Chapter 1: The Last Rose of Winter
As the world came into focus around him all he could bring himself to take in was the sound, dozens of people talking animatedly and loudly. Meaningless noise that only served to disturb his sleep and a voice interrupting him before he could close his eyes again and leave the noise and crowds behind, a voice that shocked him to attention even now, fifteen years after he'd first heard it, it spoke with an intensity that promised imminent pain if he didn't obey it. "Gyles wake the hell up we're here and if we don't get off this damn airplane we're going to be left behind." Gyles' only response was to sigh and crack open his barely closed eyes as he sat forward.
"They can't just leave us behind on a plane mum, they're probably going to come back over and ask if we're having trouble or ask us to hurry and leave because they want to clean the plane or something."
"I. Don't. Care." His mother punctuated each word with a light slap to his arm even as Gyles rose to grab his luggage from the overhead compartment and idly grabbed at his belt to ensure everything was in order. "It'll be embarrassing if we get off the plane later than anyone else or if they have to tell us to go, all because you decided that sleep was more important than anything else."
"Fine, fine look I'm moving already, dear Arceus woman could you stop hitting me? I'm moving already." Gyles took a few unshaky steps as he mentally shouted at his legs to wake up and get moving. Moving over towards the brightly lit doorways he mumbled a thank you to the flight attendants and heard his mother do the same behind him, the door was low and he had to duck slightly to get under it but he didn't care, mainly because he was too tired to, but also he had other thoughts running through his mind.
He hadn't been here in five years, hadn't seen the relatives they would be visiting since he was a child but those thoughts needed to be pushed aside for the moment because he was being told to move and in a foggy dream like state the tall teen pushed onward, down the stairs that would take them out of the plane, into the terminal where they would be admitted into the region, and took his first steps into the Kalos region in a very long time.
Gyles walked down one of the five main roads of Lumiose city with a slight smile on his face, in truth even at age fifteen he still had the youthful enthusiasm for exploring that had been sparked inside him at age ten when his mother Louise had first brought him to meet her cousins here in Kalos, he was just better at hiding it now and so instead of constant laughter and a bright smile that ran from ear to ear, the teen only showed his elation in a slight smile.
Looking up from the ground and shoving his earphones away into the pocket of his jeans along with his Xtransceiver he approached the front doors of the building in front of him and swiped his apartment ID key over the sensor and pushed the doors open. The four flights of stairs up to his family's apartment weren't that hard to get up and he bolted up all four as fast as he could before ringing the doorbell to the apartment.
He was greeted by the smiling face of his mother and as the short woman walked back inside he quickly entered and kicked off both shoes before closing the door behind him. His mother called out to him from the kitchen before he could relax however. "Did you have a good walk? Also in case you haven't noticed the AC is running so I'd suggest getting Rose out and having her get used to the climate here, you know how hard it is for her so maybe ease her into it. Your appointment isn't for a few hours anyway."
"Yeah good point, besides I'm sure the hours in a pokeball on the flight have driven her halfway to madness out of pure boredom." Gyles called back before unclipping the sole pokeball on his belt. The pink heal ball sailed casually through the air and popped open with a bright flash of white and blue light, before the ball had even hit the ground however Gyles felt his knee give out from under him and he tumbled to the ground with a loud crash, a Deerling stood over him, panting, sweating and shivering all at once looking like she couldn't decide whether to freeze or overheat and the short fur on her back was standing on end.
Gyles wrapped his arms around the small pokemon however and simply whispered to her "You're going to be ok, I know the heat is new and that it's a shock compared to how cold our part of Unova was but you'll get used to it, we've got the air-con unit running and Mum has water for you in the kitchen ok? Breathe, stay calm, if you need help find me, or find Mum and she'll get me." Rose calmed down slightly at his words and walked off unsteadily towards the kitchen where he heard her cry out happily as his mother no doubt assaulted the pokemon with pure love and affection as she always did whenever Rose was out.
"Gyles, What was that crash earlier? Did Rose hurt herself?" His mother called from the kitchen as Gyles picked himself up and walked over towards the main living area of their apartment that also doubled as a living dining room.
"No she's fine, she just hates being in her ball for that long and she took it out on my leg."
"What do you mean Gyles? Your leg couldn't have made that large a sound, no matter how hard Rose hit you."
"Yeah well she hit the back of my leg and then the floor hit me, very fast." He explained dryly to his mother as he shifted through the small living area towards the kitchen and spied Rose drinking a lot more water than he thought her little form could handle. His mother however instead of showing concern for her son who'd just been brutally assaulted by one of his best friends and the floor simply burst out laughing and pat Rose's shivering back.
"Well whatever you did Rose I'm sure he deserved it." She managed to get out between laughs. "Also Gyles I know you're not used to the heat yet but that's no excuse to be covered in sweat, go shower, you smell."
"Fine, fine, I'm going." Shedding his blue t-shirt, an old favourite of his with a coffee cup design, and gently removing his Xtransceiver and earphones from his jeans pockets before putting them on the kitchen bench he kept walking towards the bathroom, shedding his jeans and the rest of his clothing and dumping it in the laundry on the way past, he began to run the water and waited for it to heat up for his shower and as he stepped into the now warm shower Gyles thought back to meeting Rose, his best friend of three years.
Winter in Unova was long and harsh, a time of snow flurries and whipping wind, especially around Mistralton City, nestled away in the mountains and where extremely windy days were all too common in his opinion. But winter in Unova came with unexpected blessings, like the soft snowfalls, all children loved the snow and twelve year old Gyles was no exception. The first day of winter had brought with it the first snowfall and all of the children of Mistralton had taken it in stride as they ran around the town and the town's outskirts throwing snowballs and building snowmen or snow-pokemon.
Gyles himself had been running close to the border of the town with a group of old school friends when he'd heard the screams, a group of four younger children had come running from the woods near Route 7 screaming about a pokemon and how they were going to die. Gyles, curious as all small children, had of course bolted into the woods with his friends rather than away, the group promptly split up to cover more ground and Gyles ran further into the woods before a loud cry of pain stopped him in his tracks, it had been too high pitch to come from any of his friends and he knew it was closer than they were, and so when the second cry came he began moving towards it, slowly so he didn't startle any pokemon that might attack him.
As Gyles came across the clearing covered in snow the first thing he noticed was the body, laying in the snow and shivering was a small Deerling, common around Route 7, the pokemon cried out again, obviously in pain as its hind legs spasmed. Gyles walked forwards and the deerling noticed him immediately and tried to rise onto its legs to defend itself, the Deerling rose so it was almost standing before collapsing back into the snow as it cried out again, in obvious pain.
Gyles ran forward and dropped onto the snow covered ground next to it and gasped. There was no obvious injury on the small pokemon but something was very wrong, they'd been lectured on pokemon native to the area in school and Gyles knew that when a Deerling changed their coat to match the seasons they did so near instantly and it remained the same until the season changed, or other conditions such as temperature or humidity had been met.
But this Deerling's coat was all wrong, it was changing and shifting constantly between the short-haired orange coat of autumn and the long-haired brown coat of winter. Gyles crouched over the pokemon and his warm breath filled the air in rapid pants, he'd admit to not being the fittest of people but a slog through calf deep snow would make anyone tired he thought, the Deerlings coat suddenly flashed to the incredibly short, green summer coat. The Deerling screamed in pain and glared at the boy angrily before it dropped its head and the coat flashed again back to the orange and brown it was shifting between constantly.
Gyles swore loudly and some far-off part of his brain knew that his mother would never approve of what he'd just said, he snapped out of his musings quickly though and looked down at the Deerling next to him, it was in pain, and it needed help, fast.
"Hey, calm down ok, I know it probably hurts constantly changing like that but I'm going to try getting you help, ok?" He softly spoke to the Deerling, trying to keep the pained pokemon calm. The Deerling glared at him, but seemed too exhausted and pained to put up a fight and simply nodded its head at him.
Gyles smiled "Okay great, now I know Deerling and Sawsbuck tend to travel in herds, so where's yours?"
The Deerling shook its head at him and cried out again though not as pained as last time Gyles could tell the subject of its herd wasn't going to be a good thing to talk about unless he wanted to make it more frustrated than it already was.
"Okay then no herd, damn if I'm being honest here I thought one of the Sawsbuck might be able to help with your problem, while we're talking though do you know what's wrong? Most of your species changes their coats really fast apparently, faster than a pokemon evolving and that's basically instant change."
The Deerling simply cried out again and swung its head at the snow around it.
"So is the snow the problem? Can you just not handle the cold?"
Deerling shook its head violently and cried out quietly.
"Right now snow's not the problem and communications are going nowhere. Alright here's the deal."
Deerling looked at the boy confused, its head tilted to one side.
