar.

"nice to meet ya' i'm nial" i replied back

"yeah, ditto" they replied in unison both of them not really sounding very enthusiastic.

we all started chatting to each over about pokemon and other stuff it actually turned out that the twins were from kalos and the only hoenn national in the room at the time was daisy, after about 5 minutes of chatting the professor stuck his head through the door told us to grab our things and follow him he led us through the lab to a room labelled 'nursery'.

"ok then everyone you now get to choose your pokemon," boomed the professor causing everyones faces to light up.

"since you were last picking dex's and its meant to be ladies first freckles you're up" said the professor pushing a button on the wall causing another wall to rise up revealing 3 separate tanks with five of each pokemon from the video within all of them with themed to match the pokemons habitat.

"can i have that purple mudkip in the back please" asked daisy giving the professor puppy eyes.

"sure" the professor said picking up the oddly coloured mudkip and placing it in her arms along with a pokeball.

wait purple mudkip, she got a fucking shiny and she wasn't even surprised?

"nial what are you looking at?" she asked looking kind of confused

"thats a shiny, you do realise how rare they are?" i replied

"no should i," she replied still looking confused

"errm yeah theres a 1 in 8192" i replied shocked at her not knowing this

"oh cool i just chose it 'cause it was weird" she replied

"wow you really know your stuff don't you?" the professor chuckled

"errm yeah i enjoyed biology in school and i needed to do something with the extra 6 years of education that was forced on us," i replied to the professor

"when we're done here wait behind after everybody else i wanna have a chat," the professor said

"ok then" i replied

"ok then paul and barry up next" boomed the professor

"ill have that strong looking torchic in the back" said jacob

"and ill have that treecko with the scar on its tail" said justin

the professor picked up the 2 pokemon from there tank's placing them in the arms of the 2 twins along with pokeballs, the torchic pecking jacob in the face causing everyone to giggle.

"finally professor lanky i gave you a new nickname by the way" chuckled the professor

"can i go up and pick the pokemon i want out myself," i asked the professor who just nodded, i felt all eyes in the room fall on me as i walked towards the tanks examining their contents all of the mudkips sat on their hind legs croaking like frogs i thought mudkips were cool but none of them really stood out to me. i walked to the right a bit and examined the tank of fire chicks most of them were sleeping together in a little nest but some were pecking at some corn that was left on the floor for them they were all cute but again none of them stood out to me either so i moved on. the tank full of little treecko's had a slightly higher pane of glass than the others but i guessed that was because they could climb really easily most of the little green lizards were sat in a circle eating berries they all looked fairly normal but towards the back of the tank one of the treecko's was sat on its own hugging its knees and not paying attention to its surroundings from here it looked kind of sad and it was a lot smaller than the other treecko i felt sorry for the little guy and thats when i made my decision. i reached over the small crowd of treecko's and towards the back they all looked up at me including the little one all except from him had a look of hope in their faces right up until i scooped up the abnormally small treecko and pulled it from the tank all of their faces dropped except his whose face wore a look of surprise.

"i'll have this one," i said as the lizard stood up on the palm of my hands where it easily fit.

"are you sure there are others?" questioned the professor which was a weird reaction seeing that he readily gave up all of the other pokemon.

"yes im sure professor why whats wrong with it?" i asked as the lizard started climbing up my arm the little suction cups on the end of its toes tickling me.

"well you see he's the runt of the litter, the one that they kill off if food is scarce meaning he gets less food and as you can see is a lot smaller than the rest." exclaimed the professor

"yeah im sure just because he's the runt doesn't mean he can't achieve greatness," i replied clear annoyance showing in my voice

"ok but he's already got a name its mojo," replied the professor, mojo perked up at the mention of his name from the shoulder he claimed as his own.

"ok then but may i ask why mojo?" i asked stroking the lizards head to calm him

"i was watching austin powers 2 the first time i hand fed him as i had to because his family didn't let him get enough and since i started feeding him i couldn't keep referring to him as an it well any way now you've all chosen you can go," said the professor sighing heavily.

"thanks professor" echoed through the room as the three people left.

"nial ill wait for you outside ok," yelled daisy still walking next to the twins

"ok" i replied.

and like that everyone was gone except the professor and the pokemon.

"nial follow me to my office" boomed the professor as he walked through the door i started after him the sudden movement causing mojo to lose balance and nearly fall off of his perch on my shoulder. i followed the professor through the lab until we reached a small room with big windows and a desk with a computer and lots of papers scattered all over it.

"take a seat nial," insisted birch so i sat down and he sat down opposite me.

"so, have you heard of i/v breeding and e/v training" the professor asked leaning back on his chair.

"yeah, sort of e/v stands for effort value and when your pokemon fights another pokemon it will gain e/v's of a certain type based on the pokemon it fight's and the e/v types are in 6 different categories hp, attack, defence, special attack, special defence and speed and for every four e/v's a pokemon get's they get slightly more proficient in that stat, and i/v's stand for individual values and these are the natural affinities in stats pokemon are born with," i replied while stroking mojo's head which he seemed to enjoy.

"wow im impressed we've got people here at the labs who couldn't go into as much detail as you did their hell there are people here who don't understand what they are," gasped the professor chuckling again

"anyway to why i called you here have you heard of mega evolution?"

"yeah, the thing in kalos where pokemon temporarily evolve into a new form kinda like digimon," i replied wondering why those first 2 questions were relevant.

"well kalos and hoenn are now allied and they have helped us to create mega stones for certain pokemon in hoenn sceptile being one of them," said the professor in a hushed tone as if someone was trying to spy on us.

"that's cool professor but where do i come into this?" i asked scratching my head at the same time

"well for mega evolution to occur there needs to be a strong bond between trainer and pokemon and they need to have produced enough adrenaline for it to occur for example in the heat of battle, thats where you come in we want you to have a mega stone for mojo there and when he makes it to a sceptile and you manage to get him to mega evolve we want to study what is happening ok?" asked the professor opening his drawer and taking out a pager

"yeah sure i'll do it, it seems cool and it will make mojo here stronger" i vowed as the professor started reading through a message.

"great of course you won't be doing this without pay but we'll arrange that another time you better catch up with you friends especially that daisy she want's the d you can tell" smirked the professor as my cheeks went slightly red

"thanks professor but why did you ask me about e/v's and i/v's" i said starting to stand

"ohh just seeing if you were clever enough for the job i would of gave it you it if you got either right but you got both right so that makes you ideal," acknowledged the professor

"won't you need my number to contact me," i asked the professor

"naah the pokedex has a call function thanks anyway and see ya" stated the professor

"bye," i said leaving the room...