Chapter One - A Mysterious Package!

20 Years Later

August 1st, 2022

Pokémon Research Laboratory, Jay Town, Asture Region

Raine Jennings, thirty five years old, set down the clipboard and timer and rubbed Buizel warmly on the top of his head. The vividly orange, sea weasel Pokémon turned its head to look back at him happily.

"Bui, bui," Buizel chirruped cheerfully.

"Good job, Buizel," Raine said. "That's a new record. You'll beat Staryu's water gun in no time."

The pair were testing the limits of Buizel's abilities, trying to increase his competence in all of his skills. Today the focus was a sustained water gun inside of the lab's wet room. Buizel had soaked the floor and even reached the far wall twenty metres away with his powerful stream of water.

Raine took a PokéTreat out of one of his deep lab coat pockets and hand fed Buizel who accepted gleefully, twirling his twin tails in delight.

"Alright, Buizel, next up is target practice," Raine said, picking up a stack of foam circles with red targets painted on them from a toy chest. He went and stood at the far end of the rectangular room, leaving Buizel where he was. "Remember to shoot them out of the air, not my hands. Ready?"

He threw one target into the air just out of reach of his outstretched hand and Buizel shot a stream of water all the way across the room and knocked it into the back wall with perfect aim.

"Great shot! Again."

He threw the four remaining targets into the air one at a time and every time Buizel hit them dead centre and sent them spinning through the air to crash into the wall.

"When did you get so good, buddy?" Raine asked, amazed by his partner's precision. He dug a PokéTreat out of a pocket and threw it across the room. Buizel skittered towards it and caught it gleefully in his mouth. As he chewed, Raine bent down to scoop up the five targets in order to go again. They had practiced the sustained water gun twenty times and they would do target practice just as many times.

Before he could throw the first target there was a knock on the door and the top of Professor Sakura's head appeared in the porthole. He stepped inside without being summoned and waved to Raine as Buizel ran over and circled his legs several times.

"Raine, my boy," the Professor, fifty one years old, said in his slow and calm tone, scratching a hand through his short, greying hair. "Why are you still training? Today's the big day."

"I know, Professor," Raine said eagerly. "I just had to know that Buizel could do it."

"You've known every day for years, Raine. He'll do just fine." He rubbed Buizel on the top of the head and he cooed happily. "Won't you, little guy?"

"Yes, but Mirella keeps telling me that preparation is the key to victory. So I'm preparing."

"You're overpreparing," the Professor chastised. "As always you're taking things just a bit too far. Go and get some rest before this afternoon. Please. For Buizel's sake at least."

"Okay, Professor," Raine conceded, carrying the targets back to the chest where he had gathered them. He pulled out a Poké Ball and said, "Time for a break, Buizel."

A beam of light shot out of the Poké Ball and encapsulated Buizel, who disappeared into the ball. He wasn't usually the type of Pokémon to willingly go inside of his Poké Ball, but he didn't fight it this time.

"Oh, and Raine," the Professor said, grasping the loose sleeve of Raine's lab coat. "Try and remember to have fun. This isn't an experiment."

"Yes, Professor," Raine responded. He could try and enjoy his first foray into being a Pokémon trainer and not just a researcher. Even though it was technically an experiment in strategy and preparedness. He was much better at those things than he ever was at Pokémon battles.

He passed through the busy laboratory where fellow researchers and scientists were studying the many facets of Pokémon. They all devoted their lives to the study and wellbeing of Pokémon and would do whatever it took to learn more about them. For most of them that meant in the lab as well as in battle, but Raine had only recently started to develop Buizel into a fighter.

As he stepped outside a Pidgeot was coming to rest on the PokéMail post and the alert bells were ringing. Nobody else was around so he stepped up to the giant bird Pokémon and investigated the satchel hanging below its body. There was a bundle of twine wrapped letters and a small parcel addressed to Professor Sakura. He took the mail and fed the Pidgeot a PokéTreat before it took off with a massive gust of wind and a whirlwind of dust. He carried the mail back inside and found Professor Sakura standing over a pen of tiny Rattata.

"I have your mail, Professor," Raine said, handing over the letters with the parcel tucked beneath his arm.

The Professor looked away from the Rattata and accepted the letters. "What's the package?" he asked.