"You know what a Pokemon Center is right?" A nod. "Good so you know it's where they heal sick and injured pokemon then, there's one not even five minutes away if I run but it doesn't look like you can move if your attempt at standing is any indication." Another nod. "Alright, so I'm just going to have to carry you, now do me a favour and don't hit me, yeah?" A more hesitant nod this time, shaky and uncertain.
"Right up we go." Gyles stood up and dug both arms through the snow and under Deerling, lifting it so he carried it like a baby he held it close to his chest even as his arms protested carrying something this large. "Jeez how much do you weigh, it's like carrying a piece of furniture." Gyles received a light kick to the chest as a reward for his efforts. "Right, sensitive subject as well then, also, not a threat but I'm not exactly an athlete so kick me again and I drop you." For the rest of their journey to the pokemon center Deerling was very, very still.
The journey wasn't a long one and Gyles reached the doors of the pokemon center immediately pushing past the small crowd of trainers milling about in the lobby, staying out of the snow, and up towards the front desk. "Nurse Joy, this Deerling, she needs help, now." Gyles puffed out, what he thought was a pretty decent sentence given he'd just run for a few minutes straight while carrying what was basically dead weight.
Nurse Joy took one look at Deerling, who's coat had begun to rapidly shift between the pink of spring and the green of summer inside the heated pokemon center, and nodded seriously, waving over an Audino who pushed a stretcher out from behind the counter. "Lay her down there and we'll see if we can find out what's causing her coat to shift so erratically." Laying Deerling down on the stretcher Gyles watched as she was carted away into the medical rooms by Audino. When he looked away though Nurse Joy was speaking into a microphone on the desk, behind her the doors opened and a second Nurse Joy stepped out and walked over to the desk to begin helping the trainers, the original however waved him over to the side of the room and as Gyles walked over she spoke in a hushed but firm voice. "That Deerling isn't your pokemon is it?" She said in a matter of fact tone.
"No, how did you know."
"Because if she was presumably you'd know what her condition was and what's going on. As it is however I can try and figure out what's going on and see if we can treat her, in the meantime I need you to call this number," Nurse Joy pulled a pen from the pocket on her dress and began to write on her notepad before ripping the page off. "Call her and explain everything about Deerling's situation, she might be able to help."
Gyles watched as Nurse Joy walked away and through the doors of the back room before walking over to the video phone booths and dialing in the number, almost in a daze. Before long a face appeared on screen a woman with bright green eyes and styled brown hair stared back at him, before a smile broke out on her face. "Hello there stranger, my name is Professor Aurea Juniper, who might you be and how did you get my number." Gyles stumbled out a greeting after a shocked moment of silence, he was talking to the regional professor, the famous Professor Juniper who was regarded as one of the greatest researchers of her time, despite her young age.
Hurriedly Gyles forced down the strange lump in his throat and followed Nurse Joy's instructions explaining his situation, how he'd found the Deerling in pain with no injuries and its never ending changes between its seasonal forms, ending with how Nurse Joy had given him her number and how he'd called her to see if she had answers.
The Professor's kind smile faltered a little when he mentioned how Deerling had been in pain, but brightened again when he mentioned her constantly changing forms. "Well, I'll check around the lab and my notes on both Deerling and Sawsbuck but I don't believe I've ever heard of something like that before, pokemon form changes aren't exactly my specialty. Go tell the Nurse that I'll call the pokemon center back when I have definitive answers."
Gyles choked out a response "But she's gone into the bac-"
"Aah she's in the backroom is she? Just knock on the door darling, you'll be fine. I'm sure she'll let you see the dear pokemon as well. Get it? dear, Deerling?"
Gyles stared flatly at the beaming woman on the other side of the call "Why? Why would you do that?"
If anything the woman only smiled brighter, "Why because you look the most stressed I've ever seen a 10 year old boy, and over a pokemon you barely even know, go talk to the nurse darling I promise you'll feel better after you see Deerling, even if my puns can't help I'm certain seeing Deerling okay and not in pain will."
The call cut out after that and Gyles stood up and began to make his way over towards the door Nurse Joy had disappeared through earlier. Ignoring the strange looks he got from the trainers, both in the lobby and in line, as well as the small smile of the nurse on duty he rapped his knuckles on the door once, twice and before he could knock a third time the doors slid open and the kind Nurse he'd spoken with mere minutes ago waved him in, through the doorway and into a sterile white room. The first thing he noticed was how surprisingly warm it was like stepping into a warm shower after playing in the snow for hours. The second was that Deerling was standing and its fur had settled to its spring coat of bright pink. While he was thinking about Deerling though…
"Nurse Joy?" he asked even as the nurse turned to look over at screens that detailed information that Gyles couldn't begin to decipher.
"Hmm?"
"You called Deerling 'she' earlier, how did you know her gender without a detailed scan? We were taught that there were no really big differences between males and females at school, is there one that people miss?"
"Yes there is one that people miss and they do it quite commonly too, Deerling have an interesting bodily make up even if we ignore their pelt that changes length and colour according to their environment, as a male Deerling grows they will devote a substantial amount of their calcium and collagen towards their skulls in preparation for growing the antlers that they obtain when they become Sawsbuck."
"What's collagen? I've never heard of it before."
"Collagen is what you could consider to be the framework of bones, and while calcium makes up and hardens the outer areas to make the antlers, stronger, more powerful and more impact resistant the collagen protein is what helps the antlers grow larger."
"But even as Sawsbuck we've been told there's no obvious difference between the two genders, so what does this have to do with how you could tell Deerling was a girl?"
"I'm getting to that, you see even with the extra buildup of materials for growth, when Deerling undergoes semi-instantaneous metamorphosis, or evolution. Their bodies change in a way that removes the build-up entirely, turning most of it back into either energy, or regular protein."
"No way, all that potential, wasted? Then why even have the buildup at all if it's just going to be thrown away like that?"
"There are many separate theories but I personally am a fan of the belief that the build-up did once affect Deerling in a time long long ago before it underwent evolution to transform into Sawsbuck, when it simply grew older as humans such as you or I do."
"So it's like genetic leftovers then?"
The Nurse laughed brightly and from across the room Deerling looked up from her bowl of food at the loud sound. "Yes you could call it that."
"You never tol-"
"Told you how I could tell she was a she? Simple really, female and male Deerling both have the same diet and appetite, however instead of having a build-up of materials near the skull, female Deerling often send it down towards their legs instead, and because their legs are constantly growing in this form, unlike their antlers, female Deerling use those materials to develop slightly longer, stronger legs and harder hooves and bones. So when I picked her up to move her onto the stretcher earlier and felt her legs and I knew she was female, she also has a very high pitch cry, most males would have a lower pitch voice at this age."
"How old is she?"
"Around two years into their average fifty to sixty year lifespan, though we believe they can live longer if they photosynthesise more often the way some other long living grass types do."
Deerling had at this point walked over and begun curiously analysing the pair, the nurse who had stopped her pain and the boy who had saved her many days of pain and struggling. The boy looked many, many moons younger than the nurse but she didn't mind, appearances could be deceiving after all, her mother had told her stories of the great illusion foxes of the south who lived in the forests and bent the world to whatever they wished weaving great distractions around their nests so they would not be disturbed, that was long ago though, before the herd had. Deerling cringed at the thought and banished it, not right now. No wallowing in self pity after she'd just been saved.
"Gyles, I feel as though I should tell you, I can't keep this up, the back rooms here in the center are emergency rooms for both wild and trainer pokemon yes, but because she's a wild pokemon, legally I'm only allowed to heal her of injuries if they're non-life threatening, I'm pushing it as it is because of her… condition but I don't know if she can be allowed to stay here, and I don't even want to think about what would happen if she went back out into the cold as she is." Nurse Joy spoke solemnly "But I also don't want you to have that on your conscience, knowing you did everything you could to help someone and having that all end up meaningless is the worst feeling in the world, trust me when you work in this job long enough you know that nothing compares to the pain of knowing you failed."
"So, because there's no trainer for her. She can't stay?"
"No, no she can't"
Gyles looked down solemnly, and caught Deerling staring at him the way she had in the woods, he stared deep into her eyes, they looked like melted chocolate, he idly thought. "-trainer."
"I'm sorry Nurse Joy I didn't hear you,"
"I said, what if you were to become her trainer?"
"What, why me?"
"Well you found her and brought her here to be healed, besides you know about her condition and can try helping her through it and isn't it every ten year olds dream to be a pokemon trainer?"
"No." Gyles responded flatly "Pokemon training is the last thing on my mind."
"What." It was Nurse Joy's turn to exclaim her confusion as she turned to look quizzically at the boy. "why not? Pokemon are amazing creatures even if you don't battle, simply having them as companions has changed lives for many people."
