Introduction.
While originally I was going to write this series after DP, I was so inspired by how great the Black & White games were that I just had to adapt the story as soon as possible. I waited until the games were released in America so that I could experience the games first hand and understand the story more coherently and adapt it perfectly.
But before we dive on in, let me explain that this is a cartoon/Anime X-over fan remake (or fanmake) where I take cartoon/Anime/original characters and put them in different story-roles such as the ones in the first Gen. V Pokemon games. You might be skeptical by this point at how this can work but trust me, I know what I'm doing.
And don't worry about whether you know the characters or not, if you like Pokemon (with is obviously true), then you should give this a chance.
Enough talk, time to read.
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Chapter 1: A Nuvema Beginning.
A typical young child would hate taking baths for one reason or another but as far as Angelina Mouseling could remember, she loved taking baths since she was once a child. The hot, soothing waters and white, foamy bubbles were like heaven in a tub to her and nothing got her more relaxed than taking a dip whenever she felt depressed, upset or negative. Angelina would always feel one hundred percent again and that she could face the world if she wanted to after she was done soaking and scrubbing herself.
There were repercussions to Angelina's bath times. She would be scolded and punished by the Hodgepodge House's headmistress, Harriet Hodgepodge, whenever it was discovered that too much of the orphanage's hot water had been drawn by the thirteen-year-old mouseling. Angelina found that odd, considering Miss Hodgepodge's vast fortune that was one of the largest in the entire Unova region and massive mansion she lived in, but still she was punished whenever it happened, limiting her bathtimes to once a day and hot water to filling no more than three-fourths of the tub. It was strict rules like these that made life in the orphanage somewhat rough for a Castelia City girl with no past memories like Angelina at first but somehow, she managed to make the most of her new everyday life with the baths and the friends she managed to make helping her as well.
One Saturday afternoon, Angelina was taking her hot bath which was filled nearly to the very brim with warm water and white, foamy bubbles. Almost her whole body was submerged under the water and covered by the bubbles with only her two feet that were rested on one side of the tub near the faucet and nobs and her head resting on the other exposed. Her entire body was humanoid in shape and was covered by pure white fur. Her head, however, was shaped like a mouse's with two round ears and a small, pink nose. Her tail, concealed by the bubbles as well, was thin and long and grew from her lower backside and her violet eyes were closed as she relaxed. The window nearby was open slightly to let the fresh spring air come in along with the sounds of chirping Pidove in the garden and the air.
Today wasn't a usual Saturday in the Hodgepodge House as the teens were planned to go on a field trip to undisclosed location in Nuvema Town, which was where the orphanage was. Miss Hodgepodge noticed that certain teens had been exhibiting better behavior than usual during the course of March, so she scheduled a special excursion through town to a surprise destination for this very Saturday to reward them. Angelina was one of those six teens as her luck would have it. Miss Hodgepodge didn't tell anyone where they were going as she was saving it as a surprise but Angelina and the other six were nonetheless amazed at the headmistress's act of honest-to-goodness generosity, something she rarely exhibited.
Everyone got ready for the field trip early so Angelina decided to take a fifteen minute hot bath a half-hour before the field trip to get herself at one hundred percent and squeaky clean. She figured that she could get away with a full tub just this once, as she assumed that Miss Hodgepodge wouldn't notice the slight hot water decrease due to her old age and could care less due to the field trip. With her die cast, Angelina hoped for the best.
As Angelina continued to bathe blissfully, she heard a knocking on the bathroom door, followed by a familiar voice that said in a somewhat frantic way, "Angelina! You in there?"
Angelina knew the voice belonged to her best friend, Alice Nimbletoes. "Yeah, I'm taking a bath, Alice. What is it?" she responded.
"Not to get you all riled up, but Miss Hodgepodge and everyone else are waiting for you in the foyer," Alice answered from behind the door.
"And rather impatiently, if I might add," said a different, boyish voice that Angelina recognized as William Longtail's, her second best friend. His pessimistic-like tone of voice was a dead giveaway to those who knew him. "She sent us both to get you."
Angelina was confused and worried. "What time is it now?" she asked as she lifted her head up from the tub's rim.
"My X-Transceiver says that it's twelve-twenty-four," Alice responded.
Alarmed at how much time she wasted, Angelina instantly stood up in the tub with the bubbles covering her body, save for her arms and hands, and her eyes and mouth as wide as dinner plates.
"Seriously? That's just six minutes before we're suppose to leave!" she exclaimed as she began to step out of the tub, dripping water and suds on the white square tiled bathroom floor. "I can't believe how much time I lost track of. Miss Hodgepodge is going to murder me for this." She reached back into the tub to pull the plug and drain the water.
"There's no need to worry, Angelina," said William, making an ironic statement as he was the most worrisome of the group. "It's just six minutes and we can still make it there on time. I don't need to tell you that Hodgepodge detests tardiness, even from herself, so just concentrate on getting ready for the first four minutes and we'll run to join the group for the last two minutes."
"Alright, I get the picture!" retorted Angelina in frustration as she grabbed a pink towel from the rack on the wall near the door and dried herself off as quickly as possible with it. She discarded the towel onto the bathroom floor like a common dishrag, not fearing the consequences as her current crisis was bad enough, and opened the door to face her friends.
"Whoa, Angelina!" shouted William as the male thirteen-year-old gray mouseling shut his eyes, turned his head away and held his hands up as if by reflex along with Alice. "Put some clothes on first, will you?"
Judging by the round-framed glasses on his face, combined with his outfit consisting of a light blue vest, white undershirt with red bowtie, black pants and blue shoes, one would assume that William was a studious bookworm who was at the top of the classes in school and be correct without even asking the question itself. In addition to being a cautious pessimist (or as Alice would put it, a worrywart), being a pervert and getting smacked for it was the very last thing he wanted to experience in his life.
Wait a minute, William and Alice thought simultaneously as the image of Angelina standing in the bathroom doorway replayed in their head, making them realize that she wasn't nude. They opened their eyes to see that Angelina was still there, but was wearing a pink bikini bathing suit instead of nothing at all. They both had a confused look on their faces which they exchanged with each other.
"Well, are you going to stare at me or are you going to let me through?" Angelina said with her hands on her hips, more embarrassed and confused than mad as she blushed a little from how they were staring at her half-naked body. She was considered by many to be an "early bloomer," due to her body seeming more developed than other girls of her age in addition to being thin and slender. Rather than thirteen, she looked more like fifteen- or sixteen-years-old. Angelina was very modest when it came to her looks, and she'd feel embarrassed whenever she'd hear others (boys in particular) talking about her measurements for obvious reasons. Luckily, William and Alice respected her enough not to ever bring up the subject in a conversation.
"Why were you wearing a bikini in the bathtub, Angelina?" Alice inquired her best friend innocently. The brown mouseling was wearing an all green outfit consisting of a short-sleeved shirt, a blouse, a white mini-skirt that went down to her knees, sneakers and a green ribbon tied in a bow on a patch of short, brown hair on top of her head. Even a blind person could guess what her favorite color was right of the bat. Due to her child-like face, underdeveloped body and generally optimistic personality, the Hodgepodge House orphans and others in Nuvema Town considered her to be more "cute" in comparison to "beautiful" Angelina, despite both being the same age of thirteen.
"Let's just say that I feel more comfortable in this," answered Angelina as she strutted out of the bathroom pass Alice and William and into the girls bedroom itself, stepping her bare feet on the carpeted floor. "Especially after what happened last time."
"You mean when Hodgepodge dragged you out-,"
"Don't remind me!" Angelina interrupted William angrily as she walked quickly to her own bed and area of the room. "Now give me some privacy while I get dressed please."
"Got it," Alice and William said at the same time before they walked out of the girls bedroom and shut the door behind them.
Angelina went to her bed which was on the window side with two other beds and pulled the drawer in her lamp desk open to take out a square metallic case all in mere seconds. She pressed the button that opened the case's cover to reveal two rows of five Capsules each inside the bottom half. Since this a special occasion, I better put on my new outfit, she thought to herself as she selected the Capsule that was labeled "No. 07." She closed the case and pushed the button on top of the capsule before she tossed it into the air. Like a grenade, it burst into smoke that billowed throughout the bedroom and once the smoke cleared up and dissipated, a large, wooden wardrobe stood before Angelina in the middle of the room.
Angelina snickered. "That never gets old," she cheerfully commented on the explosion before walking up to open the wardrobe door and begin selecting her attire for the day.
Capsules were a worldwide phenomenon, as they made traveling as well as carrying personal items easier. From common household items to a house itself, any Capsule was able to change into any object. It was all thanks to the Capsule Corporation (commonly known as Cap. Corp. for short) that was founded by Doctor Bruce Briefs. Needless to say, they were pretty popular among those who went on vacations and especially those who traveled as Pokemon Trainers.
