Author's Note

Still don't own Pokemon

New Bark town is a small town of about 5000 people. A sleepy little borough near the boarder between the Kanto and Johto regions. Gregory exited his house and began to make his way towards Professor Elm's Research center in the north western part of the town. The morning sun was just starting to climb into the sky as he passed the various small store fronts and houses towards his destination. After only a block he could no longer contain his impatience and broke out into a run, smiling all the way to the lab.

About 15 minutes later he arrives to prof. Elm's Lab. The lab itself is two stories with a teal colored metal roof, and a white bricked facade. Behind the building is the Pokemon Lab's ranch, acres and acres of land owned by the lab for use by the Pokemon sent by Lab affiliated trainers and for the Lab's own Pokemon that they have assisting them in their research. As Gregory tries the door he finds its locked.

"looks like you beat me here!" a feminine voice calls out from behind him.

As he turns around he sees a young woman, who looks to be about his age, approaching him. She had long black hair fashioned into a thin ponyta-braid, that was threaded through a worn baseball cap. She had on a pair of jeans with some sturdy looking hiking boots. Her tank top was a deep red color, and over her shoulder she had a silph-co brand backpack that was the same model as his.

"Yeah, I suppose I did, heh, looks like I was in such a hurry to get here i didn't check to see when the lab would be open." Gregory replied.

"My name is Gregory by the way!" he continues, reaching a hand out for a shake. "are you also here to receive a starter pokemon?"

Taking his hand she replies "yeah I am, I just got in from Cherrygrove, my names Nora! it's a pleasure to meet you!"

Before either one could continue speaking the door behind them opened. As they both turned towards the door a man with a lab coat, black hair, and glasses steps out.

"Oh! Hello there, I didn't expect to have visitors here so early, how can I help you kids?"

"Hello sir, we both are here to get a starter Pokemon!" Nora says, both kids bring out their vouchers to show the man.

After he looks over both and hands them back he steps into the doorway holding the door as he beckons them in saying, "Ah, I should of guessed, here this way."

Both Nora and Gregory follow the man inside the lab. Looking around, the front half of the lab seems to be an office space with a small assortment of cubicle desks off to the right. Where a few more people dressed in lab coats were typing away at their computers. The left hand side has a decent sized meeting room, next to that there is a small library that takes up the rest of the space.

"My name is Dave by the way, I work here as one of Professor Elm's research aids" Dave continues, snapping Gregory's wandering eyes back to him. "you both must be very very excited to be getting your own Pokemon today!"

"yes sir! I could hardly sleep last night" Nora chimes in.

"I have been waiting for a long time for this!" Gregory adds.

"well then we better not dally! here through this door way."

Dave led them into what had to be the main part of the lab. All around them they saw various machines and equipment that Gregory could only begin to guess at the purpose of. They then made it to the very back of the room where a large table sat, atop of which sat a few red square devices.

"Please wait here while I go grab Prof. Elm" Dave said as he makes his way to a door off to the right, which opened to reveal a staircase that leads to a basement floor.

"wow look at all this equipment!" Nora says gazing around the lab. "it must be so much fun to work with Pokemon all day."

"yeah, I bet" Gregory replies.

"so do you plan on challenging the gym circuit, once you get your Pokemon?" Gregory asks.

"Hmm, you know I'm not sure, honestly I just want to travel around and meet as many different Pokemon as I can" she replies, then after a short pause continues, " What about you? Are you aiming to compete in the silver league?"

"You bet! I'm aiming to be the best trainer i can!"

"well you're going to have to settle for second-best, because that's all you'll ever be while I'm around!" a voice chimes in behind them.

Turning around both Nora and Gregory spot a boy, also around their age, with Blond hair cut short and sporting a hat emblazoned with the Pokemon leagues symbol walking up to them from the same door they just entered from.

As he makes it to them he continues, saying,"The names Alexander and you better remember it because I'm going to be the next champion!"

Turning to him, Gregory replies, "well, we will see about that. I'm Gregory, and this is Nora" He extends his hand to shake the new boy's hand.

Alexander just looks at his hand, seemingly deciding if he wants to return the greeting, he scoffs a bit a takes Gregory's hand and gives a brief shake.

