Pokemon X Nuzlocke ~To Be a Pokemon~ Chapter 6

I did not have the time to enjoy a proper tour of Lumiose City. As soon as we entered the gates Sina and Dexio dragged me off towards the professor’s lab, a tall white building surrounded by a large garden from which the playful cries of pokemon could be heard.
Geneva, jumping out of Dexio’s arms trotted over to sniff the tall grass. Not even slowing his pace the senior trainer scooped the fennekin back up into his arms and he walked by her to carry my pokemon the rest of the way. Taking an opportunity to see rooms I otherwise wouldn’t I glanced around the lab as we made entrance. The first room was large empty hall with an elevator at the end.

“The professor studies evolutions” Sina informed me as she rushed me towards the elevator, “You probably already knew that but in case you forgot you wouldn’t want to look surprised.”
As the elevator door opened up both of Sycamor’s friends pushed me forward into a room full of machines of all shape and sizes. I glanced around as I spotted pokeballs lying on the floor and tables as scientists stood over a large screen tv peering into it as if it held the deepest secrets they could imagine.

“Oops! Wrong rooms!” Dexio called as the group of researchers starred at us in annoyance and I was quickly dragged back into the tight elevator.

“PROFESSOR!!! We’re back!!” Sina yelled almost as soon as the door opened once again at level 3 this time.

“Je savais que vous l’étiez!” Exclaimed the professor as he approached us a large grin spread across his face. “Ahhh!! Nathalie!  La tardive est arrivé en première! Quel joie to have you back here !”

Freeing myself from Sina’s grip I stepped forward to shake the professor’s hand as Sycamore continued his speech, “It is good to have you among us now! A pity you lost your memories though! I had so much of advanced research that I would of loved to tell you about but would take too long to re-explain now that you forgot it all!”
The professor gripped my hand tightly and I found myself yet again dragged by another person to a table. “’J’ai trouvé five autres trainers who I have sent out letter of recommendations to start they journey and research more for me. Tout ce que nous pouvons trouver ici est so different and unique from other regions that not even I know every secret possible here! Il y a tellement de choses à apprendre!”

“Thanks…” I muttered not even trying to hide the hint of irony in my voice, “I really appreciate what you did to recommend my journeying.  My mother was absolutely delighted to open that letter!”

The professor sighed and shook his head “It wasn’t me…désoler…THAT letter was by a friend of mine and your mother's!”

“PROF!!!” Geneva yipped as she nipped Dexio’s hand to race across the floor. “You’re okay?! Right?  I can never trust Jessie to take proper care of you! Or did you give him away too? Who is there to guard you now?!”

Only understanding the fennekin’s excitement as a sign of joy from my pokemon Sycamore grinned as he let go of my hand to pet Geneva on the head. “So…tu as choisi the fire type after all?” he said to me as he bent down to itch behind my pokemon’s ear “I was expecting you would choose Chespin since from what we had discussed before your memory loss, but I guess this girl and you will make a good match! Vous avez la même onde de détermination!”

Standing up he sauntered over to his desk and as he leaned over to grab something from the drawers called out to Dexio and Sina “I will be expecting that the other two students will come today and that my other three will be one day late…you can go off and spend time in Lumiose until tomorrow morning! Mais s’il vous plaît! Just drop off the other three at the entrance ! I do not want my researchers to complain about your noises again!”

The two pokemon experts nodded before heading down the elevator.

“Now! Revenons à nos Mareeps! Nathalie! I believe you already forgot about our last test but I challenge you to a pokemon battle!”

Grinning I stood facing the professor, Geneva standing posed by my side, ready for battle.
“You better be ready! Because I am!”

Now…this battle was interesting…the professor used starters…ONLY starters!  First up was his bulbasaur, a grass type, and I bet you can guess what happened to the poor critter…
“GENEVA! STOP!” I yelled as my fennekin stood towering over to small bulbasaur her gaze locked on its squirming body as she pinned it down, ready to use a fire attack to finish him off for good.

Glancing back at me she grumbled a few words under her breath and padded to sit by my side.

