An interview with the scientist

"O.K., so Route 4 should be just up...ahead."

A green, lizard-like creature with a leaf on the end of its tail looked up at its Trainer. "Is something wrong, Maria?"

The blue eyed, brown-haired Trainer looked at the Servine. "Nothing's wrong, Emerald. It's just that I didn't expect Route 4 to have these ruins sticking up everywhere." She motioned to the crumbling buildings that lined the road in the distance.

"The humans were planning on making a road through the desert." The Servine and Maria turned to look in the direction of a patch of dark sand, where a brown-and-black striped crocodile sat. "When they found those ruins, they stopped production because they didn't want to destroy some of their history."

"Huh." Maria's eyes widened in surprise. "I didn't expect that. Maybe I should have played through that other game..." Seeing the look of confusion she was getting, the teen added quickly, "It's nothing."

The Sandile moved from the sand and approached Maria, curious. "You're not that kid who took out all those other teams, are you? The kid called White?"

Maria gave the Sandile a look of surprise. "Yes, that's me. How did you know?"

"Pokemon who were released by Plasma before they were dispersed claimed that a ten year old girl with more experience with Pokemon than a champion managed to somehow make friends with aliens and destroy four different organizations. There are a couple Minccino around here who swear on their clean dens about it."

Maria smirked. "They don't have to. Yes, I'm that kid - only a few years older and with more backstory than most people know about."

"Most people?" The Sandile looked confused. "Who does know?"

"Hey, Maria!"

The Trainer's head turned, only to get sprayed in the face with sand as a figure came to a screeching halt. Spitting to what she could, Maria exclaimed, "Sonic, try to be a bit more careful! There's enough sand in this sandstorm already!"

"Sorry." The hedgehog became embarrassed. "But I'm kind of surprised to run into you here in a place like this!"

"Well, it is the only way to get from Castellia to Nimbasa." Maria looked the hedgehog over. "So, where's Paul?"

"In his Ball," the hedgehog replied. "He said that the storm was affecting his eyesight, so he's going to stay in there until I get out of this mess. My other friend, though, seems to like it."

"Other friend?" Emerald repeated.

"Yeah. Hey, Dash - get out of there and say hi to my friend Maria!"

The head of a dusty blue shrew poked out of Sonic's quills. "Hi."

Maria's eyes widened in surprise. "Wow. I haven't seen a Sandshrew that color before. Normally, the Shiny ones are green."

"Really?" Sonic looked up at his Pokemon. "That explains the people that were going after him."

"Going after him? What did they look like?"

"They were wearing black all over," Sonic replied. "And they all had identical hair and eyes, too, which made me think they were probably identical siblings."

Maria's eyes narrowed. "Orange hair and blue eyes?"

Sonic nodded, careful to make sure that Dash didn't fall off. "Do you know about them?"

"I've run into a couple of them already," Maria replied. "They're remnants of Team Plasma, from the same organization Black took out two years ago. I have an idea as to why they might still be around..."

Sonic's emerald eyes sparked. "It has something to do with how you know about Team Galactic's stuff, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. Those things are different this time around - I played an alternate version of the events being done here, and with you and the others on this world, things are going to be less predictable."

"That's to be expected."

"Excuse me! You there!" Maria's head turned as a figure approached. He was wearing a lab coat, was carrying a tablet of some sort, and had blond hair with a sprig of sky blue that wrapped around his head...

"Who are you?" Maria asked, a curious frown forming on her face. "I remember seeing you in the sewers back in Castelia."

"My name is Colress," the figure replied, his golden eyes flashing. "I'm studying the hidden power that a Pokemon can have when it is bonded with a Trainer. I couldn't help but notice that you seem to be capable of holding up a conversation with Pokemon."

"It's a gift I've had for a few years," Maria stated. "Sonic can understand them, as well, but that's only because an alien race stuck a translator in his ear."

Colress looked at the hedgehog. "You mean this isn't a Pokemon?"

"No." Sonic folded his arms across his chest. "I'm a Mobian."

"Mobian?" Colress' eyes widened. "Ah! You mean the creatures that appeared in Sinnoh? You are one of them?"

"That's right. My girlfriend went on ahead to Nimbasa with a friend of mine to check out the Musicals. I wanted to train up my team, and I ended up running into Dash not too long ago."

"Interesting..." Colress looked at Maria. "Do you two mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Uh...sure." Maria exchanged a quick glance with Emerald, then looked back at Colress, who was now armed with a stylus, which was hovering over his tablet.

"So, how often do you use your Starter?" Colress asked, looking at Maria.

"I've taken to letting Emerald battle when I need to train her up to the rest of the team's levels, or if she has a Type Advantage against a Pokemon I'm fighting," Maria explained. She smiled down at Emerald, who grinned back. "Right now, I'm going to need her help if I'm going to run into any Ground-Types, but I'll be needing one if I'm going to fight Elesa in a Gym Battle."

