Adele...

Voice. A beautiful one.

Listen to me...

What is it? I'm listening.

Adele... you and the whole world as you know it are in danger. Only you can help.

What? Why me?

"ADELE!"

Because you have something that not many people have; you can listen. Use it. And if you listen carefully, you might hear something surprising...

Like... what?

You'll soon see...

"ADELE, NOW WAKE UP! OR SHALL I HAVE FLETCHLING WAKE YOU?!"

I have to go now, but I'm sure I'll see you soon. Goodbye, Adele. The fate of our country depends on you.

No, wait a minute, I... Argh!

Adele woke up to the feeling of something pecking her on the head. And hard. Her eyes snapped open and she quickly sat up, covering her head with her hands while exclaiming in irritation, "I'm awake already, you silly bird! You can stop that pecking!"

"At last! Took long enough!" said little Fletchling, the culprit of Adele's not-so-pleasant awakening, and flew to Adele's windowsill. She stayed to watch Adele, who was still rubbing her head, head tilted, and carried on, "Your mother is downstairs. She has something to say to you."

"Yeah, she usually has," Adele grumbled, finally stopping rubbing her head. She got up from her bed and walked over to the large mirror on the wall. Looking at her reflection, she wondered what she would wear today and continued, still a little irritated, "But she still might have expected me to wake up on my own, instead of putting you... wait a minute."

Adele's groggy brain was only now beginning to realise that something was different from normal. Slowly she turned to look at the little Fletchling still sitting on her windowsill and said slowly, "Fletchling, did you just talk?"

"What? I've always talked!" Fletchling chirped a little indignantly and flapped her wings. Adele, on the other hand, stared at her as if she had seen a ghost and slowly strode back to her bed. "No, I meant that I understood what you said. You didn't just say 'Fletchling' or anything like that, you spoke the same way people do. And that's not normal."

"You're not normal," Fletchling snapped, but Adele wasn't listening anymore. This was unheard of, Pokémon didn't talk. At least not in the same way as humans. Adele brushed her hands through her hair, trying to make sense of the situation. Was she still asleep? Was this some kind of sick hidden camera joke? Or was she going crazy? Or...

You'll see soon enough...

Suddenly, a memory of a beautiful voice she had heard only a moment ago flashed through Adele's mind. Was this the thing the voice had told her about? If so, what did it mean? Should she listen to every Pokémon she met?

"What are you thinking?" the familiar and so unfamiliar voice asked, and Adele was startled out of her musings. Fletchling stared at her questioningly and Adele shook her head slightly. "Nothing. Come on, let's go and eat. Mom's waiting for us," she said, holding out her hand so that Fletchling could fly to it. The riddle of the voice would have to wait a while, it was time for breakfast.

When Adele arrived downstairs, she found Grace, her mother, sitting at the kitchen table reading the day's news paper and drinking coffee. "Good morning. Or should I say day. You took a little longer than usual to wake up today," her mother said without looking up from her paper, and Adele shrugged. "Well, sorry about that, but Fletchling still didn't need to wake me. You know I hate it," she replied as Fletchling flew from her shoulder to sit beside her mother on the table and snatched a crumb of bread from it. Grace, however, just hummed and turned the next page of her news paper.

"I just did what I had to do. Besides, you should gradually learn to take responsibility for yourself. You're 16, not a little kid anymore," she said calmly, and Adele grimaced. "And that's why I decided to arrange things so that you would learn to take it."

"What do you mean?" Adele asked, confused, but Grace didn't have time to answer. Just then the doorbell rang and she rose from her chair. As she went to open it with Fletchling behind her, Adele could see the title of the news paper she was reading:

"Mysterious criminal organisation causes concern in Kalos. Champion Diantha: "We are doing everything we can to find out what is going on".

But that was all she had time to read, because her mother happened to mention her name just then and her attention turned in her direction.

"Yes, Adele is here. I'm sure she'll be here any minute," she heard her mother say from the hallway and her interest arose. She moved her chair so that she could see into the hallway and then peered into it.

Her mother was standing in the hall with Fletchling on her shoulder, holding the door open. On the other side of the door Adele saw two people; a girl and a boy, whom she assumed were about the same age as herself. The girl had brown, long hair, which she had put in two pigtails, and the boy wore a blue jacket that seemed to shine in the light from outside. Adele didn't know either of them, but that was no surprise. They had only recently moved to this small village and Adele was not the most social of people.

