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J. T. Eische

"There is a need for the professors--they illuminate the mysteries of the world around us."

0 · 667 views · located in Pallet Town

a character in “Pokemon: A Slice of Life”, as played by BlackIceRocker

Description

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”One cannot sit still when there are mysteries of this world that have yet to be uncovered.”



❝ More Than Just A Name ❞




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BASICS
”I know we will never discover everything in this lifetime… I’m here to make it easier for those that follow my path in the future.”


Full Name
Jericho Thomas Eische (Pronounced AYE-shuh)

Nicknames
J.T. (what he prefers to be called by everyone); “The Brain” or “Brainiac” among his friends in University.

Age
Twenty-five

Gender
Male

Sexuality
Sapiosexual, Heterosexual

Hometown
Nimbasa City, Unova Region

Residence;;
Currently attending Castelia University in Castelia City; however, currently residing in Pallet Town in Kanto for an internship.

Classes;;
Professor, Watcher (very inexperienced with both classes despite the fact that he has a degree in environmental studies)

Occupation(s);;
Currently a student at Castelia U, off in Kanto performing field research as one of Prof. Oak’s interns.



❝ Beyond The Disguise ❞




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APPEARANCE
“Fashion was never an important thing for me... I just go with what’s comfortable--yes, that includes the lab coat.”


Basic Appearance;;
Rather tall and lanky, about 6’2” in height. J. T. sports short chestnut-brown hair atop his head. His eyes are a bluish-gray, almost always hidden behind a pair of glasses. At first glance, J. T. appears somewhat malnourished, but he has a rather active metabolism and manages to maintain a low body weight of around 160 pounds. He has a rather pale complexion, spending most of his time in classes or researching, but otherwise seems unremarkable in most aspects.

Distinct Markings;;
None at first glance. However, there may be signs of bruising on his lower legs from when one of his pokémon headbutts him when looking for attention.

Style
While not fashion-conscientious, J. T. prefers clothing that gives a stark contrast in color. Normally, he will choose to wear black over white or white over black. Every so often, he adds a splash of color--red or orange seem to be his go-to colors, but he’s not picky as long as it’s not yellow. For whatever reason, J. T. also has a soft spot for scarves and usually wears one.

While working, J. T. normally wears a black t-shirt and jeans with a white lab coat thrown over for good measure. He prefers comfort more than anything else. Since he has grown accustomed to wearing coats like this, he likes trenchcoats--he finds them comfortable and easy to wear.



❝ Behind The Mechanics ❞




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MENTALITY
“There’s no such thing as ‘the unknown’—it’s just the ‘waiting to be discovered’.”


Likes
+Lab research
+Home-cooked meals
+Hex and Zeke
+Classrooms
+Any of the major pokémon professors (Oak, Elm, Birch, Rowan, Juniper)
+Dark colors, the color white
+Complex-sounding music
+Intellectually-stimulating conversations

Dislikes
-Messy research
-Being called “Jericho Thomas”
-Getting his clothes muddy
-The color yellow
-Unclear instructions
-Being considered subordinate
-Popular music
-Dumbing things down

Habits;;
>J. T. carries around a notebook at all times, and he will habitually write observations in said notebook whether there are pokémon around or not.

>J. T. has a habit of cracking his knuckles when nervous. If feeling uncomfortable, this habit may creep up toward his neck.

>When writing or concentrating, J. T. will either tap his fingers against a solid surface or tap a pen against a table or his notebook.

>In his spare time (as little as he may have), J. T. can be found reading non-fiction literature, particularly anything that can teach him about the world around him.

Weaknesses
>Despite his knowledge about pokémon in general, J. T. has little experience with battling. When forced to battle, Hex will essentially fight without his commands.

>J. T. can sometimes get so caught up in his work that he occasionally neglects to eat and sleep. In this state, someone must be there to remind him that he must do this otherwise he could collapse from exhaustion.

>When J. T. is observing, he tends to push everything else aside. He may become rather cold and distant during his research, possibly even outright hostile if disturbed, but this is how he normally acts--he does this so he does not distract himself with other matters.

Personality
J. T. is, for the most part, a rather amicable sort of person. While he is personable and friendly, he really finds love in the research that he conducts on environmental studies and the pokémon that live in different biomes. Because of this, he tends to keep to himself more often than not, but he is rather easy to get along with and can be very friendly when he wants to be. He prefers intellectual and philosophical discussions over anything else, mostly because he loves to learn and discover new information.

While he is extremely friendly outside of the lab, he takes on a completely different demeanor entirely when buried in his research. J. T. can focus so much on his research and observations that he may come across as cold and aloof during these periods. If provoked, he may lash out and scream at whoever would disturb him, even if he would otherwise be on good terms with them. Those that know him and are close to him understand that J. T. needs his space to concentrate on his work and his studies when he gets started but still worry that he might be obsessing over his passion a bit too much. Occasionally, he forgets to eat or sleep during his research; he somehow finds an inner drive to persevere before he collapses from exhaustion.

When it comes to pokémon in general, J. T. is the type that prefers to observe them from a distance, not necessarily rushing to disturb the peace that the creatures have created for themselves. Despite this desire to stay distant, he has two pokémon under his command, both obtained accidentally during field expeditions for school. He understands the theory behind caring for pokémon and how to make sure they stay healthy, but he abhors the thought of letting them go out to battle. He understands the necessity of pokémon fights and how they help all pokémon grow and develop, but he still does not like thinking about endangering his pokémon’s lives, especially when they are more likely to go off on their own.

Theme song;;
The Levitated—Scale the Summit



❝ Behind the Scenes ❞




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Special
“A consumer of knowledge--this is what I am. It is what makes me me.”


Strengths and Special Attributes
J. T. has earned the name “Brainiac” from his peers for the sheer amount of information he has stored away in his brain. Having spent countless hours in the lab and studying pokémon in their habitats around Unova, J. T. is a voracious devourer of knowledge, wishing to learn all that he can to better the world. In addition, when J. T. has an almost iron will and is patient to a fault--his many hours in the wild have taught him that good things come to those who wait, and he has waited sometimes for days just to catch a glimpse of a mating ritual between sigilyph in the wild. J. T. is also knowledgeable in creating food for his pokémon, especially the treats known in Sinnoh as “poffins”. Because poffins come from berries, he has read up on herbology and is able to identify some plant life that is poisonous and some that is safe to consume.

Equipment and Personal Artifacts
J. T. always carries a bag with him which holds his possessions while he travels. He has a notebook which he calls his “Observation Log” (“O-Log” for short) and always has half a dozen black-ink pens with this book. He also carries with him a camera which he can use to take pictures (J. T. has little experience with photography but is always willing to learn, even through trial and error). In addition, he carries bottles of water and non-perishable foods such as jerky and trail mix in case he decides to sporadically scout a location. J. T. also has two filled pokéballs—one for Hex, one for Zeke—and, at the behest of Professor Oak, has an additional dozen in case in case he finds any interesting specimens that may require further research. J. T. has a few changes of clothes as well in addition to about 3500 in his wallet, so he can cover his basic needs for a while if the need arises.

Other
>Growing up in a home with a professional coordinator, J. T. has a soft spot for pokémon contests and can be seen once in a blue moon watching one on TV if the mood strikes him.

>J. T. has made it a personal goal to meet with every professor in each region and interview them.

> ☠ He also has a copy of each major professor’s doctoral dissertations and wants to eventually collect an autograph from each one on a copy of their work.



❝Replaying The Past And Present ❞




History;;
Born and raised in Nimbasa City, Jericho Thomas Eische (J. T. for short) was raised by his mother, a renown pokémon coordinator. While he had grown up in a colorful household with exposure to different pokémon, the values instilled by his mother about pokémon not only being tools of battle struck a chord deep in the young boy. He began to take an interest in observing pokémon in their natural habitats, particularly in the desert to the south of Nimbasa and in Lostlorn Forest to the east. J. T. showed an aptitude for research and academics and eventually aspired to become a researcher and professor like Aurea Juniper and Samuel Oak. Excelling in his schoolwork, he was accepted to Castelia University and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Environmental Studies. J. T. is continuing his education with graduate studies and internships with various professors throughout the regions, hoping that the insight that they give him will help spread his name as a qualified professor.

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Preferred Type
J. T. does not collect pokémon for battles; however, if a particular species tickles his fancy due to being novel or “rare” for the environment that he finds it in, he may end up capturing it. This is not his ultimate goal and would rather observe pokémon in the wild instead of attempting to “catch ‘em all”. If he had to choose, however, he has a preference toward the “metaphysical” types: psychic, ghost, and dark.

Starter Pokémon
Scraggy

Current Pokémon Team
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Name: Hex
Species and Type: Scraggy (Dark/Fighting)
Gender: Female
Ability Moxie
Personality In a nutshell, J. T. would describe Hex as “a creature with the curiosity of a child and the irritability of a primeape”. The scraggy is inquisitive to a fault and will explore the world around her, throwing caution to the wind and inadvertently cause mischief. If, however, something manages to confuse or upset her, she will become aggressive and possibly violent. Hex is also a Pokémon that thrives on attention, and she becomes antsy and impatient if J. T. is dealing with someone else for extended periods of time. When ignored, she will begin to tug on her trainer’s pants to get his attention; if this fails, she will resort to hitting her head against his leg until he pays attention to her or picks her up.
History One of J. T.’s first assignments for his university studies was to observe the Pokémon that lived in a harsher environment. Seeing as Route Four to the north of Castelia City was nothing but desert, the student thought that this would be a perfect place to begin his studies. As he ventured out and began to record his observations, a wandering scraggy attempted to get his attention. When J. T. ignored the poking, it began to punch at his leg. He eventually managed to calm the lizard down and found that it followed him back to Castelia later that evening. With nothing better to do with it, he adopted the scraggy as his own, naming her Hex.
Moves
Brick Break
Headbutt
Faint Attack
Swagger

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Name Zeke
Species and Type Tynamo (Electric)
Gender: Male
Ability: Levitate
Personality Almost the exact opposite of Hex, Zeke is rather quiet and reserved, almost to the point of being shy around too many new sensations. When frightened, the Pokémon will resort to hiding behind the student or around his legs. J. T. believes that the fear be due to the fact that Zeke has been away from home for a long time or perhaps thrives on the electromagnetic fields that exist in Chargestone Cave. The tynamo, J. T. has discovered after numerous hours of observation, seems to enjoy being in areas that use a lot of electric power. Due to this, J. T. may go to Nimbasa every so often to give Zeke a “taste of home” without having to travel all the way back out toward Mistralton (which takes a day at the very least from Nimbasa by foot).
History One additional class trip that J. T. was required to take involved spending a few days out in Chargestone Cave. While the other students went off to do their own things, J. T. was forced to babysit Hex as she wandered off into the depths of the cave. During Hex’s exploration, the scraggy found a nest of eelektrik playing with their young; however, there was one that had gone off on its own volition to explore the caves around the nest. When the eelektrik noticed that there was an intruder in their nest, they chased off J. T. and Hex but not before the scraggy managed to steal the isolated tynamo, despite the fact that the electric fish continued to zap Hex in self-defense. Now, away from his home, “Zeke”, as J. T. named him, is slightly wary of the scraggy but realizes that this new human can help protect him from the lizard.
Moves
Headbutt
Charge Beam
Thunder Wave
Acrobatics



PC Pokémon
None

So begins...

J. T. Eische's Story

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: J. T. Eische Character Portrait: Angelique Romain
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A young man pushed ahead through the grasses of Route One with a brown bag slung around his shoulder and a large egg in his hands. From behind a pair of glasses, his eyes betrayed a look of otherwise calm on his face--he was panicking. He was late, and he knew it. As soon as his stupid alarm forgot to go off, he knew that he had to hurry from Viridian. He was supposed to have been back in Pallet yesterday evening--if only his transportation hadn't come late after docking in Vermillion! More than that, though, he wished that the yellow lizard trotting alongside had not thought it necessary to headbutt an elderly woman for not paying attention to it! Why did she have to make things so unnecessarily complicated for him?

The small lizard held onto a large piece of loose skin, pulling it up like a pair of pants as it ran alongside the man with the egg. Occasionally, the pokemon would catch a glimpse of something interesting off in the grasses and begin to run toward it, but the bespectacled man cleared his throat in annoyance whenever it attempted to wander off.

"You know this is partly your fault that we're late, Hex..." the man muttered as he pushed ahead, knowing that he was going to look like an idiot in front of one of his idols. He had been waiting years for this opportunity--to work for the pre-eminent authority figures in the study of pokemon: Professor Samuel Oak. And now he was late! He was afraid that the professor would just ask him to pack his bags and return to Castelia City and continue his studies closer to home--or even worse, perhaps Oak would even tell him that he "wasn't cut out for this line of work despite his credentials"! What would he do then? What could he do if that happened?

"Scraaaaaa?" the lizard cooed softly, charging ahead through the grasses. The man sighed as the yellow Pokemon darted through the undergrowth, picking up the pace. He could see a few buildings looming in the distance--the glare coming off of one of them was particularly blinding, but he realized from the sheer size of it that it must have been Oak's laboratory. Of course, the man already knew that--he had only seen it countless times on television back home and had spent the last two-and-a-half months working there, how could he have not recognized it?

"Hex!" the man called after the lizard. "Don't run ahead of me!" He could feel his palms growing sweaty as his heart raced out of control inside his chest. Arceus, he was not used to running even after all of his time out in the field, let alone chasing after his scraggy. Suddenly, he paused for a second to look back in the direction he came from. "Zeke, are you coming?"

Following close behind was a small white tadpole-like creature, swimming through the air as a fish would water. The air around this creature seemed to crackle with electricity, making it seem a bit more dangerous than its appearance would otherwise suggest. Two beady black eyes looked up toward the man as it rose closer to his eye level. It did not say anything at all but instead began to chase after the scraggy, small jolts of electricity sparking in the air as it followed the lizard.

The young man pushed ahead after his two pokemon, following the winding path toward a large sign that had been impaled into the ground seemingly ages ago. As they drew closer, he could read the writing that had been carved into the wood and painted over--Welcome to Pallet Town: Humble Beginnings and Happy Endings Await!--and he grumbled a strange mixture of dissatisfaction and relief. As cheesy as that slogan sounded to him, as much as it grated against the inside of his brain, he knew that he had finally arrived.

No sooner had the man taken five steps into the town when an older woman walked past him, taking a bit of a liking to Hex. "Oh, dearie me, that's quite an adorable pokemon you have there," the woman cooed as she bent down and rubbed the scraggy's head. "Is it yours, sir?"

The man nodded. "Yes, that's Hex, missus Johnson... We've been through this before..." his voice trailed off as the floating electric fish began to snake around the old woman. Mrs. Johnson, he had been told, was losing her memory and tended to forget about a lot of things--this sort of made sense, considering he had been away for over a week retrieving an egg from a supplier he knew from back home, but how could she have forgotten Hex of all pokemon? Mrs. Johnson spoiled the princess rotten whenever she had the chance, and of course Hex milked the generosity for all it was worth. The lizard always did this.

"Missus Johnson, I'm sorry, but I need to go and talk with Professor Oak now and let him know that I'm back from Vermillion with the egg that he wanted!" the student interrupted the scritches that the woman was giving the scraggy. "Hex, Zeke, let's go--we've got to get this to the professor before it hatches and we have to go all the way back to Vermillion and get another one!" He took a few steps toward the lab and was slightly relieved to feel the hair on his head stand up on end as Zeke approached. Hex, on the other hand, was staying put next to poor Mrs. Johnson, smiling as the old woman continued to scratch her head.

"Oh, you'd best move along, little one--I'm sure your trainer will let you come back when you're finished with your errands!" Mrs. Johnson pushed the lizard gently toward the man holding the egg, "Take care, sir, and welcome to Pallet Town! Oh, and be mindful of the dragon--that's something new!"

"Hex, come on now--I'll make you one of those poffins that you enjoy so much if you just come to the lab with us!" the man pleaded as Mrs. Johnson walked back toward her house. Somewhat confused at first, the lizard began to follow the old woman toward her home but was quickly stopped by a quick grunt from her trainer. Hex scowled as she kicked dirt up in protest but slowly trudged behind her trainer, tail dragging along the ground almost in protest.

The young man paused for a second, readjusting his grip on the egg in his arms as he tried to understand what the old woman had told him must moments ago--be mindful of the dragon? Was Mrs. Johnson really that far gone that she started seeing dragons in the town? He smirked as he reached out for the handle of the door leading to Oak's laboratory, being careful not to let the egg fall from his arms in the process. The door opened wide enough for him to wedge his foot inside the complex, which allowed him to kick the door open and walk into the lab.

