It was a briskly cold morning in Anvil Town, as the industrial train station was full of hustling and bustling people. Civilians rushed back and forth, some boarding trains with some exiting. Out of the mildly large crowd that had seemed to gather, certain people were on their way to get their first pokemon and to take their first step into the extroardinary, and at times extravagant world of Pokemon. Barnabas laced his fingers together as he stepped off of the sleek, air conditioned train and onto the platform. He had of course arrived early. Professor Snowbell had summoned him, making sure he'd arrive before the new trainers. It must be because he knows I'm sooo important. Barnabas hummed as he carried his massive bag towards the exit leading from the train station and into the rustic town, where most people would start their journey.

The wavy-haired young lad made his way around the familiar sights and sounds of the town, and headed straight for the Professor's lab. The scent of fresh fruit and sweet confections tempted him to stray from his path, but the boy with honey-colored eyes continued on, while complimenting his own dedication. His trusty Charmeleon, Roxy, followed behind him, eyeing the berry and meat stands stands. Barnabas slipped through a damp, thin alleyway. If he remembered correctly, going this way would be a direct shortcut to the Professor's lab~! The light brunette grinned slightly to himself, as he stepped in front of the familiar, posh white building. It was the most modern looking building in the entire town. It was colored in bright whites and sleek silvers, and the doors automatically slid open.

"Good morning Prof-ess-or Snowbell~!" Barnabas dragged out the words on purpose, knowing how his cheerful attitude grated on the Professor's nerves. The white haired, caramel-skinned professor appeared, rounding a corner. He had a handsome, angular jawline with a curves nose, and sharp, frosty blue eyes. His expression was curled into a scowl, which matched the sleepless bags underneath his eyes. He was considerably young for a professor, only about in his early twenties. Supposedly, he was a prodigy. "Aah, you should sleep more. You'd look much better without those marring bags underneath your eyes."

"You're late." Professor Snowbell's words held noticeable venom in them. "And keep your nose out of my life. You youngins," The professor began sassily and condescendingly. "are too much of a shitty bunch to deal with..." Man, being stuck out here in the boonies is such a bore... The professor thought solemnly.

Barnabas's lips curled into a smile, but it didn't reach his eyes, which narrowed. There would have been a retort, but the sliding doors opened to reveal...

[anyone can introduce their characters here. :) ]

Amelia looked around the train apprehensively. She had been on it for a while now, her only comfort being the Litwick sitting on her right shoulder. It had been several days since she ran away from home, tired of being trapped and unable to do anything. Her parents would never have let her go on a journey, so she had to gather up the courage to go on one by herself. And she had, and she had used all the money she had to get a train ticket to the furthest region she could go to.

Sighing to herself, she waited until the train finally came to a stop. Grabbing her bag, she got off the train as quickly as possible and out of the station even faster. She sighed to herself as she walked through town without much a destination. She simply wanted to find a place that could give her some free food, but she doubted any place in town would. Stopping by a map of the town, she saw it had a Pokémon Laboratory. Wondering if the Professor there would be kind enough to give her some food, she memorized the route and headed that way, ending up at the labs in a couple of minutes. Once in front of the door, she took a few seconds to gather herself before slowly entering.
"H-hello?" She said, looking around, spotting the Professor and Barnabas. Her Litwick hopped off her shoulder and moved over to Charmeleon, looking up at the bigger Fire-type Pokémon.

"We are now arriving in Anvil Town. Remember to bring your luggage and have a nice day." Through the intercom the message repeated several times by a prerecorded voice of a male with a deep, upbeat

Sigurd was in the land of the nod for the majority of the trip and still was having sweet dreams about battling the champion of the Unova region only to be victorious and become the champion himself. It seem like this idiot still wouldn't wake up and no one around him was trying to even disturb him from his slumber, well, everyone except for Sig's partner. Rusty, his Scraggy, was shaking his partner in vain of trying to get him to wake up so they wouldn't miss their stop. "Scrag, scrag!" The tiny pokemon pleaded with the sleeping blue haired boy, watching as a trail of drool ran down the boy's cheek as he smiled ever so dreamily.

"Ahahaha...Hyper Beam...!" Sigurd mumbled in his sleep, raising his fist up lazily as if he was commanding his pokemon in battle. Cross veins that are found in animes appeared on Rusty's head and oh boy he was shaking in anger.

