Week 1: Welcome to the World Of Pokemon!

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The young child's hand shook slightly as they stood in front of Professor Magnolia's laboratory. They had barely been able to contain their excitement on the journey to the lab, bouncing up and down in the backseat of the car while their dad checked, double checked and triple checked the provisions the family had put out for their first Pokemon journey. As the huge converted air hanger came into view, their excitement had tripled, and when they arrive they had almost leapt out of the vehicle before it finished moving. Now however all that aldeladine had run into their nervousness, feeding it and letting it paralyse their muscles. What if none of the Pokemon liked them? What if the professor looked at them, shook her head and sent them back?

Their family stood a few meters behind them, hovering nervously as they stared at the frosted glass door, knowing that if they took a step forward they would be off on their adventure. Their mum took a step forward, only for her Hawlucha to put out his arm. Hawlucha knew how much the child wanted to do this on their own, how insistent they were that the family stay back.

They took a deep breath, and grabbed the small figurine of their hero, the Champion Gwen. All their dreams came back to them; the battles they had watched avidly on TV and in the town, all the studying of Pokemon, the image of them standing in front of Gwen at the Pokemon League and meeting her as an equal. They couldn't get there if they allowed this to stop them, could they?

They stepped through the automatic doors into the lab.

They weren't quite sure what they expected to be honest. They had imagined test tubes and beakers, maybe stacks of papers. At the very least having seen how big the building was they expected to enter into a big room, not a small reception area. They signed in with the smiling receptionist and received a badge printed with their name. "Someone will come and get both of you soon." he nods to a sofa where another child their age was sitting. Or rather, perching on the sofa cockily, arms spread out over the backs of the chairs.

"Yo." The cocky kid said. "You took your time getting in." They pulled themselves up, and stared at the newcomer "Not going to end up a champion if you act like that."

The child screwed up their face at that. The other child projected confidence and readiness, standing with their arms crossed casually and a cocky grin. They knew they were shy, they knew people didn't expect much about from them, but now with this cocky brat staring down at them they gritted their teeth and matched their gaze. "I'm going to be the Champion." They say quietly, and then again, with more conviction. "I'm going to be the Champion!"

The other kid's grin widened. "So I guess that makes us..."

The line was cut off as the one of the doors into the main lab opened, and out-stepped a Machamp. A Machamp in a blouse, pencil skirt, a four-armed lab coat, who was currently holding a clipboard and studying it through a pair of spectacles. She looked up, glanced at both of the children, and nodded sharply. The pair looked at her for a moment, trying to work out what was happening, before her lower set of arms clapped and beckoned for the pair to follow her. She lead them through a short series of corridors, filled with doors with impressive academic titles before the names on them. After a short time, they arrived a huge set of sliding doors, dwarfing even their Machamp guide.

The Machamp gripped on the doors handles before looking at them over her shoulder and winking at the pair. With a flexing of her muscles, the doors slid apart. The children sheltered their eyes as sunlight streamed through the gap. The old hanger was now completely open, a large section of the ceiling replaced with glass skylights through which the light was entering. It was like stepping out into a microcosm of virtually every Pokemon habitat one could imagine; at the far end, a huge stone formation rears up to the ceiling, and from the other end of the hanger they could just make out Gravellers and Pupitars bouncing down around the rocks. A waterfall runs down from the very top, and for a moment they could have sworn they can see a icy blue serpent gazing out over the edge. The river runs down throughout the laboratory, passing through a grassy plain and a forest reaching up to the skylight. Combees and bird pokemon flutter between the trees, while even higher a couple of Solrock's float around the edge of the ceiling. A sandy desert enclosure, an icy region currently being refrozen by a Crabominal, and buildings with Mizian Litwicks poking out of them. The pair felt awestruck, as if their entire journey had been laid out in front of them, and they realised just how much there was to see in the world.

