A truck parked itself right across the street from the large family house, but behind the truck, the mother ported her car within the driveway and entered the foyer right after the four adolescences chose their Pokeballs. She unloaded herself before entering the dining room and quickly peering into the chest then chose to hold the Heal Ball after noticing the excitement in the room. "So your package came, Touko? Did you open anything?"
"No, we were just about to. I had to read the manual first."
"There was a manual?" Touko nodded and handed her mother the small pack of papers before turning to her Cherish Ball. The adult quickly skimmed through the information with an amused yet exhausted smile upon her face. "Your grandfather sure knows his stuff. He makes me laugh at how official he is. You know, I've never really met his Pokemon. Open it up, Touko. Let me see."
"All right. This one is named Titania." Touko gently pressed the core's button, growing the Cherish Ball to the size of a baseball, but her heart seemed to skip several beats with every second. Her palms became drenched with sweat rather quickly as her smile grew wider just by imagining the beloved Pokemon inside. She turned the Cherish Ball to face the dining room table and pressed in the core's button again. The Cherish Ball opened and released a small blob of white light that quickly formed into vague shapes upon the dining room table. The spectators stared at the white form as it curved and straightened then morphed to the form of a fox-like creature. The white evaporated, leaving behind the body of an alternate-colored Eevee, who smiled and politely chirped once she spotted her new master: Touko. Bel's eyes sparkled and Touko's mother held her breath once the small Eevee stretched for the first time outside of her Pokeball. She licked her paw and began cleaning her face before facing her Trainer again as Touko outstretched her arm. Titania froze and glared at the human, making Touko a little nervous. "Hi there, little Eevee. Aren't you a cute one? My name's Touko. Glad to meet you." Titania stiffened as Touko gently petted her head, but once Bel giggled, she almost jumped.
"She's just so adorable! Can I hold her?" Touko quickly turned to her after seeing the small Pokemon jump and recoil her ears.
"Bel! You're scaring her! Try not to yell when these Pokemon come out." She turned back to Titania with a small smile as the Pokemon began cleaning herself again. "Your name is Titania, right? Well, I'm going to be your new Trainer." Titania abruptly ceased the feminine procedure after hearing those words and looked up to Touko's face, chirping again. Everyone fell silent when the Eevee lifted her paw as if to shake hands with her new master and Touko gently took her paw in her sweaty palm. "Can you…understand me?" She stared at Titania with wonder yet bewilderment in her eyes, especially when the Pokemon responded by nodding. Cheren quickly readjusted his glasses and intently observed the Eevee quickly making friends with the female humans. Touya, with a sly grin, discretely pinched the fluffy tail of the Eevee then quickly retreated his hand, but Titania swiftly spun around and forcefully tackled his chest, knocking him out of the chair. Once he landed on the floor, Titania sat at the bottom of his throat and patted her paw against his cheek, making Cheren and Touko snicker and Bel bubbly giggle.
"Now that's a powerful Eevee!" Cheren moved out of his seat to get a better look of the defeated Touya and triumphant Eevee.
"She's got some attitude! Serves you right, Touya!" Bel continued to giggle as Touko gently picked up her Eevee and helped Touya stand from the floor. Titania glared towards Touya, causing him to flinch, and Touko placed the tough Pokemon upon the table. "You must've been a great battler. Maybe you can show us sometime." Titania chirped again then turned her attention to the open chest and smiled. She casually approached the chest and peered inside, counting all of the Pokeballs in her head before counting the rest in the hands of the humans.
"She must want her friends to come out." The mother spoke up after sighing in delight; she instantly fell in love with the sight of that small Pokémon's fluffy tail. "Let them out, but one at a time. Let's see what's in that one, Touya."
"Okay. His name's Rolf." He pressed the core's button once to enlarge the Nest Ball then again to release the bright white blob upon the table. Titania perked up upon seeing this light form take shape into another four-legged creature. The white disappeared and left behind a young Shinx who chirped in excitement upon seeing Titania again until he caught sight of his new master. He recoiled as Touko stretched out a hand to pet him, but he relaxed a little after being petted gently upon his head. Titania quickly approached the frightened Shinx, licked her paw and made it damp then rubbed it against the roof of his head in an attempt to flatten a tuft of fur stubbornly standing up. Rolf flinched and tried to shake her off, but she persisted and scolded him to remain still, coaxing Bel's sigh to release.
"Oh, how cute." The mother adored the scene before her as it reminded her of the days when Touko and Touya were young babies. "She's acting like a mother to him. It looks like he has a punk-rock hairdo going on there."
"He doesn't seem like he likes it, though. Poor thing." Bel replied and struggled with herself to remain calm and not snatch the Shinx off of the table. Once Titania quit her fruitless job, Rolf slowly approached his new master and looked up to her face with wide, frightened eyes before chirping slightly and sniffing the air before him. She responded in amused delight with a small pleasant smile radiating to the hatchling. Rolf's eyes closed in focus; his small face contorted in concentration as if he was placed in some make-believe, serious battle situation. He caught her pleasant aroma—a real luxurious indulgence to his highly sensitive nose—and he deemed it was good.
He refocused his attention and chirped at her once more with a welcoming and friendly smile on her face that she almost swore had an uncanny resemblance to a young boy's after finally making one true friend in his life. But it was gone in a flash under Cheren's spectacles.