"SCRAG!" A blue light glowed around the hoodlum pokemon's head and then leaped up and slammed Sigurd's head with a Zen Headbutt. The boy's eyes shot wide open and he held his forehead trying to dull the pain. Rusty chuckled triumphantly with its arms crossed.

"What the hell Rusty?! What was that..." The boy with red eyes glanced out at the window and saw that they arrived at their destination. He could only grin with such enthusiasm that of a child with a new toy, if not even more so. He adjusted his coal black newsboy hat and looked down at his yellow reptilian friend. "Well Rusty, looks like our journey is about to start."

The prerecorded voice spoke again suddenly. "We are now heading towards are next destination."

"WAIT WAIT THIS IS MY STOP!!!" Sigurd cried out in sheer panic.

Twenty minutes later both the young teen and Scraggy walked along the streets, admiring the sights and smells of the rustic town. It was so much different than Castelia City; the buildings weren't shadowing him and the air was so much fresher than the city air could ever hope to be. While he was here he decided to indulge himself with a little breakfast, just to have whatever delicacies this town had to offer. He bought coffee, black with no sugar, and a crepe that was rolled up as a burrito filled with fruit, syrup, and cottage cheese. Rusty was nibbling on an exceptionally large piece of toasted bread with oran berry jam and butter smothered all over it. Sigurd swallowed a large chunk he had bitten off. "Delicious! Now it's about time that we find that professor's lab don't you think?" The tanned skinned, blue haired, red eyed Unovian asked his little buddy who nodded in agreement.

It wasn't hard to find the building; it was the only thing in town that looked modern at all. "This somehow feels completely out of place..." Sigurd shrugged and walked through the sliding door only to see Professor Snowbell and an extremely feminine looking young man with a charmeleon and a little girl with a litwick. "Greetings from Unova!" Sigurd grinned with as much suppressed joy he could use. Rusty on the other hand was sizing himself up with the larger reptilian pokemon.

Steam, cold temperature, backpack's weight and the annoying sound of petty chatting: The entirely of this made Nero realize how much he hated train stations, but it was the only way to arrive on his destination: Anvil Town. The industrial town which, at this time of the year, was likelly filled with... steam, cold temperature and the annoying sound of petty chatting. Oh, and his backpack would still weight at his back, amazing.

As annoying as that all was, there was no way Nero would miss the opportunity to meet the prodigy professor in person, not at all. He didn't live that far, so he had heard about him - about everything, honestly. The boy glanced at the brown creature sitting by his shoulder - an Eevee - and his only pokémon, so far. He had no need to ask for a starter pokémon, something nearly every starting trainer would do, still, perhaps some information of value would be given to him, something that'd motivate him towards his objetive of becoming a champion, even...

The train stopped and what followed after was the chaotic movement of the crowd, all leaving at the same time. Nero recalled his pokémon to avoid losing ir or harming it even, seeing how he himself was hit by a taller someone's shoulder at least tree times, he never wished for a sharp object so much before. Nonetheless, step after step, he made his way towards the town, glancing occasionally at a town map he had in his hands. A few more steps and there was the boy in front of the seemingly most technologically developed building in this whole town. The boy entered, wordlessly; there were a number of individuals inside, but Nero's eyes focused instantly on the professor. A hint of a smile, which rapidly got replaced by a frown. The boy kept himself quiet, taking a few steps to the side, his hands pocketed in his jacket.

Barnabas pepped up at the sight of two to-be trainers entering the laboratory. He was glad to see that the others wouldn't take too long to arrive. He really didn't want to be left alone with Professor Snowbell for too long. If the two newcomers had been here earlier, it would be likely that Barnabas wouldn't even have bothered greeting the Professor. Amelia definitely seemed a bit more timid. But that was natural. It was rare for someone as young-looking as her to be starting their journey so early. Barnabas gave a pleasant grin, lacing his fingers together as he peered over at Sigurd and Amelia. This time, the smile reached his eyes, which crinkled up in amusement.

"Nice to meet you." Barnabas stated cheerfully. Roxy peered down at the Litwick and Scraggy, greeting the two with a small snort.