It was just as he left it: clean, sterile, fascinating. The machinery was left in pristine condition, almost as if Oak had asked him to clean them all yesterday. He placed the egg close to the front of the lab, being careful to leave it balanced in a scarf that he unwrapped from around his neck. Hex and Zeke stayed close to the man despite the allure of the shining chrome machinery. In fact, the only thing that seemed out of place were the other eggs that--

Wait a minute... When did Oak get new eggs?

And that's when he finally saw her. Of all the people in the regions, it had to be her. Angelique Romain. What was she doing here? He immediately clenched his jaw and cracked his knuckles more out of habit than anything else--what was so important with Professor Oak that she had to leave her shop and her duties in Unova to come out to Pallet? He slowly approached the two figures, each oblivious to his entrance until he stepped close.

"Uh, knock knock? I've brought back the egg you asked for, Professor... although it seems rather superfluous now..."

The setting changes from Pallet Town to Kanto Region

Setting

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Character Portrait: J. T. Eische Character Portrait: Edehvé Mirym Petora Character Portrait: Angelique Romain
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#, as written by Vix
“Letta! Meloetta! Melo!” Aria popped out of her pokéball, complaining of the tight space. Angelique sighed softly and crinkled her nose. “Sam – You wouldn't happen to have any space in your habitat for my Pokémon? They're pretty tired.” She smiled politely, gently cradling her Meloetta as she turned to Professor Oak. It was then that she had caught the sight of J.T. just as he had spoken. A light smile curved upon her lips as she offered a timid nod. “So you're the intern, then?” Professor Oak looked between the two. “Ah – So you two do know each other?” Angelique offered a light shrug as if it was no big deal – Because it really wasn't. “His mother was my brother's mentor. We've met a few times...” Angelique had absolutely adored J.T.'s mother and her winning attitude. Not to mention her totally amazing Pokémon. She smiled at the fond memories of practicing with them and even going head to head in a Contest with them.

She had her ass handed to her on a golden plate.

She took a moment to recall what J.T. had said and canted her head off to the side. “Exactly how so? I assure you that the Professor is quite capable of studying multiple eggs at once.” She smiled politely, not quite sure what J.T. meant. “Plus, perhaps Sam just missed me and wanted a reason for me to come to Pallet Town.” She gave a light giggle that harmonized with Aria's as she covered her mouth gently.

The sound of a squealing girl brought her out of her little daydream and caused her gaze to wander until it fell upon the girl who seemed to be attacking J.T.'s Scraggy with as much as love as a teenager could muster. “Oh, my. I do believe that Hex has a new fan.” She smiled kindly as Aria giggled softly at the sight. She shook her head before turning back to Professor Oak. “Your Corral...?” He looked at her blankly before slamming a hand to his face, leaving an impressive red mark as he pulled it away. “Oh! Right, right! Of course there's room. There's always room! You can go ahead and take them out there while I look at these eggs.” He shooed her away and turned to the eggs, caught off guard by the teenage girl.

Angelique rolled her eyes and made her way absentmindedly back outside, heading towards the large fence. The Oak Corral was pretty much a giant pasture, with many different areas designed to suit the specific needs of different Pokémon types – Angelique loved it. She hopped over the fence with Aria, setting down the small Pokémon before unclipping the other seven pokéballs, tossing them into the air. She was always amazed at how the small, ping pong ball sized capsules held Pokémon so comfortably. She watched as her Pokémon came out in different colored flashes, stretching and roaring. “I have some snacks for you guys, but there are plenty of berries around here for you guys to eat. Please be nice to the other Pokémon here – Remember that you are guests in their home.”

Her Pokémon all nodded softly as the made their way slowly towards a group of Hoppips that were playfully bouncing around in the long grass. Chomper and Ashdir were the first ones there, immediately beginning to chat their ears off while Atreyu and Mint simply sat down and allowed the little Pokémon to jump and slide over and around them. They were gentle giants, peaceful and content with playing with the little ones. Caesar was spreading his conspiracy theories about Arceus knows what, Aria was happily singing to the little things along with Melody. Angelique smiled as she sat in the middle of them all and took her backpack off, setting it in her lap.

She sat with her knees tucked under her, and began to pull things out of her backpack, setting them out neatly. “Here you go -” She began opening up the packets of treats, emptying them into eight bowls. A smile graced her lips as her Pokémon eagerly shared their food, her smile grew wider as the Hoppips gobbled them down greedily. It wasn't too long that more Pokémon came around, looking on curiously. “Well, if you like the snacks that much, I'll make you all lunch, dinner, and dessert! How does that sound?” She giggled as a happy chorus rang out, which she took as a resounding yes.

She looked at the scene around her and grinned. The scene was too much to pass up! She didn't really have the variety of Pokémon that Oak did – The Pokémon she spent her days around were generally from Unova. It wasn't very often that she got to see Bulbasaurs, Charmanders, Pidgeys, or even Mankeys around in person. Of course she had spent a lot of time studying them when she traveled, but she never spent a lot of time with them. She picked up her sketchpad and her pencil and began to sketch out the happy scene, taking a mental picture. She'd go back in eventually...But for now, she would relax.

Back in the lab, Professor Oak had handed J.T. a clipboard and began to take notes. “Hmm. They differ in sizes, shape, color, and design...fascinating!” Professor Oak jabbered on excitedly as he kept motioning for J.T. to take notes. He blinked and then looked back down at the teenage girl . “Oh, sorry Evee! Did you need something? Oh, and could you go outside and ask Angelique to come back inside? I could use her help.” He moved about the lab with speed impressive for a man his age. “J.T. - Bring me my laptop, please!” Samuel didn't play around when it came to his research – Even though he could be a bit absentminded when he was so excited.

The setting changes from Kanto Region to Pallet Town

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Character Portrait: J. T. Eische Character Portrait: Edehvé Mirym Petora Character Portrait: Angelique Romain
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The professor and his visitor turned to address the newcomer. Oak nodded as the boy took a few steps closer to the group. He was about to speak when a flash of light interrupted his thoughts as a black and white humanoid pokemon with green hair akin to a music staff appeared next to Angelique, chirping as if it was attempting to try to communicate with the humans in the room.

The girl offered a weak smile and a small nod toward the man with the glasses. "So, you're the intern then?" she asked. The young man did not quite know how to respond to that quip. With all of her knowledge and connections, how had she not known that Oak had gotten an intern? And out of the hundreds of applications that had been sent in, how did she not find out that it had been someone from Castelia, the city where her first shop was located?

The intern was about to respond when he was interrupted by Oak. "Ah--so you two do know each other..." Not quite knowing what else to do or say, the student responded by cracking his knuckles--something of a nervous habit he had picked up during his studies, he had no idea as to why, but it was something he did.

Angelique shrugged. "His mother was my brother's mentor. We've met a few times..." What she had failed to mention to Oak, however, was that those "few times" were essentially him looking up from a book and saying "hello". She had asked once why he was not trying to get into battling like most kids their age or coordinating like his mother; the truth was that he never liked the concept of battling and he had been surrounded by all things "Pokemon Contests" that he did not feel like following in his mother's footsteps. When he told her this, she almost took it as if he had made some blasphemous remark about her mother, some personal offense that seemed otherwise mundane to the boy.

The girl tilted her head slightly toward the intern, appearing to try and wrap her head around his entrance with his previous statment. "Exactly how so? I assure you that the Professor is quite capable of studying multiple eggs at once..." Was she mocking him? Was she that dense where she could not tell when she had undermined the work that he had been assigned? He had been asked by Oak to retrieve an egg from Vermillion City; and all of a sudden, who shows up on his doorstep with four additional eggs from out of nowhere? It was not a matter of whether the professor could study multiple eggs at the same time--he knew that Oak, despite his... erratic outbursts, was more than capable of that--but more of a matter of pride; he felt betrayed that the professor would have taken eggs so willingly like that, especially if Angelique decided to visit as spontaneously as she had--

A high-pitched squeal broke the train of thought coursing through his mind. He whirled around to find a younger girl rubbing her face against Hex's head, giggling and praising how cute and adorable she looked. Even Zeke seemed to have a confused look in his eye as he wriggled and swam through the air, crackling with electricity. The intern heard a bit of laughter coming from behind him as both Angelique and her pokemon giggled at the sight of the excitable girl. He could not understand how they could have found this amusing in the slightest--did they not know that they were just perpetuating this sort of behavior by paying attention to her?

After a few seconds, Angelique had decided that it would be best to leave--the intern felt that his neck was growing stiffer and stiffer by the second and tilted his head to the side after she left to visit the different biomes outside the lab. A loud cascade of cracking sounds echoed through the lab after the door to the outside closed behind the girl. Of course she was going to show off her pokemon--she always felt the need to do that, what with her literal collection of dragons, two of them being colored differently than the norm of their species.

"...that's Professor Oak to you, not Sam..." the intern muttered through clenched teeth, making sure no one heard him. Zeke lowered himself closer to the ground, more content with wanting to swim around the man's legs than having to deal with the scowl forming on his face.

"J. T., did you say something?" Oak asked as he handed the boy a clipboard. "Here, let us begin with our research on the eggs, shall we? Please, take notes!" The professor began to wave his arms and throw out different words to describe the eggs that Angelique had brought and set down ever-so-carefully in the device in front of them. The intern, however, was not quite as focused on taking notes on the eggs but instead turned his attention to the young girl holding his scraggy, her face toward the ground almost out of embarrassment.

"U-Um... I... came to ask a few questions." The girl managed to finally speak--somewhat timid considering she had only moments before squealed in delight from finding Hex. The scraggy cooed in her arms, which both relieved and worried the intern at the same time. At least for the time being, the pokemon was preoccupied with attention, which kept her out of his hair when he was trying to research.

He took a deep breath and did his best to calm himself down desite the situation. He was getting too worked up over Angelique's sudden appearance at the lab--answering this girl's questions would be something he could to take his mind off of these things.

"Well, what sorts of questions to you have?" the intern asked, trying to avoid looking down to the scraggy in her arms. He could not tell if he looked calm enough--his face felt warm, either out of embarrassment or rage--but he did his best to look and act the part. He calmly took off his glasses and wiped them on his shirt before realizing that he had forgotten to put on a lab coat before walking in. "I'd be happy to--"

"J. T., bring me my laptop, please!" Oak interrupted, too lost in his euphoric egg stupor to realize that the intern was dealing with the teenager that he had neglected to address. "Oh, and Evee, could you go outside and ask Angelique to come back inside, please? I could use her help."

The intern rolled his eyes and could not suppress an agitated sigh of approval. "Professor, with all due respect, Angelique is not your intern..." he muttered before walking down the hall, not wanting to hear nor caring to listen to any outburst he might have. "Evee, was it? Wait here for a minute and I'll be able to help you with any questions you may have--just let me grab the professor's laptop and I'll answer anything you ask to the best of my knowledge." With that, the intern was gone, racing to the back room ot try and find the computer in question. He passed by a rack of lab coats on the way, and he managed to swiftly throw it over his shoulders as he pushed ahead to a back office with a "Samuel Oak" nameplate etched on the door.

"Why of all possible days did you decide to come today, Angelique?" he groaned softly as the tynamo swam into the office ahead of him, his body glowing and radiating light in all directions. "Thanks, Zeke--the light helps out a lot. Maybe you could teach Hex how to be somewhat helpful?" He chuckled at the joke; had the scraggy heard and understood it, it probably would have earned the intern a headbutt to the back of the leg--lucky for him, that Evee girl was so infatuated with her at the moment that he felt it necessary to make the comment.

"Mo..." Zeke responded, his lights flickering and changing color from bright white to blue. The intern had always wondered what pokemon had tried to communicate to humans and thought back to the university in Castelia. There had been a pair of students his junior year--a boy and a girl, that he could remember; the girl's name was Dawn, he was sure, although the male's name escaped him... The two of them had a theory that spending copious amounts of time with a pokemon would allow one to understand or even speak with them. He was interested in the theory and perhaps wanted to use it in the field if it was ever proven a valid theory--perhaps his pokemon would become essential field agents that he could depend upon; but for the time being, it was a pipe-dream, and he had a laptop to find.

After another minute of rummaging through the piles of papers--the intern could not fathom how the professor stayed organized with all of this clutter--he found Oak's laptop and made his way back down the hall, Zeke in hot pursuit. When he came back to the main area in the lab, he was admittedly shocked to see that nothing had changed at all: the professor was still gawking over the eggs, calling out other random words to describe the shapes and designs printed on them; the young girl that had asked him to answer questions for her was still holding Hex, her eyes wandering around the lab. It almost astounded the student to see that Oak could be so absent-minded at times.

"Professor, here is your laptop; I'm going to take a minute to talk with the youngest visitor here, seeing as she has some questions..." his voice trailed off as he watched the scraggy wriggle around in Evee's arms. "Feel free to put her down, by the way--she gets like that sometimes." Turning back to the professor, he continued his thought. "Unless you want to answer them and let me take some observations of these eggs? Or are you so bent on having your... friend look at them for you?"

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The creature in her arms was just too adorable!

She was still looking down at the ground, giving her a rather good view of what was in her grasp. The creature had large eyes, somewhat widened perhaps in surprise? But it didn't appear to be running from her, at least, and seemed to warm a bit to her huggles. It began making the cutest cooing noises as she held it and she made faint murmurs in response. She wasn't really sure if there was an understanding but to her, it was like... adorabalishess lingo speak. A soft voice with a note of intrigue brought her eyes slowly upwards.

"Well, what sorts of questions to you have?" She blinked slowly at the man, his face was a vaguely familiar one. The girl furrowed her brows as she tried to place where she had seen him before. He certainly looked like someone she had seen around, so why couldn't she--oh! That was right, now she remembered. She didn't know him personally and most certainly didn't know his name, but she had seen him a few times around the town. He had always been friendly though, like her, with an air of distance, and had only ever waved at her.

Evee breathed out, wrinkling her nose a little as the creature fidgeted just slightly in her hold. "I'd be happy to--" Whatever the man had been about to say was cut off by the sudden ecstatic voice of Professor Oak.

"J. T., bring me my laptop, please!" A pause and then the man came to address her with just as much enthusiasm, though he seemed heavily distracted. "Oh, and Evee, could you go outside and ask Angelique to come back inside, please? I could use her help." The girl blinked several times once more, now out of confusion. Angelique...? Who was that? There was no one with that name that lived in Pallet Town... She looked down again, nervously trying to figure out who it was she was supposed to be fetching.

She pressed her finger into the cheek of the creature absently as she tried to figure it out. Well, at least this cutie had a squishy cheek! She poked it several times with a faint giggle--ohh, this was really just, ohhh, she wanted to take it home and cuddle. There was light muttering from above her, the same voice from earlier that had spoken to her in soft terms. She eyed him from underneath her bangs shyly, the man now speaking directly to her.

"Evee, was it? Wait here for a minute and I'll be able to help you with any questions you may have--just let me grab the professor's laptop and I'll answer anything you ask to the best of my knowledge." She nodded a little, a blush coating her cheeks more profusely. She really had wanted to ask Professor Oak but he was just so entranced in his work! At least she had a playmate in the meantime. She skimmed her fingers down to its tail, pulling at it gently and then giving the creature a little scratch underneath its chin. Awww, she really wanted to take it home! It was like a little lizard, wait... maybe it was... but then why was it standing on little pawpads? She glanced down at the small feet that were almost like tiny pajama bottoms--she had no way of answering her own questions so she merely shrugged.

However, she wasn't sure if it was because she had been holding it too tight, or maybe she had eskimo kissed it too many times--but the creature had started to wriggle in her arms. Evee loosened her grip a bit, she didn't want to suffocate the honey bun! She lifted it up off the ground, watching its feet swipe in the air a bit as if miming running. She smiled warmly at it and couldn't help but bring it in for another hug--ahhhn~ Whoever had created such a wonderful combination really needed a pat on the back! She caught sight of the man who had spoken to her walking back into the room, now with a laptop in his hands. He handed it to Oak, briefly commenting on the object before turning back to her.

He had a nearly unnoticeable smile on his face, a tad strained as if there was a trace of irritation behind it. She couldn't bring herself to smile back fully, raising the creature instead so that it was in front of her face a bit. It fidgeted even more, the man must've been its owner, why else would it be acting so antsy? "Feel free to put her down, by the way--she gets like that sometimes." The girl felt relieved--at least it wasn't anything she had done! She hesitated in putting the creature down, it was just so... huggable and... hnnnn. But she didn't want to disrespect him and she had a feeling that was his vague way of telling her to stop giving his creature so much attention. She put it down slowly, though she could've sworn she heard a noise of protest...