“Impressionnant!  You were kind to stop your pokemon from killing this one, but beware, the outside world won’t be as generous.” Sycamore informed me as he summoned the bulbasaur back into its pokeball. “Now we shall see how you will deal with a water type pokemon!”
Nodding I waited until the squirtle was out of its pokeball to let Loiret out of hers. The Pikachu stood on the lab floor watching the squirtle yawn at her, an expression of anger on her face.

“How dare you act that way with me!” she squeaked as she raced towards the squirtle sending out small discharges of lightning at her enemy on the way.

I watched in interest as the squirtle straightened up and began dodging Loiret’s moves. An impressive performance considering that the squirtle looked quite bulky and tall compared to the small and agile pikachu, but it still stood no chance. After a seemingly long game of hit and chance finally Loiret was able to corner the squirtle against a wall and let out a final gentle charge of electricity, enough to knock it out but not kill it.

“Wow! Bravo!”  Sycamore laughed as he scrutinized Loiret, “C’était un bon choix de pokemon against Squirtle! Let’s see how you will treat your next opponent !”

I raised an eyebrow as our last opponent came out of his pokeball, already guessing it would be a fire type pokemon I nodded to Loiret, informing her to stand ready when the next battle begun.

The final pokemon was a small charmander who starred up at the pikachu with a mixture fear and surprise. Taking a few rushed steps back the small creature tripped over the carpet and tumbled to the ground as he kept his wide gaze locked on Loiret’s tall ominous figure. The pikachu frowned and turned to look at me. “You gotta be kidding me!” she growled, “I’m not beating up on a pokemon who can’t even stand on his two legs at the sight of me! The squirtle I was fine with! She did not show any sign of fear! But this little guy! I refuse to hurt a pokemon with no reason!”

“Wow!” Geneva laughed “Loiret! Is it me or you are showing a soft spot for this pokemon! You weren’t so fair game with Marina!”

The pikachu hissed and promptly sat on the floor in front of the cowering charmander. “You heard me Nathalie! Tell your dear professor that I forfeit this battle! And you’d better not change pokemon on me or I’ll never forgive you!”

I stood watching as my fennekin began shouting some random insults at the pikachu who simply ignored her while the charmander began slowly crawling towards the professor’s leg as Sycamore watched my two pokemon bicker with a raised eyebrow.

“I think it’s wise to say that this battle is a tie?” I asked, hoping the answer would be positive.

“Well…it seems that your Pikachu refuses to fight while my charmander ne semble ne pas le vouloir either…” the professor groaned, “I guess we can agree that this can be called a tie…”
Straightening up Sycamore summoned the charmander back into its pokeball and placed the three starter’s capsules onto the table behind him. “You choose wisely when you keep your pokemon from killing others…” he finally said as Loiret and Geneva’s fight suddenly fell silent as they listened to what he was saying, “I have occasionally met trainers who get their starters killed during their first battle. Mais toi tu n’es pas comme those trainers! Which is why I shall be entrusting you with one of these three!”

I took a step forward in surprise, this was sudden…I hadn’t realized this was the reason why he had challenged me, it has been a test the whole time! He wanted to see how I trusted my own pokemon when putting them up against youngling who would end up being other trainer’s starters.

I starred at the three pokeballs in wonder, based on what Sycamore had commented on it seemed to him bulbasaur was the obvious choice for me. The charmander on the other hand wouldn’t fit in my team at all, not with Toulouse who would cause me issues in battle…it wouldn’t want to risk his life, besides I already had Geneva who was a fire type. That left me with one last choice…

“I pick squirtle!” I said as I approached the desk to bend down a pick up the capsule, opening it to reveal a tall and bulky squirtle who promptly yawned up at me. Smiling at the look of surprise on the professor’s face I bent down to sit at the same height as the squirtle.

“Intéressant choix que tu as là! I look forward to seeing how your team will turn out!” Sycamore finally said as he broke out laughing “It seems I won’t be needing to ask you what you’ll be naming your pokemon! You can simply ask her what she’d like as a name!”

The professor grinned back at me as I let out a loud gasp, clearly he knew I could understand pokemon language, and naturally I had forgotten that detail like everything else.