After two minutes passed, Angelina opened the bedroom door to enter the hallway where her friends were waiting. The wardrobe had been converted back to Capsule form and put away with the rest.
"So what do you think of my new outfit, guys?" asked Angelina as she spread her arms out to let Alice and William see her outfit. "I bought it yesterday for this very field trip and with the last of my allowance no less."
As usual, she had her trademark pink ribbon, one of her few mementos of her deceased parents, tied to the patch of short, white hair in a beautiful bow, but the rest of her outfit was different than usual. It consisted of a light-pink collared T-shirt with short sleeves and a zipper down the middle, a pink miniskirt of a darker shade that had a hole poked through to let her tail out, a pair of white socks and a pair of light pink and white sneakers on her feet. On her left wrist was a square-shaped watch known as an X-Transceiver, a watch that was also served as a communication device for those on the go. Overall, the outfit was light but excusable, given the warm spring weather that Saturday.
"It looks stupendous on you, Angelina," Alice said, cheerful as usual. "Well worth the purchase."
"Same here, but there's not much time left," said William as he nervously looked at his own X-Transceiver. "We only have less than two minutes to get to the foyer in time."
"Hodgepodge'll chew us out even if we are on time," said Alice as she, Angelina and William ran down the hallway in a rush, loudly pounding the floor with their feet. "Well, mostly Angelina."
"Thanks, Alice," Angelina sarcastically said while gritting her teeth. She quickly repressed her hard feelings as she knew Alice was technically right and wasn't really being mean.
Contrary to popular stereotypes depicting orphans as sad, tortured souls, Angelina, Alice and William were anything but that. Four years earlier, when nine-year-old Angelina first arrived at the Hodgepodge House in a depressing mood due to the death of her parent and past memories, Alice befriended her when no one else would and helped her out of her depression. Six months later, William arrived as a timid bookworm and Angelina and Alice volunteered to guide him around and show him the ropes at the orphanage.
It wasn't until after the two mouseling girls defended William from bullies that when the trio of friends began to form over the course of the following years, helping wimpy William grow a better backbone. They'd always help each other out when needed whether it'd be studying for a test (something William specialized in), comforting (which Alice was good at) or getting out of trouble with Miss Hodgepodge (something Angelina needed to work on), and always managed to make the most of their everyday life as orphans.
Getting to the foyer of the Hodgepodge house quickly was no big task to perform for Angelina, Alice and William. They each knew the massive mansion inside and out due to living there for years so they managed to make it to the foyer's staircase just in time. Miss Hodgepodge along with the self-centered Pinkpaws twins, Priscilla and Penelope, and the young photographer, Sammy Watts, were waiting impatiently when they heard the footsteps of the trio running down the stairs and turned to see them arrived at last.
"Sorry we kept you all waiting," Alice apologized as she, Angelina and William panted heavily once they stopped at the bottom of the staircase.
"Fashionably late once again, Angelina," Priscilla said with snide and resentment in her voice as usual as she folded her arms and smiled smugly. She was a gray mouseling and was wearing an outfit that seemed more appropriate for a summer vacation than a mid-spring field trip, consisting of a very short, very thin white T-shirt, blue short shorts and blue sandals. Her resentment stemmed from her jealously of Angelina and her more developed body. "What were you doing anyways?"
"Probably another hot bath," assumed Penelope who was like her twin sister but less mean. She was a gray mouseling like Priscilla and was wearing the exact same outfit as her twin as well only the blue articles of clothes were violet. "Honestly, Angelina. You're just hopeless." She and Priscilla begun to giggled.
"You two, shut it!" snapped Miss Hodgepodge, directing her angry face at the twin mouselings. "Berating others is not acceptable in or out of this orphanage, especially when I'm around!" The elderly mouseling lady had a very strict and intimidating voice (that had a hint of British in it) and a stern, angry look in her eyes that could frighten anyone whether they be human, mouseling or Pokemon of any age. "One more crack like that out of either of you and you're both exempt from today's excursion!"
Silenced and scared, the Pinkpaws twins instantly stopped giggling. "Sorry, Miss Hodgepodge," they both said in an unusual meek tone of voice that showed no evidence of their previous emotions.
"I should hope so as well," said Miss Hodgepodge. She then directed her angry eyes and strict voice to Angelina, Alice and William, each of whom flinched and gulped fearfully, as she made a beeline towards the trio with her hands clenched into fists. "And as for you, Angelina Mouseling," she said as raised her fist to the mouse girl with her index finger pointing to the young mouseling's worrisome face, "Because you were only a few seconds late and because I'm in a better mood than usual, you won't be excluded from this field trip for that. However, take my advice and don't start pushing your luck any further, you hear me? I expect nothing but your best behavior from you and your cohorts, so don't make me disappointed. Is that understood, Miss Mouseling?"
In addition to being grumpy and strict while occasionally being somewhat nice and friendly when in a good mood, Harriet Hodgepodge was known for being one of the Unova region's richest people and the last surviving member of the wealthy Hodgepodge family. She wasn't married and too old to do so at the age of sixty-seven (a rough estimate made by others) so she had no children who'd inherit her fortune once she finally kicked the bucket.
It was said by those who heard of her that she turned her mansion into an orphanage either so that she could find a child or any other youngster who she deemed worthy of owning her fortune, because she was simply too lonely even with all her servants and maids catering to her every whim or because she thought she could use a little more spending money for herself. Nobody really knew as Miss Hodgepodge never bothered to tell anyone, even those she knew well. She was awfully discreet when it came to personal things about herself and got awfully upset when questions of said personal things came up.
Miss Hodgepodge's typical attire consisted of square-framed glasses, a blue-violet bowler hat with a daisy attached to it, and a well-ironed, well-tailored dress that emulated her wealthy status, consisting of a blue-violet blouse and an equally blue-violet mini-skirt which were both made from the finest silk produced by various Bug-type Pokemon (mostly Sewaddle), knee-high socks and black high-heeled shoes that were a pain to walk in for a woman her age.
Angelina sighed in relief along with Alice and William. Thank goodness, we're off the hook. For now. She then smiled and spoke in a more cheerful, upbeat tone of voice. "You can count on us, Miss Hodgepodge," Angelina said to the orphanage's headmistress.
"Considering your track records lately, you'd better," replied Miss Hodgepodge, putting her hands behind her back and standing up straighter like a no-nonsense military lieutenant (a fitting metaphor often used by the orphans to describe her).
"I'd hate to interrupt you, Miss Hodgepodge," said Sammy Watts in a tone of voice that tried to hide his impatience. Even though I would, he thought as he knew that the headmistress would nip him for being rude. "Shouldn't we be going on our field trip right about now?" He was gray mouseling and was wearing his spring outfit, consisting of his yellow baseball hat, a red T-shirt for the warm whether, jean shorts and shoes with no socks as usual.
"Oh, quite right, Sammy," said Miss Hodgepodge, not noticing the boy's slight irritation towards her. She walked a few steps away from the young mouselings, stopped and turned around to face the six altogether. "Before we go, I think it's about time I told you about our destination. I have managed to arrange for a visit to the Pokemon Research Laboratory here in Nuvema Town today with none other than Professor Valerie Frizzle and her assistants guiding us around. Once there, three of you six might be able to become Pokemon Trainers, each receiving a starter Pokemon and a Pokedex of their very own to help them begin. That's provide you pass her tests, however."
"S-seriously?" William managed to say while Angelina, Alice, Priscilla, Penelope and Sammy were still speechless with shocked looks on their face. "You actually did that? For us?"
"Yes," confirmed Miss Hodgepodge, nodding. She smirked slightly at the six mouselings' predictable reactions before speaking again. "I believe an explanation is in order."
Miss Hodgepodge told Angelina and the others of when she went out for lunch at the town's local diner last Saturday for a bit of fresh air and change in eating environments for once. Due to a shortage of tables, she and Professor Frizzle, who was also on a lunch break, had to share one and as they waited for the food to arrive, they struck up a conversation to pass the time. Eventually, Frizzle asked Hodgepodge if any of her orphans that were thirteen years of age or older were interested in Pokemon and possibly interested in becoming Trainers in order to raise their own and battle with others. After Miss Hodgepodge said yes, Frizzle then asked if she could meet the orphans at her laboratory at an appointed time so that she could evaluate their knowledge on battling, training and everything else they studied on Pokemon. Recalling how Angelina turned thirteen a month ago and how the six of them had been particularly well-behaved recently in the past month of March, Hodgepodge took up the Professor's offer and scheduled this Saturday as the day of the "field trip," as the headmistress had called it.