The teenager looked up at him with wide brown eyes, the blush not quite receding and giving her a bit of a rosy tinge. "Um... well..." Professor Oak was still so busy with whatever it was that he was doing, so perhaps she'd just have to ask this man instead. "That is, ah, I wanted to ask about something I saw on television! It was white and had uh..." She gestured with her hand, drawing a few triangles on her tummy. "Like that, on its stomach and it had wiiiiide black eyes! I think it was called a togekiss--oh! And it had wings!" She held her arms to demonstrate, flailing them in a rather crude imitation. She immediately stopped after a few seconds, feeling as ridiculous as she must've looked.

The intern had a bit of trouble stifling a chuckle. "I'm glad to see you're so enthusiastic about a particular pokemon!" His voice seemed to have a genuine lift to it now that he was actually discussing subject matter with someone. "Yes, togekiss are the final form of a pokemon that starts off as a tiny white egg-shaped creature called a 'togepi'. Like its 'mature' form, togepi also have those red and blue triangle marking across their shell--but I'm getting ahead of myself, really... Do you want to know anything in particular? Diet, mating habits, personalities, basic care?"

Her head was spinning with all this new information, the man's smile had suddenly lit up when they began discussing this topic! She tapped her chin, unsure of where to start. There was so much she wanted to know! But primarily, what mattered first and foremost was... "Well, um, actually, is it.. can I get one? I mean, not that I think they fall out of the sky.... er, do they?" She ended with a bit of an awkward laugh, the blush heightening at how little she really knew. She was fully aware that this man and Professor Oak had multitudes more knowledge than she did regarding these... pokemon? She tried to comfort herself with the fact that no one was ever born with knowledge so perhaps at one point long ago, they too had known as little as she. Evee gazed at him, not even making a point to hide her adoration for the possibility of owning this cutie pie.

The man took off his glasses and wiped them on his lab coat. "Well, it's sort of rare to see one literally 'fall' out of the sky unless it's been injured, but... Most togepi have been bred or raised by a trainer--finding one in the wild is almost unheard of here in Kanto, and even in Johto... From what I understand, the only place that may actually still have any sort of wild togepi would be Sinnoh, but even that's a stretch... If you have the money, your best bet would be to find a breeder and see if they would be able to get you an egg. I'm sorry, but--Hex, stop it! She's busy talking to me now!"

She jutted out her bottom lip at the word 'money'; that was always such an issue! She hadn't established herself enough to have any sort of in--huh? There was a tug on the fabric of her jeans, followed by several more compounded by many more as she looked down. The lizard-like creature was pulling at her pants with those googly-eyes, though it didn't seem to be happy. What had she done wrong? She looked back up at its owner--shaking her head a bit.

"O-Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... actually, I think I'm supposed to be finding someone named Angelique?" She remembered with a touch of a frown, not having figured out who this woman was. She got up gradually, accidentally throwing off the tuggings of the creature as she backed up a few paces. "Do you know where she went? I'm not even all that sure who she is..." She adjusted the strap on her messenger bag, tightening it slightly.

"Oh, Angelique? She's out in the back with her pokemon... no doubt scaring Mrs. Johnson..." His voice suddenly grew deadpan serious. "You can't miss her--she's the one playing with the dragons." He then bent down and picked up the lizard, who was still struggling to reach out toward Evee with outstretched arms.

Evee nodded quietly and turned on her heel, wandering gradually to where she came from. She paused as she approached the door, noticing something she hadn't seen. It looked like an egg, but it was larger than any egg she had ever seen, and had odd designs on its shell. It was wrapped loosely in a scarf, a snug fit at that! Her eyes widened as her curiosity was piqued, fingers reaching out gradually to brush against the surface with wonder. Just as her fingers touched the shell, the object shook just a little bit. She hesitated--now what was that about? She poked it this time. Just as she withdrew her finger, an indent appeared where she had touched it, small cracks forming around it.

Her stomach dropped as she paled slightly--oh, what had she done, what had she done?! She instantly turned, sloppily trying to throw the scarf over the crack in the process as if to hide it. She darted away in the opposite direction towards the door in the back, rushing past the man and Professor Oak. She had done nothing, it was going to be okay, no one was going to notice! She didn't crack it, she didn't crack the egg--it was like that!

She pushed open the door in haste, shutting it behind her with just as much speed. She breathed out in relief, though it was mild. She rather hoped she had been correct and that egg was going to be okay... She finally looked up to take notice of where she had run out to, immediately noticing a green-haired woman throwing a bunch of balls into the air. There were red beams that came from the objects and then suddenly--oghngownogwo What the heck was THAT?!

Her mouth slackened as she stared at what appeared to be an... orange dragon?! But it was so large! It was at least... three times her size! She backed away from it, more like scampered really, trying to edge closer to the woman without coming in contact with this giant... thing. It wasn't that it was ugly, per se, but it was just so big and she felt like an ant when in close proximity to it. She decided to stay close to the fence, avoiding the less-than-attractive pig monkeys and what appeared to be blue turtles...

"U-Um," She called out to the woman, hoping to get her attention--though her voice admittedly came out a bit timid due to her apprehension regarding the large dragon. "Angelique...? I think Professor Oak needs you inside, he said something about help." She tried to regain her composure, she didn't want to appear like such a child. She brushed a stray strand of her brown hair out of her eyes, trying her best to focus on the woman and not on the egg she had potentially ruined inside the lab. She really hoped that was going to be okay.

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Angelique had not even come close to finishing her sketch when Evee had called out for her. She tucked her pencil behind her ear and glanced over her shoulder to see the teenager edging along the fence, seeming to try and avoid Mint and Atreyu. She smiled gently as she spoke. “Oh, alright – And you've no need to worry about those two. They're quite gentle. Though you'll want to watch out for Brutus and Judas.” She pointed out the last part by motioning to the Hoppips and Jigglypuffs who apparently thought the Dragonite and Salamence were playground equipment and Brutus and Judas who were headbutting each other. Aria the Meloetta ran up to Evee and was quick to hop onto her shoulders, giving a wave of her quarter note hands. “That's Aria.” She smiled at Evee once more as she began to pack up her backpack, leaving out only an apron. As she stood up, she stretched out at the same time and let out a groan as she curled her toes in the small ballet flats that she wore. She was gripping the apron tightly until her stretch was over, after which she was quick to put it on.

Aria had made herself comfortable playing in Evee's hair, chatting the young girl's ear off. “Aria – Don't overload the girl. I'm sure she doesn't want to hear about how soft you think her hair is.” She rolled her eyes as she patted Mint's lowered head. “I'll bring your egg out as soon as I'm finished with Sam – And then I'm sure you'll have better luck sleeping.” She pressed her forehead to Mint's as the dragon let out a low, pouting growl. The Salamence had trouble sleeping whenever she didn't have her egg with her. It bothered Angelique to see her so upset, so she had been trying to keep the dragon out of her pokéball as often as she possibly could so that she could be with her egg. But people were a lot more scared of Mint than they were of Atreyu, who was large, but just so darn adorable! She moved her hand and scratched under Mint's scaly chin. “You'll be alright, sweetness.” Angel absolutely adored how sweet and gentle the Salamence was, despite her frightening appearance. And patient! You'd think that such a large creature would be easy irritated and often acting like a human woman on the rag. But – She wasn't. She was just as sweet as could be.

Angelique dusted off her hands and glanced back over to Evee and Aria, motioning them to follow before she moved towards the fence, going under it this time. She would have taken Brutus and Judas with her, but they deserved the fresh air and running space and she was sure that her other Pokémon would keep them in line as they always did. She hummed to herself along with Aria, pulling her hair up into a loose, messy ponytail as she walked back into the lab, smiling to the Professor and J.T. “You rang?” She quipped, moving towards him and stopping at the egg case. She moved the Bagon egg off to the side, catching sight of a egg case meant for just a single egg. She placed it inside and turned up the heat a little for it to incubate. She was delicate in handling the egg, stroking it and speaking softly as though it were a child.

“Yes, yes I did!”

Professor Oak was just that – A Professor. He knew quite a bit about Pokémon – He was one of the leading experts, in fact! But he specialized in studying the relationships between humans and Pokémon; Professors tended to study one or two aspects of a Pokémon on deeper, intimate level – Breeders generally studied every aspect; breeding, relationships, proper care, diet, care for and hatching of eggs, medical treatment, habitats, evolution – The list went on. Breeders cared for Pokémon and their eggs in the way that humans care for their children. Angelique herself thought that Breeders made excellent Trainers when it came to battle because she felt that the bond between Trainer and Pokémon strengthened them. That belief is what helped her rise to the top.

Lost in thought while stroking the egg, Angelique didn't notice until Professor Oak poked her temple several times. “Hello in there?” Angelique shook her head and laughed softly. “Sorry about that.” She put the glass case back, sealing the egg in after kissing the top of it. She turned around and followed Professor Oak back to the table with the other eggs. “Okay! Let me guess -” Professor Oak excitedly proclaimed as he hovered over the eggs. “This one is a...Togepi?” He pointed to the egg that had previously been described to Evee by J.T. “Indeed it is.” Angelique smiled and nodded in approval as he moved on to the one next to it, which was slightly larger than the previous. “And this is...” He stared at the egg that was dominantly orange with a black stripe at the top, a yellow in the middle and another black at the bottom. “Erm...A Raichu egg?” Angelique shook her head. “That is a Tepig egg, sir.” Professor Oak's eyes lit up – Tepig was a pig-like Pokémon that was native to the Unova Region and was also one of the three Pokémon that Professors handed out to beginner Trainers who went to them for their first Pokémon. His hand next moved to an egg that was much larger than the rest of them. It was a shade of blue that matched the sky on a good, clear day, a few gray speckles decorating it. “And this is a Lapras egg, correct?” Angelique nodded again.

Professor Oak, Angelique thought, was very childlike when discovering new things. At least he wasn't one of the grouchy old Professor types. Angelique didn't tend to get along with people who had foul temperaments. “And this one is...” He was looking at another blue egg that was slightly larger than the Tepig egg, yet smaller than the Lapras egg by far. It had two black bands decorating it in the middle. “A Riolu egg, right? I've heard about these! To think that I'll be able to study one straight from the egg!” He was very giddy as he touched the eggs gently as though touching it any harder than such a caress as he was doing now would surely crack it – But many Pokémon eggs tended to be quite durable. There were even some mean wild Pokémon that liked to play games by tossing them around. Angelique laughed softly and nodded.

Angelique caught a glance of the egg that J.T. had brought in and was quickly hovering over it. “This Cottonee egg is so....” She let her fingers dance over it as she caressed the white egg with soft lime green speckles and seeming to be covered completely with a thin layer of cotton fluff from tip to base. A disruption in the smooth egg caused her to freeze before letting her fingers gently trace over it. “ - about to hatch!” She squealed out finally. “Professor – We need a wet, warm rag, Moo Moo Milk, and some Oran Berries!” She didn't touch the egg any further, moving her hands back. Angelique would never hatch a Pokémon without the consent of the Trainer – Unless said Trainer was an awful Trainer. Her gaze instead fell to J.T. “I do believe that the honor is yours – Have you ever hatched a Pokémon before?” The excitement of hatching a Pokémon never got old with Angelique. Aria was dancing around happily herself, waving her arms from atop Evee's head.

Angelique found joy in the simple things within life – From the blooming Gracideas to dew glistening in the morning sun on an Spinarak web. Of course, Pokémon hatching was her favorite! What could be better than bringing a new life into the world? To be the first thing a newborn sees? It was beyond heartwarming when you held a new Pokémon, forming an everlasting bond. Angelique could already feel her eyes brimming with tears as she practically vibrated with joy. “Oh! And you should hatch it outside – Pokémon are born more advanced than human children, so they remember things from even when they were still in the egg. Imagine how frightening it would be for the first thing you see is-” She looked around and motioned. “-a cold, steely laboratory. With a few Pokémon skeletons.” She referred to the artifacts Professor Oak had on a few of his desks. “This isn't a Vullaby, y'know?”

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The intern turned back toward the professor after directing the girl toward the corrals where Angelique was letting her pokemon out. He sighed as he bit down on a pen he had picked up from off of the table seconds earlier--did the breeder not seem to understand that some people might have been intimidated from seeing so many dragons in one place at once? He noted a lime-green salamence and a zweilous among her pokemon; he had seen incompetent trainers nearly have their arms ripped from their sockets because of a cranky dragon, and more often than not it had been because of a salamence or a defiant zweilous or even a particularly strong deino. Even though he knew that Angelique was skilled enough to handle these pokemon (How could he not? All of Unova knew about this girl, for Arceus' sake!) he always imagined that he would be too incompetent to wrangle with one of these in the wild. As much as he wanted to do studies on the mythical dragon-type pokemon of the regions, he knew that they were rather rare; besides, not only did he want to bolster Angelique's already inflated ego even further by studying her dragons, his data would be invalid considering they were all hatched and not born in the wild.

Hex wriggled around in his arms, trying to squirm her way out of her trainer's arms. She had a scowl across her yellow face, brow furrowed in determination as she watched Evee walk around the corner toward the front door--

"You're heading the wrong way, y'know..." J. T. called after the girl, getting a rather nasty little nip from the scraggy. "Arceusdammit, Hex, I'm going to put you in the ball..." he muttered, rearranging his grip on the pokemon as he reached for his belt to pull out a red and white capsule. In doing so, Hex managed to slip out of his arms and collapsed onto the floor with a thud. She began to run in the direction that Evee had gone, pulling her second skin high enough up so that she would not trip over it as she ran.

"Hex!" the intern's voice became gruff as he pushed the button on the ball. A stream of red light shot out and enveloped the scraggy. A moment later, both were gone; the only reminder that Hex was in the ball at this point was a slight feeling of weight in the capsule. He clipped it to his belt and shook his head disapprovingly, muttering incoherently under his breath as he grabbed a pen and clipboard and began to make observations--

The girl from before ran past him, looking pale as a ghost before heading out toward the corral. What had taken her so long? Did she not hear him before? There was nothing over there except the exit back to the town, so it must have been very hard for her to have gotten lost. Besides, he had even pointed the door out to her--how could she have missed that? Above all that, why were her eyes so wide?

"J. T., you said you had an egg for me as well? Where is it?" Oak broke the boy out of his momentary stupor. "Bring it over here so I can study it with the others!"

The intern nodded and walked back toward the entrance, finding the egg wrapped in his scarf. Zeke swam up next to the intern's cheek, eyeing the spheroid with curiosity. J. T. took a look at the strip of fabric that now seemed to drape the egg--had he been that careless with taking care of the egg? Regardless, the tynamo wormed itself away from the eggshell as J. T. lifted it up ever-so-gently and brought it over toward the professor, placing it in a small indent beside the other eggs that Angelique had brought.

"Thank you, J. T.! What species did you say was in that one again?" the professor asked, examining the egg as the intern wiped his glasses on his scarf.

"It's a cottonee, Professor," the intern explained. "It's a grass-type pokemon native to Unova--it resembles a giant cotton ball with eyes and leaves hanging off the sides of its body--"

J. T. was interrupted by the entrance of the green-haired girl back into the lab. "You rang?" she called out before taking a look at one of the eggs she had brought for the professor. Angelique immediately lost herself with this egg, caressing it and kissing the shell and even... murmuring to it? As much as he learned about this sort of behavior in the classes that he had taken back in the university, it was slightly unsettling watching this woman do that in front of him--if he had not known how respected this woman was in the eyes of the Unovan people, he would have thought the woman mad.

"Yes, yes I did, as a matter of fact!" Oak's attention snapped back to reality. "I need you to identify the eggs that you brought for me!" His eyes lit up like an excited child entering the Nimbasa Park for the first time--eager to prove himself on all of the scary big-kid rides so he could brag to his friends about it in school the next day.

"...Professor, I don't think you necessarily needed Angelique for that--I'm fairly knowledgeable in identifying eggs myself..." the intern's voice echoed over the excitement that Oak exuded from every pore of his body. The professor, however, was too busy trying to garner the breeder's attention by poking at her until she finally snapped out of her stupor.