"So I've been told, my family doesn't approve much of pokemon training, more specifically my father's family. They see it as an unsustainable job where if you succeed you can go far, but if you fail, you fail hard, and there is no safety net to catch you at the bottom of that fall."
"Even so many people of all levels of experience are able to make a living through pokemon training, you don't need to be the champion to succeed, hundreds if not thousands make it every yea-"
"Yes Nurse Joy hundreds and thousands of trainers, and I'd be what, one in the masses, what are my chances of standing out then. Of finding a way to create a stable income and a living for myself outside of battling, what if the only trainers who agree to battle me are stronger than me and all I can do is lose and lose and lose, worse yet by then end of it all I'm not just responsible for my futures, but the futures of my team. I can't let people down like that."
By the end of his impassioned spiel Gyles had risen to his feet and begun walking away, much to the dismay of the Deerling if her drooping ears and watery eyes were any indication.
"I can't help her Nurse Joy, there would be too much at risk, if it meant helping an innocent pokemon I'd gladly try and help. My mother's raised me to be a good person after all. But I won't risk more than my own future on a bet relying on my own competence or if we're being honest lack thereof."
Gyles was at the doorway by now and the auto doors slid open ahead of him. "Goodbye Nurse Joy, goodbye Deerling. I hope you find a trainer who's able to look after you."
As Gyles walked away however, internally kicking himself in self disgust for abandoning that poor helpless creature because of his own lack of spine. All because he was too afraid to stand up against others and argue for his own beliefs. Not for the first time in his life, or even that day Giles cursed his lack of a spine and his own lack of willpower and shuffled through the snow for the short, cold walk home.
The one thing he missed as he walked away however, music blasting through both earphones in an attempt to drown out his own thoughts and eyes pointed straight at the ground ahead of him, was the smile that lit up the face of the Nurse as Gyles had left and how confident she had been as she picked up Deerling and spoke softly into her ear. "Don't worry little one, you'll see him again, I promise...Now where did I leave my Xtransceiver?"
Gyles had thought he'd never see that Deerling again when he returned home to spend the rest of his winter holidays as he'd planned earlier, on his own some days, with his friends other days and without any Pokemon to his name. Those plans shattered later into the week when he was called downstairs by his father after dinner and as he passed his younger brother's bedroom and walked down the stairs he prepared to meet the glaring eyes of his father and his mothers soft ones, prepared to apologise for whatever he'd done.
He was shocked to be greeted by neither set of eyes, but instead met two sets of less familiar ones, but ones that had not left his memory yet. A pair of soft brown ones and a pair of bright green ones. Two heads of styled brown and pink hair turned towards him as he descended the stairs and entered his family's living room and as one face broke out into a splitting grin, and the other into a soft smile his heart leapt for joy internally.
Gyles wasn't a fool, he knew there was only one thing this could be about and as he walked over to greet their late night guests he couldn't stop a small smile from breaking out onto his face, one that instantly caused both of the guests to smile harder, they knew he knew.
"Right, I suppose I'd better introduce myself then hadn't I. My name is Professor Aurea Juniper, and you already know my companion Nurse Joy. We're here to talk about your son, or more importantly his actions to be specific the consequences of said actions." Juniper spoke with a smile.
Gyles' father may have been rough, stubborn and angered easily and angry very often but never let it be said he was impolite to a guest he'd just invited into his home. Gyles knew his grandparents would never let a child of theirs be impolite to guests. His grandparents were some of the kindest people he knew, even if his grandfather had a skull thicker than a Bastiodon and Rampardos combined.
Within minutes fresh cups of tea and coffee had been laid out on the table on the back patio, overlooking the dimly lit snow covered backyard they were seated at now and as Gyles looked across the table at the two woman that had come to his house in the middle of the night he couldn't help but wonder what they had to say and what they could possibly say to his parents that would make any difference.
"So, firstly I'd like to extend my apologies for visiting so late but the matter of our discussion is time sensitive and I've only just arrived here in Mistralton so I wanted to get through this as soon as possible, your son. Has been brought to my attention through certain actions of his own, not even a week ago. Actions which undoubtedly will have consequences, we're here to discuss those actions and consequences."
Gyles' parents looked at each other heavily before they turned to regard him. He of course hadn't told them about his encounter with Deerling, or his refusal to become her trainer. However as all twelve year olds do when they feel like they're in trouble and the center of attention, all he did was stare anywhere but at the four people focused on him.
"I take it he hasn't told you then. Wonderful." Nurse Joy flatly, spoke for the first time since she entered.
It was at this point if Gyles remembered correctly, that the professor burst out laughing and stammered out an apology to his parents saying she was prone to over-dramatising events for her own enjoyment.
"Again I am sorry, your son has actually performed a great deed, he saved a life. One he had no business saving and one that he could have let go and no one would have blamed him for it but your son chose to save that life and I feel as though he made the right choice that day, and I know the good Nurse here agrees with me."
"Whose life did he save?" His mother had turned to regard him with a light in her eyes he'd never seen before, or maybe he had seen it before, just never directed at him.
"A young, barely mature Deerling who, we suspect, has a strange genetic condition that causes her fur to shift erratically and makes her hyper sensitive to any outside change in climate. She would have died due to spasms or the pain had your son chosen to leave her in the snow that day."
"Oh, a pokemon." his father's rough baritone grumbled out from beneath a grey and brown beard. "And so what consequences could saving a pokemon have."
"Out of interest sir, and apologies if I've overstepped my bounds here but do you have an issue with pokemon?" Nurse Joy spoke softly across the table to his father, the slightest edge in her voice was almost undetectable and even three years later Gyles wouldn't be able to tell what kind of mood she's been in. Her face, lit only by the roaring fireplace in the living room, gave away no indication of what she thought or felt at the moment, and seeing the blank look on Nurse who's face had only been smiles in Gyles' memory worried him.
"An issue with them, no, I work with pokemon daily and they do wonders to help drive humanity forward when we work side by side, the ones I have problems with are pokemon trainers."
"Why?"
"Why? Because what do they give back? All they do is train pokemon to become stronger so they can fight harder and win more and more blood money and eventually when the costs begin to outweigh the gains, their pokemon are cut loose. Sure they offer protection to a region in times of crisis or against wild pokemon who are acting up but even with the league supervising them what's stopping them from abusing a pokemon's power for their own gain, what if they chose not to protect people but to protect their self interests. What then? Pokemon training is a dream for many, but it's simply that, a dream, pursuing a dream is all well and good as long as you idolise the result, but what happens when you reach that dream and find it's not all it was hyped up to be, where do you go from there. Without a sustainable income and without any real qualifications for other jobs. You become a leaf drifting on the wind and a purposeless life like that is one I can't accept."
Gyles had zoned out halfway through his father's usual spiel on pokemon training and begun pondering how much hairspray Professor Juniper used to make her hair stay up like that, did she wear a gas mask in the mornings before it set, what did it look like after she got out of bed, what happened to it while she slept. Gyles was able to zone out of his father's rant because, like his mother, he'd heard it dozens of times before and knew it was almost always the same rant his father used.
"You raise several good points I'll admit that, pursuing an ideal is a beautiful thing, but in the end when an ideal is reached it no longer looks as appealing as it did when you stood so far away from it you could scarcely imagine yourself approaching it." Professor Juniper spoke up softly, her smile dropped a little, but not much. "However I'd like to talk about those consequences your son has to face."
"That Deerling is a wild pokemon, and so legally I cannot treat her once she is fully healed of all physical injuries, I've been sheltering her in the storage rooms of the pokemon center, where there is a controlled climate, but she can't stay there forever." Nurse Joy spoke now, softly but firmly.
"Yes and my friend here has already raised this point with Gyles once, when he had originally brought Deerling to the pokemon center. She needs a trainer, Gyles however turned her down, citing his lack of qualifications and his own inability to care for pokemon as reasons, among other things." The profesor sent a knowing smile towards Gyles who had finally looked up at the adults around him. "However after hearing about his little speech from Nurse Joy I believe there could be no better trainer for Deerling than Gyles here."
"No, absolutely not. My son will not become a pokemon trainer."
"Trainer is a bit of an honorary term here, Deering will struggle with adapting to climates if Gyles were to travel and I believe that Gyles wouldn't like to travel anyway, you wouldn't be looking at a travelling battler like most trainers but more of a caretaker role, just making sure the Deerling's okay and taking her for regular checkups with Nurse Joy. Also regarding his lack of qualifications and in his own words 'competence or lack-thereof' while his lack of a trainer license is an issue as regional professor I have my ways around that and after listening to Nurse Joy talk about the boy and how well he was able to get Deerling to calm down despite its pain I have 0 doubt that he is indeed a competent young man."