If it wasn't Harriet Hodgepodge and her orphanage that put Nuvema town on the map, it was Professor Valerie Frizzle and her Pokemon Research Laboratory that did so. She and her colleagues would constantly labor everyday to unravel the endless mysteries and wonders of the various Pocket Monsters, or rather Pokemon for short, in the Unova region. The Pokemon researcher herself was known not only for being the youngest head Professor of the Unova region at age twenty-seven but also known for being put in charge by the Pokemon League of Unova to test and evaluate those who wanted to become Pokemon Trainers and to determine if they were eligible enough to raise, train and battle Pokemon, making her the ultimate authority on Pokemon Researchers and Trainers in the region. Needless to say, Valerie Frizzle, like her father, was very well respected by Trainers, researchers and everyone else in the Unova region alike because of this.
After a few seconds of silence and surprised faces from the mouselings, the six of them shook off their shock as a smile widened on each of their faces which they exchanged with each other. Some of them even laughed a little out of happiness.
As Hodgepodge had mentioned, Angelina, Alice, William, Priscilla, Penelope and Sammy had always showed great interest in Pokemon and becoming Trainers to catch and raise their own. In addition, they would also be able to travel throughout the Unova region so they could catch more Pokemon for their team and engage other Trainers and their Pokemon in a sport called a Pokemon Battle where Trainers pitted their Pokemon against either wild Pokemon they were going to catch or another trainer's Pokemon for friendly competition, helping their Pokemon learn new techniques and increasing their strength and power.
In their free time at the Hodgepodge House or school, the orphans would read and study up on the basics of Pokemon training and battling in order to prepare themselves for when they each turned thirteen, the age Unovans could become Pokemon Trainers, and started their individual journeys to sharpen their skills and their Pokemon's powers in battle. Unfortunately, neither one of the six had the guts to ask Hodgepodge directly even when they turned thirteen-unlike the older teens who had previously lived in the orphanage and were all out on their own journeys with their own Pokemon-but it became obvious to them that they had greatly underestimated their elderly headmistress.
"Settle down, you lot!" Hodgepodge barked less loudly than before to get the six orphans silenced again. "Before we go, I should explain that Professor Frizzle has only three starter Pokemon as of now so she'll only select three of you to evaluate for today."
She saw the mouselings exchange worried faces and groans with each other, as the thought of waiting longer to becomes Trainers didn't sit well with them.
"Will you lot just settle down and hear me out!" Hodgepodge shouted to make them quiet once more. "Those who won't get selected today will be next week or whenever the Professor receives new starters. That will depend on their behavior as well, just to let you know." She then turned around and began walking to the front doors which the doorman then opened. "Now, come along. We're already late as it is."
Angelina, Alice, William, Priscilla, Penelope and Sammy quickly caught up to Hodgepodge and followed her through the front doors. The orphanage itself was all the way at the southern end of Nuvema Town near the sea and the lab was all the way at the northern end of town near a forest. Though walking all the way through town wasn't a very popular thought, the six mouseling orphans were too excited to care so long as they got there. Neither one of them could believe that the day they yearned for had come so abruptly or know that fate was in the air that day.
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The Pokemon Research Laboratory of Nuvema town had been busier than usual for the past six days as everyone there was preparing for the coming Saturday afternoon when three out of six orphans would be chosen to take the Pokemon Trainer Evaluation test, or P.T.E. for short. After discovering that there was only one left last week, three new Pokedexes had to be manufactured quickly so the lab's Pokemon Professors and Doctors had to make them all by hand, as they were traditionally created, while cutting a few corners in production due to time. And, as if it wasn't bad enough already, the three newly-born starter Pokemon had to be trained to obey anyone who was given ownership of one of them. All this hard work going on twenty-four/seven at the lab was just about enough to make any Professor or Doctor there go insane.
Luckily, Valerie Felicity Frizzle wasn't just any Professor or Doctor. She was the daughter of Unova's head Pokemon researcher, Vern Frizzle, and truly was a real chip off the old block. Inspired by her own father and curiosity, she became a Pokemon researcher at age twenty-five and began striving to pinpoint the origin of each and every species of Pokemon in the Unova region while also working with her father in his lab at Nuvema Town as a fellow Professor.
Two months ago when Vern decided to travel the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh regions to research their Pokemon for himself, Valerie was entrusted by him with the role of head Professor temporarily. Since then, the young Professor followed in her father's footsteps in her work, always acting professionally and responsibly and keeping her cool even in the most pressing of times. For the last six days, she worked hard to keep everything and everyone in the lab in order, and even assisted her colleagues by building a Pokedex and training the three starter Pokemon with them. Anything to keep her and her assistants from going off the deep end and prepare themselves for the P.T.E. test they would give out in a matter of days.
Eventually and miraculously, everything was ready by Satuday morning with only two tasks to complete: upload all data files on the one-hundred-and-fifty-six Pokemon of the Unova region onto the three Pokedexes from the main computer and make sure the starter Pokemon were fed before their guests arrived. Professor Frizzle allowed everyone, save for two doctors, to take the day off as thanks for all their hard work so that they all could rest, relax and get a much needed shower while she, Doctor Timothy Tuttle and Doctor Emil Lang took care of the rest. Frizzle was in the computer room with Tuttle, observing the data uploading onto the third Pokedex from the computer to make sure that nothing went wrong during the process, and the three starter Pokemon who were being fed lunch. Lang, on the other hand, was in the lobby up front to look out for Harriet Hodgepodge and the orphans. Soon enough, the first task was fulfilled.
"Upload Complete!" said a loud, synthesized voice that came from the computer which was large in size and built into the light-blue, metallic wall. It had an enormous monitor which had been showing the various stats and information on various Unovan Pokemon and an equally huge keyboard which had even more keys than a regular one. There was also a jack that was made specifically for Pokedexes located at the keyboard's base. "All databanks have been successfully filled out. The Pokedex can now be removed."
Professor Frizzle did so, pulling the gray pocket-sized, rectangular Pokedex from the jack and holding it in her right hand.
"Time to put this one to the test," she said in a youthful-yet-mature tone of voice with a real feminine air to it. Like her father, she had frizzy, orange hair which she herself fashioned into a beehive-like hairstyle. She wore two earrings that were shaped like tiny Poke Balls, a white lab coat that covered her casual attire and high-heeled shoes that hurt her feet.
Frizzle pressed the white button in the middle of the Pokedex's pink control pad with her left index finger to activate the device. From behind the Pokedex's small monitor above the control pad a second monitor rose up above it with a soft, robotic weening sound accompanying it as both of them turned on with the gadget itself. The top screen showed a list of Unovan Pokemon names while the bottom screen showed icons meant to activate the various functions of the Pokedex when one was selected. Frizzle repeatedly clicked the lower part of the control pad to go down the list of names until she found one and clicked the white button again to bring up that Pokemon's information.
The Pokedex's upper monitor displayed various images of the Pokemon from different angles while the lower monitor displayed stats, lists of attacks and other data on the Pokemon as a synthesized voice gave out basic info on the creature.
"File #078. Minccino, the Chinchilla Pokemon. These Pokemon are always sweeping and dusting by using their tails as brooms. They always greet another one of their kind with said tails."
Pokedexes were literally high-tech encyclopedias on Pokemon, providing useful information for Trainers who were searching for a Pokemon or who had just encountered a Pokemon they never seen before. It was a real must-have for any Pokemon Trainers starting their journey as not everyone knew every Pokemon in the world, let alone Unova.
"This one is all ready," said Frizzle as she pushed the white button again to turn off the Pokedex, pushed the top monitor back behind the bottom one and placed the device on a metal rolling cart behind her and Tuttle right next to two others in a row. "So far, no glitches or errors."
Doctor Tuttle reached into his lab coat pocket and took out a fourth Pokedex that was the only one left from the previous P.T.E. "While we're at it, let's fill out all the files on this Pokedex in case one of those three breaks or shows glitches," he said to his colleague and superior. He was a male mouseling adult with gray fur who was well-educated when it came human-mouseling and Pokemon medication and other scientific fields of study. "Best to be safe than sorry."
"I suppose so," said Professor Frizzle as she took the spare Pokedex from Tuttle's right hand and inserted it into the jack near the computer's keyboard. "One time from the top! Starting with Victini!"
As Frizzle and Tuttle repeated the uploading process for the fourth and final time, the three starter Pokemon, Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott, were just about done eating their lunch along with the lab's pet Pokemon, Zorua. The four of them were facing away from the wall at the end of the computer room beneath a slightly-opened window that let in the fresh spring breeze and led out to behind the laboratory itself as they each ate food out of their bowls.
The Fire-type starter, Tepig, was eating his food when he noticed that Oshawott to his left was scarfing down his food very quickly.