"So this one is a... togepi egg?" J. T. stopped listening at this point--he was beginning to feel that Oak was doubting his abilities as a potential professor. Angelique was, of course, distracting him and babying him through the naming of the eggs as if Oak was going through Beginning Breeding Techniques 101 all over again. At one point, the professor, in his infinite wisdom, misidentified a tepig egg as belonging to a raichu--at the sound of this impossibility, the intern slapped his forehead with his palm, the noise reverberating through the lab. Evidently, the two ignored his little display, which actually worried him a bit; perhaps the professor was not noticing how senile he was becoming...?

Angelique eventually turned toward the intern, a slight upturn in the corner of her mouth as she caressed the egg that J. T. had brought. "This egg is so..." her voice trailed off as she paused, running her fingers over a section once, then twice... three times? The intern raised an eyebrow in speculation as to what the breeder might have seen or felt along the shell.

"...about to hatch!" the breeder's eyes lit up as she turned back toward J. T., giddy like a schoolgirl. "Professor, we need a warm wet rag, a bottle of Moomoo Milk, and some oran berries!"

"...what." The intern's face suddenly fell as he tried his best to contain the pressure building inside him. With all of the mishaps he had to overcome in the past twenty-four hours, he was already a ticking time bomb: the delivery boy had come with the egg later than he had promised; the man he had hired to take him back through Diglett Cave was also late; and in Viridian City, Hex thought it would have been great fun to headbutt into an elderly woman, causing the group to spend the night in the neighboring city in order to help make amends for the scraggy's transgressions. Now with Angelique's sudden appearance and her inadvertent undermining of what he had been asked to do, and now, with this egg hatching before Oak had a proper chance to study it before it hatched, J. T. realized that his work had been for nothing and the professor would need another egg for his studies despite the fact that Angelique could provide the old man with enough eggs to study for the rest of his lifetime. It was not the quanity or the quality of the pokemon in the egg itself--it was the principle of the matter! J. T. had promised Oak an egg to study, and by Arceus he was going to deliver him an egg to study, come hell or high water!

"I do believe the honor is yours--have you ever hatched a pokemon before?" the breeder asked the student, taking a few steps away from the cracking egg. Indeed, J. T. could now see somewhat clearly the very small cracks forming across the shell.

"I-I..." he stammered, not having actually witnessed a hatching egg in a controlled environment since his days in Castelia University. Of course, he had observed eggs hatching in the wild, what was a rare sight indeed, but he had never been forced into a situation where he was required to help facilitate a hatching before. J. T. understood the theory behind everything--he had been required to take an intro-level breeding course in his undergraduate studies--but lacked the knowledge that Angelique had gleaned from her years of breeding experience... The last thing he wanted at this point was the woman telling him what needed to be done for a pokemon he was not particularly interested in raising as his own anyway; while Zeke was never any problem with keeping his cool and listening to J. T.'s orders when given, Hex was three handfuls too many for the intern to handle, and adding a baby on top of all of that would just make matters more complicated. Still, he did not know quite why he exclaimed, but a burst of adrenaline suddenly overrode his normal senses and kicked him into overdrive.

"I know enough of the basics to get it done..." J. T. picked up the egg, his thumb feeling the small patch of shell that had chipped off from the rest of the form. Zeke eyed it curiously again, swimming around it as the intern held it in his hands and forcing the tiny nodes of light across his body to glow a gentle blue.

“Oh! And you should hatch it outside – Pokémon are born more advanced than human children, so they remember--" The intern blocked out the ramblings of the breeder, not wanting to listen to the intricacies of how pokemon babies were, of course, smarter and more developed than human babies--of course, almost everyone knew that already; he had no idea as to why she was making a huge deal about it, but she insisted on reviewing this information as if it were the most important detail in living life. He sighed and quickly ran back toward the entrance to grab the bag that he had left there, turning quickly and carefully as to not let the egg fly out and smash against the cold tiled floor.

Heading back out to the corral, J. T. passed by both Angelique and the young girl with the questions about the togekiss. She seemed to shy away from him as she made his way past her with the egg in hand. Perhaps she was just overwhelmed by everything that was happening around her--after all, she had been asking about pokemon; granted, the pokemon in question was not native to the region, but still. She was curious, and that actually seemed to lessen his... distaste for the situation.

The intern sat in the shade of an ancient tree close to the doors of the lab, using the shade from the leaves to lessen the intensity of the sunlight that might scramble the baby pokemon's senses when it finally emerged from the egg. He ran his finger over the break in the egg, feeling the change from hard shell to fluffy body. On the surface, he attempted to display a calm sense of excitement; however, on the inside, he was rather furious at the turn of events that had completely thrown everything upside-down.

Another crack, another piece of shell popped off of the bottom of the egg. The intern watched with interest as he placed the egg on the ground next to him and turned away for a brief second so he could grab a black book from his bag and begin to write down any observations he felt were necessary to archive. The leather-bound tome felt familiar, homey to him, and he opened up to the next blank page and scribbled in a corner just to get his pen working--

The egg was gone. Pieces of the shell were scattered around the place where J. T. had set the spheroid down moments before, but the egg itself was gone. Where did it go?

"Tyn! Mo mo mo!" Zeke chirped as he swam back toward the lab, his eye apparently onto something.

"Zeke, what are--"

And there, heading back toward the lab, J. T. saw the newly-hatched cottonee, still with an eggshell covering its eyes and face, running back toward the glass door where Evee was standing and watching. A soft clink as the baby ran into the door, causing the eggshell atop its head to fall off, revealing two large yellow eyes that stared up at the hesitant girl.

"...nee..." it whined, not quite sure how to react to the new situation. Was it... crying? Zeke merely floating around it, was chittering away and sparking with light somewhat out of sight of the newborn but within Evee's line of vision.

"Zeke, you're going to scare them if you keep that up! Come here..." J. T. instructed, calling back the tynamo with a finger. The tadpole-like creature turned toward the intern before slowly swimming back through the air toward him, J. T. taking notes in his notes in his book all the while.

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She kept her fingers laced around the fence as she eyed the woman hesitantly. Her cheeks had still not recovered their rosiness, pale complexion lingering from her fright. The older woman seemed to sense her unease as she smiled. “Oh, alright – And you've no need to worry about those two. They're quite gentle. Though you'll want to watch out for Brutus and Judas.” Brutus and who-now? Her question was answered from her as one of the two-headed creatures gave a sort of response to the woman. It wasn't a fearsome roar or anything of the sort (headbutting) but it was enough to make her start.

When she had ventured to the lab earlier, she had not anticipated any of these events occurring. She had only come to get a question about the togekiss answered. The man who was assisting Professor Oak had been gracious enough to her and she did appreciate him answering her questions! But now she was surrounded by so many unfamiliar creatures, some rather offensive to look at! That pig-monkey, blegh.

There was a rustle from below her, a flash of red and black, and suddenly there was a weight upon her shoulders. Evee blinked in surprise, an effeminate face smiling at her. The hands it waved resembled music notes. “That's Aria.” She heard Angelique say. Aria? Well it was a fitting name for one that looked like music itself come to life. It definitely looked to be a female and the pokémon was quite pretty. Aria played with some of her hair, singing as it did so. She was unsure whether it was singing a song to her or merely chatting away. Though debatably it was a combination of both.

Angelique gave a roll of her eyes, fingers brushing over the head of a nearby pokémon. “Aria – Don't overload the girl. I'm sure she doesn't want to hear about how soft you think her hair is.” Oh, that was what she was saying! Evee looked back over at Aria. Did it want her to sing back? She was a bit too embarrassed to sing out loud but she tried humming a few notes in response. She wasn't that good of a singer, she played much better on her guitar, but fortunately, her tunes were masked by the loud melodic chiming of the pokémon. A gesture from Angelique brought her attentions back to the woman who was heading back into the lab. Evee stopped leaning against the fence immediately, walking behind her with wide eyes.

Angelique had a confident sense about her, easily quipping as they re-entered the facility. “You rang?” The teenage girl felt just a little envious. She was never that smooth with people--she had always been shy and somewhat distant when it came to things like that. Not that she didn't try to be friendly but she couldn't just walk into a room and announce her presence like that. To see someone else do it, and without any hesitation at that... She hoped maybe one day she'd be able to do the same. As it stood, she was too awkward in those sorts of settings and her gaze flickered downwards. The professor and the other two were discussing the eggs--wait, did he say togepi?

She edged just a little closer as Professor Oak moved along to the next egg, eyes remaining focused on the white egg with triangular designs. So that was a togepi egg... and that would evolve into the... togekiss, if she remembered correctly. Despite her urge to do so, she didn't dare reach out and touch it. What if she cracked it like she had the first one?

And to her horror, that was precisely the egg that drew the most attention. Angelique gazed at it proudly, announcing loudly that it was due to hatch. She felt a mixture of apprehension and relief. On one hand, at least she hadn't harmed it. On the other, she wasn't exactly sure if it was her fault or not. The events were all happening so fast--the green haired woman telling Professor Oak what was needed for the soon-to-be-newborn and the other man taking the egg carefully at the suggestion. Were they going to figure out she had touched it earlier?! Evee felt the dread bubbling up again at the mere thought.

Everyone seemed to be headed outside to watch the splendor the the birth but the girl chose to stay indoors. She was attempting to put as much distance as she possibly could between her and the egg. She would not be to blame a second time around. She stared out the window, eyeing the man as he put the egg down in the shade, turning to grab something from his bag. While his back was turned, the egg cracked open and... a fluffball was laying in the egg shell remains. The man wasn't paying attention though, still searching for something--what was it doing?

The cotton creature started to wander closer to her but blindly, there was still an egg shell on its head. It bumped up against the door, the egg shell cracking and revealing large eyes. Evee stared back at it as she noticed what looked to be tears building up in its eyes. Uh-oh, it wasn't going to...

"... nee... co... cotton... nee!" And just like that, the creature burst out into tears. She was at a total loss as the fluffball cried before her, quickly looking over at the eel-like creature that was floating nearby. The newborn didn't cease in its sobbing--she was beginning to feel rather sorry for it! No one else was approaching it, why were they all standing still? Was she supposed to do something? The baby pushed against the door again as if it was trying to get inside. She hesitated only a few seconds more before turning the door handle and opening the door a crack.

Instantly, the cotton fluff pushed its way through the gap and into her arms. H-Hnnn. She knew she should feel a little sorry but it... it was so cute. She placed a few fingers on top of its head, surprised at just how soft it was to the touch. It flailed its tiny white stubs for arms, the leaves making rustling noises as it did so. Not knowing what else to do, she hugged it to her chest much like she had done many a stuffed animal and like she had done to the lizard not too long ago.

"Shh shh... no need for that," She cooed as gently as she could manage. She admittedly felt just a tad awkward doing so but it wasn't long after she started that the fluff started to calm down.

"... nee..." It responded with what sounded to be a large sniffle. A blush had worked its way on to her cheeks as she stared down at the creature. This was endearing... and something she could get used to. This cottonball was warm and cozy and holding it made her feel somewhat content. Evee blinked several times, slowly realizing that she had literally just been standing there in the doorway and neglecting the others. She forced her eyes up to Angelique and the man with the scarf, stuttering out a faint apology.

"I-I'm sorry, I hope I didn't do... anything wrong." She shifted, loosening her arms slightly as she prepared to release the creature from her grip. It didn't seem to want to depart just yet though and nuzzled into her more firmly. Her blush heightened, though whether it was from happiness or embarrassment, she couldn't tell. Somehow, she felt like she had become an unwitting momma to this newborn--what was that thing about animals imprinting on the first thing they see? She had read it in one of her books, usually those creatures ended up thinking those figures were their parents or some sort. Were pokémon the same way? She couldn't say for sure but her current experience seemed to point in that direction. So she went on holding it, nervously keeping her gaze steady. She really hoped she wasn't in that much trouble.

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“Wrong? What in the world could you have done?” Angelique had went right behind Professor Oak when J.T. had taken the egg outside, making sure that the razzled Professor wasn't losing his head over the event. Even though it happened every day, Pokémon births were so exciting! It wasn't a common sight for humans to witness, even when their own Pokémon had eggs, for it was rare that Pokémon captured from the wild would let their Trainers near their eggs. She and the Professor returned downstairs with the required items in hand, smiling softly at the newborn ball of fluff. Angelique had stood next to Evee, offering her the warm rag. “Use this to gently wipe down the Cottonee, removing any remaining pieces of eggshell.” She spoke softly, not wishing to overwhelm the girl any more than she already might be – She wasn't sure if Evee was the fainting type or not, as she hadn't really seen her around aside from a few glimpses when she was in town on previous days.

She motioned to the warm bottle of Moomoo Milk and the bowl of fresh Oran berries in her arms. “A feast fit for a king – At least as far as newly hatched Pokémon are concerned, it is.” She chuckled. Aria, who had long since sang her way into her Pirouette Form, was dancing about the room and singing happily before landing back on Evee's shoulder, chirping softly at the cotton ball in the teenager's grasp. “Aria – Cool it, please.” Angelique called, motioning for the Pokémon to come down, forcing Aria to stop staring at the Cottonee, probably freaking it out. “Make use of yourself – Take Mint her egg, please and thank you.” She waved the Pokémon away as she motioned for Evee to come outside with her. She by no means intended to take over, but she was rather intent on showing the girl how to take proper care of the hatchling, assuming that from the red in her cheeks she had never seen a Pokémon hatch before, much less handled one.

Aria quipped at Angel, giving a soft nod of her head. She was much like her companion in the way that she adored baby Pokémon. But how could her face ever be considered frightening? Even to one so new into the world? “Melo.” I am beautiful!, she told herself as she levitated to the case that housed and incubated the Bagon egg, poking at it gently before lifting up the cover, which happened to be awfully light. She grabbed the egg, holding it close to her before taking off out of the nearest open window. She coddled the egg, smothering it with kisses as she made her way over to the corral where Mint was sun bathing - “Melllloo! Meloetta!” She called out, letting the 'shiny' dragon know that her baby was near. Mint moved sluggishly, obviously having a hard time with any sort of relaxation without her egg. But, never to fear! Aria was here! The little dancing Pokémon danced her way over the air straight to Mint before floating down to the ground, setting the egg by her friend's feet. Mint gave a soft snort; A thank you. She curled her warm, scaly body around the egg and gave what could easily be identified as a smile.

Brutus and Judas spied the egg and for once, thought to work together. They wanted that egg! Not to eat, but to play a game with it – See who could crack it open first! A test of headbutting power! The two snuck around the giant dragon, their tongues practically lolling out of their mouths as they tried o find a good-sized crevice to sneak into. But they were spotted easily by a nearby Bulbasaur who sensed they were up to no good. The two didn't have time to think with the brain everyone assumed they shared before they were wrapped up in vines and tossed away. Mint found herself thanking the tiny, green Pokémon before slapping her tail down on the Zweilous, pinning it there while she took herself a very nice little nap.

All was well in the Oak Corral as Angelique held open the door to the lab. “Sam – It looks like this little ball of cotton has imprinted on this young lady – What are you going to do about it?” Technically, the egg was his, making the Pokémon his. Though, Angelique had no doubt that the Professor was going to let the girl keep it. He looked at Evee with a soft smile, reaching over to gently pat the Cottonee. “Tell me, Evee. Given a Pokémon...What will your path be?” Angelique smiled softly as the Professor asked the question, knowing already just what the old man had decided.

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The intern watched as the cottonee began to whimper slightly after accidentally running face-first into the glass door of the lab. He jotted down a few notes in his observation log, making careful note of the fact that it first laid eyes on the young teenager that remained in the lab. Evee carefully opened the door and to her surprise, the newborn immediately leapt up into her arms and rubbed its body against her shirt. J. T. made a note of how the girl's face seemed to turn a bright pink from embarrassment as she stood there in the doorway, flustered and unsure as to what she should do next. Was it a question of everything happening so suddenly, or did she not have that much exposure to pokemon before now?

"I-I'm sorry, I hope I didn't do... anything wrong..." The intern heard the girl's voice crack slightly before listening to the words taper off to nothing. So it was more the latter than anything else--either that, or she had never seen an egg hatch before her very eyes before. Angelique, however, seemed to be awestruck by the entire spectacle. With a flash, the green-haired woman was up and running around the lab, grabbing various objects and placing them on a small table nearby before offering a cloth to the bewildered girl with the pokemon in her arms.

“Wrong? What in the world could you have done?” Angelique seemed to be too chipper for her own good despite the circumstances. Could she not see that Evee was being rather timid and could not honestly tell what to do? Still, J. T. did not want to interfere quite yet--after all, Angelique was quite excitable and tended to get this way whenever any egg hatched; this was the same thing that happened when she had brought an egg to his mother's house in Nimbasa a few years earlier, he recalled...

