Yaaaay chapter three! And I'm already running out of random crap to spout out here so let me just say thank you for the one review I got :D it made me really happy to see that someone really liked my story and I now have a burst of inspiration that'll last me eight new chapters! and yeah I suck at spelling so sorry for any mistakes I really do try to spot all of them ^_^" ok I'll shut up now, ON TO CHAPTER THREE!


-Chapter three "worked like a slave"-

Mana knew working at Professor Oak's lab wasn't going to be easy, but honestly she didn't expect it to be this hard and demanding. She had professor Oak, lab assistants, and even the dang Pokémon pulling her left and right to grab important papers, and wierd gadgets she had never seen before. At least when a Pokémon would come up to her it would only want something simple like a little snack or a scratch behind the ear. Mana heard the professor chuckle.

"Don't spoil them to much Mana, they may be cute but they can be very manipulative when it comes to getting what they want." Professor Oak warned.

"Then I'd say we've got a lot in common." Mana half joked.

"hm, I know you aim to be a trainer right?" Professor asked lightly.

"Yes of course! I have everything perfectly planned out I even know what starter I want!" Mana quickly answered with a light twinkle in her eyes.

the professor laughed at the young girls hearty response.

"And just what Pokémon did you have in mind?" the professor asked.

"I Decided that an adorable Chikorita would be better than a Bulbasaur." Mana answered proudly, she put a lot of thought into her starter and got the best result and even a personal preference.

"Oh so you have an affinity towards grass types?"

"No not at all, I don't really have a favorite type but a grass type is absolutely necessary to make the start of my journey as easy as possible, since grass types are typically good with the lay of the land and gathering food and finding precious water, plus the first two gyms use rock and water types so we'll breeze on through giving me the perfect amount of time to train a team up for the electric type gym! And if you play your cards right a grass type can really hold their own against any electric type no matter how strong it is!"

The professor couldn't help but laugh at her reasoning, Mana looked slightly embarrassed but was also confused. Is there somehow a flaw in my reasoning I thought for sure that I planned everything out perfectly. The professor seeing his young assistant's confusion explained, "Mana I'm very impressed by your logic and the thought you put into your journey but what about your Pokémon?"

Mana was confused, maybe she just didn't explain it right. "But professor I already said that I'd-"

"Yes yes I know, but you're thinking about this far too much. Pokémon aren't numbers in a perfect equation but variables in an exciting experiment! You can use the same material and even the same procedure but every time you'll always get a different result." the professor interrupted.

"I hope you know I'm failing math and science, numbers and me just don't mix." Mana replied sheepishly.

Professor nodded his head disappointed, Mana noticed and couldn't help but feel her heart sink, oh no did I screw up? Darn! It's only my first day and already I manage to tick the professor off!

Just then the professor had a magnificent idea, surely the young girl would understand if she saw what he ment first hand!

"Mana come with me, I have the perfect example for you!" Professor Oak cheered happily, obviously pleased with whatever it was he had planned. Professor Oak grabbed five poke balls and took Mana outside on the field that all the labs Pokémon got to run around and play on.

"Professor what are you-"

"hush now and just watch." Professor interrupted again and threw the five poke balls into the air, with a flash of brilliant white light five Chikorita's stood before them. Mana squealed in delight, they were all so adorable!

"Professor are you giving me one of them!" Mana asked excited by the sudden turn in events.

"Of course I'm not giving you one of them." professor answered lightly not noticing the sudden drain in Mana's color.

"Th-then why?" Mana was about to ask before the Professor once again interrupted saying, "Alright now Mana I want you to take a good look at these Chikorita and tell me everything that is similar between the five."

Mana looked at the five Grass types and automatically said, "Well obviously they're all Chikorita."

"And." The professor asked.

"And there all obviously grass types."

"And"

"And what? there all Chikorita ok, a Chikorita is a Chikorita."

"Yes of course but what else is similar between them?"

"They all have a leaf on their heads?"

"Of course they do that's a given, they are Chikorita after all."

"That's what I've been saying! I don't get where you're heading with this at all professor!" Mana nearly shouted in a confused rage, no not rage more like annoyance.

"Can you tell me any other similarities between not only these five Chikorita but all Chikorita in the world?" professor continued.

"They're all green." Mana said flatly annoyed with whatever the professor was trying to get at.

"Actually your wrong, in some rare instances a Chikorita can be a golden-yellow with a brilliant Orange leaf." The professor replied thoughtfully.

"Huh? you mean like a shiny?" Mana asked even more confused.

"Yes but that's not the point of this lesson, so far the only similarity we have between all five of these Chikorita is that they are Chikorita correct?"

"Yeah pretty much, but I still don't understand what you're trying to get me to understand."