"Tepig Tepig," (Slow down, Oshawott.) said Tepig in the language of his species (consisting the name) and in his soft tone of voice. "Tepig pig pig Te?" (Where's the fire?)
Tepig was an orange pig-like Pokémon with large, ovular eyes and a pig-like, ruddy-pink nose accompanied by a thick stripe of yellow above its snout. Much of his face was black and his ears, long and oblong, were positioned closely together on the top of his head. He had short legs, with the extremities of its forefeet being black, and a band of black on his lower back and rear, from which extended his coiled tail that was topped with a ruddy-red, bauble-like adornment.
Oshawott tossed the last brown pieces of his Pokemon food into his mouth with his forepaws to chew quickly. (I'm just so excited!) he said energetically in his species's language with a wide open smile that exposed his two fangs. (I'm about to be chosen by a Pokemon Trainer and battle other Pokemon across the Unova region! Plus, with my cuteness and charm, I'm bound to be picked first.) Out of all three starters, Oshawott was the most enthusiastic when it came to Pokemon battles as he'd always jump into a battle beginning or in progress with various consequences. Though after a while, he learned to know when to fall back as he hated to lose a battle.
Oshawott was a bipedal sea otter-like Pokémon with a rounded, spherical white head with small, triangular dark-blue ears on each side, large, dark, and ovoid in shape eyes, a dark-orange nose shaped like an oval and freckles on his cheeks that were actually very short whiskers. The Pokemon also had light blue, bubble-esque features that composed a "collar" around his neck, a light blue torso and a pale yellow seashell called as a "Scalchop" that was made of keratin featured in the center of his torso. He had small, white, digit-less arms, dark-blue feet with discernible digits and a slightly plank-shaped dark-blue tail.
Snivy, a grass-type, had been eating slowly and steadily to Tepig's right when she finished her food and decided to enter the conversation.
(How delusional of you, Oshawott.) she said with her usual smugness and a little chuckle. (There's no possible way of you being chosen first or even because they find you 'cute' which you're too far from being.)
Snivy was a green snake-like Pokemon with a cream-colored underside, a yellow stripe running down the length of her back and tail and yellow markings around her large eyes. She had yellow, curved structures protruding from her shoulders that were bent backwards, giving her the appearance of wearing a collar, short but slender arms with three fingers, tiny toeless feet that matched her underside in color and a large, palmate leaf with three prongs on the end.
Oshawott was hurt but also more mad than sad. (You think you're so smart, don't 'cha?) he retorted in anger, gritting his teeth. (Just who do you think you are?)
(I'm the one with the type advantage against you.) replied Snivy with her trademark smug smile once more. (Wanna battle?)
(I won't go easy on you just because you're a girl.) said Oshawott, still angry.
(Whoa, whoa, whoa! Cool your jets, guys.) Tepig said, now squatting on his hind legs as he held his forepaws up to Snivy and Oshawott each. (Save the battle for later. You don't want another incident at this time, do we?) His voice was more worrisome than strict which Snivy picked up on.
(All right, fine.) said Oshawott, folding his arms with a pseudo-smile of arrogance on his face. (I wouldn't want to hurt such a "delicate flower" like you, Snivy.)
(Humph.) snorted Snivy, folding her arms as well. (Your sarcasm needs work, Oshawott. By the way, Tepig, are you still nervous? You sound like it.)
(Is it that obvious?) Tepig sighed. (I just don't feel so confident like you guys.) He was always a nervous wreck with low self-esteem when it came to battle training sessions with the Professors and an important event like getting chosen by a trainer was even worse for him.
(Cheer up, Tepig.) said Zorua, who had finished his lunch seconds ago. (You three are lucky that you get to leave this lab and see the world with your own trainer. Not to mention that you get to battle Pokemon you never seen before.) He sighed melancholy. (I only wish I could go out of this lab too.)
Zorua was a slate-gray fox-like Pokémon with a large, whorled scruff of fur on his head that was tipped with red, a ruff of black fur around his neck and a bushy tail. His four paws were tipped with red and his eyelids as well as his circular "eyebrow" markings were red too. His ears were triangular with dark insides and his eyes had blue irises with white pupils.
(In your situation, I highly doubt it,) replied Snivy.
Zorua sighed once more. His kind was known for being able to create illusions and being extremely rare even in the Unova region, making them a common target for Pokemon Hunters and poachers. Even since Vern Frizzle brought the young Zorua to the laboratory three months ago, he had been confined to inside the building by the Professor, his daughter and anyone who worked at the place. Not once was Zorua allowed to go outside for the Frizzles feared that if the public knew that a rare Pokemon like him was in Nuvema Town of all places, it would bring them unwanted attention like the press and jeopardize Zorua's protection as criminals would no doubt try to steal him. He understood this and appreciated the efforts made by the Professor and his colleagues to protect him but all the same, he wanted to leave the lab and exploring the world he had never gotten to see for himself, perhaps with his very own trainer. Though his battling skills were far from perfect, his illusion abilities would give out over time and he was never allowed to train or battle for real, that never stopped Zorua from dreaming.
At that very moment, the computer room's electronic dual doors opened up in half and Doctor Emil Lang entered, getting the attention of everyone.
"Professor Frizzle, Doctor Tuttle," The Doctor spoke with a German accent in his voice. "They're here. Harriet and the orphans have arrived just now." He was a male human adult with brown hair and a gray beard and was wearing the standard lab coat like every other Professor or Doctor. Though Frizzle was his superior, he was her senior when it came to age and experience.
Frizzle and Tuttle each looked at the time on their X-Transceivers which read twelve-fourty-six PM, much to their surprise.
"My goodness!" Frizzle exclaimed. "It really is time. Best we not keep our guest waiting any longer." She took two small red and white spheres called Poke Balls from her pocket with her right hand and another one with her left.
"What about the Pokedex?" asked Tuttle. "It hasn't received all the data yet."
"We'll have to come back for it, should anything go wrong," Frizzle said as she pressed the white buttons on each of the Poke Balls, changing them from ping-pong ball size to baseball size and thrust her arms out at the three starter Pokemon. "In the meantime, Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott, return to your Poke Balls!"
Each Poke Balls shot a red beam of light from the white buttons to Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott, converting each of them into pure red energy that were pulled to their respective balls, each of which opening up in half and shutting closed to contain said energies (it was this device that gave Pokemon their name: Pocket Monsters). After the three Poke Balls returned to ping-pong ball size, Frizzle put them in a narrow, lidless box on the rolling metal cart and began to roll it out of the computer room. "Now let's move it, boys!"
(Hey, wait!) cried out Zorua as he sprinted towards Frizzle who stopped before the open doorway and turned around to look down at the Tricky Fox Pokemon. (Can't I at least meet the trainers? Please?) He smiled cheerfully to appear cute enough to convince Frizzle.
Frizzle didn't understand the various languages of Pokemon like any other person but knew Zorua enough to understand what he was asking. She sighed and squatted down to Zorua's level to make eye contact.
"Sorry but I can't even let them see you or anyone," she said with a sentimental tone of voice. "I've told you before and I'll tell you again: even if I ask them to keep the secret to themselves, who's to say that I can fully trust them, people I don't know, with that knowledge. You should know this after being here for months by now."
"Professor, hurry up before they get impatient," Lang called from the hallway. "They may be tired but they came here for a reason."
"Gotta go, Zorua," Frizzle said. "I'll leave the the window open here so you'll have some fresh air and don't even think about trying to open it." With that said, she stood up straight and turned around to push the cart out the doorway.
(But-!) Zorua tried to protest before the dual doors shut, sealing him inside the computer room. His face frowned as he turned away from the dual doors with his head hung low and his spirits even lower.
(What was I thinking? I'll be here forever whether I want to or not.) He went to a soft pillow in the left corner of the room that Frizzle had left for him and laid down on it. Might as well sleep this off, he thought as he closed his eyes and nestled in the softness of the pillow. He was fast asleep when he heard a noise...
To Be Continued in Chapter 2: The Knights of Plasma
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For Your Information
In my version of the Pokemon world, mammals were civilized to integrate them into society years (possibly a century) prior to this series. They aren't featured in this fic but are shown in a side project: Pokemon Adventures: Diamond & Pearl. Unova's main demographic is humans and mouselings (anthropomorphic mice) in my fic.
Capsules are obviously from the Dragon Ball series and are to be used in this fic as a replacement for the games' hammerspace backpacks which would not make sense in real life. I know that the Capsule concept seems outlandish but hey, this is Pokemon.
The characters may not seem like much but I do plan to delve deeper into their characters and backgrounds throughout their Unova region journey. Sadly, I can't spoil it for you guys.
Anyways, review away, guys. Don't hold back! I can take anything you have to say, good or bad.