There was almost too much for them to focus on, but the Machamp took their hands and led them down towards the forest. As they get closer, they hear the angry chirps of a troop of Mankeys, jumping from the tree branches. The more timid one of the children pulled closer to the Machamp, waiting for the Mankey's to descend on them. No such rain of angry fluff came. After a moment they realised that the Mankeys were grabbing things off the ground and hopping back into the trees. A woman in a thick lab coat was standing in a clearing, a bag of food in her hands. She had spread it across the ground, letting the Mankeys swing down to grab it. The child studied the food for a moment; it was hard nuts, no, apricorns from Johto, allowing the Mankey's to work on their strength as they broke up the shells, before they realised that the Machamp had stepped forward towards the woman...who they then realised was Professor Magnolia. Who was currently wrestling for the bag of apricorns with a particularly large and persistent Mankey.

The Machamp cleared her throat, and the Professor's head snapped up. "Oh, oh my! I'm so sorry, I was going to meet you at when you arrived but these tykes have been a bit tricky to day. Champ, could you take..." The Machamp nodded, and gently pulled the Mankey off her trainer, a curiously serene facial expression spread across her features. She held the screeching Mankey like an aunt holding a beloved baby, before picking up an apricorn from the floor and handing it to the struggling smaller fighting type before placing back into the lower branches. The troop screeched a bit more, but Champ crossed her arms and they disappeared into the trees.

"Right then!" said the Professor, dropping the feed back into her bag. "Sorry for the wait! I am Professor Magnolia and..." she spread out her arms dramatically. "Welcome to your Pokemon journey!"

((OOC: Feel free to grab either of the children if you can't think of a good character to roleplay. I'll be doing Prof. Magnolia.))

[Von Krieger]

"I hate this region already." Delphina muttered to herself as she brushed her hair, her beloved headdress resting atop her smallest companion creature, Metaly, as she was of a similar size to the statuesque woman's head. Del had long since given up trying to keep her chapeau away from the small metallic beastie, as the sneak little git would snag the thing the first chance she got.

Travelling between regions suuuuuuuucked. Her capacity for flight only allowed for travel between places she'd already been within a region, flying on the back of somebody else's monster just wouldn't do, and plane rides and boat trips were just... well... it was like seeing Doctor Doom taking the bus. It just didn't fit the whole aesthetic she was going for.

Once she'd cracked the enigma of the force that was limiting her power the first thing she would do as Empress of All would be to create an inter-regional teleportation network that would allow for instantaneous world travel. Being a villainess of modest means meant that a private, dragon-shaped jet was beyond the capacity of her current finances to behold.

Though to be perfectly honest anything beyond the McDucklett's dollar menu and the usual free of charge, only slightly bigger than a coffin-sized room at the local Pokemon Center were beyond the capacity of her current finances to behold.

Of course, the size of a room was reduced dramatically when one had to share it with a half-ton ball of snuggly snot and the better part of two hundred fifty pounds worth of fuzzy, purple bed hog.

She'd stopped by the PMC for a quick refresh for her critters, who were a bit worn down after the massive, underground slog. Well, it wasn't the slog so much as it was the hundreds of goddamned zubats.

They were everywhere. They'd stolen her headdress. They'd even gotten themselves tangled in her hair.

That was supposed to be a myth, dammit. And now here she was getting her bat-ravaged hair in order, heading for the one contact she'd had named in the region; Professor Magnolia.

Her unique trio of Pokemon had no parallels and were favored subjects of study for researchers of all sorts. So Delphina made a habit of seeking out mad scientist types when they were available, and slightly stroppy scientists when they weren't, to take a look at her rather interesting beasties.

They usually had bits of technology they'd made, put on a shelf, and forgotten about that they tended to hand out in exchange for the opportunity to study such unique and interesting species of Pokemon.

There also tended to quite frequently have sidequests to accomplish. Usually to prevent some villain from achieving some sort of unpleasant task (like those idiots that had been trying to dry up the oceans, and the ones trying to flood the planet, Delphina had quite enjoyed beating up such people, they gave villainy a bad name), or recovering some sort of stolen technology.

Failing that, they tended to at least be able to point cash-strapped adventurers in the direction of where some juicy loot or acceptable targets to beat the crap out of and take their lunch money could be acquired.

It didn't feel right taking money from 10-year-old kids who lost trainer battles. One was only as good as their opposition, and despite the prevalence of world-saving prepubescents, not every kid was going to grow up to defeat the forces of darkness (or elevate them into prominence, banishing the light until the next hero popped up).