"Adele, come and meet these two nice young people!" her mother called from the hallway and Adele sighed. This was, of course, her mother's attempt to get her to meet people and make friends. Grimacing slightly, she forced herself not to reply with something nasty and shouted back, "Just a minute, I'm just going to change!" and then quickly slipped back upstairs. She wasn't going to introduce herself only the pyjamas on!

A moment later, Adele stepped downstairs again, but this time she was wearing something other than pyjamas. She had put on a red skirt, a grey top, grey knee-length socks and black shoes. She was wearing a pink hat and carrying a bag of the same colour. She had left her blond hair loose and had put white sunglasses on her hat as a decoration. She was very pleased with her outfit and thought it would suit whatever her mother had come up for her.

"There you are. Introduce yourself to these two nice people," Grace said as Adele entered the hall and she stifled a sigh. "Uh... hi. I'm Adele. Nice to meet you," she said, raising her hand and hoping that would be enough. In response to her introduction, the girl standing in the doorway began to smile broadly and exclaimed, "Hi Adele! I'm Shauna and this is Calem! It's so nice to meet you! We're going to have a great time together! Especially now that we're getting our own Pokémon and we get to battle and..."

"What!?" Adele exclaimed, interrupting Shauna, and Shauna flinched. "What do you mean Pokemon?"

"Didn't your mom tell you?" Calem asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. He had a much calmer voice and seemed calmer than Shauna anyway. Adele shook her head. "No. She didn't say any of this!" she hissed, creating a sharp glare at her mother.

"Remember when I said it was time for you to start taking responsibility? Well, here it is. As a Pokemon trainer, you get to take responsibility for your Pokemon and train for your future life," Grace explained with her hands on her hips and Adele stared at her in disbelief. "Besides, you get to travel the world and meet new people. You might even make friends."

"WHAT?! Don't you have friends!?" Shauna exclaimed in shock, but Adele ignored her. "But... but what if I don't want that?" she asked, still glaring at her mother, but Grace just shrugged.

"Nothing can do. It's already settled. So, get going already!" And then she pushed Adele out, slammed the door shut and left Adele standing shocked in the yard.

"So... uh... you're coming with us then?" Shauna finally said after a short (but slightly awkward) silence. She looked at Adele with raised eyebrows and a curious look in her brown eyes. Calem, on the other hand, watched Adele calmly, occasionally brushing a few strands of black hair away from his face.

"I suppose so," Adele sighed. Her mother had made it clear that there was no going back. "At least my mother made it clear that I had to go on a journey."

"Great, then we have to go!" Shauna giggled and grabbed Adele by the arm, pulling her along. She started pulling her along the yard of Adele's house and towards the gate that led away from the small village called Vaniville Town where they were just then. She didn't get very far, however, for halfway across the yard a large Rhyhorn stepped in front of her and stopped her. "Where are you going?" Adele heard Rhyhorn ask in her low voice and Shauna stopped suddenly.

"Oh," Shauna said, her eyes widening in surprise. Adele instead almost bump into her back because Shauna had stopped so suddenly. "You didn't tell me you had a Rhyhorn. I thought you didn't have Pokémon!"

"Who is this girl and why is she trying to kidnap you?" Rhyhorn said looking from Shauna to Adele and Adele shook her head. "I don't. Rhonda is my mother's Pokemon. Mom is a Rhyhorn racer, you see. And Rhonda, Shauna is not trying to kidnap me. She's just eager to go on a journey."

"Oh, so now you can understand me! The world sure is full of surprises! But a journey, huh? I wouldn't have believed," Rhonda said, her mouth curving into a small grin. "But the world sure is full of surprises. Soon you'll probably be a Champion or something even bigger."

"Don't make me laugh, Rhonda. Me, a Champion? Only in your dreams," Adele said, shaking her head, and Rhonda laughed hoarsely. Shauna, who of course hadn't understood what Rhonda was saying, watched the conversation with great amazement and finally said, "Adele, can you talk to Pokémon?!"

"Well... kinda..." Adele said evasively, not wanting to tell a near stranger about this new ability she had very recently acquired. It was enough for Shauna, however, as she turned excitedly towards Calem, who had been observing from a little further away, and cried, "Calem, did you hear that! Adele can talk to Pokémon! Isn't that cool?!"