"Hmm, I wouldn't go so far as to say competent but regardless you said this Deerling had a condition that caused it to be hypersensitive to climate changes, our home isn't exactly the most stable of climates and we have no way of helping it stay stable here and also how exactly do you plan on dealing with his lack of qualification. A trainer license is legally necessary to own a pokemon, without one he and by extension my wife and I could get into serious trouble. He's already twelve, two years after most complete their trainer course, if he were to start now he wouldn't finish until he was fifteen or older."
"Yes you are correct in that Deerling's condition is worrying, as is your son's lack of qualification, however I have prepared solutions to both issues that, with your approval could make this work, and make it very easy on all of us. You see your backyard looks significantly underused and relatively spacious, I'd be willing to fund a replica of my own labs biodome here, one that would let both Deerling and Gyles interact safely and work together without disturbing or endangering anyone else or themselves and regarding Gyles trainer license. As a regional professor I'm allowed to give out scholarships of a sort. Normally these go to promising young trainers and they're awarded with a pokedex and a starter pokemon as well as a place to safely store their pokemon at my lab, however as Gyles will not be journeying he has no need of a pokedex, and a starter pokemon would be overkill if he were to take in Deerling. I propose that I offer Gyles a sponsorship where in return for data I would collect on Deerling and him taking down observations on my behalf I would be willing to financially and legally support him, this would also lead to him obtaining a junior researchers license the moment the ink dried on the paper and it would thus be legal for him to own Deerling as his pokemon."
Gyles' father seemed shocked at the amount of investment someone of Professor Juniper's stature was willing to put into his son and one pokemon. "Why? why him?"
"Simply because he already has an established bond with Deerling and because after talking with Nurse Joy about Gyles he seems to have a good head on his shoulders and both his heart and mind are in the right place. This would be no different for me than sponsoring a young researcher's own minor lab and helping them push their goals forward so they in turn help me. I've never done it personally but I know of other professors who greatly enjoy helping others, besides monthly he'd receive a fraction of my own financial grants from the league and thus it wouldn't actually bother me all that much." Professor Juniper leaned back cradling her cup of tea in both hands before sighing. "The adults have been talking for a while now Gyles but you haven't said a word, so either I've caught you far past your bedtime and you're actually asleep over there or you just haven't given your opinion yet. Which is it darling?"
Gyles spoke for the first time since greeting his two guests. "It's not my bedtime, and I'm not tired."
Professor Juniper laughed. A high, bright and happy sound that filled the room. "Of course not dear child, so what do you think, you and Deerling, partners, working under me from the comfort of your own home and receiving benefits that most ten year olds only dream of."
Gyles instantly shot back "I'm twelve, but it does sound good. I'd like to be able to see Deerling again, I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel bad about leaving her the other day."
Nurse Joy smiled from behind her mug of coffee and took a deep drink before setting it down softly "You were right Aurea, a good head on his shoulders and his heart in the right place indeed."
Professor Juniper looked towards Gyles' parents once more and spoke again. "So? What do you say, it would take me until tomorrow to create the contract of course but once it's sealed your son would still be here, just receiving benefits and looking after a very small friend."
Gyles' father still looked very uncertain, but turned towards Gyles' mother nonetheless. "What do you think Louise, can we trust Gyles with a pokemon and to not let the Professor down?"
Gyles' mother turned her warm eyes towards his and he met her, hope filled eyes met warm, tired eyes and a silent conversation happened over what felt like hours but was actually a matter of seconds, before Gyles' mother turned and spoke the few words that would change his life forever "Sure, why not...But he cleans up the mess."
The last thing Gyles remembered of that night was Professor Juniper congratulating him as she left, and his mother telling him to stop smiling so hard or when the wind blew the wrong way he'd be stuck like that.
As Gyles exited the shower and ended his trip down memory lane he mused over how the deal had slowly gone from him taking responsibility as Deerlings trainer in that backroom to him becoming Deerlings observer in a miniature pokemon laboratory biosphere in their backyard. That had been years ago however and as Deerling became accustomed to her new home and family and Gyles' family became more accustomed to Deerlings presence their relationship had developed into one closer than any Gyles shared with his human friends. Maybe it was because they lived together and saw so much of each other. Eventually Deerling was named Rose, after his mother's favourite flower, and if the amount of time Deerling would later spend in the garden bed during summer was any sort of sign, Deerling's favourite flower too.
Gyles broke his musing as he pulled on a clean t-shirt and shorts, no use running around in long pants when the weather here was so hot. His appointment was in an hour and a half, he had time to kill, but there were other things that needed to be done before he went. Striding out into the living room he called out for Rose, and as she came running around the corner he smiled, her fur had settled for the incredibly short haired green summer form and he rubbed her head and neck affectionately as she cried out in happiness. "So you've had time to synthesise then?"
Rose's nod had him sighing in relief. One of the largest problems and the biggest cause of pain to Rose whenever her fur started acting up was the immense energy cost involved in rearranging the cells of the majority of her body and the fact that if she didn't have the energy to maintain herself during her transformation her body began to search for other things to provide energy, namely the only digestible thing available to her stomach, itself.
When Gyles had first brought her to the pokemon center and Nurse Joy had scanned her she noticed severe internal bleeding and had immediately applied a dose of ditto cells to help her regenerate her damaged organs. Had Rose not received aid she would have died within the hour, and Gyles had been repeatedly warned that when she did transform she would need large amounts of food.
"And despite having a medical reason for your eating habits you still dislike me talking about how much you weigh, even when Nurse Joy does her medical checkups on you." Gyles spoke softly as he continued petting Rose and wasn't shocked in the slightest when Rose whirled on her hooves and immediately slammed a leg into him. He had no doubt that if she had actually tried to hurt him he'd have a shattered knee by now, but her way of showing affection was just like his mothers.
CAOCVWGI was the acronym he'd come up with on his 14th birthday when his mother had slammed his face into his cake, before telling him to clean up and bringing out a new cake doing nothing to conceal her laughter as she did so. It stood for Casual Application Of Controlled Violence With Good Intentions. Neither of them actually hurt him, ever. But it got annoying after awhile and especially after a long day when all he wanted to do was sleep. "Right, right touchy subject even three years later."
Gyles cracked a smile though as he spoke to Rose. "Now that you're under control do you think we can go out? We need to check in at the pokemon center and we've only got a little more than an hour before our appointment." If a Deerling could smile Gyles swore Rose did and she nodded enthusiastically. "Three years of working with all those grass-types the professor sent our way really helped huh? Way back when, you wouldn't have been able to leave the biosphere because even one degree of difference would've had you freaking out huh."
Rose however had ignored her trainers words completely, walked over to pick up her heal ball in her mouth and dropped it at her trainers feet before looking up at him with an expression that he swore was impatience.
"Alright we'll go now. Hey mum we're going out, you gonna be ok here?" He called out towards the kitchen
A voice called back from down the hall "Don't come back till after your appointment, I'm going out to see your aunt Fleur,"
"Alright."
"Time to go Rose, let's get going."
Even as Gyles walked out the door to their apartment and closed it behind him he couldn't help but smile, he'd looked forward to showing Rose around Lumiose city since his mother had told him they'd be travelling there while his brothers and father went to visit his father's family in southern Unova. Gyles had always prefered Kalos honestly and was grateful his mother had decided to take him along with her.
Rose darted between his legs as he reached the stairs and bounded down, obviously excited to see new places, without the crippling pain that came with forme changing, the weather around Lumiose city was constantly hot, sunny, blue skies with little to no change in temperature, and despite both of their dislike for the heat not having to worry about Rose suffering while they explored was a blessing they both appreciated equally.
Rose had made it to the doors of the apartment and begun kicking out towards them slightly with her front legs, tapping the doors even as Gyles walked over and pulled them open for her and she darted out into the streets followed by a beaming Gyles.
…
Strolling down the avenue Gyles smiled broadly as he saw Rose practically flying down the street, bounding from one side to the other and stopping to look at people and cry out happily at pokemon everywhere. The stone pavements clacked under both his shoe and Rose's hooves as they both pounded down the street towards their destination, a park in Lumiose that was right next to the pokemon center. Gyles needed to get to the pokemon center to meet with one of the Nurse Joys of Lumiose.
The Nurse Joy he knew from Mistralton had called ahead when he told her he'd be heading to Kalos and had asked for a specialty room to be prepped for Rose just in case something went horribly wrong when she changed. Gyles needed to tell them that they were fine and Rose, well as far as Gyles could tell Rose didn't care where they were going and she only really cared about the fact that they were going somewhere new and potentially fun. "Right you get to run around a park while I fill out forms and make calls, good for you." Gyles muttered tiredly as he and Rose both slowed, having come to the park gates.
The pokemon center was on the other side of the park, and trainers, pokemon and people milled around the park. Some were playing, some simply sat around and talked or enjoyed their days and he saw quite a crowd gathered in a large circle on the other side of the park judging by the cheering and shouting he assumed it was a pokemon battle. Rose had run off to go play with other pokemon near the patch of greenery that made up the majority of the park.
