In which the plot begins.
Damian dragged the dimensionally-displaced Psychic to the town hall, although Amber waited against the wall when he approached his parents.
"I finished cleaning up the road, is there anything else I can do?" he asked, before snapping his fingers. "Oh, right! This is Amber. I found… them outside and they offered to help too."
"Nice to meet you, Amber," said Damian's father (presumably- they shared a similar facial structure, although their hair and eyes didn't match) said. Then, turning back to Damian, he continued: "Well, Damian, I think we're pretty well finished. As long as you have your gift for the Augur ready, I think you're done."
Damian blanched. "Oh. Well… um… I may have… forgotten."
"Of course you have," sighed the woman on the other side of Damian's father.
"You'd better find one, and fast. I heard you could find a Rare Stone in one of the caves in the forest. Of course, you'd need a Pokémon to go safely…" said his father, side-eyeing his wife (at least, Amber thought- she knew she wasn't Damian's mother, but otherwise not much about her).
"No, absolutely not! Not a chance!" she snapped. "Damian is not ready to get a Pokémon! He's still just a child!"
Amber found herself seething on Damian's behalf, even if the poor boy was more discouraged than angry. "Please? Everyone else in the town already got theirs and left on their journey!"
"And you're not going to follow them! You'll get yourself killed!"
"Why do you care? It's not like you're my real mother or anything…" Damian slumped.
"I raised you since birth! You're not capable of raising a plant, let alone a Pokémon! You're irresponsible, antisocial, and you can't even-" she began.
"Grass-type Pokémon exist," muttered Amber sotto voce.
"That's enough. You two are causing a scene." Damian's father didn't raise his voice, but both of them took heed nonetheless. "You said your name was Amber, yes?" Seeing her nod, he continued. "I'm sure you've handled a Pokémon before."
"As a matter of fact I have," Amber replied.
Damian's father nodded. "Good. We'll lend one to both you and Damian. Would you be willing to help him through the forest to the cave to help him find a gift for the Augur?"
Amber nodded. "Yessir."
"Wonderful! I'm very grateful. So it's settled, then. Amber will help Damian to get a gift for the Augur, and if Damian shows responsibility, perhaps he can keep the Pokémon afterwards. Well? How does that sound?"
"Fine. He won't, though." Damian's… stepmother? Probably. She turned away, nose in the air.
"Amber, let's go." Damian walked out of the room with Amber following, then stopped just outside the building. "Thanks for being willing to come with me."
"No problem, kiddo." She patted him on the head, ignoring his grumbling. "So, where to now?"
"The Professor's lab! She used to be an adventurer, so she has a lot of Eevee left over from her days as a trainer. Come on! It's this way."
As it turned out, the lab was a grey stone building on the edge of town with an abundance of windows.
When Amber and Damian entered, there was a fedora-wearing man in a black trench coat standing in front of who Amber assumed to be the Professor. They stood in between the bookshelves mostly blocking the path to the entrance, watching.
"...listen, Professor. These Pokémon… they're freaks. No other trainer would want them, and we can't keep them any longer. They're very uncooperative, their ability to speak notwithstanding, and they've refused to obey any of the trainers we've tried to pair them with. All I want is for you to take them. You already keep a bunch of Eevee as is, surely these three won't be a bother?" he finished.
The Professor frowned. "...Why do you care about them? I know what you've done."
"It's true, I'm merciless. I've done some awful things. But there's no reason for these Pokémon to die, not over being gifted to the wrong man."
"Um… Hello?" asked Damian, frowning. "I'm Damian, and this is Amber. We're here to get a Pokémon so we can go into the forest safely. Is now a bad time?" He shrunk back a bit once Reukra's full gaze fell onto him (or at least Amber thought it was Reukra. She wasn't sure.).
"Sylvan, if you don't take these Pokémon, I'll release them, and they're sure to die in the wild. If you want, you can just give them to these kids, right?"
The Professor sighed. "Let them out, so they can at least see what their options are."
Reukra threw three blue-and-gray Poké Balls, and-
"Amber?" asked three Pokémon at once.
Amber sucked in a breath through her nose, then sighed, turning to Reukra even as the three Deltas swarmed her. "Looks like you ended up with stolen Pokémon. They're my friends."
"Is that so." Reukra looked into her eyes, then turned away. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go talk to the man who swore to me that they were a trade from one of his subordinates." He turned on his heel, then stalked out, a palpable aura of malice building around him.
"Well then…" The Professor looked very awkward for a moment, then sighed. "Alright, Damian. Come out back to the Eevee paddock so we can pick one out for you."
Curious, Amber followed the two out through a door in the side of the lab, which opened into a relatively large, fenced-in area with a significant…
"Hey, Bulbasaur, do you know what the proper term for a group of Eevee is? A herd? A pack?"
