Good morning lads more slop for the piggies, I really like the rewrite way more than the original. Crazy what having an actual artistic goal does to a story eh?

Chapter 7 - Collective Consciousness

"I'm assuming you are here to become trainers, am I correct?" The professor smiled down on them from the top of the stairway, waiting for the pair to answer. Alex faltered for a second, he had traveled all this way, made a promise to his friend but… is this truly what he wanted? There was a small part of him that had been eating away at him…Did he even deserve this? A life of carefree adventure? Was that too childish? Too much of a fantasy? It was too good to be true… too different from what he had been told all his life, that the older he got the harder it would get. So what? He ends up in fantasy land and he just gets to skip all of that?

Why him?

Why now?

Why not anyone else on the planet who scraped on their hands and knees to get by…

He didn't know

He didn't know anything… he didn't even know how to read and now he was allowed to go out and be his own person and battle beasts and demigods. Before he could even think of what to say, Shauna took a step forward and spoke for them; "That's right professor we came all the way from Vanivilletown to see ya!"

Alex just nodded along his legs starting to shake, he was nervous.

What if he failed?

What if he couldn't do it?

What if he gave up again?

Alex felt a hand on his shoulder; he looked up to see the professor's smiling face. "Are you alright young man? You seem nervous"

Alex nodded again and gave a shaky smile, "uh… yeah, I think I'm alright just… just a bit worried about the whole trainer thing I guess…"

The professor gave a little chuckle "oh not to worry most people are worried when they start out, what's important is that you get to know your Pokemon and develop alongside them. That's the formula for a successful journey!"

"Thank you, professor, … I'm Alex by the way, it's great to meet you in person." Alex holds his hand out to the professor which he takes, and they exchange a friendly handshake.

"it's a pleasure to meet you Alex, and your traveling companion…"

"My names Shauna!"

"it's a pleasure to meet you too Shauna, now that introductions are dealt with, please follow me to my office we have somethings to go over before we send you two on your way."

Shauna and Alex followed the professor up the stairs to his office, once inside they sat down across from the professor, his desk littered with papers with pages of data and charts.

"Now, all I need you to do is fill out this form, all it needs is the data that will be displayed on your Pokedex's trainer card"

Alexscanned the paper, it was a rather small form with only a couple boxes, overall, extremely basic considering the responsibility that comes with a license like that.

Shauna immediately got to work and scribbled down her name in record time, practically shoving it in the professor's hand. Alex just continued to stare, the unusual characters he had passed off as something he could simply 'learn later' had finally caught up to him and now he was dealing with the consequences.

"Alright Shauna, my assistant Sophie will be back at the main area with the starters, you head back, and I'll meet you there once Alex finishes up, okay?"

Shauna practically rushes out of the room, "Sounds good to me! See ya in a minute Alex don't take too long!"

Once Shauna is out of room, the professor looks back to Alex "So, what seems to be the issue, don't be afraid to tell me"

Alex opened his mouth to brush it off, he didn't like being called out like that, frankly he was completely embarrassed. He sighed and swallowed his pride, "its… stupid, the co- village I was raised in used different characters so I uh… can't really read this…"

"Hm? Didn't you come from Vanivilletown with Shauna?"

"Ehh, technically… I was… wandering and I ended up in Vaniville. I didn't even know where I was 'till some kid yelled it in my face, heh, it's kind of funny looking back on it… I met Shauna not long after and she's the one who convinced me to come here, if you can believe that I really had no plans of becoming a trainer until I met her"

"She seems like a good friend to have, a bit loud but not afraid to speak her mind, I'm sure you two will get along fine on your journey… as for the forms ill help you out here let me take a look and ill read it out to you and you'll tell me how its spelt okay?"

"Will… that even work?"

"Hm fair point, tell me, what's the first letter in your villages alphabet?

"Uhm A?"

"Well then, I'm sure we'll get along just fine then"

With that, Alex and the professor filled out the form and headed back out to the main room to meet up with Shauna. She was chatting with the assistant Sycamore had mentioned, she was a tall blue haired woman with glasses, she wore the same lab coat as the professor, she carried an air of professionalism as well as a weird little tablet that seemed to use a holographic display.

"Hey Alex! What did I say about taking an eternity, gosh! I could've beaten the league by now!" She chuckles giving him a fist bump

"Yeah, yeah, sorry me and the professor were just discussing some stuff I didn't mean for it to drag on so long."

"Apology accepted"

"Yes, now that all that paperwork is said and done let's discuss which starter you each want" The professor hands the forms over to Sophie who begins tapping on her holo tablet thing… this place was so cool.

"You have three options, Fennekin, Froakie and Chespin" He continued explaining the typing of each Pokémon and the moves they know. "I'll let you make your decisions now"

Shauna shot her hand up in the air "oh I want Fennekin professor!" The fire fox happily ran over to its new trainer.

He nodded his head "A good choice, what about you Alex?"

Alex looked at the two remaining choices, he had made up his mind before he had even walked through the door, yet he still had to double guess himself, just in case. He finally decides to speak up "Professor Sycamore, I put some thought into it and I choose…"

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Another one! I think I'm finally getting the hang of this characterization thing... also WHY DIDN'T YOU GUYS TELL ME I MESSED UP AND PUT BRAXIEN INSTEAD OF FENNEKIN I had to double triple check to make sure I wasn't losing it.