Alice and Alex strolled through the slowly decreasing number of people in the streets. The evening was cold, but the dark orange sky gave the impression of a warm one. Alice had bought one new outfit, as her bag space was limited and there were more important things to carry. She had decided to do some bonding with Ducklett by letting her out of her pokeball. Ducklett strolled beside her and Ducklett quacked pleasantly as breezes passed through her head feathers.
"So you're pretty fast aren't you?" Alice said.
"Ducklett," Ducklett quacked and nodded.
"That'll be really useful!" Alice chirped. Ducklett jumped up and down and quacked. They turned a corner and the pokemon centre was just on their left. They walked in and went up to the nurse at the counter.
"Hi! Can we get a room please? And also can you heal my pokemon?" Alice asked.
"Of course!" the nurse said. She took Alice's pokeballs and gave Alex the key.
"Thanks!" Alex said. They went to their room and settled down. "What are we going to do first tomorrow?" Alex asked. Alice lay back and pondered for a moment. The night had crept up on them.
"We should go to the Professor's lab I think," Alice replied.
"I can work with that," Alex mumbled. He started to drift off to sleep.
"Alex?"
"Mmm,"
"It seems so weird that we actually got out of Wexford, you know what I mean?"
"Mmm-hmm,"
"...thanks for coming with me," Alice said. She wasn't sure if he heard her or not, as he didn't answer. The next morning, they went and got Alice's pokemon. The pokemon centre offered a wonderful breakfast and then they went searching for the professor's lab. Dublin city was bigger than they had expected it to be. They spent a long time looking about for it and they got to the point where they had to ask someone for directions. Once they knew where they were going, it took them very little time to get there. The building was large and made of browny-yellow brick. Alice walked up to the door and knocked. After a couple of seconds a younger man, maybe in his early twenties, came out. He had longish black hair that curled up at the end and thin, rectangular glasses.
"Oh hello! Who are you?" he said. His lab coat flapped in the wind.
"Hi! My name is Alice and this is Alex," she pointed to Alex who stood behind her and he saluted. "We're pokemon trainers from Wexford."
"Oh! Welcome welcome, come in. My name is Professor Larch," he said. He had a smile on his face that made it look like he messed something up. "I study pokemon adaptation to their surroundings." They walked into the main room of the lab and looked upon a device that looked like it once held three pokeballs. Some pokemon started appearing and made their way to the professor.
"Shellos shellos!" a few of them said. They looked similar, but they were different colours and slightly different shaped.
"Oh, hello Shellos!" Professor Larch said and bent down to pet them all. "These are my shellos. They all come from different seas. The pink one is a Japanese West sea shellos, the blue one is a Japanese East sea shellos and the dark green one is an Irish shellos."
"Wow! They're all the same pokemon, but they all look so different!" Alex exclaimed. He went over to them and petted them.
"Do you have pokemon?" Professor Larch asked.
"Yup," Alex said as the shellos crowded around him for more attention, "I'd love to see some of your research!"
"Well you're enthusiastic!" Professor Larch laughed to himself. He gestured for them to come with him. They stopped by a fancy computer. Professor Larch shook his mouse and the screen showed a comparison of two butterfree.
"That one looks different," Alice said and pointed to the butterfree with white wings.
"That's the one frequently seen in warmer places. In colder places, like Ireland, butterfree has black wings to get as much warmth as it can," Professor Larch explained.
"Amazing! What other pokemon have adapted to our climate or region compared to Japan, or America?" Alex asked. Professor Larch laughed and flicked to some other pictures.
"Those are paras and parasect," Alice said.
"They are. Except the ones we have here are brown. The ones in Japan are much more exciting. Ours turned brown, because they only have brown mushrooms to grow and so they turned brown to go with their mushrooms," Professor Larch explained.
"That's so interesting!" Alex said. The professor kept flicking through the pictures. After a couple of moments Alex gestured the professor to stop. "That pokemon. What is it?"
The professor smiled. "Unown," he said.
"Unknown? As in you don't know what it is?" Alice asked.
"It's its name, but, sort of. There is a lot we don't know, and some we do. And some. I'm here to find out," he said.
"What sort of research are you going to do?" Alex asked.
"Well, we don't know if the alphabet is based on the Unown or if Unown has evolved to look like the alphabet. There have been reports of Unown in Meath, near Newgrange and I want to see if they are in the shape of the letters from the Celts or the Latin alphabet. When I see this, I can find out if the alphabet was based on the Unown or Unown adapted to look like it," the professor explained.
"That's so exciting! I wish I could be part of your research," Alex said.
"Hmm...you could help me, but I need you to prove to me that you can do it. You can start by helping me catch three new starter pokemon for me," he said.
"I would be honoured!" Alex shouted. Alice nodded and the professor brought up some images of three pokemon.
"Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander. We catch one each," Professor Larch explained.