"Alright now's the easy part, look very closely at these Chikorita and how they act and tell me the differences between them."

Once again Mana looked at all five Chikorita, this time more thoughtfully and was actually surprised to notice that even though they did all have leaves on their head each one seemed different like in their own personal styles. The first one she noticed was the Chikorita in the middle who seemed to stand out like a "self-appointed" leader of some sorts, her leaf instead of going to the back of her head actually went to the front of her face, covering one of the grass types eyes. She seemed to have a rebellious "badass" air around her and looked very strong (or was good at pretending to be) since she stood tall and proud with her chest puffed out and everything. The next Chikorita Mana took note of was the one to the right of the "badass" Chikorita, this one's leaf went to the back of her head and covered half of her body since the leaf had loosely curled in almost looking like a rolled up news paper (to Mana) and had a happy cheery air around her. The Chikorita also looked a bit ditzy to Mana.

The third Chikorita Mana decided to observe stood to the left of the "badass" Chikorita, This one had her leaf instead of going straight back went to the side of her head partly framing her face and flipping outwards towards the tip, and upon closer inspection the Chikorita was actually sleeping while it was standing. Mana seemed impressed by the skill when she realized she was automatically assuming all the Chikorita were girls, though it would be kind of weird if the first three she inspected were boys, then she took note of the last two who seemed to just plainly have their leaves back covering their entire bodies no curls or flips just plain and straight, one looking serious the other looking as though he couldn't care less about what was going on around him. Mana then decided the last two in the back were boys.

"Well?" Professor Oak asked cautiously.

"Wow it's like they- no they do have their own personalities, and all the planning and strategizing in the world can't prepare me for whatever personality my Chikorita will have, or even the one's of the wild Pokémon I catch. That is if they want to be caught." Mana replied thoughtfully.

"Oh? that's an interesting last thought what makes you say that?" professor Oak asked curiously.

"Well I thought about how you tried to make me find similarities between all Chikorita in the world and when I realized each one is unique and different with a personality of their own, who's to say that every Chikorita or even every Pokémon in the world wants to be captured by a trainer? What if they like being wild and free, and living in whatever environment they choose for themselves? Professor I'd like to thank you for this mini-lesson it has made me greatly reconsider my travel plans and even gave me a total new outlook on Pokémon and the kind of relationship I want with them, I guess they don't call you the Pokémon professor for nothing huh?" Mana replied kind of embarrassed by her strategic look on Pokémon and the world for that matter. Though that train of thought might be useful to her in a Pokémon battle and even getting what she wants it isn't how she should map out life, just because she is admittedly right most of the time who's to say an unexpected outcome won't come out from it? like her working at the professor Samuel Oak's Pokémon research lab! All she wanted was to get out of trouble with her parents and in the end she did get out of trouble but also had the huge unexpected bonus of actually being able to meet and work with one of her idols in the Pokémon world!

"Alrighty then!" Professor Oak suddenly said distracting Mana from her thoughts, "now that we're done here, it's time for you to get back to work." Mana's good mood suddenly died with a little part of her, he calls it work, she calls it being driven like a slave. It was back to transporting huge mountains worth of papers from one end of the lab all the way to the other, then helping move machines that weighed more than twelve Snorlax's, then actually grooming and giving six of the labs Snorlax's a bath, then somehow feeding them until their otherworldly appetites were finally satisfied, then back to delivering huge stacks of papers and files to this person and that, by the time Mana finally had a break she already had memorized every inch of the lab, every name of every person, and even knew exactly how many Pokémon were at the lab and all of their names including the ones that had nicknames and the day wasn't even halfway over yet. Mana could have sworn that at least seven maybe even eight hours had past when she was grooming the last Snorlax.

"My my your such a diligent worker, while you were taking care of the Snorlax your parents called from Viridian City and said they'd come visit during your break, but by now they should be here any minute." professor Oak said as he handed her a bottle of water, that was once again gratefully accepted.

"Professor there's something that I've been thinking about since I got here." Mana asked, three bottles of water later.

"Yes?"

"what is the Pokémon in that ultra ball that you spent five years hunting down? It must be something pretty huge and impressive since you didn't even bother using a regular poke ball and not to mention extremely rare since it took five years for you to find just the one."

The professor smiled thoughtfully before finally saying, "I'm afraid to say that it's a secret, not even my lab assistants know of this Pokémon or that I have it, it's soul purpose is for some secret reasearch me and a couple of colleagues are working on once we're done we'll release the Pokémon back to where I had found it. So in other words I would appreciate it if you kept this a secret between you and me."

"keep what a secret?" Mana suddenly heard her father say from behind her.