"If he can't even take care of himself, how will he survive in the real world—in battle, I mean?" Cheren spoke with a deliberate detachment in every syllable that frosted beyond his lips, with a reasonable statement, of course—at least Touko thought that in the back of her mind—but that did not cause the glares of his company to yield. But worst of all was that the Pokemon heard it quite clearly. The humans knew subconsciously that he was in the right—he was always right when it came to Pokemon. The Junior Trainer who had just received his first Pokemon spewed nothing but facts of the ideal Pokemon Trainer and his team of indestructible battle-warriors—Touko knew this, so she wasn't nearly as surprised as, say, Bel. Yet, despite all of Touko's knowledge and history with Cheren, even she could not put herself past the fact that Cheren refused to justify Rolf's potential weakness with his extreme youth. And his ideals were not likely to change anytime soon.
"That's a terrible thing to say, Cheren!" Bel almost immediately retorted; she looked back at the hatchling with sympathy between intervals of her glares. She, unlike the others, took his statement personally, but this time, it had meaning—they all knew this very well. Rolf was more than just a pretty sight to gawk at; he was the budding youth of a generation of Pokemon, one that would train, evolve, and grow stronger. But the glint in Cheren's cold eyes was nothing like the mysterious glow of evolution. However, Rolf heard this statement just as clearly as Bel and the others. With eyes a bit hurt with pride, he glanced to Titania, the only one present whom he trusted so faithfully, and her eyes held everything he needed: encouragement. Immediately, his ears perked up, his nose twitched, and his eyes lifted out of their misty haze. He nodded slightly, as a human would do, and slowly, bravely oriented his small body towards Cheren with a look of fierce determination in his eyes. But he was barely noticed at all by anyone. "Can't you see that he's still a hatchling? He's maybe a little older than a month. He has to learn still!"
"But what good is he going to be to Touko? She's going on a Gym Challenge, not a Musical Gauntlet. Her Pokemon need to be strong, fast, experienced; Rolf is too young to do much of anything. Alder hardly had time to train him—if he trained him at all. I don't see how he's going to be much help to Touko. I mean, even my Tepig could defeat him."
"Why don't you prove that then?" Touya, upon seeing the flushed face of Bel, chimed in at his opportune moment, but this was nothing that surprised Touko. Touya was known for observations of timing and the emotions of others then striking when the opponent comes away off their guard. It was the one thing Touko thought that might give him a great advantage over her, since she preferred a direct and quick end to most battles. Secretly, she hoped that these Pokemon would display such skill that it would turn Touya away in intimidation—it was the only way to secure her future in fame. However, she also knew that Touya was about as stubborn and hard-headed as a Bouffalant. Throwing him off the right track to the championship would have to take more than just a few intimidation tactics, she thought. It would have to take the conniving and well-executed skills of an all-out war. This was sibling rivalry at its peak.
At Touya's suggestion, Cheren pushed the bridge of his glasses further upon the slope of his nose. For a moment, those lenses flashed with white, concealing a thoughtful look as he nodded and grinned only slightly. "That sounds like a perfect idea. I should be able to refresh my own mind after a quick battle. Therefore, I'll be more prepared for the journey ahead." It was at this moment when his attention was finally caught by the ambitious, yet slightly nervous Shinx creeping up to him with eyes burning with defiance and a body covered with a faint glow. This soft light attracted the eyes of the other humans—especially Bel's, which gleamed with wonder and curiosity. Touko, however, began to second guess her own thoughts. She had once silently agreed with Cheren on Rolf's weakness after acknowledging his extreme youth, but now she reprimanded herself upon seeing the faintly glowing Pokemon bravely standing before his foe. Rolf wasn't weak, he was young, she concluded as the glow became brighter. Seconds later, the young Shinx's body glowed brilliantly with a golden aura of electricity, until his shine rivaled even the small chandelier faithfully hanging from the ceiling.
And a minute later, it ended. Rolf recoiled a bit as the electrical aura retreated into his body, but he had achieved his goal; Cheren dutifully took interest in the young rascal of a Pokemon. He shifted his glasses once more, analyzed the behavior of the Shinx, and observed the rapid twitching of his fur, but ultimately Cheren was slightly disappointed that nothing else occurred. He had wondered if this phenomenon was Rolf trying to utilize some move, such as Thunderbolt or Discharge, but it seems only to be a weak display of electricity, one that hurt even the user as he slunk away with his ears turned back and determination ridden from his eyes. "It seems like he understood you." Touko muttered her thoughts as she reached out and stroked the fur of the Shinx, greatly helping him to relax. At this statement, Cheren had no reply; the notion of a Pokemon's capacity to understand human speech had struck even him as his cold, black eyes never left the fur of the Shinx.
"It's amazing what Pokemon can do!" The mother gasped with a shortness of breath in an exhilarated excitement. Her hand was placed lightly on her chest and a special smile warmed up her face as she watched the Shinx playfully bat Touko's hand. "He must want to become stronger."
"And evolve, it looks like." Cheren muttered, but he was obviously mesmerized by the recent glow. "He might have a chance, but I would go easy on using him." Rolf chose not to hear this, of course, because Bel was now fawning over his form by ruffling his hair a bit playfully and a bit roughly.
"Well, I think he's a wonderful Pokemon, no matter if he evolves." Touko stated pointedly, and her eyes were filled with wonder at the lithe feline form rolling onto his back just to swat away Bel's fingers.
But the need arose in her for another Pokeball release.
She quickly looked around the room: Cheren and Touya were hosting some sort of staring contest towards the Ultra Ball—she automatically concluded that they both wanted to open it, and that the situation to come wouldn't be so pleasant to witness—Bel was still away at engaging Rolf in a round of "boxing," but her mother was the only one without a Pokeball. She saw how her mother gently smiled at the Shinx, now squeaking instead of roaring in frustration against Bel, but her eyes discreetly darted into the chest, eying nothing in particular as Touko followed her gaze; her mother did clearly indicate some sort of interest in this event. In that case, Touko randomly picked the first ball she spotted that was unique in pattern—the Lake Ball—then she offered it to her mother to catch her attention.