While originally I was going to write this series after DP, I was so inspired by how great the Black & White games were that I just had to adapt the story as soon as possible. I waited until the games were released in America so that I could experience the games first hand and understand the story more coherently and adapt it perfectly.
But before we dive on in, let me explain that this is a cartoon/Anime X-over fan remake (or fanmake) where I take cartoon/Anime/original characters and put them in different story-roles such as the ones in the first Gen. V Pokemon games. You might be skeptical by this point at how this can work but trust me, I know what I'm doing.
And don't worry about whether you know the characters or not, if you like Pokemon (with is obviously true), then you should give this a chance.
Enough talk, time to read.
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Pokemon Adventures: Black & White by matt0044.
Chapter 1: A Nuvema Beginning.
A typical young child would hate taking baths for one reason or another but as far as Angelina Mouseling could remember, she loved taking baths since she was once a child. The hot, soothing waters and white, foamy bubbles were like heaven in a tub to her and nothing got her more relaxed than taking a dip whenever she felt depressed, upset or negative. Angelina would always feel one hundred percent again and that she could face the world if she wanted to after she was done soaking and scrubbing herself.
There were repercussions to Angelina's bath times. She would be scolded and punished by the Hodgepodge House's headmistress, Harriet Hodgepodge, whenever it was discovered that too much of the orphanage's hot water had been drawn by the thirteen-year-old mouseling. Angelina found that odd, considering Miss Hodgepodge's vast fortune that was one of the largest in the entire Unova region and massive mansion she lived in, but still she was punished whenever it happened, limiting her bathtimes to once a day and hot water to filling no more than three-fourths of the tub. It was strict rules like these that made life in the orphanage somewhat rough for a Castelia City girl with no past memories like Angelina at first but somehow, she managed to make the most of her new everyday life with the baths and the friends she managed to make helping her as well.
One Saturday afternoon, Angelina was taking her hot bath which was filled nearly to the very brim with warm water and white, foamy bubbles. Almost her whole body was submerged under the water and covered by the bubbles with only her two feet that were rested on one side of the tub near the faucet and nobs and her head resting on the other exposed. Her entire body was humanoid in shape and was covered by pure white fur. Her head, however, was shaped like a mouse's with two round ears and a small, pink nose. Her tail, concealed by the bubbles as well, was thin and long and grew from her lower backside and her violet eyes were closed as she relaxed. The window nearby was open slightly to let the fresh spring air come in along with the sounds of chirping Pidove in the garden and the air.
Today wasn't a usual Saturday in the Hodgepodge House as the teens were planned to go on a field trip to undisclosed location in Nuvema Town, which was where the orphanage was. Miss Hodgepodge noticed that certain teens had been exhibiting better behavior than usual during the course of March, so she scheduled a special excursion through town to a surprise destination for this very Saturday to reward them. Angelina was one of those six teens as her luck would have it. Miss Hodgepodge didn't tell anyone where they were going as she was saving it as a surprise but Angelina and the other six were nonetheless amazed at the headmistress's act of honest-to-goodness generosity, something she rarely exhibited.
Everyone got ready for the field trip early so Angelina decided to take a fifteen minute hot bath a half-hour before the field trip to get herself at one hundred percent and squeaky clean. She figured that she could get away with a full tub just this once, as she assumed that Miss Hodgepodge wouldn't notice the slight hot water decrease due to her old age and could care less due to the field trip. With her die cast, Angelina hoped for the best.
As Angelina continued to bathe blissfully, she heard a knocking on the bathroom door, followed by a familiar voice that said in a somewhat frantic way, "Angelina! You in there?"
Angelina knew the voice belonged to her best friend, Alice Nimbletoes. "Yeah, I'm taking a bath, Alice. What is it?" she responded.
"Not to get you all riled up, but Miss Hodgepodge and everyone else are waiting for you in the foyer," Alice answered from behind the door.
"And rather impatiently, if I might add," said a different, boyish voice that Angelina recognized as William Longtail's, her second best friend. His pessimistic-like tone of voice was a dead giveaway to those who knew him. "She sent us both to get you."
Angelina was confused and worried. "What time is it now?" she asked as she lifted her head up from the tub's rim.
"My X-Transceiver says that it's twelve-twenty-four," Alice responded.
Alarmed at how much time she wasted, Angelina instantly stood up in the tub with the bubbles covering her body, save for her arms and hands, and her eyes and mouth as wide as dinner plates.
"Seriously? That's just six minutes before we're suppose to leave!" she exclaimed as she began to step out of the tub, dripping water and suds on the white square tiled bathroom floor. "I can't believe how much time I lost track of. Miss Hodgepodge is going to murder me for this." She reached back into the tub to pull the plug and drain the water.
"There's no need to worry, Angelina," said William, making an ironic statement as he was the most worrisome of the group. "It's just six minutes and we can still make it there on time. I don't need to tell you that Hodgepodge detests tardiness, even from herself, so just concentrate on getting ready for the first four minutes and we'll run to join the group for the last two minutes."
"Alright, I get the picture!" retorted Angelina in frustration as she grabbed a pink towel from the rack on the wall near the door and dried herself off as quickly as possible with it. She discarded the towel onto the bathroom floor like a common dishrag, not fearing the consequences as her current crisis was bad enough, and opened the door to face her friends.
"Whoa, Angelina!" shouted William as the male thirteen-year-old gray mouseling shut his eyes, turned his head away and held his hands up as if by reflex along with Alice. "Put some clothes on first, will you?"
Judging by the round-framed glasses on his face, combined with his outfit consisting of a light blue vest, white undershirt with red bowtie, black pants and blue shoes, one would assume that William was a studious bookworm who was at the top of the classes in school and be correct without even asking the question itself. In addition to being a cautious pessimist (or as Alice would put it, a worrywart), being a pervert and getting smacked for it was the very last thing he wanted to experience in his life.
Wait a minute, William and Alice thought simultaneously as the image of Angelina standing in the bathroom doorway replayed in their head, making them realize that she wasn't nude. They opened their eyes to see that Angelina was still there, but was wearing a pink bikini bathing suit instead of nothing at all. They both had a confused look on their faces which they exchanged with each other.
"Well, are you going to stare at me or are you going to let me through?" Angelina said with her hands on her hips, more embarrassed and confused than mad as she blushed a little from how they were staring at her half-naked body. She was considered by many to be an "early bloomer," due to her body seeming more developed than other girls of her age in addition to being thin and slender. Rather than thirteen, she looked more like fifteen- or sixteen-years-old. Angelina was very modest when it came to her looks, and she'd feel embarrassed whenever she'd hear others (boys in particular) talking about her measurements for obvious reasons. Luckily, William and Alice respected her enough not to ever bring up the subject in a conversation.
"Why were you wearing a bikini in the bathtub, Angelina?" Alice inquired her best friend innocently. The brown mouseling was wearing an all green outfit consisting of a short-sleeved shirt, a blouse, a white mini-skirt that went down to her knees, sneakers and a green ribbon tied in a bow on a patch of short, brown hair on top of her head. Even a blind person could guess what her favorite color was right of the bat. Due to her child-like face, underdeveloped body and generally optimistic personality, the Hodgepodge House orphans and others in Nuvema Town considered her to be more "cute" in comparison to "beautiful" Angelina, despite both being the same age of thirteen.
"Let's just say that I feel more comfortable in this," answered Angelina as she strutted out of the bathroom pass Alice and William and into the girls bedroom itself, stepping her bare feet on the carpeted floor. "Especially after what happened last time."
"You mean when Hodgepodge dragged you out-,"
"Don't remind me!" Angelina interrupted William angrily as she walked quickly to her own bed and area of the room. "Now give me some privacy while I get dressed please."
"Got it," Alice and William said at the same time before they walked out of the girls bedroom and shut the door behind them.
Angelina went to her bed which was on the window side with two other beds and pulled the drawer in her lamp desk open to take out a square metallic case all in mere seconds. She pressed the button that opened the case's cover to reveal two rows of five Capsules each inside the bottom half. Since this a special occasion, I better put on my new outfit, she thought to herself as she selected the Capsule that was labeled "No. 07." She closed the case and pushed the button on top of the capsule before she tossed it into the air. Like a grenade, it burst into smoke that billowed throughout the bedroom and once the smoke cleared up and dissipated, a large, wooden wardrobe stood before Angelina in the middle of the room.
Angelina snickered. "That never gets old," she cheerfully commented on the explosion before walking up to open the wardrobe door and begin selecting her attire for the day.
Capsules were a worldwide phenomenon, as they made traveling as well as carrying personal items easier. From common household items to a house itself, any Capsule was able to change into any object. It was all thanks to the Capsule Corporation (commonly known as Cap. Corp. for short) that was founded by Doctor Bruce Briefs. Needless to say, they were pretty popular among those who went on vacations and especially those who traveled as Pokemon Trainers.