"Yes, yes, I am Professor Snowbell." The professor greeted, pausing afterwards as though awaiting for impressed applause. "You'll be getting... starter pokemon and pokedexes which were just shipped in today by the lazy bastards in charge of it. That's what this little... one is here for." The Professor complained slightly to the kids, before he swiped a huge brown bag off of a nearby bookshelf. He spilled the contents, which were seventeen different pokeballs, each holding a different starter.

Amelia turned around as she heard more people enter the building. Both were male, several years older then her. The second one that entered stepped to the side and just watched things as they happened. The first one made his prescense more then known, mainly by shouting. This was not so good with Amelia, who instantly backed away and covered her ears as she fell over a stray object. She didn't care though and simply curled up with her hands still over her ears.

Litwick took exception to this and turned towards Sigurd, unleashing an Amber in the man's direction. A protective one, that Litwick apparently was.

Finally, his first step to understanding what it means to be strong. He walked over to the pokeballs and pokedexes that were laid out on the table before them. He picked up a black pokedex and a case for it and attached it to his belt. Now to pick which ever starter he wanted. Oh there were so many types he could pick from, but he could only take one of them. Deciding to take a chance on fate, he took a pokeball and tossed it into the air, the ball released a ball of white energy and formed into a Piplup.

"Pip?" It looked around with great puzzlement of where it was.

Sig bent down and smiled at the tiny penguin. "Hey there wanna go on a-" Sigurd was cut off by the little girl falling down to the ground.

"OI!" Sigurd quickly as he could ducked as a flurry of fireballs flew over his head. The little girl just suddenly fell to the ground and her Litwick attacked him out of the blue! Perhaps the Litwick attacked him because it was something he did that caused her to become like this? Carefully he approached her and went down on one knee so that he could lay a hand on her. "Hey hey, sorry. Did I startle you?" He smiled nervously at her, hoping to undo the wrong that he had done.

Rusty glared at the Litwick for attacking his partner. Even if his partner was careless, how would he know that the little girl was sensitive to loud noises. Meanwhile the Piplup just stood there confused.

That was the very reason Nero always kept his distance from others; shouting, falling and pokémon-attacking-trainer. This whole ordeal could've been avoided... if they simply kept themselves quiet. An annoyed sigh ghosted past the boy's lips as he rolled his eyes; the Eevee, seemingly by it's own, appeared in a flash of red light over the boy's shoulder, it's black eyes glancing from side to side. The pokémon was already beginning to trust Nero, but only by a little bit.

The trainer began walking foward, trying to avoid the other trainers - naturally. Once he managed to sneak through the commotion and pick up a pokédex, a rather broad smile appeared on his lips. He smiled so frequently, sadly, it was never because of anyone but his own reasons. "See, Eevee? This will help us a lot,"

Nero murmured to the pokémon, using the pokédex on the brown furball. Information regarding Eevee and his species appeared on the screen, the boy nodded and placed the pokédex on his backpack. He'd find an easier way to attach it somewhere, later. Now, he truly wanted to get out and proceed to the closest gym around. Perhaps that'd be a good way to test how much he and Eevee were able to understand one another... Or, maybe, battle any of the trainers around here, earn some battling experience which isn't theoric. Or... Nero's eyes glanced towards the pokéballs. Would he be allowed to pick up a starter, even though he had one already?

Amelia looked up at Sigurd as she noticed him approach and her face turned a bright shade of red as she looked back at the ground and removed her hands from her ears.
"S-sorry." She stuttered, her voice low, almost to the point of being inaudible. She had never talked to anyone older then her that she had never known before so she was rather scared of this stranger. Her Litwick ignored the Scraggy staring at it and moved over to Amelia.

"Litwick, Lit?" It asked, sounding concerned. Amelia just gave it a small smile before looking at up at Sigurd

"Sorry. I don't handle loud noises very well. Something about them has always scared me." She said." And sorry about Litwick. She's a bit protective of me."