"Yes it is," Calem said calmly. "But weren't we supposed to go? I don't want to be late for this..."

"You're right!" Shauna exclaimed, grabbing Adele's arm again. "Come on Adele, let's go before the Pokemon run out!" And then she started dragging Adele down the yard again, with Calem laughing behind her and Rhonda left to watch their trailing backs and wonder what their journey would be like.

"Oh my, this is so exciting! I've never had my own Pokemon, so I'm really excited about this!" Shauna quickly chattered as they walked along Route 1. Adele, however, was only listening with one ear, as the Pokemon conversations from all over the place distracted her concentration the entire time. Shauna didn't seem to notice her absence, however, as she kept going, "I wonder what my Pokemon is like? Will it be really powerful? Will it be cute? Of course it is, all Pokemon are cute! But I wonder if it has..."

Shauna kept talking to herself, but Adele wasn't really listening. She was lost in her own thoughts, so she was startled when someone said, right next to her, "Shauna's got a lot of energy, hasn't she?"

"What? Oh, right," Adele said, and realised Calem had stepped up beside her. Adele noticed the boy walking calmly forward, the exact opposite of Shauna, who was more jumping than walking. "I wonder where she gets all that energy from? Maybe she has solar panels somewhere that give her power all the time. Or she's secretly an Electric-type Pokemon, secretly generating electricity."

Calem chuckled. "Maybe, or maybe it's just her nature," he said with a chuckle, then stopped abruptly. "Oh, look, here we are. I didn't think it would take us this little time, although Route 1 isn't very long anyway."

They had stopped under some sort of gateway arch, on other side of which began a small town called Aquacorde Town. Shauna was standing a little further away from them, waving her hand happily and shouting, "Come on, they're already here!" Then she turned quickly and started running towards something Adele couldn't see.

"They?" she said instead, a little confused, and looked questioningly at Calem. He gave him a slightly apologetic look and said, "Sorry, we forgot to tell you. Two other guys have joined us today. They're very nice, I think you'll like them." He then motioned for Adele to follow and she did, although she still felt a little unsure about the whole thing.

They found Shauna at a small table outside one café. And she wasn't alone. She was accompanied by two boys, one of whom seemed to be telling a story that made Shauna laugh. But then She seemed to notice them, because a big smile spread across her face and she exclaimed, "There you are! I thought you were lost or something! Adele, I want you to meet these two. So, guys, introduce yourselves to Adele.

The two boys Shauna had been talking to turned to look at Adele and she smiled slightly. "Wow, she's pretty!" one of the boys, the one with dark hair and a black T-shirt, exclaimed when he saw Adele. Adele blushed a little confused, but Shauna slapped the boy's hand and hissed, "I didn't mean that." The boy seemed to get the message and said, slightly embarrassed, "Sorry. I meant that my name is Tierno. Nice to meet you, Adele."

"It's okay. And nice to meet you, too, Tierno," Adele said with a smile and Tierno playfully winked. Then the other boy, the one with the orange hair and some kind of camera-like device hanging around his neck, opened his mouth and said with a little sigh, "Okay, charmer, that's enough." Then he turned to look at Adele and said, a little more cheerfully, "I'm Trevor by the way, nice to meet you. Shauna's told us quite a lot about you in these few minutes."

"Really?" Adele said in surprise and sat down in the chair next to Shauna. Calem sat down next to her and Tierno nodded at Adele's question. "Yep! For example, she told us you moved here a while ago. Is that true?"

"Yeah, it is," Adele nodded. "We moved here a few weeks ago. We used to live near Dendemille Town, but then mom wanted somewhere warmer and we ended up here," she explained. However, she left out a small... incident that had happened in Dendemille Town that had led to her mother seeing fit to move somewhere a little further away.

"Wow! Isn't that pretty far North?" Trevor asked and Adele nodded. "Yes, it is. I can tell you it was pretty cold in the winter," she said with a smile, remembering some of the memorable winters she had spent as a child.

Shauna, however, was not interested in hearing about winters, but impatiently tapped her foot on the ground and huffed, "Can we get down to business already?! I bet Del would like to finally get to the reason she was dragged here!"

"Del? Is that the nickname you gave her? Wouldn't Lil A or something be better?" Tierno remarked when he heard the nickname Shauna had apparently come up with for Adele. "I certainly think it would be."

"Del's fine," Adele said quickly, feeling that Shauna's patience would not last another moment. "Let's just cut to the chase, if you don't mind."

