The two of them ran off just like that. Now that I was alone, I could finally collect myself. Meeting two people right as I woke up was unexpected. I wonder if Arceus had a hand in my first meeting or not. As I thought that, my bag began to glow brightly, just like Arceus's shine. I quickly opened the bag and took out the phone it gave me. On it was a message.

This is where your journey truly begins, young one. I will give you assistance when you direly need it, but for now I leave you while I attend to business. I have sent you some pokemon to greet you, so you shall not be alone. And with that, I bid you good tidings.

I closed the message and clicked around the phone, finding a convenient map with a tracker on it that allowed me to make marker's of my choice, and a contacts app with Scott's number saved on it.

"Wow, that is really damn convenient," I muttered. "Appreciate it." I pocketed my phone and took in my surroundings carefully for the first time. I seemed to have fell on a small beach of some kind with a grassy field up ahead. I may not want to do it but I knew that I'd have to get the help of the people I had just met, so I braced myself and went out to look for them.

Not long after I set out, I found Professor Laventon and Akari both huddled around the corner of a large rock, whispering to each other. Well, here goes nothing.

"Um, excuse me," I said, trying to get their attention.

"Oh, hey there," Akari said, not looking at me.

"Apologies for leaving you there in all the rush." Professor Laventon said.

"Oh,uh, no problem," I mumbled, looking down. "Uh, umm…could you…"

"Hmm? What is it?" he said.

"Um.. well… I need somewhere to stay, so…"

"Oh, naturally we wouldn't abandon you. But right now we're in a bit of a pickle. We'll discuss this afterward."

"Oh, sure…" I trailed off, letting them get back to talking among themselves. With nothing better to do, I took a look at what they were hiding from. It was just the Rowlet I saw earlier, rummaging through some of the shrubs.

"Is it safe to go closer now?" Akari asked quietly.

"Rowlet seems to be occupied right now," he responded. "Now would be an excellent time."

Akari nodded, and crept forward, concealing herself among the bushes. Meanwhile, the Rowlet began to eat whatever it found in the shrubs. As she got closer to it, she got ready to throw something, probably a pokeball, at the unsuspecting Rowlet. A strange method of catching but it would probably work. She threw the pokeball from a fair distance, hitting its back dead on, but before she could see if it was caught, she dashed back to where we were.

"Why did you–" before I could finish my sentence, Rowlet popped right back out of the ball, completely unconcerned as it went back to pecking.

"Damnit," she said.

"Well, you at least landed the ball. I couldn't even manage that."

"That's the bare minimum for being in the corps. Still, I really don't want to get close again. It's probably on guard now."

Oh, they were trying to catch it. Maybe they were just inexperienced. I knew I could help with that, so I gathered up my courage and spoke up. "Do you need help catching that Rowlet?"

They both turned to look at me urgently. "Keep it down," she said. "We can't let them know where we're hiding."

"Uh.. okay." I lowered my voice. "So… Do you guys need help catching the Rowlet?"

"Well, it would be great if we had more people so we could just overwhelm it until its caught." She said off-handedly.

"I don't believe thats too necessary for them, we just need more bait," he said. "They respond well to soft things like that."

I had no idea what they were saying, but… "I can catch the Rowlet right now."

That got their attention. "You can?" they said at the same time.

"Lad, I'm not sure if you're aware just how dangerous this is. You could be badly hurt."

"He's right. They might be more well behaved than most, but if you're not careful, they'll get angered and attack you."

I looked at the Rowlet we were hiding from, and back at them. They seemed genuinely afraid I would injure myself if I tried to catch the Rowlet.

"I've only caught pokemon a handful of times but I think I can manage it," I said honestly.

"You have," Professor Laventon said, astonished. "You may as well be an expert."

Akari looked at me skeptically. "If you say so, I'll trust you. You can try with these balls." She gave me some balls that sorta resembled the pokeballs back home but... Kind of retro. "Just in case though, take this with you, alright? I don't have that many left on me but I can make some when we get back to Jubilife." She handed me a capsule of some kind. I looked at the capsule with confusion.

"Are you sure you've caught a pokemon before?" she said, concerned.

"Uh, yeah," I stuttered. "I just normally have, um, different equipment."

"Really? I don't know of any kind of equipment you could be using other than this."