Stepping over one of the three stumpy cobblestone bridges that covered the small creeks that all ran towards a rather large body of water towards the far end of the park Gyles smiled as he saw a small child playing with an Oddish, both of them leaping in and out of the refreshingly cool water, Oddish throwing its entire body through the water to splash the girl while she kicked water back.
Gyles stepped cautiously onto the second bridge as a small shockwave ran through the park, barely enough to ruffle someone's hair and nowhere near large enough to cause any damage to… well anything really. Despite knowing that nothing could have gone wrong he still glanced over towards the battle that the shockwave had come from and even as he started crossing the third bridge he didn't look away watching two young boys calling commands to both pokemon as they matched each other blow for blow.
Gyles turned away at last as he made his way into one of the many Pokemon centers in Lumiose City, striding past the small line he made his way over to the special enquiries desk. Steadfastly ignoring the envious gazes of the younger trainers and the sober gazes of a trio of trainers a few years older than him he typed his name into the console and tapped it softly when it came up on the screen, the small message that flashed told him he'd need to wait a few seconds before a Nurse would come out to see him. 'That's fine' he thought as he turned around to survey the room.
Some of the younger trainers still glared over at him every now and then, probably wondering why he was allowed to use the line they had been told to stay out of and the older trainers still glanced away whenever he looked at them, only one of them held his gaze for any length of time and even she looked at him sadly. They knew what using the special enquiries line meant, they knew that you were allowed to use that line only if your pokemon was either on death's door or required specialised treatment. Amputations, euthanizations and emergency surgeries weren't exactly common by any means, but the Nurse Joys in Mistralton had always said that them happening at all meant they happened too often for their liking.
Gyles allowed a small, grim smile onto his face while he waited, with one earphone unplugged so he could hear the Nurse when she walked out from the double sliding doors that lead to the backroom, and thought to himself how lucky he was that Rose was alright and how he'd had to use this line too many times at the Mistralton pokemon center while they waited for the biodome to be built and she hadn't yet learned to use Synthesis to make up for the crippling energy usage of transforming, now as long as she was hydrated and it wasn't night Rose could use the grass type technique at the drop of a hat and often had a lesser version running passively, a trick that Professor Juniper's Lilligant had taught her when the Professor had last come to visit, according to her it just meant that she'd be able to have a little bit more stamina during the day so Rose could play more. She'd still have to eat unlike some grass types who could, during summer mostly, but almost year round in some parts of the world, generate enough energy from Synthesis to sustain themselves.
Gyles whirled around as he felt a soft tap on his shoulder and he had to look down slightly to meet Nurse Joy's eyes. "I know that we're shorter here in Kalos than those freakishly tall cousins of ours over in Unova but it can't be that bad right?" The Nurse spoke beaming up at him… okay so maybe up was a bit of an overstatement, the height difference was a matter of inches not feet.
"It's not I swear and don't tell her I said so but I think my Nurse Joy has a bit of a complex when it comes to height, she keeps standing on steps whenever she can when I'm around and when I finally grew taller than her last year she didn't talk to me for a bit."
"Oh, Your, Nurse Joy? Dear me my cousin really does like them young doesn't she you can't be what older than 17 or 18 right?"
Gyles' face grew very very hot and he knew it wasn't the Kalosian climate messing with him. "I'm actually 15 and it's not like tha-"
"Oh, only 15? Well I might need to have a word with my dear cousin then." The Nurse's smile was only growing wider and Gyles could see her shoulders shaking as she tried to stop her laughter. "I'm only joking of course dear, but do come in, my cousin has briefed me on what you need."
The gate next to the desk swung open as Nurse Joy typed into her console and Gyles stepped through, following the Nurse through the steel sliding doors and into the backrooms of the pokemon center. The backroom they stopped in looked nothing like the one he had been in with Rose many times during her visits to the pokemon center in Mistralton, it lacked the machinery that analysed Rose's condition and also lacked the window that looked into the surgery room. Mainly because there was no surgery room. There was however a very large machine made up of several complex looking screens that displayed information Gyles couldn't even begin to make sense of.
"Place your pokeball on the slot please." The Nurse spoke softly as she made her way over to the console next to the machine. Gyles did as he was told and stepped back as the round slot opened up and sucked Rose's pokeball into the slot. Rose didn't actually use a standard pokeball though, Professor Juniper wanted an extra layer of safety for Rose just in case she was injured by a sudden change in condition, and thus a heal ball. Standard heal balls had a dosage of potion and full heal within the ball that was allowed to seep into the pokemon when they were first captured, however the dosage would be used up and then it would just function as a regular pokeball. Rose however had her heal ball edited specifically for her 'honestly' Gyles mused to himself as he watched the Nurse organise the procedure 'that Deerling is more spoilt than any rich child out there'.
The heal ball had been given larger dosages of a stronger potion and more full heal dosages within the ball, so it could perform the instant healing on Rose when she was recalled as long as the dosages were still unused. It had to be manually activated by Gyles however so it didn't just hype her up on potions whenever she was recalled. Gyles himself made periodic trips to the pokemon center to ensure that the dosages were topped up and even when he knew that he hadn't used any of the dosages, like right now, he still made the trip to ensure that it was functioning properly.
Soon the machine beeped and the slot that held the heal ball flashed blue before it extended the slot outwards towards Nurse Joy's waiting hand. Nurse Joy turned and without warning threw the pokeball through the air, which flew for a second before Gyles snatched it mid-air and shoved it back onto his belt. With a soft click the pokeball secured itself to one of the 6 loops on the trainer belt and Gyles almost let out a sigh of relief as he felt its familiar weight back on his hips and began to follow Nurse Joy back through the corridors that lead to the backrooms of the pokemon center before they emerged back out into the lobby.
"What's wrong darling?" asked Nurse Joy, Gyles whirled around to see that she'd somehow slipped away from him and moved out towards the main desk where a small girl now stood in line holding an Oddish in her arms. Gyles walked over to stand behind Nurse Joy, he still needed to finalise the procedure for getting Rose's pokeball refilled but he knew that her responsibilities as a Nurse came first. Besides he wasn't in a rush and Rose would probably enjoy the extra time to play before their appointment and what would probably end up being hours of testing before she could play again.
"There's a boy, with a pokedex and he said there was a rare pokemon or something, and then his pokemon started using fire, and it hit Oddish, please help him." The small girl spoke haltingly as she attempted to catch her breath. Nurse Joy looked up at Gyles angrily who flinched as she spoke quietly, he hadn't expected her to turn to him. "Young man, could you kindly see what's going on?"
Before she'd finished speaking Gyles had nodded and strode through the gates to the customer side of the main counter and was moving towards the doors of the pokemon center. Making his way outside Gyles took in the scene before him, the majority of the area around the streams had been abandoned and the people and pokemon of the park stood aside as small bursts of flame engulfed squat stone bridges and a tan and green shape desperately fled the flame ,coming to a halt near Gyles' legs and slipping behind them before a young boy bounded up onto the second bridge over and a pokemon leapt onto the nearest bridge.
"What are you doing to my pokemon?" Gyles called out as Rose hid behind his legs.
"I'm fighting a wild pokemon, one my pokedex couldn't identify. So it must be rare. And what do you mean your pokemon?" The young boy spoke haltingly and he seemed out of breath, probably from chasing Rose and his pokemon around the park.
"I mean she's my pokemon, I have the pokeball keyed to her and it's registered to my license." Gyles neglected to mention the fact that he didn't have a trainer license but rather an apprentice professor license, all it meant was he was a trainer sponsored by a professor with a certain amount of league funding as well.
"As if a commoner such as you could own such a rare pokemon, I challenge you to prove it" The boy was slowly recovering his breath and spoke easily now as he walked over to the closest bridge and stood next to his pokemon.
"Fine then, Rose return." Gyles spoke holding out the heal ball, which clicked and did nothing else. Gyles paled as he realised that the ball hadn't been re-activated by the Nurse at the desk before he'd had to come outside and it wouldn't register any commands now, even if he manually attempted to activate it it wouldn't open because of its internal safety measures, meaning he had no way of proving that Rose was his pokemon, unless he could convince the boy to follow him into the pokemon center and have the nurse explain everything.
"I see, so you were lying. As expected I suppose, after all a commoner such as yourself couldn't possibly own a pokemon even I don't know, very well, move out of the way commoner. I wouldn't want you getting injured." The boy sighed as he spoke and Gyles was getting really tired of being called commoner rather than anything else, especially by someone who was a foot shorter than him and at least two years younger. Taking three steps back he told Rose to listen to him, they'd had mock battles before against the professor and even some real ones so that Rose could stay in shape, Rose nodded and stepped forward quickly, she knew what battle meant.