"All right then," Tierno said with a shrug, then nodded to Trevor. He nodded back and then stood up. He leaned under the table, pulling out something Adele couldn't see. "In case any of you didn't already know, Professor Sycamore has asked us to participate in one of his research. That's what he gave these three guys for. So, guys, come on out!" Then he threw something in the air and Adele realised it was three Pokéballs.

There was a flash and then three Pokémon appeared in front of them. They were all different and all seemed a little confused after being in a new place. "Where are we?" said one of them, a small, orange fox, looking around in confusion. "I don't know, but we might soon find out," replied another, a blue frog, patting the fox on the back.

Unable to contain her excitement any longer, Shauna rushed over to the Pokemon, exclaiming, "Awww, they're so cute!" She crouched down next to the Pokémon and then squeezed one of them, a small green hedgehog-like creature, firmly. "Help!" Adele heard the creature say shrilly and tried to get out of Shauna's grip.

"Hey! Let her go!" the little fox exclaimed when he saw this, a few flames shooting out of his mouth. Shauna didn't understand what the fox was saying, but she could deduce it in other ways. "Oops, sorry, I didn't mean to," she said, and quickly released the hedgehog-like Pokemon. The Pokemon glared at her, and Adele had to stifle a giggle because she thought the Pokemon looked funny.

"Okay, here are the starters that Professor Sycamore sent. The hedgehog is called Chespin, the fox is Fennekin and the frog is Froakie. They are Grass, Fire and Water types. Everyone gets to choose one Pokemon," explained Trevor, who had found a sheet of paper somewhere with instructions.

"But there are only three. Two of us are missing out," Adele pointed out a fact that the others seemed to have forgotten. To her surprise, Tierno and Trevor just grinned and Tierno said, "Me and Trevs already have Pokemon, so that problem is already solved." Adele stared at him for a moment before shrugging and saying, "Oh, well, then."

"Which one of us gets first pick?" Calem asked, who, as was typical, had been watching the proceedings from a little distance. Shauna, however, seemed to have an answer ready. "Adele can! She was basically forced into this, so I guess it's only fair that she at least gets to choose her favourite Pokemon!" she exclaimed and Adele's eyes widened.

"What?! But... but you've waited so long for this," she tried to protest, but Shauna was determined. "No, you have to do it first. Come on, Adele! Do it!" she said and Adele sighed and gave up.

She stepped up to the Pokemon and they looked at her curiously. Adele really had no idea what these Pokemon were like, so she decided to just follow her heart. She looked at all three Pokémon for a while until she stopped at the middle one, Fennekin.

"Hey little guy," she said and Fennekin stared at her curiously. "What would you say if you became my... partner?" she asked, tasting the word "partner" in her mouth, as it felt a little weird to say it. But Fennekin looked at her intently for a moment, until his face turned into a broad smile and he said happily, "That would be so great! I think it would be so much fun if you became my trainer!"

"Great! Then I'll choose you!" Adele grinned and lifted Fennekin into her arms. Fennekin's fur was really warm and Adele was really surprised. "Oh! You're so warm!" she blurted out and Shauna giggled.

"Of course he is, he's a Fire-type," she said and then crouched down in front of the green hedgehog-like Pokemon. The latter looked at Shauna a little suspiciously as Shauna opened her mouth and said, "Well, our first encounter wasn't quite what I thought it would be, but would you still like to be a partner? I promise I won't squeeze you as hard as I just did. Or at least I'll try not to." The little Pokemon glared at him. Finally, though, she sighed and said, "Fine. You can be my trainer." She stepped closer to Shauna, making it clear that she accepted her as her Trainer.

Shauna was bursting with excitement. "Thank you! You're the best! You know, I'm going to call you Chespie, okay?" she asked, and Chespin felt her new name for a moment. Then she nodded and Shauna smiled broadly again.

"Yay! We're going to be best friends, trust me!" she said happily and then lifted Chespie into her arms. Chespie seemed wary at first, but when she noticed that Shauna didn't squeeze her so hard this time, she relaxed. Shauna instead turned to look at Adele and said, "You know, you should give your Fennekin a nickname too. It might help build your bond." Chespie in her arms nodded, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"A nickname? Okay, we can try that," Adele said, turning to look at her little Fennekin. "I wonder what I should name you? What would you like?" she thought for a moment, until suddenly it came to her.

