Upon walking out of his house Ethan was immediately tackled by an all too familiar Marill. As Ethan glared at it the Marill looked almost criminally happy back at him. It was even laughing at what it just did. The Marill then proceeded to try and steal his hat. To say that was the last straw would be putting it bluntly.
"No! Bad Bubbles! That's my hat! C'mon stop it!" The boy practically screamed. This only served to make the water mouse laugh even more at the young boy.
"Mar mar!" Giggled the tiny Pokémon.
"Bubbles!" The Marill's ears perked up at the familiar sound of his trainers. The trainer herself came bounding round the corner looking left and right frantically until her eyes settle on her long time friend and her Starter Pokémon. "C'mon you silly mouse let's go!" The girl trainer said as she ran off.
"Rill! Marill!" Chattered the excited Pokémon as it hopped off of Ethan's stomach and took off after his master.
"Nice seeing you to Lyra!" Ethan yelled at the girl with a rather annoyed tone in his voice. The only reply he got was her briefly turning towards him to wave as she giggled and then she took off again without a second thought. "Geez…" He muttered as he got up and dusted himself off. Ethan then began the short trek to The Lab. Once he made it there he walked in and was immediately met with the scatterbrained mess that was Professor Elm.
"Hey there Crazy-Bangs!" Kris greeted Ethan as her father was busily looking for… something on the cluttered table that was his work bench.
"Hey Kris!" Ethan greeted in return. Kris was two years his senior and it was obvious if one payed attention to the dynamics of the kids in New Bark Town. Kris was the oldest kid in town at the age of twelve and she was always looking out for the others. Lyra, Kris's younger sister, and Ethan himself came as a close second for the role of "surrogate older sibling" what with them both being ten. All the other kids in town were anywhere between five and eight. Infact it was Kris' status as "everyone's favorite big sister" that had made her parting for her journey those two years ago so sad. Then the accident that brought her back all too soon happened. She was much better now though! Ethan couldn't help but get excited over potentially traveling with both the Elm sisters. They were his best friends after all.
"Psy?" Duckylucky, Kris' Psyduck, quacked at seeing him. The poor little yellow fellow must not had been told that Ethan would be making an appearance at the lab today.
"Mar!" squeaked Geiser the Azumarill, happily acknowledging Ethan's presence. It was at that moment Ethan actually wished for Bubbles to be present. To have the young male standing next to his parents at that moment would frankly make for a good holiday card.
"What's up with the two of you today?" Ethan questioned the two Pokémon. Geiser then began chattering at the human boy expecting him to understand every word. Kris smiled at her Pokémon, seemingly knowing what each vocalization meant. Ethan just nodded all the while wishing he had the same understanding of Pokémon. When he questioned his teacher about being able to understand the creatures she said it was something that comes with time. As Geiser chatted on Kris moved to try and alert her father of Ethan's presence.
"Pops!" The girl tried as she shook her father by his shoulder, "Pops!"
"H-huh? What?" The scatterbrained professor asked.
"Ethan's here to talk to you, I think." Kris said at the same time she realized she had no clue why the younger boy was even here.
"What? Oh! Hi there kiddo!"He greeted as he walked towards Ethan. It was only now did Ethan actually notice the Corsola who was doing it's best to cling to the frantic man's shoulder. Ethan didn't think he'd ever understand the Elm family and their affinity for Water-type Pokémon. Now that he thought about it didn't the Professor also have a Slowpoke too? "So, quick question, how much do you know about my work?"
"Urm… you study Pokémon?" Ethan answered rather unsure. While the boy did know Professor Elm studied Pokémon he didn't know of the specifics that surrounded the middle aged man's studies. Despite the uncertainty behind it his answer seemed good enough as the man continued explaining what he needed Ethan to do. Despite the relief that spread through him Ethan couldn't help but note Kris' giggling.