The fact that people traveled high velocities on hollow metal tubes called trains was one that was drilled into young minds during school. However, experiencing it was something that couldn't be explained that easily. Lucas broke his gaze and thoughts from the scenery speeding by outside to pay attention to his lap. Skip was sleeping peacefully despite the train's constant vibrations. A nap did sound good right about now, but he had to stay awake to know when to get off. Which, according to the trains deceleration, was coming right up. He softly shook Skip awake, and as soon as the mudkip got off his lap, he stood up. It felt good to stretch out his legs as he walked off the train into the station... only to realize this wasn't what he had expected. The buildings in the town were much older than he thought they would, and there were more people too. An odd combination. Standing around wouldn't help at all though, so he headed into the town with Skip right beside him.

The town itself wasn't that bad, Lucas had to admit. The stores seemed nice enough with smells that nearly tempted him to break into his supply of money. Before he could be tempted however, he sat down on a bench to check his supplies. Each time he checked, the backpack seemed bigger by lack of content, and this time was no exception. Sighing, he zipped it and got up. He and Skip kept on walking through the town, until Lucas noticed the one building that stood out from the rest. The professor had to know some things that could help him around here. He and Skip walked up to the doors, and they slid open with ease.

The scene that awaited the two was a bit... odd, by any standard. A young girl was on the ground with a teenage boy kneeling beside her. It seemed that the boy did something that upset or hurt the girl by accident. Besides them, there were a scraggy, litwick, piplup, and charmeleon in the room. Finally, the professor and presumably assistant were standing next to some pokeballs and another boy, who was holding a device in his hands directed at an eevee. It was a lot to take in at once.

"Um..." Lucas couldn't find any words to say, or questions to ask. He couldn't help but feel awkward in this situation. It felt like he had intruded on a sacred ceremony, or something like that.

Sigurd grinned and pat Amelia's head with his fingerless gloved hand. "No need to apologize kiddo. Let bygones be bygones shall we?" Even if he was a loud person Sigurd was as far as someone can get from being mean. Scary, yeah, if someone were on the receiving end of his fists when in a scuffle then yes that would be scary. It's not like he wanted to frighten this little girl, hell he's never really thought of himself as an intimidating person at all. Then again being the loud person that he is would be frightening to someone who is afraid of loud things, like him.

He offered his hand to help her back up. "The name is Sigurd Melodia, call me however as you wish. That little rascal over there is Rusty and that is..." He looked at the piplup for a solid ten seconds before shrugging. "I'll name it later." Hopefully introducing himself to her would make her feel less nervous than she already is.

There were a lot of people in the train station, and a good percentage of them were much, much taller than Minzy. Maybe this would have intimidated a person who was a little more shy, or a little less brash, but Minzy? She took it as a challenge!

It took her a while to fight her way through the milling crowd of people, and there was quite honestly a lot of elbowing involved. Still: she made it out of the train station eventually. The air outside was cold and clear, and she took a deep breath. She was in the Giga region! She'd wanted to step out of her brother Andy's shadow, and well, here she was. It was unlikely that anyone would recognise her as the younger sister of a Sinnohan competitive battler here!

Not that she didn't love Andy. She did, just… Well. She'd think about that later.

Her Tynamo, Frey, zapped her gently, like he was trying to remind her of the task at hand. She winced To be honest… it kind of hurt. But Frey had been doing that since her dad had given him to her, so she would put up with it.

"What was I supposed to do…?" she wondered aloud. Then she remembered, and clapped her hands together, pleased. "Oh, right. The Pokemon Lab!"

She took off in the direction that she was fairly sure the Pokemon Lab was in. In reality, she had no clue where she was going, but hey! She was wearing her favorite sweatshirt and her most comfortable pair of cargo shorts. Things would be okay.

It therefore took her almost half an hour of helpless wandering before she actually found herself at her destination.

When she stepped in through the doors, there was already a group of people inside. There was a professor, and a boy with him that was maybe an assistant. Standing by the Pokeballs was a shy-looking boy, and in the center of the room, a boy seemed to be helping a very young girl off the floor. Another boy had clearly just entered the room, and was staring at the scene. He looked just as confused as Minzy felt.

What should she do? Minzy didn't mull over the question for too long. When in doubt, be brave! She marched up to the people who looked sort of like they were in charge (maybe…?), and then struggled not to shrink into herself under the weight of their combined gazes. She could do this. She could do this!

"Um." Minzy said at last, summoning every ounce of boldness in her body. "Hi. I'm Minzy Quinn. I think I called in yesterday to let you know that I was coming by to pick up a Pokedex, and maybe a starter Pokemon if you have one to spare?"