So while searching for worthy foes, Delphina made due to picking the bones of inferior scraps of villainy. The bumbling incompetents that gave wickedness and sinistry a bad name.

Unfortunately, she couldn't fling a monster core resolving into a half ton of overly affectionate goo at the real cause of a lot of the problems around here. Some of the pokemon in the rather abandoned and overgrown industrial area had tried to eat Metaly.

In Delphina's experience a once thriving industrial area turned into blight and ruin were typically the result of mortal greed. Which wasn't something you could fight off with Pokemon.

Well, not without summoning up the embodiment of all human greed into an anthropomorphic form using a summoning circle the size of a smallish county, anyway.

Thankfully her destination wasn't too terribly far from where the mountain tunnels emerged into the old industrial district. The airport had been important to the flow of the commerce that had long since dried up and blown away.

Delphina reclaimed her headdress from Metaly, having finally managed to comb out the tangles the blighted Zubats had put there and stepped through the automated doors.

Oh no.

A waiting room.

This was truly a place of depravity and madness.

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The Professor gave her speech about the joys of travelling with pokemon, and the challenges and experiences that would make them, their pokemon and the bonds between them grow. She kept an eye on both children's reactions as she did so. The brasher one, Summer, reminded her rather of a Eeletrik; full of energy but kept contained, ready to explode as needed. The shyer one, Winter, was just as excited but showed it far more physically; rocking on the balls of their feet, hands happily flapping. While both of them were excited, they had curious bursts of extra energy; Summer when she mentioned the other trainers they would meet, and Winter the battles and places they would go.

Soon, her speech was over, and it was time for the moment of truth. She drew three pokeballs from her pocket, enjoying how the children's excitement reached a fever pitch, and released the three potential starter pokemon inside...

Out in the waiting area, Delphina was greeted by the same smiling receptionist the kids had talked to. "Hello there, and welcome to Magnolia Labs! How can I help you?"

[Von Krieger]

"I've recently arrived in the area. I've got some unique pokemon that appear to be quite the hit with researchers, and one of them pointed me Professor Magnolia's way." Delphina says, Metaly hopping up onto the receptionist's desk in order to see who's talking.

The metallic, teardrop-shaped Ditto rolls back and forth on the desk in search of attention and ceases once Delphina starts scratching the point at the top of her gelatinous body.

[Admin]

The receptionist stared at the metallic Ditto on his desk. "Why, that it is unusual. The professor is busy at the moment, but I'm sure someone here would be interested in seeing it and will be around at the time. Just give me a moment..." he pulled out a directory of people working at the lab, and began to pour over it.

In the lab's forest, the choice had been made. Winter had their hand out in front of them, the Turtwig they chose pushing against it. Or rather, to be more precise, the Turtwig had chosen them; he had sniffed both the trainers before headbutting Winter in the leg eagerly. Summer had chosen a Nidoran, who had promptly rolled over onto their side, yawned and scratched themself. The Professor nodded to herself; both of the Pokemon wanted to travel with trainers, she'd hardly hold them out if they didn't, but the contrast between them and their new trainers was going to be interesting to see.

Summer petted their new partner one last time, avoiding the metal spines, and spun around to face Winter. "Right! You know what they say!" Winter's face set into a look of determination. "When two trainers meet eye contact..."

The two of them finished the sentence at the same time.
"They're going to battle!"

Turtwig leapt in front of Winter, rearing to go. Nidoran took a moment to scratch itself again, before wandering in front of Summer. The new partner's first battle had begun.

[Von Krieger]

"Diddleydiddleydiddleydiddleydiddley ump bump bump..." Delphina musically mutters as the receptionist begins poking through a binder (which may or may not be full of women). Upon hearing Del's absentminded humming along to the battle theme, Metaly's pinpoint eyes widen and she goes bouncing off further into the lab.

"Excuse me, I've gotta go grab her before she starts causing mischief." Delphina explains, chasing after her metallic 'mon as Metaly slips through the aircraft hanger doors. The teardrop-shaped snot-ball quite intent on watching the fight.

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