Before the interaction can get any more tense the door that Dave went down opens up again, revealing a new man, also wearing a lab coat, entering the room. He had rounded glasses and his light brown hair was cut short with a longer messy tangle of hair on top.

"welcome! welcome! I've been told you kids are here to get your starter Pokemon."

The man, who could be none other then prof. Elm, begins "However before we begin there are a few things that i have to go over with you!" he says this as he strides from the door way and stops facing them from behind the large table with the mysterious devices on them. "First I'll need to see the vouchers you should've received from the League." all three kids begin digging through their bags as he says this, each one producing their voucher. The professor then comes around to each, taking the offered paper giving it a quick look over before moving back to his spot behind the table where he says, "Excellent now that, that is out of the way we can move on. As some of you might have noticed, here in front of me on the table are quite a few machines that you probably haven't seen before. These are the fruit of a project me and my peers from the various different regions have been collaborating on. We are calling it a Pokedex. Think of it as an encyclopedia of all known pokemon. However it is incomplete, its entries taken from written sources that themselves were sourced from myths, legends, and rumors. Many of my colleagues have already begun updating entries as we collect more data, but it has been quite an undertaking. Which brings me to the request I wish to make of you!" as he was saying all this he had begun pacing back and forth, his tall lithe frame filled with an almost manic energy, his enthusiam about this topic obvious. "that request is for each one of you to take this pokedex with you on your journeys and help us fill it with more accurate information."

Nora being the first to answer, says "I would be happy to help professor but how would I even do that?"

Both Alexander and Gregory nod their heads in silent agreement to the question.

"ah, a great question! I'm glad you asked!" the professor begins, "There are a few ways you can help us, first you can simply scan any Pokemon you see, this will give you some basic information on the species in question, but will also send us data on its size, markings and other various metrics. Secondly, and this is the main way that you will be helping us, is catching pokemon, when you catch a pokemon with any pokeballs you have linked to your pokedex, besides all the previous things I mentioned, we will receive more in-depth bio-metric data that a visual scan could not provide. Lastly, on your Pokedex you can make notes or take pictures or videos of any observations you may have which will automatically be sent to my staff and I for review." Seemingly having to refrain from turning this into a full lecture, professor Elm takes a second before finishing, "so what do you say? Will you three accept my request?"

Nora without hesitation says, "Oh, of course I'll help!"

Gregory took a bit longer to decide. The idea of helping out the professor certainly appealed to him, but he had decided he wanted to really make a shot at winning the silver conference this year. He wanted to focus on catching and training a team to help him to that end, However information was a powerful tool and if he was able to learn more about as many pokemon as possible that could only benefit him.

His decision made he met the professor's eyes saying, "sure, I'll help you!"

Alexander just gives the professor a nod in reply before saying, "Can we get our Pokemon now or what?"

"Of course! Sorry, I know you all must be excited to get to meet your future partners."

He quickly picks up three of the small red devices and hands them out. He continues saying," Now... how to decide who chooses first...ah, how about we just go by who was here first?"

"That would be me sir!" Gregory says taking a step forward.

"Excellent! then please follow me.

The professor then begins walking back towards the door he came in from, with Gregory hurrying to catch up. As they begin making their way down the steps Prof. Elm quips, "Well Gregory, you're sure spoiled for choice! My colleagues from all over provided us with some rare pokemon from their respective regions!" At the bottom of the stairs the room is open with three huge glass habitats taking up the majority of the space. To the left of the room however, there is a huge vault door. The door itself was already open and inside Gregory could see Dave with a scanner going down row upon row of pokeballs making annotations on a clipboard every now and again. The professor noticing the angle of his gaze chimes in, "That is where we keep all the Pokemon from trainers that have stabling rights with us. When they have met their carry limit they send them to us for safe keeping."

"wow, there sure are a lot of Pokemon in there." Gregory mutters in awe.

"oh yes, we have a lot of trainers that utilize our ranch, now let me go over all the pokemon you have to choose from."