“Use this to gently wipe down the cottonee, removing any remaining pieces of eggshell,” Angelique instructed, handing the frazzled girl a cloth before turning away to prepare a small bowl full of berries and a bottle of milk. Good Arceus, did the professor just have a stash of this stuff laying in a storage shed underneath his lab!? Did he have his own private herd of miltank that he could use to feed hatched pokemon on a whim? Regardless, he watched as Angelique's pokemon leapt onto Evee's shoulder for a brief moment before making some gesticulations toward the baby in the girl's arms.

And I thought Hex was bad... J. T. chuckled to himself as Zeke looked between his trainer and the others in the lab. At least Hex can't jump onto people's shoulders like that...

“Aria – Cool it, please. Make use of yourself – Take Mint her egg, please and thank you.” Angelique ordered the now orange-haired pokemon to get off of Evee's shoulders. It was for the best, anyway--J. T. doubted that the young girl needed the extra attention at this point, especially when Angelique was providing what he felt was too much anyway. A few seconds after her command, the meloetta bounded out of the lab with an egg in her arms, heading toward the green salamence with a smile across her face. No sooner than the pokemon made its way out of the lab had Angelique already begun to lead the flustered teenager out of the lab and back to the outdoors, a bowl of berries in one hand and a bottle of milk in the other.

“Sam – It looks like this little ball of cotton has imprinted on this young lady – What are you going to do about it?” The intern gritted his teeth at the sound of Angelique calling the professor "Sam" once again--could she at the very least refer to him as "professor", even if they had some sort of prior relationship? It was at least professional. He put the log back down on the ground next to the bag and stood up, releasing Hex from her capsule.

"Zeke, make sure Hex doesn't do anything that might cause too much trouble," he told the tynamo. "I'm already not in the best of moods, and I don't need her causing me any more migraines..." J. T. rubbed his temple after taking off his glasses. The levitating tadpole responded with a bzzzzt of approval, floating down around Hex's level and swimming through the air around her face, causing the scraggy to swat at him. The intern smirked--this usually was enough to keep Hex occupied for a while: a nice game of "Hide'n'go Zeke", as he called it.

“Tell me, Evee. Given a pokémon...What will your path be?” Oh no. Not this question. J. T. was asked this question once before by Angelique when they were younger; he remembered answering it honestly: if given the choice, he wanted to merely research them, not own them--ironic now that he was forced to babysit two of them during his travels and his internship. The girl, for whatever reason, had taken it as some sort of personal offense that someone would not wanted to be given a free pokemon to do what they pleased with it. In J. T.'s mind, pokemon were creatures that needed to be respected and further studied, not necessarily turned into fighting machines or into models for fashion. While his mother had been supportive of his interests, Angelique... well, at least when she was a teenager, she was rather passionate about them, to put it bluntly.

"Angelique, don't you think you're being rather forward by insinuating that she wants to do anything with pokemon at all?" the intern interrupted, now feeling the need to intervene. He could see not only Evee's apprehension and uncertainty but also that of the newborn. "I mean, sure, she just came to the lab today to ask some questions, but don't you think that could be more for curiosity's sake than anything else? Besides, some people don't want to battle or learn about breeding or go into fashion--some are more than content with having one around the house just for companionship, and that's enough for them. Can't you see that she's scared about having a pokemon imprinted onto her--a pokemon which, I might add, hatched from the egg that I brought for the professor to study..."

"Oh, J. T., it's fine," Oak's voice called from the lab. "You're being over-dramatic. It's no big deal--I'll just ask Angelique to get me another--"

"No, professor!" The intern could not control himself at this point. " You don't understand--it's not the fact that the egg hatched, it's more the principle of the matter! I went through so much to get that egg--that one egg--for you to study, and what happens when I get back? Miss Romain swoops down from the sky and hands you four and acts like it's no big deal! It might not be a big deal for her, considering it's what she does for a living, but to me, it's such a huge deal taking care of an egg on the road! I brought that egg for you to study, professor, and you and I both know that this particular egg should not have hatched as soon after I arrived as it did!! I'm going to--"

"Scraaaaaaaaa?" A tug at his pants suddenly stopped J. T.'s ranting. Hex was looking up at the intern with large eyes and a slight frown across her face. Taking a brief second to recompose himself, the young man sighed and wiped his glasses on his scarf before picking up the lizard and letting her play with the fabric around his neck.

"Professor, I promised you that I would hand-deliver an egg for you to study," the intern's voice was much calmer and more collected after a few moments to collect his thoughts. "I'm going to be heading to Unova, come hell or high water, and I assure you that I will be getting another egg for you to study--one that will not hatch in the first five minutes of my arrival."

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Her gaze was brought upwards as she heard the amused inflection in Angelique's voice, the woman brushing off Evee's worries easily with laughter. “Wrong? What in the world could you have done?” The blush coating the girl's cheeks had not yet receded but fortunately did not deepen any more than it had. The green-haired woman seemed too happy for the situation and had gone off in the direction Professor Oak had in order to fetch a few things. Left alone in the lab--save for the dancing pokémon upon her shoulders and the baby that was still snuggling into her chest--Evee looked around, noticing the male from earlier still outside. He seemed exasperated for some reason, though she couldn't quite place it and was hesitant to ask. His eyes moved from the cotton fluff towards her face and she immediately turned away, a bit too nervous to maintain eye contact. Angelique returned with a cloth in her hands, holding it out to Evee.

“Use this to gently wipe down the Cottonee, removing any remaining pieces of eggshell.” She blinked, looking between the fabric and the pokémon in her arms. Was she supposed to take that? She awkwardly reached out, grabbing the cloth and finding it warm to the touch. Angelique was already turning away to attend to Acerus knew what, leaving Evee once more to tend to the situation at hand.

Inwardly, her mind was reeling from what was happening. It was all transpiring so fast and she was just so confused... On one hand, it didn't seem she had done anything worth reprimanding, at least from the way the others seemed to be taking it. On the other, how was she going to explain this to her parents? She lamented over the inevitable conversation with them as she dabbed at the creature, receiving "nee nee" noises as she patted it down. Well, at least this little piece of honey was a sweetheart.

Aria was still dancing around on her shoulders, even more excited than before and reciting chipper melodies in Evee's ear. The girl heard Angelique give a sigh before ordering the pokémon off Evee's shoulders. “Aria – Cool it, please. Make use of yourself – Take Mint her egg, please and thank you.” The pokémon complied and was scampering off faster than the teenager could've anticipated. Before she could even think to catch a glimpse of where Aria had gone, Angelique was already gesturing for her to come outside. There was a bowl of berries in her arms and a small bottle of milk--was that for the baby? Either way, all Evee could do was follow slowly after the woman.

The baby in her arms gave an appreciative squeal, perhaps it caught the scent of the goodies that were in store for it. "Cotton... cottonee!" It flailed its little stubs of arms around, the leaves flapping about and fanning air in Evee's face. It bounded out of her arms, bouncing on the ground gently as it followed the lull of food and quite literally dived into the waiting pile of berries. The juices splattered into its face but it didn't seem to mind, happily eating up any bits that it could find. Angelique moved in front of where the baby was eating, blocking Evee's view of the sight as the woman walked over near her. The woman directed her question towards the professor with a wide smile on her face.

“Sam – It looks like this little ball of cotton has imprinted on this young lady – What are you going to do about it?” Do? Wait, she had been right? It had imprinted on her? Oh no... Neither of the adults seemed to be worrying about this though! Professor Oak only smiled at her as he nodded towards the feeding fluff.

“Tell me, Evee. Given a pokémon...What will your path be?” She looked between the two and back over at the man before trying to voice her answer.

"W-Well, I..." She was cut off as he spoke up, voice highly irritated as he adjusted his glasses.

"Angelique, don't you think you're being rather forward by insinuating that she wants to do anything with pokemon at all? Wait, she never said.. "I mean, sure, she just came to the lab today to ask some questions, but don't you think that could be more for curiosity's sake than anything else? Besides, some people don't want to battle or learn about breeding or go into fashion--some are more than content with having one around the house just for companionship, and that's enough for them." Hang on, he was getting ahead of himself--no one said she didn't want to learn anything, this was just moving to fast... "Can't you see that she's scared about having a pokemon imprinted onto her--a pokemon which, I might add, hatched from the egg that I brought for the professor to study..."

"I'm not--" And once again she found herself cut off as Professor Oak laughed off the man's words with ease. Were they all impervious to her interjections?

"Oh, J. T., it's fine. You're being over-dramatic. It's no big deal--I'll just ask Angelique to get me another--" The man, J.T. seemed to get even more annoyed by this and his voice came out in a bit of a hiss as he continued.

"No, professor! You don't understand--it's not the fact that the egg hatched, it's more the principle of the matter! I went through so much to get that egg--that one egg--for you to study, and what happens when I get back? Miss Romain swoops down from the sky and hands you four and acts like it's no big deal! It might not be a big deal for her, considering it's what she does for a living, but to me, it's such a huge deal taking care of an egg on the road! I brought that egg for you to study, professor, and you and I both know that this particular egg should not have hatched as soon after I arrived as it did!! I'm going to--" Whatever he had been about to say was cut off as the lizard-like wonder she had hugged so tightly earlier tugged on his pants with a confused expression.

J.T. sighed before continuing, voice a bit weary but still firm. "Professor, I promised you that I would hand-deliver an egg for you to study," the intern's voice was much calmer and more collected after a few moments to collect his thoughts. "I'm going to be heading to Unova, come hell or high water, and I assure you that I will be getting another egg for you to study--one that will not hatch in the first five minutes of my arrival." Evee took a step back gently before taking a very large breath and before anyone else could speak over her, she decided to take the initiative.

"Doesn't anyone want to hear what I have to say on the matter?!" Her voice cracked a bit at the end, she wasn't used to raising it quite so loud. But it did the trick, they all turned around to face her. She stopped short, breath hitching in her throat. She wasn't used to this attention either but she had to continue. "I-I'm not some child to be coddled--I may not know much b-but..." Her voice trailed off. She really didn't like confrontations.

"I... I don't know what I want to do," She spoke softly now, looking down at her feet. She felt bad for having spoken so out of term to the others--especially the Professor. "But that doesn't mean that I want the decision made for me. I feel terrible about the egg, even if it doesn't seem like a big deal to you... And I want to make it up somehow." She looked up at J.T. with wide, brown eyes. "If you're going back, at least let me help you--it's my fault that it hatched anyway." At mention of the egg, it seemed that the fluffball became aware it was being chatted about and it bounced right over to her. Its face was covered in berry juice and it flapped its leaf arms again.

"Nee?" It inquired, trying to jump a bit but just floating lightly back to the ground. Evee bent over, picking it up but careful not to get any of the juice on to her clothes.

"Please," She asked weakly. She wasn't sure if J.T. would want anything to do with her now that she had pretty much just admitted she was to blame in the first place. But she felt a certain amount of responsibility and if there was one thing her parents had taught her, it was that she should never back down from any situation--no matter how uncomfortable.

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Angelique had turned for only a few moments to set down the bowl that the small Cottonee had jumped into, devouring the Oran Berries like they were the last thing it'd ever eat. It brought a fond smile across her face, though that gentle smile was cracked as J.T. exploded. What was wrong with him? She thought personally that the young intern sounded a bit jealous – But why? She had been conducting business with Sam since she was a teenager. She had known him since she was a child when her mother did business with him. What was so wrong of him asking her to bring him a few eggs that most people only dreamed of getting their hands on so that he could study them all at once and compare them? Sure, he could have asked J.T. to bring them along with the other, but then what reason would he have to invite her from work in Unova all the way to Kanto? And could he have even handled that many eggs at once on the road from so far away?

She had to agree with Oak that J.T. was being a bit of a drama queen, but she let him rant, attempting to remain placid, but her eyes were already welling up with tears.

Her hands curled into fists as instinct struggled to break through for her to knock him into next week,but she did well to reign it in while Evee interjected. After the girl spoke, Angelique took a few deep breaths. The look on Sam's face was a furious one, but Angel held up a hand, pausing his words. “I did not mean to insinuate that she had to keep the Pokémon. It may have imprinted on her, but the fact of the matter is that the egg belonged to Professor Oak. Therefore, the Pokémon is his to do with what he pleases. I simply assumed that Samuel would ask that the girl would come in every now and again to help him take care of the Cottonee - Feed it, bathe it, play with it, talk to it. Nothing too hard. I doubt the Professor would simply send Evee on her way and never let the two see each other again – The Cottonee would spend its time trying to escape and find her.”

It was at that point that the Cottonee bounced over inquisitively. Angelique took a moment to try and reign in just how overwhelmed she was – Why did he yell at her like that? It made her clench her fists tighter, turning her knuckles white, contrasting against the tan of the rest of her person. “Sam...I'm sorry – This was a mistake. If it means so much to your intern that he can't handle when you work in partnership with anybody but him while he's present, then I should go. I'll be gone in a few days.” She turned to walk away, but paused, turning back to face J.T. “And just for your information, brainiac, Sam didn't ask me to bring those eggs to undermine you but so that he could study them all at once. The difference in size, the hatching rate, newborn activity. You know – Breeder stuff. The reason he didn't ask you to bring them all at once is because he wasn't sure if you could handle it. You said it yourself – Caring for even just a single egg on the road, especially all the way from Unova is a tough job. Next time, why don't you actually think before you open your mouth.” She turned back around, shouldering her backpack that she had set down as she headed into the Corral, wiping the tears from beneath her eyes.

“Angel!” Sam called after her, an exhausted sigh coming from him. He turned to face J.T. with a frown. “Now, why in the world would ever think to be so mean? And why would you question me? Do you really think that I would ask her to bring eggs just to one-up you? If I had known that you would be so sensitive about it, I wouldn't have asked her bring them.” He shook his head disappointingly. “I don't need another egg – I already have four. You should be happy that you got the egg back in one piece and that it didn't hatch before you got here. Now I have a newborn to study until Miss Evee decides just what she wants to do about it. And you, J.T. You will go apologize. Angelique did nothing wrong to warrant such harsh words from you - She was acting on my orders and if you had an issue with it, you should have said something to me.” His voice was just as stern as his expression.

“No, Atreyu. I'm fine. There's no satisfaction in pulverizing weaker Pokémon. That is bullying and that is not cool.” Angelique sighed as she patted the Dragonite's back. She couldn't leave right away, of course. She would be in Pallet down for another day or two. Her Pokémon needed rest! And so did she. Ashdir and Chomper were whining, rubbing the top of her feet in an attempt to sooth her. “Men are just so stupid!” She grunted as she walked further into the Corral, Pokémon trailing behind her and nodding their heads. “Not all of them, of course. Just the ones of my generation. They're all so big-headed with their egos!” Aria was floating on her back next to her, nodding her head in agreement even though she really didn't care too much about the subject. “I just want to go home now.” She sighed again, coming across a pond where she took a seat on the banks, removing her shoes and sticking her feet in.

She watched in silence as some of the Pokémon played, others sunbathed, and some simply sat with her and watched with her – Except for Mint who was beating the Zekrom out of Brutus and Judas for trying to take her egg. Her bottom lip quivered as she bit her tongue, fighting back the waterfall of tears threatening to flow. She didn't know J.T. that well - But she did like to think that the few times they had briefly met that she had left a good taste in his mouth about her. She had been polite and kind. She didn't talk to him enough to annoy him; Well, she didn't talk to him at all. And his mother spoke very highly of him every time they talked and her brother seemed to have no qualm with him. What could she have done that would have him just...explode? Sure, he said it was about the eggs, but the way he said it made it seem much more...personal.

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The intern could not believe that his temper had gotten the best of him, especially in front of Professor Oak! And now, the girl--Evee--was standing up for herself as if to prove that she was a strong independent woman in her own right despite the fact that she still looked to be in high school. J. T. remembered his years in high school and how rebellious he had been--in a sense, she almost reminded the intern of himself... except by her age, he had known more about Pokemon than most other kids his age that had gone off to battle and challenge the Unova League...

"If you're going back, at least let me help you--it's my fault that it hatched anyway... Please..." the brown-haired girl finally concluded, looking up toward J. T. as she held the cottonee in her arms. The intern, not quite knowing what to say to this, merely inhaled deeply through his nose as he squeezed the scraggy in his own arms; Hex did not seem to mind. Zeke continued to float around his trainer's head, the sounds of crackling electricity buzzing in his ear.