"what's this about secrets?" Mana's mother asked.

"That the professor went out for a quick break when he was supposed to be working on an extensive research paper with professor Elm over PC, but in the end we decided to tell him that the Rhydon were acting up and he absolutely had to run out until everything was under control." Mana answered with a devious smirk.

"oh my Lugia! there are Rhydon here! Oh Mana sweety please tell me you don't go anywhere near them!" Mana's mother replied shocked with worry.

"Hm, well I guess even the Pokémon professor himself needs to sneak a secret break in here and there." Mana's father chuckled ignoring his wife's sudden outburst.

"That's what you choose to contemplate on! Our daughter is around dangerous wild Pokémon and you choose that very thought to focus on, I mean I- I just can't- oh dear." Mana's mother went on and on like that for while, so everyone decided to turn their backs on her as Professor Oak continued to nervously say, "Ah yes! Though I do love Pokémon even I get bored when I have to write a research paper so please let this be our secret please?"

"No worries old man your secret is safe with me!" Mana's father laughed and even went as far as to give the professor a clap on the back.

"Dad!" Mana groaned at her father's immaturity.

"What? you of all people should know we've gotten enough letters from your school for you skipping out on science and math, plus those were only the times you were caught sneaking out of class." Mana's father countered.

"Hey! what makes you think I did it more than the times I was caught? I learned my lesson y'know!" Mana shot back, deciding it was best to let her old man win this one.

"yeah four angry letters later, that's one bad habit you get from your old pops I was horrible in highschool and don't even get me started with college!" Mana's father laughed, then suddenly from behind Mana's mother shouted, "Don't ignore me, the reason behind this arrangement was so that our little girl wouldn't be exposed to dangerous Pokémon!"

Mana sighed before replying, "Mom relax there are no wild Pokémon here, all the Pokémon belong to either someone in the lab or a trainer who's having their Pokémon looked after by professor Oak, besides there isn't a Rhydon here there are five and they are the sweetest things you'll ever meet their names are Charlie, Bulldozer, Monte, Rhyrhy, and... um...er"

"And dear sweet Bob." Professor Oak finished.

"Yeah there we go Bob." Mana confirmed.

Mana's parents gave each other a look before finally deciding to drop the subject and stood around to chat with the professor for a while. When they were done Mana gave them a grand tour of the lab, and even introduced them to some of the labs Pokémon. and of course Mana's mother falls in love with the Rattata most likely because they are her favorite color and favorably small. And to Mana's surprise one in particular took a liking to her mother insisting on staying in her arms for the rest of the tour. When her break was over Mana kissed her parents goodbye and waved them off, and her parents left promising her her favorite dinner when she got home. And of course after having such a nice peaceful break Mana was not happy to hear that a certain Snorlax fell asleep in a mud pit and needed to be washed again!


"Would you stop worrying already? Mana is doing just fine at the lab, the girl hasn't even been there half a day and already it's like she's been there forever! Everyone has nothing but good things to say about her and she's happy, isn't that all that matters?" John reassured his wife Kathrine for the thousandth time, as they finally entered their Pallet town home.

"Yes, but I just can't help but feel worried that something bad is going to happen. I mean it is a Pokémon research lab, what if they have something valuable that Team Rocket might want? What if they get attacked and our little girl is there!" Kathrine said concerned for her daughter's very wellbeing.

"Please don't say that you'll make me turn our daughter into a Dwebble!" John replied agitated by his wife's words.

"A what?" Kathrine replied clueless, being born and raised in Kanto. John on the other hand was from Univa and travelled to Kanto not only to go to college but hopefully find his long-lost father, but was sidetracked when he fell in love with Kathrine and ultimately decided to stay in Kanto forgetting about his own father when he became one himself.

"Dwebble sort of in a ways looks like a Parasect but with black eyes and a solid rock on its back instead of a mushroom, I guess..." John said unsure, it would be much easier to just show her a picture but he didn't walk around with a Picture of a Dwebble on him and they didn't have a PC either, something he regrets every time he has to go all the way to Viridian City just to use the Pokémon center's PC to check up on his mother and to make sure she's doing fine, then again Mana is working at the poke lab in Pallet town maybe the professor would be kind enough to let them use the PC there to make quick calls, or at least give his wife a better description of a Dwebble. The two worried parents sighed, and decided it would be best to get lunch started so they could get their minds off of any danger that their precious daughter could possibly get into while at the Pokémon lab. Once lunch was ready John had almost called Mana down from her room when he remembered she wasn't home and wouldn't be home untill eight o'clock that night and sighed.

"Now who's worrying?" Kathrine teased. John smiled and said jokingly, "y'know shouldn't there be a law against children working such drastic hours?"