After two minutes passed, Angelina opened the bedroom door to enter the hallway where her friends were waiting. The wardrobe had been converted back to Capsule form and put away with the rest.
"So what do you think of my new outfit, guys?" asked Angelina as she spread her arms out to let Alice and William see her outfit. "I bought it yesterday for this very field trip and with the last of my allowance no less."
As usual, she had her trademark pink ribbon, one of her few mementos of her deceased parents, tied to the patch of short, white hair in a beautiful bow, but the rest of her outfit was different than usual. It consisted of a light-pink collared T-shirt with short sleeves and a zipper down the middle, a pink miniskirt of a darker shade that had a hole poked through to let her tail out, a pair of white socks and a pair of light pink and white sneakers on her feet. On her left wrist was a square-shaped watch known as an X-Transceiver, a watch that was also served as a communication device for those on the go. Overall, the outfit was light but excusable, given the warm spring weather that Saturday.
"It looks stupendous on you, Angelina," Alice said, cheerful as usual. "Well worth the purchase."
"Same here, but there's not much time left," said William as he nervously looked at his own X-Transceiver. "We only have less than two minutes to get to the foyer in time."
"Hodgepodge'll chew us out even if we are on time," said Alice as she, Angelina and William ran down the hallway in a rush, loudly pounding the floor with their feet. "Well, mostly Angelina."
"Thanks, Alice," Angelina sarcastically said while gritting her teeth. She quickly repressed her hard feelings as she knew Alice was technically right and wasn't really being mean.
Contrary to popular stereotypes depicting orphans as sad, tortured souls, Angelina, Alice and William were anything but that. Four years earlier, when nine-year-old Angelina first arrived at the Hodgepodge House in a depressing mood due to the death of her parent and past memories, Alice befriended her when no one else would and helped her out of her depression. Six months later, William arrived as a timid bookworm and Angelina and Alice volunteered to guide him around and show him the ropes at the orphanage.
It wasn't until after the two mouseling girls defended William from bullies that when the trio of friends began to form over the course of the following years, helping wimpy William grow a better backbone. They'd always help each other out when needed whether it'd be studying for a test (something William specialized in), comforting (which Alice was good at) or getting out of trouble with Miss Hodgepodge (something Angelina needed to work on), and always managed to make the most of their everyday life as orphans.
Getting to the foyer of the Hodgepodge house quickly was no big task to perform for Angelina, Alice and William. They each knew the massive mansion inside and out due to living there for years so they managed to make it to the foyer's staircase just in time. Miss Hodgepodge along with the self-centered Pinkpaws twins, Priscilla and Penelope, and the young photographer, Sammy Watts, were waiting impatiently when they heard the footsteps of the trio running down the stairs and turned to see them arrived at last.
"Sorry we kept you all waiting," Alice apologized as she, Angelina and William panted heavily once they stopped at the bottom of the staircase.
"Fashionably late once again, Angelina," Priscilla said with snide and resentment in her voice as usual as she folded her arms and smiled smugly. She was a gray mouseling and was wearing an outfit that seemed more appropriate for a summer vacation than a mid-spring field trip, consisting of a very short, very thin white T-shirt, blue short shorts and blue sandals. Her resentment stemmed from her jealously of Angelina and her more developed body. "What were you doing anyways?"
"Probably another hot bath," assumed Penelope who was like her twin sister but less mean. She was a gray mouseling like Priscilla and was wearing the exact same outfit as her twin as well only the blue articles of clothes were violet. "Honestly, Angelina. You're just hopeless." She and Priscilla begun to giggled.
"You two, shut it!" snapped Miss Hodgepodge, directing her angry face at the twin mouselings. "Berating others is not acceptable in or out of this orphanage, especially when I'm around!" The elderly mouseling lady had a very strict and intimidating voice (that had a hint of British in it) and a stern, angry look in her eyes that could frighten anyone whether they be human, mouseling or Pokemon of any age. "One more crack like that out of either of you and you're both exempt from today's excursion!"
Silenced and scared, the Pinkpaws twins instantly stopped giggling. "Sorry, Miss Hodgepodge," they both said in an unusual meek tone of voice that showed no evidence of their previous emotions.
"I should hope so as well," said Miss Hodgepodge. She then directed her angry eyes and strict voice to Angelina, Alice and William, each of whom flinched and gulped fearfully, as she made a beeline towards the trio with her hands clenched into fists. "And as for you, Angelina Mouseling," she said as raised her fist to the mouse girl with her index finger pointing to the young mouseling's worrisome face, "Because you were only a few seconds late and because I'm in a better mood than usual, you won't be excluded from this field trip for that. However, take my advice and don't start pushing your luck any further, you hear me? I expect nothing but your best behavior from you and your cohorts, so don't make me disappointed. Is that understood, Miss Mouseling?"
In addition to being grumpy and strict while occasionally being somewhat nice and friendly when in a good mood, Harriet Hodgepodge was known for being one of the Unova region's richest people and the last surviving member of the wealthy Hodgepodge family. She wasn't married and too old to do so at the age of sixty-seven (a rough estimate made by others) so she had no children who'd inherit her fortune once she finally kicked the bucket.
It was said by those who heard of her that she turned her mansion into an orphanage either so that she could find a child or any other youngster who she deemed worthy of owning her fortune, because she was simply too lonely even with all her servants and maids catering to her every whim or because she thought she could use a little more spending money for herself. Nobody really knew as Miss Hodgepodge never bothered to tell anyone, even those she knew well. She was awfully discreet when it came to personal things about herself and got awfully upset when questions of said personal things came up.
Miss Hodgepodge's typical attire consisted of square-framed glasses, a blue-violet bowler hat with a daisy attached to it, and a well-ironed, well-tailored dress that emulated her wealthy status, consisting of a blue-violet blouse and an equally blue-violet mini-skirt which were both made from the finest silk produced by various Bug-type Pokemon (mostly Sewaddle), knee-high socks and black high-heeled shoes that were a pain to walk in for a woman her age.
Angelina sighed in relief along with Alice and William. Thank goodness, we're off the hook. For now. She then smiled and spoke in a more cheerful, upbeat tone of voice. "You can count on us, Miss Hodgepodge," Angelina said to the orphanage's headmistress.
"Considering your track records lately, you'd better," replied Miss Hodgepodge, putting her hands behind her back and standing up straighter like a no-nonsense military lieutenant (a fitting metaphor often used by the orphans to describe her).
"I'd hate to interrupt you, Miss Hodgepodge," said Sammy Watts in a tone of voice that tried to hide his impatience. Even though I would, he thought as he knew that the headmistress would nip him for being rude. "Shouldn't we be going on our field trip right about now?" He was gray mouseling and was wearing his spring outfit, consisting of his yellow baseball hat, a red T-shirt for the warm whether, jean shorts and shoes with no socks as usual.
"Oh, quite right, Sammy," said Miss Hodgepodge, not noticing the boy's slight irritation towards her. She walked a few steps away from the young mouselings, stopped and turned around to face the six altogether. "Before we go, I think it's about time I told you about our destination. I have managed to arrange for a visit to the Pokemon Research Laboratory here in Nuvema Town today with none other than Professor Valerie Frizzle and her assistants guiding us around. Once there, three of you six might be able to become Pokemon Trainers, each receiving a starter Pokemon and a Pokedex of their very own to help them begin. That's provide you pass her tests, however."
"S-seriously?" William managed to say while Angelina, Alice, Priscilla, Penelope and Sammy were still speechless with shocked looks on their face. "You actually did that? For us?"
"Yes," confirmed Miss Hodgepodge, nodding. She smirked slightly at the six mouselings' predictable reactions before speaking again. "I believe an explanation is in order."
Miss Hodgepodge told Angelina and the others of when she went out for lunch at the town's local diner last Saturday for a bit of fresh air and change in eating environments for once. Due to a shortage of tables, she and Professor Frizzle, who was also on a lunch break, had to share one and as they waited for the food to arrive, they struck up a conversation to pass the time. Eventually, Frizzle asked Hodgepodge if any of her orphans that were thirteen years of age or older were interested in Pokemon and possibly interested in becoming Trainers in order to raise their own and battle with others. After Miss Hodgepodge said yes, Frizzle then asked if she could meet the orphans at her laboratory at an appointed time so that she could evaluate their knowledge on battling, training and everything else they studied on Pokemon. Recalling how Angelina turned thirteen a month ago and how the six of them had been particularly well-behaved recently in the past month of March, Hodgepodge took up the Professor's offer and scheduled this Saturday as the day of the "field trip," as the headmistress had called it.