"Look--"

“I did not mean to insinuate that she had to keep the Pokémon..." Angelique interrupted J. T.'s thought, feeling the need to speak her mind before the intern had a chance to explain himself. Could she not understand that she was causing him stress now? And now that she was not letting him have the chance to clear the air between everyone, he was feeling less inclined to do so, especially if she would not even want to listen to what he had to say in the first place.

After a bit of a rant, Angelique apologized to Oak before running off, clearly distraught. Normally, J. T. would be so inclined to follow and attempt to make amends, but he was not in this mood at this time. In fact, he felt it necessary to isolate himself from everyone else before he exploded once again.

“Now, why in the world would ever think to be so mean?" Oak frowned at the intern. "And why would you question me? Do you really think that I would ask her to bring eggs just to one-up you? If I had known that you would be so sensitive about it, I wouldn't have asked her bring them.” He shook his head disappointingly. “I don't need another egg – I already have four. You should be happy that you got the egg back in one piece and that it didn't hatch before you got here. Now I have a newborn to study until Miss Evee decides just what she wants to do about it. And you, J.T. You will go apologize. Angelique did nothing wrong to warrant such harsh words from you - She was acting on my orders and if you had an issue with it, you should have said something to me.”

J. T. placed the scraggy on the ground before feeling his fists clench in anger. "Professor, normally I'm not one to question you... however, how was I supposed to know that your little child prodigy would be coming if you never told me that she was to deliver a shipment of eggs to you? All you told me a few days ago was that you had an egg that was being delivered to Vermilion, and you asked me to fetch it for you, which I did. You never mentioned that she would be coming and bringing you a literal load of eggs--if the egg I brought was from her ranch in Rainbow Valley, why didn't she just bring it over with the rest? As for how I acted toward Angelique, you can't claim to know my history with her..." he felt his voice trail off, realizing that the more he tried to reason with Oak about his star pupil, the deeper of a hole he would be digging for himself.

There was, however, his ace in the hole... his "Get out of Jail Free" card...

"I was told I have a two-week vacation where I can travel where I wish. I'm packing my bags tonight and leaving for Unova tomorrow. I'm using my time to go back home and settle down for a few days. When I return, I will have an egg that you will study, whether you need it or not. It's not whether you need it, but it's more for me to show you that I'm more than capable of doing what I've been asked to do." J. T. reached into his jacket which he neglected to take off in his rush to find Oak's laptop from earlier and felt a small box inside. "Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to take a break before I end up doing something that I'll regret later."

Taking off the lab coat as he walked past the bewildered professor, J. T. hung the cloth on a hook near the entrance before looking back toward his confused Pokemon. "Hex, Zeke, c'mon," his voice was rather flat and monotonous. Not having dealt with this side of their trainer before, the Pokemon followed, not quite sure how to react. J. T. left the lab and walked all the way to the edge of Route One, taking a seat against the Pallet Town sign and reaching for the box he felt in his jacket. He pulled the cellophane-wrapped box out of his coat, revealing a box of Torkoal Smokes. Inside he felt the weight of a silver lighter and half a dozen cigarettes and he exhaled slowly, pulling the metal lighter and a white tube from the box and lighting one end.

"...gy?" Hex looked rather confused at the display, walking over to J. T. and examining the thing that he had pulled from the box. She grabbed the Torkoal Smokes, looking inside to see what was inside.

"Not for scraggys like you, Hex..." he pulled the box away from the Pokemon He placed the box back in his pocket, making sure to keep it away from inquisitive little paws. J. T. knew that this was a disgusting habit he had, but he was able to at least control it so he did not have to do things like this all the time. The cigarettes were only to be used in emergencies, and this just happened to be one of those times. He needed to calm down--everyone would be better off if he was not freaking out like he had. Granted, he was willing to say he freaked out a bit, but the way that Oak had neglected to tell him anything at all was rather troublesome to him. Still, no one had told him it would be easy...

Too bad I have to find out about all this shit the hard way... he thought to himself as Hex surprisingly sat down next to the intern, not vying for any sort of attention. J. T. inhaled deep and closed his eyes for a few seconds. He was looking forward to going home.

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When had the events escalated onto this ridiculous scale?

The lizard creature had settled nicely into J.T.'s hold and she saw him pinch his nose, as if preparing to say something. Yet somehow, what she had said hadn't worked to calm anything down. In fact, her words seemed to only make things worse than they already were, Angelique speaking indirectly to her by voicing her displeasure towards J.T. In fact, her words pretty much went disregarded altogether now that she listened closer to what the woman had to say. The male stood almost stoically as he listened to her words, though Evee caught sight of slightly clenched fists. With a loud exhale and and faint squeak on the ground as Angelique turned on her heel, the woman was walking back towards the area the teenager had first spoken to her in.

The professor called after her before rounding on J.T. with a stern expression on his face. The cottonee in her arms quivered and shook its head, sending juice bits flying here and there. Neither of the other two adults seemed to be in the least bit conscious of this display however and even the lizard creature wasn't doing anything overly dramatic. The girl buried her face into the fluff, eyebrows furrowed together as she listened to the strained tones. She didn't like these arguments, she had only come here to ask questions and that was it! And now suddenly everyone was at each other's throats as if some great offense had been wrought. At this point, she wasn't even sure if these disagreements had anything to do with the egg that had hatched or it was something deeper than that.

She looked up suddenly as she caught movement from J.T., the man moving to hang his coat on one of the hooks. "Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to take a break before I end up doing something that I'll regret later." He said shortly, calling to his pokémon soon after to follow him. The two of them bounded after him soon enough, leaving Evee with the tense-looking Professor Oak and several of the eggs that had been delivered earlier. Her eyes lingered on the egg with the triangular designs a bit before she shifted her attention to the professor. She'd try asking about that when everything had settled down later...

Still holding the cottonee to her tightly (though it didn't seem to mind and was giving small mewling noises in response), she bowed her head out of respect to Professor Oak before heading towards the door. "U-Um, I'll get him. I'm sure he's just..." Just what? She didn't even know J.T., who was she to guess what he was feeling? She trailed off and left her sentence hanging in the air awkwardly as she walked out of the front door. She looked around to her left and right, a frown touching upon her lips. Now which way could he have gone?

She wandered a few more steps forwards, peering over towards the entrance of the town with squinted eyes. She could just about make out someone standing near the sign--maybe that was him? She cautiously approached the figure though as she got closer, she could see that it was indeed J.T. With a relieved sigh, she put on her best smile, though it came across a tad hesitant due to what had just transpired.

"Er..." She began, her small voice first attracting the attention of the lizard creature who was sitting on the ground.
"Scraaaaaaa?" Hex turned toward the newcomer, as did Zeke. The scraggy waddled over toward the girl, eying the cottonee in her arms. "Scraggy scraaaaaaaaa!" She let go of her loose skin, reaching up toward Evee as a child might to their mother if they wanted to be picked up.

"Hex, what did I--" J. T. began to call out before turning and catching the girl out of the corner of his eye. "Oh..." he took another drag from his cigarette. "Uh... hey there...?" He tried his best to be polite and not... angry, but the only thing that was really heping at this point was the cigarette--he hated that idea.

She glanced at the cigarette with an unsure expression on her face, deciding against commenting on it for now. He didn't need to hear her "That's bad for you!" rant, not at this point anyway. "Um..." C'mon Evee, you can do it! "We uh, never got a chance to really speak in the lab..." Man, she sounded so lame. He must've totally thought she was just a kid. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to continue even though she was sure her voice must've been turning rather high-pitched due to her nervousness. "W-well, that's not really why I'm here... You left so suddenly and the Professor... well, are you okay?" She ended on an odd note but didn't want to him to feel like she was pushing him to go do anything.

He chuckled a bit, taken aback slightly that this girl was taking the time to check up on him. "I guess... I just needed to, y'know, get away from the things that were making me feel angry... I imagine you get like that sometimes with your parents, yeah?" He took another long drag from the cigarette as Hex pulled on Evee's leg, eyes glued to the newborn cottonee. "Hex, get away from the hatchling--Zeke, y'mind taking care of this?"

"...mo." Zeke floated toward the scraggy, waggling its tail at the lizard and forcing a chase around the middle of the town. Another chuckle as J. T. watched their game.

"I'm more concerned about you, though--are you feeling OK? It's not every day a pokemon suddenly hatches and imprints itself on you..."

For once, she was able to fight past the childish blush that normally would've coated her cheeks. She had always been unused to prolonged attention of any kind, her parents were a tad distant at times. "M-Mm, I think so! I mean, I guess I would've been super upset if the pokémon in the egg was ugly..." She laughed a little, adjusting the baby in her arms. "But I got lucky! It's really cute and I like the way it feels. It's like a warm stuffed animal that you can cuddle to real close at night and whisper all your secrets to... Um!" She stopped herself, coming up short as she realized she was rambling.

"Will you be heading back in? I think that other woman looked kind of upset, so it might help if... someone apologizes." She quickly altered her words around--she had seen how testy he was at the mention of Angelique, so perhaps it'd be best to be vague about who was to blame and who had to make up here.

"Look, I'm going to level with you here..." J. T. began before taking another drag of his cigarette. Damn, I might need another... this isn't a good sign... "Angelique is... somewhat temperamental... She gets like that sometimes, and I've learned that it's just best to walk away from that situation. I don't expect an apology from her because she did nothing wrong; however, I didn't do anything wrong either aside from speaking my mind about the situation at hand, and it's her fault for overreacting." He could feel his voice growing a bit gravelly--he coughed a bit and then took another drag of his cigarette before mashing the tip against the ground, extinguishing it.

Evee wrinkled her nose as she watched the flame expel and resisted the urge to raise her fingers in front of her mouth as some of the smoke wafted in her direction.

"Oh, I'm sorry... I normally don't do this..." J. T. apologized. "This is... a bad habit I only resort to when I'm feeling stressed out of my mind, which surprisingly doesn't happen as often as you might think, what with me working for the professor..."
Her smile came a little easier this time--he really wasn't so bad after all. In fact, she felt a bit of sympathy for him really. But she wasn't about to say that--didn't men have a thing against girls giving them pity plays? At least that was what her dad always told her. She only shrugged, shaking her head. "It's okay... well, I mean, it's not, it's a really bad habit and it'll..." Wait, no, she wasn't going to do that.

He chuckled. "Nah, it's fine. I got the same speech from my mother when she found out I had taken it up in college. I was really bad a few years back, but I've managed to get it under control..."

She nodded faintly before looking back over her shoulder towards the lab. "Well... I think someone should make her feel a little better and if you feel you're justified in your actions, then... I guess I will!" She flashed him another smile before giving a polite wave and getting ready to turn back to return to the lab.

"Wait a second, before you go..." J. T. called after the girl. "You had said something about wanting to go with me to Unova?"

There really was no way around it, was there? The blush returned in full to her cheeks--he had been listening? She had totally thought that her question had gone straight over his head. This was absolutely embarrassing. "O-Oh, um... t-that... I... yes well, I mean, i-it was my fault and I..." Too nervous, heating up too much! Wait, why was she seeing two of him, ahh, escape... she had to find an escape. "E-Excuse me!" She blurted before promptly turning on her heel and retreating back in the way she had come. Idiot, idiot, idiot--she was so bad with strangers--especially those that had heard her being so vocal! She backtracked, walking around the side of the lab and heading back indoors.

She didn't say anything to Professor Oak, nodding at him again as she moved around to the back of the lab to head out to where she had seen Angelique go. She poked her head into the corral, immediately catching sight of the woman who had her back turned towards the door, looking at the playing pokémon. Evee walked over towards her, freeing one of her hands from around the baby and letting her fingers brush lightly on the arm of the woman. On the rare occasion that her mother found her upset, her mother always held her hand without saying a word. That had always helped Evee so perhaps...

The girl let her fingers skim down to Angelique's hands and she slid her petite digits into the woman's hand gently. She gave the faint squeeze, trying to reassure her. "Um... I'm sorry about what happened back there," She said softly, thankful that her voice was coming out normally. In some ways, Angelique reminded her of one of her stuffed animals--he was sad sometimes (at least in Evee's imagination) and she always hugged him to make him feel better. "Do you want a hug...? They help Picard..." She said, referencing one of her toys. No matter how old someone was, they never really grew out of hugs. At least she knew she wouldn't.

The setting changes from Pallet Town to Kanto Region

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The mint-haired woman blinked for a few brief seconds, feeling the slender and petite digits of another along hers. "Eh-?" She turned to see that Evee had apparently followed her. She used her free hand to gently brush away the few stray tears and offered her usual gentle smile. "Sorry about all of that, darling - Er...What's your name?" Her big eyes looked back at the girl and then out to the playing Pokémon, heaving a large sigh.


Evee tilted her head slightly, well, the smile seemed genuine enough. Perhaps it had all just been a spur of the moment thing--the atmosphere had been a tense one. "Mnn, my name is... well, everyone just calls me Evee." She giggled quietly as she introduced herself.


"Angelique Romain -" For a moment, she had almost said 'as if you didn't already know', but she swallowed her words and instead gave another smile. "Evee. That's quite a pretty name." By then, Brutus and Judas were edging their way over, content with having given up on trying to steal Mint's egg. The two-headed dragon seemed to smirk as it snuck up behind Evee, intent on scaring her into the pond. "I dare you." Angelique cut off her conversation with the teenager to turn her gaze to the dragon behind her, her smie creasing into a frown and the gentle sparkle in her eyes going cold. The Zweilous snarled, baring its sharp fangs. "Zwei! Zweilous!" They complained. Angelique rolled her eyes. "I won't let you have any fun if it's trying to hurt others. Now go attempt to be nice. Or I'll push you in the pond." They growled at her once more before taking off to pounce on the Axew and Gible playing harmless pretend spies.


Evee faltered for a brief moment--was that cold stare directed at her? Her question was answered for her as she heard loud protests from over her shoulders and turned around to gaze at the two-headed pokémon she had noticed earlier. It seemed downtrodden for some reason, the pouty walks imitating that of a child caught in the act of wrong-doing. She returned her gaze to Angelique, partially wondering if now would be the appropriate time to let go of the woman's hand. "Uh.. t... thank you. Ah... er..." She trailed off into an awkward bit of silence and swallowed, leaving her sentence hanging oddly again for lack of knowing how to end it.


The silence was indeed awkward - Not exactly something Angel was used to. She was more used to the constant chattering of the Pokémon in Rainbow Valley, vying for her attention for food or other things. She was used to interaction nonstop all day with them. People...Not exactly. It was these awkward silences that made her glad that she surrounded herself with Pokémon. She was a social creature and silence just would not do! It was rare to find a Pokémon that didn't want to talk about something. Talking about anything would just about satisfy her. Even if she was talking with Brutus and Judas about why it wasn't socially acceptable for them to attack her customers or their Pokémon. She cleared her throat and looked back at Evee, watching as Ashdir and Chomper bit at Brutus and Judas' ankles, screaming 'Viva la revolution!' at the top of their little Pokélungs. Or at least, that's what Angelique heard. Evee would have heard just their usual Pokémon sounds. "Is there...something that you needed?"


She looked down at her feet--she was such a fuddy duddy sometimes. First with J.T. and now with Angelique. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk, she just didn't know how. An isolated life did that to a girl. She made herself look back up, nervously widening her smile. "Oh, well, I guess I wanted to check to see if you were alright..." She really needed to work on her social skills--she did like the company, really. "E-Er, and it's... um, I spoke to J.T. but he was preoccupied with something so... I think maybe the Professor was worried about how quickly you left the lab." She released a deep breath, comfortably having gotten through the sentence without too much of an uneasy pause. She still didn't retract her hand, though she did glance down at it as if to indicate whether or not it was the proper moment to let go.


"Oh, thank you." That was sweet of Evee - To not even know Angelique and to check up on her nonetheless. "I do apologize about the...display back there. I think it was just the tension from traveling talking. For both he and I." Why was she defending him?! He had just exploded on her. She was about to start crying once more, but she sucked it up by taking a deep breath and releasing it. "I am fine, though. I'll probably head back later to talk to Sam before I come back out here." Angelique intended on sleeping out in the Corral with her Pokémon. Partially because she didn't really want to be around J.T. and assumed that he was going to be staying at the Professor's house and the other half was because it was a nice summer day which meant that it was going to be another nice summer night with the stars ruling the skies. She would pray for a nice breeze to go along with it. Mmm - Campfire with some grilled pork chops and Watmel berries. Yeah - She was definitely going to be sleeping outside tonight. Aria, who had noticed her new acquaintance, jumped up happily and danced over the air, taking a perch on the air near Evee's shoulder, chirping in her ear. "Melo! Meloetta etta!" Her quarter note hands were flailing wildly about as she spoke, her eyes wide. "She wants to know if you're going to name the Cottonee and if so, what you will name it." Angelique smiled. "You don't have to answer, though. Aria doesn't know the meaning of personal boundaries."