"Felix! Your name can be Felix!" she exclaimed and Shauna giggled. "Sounds good! I'm sure Fennekin will like it too," she said and Fennekin in Adele's arms nodded enthusiastically. "It's great!" he said and Adele was glad she'd picked such a good name.

As Adele and Shauna named their Pokemon, little Froakie looked at the two of them a little sadly. He was sad that neither of those girls had chosen him and he wondered what he would do now. But then he noticed a shadow beside him, and when he turned to see where it came from, he saw a boy in a blue jacket crouched down beside him.

"Hello," the boy said, and Froakie stared at him. "I think we could make a good team, right?" Froakie stared at the boy for a moment until he understood what he meant and a happy smile spread across his face.

"Of course!" he said (even though Calem didn't hear it that way), and Calem smiled. "Great. I'll call you Shiro. I'm sure that's okay, right?" he asked and Froakie nodded enthusiastically. It was the perfect name for him and he liked it immensely, as he liked this boy who was now his trainer.

"Okay, you've now chosen your Pokemon, so I thought it would be a good time to give you these too," said Trevor, handing Adele, Shauna and Calem a small red device. Adele took it in her hand with interest and Felix in her arms sniffed it. Although Adele didn't know much about Pokémon or battling, she knew the device was a Pokedex, so she immediately scanned Felix with it and listened with interest as a clear female voice told her about Fennekin's Pokedex info:

"Fennekin, Fox Pokemon and Fire-type. As it walks, it munches on a twig in place of a snack. It intimidates opponents by puffing hot air out of its ears."

"Yeah, that's right!" Felix said happily from Adele's arms and Adele smiled at him. In addition to the info, the Pokedex showed what moves Felix was learned and what his nature was like. Adele quickly looked them over and after finding everything to be appropriate, she put her Pokedex in her bag, with Felix watching everything curiously from her arms.

"I almost forgot. Adele, Professor Sycamore asked me to give this to your mother," came Trevor's voice and Adele looked up. She saw Trevor handing her what appeared to be a plain brown envelope. "Oh, okay," she said and took the letter. She put it in her bag as well, then said to Felix, "Let's head back." Felix cried happily and Adele was about to turn to leave when a familiar, happy voice came from behind.

"Wait a minute!" Shauna was heard to exclaim and Adele turned. Shauna grinned at her and seemed to be planning something. "You're forgetting the most important thing. Now that we have Pokemon, we're obviously each other's rivals. And what do rivals do? Well, battle, of course! So, we should do that too!" she explained enthusiastically, and Adele seemed to get what he meant.

"Oh, you're challenging me to a battle?" she said and Shauna nodded. "I am! Adele, I challenge you to a Pokemon battle! And you'd better agree, because I'm not letting you out of here until we're done battling!" she declared firmly and Adele knew she meant it.

Adele wasn't too keen on a battle, but Felix thought otherwise. "Ooh, let's battle! Please, trainer, please?!" he said enthusiastically, wagging his bushy tail. Adele smiled at the little fox and said, "All right, if that's what you want. But just call me Adele." Felix nodded and said, "All right, Adele!" Then Adele let him back down and Felix immediately settled into a battling stance.

Shauna looked pleased. "That's it! Calem, you get to be the referee," she said and Calem nodded. "Okay. So this is a one vs one match between Shauna and Adele. The winner will be the one whose Pokemon is the last one standing," he explained just like the official Pokemon match judges did and then he grinned. "Let's the battle begin!"

So, first chapter is ready! I decided to make a little info card for every Pokemon I catch, so here is Felix's:

Species: Fennekin (male)

Nickname: "Felix"

Ability: Blaze

Nature: Naive

Characteristic: Capable of taking hits

Unfortunately this site does not allow you to add pictures, so I could not attach it here. But you probably know what Fennekin looks like anyway, don't you?

And yes, I chose Fennekin. All the Nuzlocke runs I've seen have chosen Froakie, but I wanted a change. Besides, Fennekin is my favorite starter of all the starters, so I couldn't help but pick it. And even though Braixen and Delphox look stereotypically feminine, I didn't start resetting the game to get a female one. Besides, that would be a bit against Nuzlocke rules, right?

But I hope you enjoyed this start of story, there will be more coming soon! So, stay tuned!

Originally posted here: /forum/threads/balanced-pokemon-x-nuzlocke.20955/