Elm leads him over to the glass habitats, stopping in front of one that seems to be a facsimile of grasslands with a bit of a forest like edge made up of small trees and bushes. In the middle there is a pond where seven Pokemon are gathered. "So in here you will find all the grass type pokemon. Those being Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Treeko, Turtwig, Snivy, Chespin, and Grookey." He then moves on to the next enclosure, this one looks much like the last, which also has a pond in the middle that the pokemon gather around, but this one also has some rocky outcroppings in the back of the habitat. "This one is home to all the fire type pokemon, which includes Charmander, Cyndaquil, Torchic, Chimchar, Tepig, Fennekin, and Scorbunny." Of the three habitats the last one is the most drastically different. 50 percent of the habitat is water, with a Strip of land with a mixture of grass, sand and mud extending from the enclosures door. Walking in front of the last one Prof. Elm continues, "Finally this is where we have the water type Pokemon. Here you will find Squirtle, Totodile, Mudkip, Piplup, Oshwott, Froakie, and Sobble. Like I said we have a lot to choose from, take your time and let me know which one you want."

Gregory begins perusing each habitat carefully, some of the Pokemon notice his gaze on them though most choose to ignore him, apparently uninterested in his attention. A few however show a little interest in him and walk up to the glass for a closer look. The first one being the Turtwig from the grass type habitat. The small quadruped has a yellow lower jaw, with yellow eyes and feet as well. On the top of its heads it also has a small seedling. It stops a few feet from the glass and looks Gregory in the eyes. With a slight tilt of its head it lets out a curious sounding "twig" then scampers back to the other pokemon. Its curiosity apparently satisfied.

The second Pokemon was the Squirtle from the water type habitat. Though the squirtle didn't walk up as far as the Turtwig, it still took a few steps forward and gave him a happy sounding "squirt!" and waved to him. After he gave a smile and a wave back to it though, the squirtle turned away and jumped into the water.

The final Pokemon was the Fire type Fennekin, the little fox came bounding all the way up to the glass sitting down and looking up at him expectantly. The soft looking fur of its body was yellow with bright red eyes that matched the tip of its fluffy tail and the tufts of fur that extend from its pointed ears. The bottom half of its face and its short snout was a pure white like spent ashes in bright sunlight. Crouching down to be more on its level, Gregory put a steadying hand to the glass, and asked, "do you want to come with me on my journey Fennekin?"

Tilting her head to the side, seemingly in thought, the little vixen reached up and placed her fore paws onto the glass. Her right paw landing exactly where his hand was, at the same time she yipped a happy, " Fen, Fennekin!"

A smile spreading across his face he called back over his shoulder, eyes not leaving the fox in front of him.

"Professor! I've made my decision!"

Professor Elm made his was over and stood behind him. "so you're choosing Fennekin? Alright then let me grab her Pokeball for you." With that the professor goes into the vault and a few moments later returns with the spherical red and white device in his hands.

As he hands its over to Gregory he says, "You know, one of the areas of my studies is the bonds between humans and Pokemon, and I've found that letting your Pokemon travel with you outside its ball can help to form a strong bond between a pokemon and its trainer. Maybe you should consider letting your new friend travel with you in such a way. Well the choice is yours." He opens the door to the habitat, letting the little fire fox out. "Please send the next person down when you head upstairs!"

Giving prof. Elm a quick smile and a thumbs up, Gregory kneels down in front of Fennekin. "so what do you say girl? wanna walk with me?"

"Fen, Fen!" came the excited reply as the Fox pokemon gives a quick wag of its fluffy tail.

"alright then! lets go!" he says standing up and making his way up the stairs. Halfway up the Professor calls out to him, "Oh I have one more thing to speak with you all about so please wait for me upstairs!"

As Gregory and Fennekin make it back to the other two teenagers, a gasp of excitement greets them. "oh my gosh! she is sooo cute." Nora gushes once she catches sight of Greogry's new partner. At the sound of her exuberance Fennekin hid behind Gregory's legs. Her head peeking out from the side.

"hm, so you decided to go with a Fennekin huh? that's certainly an interesting choice.." Alexander says giving them both a glance filled with an air of consideration.

Choosing not to reply to his remark Gregory turns to Nora, "The professor said you're good to go down there now."

With a pump of her fist and a megawatt grin Nora takes off down the stairs.