She perked up immediately at mention of the small fluff that was in her arms. That was right! She hadn't named the adorable little thing yet and that was the best part about getting a new companion! She could remember all the times before when she had named all her assortments of stuffed animals and she had just the perfect name for him. "Actually! I did have something in mind..." She adjusted the little fluffball again, the creature giving a curious "neeeee?" in response to the movement. "I was thinking... Mr. Cotton Huggles McFluffenpuff!" The cottonee in her arms quite literally froze and if there could be a word to describe its little face, it might've been something along the lines of questioning and blank. It even stopped moving, as if so shocked by the name. Evee frowned a bit. "Er... not good enough?" She said while looking down at the baby who furiously shook its head as if to say 'absolutely not!'


Angelique laughed softly, kicking her feet in the water. Her laughter harmonized with Aria's, who was now lying on the air. Talk about 'rofl', right? The green-haired woman hid her mouth with her hand, trying to stifle the giggle. "I'm sorry...How old are you?" The girl was so...adorable. To say the very least. The initial name she had picked for the little fluffball was just the icing on the cake.


Evee cleared her throat, a faint blush beginning to coat her cheeks again. "I-I'm almost eighteen, so I'm not a kid or anything." She tried to puff up her chest a bit to make herself seem more firm on this point. But a sneeze from the baby in her arms told her otherwise.


"Co... cottonee." It said, almost mischievously at that. The girl sighed a bit and looked down at it, shaking her head a little.


"Ah - You're still pretty young. You've got your whole life ahead of you, hun." Angelique quickly changed the subject, not wanting to further offend the young woman. She gently patted the Cottonee before looking off towards where the sun had set over the tree tops. "Speaking of which - I don't mean to intrude, but is there anything in particular you had in mind for your life? At your age, I had already traveled the world. Well - I'm not saying that you have to or assuming that you want to -" Oh dear, there she went again.


The girl paused, unsure of how to answer. No, she hadn't seen anything outside of Pallet Town. And at times like this, she was most certainly aware of her limited exposure and how much others had seen or traveled. She shook her head faintly, settling her chin back down on top of the cottonee. "No... my parents were... are still pretty keen on keeping me in a lot. Not that I dislike it! It's just--I want to be given a chance to figure things out through experience... t-that's kind of why... when J.T. said that..." She took a deep breath, making herself continue. She felt like Angelique wasn't going to judge her. "I wanted to go to Unova too. So maybe.... I can discover myself... E-Er, sorry."


Angelique nodded as the girl talked, Aria moving to sit in her lap. She as well had not moved her hand - She didn't want to seem rude, or anything. The girl's company was nice, Angelique paying attention as she talked before speaking again. "Well, maybe I'll see you in Rainbow Valley - I'm going to be heading back soon, anyways. I'm sure you'd love it there." She didn't completely understand why her parents would keep Evee at home until she reached adulthood rather than letting her go out and experience the world - But it wasn't her place to question their authority. Her parents weren't really happy to see herself and her twin leave when they were ten, but they were proud. Thinking about her family made her homesick and forced her eyes to glaze over again.


Evee's smile widened again, genuinely this time. "That... that sounds pretty." She personally didn't know what the place looked like but she would have to make a notation later to look it up when she got the chance. As it stood... she'd have to talk to her parents soon about accompanying J.T. She had made the proclamation and had tried to tell him earlier that she was serious--but she wouldn't be leaving until she got the okay from them. Hopefully they'd concede... It wasn't as if she was trying to leave all on her own! She would at least have someone with her for the journey. Thinking of J.T. now made her wonder if perhaps she should head inside. She had spent ample time with Angelique and the woman wasn't going to be heading back inside--at least not for now. She glanced over her shoulder at the lab door vaguely before turning back to Angelique. "S-Speaking of going to Unova... I... think I really need to talk that over... I kind of announced it suddenly and I don't even know if J.T. knew I was serious... let alone my parents..."


Angelique quickly shook herself from her family-missing daze and gave a light, delicate sniff. "Oh! Right. I suppose you should head on back to the lab, then. It was nice speaking with you, Evee. I hope I'll see you again one day." It was a big world and Evee hadn't even put a dent in exploring it. While Angelique did live on the other side of the world, practically, Evee was headed there, so she assumed that she would see the girl again at least once. "Oh - Here." She pulled her backpack off and pulled a piece of paper and a pencil out, quickly jotting down her number. "I don't exactly have a cell phone right now...Brutus and Judas ate it on the way here. But that's my office number and if you call any time after next week, I'd be happy to talk to you about anything you need like Pokémon or whatever. Trust me, I have a lot to spare. And you sorta remind me of a younger me." She smiled. Some people would think Angelique was crazy to just offer some a Pokémon out of the blue - But it was her job not just to take care of Pokémon, but to provide them to people who needed them or wanted them; Granted, she was pretty strict when it came to giving them directly to Trainers, but Evee had a spark that she liked.


The red hue upon her cheeks deepened in gratitude as she listened to Angelique speak. She hadn't been given this type of kindness before and admittedly, it was just as overwhelming as it had been when she was given those items for her tiny cottonee. But she felt some form of gratitude--not a great many people would present themselves like this and it was touching to her. She took the number, sliding it gratefully into the messenger bag that she kept as she nodded delicately towards the woman. "I'll be sure to... I hope I have interesting things to tell you by then." She bowed her head a bit and turned, now holding the cute fluffball with both hands again as she walked back towards the lab door. She glanced one more time at Angelique, giving a polite wave before letting herself back inside. Perhaps J.T. had returned from his smoke by now...? She really needed to make sure he understood... and it wouldn't hurt to speak to the Professor either at that.

The setting changes from Kanto Region to Pallet Town

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The girl seemed to grow rather hesitant as J. T. attempted to clarify whether she was rather serious about heading off to Unova. Sure, he had mentioned about going home--which would involve travel by foot, minecart, boat, and off-road vehicle--but he was not sure she would be able to get away from everything in Pallet. It seemed rather... sudden to want to travel the world like that; then again, it wasn't necessarily unusual for teenagers to want to get away from their origins and see what else the different regions had in store for them.

But why him? Why not go with Angelique, the dream girl that could show her just about everything she ever wanted to know about pokemon before getting sick from overexposure? What did J. T. provide her that the breeder/trainer/elite/coordinator/showman could not? Or rather, was it something about Angelique that turned her away from trying to hitch a ride atop her dragonite all the way back to Rainbow Valley with the wunderkind? J. T. could think of a number of reasons, but he was completely and utterly biased in his opinions--he was unable to make any assumptions on Evee's behalf, but then again, it was not his place to do that. She would find out on her own if she chose to walk down that path, but for now, her fate was up in the air still.

"Scraggy! Scrag scra!!!" Hex yelled as J. T. watched the young lizard tripped over her loose skin and fell to the ground in a heap. A satisfied chirp escaped Zeke's mouth as the levitating tadpole crackled with electricity, content with wearing the scraggy out. The scene brought a slight grin to the intern's face--after being bombarded with so many negative feelings these past few days, it was nice to see something as light-hearted as his pokemon chasing each other around. He looked to his bag and pulled out a small red canteen-shaped container which rattled as he gently placed it between his legs.

"Hey, you two, c'mere," J. T. beckoned the pokemon as he opened the container. "You guys look a bit hungry..." He poured a few multi-colored berries into an open hand--some blue, some red, some pink. "Dig in, you two. We're gonna be heading back home for a while, so you're going to need to be nice and strong for another long walk back to the city with the boats, OK?"

Hex plucked the blue berries from the man's hand, bringing the fruits to her mouth and nibbing away at them with a smile on her face. Zeke swam down toward J. T.'s open hand and managed to take a sizable bite from one of the red ones. "You guys like those ones? I only have a limited supply for now--maybe mom'll have some more when we go to visit her."

The scraggy's eyes lit up at the sound of returning back to Nimbasa. Both she and her trainer knew that his mother was notorious for babying the yellow lizard; then again, she had a penchant for finding the best qualities of a pokemon in general. In Hex, it had been her appealing cuteness--she had even said something about possibly being groomed to make for a potential pageant winner, but that was something J. T. did not to get involved with personally. He did not see the need to boost Hex's inflated ego further, nor did he care to have to deal with it if he was never going to attempt to follow in his mother's footsteps. He had chosen his path; while this was something that she respected and encouraged, the intern could not help but feel that she was disappointed in him for not following the same path as her.

After the two pokemon had finished their snack, J. T. closed the canister once again before placing it back in his bag. He slung it over his shoulder before picking himself up off the ground and stretching his legs out. With a sigh, he slowly trudged back toward the center of the hamlet, knowing full well that he was serious about his word and what he had told Oak and the others. Besides, it had been over three months since he had heard from him mother--it was about time that he could finally get to go back home and at least spend a little bit of time with her.

"Scra?" Hex tugged on the intern's pants once again, ain, hoping that he would pay some attention to her before taking care of some serious business.

"No, Hex," J. T. spoke, his voice somewhat tired and listless. "This isn't the time for these antics... I've got to book a room on the ship, pack up my clothes, grab a bit of extra money, maybe clear the air with the professor if he's feeling up to talking with me after how I went off on him..." He stopped for a moment, collecting his thoughts on the matter. "...was that Evee girl being serious when she mentioned she wanted to go to Unova?"

"...gy...?" Hex shrugged, although she had a glint in her eye, one that hoped the young girl was in fact willing and able to accompany her trainer--if only because she had paid so much attention to her back in the lab.

"Mo..." Zeke added, not really meaning anything much by the verbalization but adding a bit of agreement by lighting his body with different patterns of blue and white lights.

"Well, I guess we'll have to cross that bridge if she's serious..." he muttered to himself before recalling both of the pokemon to their respective capsules. "It'll be easier for me to get everything done with you guys away, I'm sorry." J. T. picked up the pace, making his way into the lab and catching a glimpse of Evee and Angelique talking among themselves in the corral. He would have stopped to observe their body language--maybe see if they noticed him spying through the window (how hard was it to look through a pane of glass, anyway?)--but he had bigger things to take care of at this particular time.

J. T. picked up the pace as he headed toward the back of the lab toward a room with a bed and a desk, papers strewn about everywhere with random notes and scribblings and findings from all sorts of notes taken over a period of weeks. The intern rummaged through the various sheets, eventually finding a decent-sized camera hiding among notes of the sizes of adult miltank and the quality of milk produced.

"Can't leave without this..." he smirked as he placed the device in his shoulder-slung bag. He found another suitcase tucked away in a closet along with several changes of clothes--for the time being, he could cram everything into one suitcase; he'd just be washing it when he returned home anyway, so it would not matter too much if it all had to be crammed into one place for a few days. His mom knew a good dry-cleaning place in the city--she knew all of the good places in the city: just one of the many perks of being one of the city's most famous citizens.

After cramming his clothes in the suitcase, J. T. took a quick breath as he turned toward the hallway once again and grabbed his trenchcoat, throwing it over his shoulders and making sure that his bag was not caught on anything. He made his way out of the hall and was about to continue out the front and be free of this place for the next two weeks--

"Oh, there he is! J. T., a moment?" Oak's voice sound slightly lower than it normally had, which concerned J. T. slightly; the professor only took this tone when he was somewhat displeased. After his little outburst from earlier, though, the intern was not surprised by this at all.

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She was leaning against the wall, the cottonee in her arms making occasional mewling noises as she waited nervously for the intern to approach. The girl tightened her hold on the creature, Mr. Cotton-Huggles (as she had no other name to call him at the moment); she hoped that J.T. would take it well. She hadn't exactly been as direct as she could've during their encounter just earlier and if his expression had been anything to go by, she probably confused him just slightly. Should she apologize for that too? Wait no, he wouldn't really like her that much if all she did was apologize to him at every step of the way. Besides, she was a Petora and she had been raised to be firm in her beliefs.

She took a deep breath--just stay calm, Evee!--forcing herself to keep her head held up high. Though honestly, she hadn't expected the Professor to act as fast as he did... It only took moments before J.T. entered the room--he looked relatively indifferent but it was hard to tell. She had never done well when guessing someone's emotions.

"J. T.," Oak stared at his intern as he entered the room. "If you are certain that you will be returning home after all, please take care not to let Aurea steal you away from me!" he joked, letting out a quick chuckle. "In all seriousness, though, this young girl--er... Evee--has expressed interest in traveling to Unova."

The intern looked between the professor and the girl at his side, slightly dumbfounded as he let go of his luggage and wiped his glasses on his shirt. "So, you were serious after all, huh?" he felt a slight tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Well, why do I need to get involved? Why not go flying through the sky with Angelique and her dragons of--" he cut himself off after Oak shot him a slight disapproving look.

Evee quickly pushed her face into the fluff of the pokémon to muffle the giggles that threatened to bubble up. She was tempted to finish his sentence (with something grand like, the dragons of Mordor! Wait... there were no dragons in Mordor...) but stopped herself. She blinked up at J.T. with wide, brown eyes and cleared her throat. "Well, ah... about that... As tempting as it sounds to do something like that, traveling atop dragons seems more like something you'd find in a fantasy novel or something." She paused--she rather hoped this didn't make Angelique some sort of amazon woman or heroine from a far-off land.

"I'd like to go with you. I... I broke your egg... or... it hatched," She stumbled through her sentence. She wasn't sure which way it had really happened but whatever way it had, she was sure she had done something. "And I wanted to make it up to you." She left her second reason silent. A large part of her wanted to prove to her parents that she was more grown up than they took her for. They still catered after her and kept her sheltered. But she was almost eighteen; other people had already left their homes to go exploring! And she was old enough by Unovan standards...

She hoped that perhaps by going on this journey with J.T. would show them that she was capable of taking on more responsibility. The fluffball gave a flail of its leafy stubs, fanning more air into the girl's face. "Nee, cottonee!" It chirped happily, getting a bit over-excited by the prospect of traveling and nearly propelling itself into the air.

The intern sighed as he placed two fingers on his eyes and rubbed them, trying to collect his thoughts from all of the different sources of stress on this particular day. "Well, getting up and leaving your home to go travel the world is a big order... Y'gotta make sure that you have all of your supplies--clothes, food, camping supplies, all those things that make wandering in the wilderness possible. Besides, have you talked this over with your parents at all?"

The small smile that had lit upon her face faded as she heard his question. "N.... no..." She managed as she looked down. No she hadn't. She had foolishly thought that she could just get up and leave without putting much effort into it. She was dreading that conversation and a part of her had been wishing that no one would bring her parents up. The cottonee finally succeeded in levitating itself from her grasp and stayed airborne for a few seconds before floating down to the ground lightly. It bumped up against her shins, continuing its happy mewling, oblivious to the conflict at hand.

"But," She began, trying to keep her voice even. "Well, I mean, I'm sure once they hear why I'm leaving, they'll be more apt to agree!" Well, not really all that sure, but she didn't want J.T. second-guessing her as well.

"There's only one way to find out," the intern chuckled. "You'd also need a bit of money--boat tickets from Kanto to Unova are pretty expensive..."

She paled--she hadn't considered that. And she had no formal job or any income. She heaved a deep sigh and muttered under her breath. "I really am going to have to ask them, aren't I...." She bent down, holding out her hands so that the cottonee could jump back into her arms. It bounced around a bit, accidentally bumping into J.T. and Professor Oak before it bounded back into her waiting arms. She lifted it up against her and straightened, glancing at the door.

"I..." How did she go about asking for his support in the matter? Did he even want her around? "You... don't mind if I go with you, though?" She asked hesitantly.

The intern looked back toward Evee before glancing once again at the professor, who flashed him a quick grin. "I guess I could use the company--besides, Hex was getting rather... fond of you..." J. T. shook his head. "Yeah, she's a handful and a half, but I guess it'd be nice having someone to talk to while we head back home--er, rather, as we head to my home..." he could feel his face growing a bit flustered as he tried fishing for the right words.

She felt some relief flood her--at least she wouldn't be a bother to him. "I... that's great!" She managed, her baby fluff flailing its arms again in approval. "My... parents should still be home... guess it would make sense to go talk to them now, huh?" She gave a nervous laugh, though it felt a bit forced. Evee had never liked the prospect of talking to her parents of matters that differed from their stringent views.