Gyles didn't have time to give orders however as the young boy was already calling out to his pokemon, there was no ready, no set, or go. Just an unintelligible yell that Gyles didn't register as an order, but clearly the boy's pokemon did as it exploded into action, sprinting across the field as fast as its small yellow furred legs could carry it. It moved like a regular wild pokemon, not one that had been trained for months or weeks. It actually hesitated for a few seconds before it started moving, as though it wasn't ready to trust its trainers orders yet. Which was understandable he supposed, judging by the state of his clothes, he was either new or he was a stationary trainer, someone who didn't journey but instead stayed in a single city or town and trained as much as they could before attempting a 1 badge challenge.
Rose had already moved out of the way without his orders, they both thought it was stupid for trainers to yell for pokemon to dodge or tell them to react in any way to an opponent's attack apart from intercepting or countering and she knew it, so she allowed her instincts to guide her as she swiftly stepped out of the way of the charging pokemon and dodged the glowing claws that were aimed for her head.
Gyles smiled and called out to Rose "Leech Seed, kite it." Rose knew this plan, against a stronger opponent Leech Seed would let her drain her opponents strength while regaining her own, a battle of attrition where all she had to do was move and not put energy into attacks. Rose fired the bundle of seeds from her mouth into the warm summer air and Gyles watched as they grew into a restraining net that would entangle the enemy and drew in a sharp breath when a wide group of embers burned the attack away before it could reach the enemy.
This had to be the worst case scenario with Leech Seed, Leech Seed in his completely unbiased opinion was an incredibly undervalued technique, as were many of the techniques that didn't focus on attacking directly. In an ideal situation the Leech Seed would have completely immobilized or at least significantly impaired the enemies movements and begun draining their energy and feeding it back into Rose. However even if the attack missed then it could bloom on the ground and still feed slight amounts of energy into Rose through either photosynthesis or the nutrient draining methods of ingrain, this sucked to put it lightly, forming the seeds and firing them drained energy from Rose but having that effort go to waste wasn't ideal to say the least.
Rose wouldn't let this get to her however and she continued with the second part of the plan, kiting, desperately. This was just a way for Gyles to be able to tell her to run away without yelling it and both of them feeling dumb, a "tactical retreat" he'd called it when he explained to her how they were going to wear out the professors Munchlax years ago on another battlefield. Of course that had all changed when the little bast- really mean thing waggled it's stumpy finger twice and detonated, wiping them both out. Needless to say the normally calm and collected professor had been very embarrassed, especially when she'd been forced to declare it her loss, if by technicality when Rose fell over second.
Rose flinched as she snapped back to the present, Gyles voice barely registering as she threw herself to the side to dodge another blast of fire, for once thanking her condition and the heat of Kalos, it helped having her short summer coat, it made the heat slightly more bearable. The excessive heat caused by the fire, however, wasn't something she enjoyed, even without the thick overcoating of her winter form.
Gyles wasn't angry or frustrated despite having no idea what he should do, he'd learned a long time ago that getting angry in battle only made the pokemon you were working with feel on edge and uncomfortable, although, Nurse Joy may have said that because Audino such as her partner were strangely in tune with people's emotions. Nowhere near the level of empaths such as Gardevoir but enough for it to make them uncomfortable if something was wrong.
Regardless he told Rose to keep kiting while he tried to think of another way out of the situation apart from through it, the boy yelling about Rose lacking honor proved that talking his way out of the problem or walking away without confrontation were unlikely, which meant that he needed to either create a distraction and get away, or win this battle.
Rose kept moving, dancing over cobble bridges which quickly blackened under a burst of flames and leaping over the small creeks whenever her opponent claimed the high ground, Gyles flinched and almost slapped himself. Grass, fire and water, a triangle that every 10 year old knew. Rose couldn't supply her own water to combat the fire, but if she wasn't able to create her own water for use she'd need to use something else. "Under the cobbles," Gyles cried as he saw the tiny yellow pokemon leap up onto the bridge that Rose had just slid under.
Rose was pinned down, if she came out from under the bridge then she'd be hit and Gyles knew there wasn't much they could do here anyway. It all came down to his opponent and Gyles let a smile crack onto his face as the young boy yelled angrily "It's got nowhere to go, chase it!" and his pokemon leapt down so they'd have a clear shot at Rose, before being met by two glowing hooves which cracked harshly against its face and threw it back, away from the bridge and into the creek.
Stunned, the small fox attempted to right itself desperately, and managed it after a few seconds of struggling in the cold water. The fox was soaked but began to trudge its way to the shore as quickly as it could. Gyles had to admit that it was moving fairly quickly for a pokemon whose fur was soaked and wasn't adapted well to the water but it wouldn't be fast enough.
"Double kick, pin it to the river bed!" Rose leapt from the bank of the creek over to where the fox was attempting to navigate the creek waters and from above slammed out once more with two glowing hooves slamming the smaller pokemon down into the water and pushing its legs further into the muddy base of the creek. Rose danced out of the water shaking herself off as she made her way back onto the grass near Gyles, who'd moved opposite his opponent to try and keep up with the battle.
Gyles called over to the boy calmly as he scratched Rose behind the ears. "Give up, your pokemon is stuck in the creek and if it's a fire type that much wet mud and water can't be good for its body temperature or its internal flame."
With a scowl the boy swiped his hand suddenly across his blond, sweat soaked bangs and pushed them away from his eyes, the piercing blue glared angrily into Gyles' steely grey and held his gaze for only an instant before flitting down to the shivering fire type. A quick gesture and a soft spoken word returned the defeated pokemon to the shiny red and white ball in the boy's palm as a flash of red light. Without even a glance in the direction of the victorious trainer and pokemon the boy stalked away, not so much clicking as slamming the pokeball into place on his belt.
Rose panted to try and catch her breath but otherwise seemed pleased with herself, tossing her head proudly and happily crying before following quickly behind Gyles as he turned away. Gyles' happy smile didn't fade even as he made his way back into the pokemon center and explained the situation to Nurse Joy, who waited at the desk where he'd left her.
"I see, thankfully the park is battle cleared and is used as a battleground often enough that it's monitored by League psychics from the gym, or else people might have gotten hurt."
Gyles nodded in agreement and handed Rose's pokeball to the Nurse, who placed it into the registry machine on the desk and after two successive flashes, one blue and the second green, handed the ball back to Gyles. Recalling and releasing Rose to test the ball's functionality took a matter of seconds and Gyles, now satisfied, clipped the ball back into its slot.
"Thank you Nurse Joy, no problems then?"
"None, her pokeball functions perfectly and is still stocked with the emergency dosages, if you ever need another checkup feel free to come back here or to go to one of my sisters at the other pokemon centers in Lumiose," said the nurse before turned and walked back into the backrooms of the poke center.
As Gyles navigated the lobby to an empty seat by the windows Rose's body shivered lightly until Gyles sat down and noticed her legs beginning to tremble as the cooler temperature of the pokemon center chilled her summer form. "I'm returning you until we get to the professor's bio-dome." He spoke softly as he pulled her into his lap, and was met with a kick in reply. "Don't kick me, we'll be in and out of air-con and you know it'll just hurt you until you adapt."
Rose went slack in his lap and shivered once before nudging her nose against the lone ball at Gyles' waist and vanishing in a flash of red. Gyles stroked the ball once when it shook and got up, walking out of the lobby and through the packed park towards the road he had walked down earlier.
A short wait, a wave at a bright blue taxi and a glare from a woman that thought she had called said taxi who Gyles swore had sat down at the taxi stand after him, later and Gyles was on his way to the Sycamore pokemon lab. Surprisingly the lab was located on the outer edge of the city rather than closer to the center like Gyles had expected but the building itself made the reason rather obvious.
It was enormous, the wings of the building stretching a few hundred meters as well as several stories high and standing outside the front doors to the massive building Gyles could see separate bio-domes through the high fence that encircled the property, which seemed far larger than the main building itself. A simple button doorbell stood in contrast to the grand steps and stone pillars that lead to large double doors and gave a simple ringing chime when pressed.
Large doors opened slowly after a minute or so and a short freckled woman in a lab coat beckoned him inside and spoke softly as he walked in "... if you're here for the professor please go straight on through to the central bio-dome." The woman disappeared quickly down the hallway she'd referred to before without another word and Gyles followed after her. The large domed room that greeted him as he exited the hallway was filled with an assortment of desks covered in everything ranging from computers and organised piles of paper, to loosely strewn notes and half filled coffee mugs. The centerpiece of the room however was the large glass dome, surrounding an artificial meadow of bright grass and colourful flowers.
Gyles openly gaped at the biodome in front of him, several magnitudes larger than the one in his backyard in Mistralton and filled with several species of pokemon running around the area, admiring the biodome for a few more seconds Gyles quickly spotted the tall man who's blue shirt and black pants made him stand out against the green of the meadow and made his way in through the biodome's airlock.