If it wasn't Harriet Hodgepodge and her orphanage that put Nuvema town on the map, it was Professor Valerie Frizzle and her Pokemon Research Laboratory that did so. She and her colleagues would constantly labor everyday to unravel the endless mysteries and wonders of the various Pocket Monsters, or rather Pokemon for short, in the Unova region. The Pokemon researcher herself was known not only for being the youngest head Professor of the Unova region at age twenty-seven but also known for being put in charge by the Pokemon League of Unova to test and evaluate those who wanted to become Pokemon Trainers and to determine if they were eligible enough to raise, train and battle Pokemon, making her the ultimate authority on Pokemon Researchers and Trainers in the region. Needless to say, Valerie Frizzle, like her father, was very well respected by Trainers, researchers and everyone else in the Unova region alike because of this.
After a few seconds of silence and surprised faces from the mouselings, the six of them shook off their shock as a smile widened on each of their faces which they exchanged with each other. Some of them even laughed a little out of happiness.
As Hodgepodge had mentioned, Angelina, Alice, William, Priscilla, Penelope and Sammy had always showed great interest in Pokemon and becoming Trainers to catch and raise their own. In addition, they would also be able to travel throughout the Unova region so they could catch more Pokemon for their team and engage other Trainers and their Pokemon in a sport called a Pokemon Battle where Trainers pitted their Pokemon against either wild Pokemon they were going to catch or another trainer's Pokemon for friendly competition, helping their Pokemon learn new techniques and increasing their strength and power.
In their free time at the Hodgepodge House or school, the orphans would read and study up on the basics of Pokemon training and battling in order to prepare themselves for when they each turned thirteen, the age Unovans could become Pokemon Trainers, and started their individual journeys to sharpen their skills and their Pokemon's powers in battle. Unfortunately, neither one of the six had the guts to ask Hodgepodge directly even when they turned thirteen-unlike the older teens who had previously lived in the orphanage and were all out on their own journeys with their own Pokemon-but it became obvious to them that they had greatly underestimated their elderly headmistress.
"Settle down, you lot!" Hodgepodge barked less loudly than before to get the six orphans silenced again. "Before we go, I should explain that Professor Frizzle has only three starter Pokemon as of now so she'll only select three of you to evaluate for today."
She saw the mouselings exchange worried faces and groans with each other, as the thought of waiting longer to becomes Trainers didn't sit well with them.
"Will you lot just settle down and hear me out!" Hodgepodge shouted to make them quiet once more. "Those who won't get selected today will be next week or whenever the Professor receives new starters. That will depend on their behavior as well, just to let you know." She then turned around and began walking to the front doors which the doorman then opened. "Now, come along. We're already late as it is."
Angelina, Alice, William, Priscilla, Penelope and Sammy quickly caught up to Hodgepodge and followed her through the front doors. The orphanage itself was all the way at the southern end of Nuvema Town near the sea and the lab was all the way at the northern end of town near a forest. Though walking all the way through town wasn't a very popular thought, the six mouseling orphans were too excited to care so long as they got there. Neither one of them could believe that the day they yearned for had come so abruptly or know that fate was in the air that day.
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The Pokemon Research Laboratory of Nuvema town had been busier than usual for the past six days as everyone there was preparing for the coming Saturday afternoon when three out of six orphans would be chosen to take the Pokemon Trainer Evaluation test, or P.T.E. for short. After discovering that there was only one left last week, three new Pokedexes had to be manufactured quickly so the lab's Pokemon Professors and Doctors had to make them all by hand, as they were traditionally created, while cutting a few corners in production due to time. And, as if it wasn't bad enough already, the three newly-born starter Pokemon had to be trained to obey anyone who was given ownership of one of them. All this hard work going on twenty-four/seven at the lab was just about enough to make any Professor or Doctor there go insane.
Luckily, Valerie Felicity Frizzle wasn't just any Professor or Doctor. She was the daughter of Unova's head Pokemon researcher, Vern Frizzle, and truly was a real chip off the old block. Inspired by her own father and curiosity, she became a Pokemon researcher at age twenty-five and began striving to pinpoint the origin of each and every species of Pokemon in the Unova region while also working with her father in his lab at Nuvema Town as a fellow Professor.
Two months ago when Vern decided to travel the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh regions to research their Pokemon for himself, Valerie was entrusted by him with the role of head Professor temporarily. Since then, the young Professor followed in her father's footsteps in her work, always acting professionally and responsibly and keeping her cool even in the most pressing of times. For the last six days, she worked hard to keep everything and everyone in the lab in order, and even assisted her colleagues by building a Pokedex and training the three starter Pokemon with them. Anything to keep her and her assistants from going off the deep end and prepare themselves for the P.T.E. test they would give out in a matter of days.
Eventually and miraculously, everything was ready by Satuday morning with only two tasks to complete: upload all data files on the one-hundred-and-fifty-six Pokemon of the Unova region onto the three Pokedexes from the main computer and make sure the starter Pokemon were fed before their guests arrived. Professor Frizzle allowed everyone, save for two doctors, to take the day off as thanks for all their hard work so that they all could rest, relax and get a much needed shower while she, Doctor Timothy Tuttle and Doctor Emil Lang took care of the rest. Frizzle was in the computer room with Tuttle, observing the data uploading onto the third Pokedex from the computer to make sure that nothing went wrong during the process, and the three starter Pokemon who were being fed lunch. Lang, on the other hand, was in the lobby up front to look out for Harriet Hodgepodge and the orphans. Soon enough, the first task was fulfilled.
"Upload Complete!" said a loud, synthesized voice that came from the computer which was large in size and built into the light-blue, metallic wall. It had an enormous monitor which had been showing the various stats and information on various Unovan Pokemon and an equally huge keyboard which had even more keys than a regular one. There was also a jack that was made specifically for Pokedexes located at the keyboard's base. "All databanks have been successfully filled out. The Pokedex can now be removed."
Professor Frizzle did so, pulling the gray pocket-sized, rectangular Pokedex from the jack and holding it in her right hand.
"Time to put this one to the test," she said in a youthful-yet-mature tone of voice with a real feminine air to it. Like her father, she had frizzy, orange hair which she herself fashioned into a beehive-like hairstyle. She wore two earrings that were shaped like tiny Poke Balls, a white lab coat that covered her casual attire and high-heeled shoes that hurt her feet.
Frizzle pressed the white button in the middle of the Pokedex's pink control pad with her left index finger to activate the device. From behind the Pokedex's small monitor above the control pad a second monitor rose up above it with a soft, robotic weening sound accompanying it as both of them turned on with the gadget itself. The top screen showed a list of Unovan Pokemon names while the bottom screen showed icons meant to activate the various functions of the Pokedex when one was selected. Frizzle repeatedly clicked the lower part of the control pad to go down the list of names until she found one and clicked the white button again to bring up that Pokemon's information.
The Pokedex's upper monitor displayed various images of the Pokemon from different angles while the lower monitor displayed stats, lists of attacks and other data on the Pokemon as a synthesized voice gave out basic info on the creature.
"File #078. Minccino, the Chinchilla Pokemon. These Pokemon are always sweeping and dusting by using their tails as brooms. They always greet another one of their kind with said tails."
Pokedexes were literally high-tech encyclopedias on Pokemon, providing useful information for Trainers who were searching for a Pokemon or who had just encountered a Pokemon they never seen before. It was a real must-have for any Pokemon Trainers starting their journey as not everyone knew every Pokemon in the world, let alone Unova.
"This one is all ready," said Frizzle as she pushed the white button again to turn off the Pokedex, pushed the top monitor back behind the bottom one and placed the device on a metal rolling cart behind her and Tuttle right next to two others in a row. "So far, no glitches or errors."
Doctor Tuttle reached into his lab coat pocket and took out a fourth Pokedex that was the only one left from the previous P.T.E. "While we're at it, let's fill out all the files on this Pokedex in case one of those three breaks or shows glitches," he said to his colleague and superior. He was a male mouseling adult with gray fur who was well-educated when it came human-mouseling and Pokemon medication and other scientific fields of study. "Best to be safe than sorry."
"I suppose so," said Professor Frizzle as she took the spare Pokedex from Tuttle's right hand and inserted it into the jack near the computer's keyboard. "One time from the top! Starting with Victini!"
As Frizzle and Tuttle repeated the uploading process for the fourth and final time, the three starter Pokemon, Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott, were just about done eating their lunch along with the lab's pet Pokemon, Zorua. The four of them were facing away from the wall at the end of the computer room beneath a slightly-opened window that let in the fresh spring breeze and led out to behind the laboratory itself as they each ate food out of their bowls.
The Fire-type starter, Tepig, was eating his food when he noticed that Oshawott to his left was scarfing down his food very quickly.