She pulled her right hand out of her pocket and stuck it out for one of the professors to shake.

Professor Snowbell watched the scene unfold. He actually wasn't angered in the slightest. This little scuffle was the most interesting event to happen all day. He waited for the entire scene to be over. Professor Snowbell was a fickle man that grew bored of his work and assignments easily. It was only natural that he seek something out to amuse him, whatever that might be. Unfortunately, dealing with little brats wasn't really his favorite pass times. Especially if Barnabas happened to be one of those little brats. He quickly had sent Barnabas back to get some Pokedexes that were in a heavy box. As Sigurd worked on helping Amelia up, Barnabas, who had been retrieving Pokedexes from the back, hurried to make sure everyone was doing alright.

"Is everyone alright?" Barnabas quickly moved beside Amelia and Sigurd, looking at the two in order to see if there were any obvious injuries. He observed that several new trainers had arrived, Lucas, Nero and Minzy had arrived on the scene. "Hello everyone." Barnabas greeted, waving his hand enthusiastically. As the situation settled down, Professor Snowbell stepped forward once again. The white-haired, youthful professor looked over the small crowd that had assembled in his lab.

"Take your starters and pokedexes, and then scram, will you?" The fabulously curly-haired young man turned, hair flipping sassily as he did so. "I don't really have time to be dealing with this fiasco anymore." As Minzy approached, the professor kind of just turned his back on the girl. "We received your call, and accepted your application no matter how late it was." He said the word late a bit scathingly. The Professor was obviously very prickly. Barnabas observed Professor Snowbell through slightly narrowed eyes, although he turned around.

"No need to by shy, everyone!" He assured the trainers. "Come and get what you need." Lucas seemed to be very uncomortable, so Barnabas gazed at him in particular, with a friendly gaze.

With the 'come and get what you need' bit, Nero was certain; he'd better take a starter as well. Sure, his Eevee was an exceptional pokémon, but the more, the merrier - especially when it came to pokémon and their types. The boy began tracing a quick plan on his mind, mostly focusing on which pokémon he would find soon - to avoid picking a starter of the same type - as well as mentalizing what his 'team' would eventually be. Piplup was already chosen by someone, but that wasn't a high-interest, even though the water/steel combination of it's last stage evolution was pretty good.

Torchic and Chimchar were both Fire types that eventually became Fire/Fighting, both were heavily considered, but Nero always preferred special attack based fire types. Cyndaquil, for example, was a nice choice. It had extremely powerful moves and developed exceptionally well with the proper training. For more variety, Fennekin became a Fire/Psychic combination...

After a few more seconds of thought, Nero stepped towards the pokéballs, whenever they are. His eyes ran through each pokéball, the boy raised a hand to adjust gis glasses, the Eevee tilted it's head to the side, giving the boy a curious look. He nodded to the brown pokémon and took a step foward, taking in his hand Cyndaquil's pokéball.

"I will take this one, Professor." He murmured, nodding firmly.

The young movie star was busy studying his reflection in the bathroom mirror to pass the time, and get his mind off that. He made sure he was presentable before he stepped off the plane. One has to look good at all times, because you never know where there will be someone with a camera who wants to take his picture. He couldn't afford to have a bad hair day, or else that picture would end up in a magazine, and the tabloids would rip him to shreds. Such is the life of a star. In the end, it was all worth it for the fame and fortune.

Once he finished brushing his blonde hair, put on a fancy ruby necklace, and checked the mirror one last time. "C'est magnifique!" He exclaimed once he was satisfied, he sprayed on some lavender scented perfume, and put on his pink beret. He completed the look by grabbing a pair of pink sunglasses, and putting them top of his head. Just in time too, because the train had finally landed. Andre grabbed his pink messenger bag. If you didn't know better, it was easy to assume that it was a girl's bag. He reacched into his bag, and pulled out a Luxury Ball, and released the Pokemon inside.

A Cleffa with a large red bow on the back of her head, and a diamond studded collar around her neck appeared in a flash of light at Andre's feet. It seemed the small pink Fairy type had just been awoken from a nap, and she streched her arms and yawned.