"Hello there young man and who might you be?" Professor Sycamore called out as Gyles drew closer across the meadow.
Gyles paused as several of the pokemon stopped and turned towards the professor and then towards him and let himself acclimate to the warm air of the meadow for a moment before releasing Rose. A flash of light and a glance around later and the Deerling was sniffing around by his feet, before bounding off towards a nearby patch of flowers and startling what looked like a group of Combee who had been feeding there.
"Hi professor, my name is Gyles. I had an appointment to meet with you today about Ros- my Deerling?" Gyles spoke awkwardly as the professor continued closer to Gyles, over a small stream that ran through the artificial pasture and ran a hand through his black locks.
"Aah dear Aurea's little project? I'm so sorry it must be 3 already and I've lost track of time, there aren't any clocks here in the biodome and I don't tend to check my holo caster that often I'm afraid."
"It's fine Professor, but yes I am Professor Juniper's junior researcher and Rose is the Deerling. I was told you might have some clue about her condition?" Rose bounded over at the sound of her name and looked up at Professor Sycamore nervously, who was now close enough for Gyles to tell that the man was in fact as tall as Professor Juniper had described him to be.
"Yes indeed, I trust you're aware of my specialty field of research being in form changes then?" At Gyles' nod the Professor continued "While a main focus of mine in recent years has been mega evolution I believe I may be able to provide some insight to her transformations if I were able to witness one."
Gyles' wince mirrored Rose's own and both looked darkly at each other and Professor Sycamore hurriedly spoke again to reassure both pokemon and trainer "I assure you we'll have medical treatment on standby and we'll do our best to ensure that the change is as simple as possible."
After a moment Gyles spoke again. "We know Professor but, the idea of Rose changing means that she'll also have to change back to go outside and it doesn't matter which form she switches to it still causes her the same amount of pain so we can't minimise it per se and I'd really prefer it if she didn-"
Professor Sycamore cut Gyles off by laying a hand on his shoulder and smiling softly "Well young man it's good to see your heart is in the right place, you really care for your pokemon, so if you'd like we can have her put under anaesthesia or sedated before she changes?"
Gyles looked down to Rose who was already shaking her head vehemently and crouched to her level "Think you can handle changing again today?" to which she replied with a high pitched cry and a toss of her head. "Well Professor I think she's alright without the sedatives, but I want to be there next to her."
"Of course Gyles, of course, come let's get this out of the way so we don't cause her any more distress shall we?" Professor Sycamore spoke as he led them outside the biodome and into a room to the side, divided into a simple viewing room with a window and a larger room with a table, padded so it appeared more like a bed and multiple chairs. It reminded Gyles of interrogation rooms he'd seen in police shows and the welcoming air of the larger room didn't do much to dispel the chill running down his spine as he slumped into a chair and Rose clambered up onto the padded table.
"Ok Gyles and Rose was it?" At her nod he continued speaking through the speakers in the corners of the room. "This room will allow me to lower the temperature and humidity of the room and Rose's transformation will be monitored through the camera's in both the ceiling and the walls, we'll begin when you're ready."
Gyles looked at Rose, who was already shivering and had dropped into a resting position, and when she nodded he waved at Professor Sycamore. Instantly the room's temperature began to drop and Gyles felt his throat go dry as Rose began to cry out, her coat's short verdant green fur shifting rapidly to a longer orange, then a bright pink and back to deep green. Before, after an agonising minute for both pokemon and trainer, her fur settled on her thick brown winter coat and began to glow with the soft green light of passive Synthesis to restore some of her energy and numb the pain.
"Remarkable, Deerling's form changes have been studied to great length in Unova as I'm sure you know, and there's never once been a case of an incorrect change or hesitation in a change, let alone several." Gyles turned towards Sycamore as he began excitedly rambling and writing into a notepad he'd produced from his trousers. "Truly astounding, there seems to be no trace of the visual energies given off during evolution nor mega evolution and yet her condition afterwards hints towards heavy energy consumption… ah my apologies I've gotten ahead of myself again, the conditions have stabilised, take all the time you need to adapt and tell me when you want to change back to room temperature."
Gyles shifted in the cold leather of his seat and inwardly regretted wearing summer clothing, a t-shirt and shorts didn't do anything to prevent the chill of the room ,which must have been close to 5 degrees, from reaching his bones. Rose pressed herself closer to him and Gyles buried his arms underneath her and rested his face in the warm fur along her flank, mumbling softly as she trembled beneath him.
Several minutes later once Rose's trembling had stopped and she nudged her snout against Gyles' shoulder with a low cry, Gyles slid his arms out from beneath her and walked over to the glass window, tapping on it to get the attention of the Professor who had since been reviewing the recorded video and writing into his notepad, occasionally reaching for a piece of paper from a mountain of forms which seemed to have appeared from nowhere.
"Alright, as long as you're ready we'll begin raising the temperature back up." Gyles rushed back over to the seat as he felt the air beginning to warm immediately and watched Rose's coat shift chaotically in length and colour back to the verdant summer green it had been earlier, although Gyles frowned as he thought it was a dimmer green than it had been in the meadow. That issue could wait though and as Rose's Synthesis began to shine through again Gyles scooped her up into his arms and walked outside to the waiting Professor.
"This is astounding, truly astounding. There's no other way to describe this, it's unfortunate that it causes you such discomfort dear but you really are one of a kind!" The professor spoke excitedly as he leafed through his notebook before focussing on the large pile of scattered papers in front of him.
"Well we know she's special alright, always have, but do you have any idea how to treat her condition? Professor Juniper said that because she hasn't adapted to it we needed to start considering a cure and sent us here to you." Gyles spoke as he patted Rose, who had stopped shivering and was slowly losing the minute twitches in her legs.
"Indeed, if the condition is so bad that she hasn't fully adapted to it despite being in your care for a number of years it must be addressed. I do have some ideas as to her condition however as a junior researcher before mega evolution became my focus I studied similarities in pokemon biology, specifically similarities in pokemon that have evolved similarly despite being native to entirely separate regions." The Professor spoke seriously as they walked back towards the large circular room and the biodome meadow they'd been in previously. "One focus of mine in particular was the likeness shared by the Gogoat and Sawsbuck lines similar in, body structures, wild behavioural patterns, diet and both grass types who possess living foliage like material on their bodies."
Pausing briefly as they reached the warmth of the biodome and Rose began to run freely through the meadow once more Professor Sycamore turned towards Gyles and continued. "You see, both pokemon possess a gland close to their equivalent of the lips, which releases a hormone when certain conditions are met, prompting the growing or shedding of their coat for Gogoat and the form changes of Sawsbuck and Deerling, the differing effects are assumed to be due to differing brain functions however I digress."
"You think something is wrong with her brain Professor Sycamore?" Gyles guessed quietly, looking down at the grass beneath his feet, at Rose playing and at the small glade of trees in the distance, anywhere but directly at Sycamore really.
"No young man no, I'm sorry if my last comment gave off that impression," the Professor quickly reassured him. "No, I'm quite sure that her gland is simply overactive and producing too much of the hormone for her body to regulate the use of and thus the rapid form changes as conditions change, the hormone is released and her brain tries to interpret the instructions."
Gyles head shot up at the Professor's reassurance "So we can give her medicine for the gland right? As long as it calms down the gland she'll be fine then?"
Now it was Sycamore's turn to cringe and look away "Aah, you see. Baring the removal of said gland, most gland therapy medicine is quite subtle and would simply be purged by the enhanced immune system of pokemon. Of course we also can't just remove the gland because she needs it for form changes and to regulate body temperature. HOWEVER" Professor Sycamore spoke loudly before pausing dramatically, arms spread wide. "I believe I have a solution. Evolution, semi-instantaneous metamorphosis specifically. If natural age won't let her adapt to it then perhaps evolution, as a time when the body attempts to change itself following a specific genetic code and instinct it may be able to adapt to correct the gland's overactive nature or at least adapt so she won't feel pain."
Staring at the Professor as he spoke and posed quite theatrically Gyles openly gaped, and felt his eyes widen with every word the Professor spoke. They'd considered evolution before of course but Professor Juniper and Nurse Joy had both stopped him from pursuing it, saying it was too dangerous to attempt at Rose's age, but now if another Professor believed it could work… "Professor, how would she evolve? Pokemon take years to evolve naturally and she's grown in terms of size but I don't think she's anywhere near a Sawsbuck yet."
The Professor frowned at Gyles' question "Well by battling obviously, training and battling both accelerate many pokemon's growth by forcing them to become stronger and force their bodies to adapt and grow."