"As you know, Pokémon are largely carried in Pokéballs these days. But before the Pokéballs were created people walked with their Pokémon! Just like my two girls do!" He said as gestured to Kris and her Pokémon, "While Pokéballs are great because you can carry many Pokémon. But walking Pokémon must have some forgotten advantages. It could have something to do with how Pokémon grow and evolve… So I'm going to give you your Starter Pokémon! I need you and the girls to do this since all of my own Pokémon are rather old or already fully evolved. Plus I'm positively swamped with work here! So, Ethan, can you walk with this Pokémon outside of it's Pokéball to see if it this brings any feelings or bonds between Pokémon and people? The device over there," He said while gesturing to a large red and white machine, "has some Pokémon you can choose from inside." With that Ethan slowly and unsurely walked over to the machine. Once he was close to it the blue glass doors slid open and revealed three Pokéballs. Next to the Pokéballs were pictures of the Pokémon inside. Ethan reached out but then pulled his hand back unsure of which he should pick. It was such a big decision.
"So…" Kris said as she strode over to him, "having trouble deciding, Crazy-Bangs?" She asked as she slung one of her arms carelessly over the boys shoulder. The only thing Ethan could do was nod. Meanwhile Lyra herself was having trouble deciding upon something as she stood outside the building.
As she peaked around the corner at the boy she found herself to be a bit frightened. She had never seen this boy before, and living in such a small town meant everyone knew everyone. Unlike everyone else this boy wore a lot of black and dark colors. While there were a few people in town who wore some black they always accented it with bright colors. So his weird dress style was the first thing that made this boy stick out like a sore thumb. The second thing was the boys hair. Not only was it much longer than the boy's in town would allow their hair to grow but it was also very, very red. She had thought such a shade of red was impossible to see in someone's hair. Maybe the boy had simply dyed it like how Big Sis Kris had dyed her hair that weird blue. "Cyan" she had called it. He was also on the pale side. But it wasn't those features that had her frightened, it was his eyes. Those cold, calculating, intense reddish brown eyes and the way they were staring at her father's lab, her house. Then there was the fact he seemed to have hidden himself between the side of the building where the big sign lay, and the forested area right next to the building. The whole thing was extremely sketchy.
"So this is the famous Elm Pokémon Lab…", and that's when he noticed her, "What are you staring at?" , the boy growled as intimidatingly as his prepubescent voice would allow. Of course Lyra being approximately the same age found it scary enough to book it with Bubbles following hot on her heels.
Back in the Lab Kris had just completed her explanation on the three different Pokémon. What she had explained to Ethan was the following. "Chikorita, the leaf pokemon is a Grass-Type Pokémon that can release a sweet relaxing fragrance from the leaf on it's head. Their species is famous for their love of sunbathing. Seriously, these little guys can sit out in the sun for hours." She then moved on to the next Pokémon, "Totodile, the big jaw Pokémon, is a Water-Type Pokémon. They're small but are also rough and these little guys won't hesitate to take a bite out of anything that moves." Ethan had gulped as she moved on to the third Pokémon, "Cyndaquil, the fire mouse Pokémon is well, a Fire-Type Pokémon! They tend to be really timid and scare easy. When frightened they roll up into a ball a shoot flames from their back.", she finished. Ethan's head was rearing with all the new information that had just been dumped on him. It was like Kris had read everything she had just told him out of a dictionary or encyclopedia or some such.
"U-um…" was all the poor boy could stutter out. Just then Professor Elm's PC started to ring with the all too familiar "Mail Time!" jingle. So with a startle the never frazzled man ran to his PC.
"Oh, hey! I got some mail!", he exclaimed excitedly. As he concentrated on reading the letter Kris poked at Ethan's ribs.
"Ow! What?". he exclaimed.
"I'd pick the Totodile if was you.", she said matter of factly.
"What, why?", he questioned with a tilt of his head.
"Well…. the Chikorita is really disobedient. At least he's disobedient to us. He's definitely the kind of Pokémon that only wants to get stronger. I have a feeling it would totally ditch a Trainer if he thought the poor sole wasn't good enough. Oh, and the Cyndaquil is really shy! It would take a really long time for her to get use to someone she just met. The Totodile on the other hand is really friendly. I mean, he's super excitable to the point where it could get tiring but he'd be a lot of fun to raise, I think. Plus he's a Water-Type so he'd probably get along better with mine and Lyra's current Pokémon.", she finished as she finally took a breath. As Ethan thought on Kris' rather good points he could faintly hear Lyra going on, rather frantically, to one of her father's assistants about how she really, really had to talk to him. Neither Ethan nor Kris paid this much mind as Lyra always had something to talk to her and Kris's father about.