Andre laughed, and took Jolie into his arms. "Très bien!" He put the sunglasses over his eyes, and left his room.

The second Andre stepped out of the train station, there was a horde of papparazzi outside waiting for him. All of them shouting Andre's name, and flashing their fancy cameras. Andre was amazed that the cameras were able to find him all the way in a far off place like this, but he was cool with it nevertheless. He smirked as he calmly walked past all the photographers. Every now and then giving them a smile, posing for a few pictures signing some autographs for fans. Some of them reached out to pet Jolie, and the Cleffa was happy to oblige. Andre loved all the attention. After all, these people were supporting his career, it was the least he could do to give them what they want. Any star who complains about the constant media attention is lying. They wouldn't be stars if they hated attention.

After a few minutes of that, Andre strolled over to a high tech looking building nearby. Before walking inside, he turned around, smiled, flashing his perfectly white teeth, and waved goodbye to his fans. "Merci beaucoup! You have been a wonderful audience! Au revoir!" Then he gracefully took a bow, stepped inside, and shut the door behind him. Once inside the building, he put the sunglasses back on top of his head, and looked around. From the look of it, it appeared to be one of those Pokemon Labs where starting trainers received their first Pokemon if they didn't have one already, as well as a Pokedex. Several Pokeballs and Pokedexes were lying on the table just waiting to be taken. Since Andre was a starting Trainer himself, he decided to help himself to a Pokedex. He had no use for the starter Pokemon, though. As much as he liked that Fennekin, he already had his own Pokemon, and he had decided to train only Fairy types.

There were several kids present, as well as the professor and his assistant. He asssumed most of the other kids were newly starting trainers like himself. One boy in particular caught his attention. He had an Eevee by his side, and had short dark hair. The boy was quite well dressed for this occasion, with a jacket and tie. Though not as extravagantly Andre himself, he still found the boy cute. He was there all by himself, at least until he went to the table to fetch a Pokemon for himself. After he had chosen his Pokemon, Andre approached the boy. He did look like he needed someone to talk to.

Andre placed Jolie on the floor so she could walk beside him, and approached the boy. "Bonjour mon ami." He said as he greeted him the same way he greeted everyone, with a kiss on both cheeks. He knew full well that some people didn't react well to that, but he still found it funny. "My name is Andre Bellamy. Being the star that I am, I am certain you knew that already. Enchantée! What might a handsome young man such as yourself be called, hm?"

Minzy blushed, scuffing her sneakers against the floor. Okay, so her application had been a little late… or, well, a lot late. She probably should have thought things out a little better. "Um… sorry…" she said sheepishly, and then shuffled over to pick up a Pokeball. Without even stopping to think, she reached out and took the one with Squirtle in it. She'd always liked water-types, after all.

Okay, Pokedex next. A fancy-looking guy (so pink! And… was that… a Cleffa?) had just walked in, and helped himself to one, so she figured she might as well do the same. She came over and tucked one into her pocket. With that done, she figured she might as well be useful, so she grabbed a big handful and started helping to distribute them. One for the young-looking girl, one for the shy boy, one for the boy who had helped the girl off the floor, and one for the boy in the corner who was still looking somewhat shell-shocked about the whole situation…

Somewhat uncertain about what to do next, she decided that she might as well socialise. After all, there were a ton of new trainers in this room-- they could be her rivals! Her allies! Her friends!

She'd always rather liked making friends. Smiling, she bounced over to the tall boy who had yet to move from his position in front of the door and stuck out her hand for him to shake. The professor hadn't wanted to shake her hand, and had actually pretty much ignored her, but that was okay! Maybe this kid would want to make friends with her!

"Hi!" she beamed. "I'm Minzy. Sixteen years old, from Jubilife City in Sinnoh! Great to meet you!"

Amelia simply turned redder when Sigurd patted her on the end. When she finally did look up, she looked a bit like a tamato berry. Or maybe a cheri berry, whichever was redder.
"A... Amelia. Amelia Averyonna. And this is Litwick." She mumbled, just loud enough for Sigurd to hear her. She took his offered hand and got to her feet just before Minzy handed her a Pokedex, which she took quietly. She was completely confused by this point. All she wanted was some food, or something to drink at least. But with so many people here, she was too afraid to ask.