Gyles' face flashed a stark white at that. "I'm not a trainer though Professor, my license lets me have pokemon, but battl-"
"Gyles, to have pokemon accompany you with a license is a license to lead those pokemon in battle, to train and grow alongside them. Every professor I know started with a junior license like yours which then upgrades into a professor license upon completion of your studies. And those give you funding, ah the all so important fundi- But I digress again, Gyles I recommend if not the gym challenge then you take tournaments or just spar with others in training centers." Professor Sycamore spoke, and paused, which Gyles was thankful for. It gave him time to process the Professor's advice.
When the Professor spoke again it was with a far off look in his eyes as he gazed into the distance of the biodome. "I do recommend travelling with the gym challenge though, Kalos is a beautiful land of gorgeous coastlines, towering mountains and brilliant plains. Oh and travelling on foot as a trainer is an experience that will open your eyes in a way like none other."
Gyles could practically feel the awe radiate in the Professor's voice as he spoke and as Gyles bent down to pat Rose who had bounded back into the meadow and stood between the two humans he replied. "I'll have to speak to Professor Juniper and my Mum, but also..." He paused for a moment and looked Rose in the eye, dark stone grey eyes reflected his own lighter shade of grey as they met. "Do you think you'd be comfortable evolving? The Professor thinks it might help your condition now that you're older."
Rose flinched and a high whine filled the air as Gyles spoke, but cut off quickly when Gyles mentioned the Professor's thoughts on her condition, her eyes glinted in the light as she looked away and her thick hooves stamped onto the soft grass as she tramped heavily on the spot. After a moment Rose stared back up at Gyles, stoney eyes hard and resolute, and with a low keening cry bumped her head lightly against his knee in a nod.
"Well there you have it, young Rose seems happy with it. I assume you'll be travelling then? I'd be happy to provide you with standard equipment for lab sponsored trainers given Professor Juniper is back in Unova and some advice, I used to be quite a traveller myself before I settled down you know" Professor Sycamore spoke rapidly, nodding along with himself.
Gyles politely cleared his throat. "Professor please, I should speak to my Mum and Professor Juniper first, I'm not sure if Professor Juniper would want me to travel in Unova closer to her or how long my Mum will be staying here, or if either of them are happy with me travelling at all."
"Aah of course, my apologies. The thought of adventure always excites me even after my own has ended you see. Yes you should speak with both your sponsor and your mother, however that can be easily resolved, I have a conference room if you'd like to be able to call them both?"
Gyles rolled his eyes, nodded and tapped Rose, who had begun to roll on her back in the grass, before following after the Professor. Of course this place had a conference room, the lab was so large it probably had at least 1 of any and every room. Regional Professors were all either very successful or received way too much funding from the league he decided, recalling his visit to Professor Juniper's lab down in Nuvema town last year.
"But of course!" Professor Juniper practically sang in excitement, her ever present broad smile stretching even wider.
"Travelling is a wonderful experience, and if Professor Sycamore thinks it will help Rose then perhaps your idea from back then held promise after all Gyles! As for whether to return to Unova you have my wholehearted endorsement and support to travel Kalos, your home region will always be here, and you can always come back and explore it later, regale me with tales of your explorations and discoveries in another land when you return." Aurea Juniper was a proud and respected pokemon Professor who's findings had stunned the scientific community worldwide, but never let it be said that she wasn't as excitable and hyperactive as a Lilipup when something caught her attention.
"I think it's a good idea." Gyles mother's voice was oddly quiet, but it still shocked him from his comparison of Professor Juniper and her Lillipup. "You're 15 now Gyles, most trainers start at age 10. You're losing your time to see the world, to explore. You only have your youth once you know."
Gyles' voice caught in his throat, his mother's tone was quiet and serious, last time she'd spoken to him this seriously was wh- Gyles banished the thought and slammed his focus back onto the holographic forms of the two women.
"Gyles, we were going to be here in Kalos awhile anyway, your Aunt Fleur wants me to stay a while, she says hello by the way. So travel with Rose, you two have grown so close and even I can see her condition frustrates her, if this will help you need to do it for her."
"Gyles you're going to travel." Gyles' head whipped back to Professor Juniper's beaming image. "You're still the same boy who saved a Deerling in the woods and didn't want to let her go. You saved Rose then, studied to earn your license, studied to take care of her, brought her to checkups and maintained her pokeball. You were willing to help her then, and I know that nothing's different now."
Gyles nodded and sighed, the two women knew him better than he knew himself apparently. Rose stared back at him when he turned to look at her, shivering against the cool tiled floor and as she disappeared into a flash of red light he could've sworn her saw her imitation of a smile. "Yeah, if it helps Rose. I just wanted to make sure you two were ok with it before I ran off into the wild for months on end. I wouldn't mind journeying either I guess." he spoke softly, staring down at the heal ball in his hand.
"Oh don't lie little knight, we all know that being a trainer was all you ever wanted to be as a child, you were so cute running around the house playing pretend with your brothers. I'm sure I have videos somewhere." The seriousness vanished from his mother's tone in an instant and the wicked gleam in her eyes matched Professor Juniper's own as both women started giggling.
Gyles did not look at Professor Sycamore to ask him to cut the call and certainly didn't whine. He was 15 now, going on 16, he didn't whine. Professor Sycamore laughed as he stepped forward and spoke. "Aurea, I'll give him the national pokedex upgrade for his Unovan Pokedex and the standard lab sponsored trainer pack."
"If you wouldn't mind Augustine that would be fabulous, feel free to send me the bill as well. Don't ask dear Gabby to do it, god knows you pile too much work on the poor girl already."
"Just this once Aurea I will send you that bill, if only because you won't let this go and I can't argue against him being your junior professor. Also Gabrielle does a marvelous job, although perhaps I do place too much on her" The Professor finished sheepishly. "Louise, I'll send your son home with his equipment soon, it was a pleasure meeting you and a pleasure to see you again Aurea."
Gyles waved his goodbye as the Professor turned off the conference call holo caster and the lights around the room clicked back on, illuminating the cold steel room and the large conference table they'd just been gathered around.
"Well then young man, shall we see about getting you ready?" The Professor asked excitedly as he began to walk towards the doors.
"Yes please, and thank you so much for this." Gyles replied as he followed.
"It's no trouble at all young man, none at all."
An hour later, now equipped with a backpack that should have been heavy, Gyles left the smiling Professor waving at the door as he hailed a taxi and gave the driver his Mother's apartment's address. Gyles sat as the car navigated its way through Lumiose's busy evening rush hour and distractedly waved his hand over the backpack's small electronic screen, and watched as flashes of white light materialised into equipment in his hands. Rope, a sleeping bag, his pokedex, several pokeballs. The pack's various pockets opened and deposited their contents at the press of a button. Before accepting them back in the moment they passed the threshold of the opening.
Gyles was still toying with the bag even as he paid and thanked the driver and started walking up the stairs of the apartment building. These bags cost so much, he could only dream of owning one, most trainers could only dream of owning one. At least the majority of those just starting out in their rookie year, he was snapped out of his stupor by the apartment door rudely colliding with his face, and his mother's muffled laughter from behind the closed door made him cringe slightly.
Entering the apartment, and meeting his Mother's eyes told him all he needed to know, that she was never going to let this go. Releasing Rose, distracted her slightly and Gyles, quickly closed the door behind him before the cooler evening air could affect the warm room temperature they had. Rose's coat shifted to a brighter green as she trembled slightly, but thankfully didn't change drastically.
Finally beginning to pay attention to his rambling mother as he collapsed onto the sofa and wrapped his arms around Rose, who'd leapt up onto his lap and remained curled there. "...tomorrow's meant to be sunny and it's too late today, besides you need to take the clothes from your room and then plan where you want to go and make sure you have all the supplies and that you know your way around and what to do in case you get lost and-" His mother cut herself off with a sigh. "I'm gonna miss you two"
His sigh mirrored her own before he spoke "We're gonna miss you too. But you're right, I'll pack tonight and we'll leave tomorrow. Professor Sycamore did recommend that we head across the badlands on Route 13 and head to Coumarine City."
"Why Coumarine? I heard from Fleur before we wrapped up afternoon tea that most trainers start with Santalune city as their first gym."
"Professor Sycamore said that Sawsbuck and Gogoat are similar, and the gym leader there is meant to be a grass type expert and a Gogoat expert." Gyles explained tiredly, idly patting the drowsy pokemon in his lap. "He also said that Coastal Kalos has pretty steady temperatures this time of year, so better to go there than to make Rose change for a cooler climate."
"Ah, well if you're happy with it then go, and if it helps Rose then all the better. Have you thought about catching other pokemon yet?"
"Not yet, I will tomorrow, today's been long." Without prompting Gyles began recounting his day even as he felt like drifting off. Yes, there'd be plenty of time to do things tomorrow. After all, his whole journey awaited him and the call of a dream he'd left behind filled his dreams that night.