"Well, you are more experienced than me." Ethan said as he carefully picked up the Totodile's Pokéball.
"Okay, kiddo listen here!" Professor Elm exclaimed out of nowhere, "I have an acquaintance that some people call Mr. Pokémon.", Ethan nodded to show the man that he was listening, "He keeps finding these weird things and raving about his discoveries.", the man complained halfheartedly, "Anyway, I just got an email from him saying that this time it's real. It's probably just another egg, and like I said before my assistants and I are swamped with our Pokémon research…". He trailed off.
"Yeah, and?" Asked Ethan, sensing he had just gotten himself into a bit more than he bargained for. The half worried, half amused look on Kris' face seemed to prove him right.
"Well, I was thinking you could go in our place. It would be like your first adventure! A good way to test the water." The man reasoned to himself.
"What about me and Lyra, Pops? I feel like I might need a bit of a refresher, and Crazy-Bangs here needs someone to look out for him. He's barely ever been out of town!" Kris said clearly wanting to restart her journey.
"Y-yeah but-"The man tried to interject but Kris continued on.
"Besides, we both know Lyra needs as much of a head start as possible."She said with much seriousness in her voice.
"Oh, alright." Professor Elm finally conceded. It's not that they thought the girl was incompetent, more so the fact of how naive and fainthearted the girl tended to be.
"Papa! Papa! I've got something important to-" It was these two traits that caused people to want to interrupt her.
"Ah, Lyra! Just in time! I'm going to have you and your sister go with Ethan for a package delivery, alright sweetheart?" The two traits that caused people to want to be kind and protective towards her.
"B-but papa there's this boy out-" The two traits that caused people to not completely listen to her.
"C'mon Lyra it'll be fun!" The two traits that caused her best friend to, unknowingly, push her around.
"Yeah! Or are you scared?" The two traits that caused her older sister to tease her.
"Down the road of adventure we go!" To be dragged off by those two people before she could tell anyone about the suspicious boy outside, and she couldn't do anything but let it happen. Soon enough they reached the route that would take them out of their hometown, . However before they could take a single step onto the route the three children heard a cry.
"Ethan!" Yelled the woman as she rushed towards Route 29, "Ethan!" She yelled once more when she saw her son. The boy turned away from his two best friends and towards his mother. Happy to see her a big grin spread across his face as she ran up to them. Panting she said, "I forgot to give you your Pokégear. It's all good and fixed now and..." she paused as she looked down at the Totodile, "Oh, is… Is this your Starter?"
"Sure is! He's a Totodile. I haven't really come up with a name for him yet but I'm sure I'll think of something sooner or later!" Ethan said happily as he looked down at his Pokémon.
"I see…" She said as she crouched down, "Well he's awfully cute!", she complimented the Pokémon while patting his head. She then stood up, "Ethan, please take the Pokégear and be sure to call me often." She said as she handed him the small device.
"I will!", the boy said happily all the while not noticing the hidden sadness in his mother's voice.
"You don't need to ma'am I'll be looking after Crazy-Bangs! 'Sides we'll probably be back by the afternoon!" Kris said confidently.
"Alright then. I suppose I'll see you then." The mother said, worry and sadness seemingly fading to some extent.
"B-but guys that boy!" Lyra finally spoke. Poor girl was still worried about the suspicious boy she had met earlier. The boy that was so close to her father's Lab, the boy who was just outside her house. Of course no one would be taking her seriously today.
"Sis you know I hate talking about boys! Now come on you two let's go!", she said as she lead the way towards Route 29. Ethan followed happily while saying a goodbye to his mother. Lyra followed nervously while stammering a warning that went unnoticed. The woman just stood in place until the forest consumed the two girls and her son from sight. She then slowly walked home to an empty house.