"Perhaps they've never needed these tools before. In any case, Pokeballs are a relatively new invention, so perhaps a crash course would be useful." Professor Laventon said.

"Alright then. Pokeballs are really simple, you just gotta hit pokemon with it and it does all the shrinking and containing work. Weakening or getting them by surprise will help the success rate, and they'll relax into the ball easier. Smoke bombs will create, well, smoke when you throw it, and you can use it as cover to escape."

I nodded as I took that in. Pokeballs clearly worked about the same even if they looked primitive, and that would be all I needed.

"You can leave it to me." I said.

"Good luck," they said, still looking unsure. Well, it's now or never. I crept forward in the grass, making sure not to make too much noise as I approached the unsuspecting fella. When I was a few feet away, I held my ball and threw it right at its back. The ball sucked it in, shaking three times all at once, before settling down calmly.

"You guys can come out now," I called to them. "I caught it."

They emerged from hiding and just stared at me.

"Um…." I started to get self conscious again, the momentary bravery I had wearing off. "Did I… do it wrong?"

"No… Why would you think that," Akari said. "You caught it effortlessly."

"I daresay that was smoother than some of our best members in the corps." The professor chimed in. "Are you trained in this?"

"Uh… not really?"

"Simply incredible."

"Where were you trained?" Akari said, walking up and pulling my hands together. "Please tell me, your technique was flawless!"

"I… Uh…." She was touching me, so close. I looked away. "Um, I don't really… have that kind of training."

"What," she exclaimed. "You're a prodigy? That's incredible!"

"Erm!" I couldn't handle it, and jerked my hands away from her, not looking at her directly. "Sorry, I,,,"

She quickly took a step away from me and held out her hands in surrender. "No, I should apologize. I forgot myself in my excitement." We stood around awkwardly, her putting her hands down slowly as I refused to meet her eyes.

"Well now," Professor Laventon said, clapping. The noise caused both of us to jump. "I daresay you could easily catch my Oshawatt and Cyndaquill yes?"

"Oh, yeah of course," I said.

"Then off you go lad! Once you're done, I'm certain I can convince them to let you into the corps."

"Ah, yeah, thank you," I said, hurrying away from both of them. I did have to find the pokemon, and it was a lot easier than talking to them. -

"Good luck," Akari said.

"Ah, thanks," I said, and began to look around for Oshawatt and Cyndaquill. It didn't take long to track them down, Oshawatt playing near a small pond, and Cyndaquill relaxing around a rock formation. As I caught them, it occurred to me how odd it was that the professor needed to catch these guys if they were him. I must have missed something in all the rush.

"And that's all three of them," I said, picking up the pokeball from the ground.

"Your proficiency is uncanny, you know," The professor said, ruminating deeply. "Most people can barely bring themselves to approach pokemon, yet you've effortlessly managed to catch all three of them."

"Maybe he's from one of the clans? A different tribe?" Akari said,

"Uh, I have a question," I said. "How come you guys didn't already have them in pokeballs if they are your pokemon?"

"Ah, well you see, they aren't actually my pokemon." he explained. "They just arrived to help with our research, but they have yet to be matched with anyone yet. Since there was no reason to put them in a ball, I've been keeping them company in the meantime."

"I see," I murmured.

"Nevermind that now," he said, clapping his hands. "Now that you've passed your test with flying colors… uh, oh dear, it seems I missed your name."

"Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry," Akari said. "I said all that and I forgot to ask your name."

"It's fine," I said. "You guys were distracted." As I said that, I held out the pokeballs to them. "My name's Rei."

"Oh, thank you Rei," he said, taking the balls.

"We should start heading back now," Akari said, "Do you have somewhere to go? You did drop out of the sky…"

"Uh…" I stuttered, not knowing how to explain where I came from. "No. I was hoping I could join you guys."

"Well, that works out nicely for us," the professor said. "We just thought that someone of your skill must be from one of the clans."

"What," I tilted my head.

"Well, if you don't know, it doesn't matter. Let's just head back for now." Akari said.

Before I recovered from my confusion, Akari and the professor were already moving. They probably wanted me to follow them, but without an open invitation, I…

"Come on lad," professor Laventon said, coming up to me. "No need to be shy now." He took my hand, and Akari paused to let us catch up as we marched towards our destination, Jubilife.