"Tepig Tepig," (Slow down, Oshawott.) said Tepig in the language of his species (consisting the name) and in his soft tone of voice. "Tepig pig pig Te?" (Where's the fire?)
Tepig was an orange pig-like Pokémon with large, ovular eyes and a pig-like, ruddy-pink nose accompanied by a thick stripe of yellow above its snout. Much of his face was black and his ears, long and oblong, were positioned closely together on the top of his head. He had short legs, with the extremities of its forefeet being black, and a band of black on his lower back and rear, from which extended his coiled tail that was topped with a ruddy-red, bauble-like adornment.
Oshawott tossed the last brown pieces of his Pokemon food into his mouth with his forepaws to chew quickly. (I'm just so excited!) he said energetically in his species's language with a wide open smile that exposed his two fangs. (I'm about to be chosen by a Pokemon Trainer and battle other Pokemon across the Unova region! Plus, with my cuteness and charm, I'm bound to be picked first.) Out of all three starters, Oshawott was the most enthusiastic when it came to Pokemon battles as he'd always jump into a battle beginning or in progress with various consequences. Though after a while, he learned to know when to fall back as he hated to lose a battle.
Oshawott was a bipedal sea otter-like Pokémon with a rounded, spherical white head with small, triangular dark-blue ears on each side, large, dark, and ovoid in shape eyes, a dark-orange nose shaped like an oval and freckles on his cheeks that were actually very short whiskers. The Pokemon also had light blue, bubble-esque features that composed a "collar" around his neck, a light blue torso and a pale yellow seashell called as a "Scalchop" that was made of keratin featured in the center of his torso. He had small, white, digit-less arms, dark-blue feet with discernible digits and a slightly plank-shaped dark-blue tail.
Snivy, a grass-type, had been eating slowly and steadily to Tepig's right when she finished her food and decided to enter the conversation.
(How delusional of you, Oshawott.) she said with her usual smugness and a little chuckle. (There's no possible way of you being chosen first or even because they find you 'cute' which you're too far from being.)
Snivy was a green snake-like Pokemon with a cream-colored underside, a yellow stripe running down the length of her back and tail and yellow markings around her large eyes. She had yellow, curved structures protruding from her shoulders that were bent backwards, giving her the appearance of wearing a collar, short but slender arms with three fingers, tiny toeless feet that matched her underside in color and a large, palmate leaf with three prongs on the end.
Oshawott was hurt but also more mad than sad. (You think you're so smart, don't 'cha?) he retorted in anger, gritting his teeth. (Just who do you think you are?)
(I'm the one with the type advantage against you.) replied Snivy with her trademark smug smile once more. (Wanna battle?)
(I won't go easy on you just because you're a girl.) said Oshawott, still angry.
(Whoa, whoa, whoa! Cool your jets, guys.) Tepig said, now squatting on his hind legs as he held his forepaws up to Snivy and Oshawott each. (Save the battle for later. You don't want another incident at this time, do we?) His voice was more worrisome than strict which Snivy picked up on.
(All right, fine.) said Oshawott, folding his arms with a pseudo-smile of arrogance on his face. (I wouldn't want to hurt such a "delicate flower" like you, Snivy.)
(Humph.) snorted Snivy, folding her arms as well. (Your sarcasm needs work, Oshawott. By the way, Tepig, are you still nervous? You sound like it.)
(Is it that obvious?) Tepig sighed. (I just don't feel so confident like you guys.) He was always a nervous wreck with low self-esteem when it came to battle training sessions with the Professors and an important event like getting chosen by a trainer was even worse for him.
(Cheer up, Tepig.) said Zorua, who had finished his lunch seconds ago. (You three are lucky that you get to leave this lab and see the world with your own trainer. Not to mention that you get to battle Pokemon you never seen before.) He sighed melancholy. (I only wish I could go out of this lab too.)
Zorua was a slate-gray fox-like Pokémon with a large, whorled scruff of fur on his head that was tipped with red, a ruff of black fur around his neck and a bushy tail. His four paws were tipped with red and his eyelids as well as his circular "eyebrow" markings were red too. His ears were triangular with dark insides and his eyes had blue irises with white pupils.
(In your situation, I highly doubt it,) replied Snivy.
Zorua sighed once more. His kind was known for being able to create illusions and being extremely rare even in the Unova region, making them a common target for Pokemon Hunters and poachers. Even since Vern Frizzle brought the young Zorua to the laboratory three months ago, he had been confined to inside the building by the Professor, his daughter and anyone who worked at the place. Not once was Zorua allowed to go outside for the Frizzles feared that if the public knew that a rare Pokemon like him was in Nuvema Town of all places, it would bring them unwanted attention like the press and jeopardize Zorua's protection as criminals would no doubt try to steal him. He understood this and appreciated the efforts made by the Professor and his colleagues to protect him but all the same, he wanted to leave the lab and exploring the world he had never gotten to see for himself, perhaps with his very own trainer. Though his battling skills were far from perfect, his illusion abilities would give out over time and he was never allowed to train or battle for real, that never stopped Zorua from dreaming.
At that very moment, the computer room's electronic dual doors opened up in half and Doctor Emil Lang entered, getting the attention of everyone.
"Professor Frizzle, Doctor Tuttle," The Doctor spoke with a German accent in his voice. "They're here. Harriet and the orphans have arrived just now." He was a male human adult with brown hair and a gray beard and was wearing the standard lab coat like every other Professor or Doctor. Though Frizzle was his superior, he was her senior when it came to age and experience.
Frizzle and Tuttle each looked at the time on their X-Transceivers which read twelve-fourty-six PM, much to their surprise.
"My goodness!" Frizzle exclaimed. "It really is time. Best we not keep our guest waiting any longer." She took two small red and white spheres called Poke Balls from her pocket with her right hand and another one with her left.
"What about the Pokedex?" asked Tuttle. "It hasn't received all the data yet."
"We'll have to come back for it, should anything go wrong," Frizzle said as she pressed the white buttons on each of the Poke Balls, changing them from ping-pong ball size to baseball size and thrust her arms out at the three starter Pokemon. "In the meantime, Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott, return to your Poke Balls!"
Each Poke Balls shot a red beam of light from the white buttons to Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott, converting each of them into pure red energy that were pulled to their respective balls, each of which opening up in half and shutting closed to contain said energies (it was this device that gave Pokemon their name: Pocket Monsters). After the three Poke Balls returned to ping-pong ball size, Frizzle put them in a narrow, lidless box on the rolling metal cart and began to roll it out of the computer room. "Now let's move it, boys!"
(Hey, wait!) cried out Zorua as he sprinted towards Frizzle who stopped before the open doorway and turned around to look down at the Tricky Fox Pokemon. (Can't I at least meet the trainers? Please?) He smiled cheerfully to appear cute enough to convince Frizzle.
Frizzle didn't understand the various languages of Pokemon like any other person but knew Zorua enough to understand what he was asking. She sighed and squatted down to Zorua's level to make eye contact.
"Sorry but I can't even let them see you or anyone," she said with a sentimental tone of voice. "I've told you before and I'll tell you again: even if I ask them to keep the secret to themselves, who's to say that I can fully trust them, people I don't know, with that knowledge. You should know this after being here for months by now."
"Professor, hurry up before they get impatient," Lang called from the hallway. "They may be tired but they came here for a reason."
"Gotta go, Zorua," Frizzle said. "I'll leave the the window open here so you'll have some fresh air and don't even think about trying to open it." With that said, she stood up straight and turned around to push the cart out the doorway.
(But-!) Zorua tried to protest before the dual doors shut, sealing him inside the computer room. His face frowned as he turned away from the dual doors with his head hung low and his spirits even lower.
(What was I thinking? I'll be here forever whether I want to or not.) He went to a soft pillow in the left corner of the room that Frizzle had left for him and laid down on it. Might as well sleep this off, he thought as he closed his eyes and nestled in the softness of the pillow. He was fast asleep when he heard a noise...
To Be Continued in Chapter 2: The Knights of Plasma
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For Your Information
In my version of the Pokemon world, mammals were civilized to integrate them into society years (possibly a century) prior to this series. They aren't featured in this fic but are shown in a side project: Pokemon Adventures: Diamond & Pearl. Unova's main demographic is humans and mouselings (anthropomorphic mice) in my fic.
Capsules are obviously from the Dragon Ball series and are to be used in this fic as a replacement for the games' hammerspace backpacks which would not make sense in real life. I know that the Capsule concept seems outlandish but hey, this is Pokemon.
The characters may not seem like much but I do plan to delve deeper into their characters and backgrounds throughout their Unova region journey. Sadly, I can't spoil it for you guys.
Anyways, review away, guys. Don't hold back! I can take anything you have to say, good or bad.