Her stomach decided to speak for her though, as it let out a loud rumble, making her look at the ground in embarrassment again.



Joshua was relaxing on a bench outside of the Laboratory. He was dressed in his usual cloths, minus the tie of course. He only wore that for formal occasions and he absolutely hated it. Stupid neck-strangulation devices. Sighing to himself, he waited for the first of the newbie trainers to come out, just to catch a glimpse of them. If a battle ensued... well, it would be a very brief relief from his current boredom.

Lucas slid out of the doorway as more people arrived. First a girl wearing cargo shorts and a sweatshirt, then a very flamboyant guy. Meanwhile, the professor spoke up telling everyone there to take a pokedex and pokeball containing a starter, in a fairly... brisk manner, to put it nicely. Lucas hadn't expected this in the slightest. The professor didn't even seem to care who was who in the room, so grabbing a pokedex and starter wouldn't be problematic, but still, it felt a bit like stealing. However, the two would really help him in the future.

Not having a concrete answer, Lucas looked down to the mudkip, hoping for some help. In response, the mudkip looked over towards the pokeballs, back at him, towards the pokedexes, and back at him again, giving a small nod. Lucas nodded back, his decision made. However, just as he was about to head over to the supplies, the last girl to walk in walked towards him. Well, more like bounced. Lucas's train of thought veered off course as she handed him a pokedex and stuck a hand in his direction explaining who she, Minzy, was. In situations like these, it was standard to shake hands and reply, right? At least, that's what Lucas had seen people do when meeting others. Sticking out his hand hesitantly, he took a hold of Minzy's hand and shook it. The motion and grip of the handshake felt weird to him.

"Um... hi. I'm Lucas. Fifteen years old. Um... great to meet you too." Lucas didn't really know how he should reply, so he just spoke in the same way Minzy had. He felt a nudge on his leg before he did anything else. Realizing that he should introduce his partner, he spoke up again. "Oh, and this is Skip!"

Minzy stared. He was younger than her? Oh, but he was so much taller than her! She practically had to crane her neck to look him in the eye. She'd never have guessed!

He certainly was being very polite, but he also looked kind of uncomfortable. He seemed to be eying her hand like it was a dead fish, so she let go of him hastily. Didn't want to scare her new friend off, after all.

Lucas's Mudkip was pretty cool looking, too. Lucas had introduced him as Skip, so she knelt down and patted him on the head. The Mudkip's skin felt smooth, and a little slimy, but it was nothing Minzy hadn't felt before. Once, her brother had convinced her to put a Tympole down someone's back, and her hands had been so slimy afterwards that she'd had to wash them, twice!

"Aw," she cooed. "He's so cool!"

She gestured at her Tynamo, floating around her head. "This is Frey! He's pretty young and he has a hard time controlling his electricity, so I wouldn't touch him just yet, though. Oh, and I picked up a Squirtle just now! Not sure what to call him, though. At least, I think it's a him!"

Oh, no. She was rambling again, wasn't she? Minzy was unfortunately well aware of her tendency to be slightly overwhelming, so she took a step back. Maybe it would be better to give this kid some space, so she didn't freak him out before they'd even known each other for ten minutes.

Oh, he could only laugh at how shy the little girl was, not in a mean way mind you, but in a teasingly playful way that an older brother would have. If she blushed any harder then someone could most likely walk up to her and fry an egg on her face. "Amelia, what a pretty name. It's a pleasure to meet you." He gladly took the pokedex that Minzy started to hand out to everyone in the room and nodded to her in thanks before placing it on his belt. His attention was back to Amelia who seemed to be under a lot of stress and confusion for some unknown reason. Maybe she wanted to ask for something but didn't have the courage to do so?

Well her stomach sure did and he chuckled softly. "Ah, well you're still growing. How about this? I'll treat you to a meal as a way to make up for upsetting you earlier?" His slender hand ruffled her hair as he looked down at her with a gentle smile. It wasn't a known fact by many but he had a soft spot for little kids and Amelia was certainly no exception. "But first, how about we make some new friends?" Sigurd tilted his head towards the man dressed in so much pink that it almost hurt to look at him and a kid with a perpetual frown on his face with an Eevee. "The first step in becoming is to be aware of the competition." It seemed like he was telling himself that rather than to Amelia.