Raine turned it over in his hands and said, "It looks like it's from Professor Oak in the Kanto region."

"Oak? I haven't heard from him since our last conference. What could he be sending me?" He tucked the bundle of letters into one of his lab coat pockets and accepted the mysterious package. Tearing off the outer layer of twine and brown parchment paper he exposed a plain brown box that he peeled open. "This is fascinating. I haven't received a present in quite a while."

"What is it?" Raine asked, unable to see inside.

"I don't know," the Professor said, bringing out a small red rectangular object. "It looks like some kind of device." He folded the front of the object open and there was a small screen and a variety of buttons. "Wait. It couldn't be. Could it?"

"Couldn't be what?"

"If I remember correctly Professor Oak was attempting to design a device to identify and catalog Pokémon. A Pokédex he called it." He offered it over to Raine and took out another one from inside of the box.

"A Pokédex? Like an electronic Pokémon encyclopaedia?" Raine asked, turning the device over in his hands, but avoiding touching any of the buttons.

"Exactly! Ah, look here Oak provided a letter inside as well." He skimmed the letter and then read it aloud. "Hello, Professors, I hope this surprise package finds you well. I have included inside of this parcel five of my wonderful Pokédexes. It is up to you to distribute them to young trainers who are setting out on their Pokémon journey. It will be perfect for any trainer who wants an extra hand to identify wild creatures or simply ones they haven't seen before. The Pokédex will also help me to identify the habitats of the Pokémon found in your regions. It is a remarkably easy to use device, simply point the camera at any species of Pokémon and their data will be analysed and a brief voiced description will be given according to the detailed data I have uploaded. I wish any trainer willing to take one of these Pokédexes the best of luck on their journeys. Simply signed Oak"

"That sounds amazing," Raine said, turning to point the camera at the group of Rattata.

A picture of the Rattata and some basic statistics appeared on the viewscreen inside of the Pokédex. "Rattata, a mouse Pokémon," a smooth female voice recording said from the Pokédex. "It is cautious in the extreme. Even while it is asleep, it constantly listens by moving its ears around."

"Whoa," Professor Sakura and Raine echoed.

"How did Professor Oak design this?" Raine asked, turning to see if there were any other Pokémon in the vicinity to identify, but unfortunately there were none roaming about the lab.

"I haven't the slightest clue," the Professor said, taking the Pokédex out of Raine's hands and closing it back in the box. "But we must make sure that these end up in the right hands."

"What do you mean by the right hands?" Raine said, looking at the closed box excitedly.

"Oak asked us to give them to young trainers who are setting out on their first Pokémon journey. We'll have to go to Sparrow Town and pick out five students from the PokéAcademy to give them to."

"You want to put them into the hands of ten year olds? Is that the best use?"

"Children will be rough with them and I'm sure that their durability is something Oak would like tested as well."

Raine placed a hand on top of the box and said, "But do we have to entrust them all to children?"

"What else did you have in mind?" the Professor asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We could use one of them ourselves. Surely sending four out into the world will help Professor Oak enough with his studies."

The Professor's eyes lit up and he looked at Raine with his mouth hanging open. "I have a better idea actually. The children we choose will need somebody to report their progress to. We can't expect them to all be in direct contact with Oak."

"Who did you have in mind?"

"You."

"Me?" Raine blurted, wrenching his hand away from the box. "I couldn't possibly go on a journey. I'm far too old and I've got so much work to do here."

"Never mind all of that, Raine," the Professor said, clasping Raine on the upper arm. "You're about to face your first Gym challenge, this is the perfect time to get out into the world and study Pokémon as you try to collect all eight Gym badges."

Raine stammered and muttered, but he didn't know what to say. Could he truly go on his first Pokémon journey as an adult? Wouldn't the young trainers poke fun at his inexperience and outshine him in battle?

No, there was no way that he could abandon his research, even if he was about to take on Jay Town's Gym for the first time later that day in the hopes of becoming a proper Pokémon trainer. Journeying across the Asture region was a young person's goal not his.

"I can't do it," he conceded. "Someone with far more experience should go instead."

"Put the idea to the back of your mind," the Professor said reassuringly. "I shouldn't have said anything. Just focus on challenging Mirella first and we'll discuss this later."

"Fine, Professor," Raine said disappointedly and tried again to go and get some rest before his big battle.