Pulling out his Pokedex, Gregory aims it toward the little fox now sitting at his feet. After hitting the scan button a picture of fennekin is pulled up on the dex's screen along with some information on her species. Then a computerized voice begins speaking,

"Fennekin, The Fox Pokemon, found in Forrest, chaparrals, and deserts. These Pokémon have a curious diet—they subsist primarily on dry twigs, which they seek out constantly, even chewing on them while walking about. They combust the sticks they eat within their bodies to create fire." Hitting another button the pokedex then shows him the list of moves that she knows.

-Scratch

-Charm

-Howl

-Ember

Slipping the pokedex back into his pocket, he gets down on a knee to be more on her level. He slowly brings a hand towards her, stroking the soft fur between her ears. "Remind me to get you some sticks later, okay girl?" Her reply was to, using his knee as a spring board, jump to his shoulder and give a lick to his cheek with her warm tongue.

As he gets back to his feet, fox still on his shoulder, Nora makes her return through the door. In her arms is a small blue amphibian, on its cheek it has orange spikes, three prongs to each cheek, with a fin atop its head and one for a tail. Returning to the other two boys, she has a a satisfied smile on her face. "The Professor said you're good to come down now Alexander." she says.

"Finally, you both took forever." Alexander replies, as he pushes past them down the stairs.

"He sure has an attitude problem huh?" Nora quips as the other boy shuts the door behind him.

Gregory just gives a shrug in return, careful not to make his little hitchhiker loose her balance.

"So are you going to give Fennekin a nickname?" Nora asks after a moment,

Turning to the vixen on his shoulder he says, "I never really considered it before, what do you say Fennekin, would you like a nickname?"

Head tilted to the right she considers the proposition, and a moment later shakes her head. "well there you have it, though I might give any future Pokemon I catch nicknames if they want them."

Gregory was just about to ask Nora if she would be giving her Mudkip a nickname when Alexander returns, with a Cyndaquil and professor Elm following behind him. The little fire type Pokemon had blue fur on top and cream colored fur on its lower half, it also had a long thin snout and four red circles on its back.

Professor Elm resumes his earlier spot behind the table as Alexander falls back in next to Nora and Gregory.

"Thank you for sticking around, I know you all are excited to begin your journeys now that you have your Pokemon, but I just had one more thing to go over with you three before you head out." The Professor begins. "Since all of you have agreed to help me with my research, I will be updating your trainer ID's to reflect that you are Lab researchers affiliated with me. You all will also be receiving some monetary compensation from the Lab for your contributions." As he says this he walks to each of the teenagers and grabs their IDs. He then heads over to his computer over on the left hand side of the room and begins entering in their information. After a few minutes he hands them each back their trainer card. "well that's all from me, if you have any questions let me know, otherwise good luck on your journeys and I cant wait to see the data you collect!"

No sooner had the last words left his mouth, when Alexander turns and walks out of the lab. Nora and Gregory both thank the professor and begin walking out shortly after.

"So what will you be doing now?" Nora asks, they had just exited the lab and stood by the sidewalk.

"well, first I will be heading back to my house, I promised my folks that i wouldn't leave with out checking in with them one last time. After that though... I think I'll start making my way to Violet city. Since that's where the closest gym is." he replied, after taking a few moments to think it through.

"what about you? I know you mentioned you just wanted to travel around a bit."

"I'm also going to be heading to violet city, I've heard about the Sprout tower there and I really wanted to check it out." Nora says, then after a brief pause adds, "Do you want to travel together? I'm Still a little nervous about traveling by myself," then with a brief look to the little blue amphibian still in her arms, " I know I'll have Mudkip with me, but you know, safety in numbers and all that."

"Sure!" Gregory says, after sharing a brief look with Fenniken. The little fox give her best approximation of a shrug. "The more the merrier!"

Author's Note

Thanks again for all who took the time to read this!

Just wanted to shout out a cool website, - I will be using a lot of the information here for the pokedex entries

I am thinking of trying to release a chapter every week, hopefully on Sundays, but don't hold me too that. Still working out the balance of writing and work.

As always I appreciate any feed back that you can give that would make this story better!