"for a normal part-time job that you are getting paid to do? Yes there are, but for volunteering at a Pokémon research lab, key word 'volunteering' all bets are off so long as the child isn't in danger and the Pokémon are treated with care." Kathrine answered.

"Of course, I just got so used to her being home all the time these past few years." John replied sheepishly.

"Yeah I know what you mean." Kathrine agreed. Both she and her husband John laughed lightly when all of a sudden Kathrine had a strong urg to go to Professor Oak's lab and drag Mana back home and having her stay there for the rest of her life. Not knowing why, she stood up and raced for the door, she was just about to run out when John caught her arm.

"Let me go my baby needs me!" Kathrine shouted panick quickly filling in her voice.

"What are you talking about? She's fine we just visited her not to long ago!" John reassured.

"no no no! you don't understand, it's just one of those 'motherly' things when you just know and I know I have to bring Mana home now!" Kathrine begged tears suddenly filling her eyes.

"Hey, hey, calm down everything is fine like I said we were just there and everything was as peaceful and quiet as ever more so than usual actually." John said continuing to reassure his wife that nothing was going to happen to Mana.

"It was peaceful and quiet, like the calm before a storm." Kathrine said to know one in particular...


"Fiiiiinnaaaaaalllllyyyyy!" Mana shouted to the heavens for Ho-oh to hear, she had just given the same Snorlax a bath for the third time in a row, "honestly why in the name of Ho-oh do you like sleeping in mud so much?"

"Maybe he likes how soft it is?" Elroy a semi-young trainer suggested. Elroy was also a young volunteer and semi-young Pokémon trainer at fifteen years old who dreamed of being a Pokémon researcher like professor Oak. He had just shown up a couple of minutes before and helped Mana dry off the mud loving Snorlax.

"well I guess only Snorlax will know." Professor Oak added thoughtfully as he walked into the lab, just then Snorlax had gotten up and was heading over towards the pit of mud they had just gotten him out of.

"Hey I don't think so mister!" Mana shouted and tried to push the Snorlax back, once Snorlax realized Mana was feebly pushing his belly he decided to lift her up and hold her as though she were a poke plush and settled back down to sleep.

"H-hey Lax let me go! Elroy do something!" Mana shouted, to the fellow volunteer but he was just laughing and pointing even being as bold as to take a picture with his field camera.

"HELP ME YOU JERK!" Mana screamed slightly embarrassed.

"Ok, ok I'll help." Elroy said calmly and took out a poke ball, "Feraligatr let's help Mana out!" Elroy called as he threw the poke ball, after a flash of white the blue and red big jaws Pokémon appeared and seemed all to ready to fight.

"Take it easy pal all I need you to do is pry that Snorlax's arms off of Mana ok?" Elroy ordered gently, Feraligatr hesitantly nodded his agreement annoyed and easily pried Snorlax's iron like grip off of Mana and carried her to Elroy's side.

Mana sighed in relief, "Thank you Feraligatr you saved me! Later I'll make you a special treat that one of the lab assistants showed me how to make!" Feraligatr roared happily and nuzzled Mana with its head.

"Wow he isn't even that nice to me and I raised him from a Totodile!" Elroy said shocked.

"Awww when was the last time you praised him and offered him a treat?" Mana teased.

"Yesterday." Elroy replied disheartened by his partners sudden favoritism. Mana laughed as Elroy recalled his Feraligatr, he looked as though he wanted to say something when they were suddenly thrown in the air by a loud explosion that had come from the lab, Mana screamed as she tried to get orientated when Elroy suddenly grabbed on to her and they were both caught by the Snorlax that had used Mana as a teddiursa plush.

"What in the name of Ho-oh did that!" Mana shouted fiercely.

"That was too powerful to be one of the voltorbs self destruct!" Elroy yelled urgently and climbed down from Lax.

"Elroy wait!" Mana called after the trainer, he stopped and turned back to her and strictly said, "Mana you have to stay here with Snorlax, and hide behind him! If it's Team Rocket or any other poke thief they won't bother to steal such a large Pokémon that's outside of its poke ball do you understand me!"

"B-but I-"

"Mana no! No if's and's or but's about it, you'd only get in the way since you don't have any Pokemon with you now stay!"

Mana flinched at his words but nodded her agreement. Team Rocket? Poke thieves? Whoever it is How on earth did they get here without anyone noticing! Dammit I can't believe how useless I am! I just hope everyone can fight them off without getting hurt!

-End chapter three-


Yaaaaay end of chapter three! :D so was it any good? And what do you guys think of me just putting a small preview of the next chapter at the end of every chapter I write or a little hint? Or would you rather be left in the dark and wait for the next chapter to come out? Please let me know!