Chapter Two: Choices are the Hinges of Destiny.
The doors opened to reveal the inside of the renowned Professor Elm's laboratory. It was a large room, with scientists studying on both sides of it, a number of complex looking machines and computers were all over the place and at the end of the room was a table full of Pokeballs.
"Hm. You two are a little late." A kind sounding voice came from next to them. The man had short, brown hair, large glasses and a clean, white lab coat, he looked suprisingly young to be working in a place like this, "I'm Professor Elm, you may have heard of me." he continued.
Jack and Ruby nodded with both nervousness and eagerness, the professor smiled and motioned for the two to follow him. He lead them to the large table at the back of the room which had twelve pokeballs with pictures of the pokemon inside behind them. Jack's eyes strayed to Cyndaquil, then Mudkip. How could he choose!?
"Ah, Melissa." Professor Elm greeted the young woman as she finally caught up. "I'm sure you can take it from here."
Melissa nodded as the professor walked away to argue with one of his colleagues, Melissa walked around to the other side of the table and waved her hand at the pokeballs, "I presume you know what to do. You can choose one of the twelve pokemon here, choose wisely, the pokemon you choose now will most likely be with you for the rest of your life."
No pressure, then. Jack thought.
Ruby was the first to step forward, "I choose Bulbasaur." she pointed to the pokeball on the far left and picked it up. She looked at it for a couple of seconds and smiled, rather satisfied.
"And you? Jack, is it?" Melissa asked.
Jack finally decided. "Cyndaquil!" He said, grinning. He grabbed the pokeball and looked at the button on the front.
"Wait until you get outside to open it, please." The older trainer said, pointing the door. "Here are your Pokedexes." she handed Jack a a red one and Ruby a pink one.
"Does it come in blue?" Jack asked.
"No." Melissa replied coldly.
Jack sighed, but after remembering the item in his hand, he followed Ruby, who was already running outside.
"Go, Bulbasaur!" She yelled as soon as the doors were open, tossing her new pokeball in the air, it opened and a white light flashed as the pokeball returned to his hand, the light faded to reveal her Bulbasaur. It looked around, looking somewhat confused, but as soon as it set eyes on Ruby it lept on her, knocking her over as she giggled. "Hello little guy!" She said as she got up, it merely grinned at her and spoke in it's own language: "Bulba!"
"Nice!" Ruby turned around to see Jack behind her, he handed her five pokeballs, "You forgot these." he said. She clipped them to her pink belt and admired herself.
"Your turn." She said to Jack, who looked at his pokeball and grinned.
"Come on out, Cyndaquil!" He threw the pokeball into the air as Ruby had done, and the same sort of light burst from it, in it's wake appeared a Cyndaquil. Jack looked at it, beaming, and knelt down. "Hey little guy." he put out his hand and the little pokemon squeaked and flinched. "That's weird." he said.
Ruby's Bulbasaur approached Cyndaquil and greeted it with a friendly "Saur!" but the fire mouse squeaked louder and hid behind Jack's jeans, clinging on to them for dear life.
"It's a coward..." He said, looking down on it. Ruby replied with an understanding 'Mm' as she picked up her Bulbasaur, which was trying to lick her.
"Come here buddy." Despite the Cyndaquil's efforts, Jack picked it up, it looked at him, terrified. "It's ok, do you want some food?" He asked it warmly as he reached for his bag.
"Gah!" he yelled. Scaring the life out of the poor little Cyndaquil.
"What!?" Ruby shrieked, "Is something wrong!?"
"I forgot my bag!" he groaned as he returned the Cyndaquil to it's pokeball.
"Oh... we could get some supplies at the Pokemon Centre." Ruby suggested.
"I guess so," Jack said, a little disappointed, almost all of his books were in that bag, and blankets, a thought then occurred. The next Pokemon Centre was in Cherrygrove. He groaned again.
"Hey, it's not far to Cherrygrove City." Ruby seemed to read his mind, she smiled warmly, "And Bulbasaur can protect us!" she squeezed Bulbasaur even tighter, the pokemon reacted with a little squeak of excitement. She pulled out her pokeball, "I'll let you out later buddy," she tapped the button and Bulbasaur disappeared in a flash of red light.
It took minutes for the two trainers to see their first pokemon on Route 29. A Starly!
"Whoa! Those are incredibly rare in this region!" Jack excitedly told Ruby. "It's mine!". He grabbed his pokeball and threw it, "Time too see what you can do Cyndaquil!"
Cyndaquil appeared once again, it seemed less scared of Jack this time, but then looked at Starly as though it were Gyarados. The small bird cocked it's head and chirped, sending Cyndaquil into it's standard position behind Jack's leg.
"Sorry, buddy." Ruby strutted past him cockily and winked at him, "I guess this one's mine. Bulbasaur!" She released her seed pokemon, which immediately ran to her side, rubbing it's head on her leg. "Come on Bulbasaur, tackle!"