Colress nodded. "And you, Sonic?"

"Paul's taken a liking to taking over when one of my other Team members is getting weakened pretty quickly," Sonic replied. "And he's fast enough to avoid electric attacks. I'm giving him a break right now, though - he doesn't like the sand very much."

"Interesting. And when you want to make friends with a new Pokemon?"

"Ask if they want to come along with us!" Maria and Sonic responded together. They looked at each other in surprise, then burst out laughing.

Colress was surprised upon hearing this, but smiled and started to write vigorously on his tablet. "One last question." He held up a PokeBall. "I want to test your strengths on the battlefield."

Maria grinned, grabbing a PokeBall from off her belt. "You're so on!"

"Go, Magnemite!"

"Go, Carlos!"

The magnet-oriented Pokemon appeared in a flash of white light, looking around at its surroundings for a moment before looking at its opponent: a jackal-like Pokemon with spikes coming out of the back of its paws and the center of its chest.

The Lucario let out a growl, as though to attempt to intimidate his opponent, but he didn't move from the offensive stance he had taken upon coming out of his PokeBall.

"Let's go for a Force Palm!" Maria ordered, moving her right hand to one side as the sandstorm started to pick up a little.

"ThunderSh-" Colress cut himself off in surprise as his Electric/Steel-Type fainted in an instant, Carlos standing in front of the fainted Pokemon with a paw out. "Incredible. I have never seen such an amount of strength from a Lucario before."

"Carlos prides himself on his attack power, and he's always looking for a greater challenge," Maria explained calmly as Carlos jumped back to her side. "I ran into him pretty early on, and I think the only reason he agreed to follow me at first was that I could help him become stronger. I managed to create a deep Trainer/Pokemon bond a few days ago."

Carlos snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. Colress saw this movement and gave the Fighting/Steel-Type a curious look.

"It doesn't seem like he's too pleased with you," the scientist noted.

"I've run into Pokemon with attitudes before," Maria waved off. "Carlos is just reluctant to admit that he sees me as a friend, that's all. He'll fully adjust to it eventually."

The Lucario let out another snort and turned to face a different direction, muttering something under his breath. his Trainer let out a sigh in response.

"You know, I have been hoping to get a Lucario for some time now, but I haven't been able to find the time to hunt one down for my studies," Colress noted.

"Try to make some time, then," Maria offered. "There's a ranch in the southwest that has a small colony of Riolu - I'm sure one of them would be more than willing to travel with you." At the back of her mind, something was nagging her, telling the Trainer that it might actually be a bad idea to suggest something like that to this man. She wondered if he might have appeared in one of the articles she'd read concerning the sequel games for the original Black/White duo.

"Tell you what, I picked up a Trapinch some time ago," Colress stated, pulling a PokeBall from one of his lab coat's pockets. "I'm more fond of Pokemon that are part Steel, and your Lucario fits the bill. How about it?"

Maria frowned, then looked over at Carlos, who was eyeing the scientist with a curious - and interested - expression. "Are you willing to go through with it? We might not run into each other again, you know."

"And I might never get an opportunity like this again," the Pokemon replied. Turning to look at Maria directly, he stated, "As much as I got stronger hanging around you, I'm still not comfortable with your idea of training. This guy might provide a little more of a better training style for me."

"Well?" Colress asked, looking between the Lucario and the Trainer.

Maria let out a sigh. "We'll do it."

The PokeBalls were quickly exchanged, and Colress gave his farewells to Maria and Sonic, then walked off with Carlos.

"I don't like that guy," Dash murmured softly.

"Me, neither," Emerald agreed. "He smelled funny."

Sonic nodded slightly. "Yeah. I'm getting the feeling that we're going to run into that guy again."

"He is certainly a character," Maria agreed. "But why would a scientist be walking around in places like sewers and deserts when he's researching bonds with Pokemon? He'd have a better chance talking to Trainers if he cycled though standing outside of the Gyms." She looked down at the PokeBall she now held that contained the Pokemon she had exchanged with Colress. "Speaking of which, I think I just might have the ticket I need to beat Elesa in Nimbasa - if she's still the Gym Leader there."

"Why? What's her favorite Type?" Sonic asked, a curious expression coming over his face.

"Electric." Maria grinned. "And, seeing as Trapinch is part Ground, he's not going to be affected at all by her attacks - at this point, he probably knows at least one Ground-Type attack, too." She looked out over the sand. "Just to be sure, though, I'm going to want to catch another Ground-Type to help him out." She promptly struck out into the sands, Emerald following behind.

"There's a group of Sandshrew in the Desert Resort!" Sonic called after her. "Maybe you should go talk to them!"

"I will!" Maria called back. "Are you planning on challenging any Gyms? Because Paul would rock the one in Castelia!"

"I was actually heading there to poke around before heading back to Nimbasa! Thanks for the tip!"

With that, the two friends parted ways.