“Hello! So you’re a girl? Huh?” I said to the squirtle as I turned my attention back to my newly obtained partner. “So…what’s your name? Do you have any?”

The squirtle looked up at me for a few seconds as she thought about what I had asked her.
Finally speaking up she said “Well! I left my name behind when I became a starter’s pokemon, but my parents used to call me Oxford…so I guess you could call me that if you like!”

Standing up I smiled down at my new pokemon “Oxford it is then!” I laughed as I turned to thank the professor.

“Did we miss anything?!” A voice called as the elevator door opened to let Olivier and Marina out.

“Great! It’s the snarky girl again!” Loiret cursed as she raced over by my side to keep out of my two friend’s way.

“Pas grand chose!” Sycamore smiled “I simply challenged Nat to a battle!”

Marina glanced at the squirtle and raised an eyebrow “Well! It seems someone is getting another pokemon! You’re hoping that with another starter you may have a chance beating me in battle?! Well guess what! Good luck! I don’t need another starter to kick your butt!”

Grinning at my friend’s words Olivier made his way to stand beside Geneva “Nice meeting you professor!” he called out as a greeting to the professor before leaning over to scratch my fennekin behind the ear.

“Bonjour Olivier! So! It seems we are almost all here!”  Sycamore smiled as he placed the other two pokeballs back inside the drawer of his desk.

“We’re here too!” Yelled Tirzah as she raced into the room, closely followed by Sparky. “Dexio said you would be expecting us!”

“Exactement! C’est parfait! Vous êtes tous là! Now that we are all here I have a proposition for you!”

My friends all gathered around the table as Sycamore stood behind it, a large grin spread across his face. “Alright! You all know about Fairy types right? I’ve been researching about this new found type for a while now and have made some interesting discoveries. But that is not all, lately there has been an all new finding! A complete new stage of pokemon evolution! Mega evolution!”

“That’s interesting prof!” Marina interrupted as she crossed her armed to stare angrily at the professor “But please don’t tell me this is why you gathered us here. To tell us about this all new discovery of yours!”

“Tout a fait!” Sycamore exclaimed as he glanced at me a look of secret knowledge gleaming in his eyes like tiny little stars “I have been working on this new stage and believe there is far more secret about pokemon than we could ever imagine we knew of…nouvelles possibilités of changing shape forever or simply in battle. J’ai besoin de dresseurs  to help my research by going out and exploring the most secluded areas out our land. I’m hoping you and my other team of trainers will be willing to do this pour moi. I’ve gathered you here to ask you if you’d like to help me out on this quest?”

We all stood in silences, pondering about what the professor was asking us…for some reason I found it…disappointing? I had expected further information on the Professor’s research and why he was sending us out in dangerous lands to get our pokemon killed to help his unknown research about evolution to advance. But I understood Sycamore’s way of thinking, this was a new discovery. And the more people he sent out to figure out what exactly he was looking for, the more information they could bring him.

“We…we…” Tirzah began saying but was suddenly cut off by Sparky who was literally dancing across the floor in joy “OF COURSE WE’D LOVE TO HELP! Anyone who would refuse an opportunity like this would be a fool!”

Sycamore smiled at Butter’s words, it was common knowledge that my friend wanted to travel the world to complete her pokedex, out of us all she was the one who was mostly likely to rush off immediately after this to do exactly what the Professor had asked us.

“Sounds fun!” Olivier said as he glanced at me “What do you think about this Nathalie?”

It all came down this choice now that I think about it…if I had walked away right then all this would have happened differently…same consequences maybe…but I wouldn’t have been affected by the events taking place afterwards if my decision had been not to set out on this quest…heck! I probably wouldn’t have been at the wrong places at the wrong timings whenever something bad would take place!

“I think this is a great idea!” I replied, unaware at that time of what I had just agreed to do…
                                                                    ……………………………………………………………………………………………………
As my friends began piling into the elevator I stiffened as I felt a hand grab my shoulder, jerking my backwards. Sycamore was standing behind me, his expression full of concern for what he was about to lead me too…or should I rather say, who he was about to lead me too!

“Nathalie, there is someone I’d like you to meet…”