Bulbasaur turned serious for a moment to attack the Starly. The tackle hit dead on, but the Starly soon recovered and used it's own tackle attack. Ruby ordered Bulbasaur to roll, and it did so immediately, causing the Starly to fly into a tree. After a final tackle, the Starly was unconscious. "Go, Pokeball!" she threw a pokeball from her belt and hit the Starly dead on, engulfing it in a red light. There were a tense few moments as the pokeball shook, the centre of it flashing red. But after what seemed like an entire era, the clicking sound that Ruby had been waiting for came from the pokeball, signifying that the Starly had been caught.
"Yes!" she shrieked, turning to Jack and presenting her new Starly in it's pokeball. "My first pokemon!". A second after this she was knocked over by her Bulbasaur once again, she gave it a hug, and returned it to it's pokeball.
"Yeah, yeah well done." Jack said, clapping slowly, he picked Cyndaquil up and carefully balanced it on his shoulder, it immediately tried to hide it's head in his t-shirt but he pulled it out. "Oh no, you're staying out here." he told it, but he let it cling onto his glasses and hair, it seemed to make it feel a little better.
On the rest of the way to Cherrygrove, Ruby let Bulbasaur battle four times, the young pokemon hardly got hit as the little Cyndaquil on Jack's shoulder watched in fascination.
"That's a pretty fast Bulbasaur you've got there." Jack commented as they walked into Cherrygrove Pokemon Centre.
"Well it's a pretty tired Bulbasaur right now." She looked at the pokeball and smiled, giving the pokeball and Starly's pokeball to a Nurse Joy, who put it into a machine that looked a lot like an oven, along with Cyndaquil, who had previously been returned to his pokeball. "How long will this take, Miss Joy?" Ruby asked what Jack was a little too shy to.
"Not long, only an hour dear." the pink haired nurse answered sweetly, "Oh," she looked at Jack, "What's your name?"
"Jack." he answered nervously.
"From Olivine?"
"That's me."
"Oh, great!" Nurse Joy smiled. "We've received something for you." She retreated into the back room as Jack and Ruby exchanged confused looks. Joy returned after a few seconds and handed Jack a black rucksack, his black rucksack!
"Wow, thanks!" Jack smiled as he opened it, yes, everything was there, "How did you-"
"Magnemite!" A computerised yet excited voice came from the Magnemite that had just popped up from under Joy's desk.
"Hey, pal!" Jack patted the Magnemite, which let out a sort of magnetic sounding purr.
"You know this pokemon?" Ruby asked.
"Sure I do, it belongs to Jasmine, you know from the Olivine Gym?"
"You know Jasmine!?" Ruby shrieked.
"Well..." Jack bobbed his head from side to side, "My mum knows her mum." The magnemite nodded, and left the Pokemon centre, undoubtedly for it's own home.
About half an hour later, the two could be found sat on chairs in the pokemon centre waiting room. Jack was browsing through his Pokedex while Ruby was trying to juggle her remaining four pokeballs. "You sure you don't want to read?" Jack asked, "I have a few books in my bag."
"I've never really been one for books, I don't know what people see in reading." She grinned, "Why don't you try juggling, you'll have one more pokeball than me."
"Shut up."
Not much happened for the next half hour, until Nurse Joy handed them their Pokeballs, "Take care!" she said kindly as they left the Pokemon Centre.
Not a minute had passed after they left the Pokemon Centre when a young girl approached them. She had long, brown hair down to her waist, bright green eyes and pale skin. Her hair was held back by silver and blue hair clips. She was also wearing elbow length black gloves, a black tank top with a yellow and blue star, black shorts, yellow knee length socks and black shoes. The girl smiled, "Hey! Are you two pokemon trainers?" Jack and Ruby smiled and nodded. "My name's Crysta, want a battle?"
"You're on!" Ruby announced excitedly. She felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Jack.
"Could we have this one?" he asked, holding up Cyndaquils pokeball.
"Ok, good luck!" She giggled and patted him on the shoulder.
"If you two are done kissing..." Crysta threw a pokeball in the air, a Charmander emerged from the following light, "Charm and I would like to get this started!"
"I'm not even gonna comment on that one." Jack muttered as he released Cyndaquil. "Ready now Cyndaquil?"
"Quil?" The little pokemon squeaked nervously.
"Come on, you saw Bulbasaur fight right? You'll do fine, I believe in you."
"Quil!" Cyndaquil perked up a bit, and positioned itself infront of Charm.
"Ok, lets do this! Charm, use ember!" Crysta ordered.
"Roll, Cyndaquil!" On Jack's order, Cyndaquil rolled out of the way as it had seen Bulbasaur do earlier. "Nice! Now Ember!"
"Cynda?" Cyndaquil turned to him with a confused and scared look on it's face.
"What do you mean you can't use ember?" Jack said, almost horrified.
"Charm, scratch!" yelled Crysta. Charm ran in before Cyndaquil could react and got a critical hit. Cyndaquil fainted. "Heh. Easy!" Crysta mocked.
Jack sighed and looked at the unconscouis Cyndaquil, "I'm so sorry, buddy."
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