Before Bulbasaur could respond, the little foxlike Pokémon swarmed them, purring relentlessly and begging for scritches with their wide eyes and squeaky "E-vui!" noises that those of them who could understand Pokémon understood as excitement over new people.
"I think it's a pack, but I'm not sure," said Bulbasaur.
"Got it, thanks."
One (rather pale) Eevee, who hadn't swarmed around the Professor and Damian, did a double take. "Wait, did you just understand that weird pink Bulbasaur?"
Amber looked at the oddly large and poofy fluffball at her feet, then winked. "I did, but keep a lid on that, please."
"Yeah! Yeah, definitely," squeaked the Normal-type.
Amber turned her attention to Damian and the Professor, who were still at the epicenter of a massive swarm of Eevee. After a few minutes, the group disbanded except for one, who nuzzled against Damian's legs.
That done, the three humans returned through the same door through which they entered, upon which time the Professor walked behind a desk and retrieved two devices, which she held out to each of the younger trainers. "These are Pokédexes, which are the primary way we collect and categorize data on Pokémon. I'd like you each to take one and use it to take records of the Pokémon you encounter along your journey."
"But…" Damian frowned. "We're just going to Shade Forest to get the Augur a gift!"
The Professor looked Damian dead in the eyes. "This Pokémon is yours. And I know for a fact that you've been wanting to go on a journey for a long time. Think of this as a… going-away present."
"Are you sure?" asked Damian, frowning.
"Yes, Damian. I wouldn't trust you with an Eevee if I wasn't."
Damian took the device with wide, shocked eyes. "Wow. Thanks, Professor. Hey, uh, Amber? I need a little time to myself. I'll meet you in the cave to the north of town." With that, he walked out of the room, the Eevee still following him.
The Professor turned to Amber once the door swung shut. "Are you the same Amber that Adam talked about taking in? The one who came to Torren with that weird storm?"
"If I'm not, then someone else has a remarkably similar backstory to me."
The Professor gave Amber a level look that somehow conveyed both amusement and the fact that now was not the time. "Good. I want you to keep an eye on Damian when he goes on his journey."
Amber nodded. "Already planned on doing that. He's a good kid."
"Thank you. I'm glad that there can be someone to look out for Damian when he goes out into the world besides his Pokémon." She offered the Pokédex to Amber.
Amber patted her pockets, then pulled out her Rotomphone, which by some miracle hadn't been stolen by the cultists. "No need, Professor. I've got that Galarian prototype software for this, so I don't need one of those."
"Still. I want to thank you for being willing to keep an eye on Damian. I mean, I'll let you keep any Pokémon you catch that you're not capable of taking with you at any point here, but that's something that I end up doing to a lot of ambitious trainers in Torren." She frowned, thinking, then started. "You know, that Eevee behind you looks pretty attached to you."
"Wait, what?" Amber turned to see the aforementioned Normal-type behind her, at which point she frowned. "What are you doing here, little one?"
"Uhh…" The little Pokémon hesitated, seeing all five other denizens of the room look over at it. "I wanted to try and follow you around and convince you to bring me with you."
Amber looked over at the Professor, who shrugged. "If the little one wants to go with you, I won't hold it back." She frowned. "I think that one's the special one, though."
Amber frowned, even as the three Delta Pokémon around her ankles went over to the Eevee and started having a conversation. "Special how?"
"Well…" she begun.
"Ah-choo!" Amber turned around just in time to see a giant cloud of dirt dust explode off the Eevee, and when it shook its head, several little orbs floated out of its now-black neck ruff.
"It ate an Eevite," finished the Professor, lamely.
Amber blinked, then frowned. "Was that a shiny Mega Eevee pretending to be a regular Eevee?"
"Uhhh…" The little normal type quailed a little bit. "Sorry?"
"Ach," huffed Amber, pressing her hand to her face and dragging it down. "It's almost like the author is trying to make it hard for me to fly under the radar," she grumbled.
"What was that?" asked the Professor.
"Nothing, nothing. If you're sure?"
"You've got a good heart. Otherwise, that Eevee wouldn't have been willing to follow you."
Amber sighed. "Alright. Any objections from you three?" Seeing all three Deltas shake their heads, Amber nodded. "Alright, Eevee. Welcome to the team."
Professor Sylvan handed Amber a blue-green Shiny Ball. "This is Eevee's." After Amber took it, the Professor snagged her arm. "Whatever you do, don't trust the cults."
Amber gave her a lopsided grin. "Trust me, Professor," she drawled, "There's absolutely no reason I would."
And that's it! Originally, I was intending to go on a little longer, and have Amber catch… well, you'll see next episode. But I have a thing I have to prep for tonight, and after that I'm probably gonna be running the Crown Tundra.
Still looking for a beta, so if you're interested…
Read and review, please and thancc, and have a nice day.