J. T. could sense the nervousness rolling off in wave from this girl. "Would you perhaps like the professor to go with you? I'm sure he'd be more than happy to vouch for you, plus it'd make a bit more sense than having a random intern say that he's kidnapping their daughter, right?" he chuckled slightly, hoping the joke would lighten the mood somewhat.

Kidnapping, huh? That sounded a bit like one of her videogames... but yes, yes that would help! She felt encouraged that he was going to try and help her--even if it was indirectly. "Yes... I'd really appreciate that. T.... thank you." A blush rose to her cheeks again and she buried her face in the cottonee. "My house isn't that far away... it's only a few doors down." She gestured out the window, pointing out one of the houses more towards the eastern side of the town.

She lowered her arm, shifting towards the entrance and keeping her gaze partially on the Professor. She wasn't going to leave the lab unless absolutely certain he was going to walk with her. Evee's parents were nice people, but sometimes her mother could be really scary.

"Hmm? Oh, yes!" Oak suddenly remembered his train of thought. "Would you lead the way, Evee? Also, could you remind me again what your parents' names are? My mind is slowly wandering the older I get..."

Professor Oak wasn't actually that old, was he? Actually... she didn't know his age. She just kind of considered him ageless, like one of those people that never seemed to get any younger or older no matter how much time passed. "That's okay! Um.... My father's name is Cecil and my mother's is Tatiana, Professor." Her voice was a bit soft as she let herself out of the lab, holding the door open for Professor Oak to walk through.

Perhaps it looked a bit odd, now that she thought on it. Evee led him towards her house, dread forming in her stomach the closer they got to it. She had to hope that her parents would say yes but her mother was known for being difficult... She visibly shrunk a bit as they reached her house, the girl taking several breaths before turning the handle to let them inside.

The first thing the baby pokémon did upon entering was leap out of her arms again and go stumbling in the direction of the kitchen. "Wait, Mr. Cotton Huggles, don't--" A crash from the room confirmed her fears. She entered the kitchen with a slight frown, finding the fluffball on the ground and one of the pots next to it. It must've dashed into the counter... A loud throat clearing made Evee turn slightly, the girl catching sight of the one and only fearsome mother.

Well okay, her mother had been nice enough earlier but now that she was disapproving, her threat level had raised significantly. "Edehvé Mirym Petora," Her mother said, enunciating each syllable. "Just what is that on the kitchen floor?"

"E-Er... um.... that's a cottonee, mother..." She said weakly, brushing a bit of hair behind her ear.

"I know full well what it is, Edehvé, I'm asking what is it doing here?" Her mother paused, seeming to have noticed the Professor standing in the doorway. "Ah.... Professor, we weren't expecting you. Is that pokémon yours?"

"Hello, Tatiana--please, just call me Sam," the professor cleared his throat. "There's been an... interesting development that I think your daughter would like to bring to your attention..."

"Oh?" Evee knew that "oh". The unamused, no-nonsense one.

"R-right... well, you see um..." She tried her best to keep herself speaking firmly but her voice came out weaker than she would've liked. "You know how I went to the lab to ask after the togekiss....? Well, when I got there, Angelique was there too and so was J.T..."

"Dear Arceus..." Her mother said quietly.

"And one thing led to another and this cottonee hatched. I-It might've been my fault and I really wanted to make it up to J.T. so I wanted to go with him to Unova so--" Her mother shook her head firmly, frown deepening.

"Out of the question. You have no business in Unova. And I'm sure the Professor would agree with me when I say you are far too young to be travelling far away from home."

"Actually, Mrs. Petora," J. T. spoke up this time after clearing his throat. "Many young teens venture from their homes in Unova at an even younger age than your daughter, some as young as thirteen. Besides, a lot of kids end up traveling with friends anyway and then are exposed to new people and places in their travels. I'm heading back to Unova in the next day or two, actually, making the journey from here to Vermilion and catching a boat to take me back to Castelia, whereupon I'll be heading north back to my hometown in Nimbasa City--" the intern stopped, feeling that he had been rambling for far too long.

"The long and short of it is this, Tatiana," Oak took over the conversation. "Your daughter feels she's ready to explore the world. She has an opportunity to go with my trusted assistant, and she is free to take it if she so wishes to."

Evee's mother seemed contemplative as she quietly took in what she had just been told. The woman's lips were pursed as she shook her head again, but less firm than before. "I'm still unsure... And this is rather sudden. We will need to have a... talk as a family before any further decisions are made." Evee nervously looked from her mother to the Professor and finally at J.T.

"As soon as you reach a decision, let me know--I'm planning on leaving as soon as possible, actually..." J. T.'s voice trailed off, not really interested in explaining the reason why he wanted to leave, nor finding it necessary to do so.

Her mother nodded as she took a few steps forwards, smiling at the two men. "Well! I'll keep that in mind. It was pleasant having you stop by. Thank you," She politely began to walk the men to the door, leaving Evee in the kitchen with the baby. It looked up at her with its overly large eyes, happily bouncing again. It must be nice to be that oblivious.... The same couldn't be said of the girl. She wasn't looking forward to the night's conversation but could only hope that in the end, her parents did decide to let her go.

The setting changes from Pallet Town to Kanto Region

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#, as written by Vix
Night was soon upon the sleepy town of Pallet. Angelique had yet to come out of the Corral, having opted to spend her day playing with the Pokémon there. All day could the sound of hers and Aria's singing be heard along with the laughter of the Pokémon. She felt at home here in the Corral – Quite literally. Not including all the work she did back home, it was exactly how her days were in Rainbow Valley. But, all days come to an end and this one was no different. As the day did wind down to night, the noise from the Corral wound down with it. The telltale smoke and glow of a camp fire could be seen among the treetops, the scent of cooked meat and vegetables wafting around the forest. But, the food was long gone and all that remained were those whom had eaten it, lying around the campfire.

Angel was among the Pokémon, curled up on Atreyu's side with Chomper and Ashdir kicking each other in their sleep on her chest, catching her in the middle. She eventually rolled over, sending them tumbling into one of Atreyu's feet. Not a single one of them woke up. But, there was a single Oddish that was awake and alert, suffering from insomnia. He sat by the fire and relaxed, talking to himself about Arceus knows what – The others said he was just crazy from lack of sleep. Could be.

His head turned at the sound of beeping that seemed to be coming from Angelique's bag. He walked (or waddled, one might say) over to the bag and blinked slowly before moving to Angelique, bumping her with his head. “Dish. Oddish! Oddish!” Angelique would slowly stir, feeling the leaves tickling her flesh. “Wh-?” She gave a soft “Unnh” at being woken from such a pleasant dream, looking sleepily at the Oddish that was bouncing around her belt. The beeping was coming from her MPC – She got it from her friend Morganna after getting her Snivy to evolve. She flipped open the small thing that was about one third the size of a netbook and saw an e-mail from one of the other Elite Four back in Unova. [Heard you were in Pallet. Also heard there was some trouble around Kanto. Help check it out?] She sighed and closed it.

She could find out what Alexander meant...tomorrow. For now, she sleepily curled up with the Oddish and passed out once more.

It wasn't until later that night, nearly dawn when she was woken up again. This time it was by the Pokémon around her shouting out in confusion and fear. As soon as her eyes snapped open, she reached for her belt. It was reflex for her to grab her pokéballs and return her Pokémon whenever she found herself in a rather frightening and confusing situation. But, her belt was empty. There was only her PC. She blinked rapidly and looked once more. Nothing! She shot up and looked around before holding out her hands for silence. “What happened?!” She was bombarded with a number of answers that she couldn't decipher, leading her to simply shake her head furiously.

She snatched up her belt and backpack, putting them on simply as she ran through the Corral, headed for Pallet Town. She ran as fast as her legs could take her, fighting back the exhaustion as she went straight for Professor Oak's home. She found herself banging on his door, screaming out his name. “Sam! Sam! Sam! Wake up! Please!” It took a few minutes, but a light finally came on and she could hear him shuffling behind the door before opening. He took one look at her, seeing her eyes red, puffy, and damp from tears and exhaustion.

“Angelique, what's wrong? Did-”, he started, but Angelique cut him off. “My Pokémon are gone! All of them – The egg, too!” She was trembling. She didn't know what to do, really. She had always had them – Since she was a child! They were her A-Team. Yes, she had other Pokémon back in Rainbow Valley that she could have put into her PC so that she could use them now. But the point was that her Pokémon were missing. Was this what Alexander had meant by trouble in Kanto? Who would steal her Pokémon? Who actually had the resources? Well, to be truthful, it simply returning them to their respective pokéball and making off with them would be relatively easy. But. Who? Team Rocket came to mind...But they were disbanded. Some in prison...some dead.

She was about to rip out her hair as Oak put on some slippers and a coat, leaving his house and guiding her back up to the lab so that he could check on it. He pulled out his own pokégear and was in the process of contacting J.T. Assuming the intern picked up his phone, Angelique listened over the sound of her own labored breathing as Samuel spoke. “Meet me at the lab. Its quite important.” The walk wasn't too far – Not even two minutes. When they got there, the door was wide open, but it didn't look like forced entry. Most likely, the lock was picked.

Oak ran ahead of Angelique, flipping on the light inside. A cry of distress came from him, causing Angel to walk just a little bit faster. Coming up behind him, she saw that many papers and devices were missing as well as all of the eggs she had delivered. There was a giant red 'R' painted on his far back wall, denoting who was responsible. Jeez – What happened to being inconspicuous?

The setting changes from Kanto Region to Pallet Town

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The sound of his cellphone ringing at three in the morning was never something that J. T. wanted to wake up to... ever. Still, the surprised ringing of the phone caught him off-guard, and he groggily answered it as coherently as he could muster at dark-o'clock-in-the-morning.

"...hrgl... Hello?" J. T. managed to mutter after clearing his throat and putting on his glasses.

“Meet me at the lab. It's quite important.” It was the professor--he sounded rather troubled, moreso than normal. What could have been so important that it could not have waited until the morning? Was something hatching? Did something try and escape the corral? The intern sighed as he stood up and stretched before throwing on his shirt from the previous day and quickly grabbing his pants. After hastily putting the trenchcoat over his shoulders and neglecting to grab any footwear except for a pair of bland slippers, J. T. quickly shuffled his way across the sleeping town toward the lab, which, strange enough, had the front door propped wide open.

When the intern entered the lab, he was almost stupefied by the chaos that greeted him. The place was almost in complete and utter disarray--papers strewn across the floor, other aides standing by with puzzled and bewildered looks across their faces, but most intimidating was the crimson R that was painted across the far wall. Most confusing, however, were the frantic duo of Angelique and Oak scrambling around the area searching for something... or somethings. While J. T. was rather amused by the fact that Angelique looked frazzled for once, there was in fact sheer panic strewn across her face--even for someone that he did not see eye-to-eye with, he knew better than to gloat or show any sign of schadenfreude. There were more pressing matters than his petty squabble with her, and he knew it.

"...what happened here?" J. T. asked, although he could tell from the blatant vandalism that it was anything but good.

The Professor glanced over, catching sight of J. T., giving a slight "Ah." He cleared his throat and motioned towards his now messy (or messier, for that matter) fact. He then pointed to the giant red 'R' that was painted on the back wall. "That. That is what happened here. This certainly gives me reason to believe that Team Rocket has been here. Or some sort of new gang modeled after them. Either that or its just extreme pranksters, and my dear boy: This is not funny." His voice was stern, but still rather sleepy in tone. Oak enjoyed his sleep and no disaster could snap him wide awake in such short time. Angelique herself was pacing, rubbing the tears away from her eyes and mumbling incoherent sentences underneath her breath. It was quite possible that she would have some sort of breakdown. "Mister Eische, I'm going to have to ask you to stay here with me and help me dial up the police as well as the other Professors and notify them of this. I can ony pray to Arceus that this is just a silly prank." Oak knew better - But it was a mix of his optimism and exhaustion speaking. He turned to Angelique. "My dear, I'm afraid that J. T. and I can be of no assistance - or at least not much - in retrieving your stolen Pokemon. If I remember correctly, you have more at your disposal." He was answered only by a simple nod. She had ceased her pacing and hair-pulling, opting to sit down in a chair she had turned upright, placing her face into her hands. This was a disaster, indeed! Oak turned back to J. T. "Ah - Angelique woke earlier to find that her Pokemon and their pokeballs were missing." That was never a good thing. Angelique had to choke back a sob at the reminder, as if she had tried to forget and pretend it to be nothing more than a dream.

A very terrible and nasty dream. A nightmare. But it wasn't.

Oak continued on speaking to J. T. "I myself will call up our colleagues within the Kanto and Johto areas. You will call those in Hoenn and Sinnoh and we can split the Unova branch down the middle. We can only hope that nothing like this has happened there. That...wouldn't really be good."

The gravity of the situation hit J. T. in the chest like a brick. He had heard of the activities of the Rockets, but they had disbanded nearly eleven years before. Granted, they had never tried to come to Unova with the same intensity that Plasma had a few years ago, but this must have been a serious problem in Kanto if Oak was going to great lengths to warn the other professors. Angelique's pokemon had been stolen, too--this was something that someone would have needed a deathwish to even think to pull off on someone as reknown as an Elite. Still, the deed had been done, and Oak was absolutely correct--J. T. had never been good with battle theory, nor could he really control his pokemon well enough to get them to battle for him the way he wanted them to. Still, there was the ability to warn the other professors, even though J. T. did not have Professor Birch's nor Professor Rowan's numbers. Still, he had Professor Juniper's, and he could at least let her know--she would remember him from his days back in school, and she would take the situation to heart and let the others know. She had to!

"Professor, I'll call Professor Juniper and let her know--I can't call Birch or Rowan because I haven't ever met with them before..." In a flash, the intern whipped out his cellphone and found the professor's number saved in his contact information. He walked off to the side, away from Angelique's sniffling and muttering, just so he could ensure the best chance of communication.

"Angelique, you should hurry before they get too far away. There's no telling what amount of damage they could and possibly will do with a Pokemon team such as yours. I can't honestly say I have any sort of communication with any of the Elite Four - Of any region. Nor with anyone else that has experience with dealing with these thugs. You may want to aler -" He paused as J. T. called over to him, catching his attention.

"I don't think it'd be a good idea to just have Angelique run out with guns blazing... Think about it for a minute--are there any clues to where they could have gone?" J. T. piped up after telling the professor on the other end of the line to wait one moment. "Hadn't they made some sort of secret base in Kanto or Johto that got flushed out some years back?"

"This isn't my first rodeo. I know what I'm doing."

Before Oak could reply, Angelique had stood abruptly. She had made the transition from the stage of sorrow to that of anger, showing in her eyes and clenched fists. She pulled her small PC from her waist where it was nestled in her belt, flipping it open. "I'm pretty sure Unova is having some sort of the same trouble." Her voice came out as an irate sigh, recalling the e-mail she had received from Alexander. Right about now, she wished that she hadn't ignored it. Maybe she should have shaken herself awake and gathered her Pokemon and left for home immediately. Maybe if she had, she would have come across the thugs who had her beloved companions now. She could have dealt with them then. She was most worried about Ashdir and Chomper. And the egg. Ash and Chomp weren't exactly young, but they were so naive. And Caesar! He wasn't the brightest star in the sky - He probably thought it to be another of Ashdir and Chomper's games.

She felt...incomplete. She always had them with her. Whether out or about ot safely in their pokeballs on her waist. She had never thought about what would happen if she lost them because she never imagined it would happen. A groan slipped past her lips as she poked furiously at the keys on her PC. She was answered by the voice of a rather...unhappy sounding female. "What do you want, tramp?" Classic Morganna. She rolled her eyes and continued poking away at the keys. "That's your team? How weak." She never was going to get used to these damned messages. There was a soft click and a tray slid out from the side. Rather than the tray looking as though it would hold a disk, it had six holes that were deep enough to fit a pokeball not in use in each. Which was exactly what happened to be in them. She plucked out the small pingpong ball-sized capsules and clipped them to her waist in the places where the others normally went. Astin, Christina, Leonard, Emmy, Emmy, and Aretha had been her choices. She felt that the others weren't quite ready for what might come. She decided to play it safe and stick with her B-Team.

J. T. closed the cellphone at the sound of the new voice, having finished his phone call with Juniper moments before. It sounded familiar--he recognized the attitude in the voice... but he thought she was... He shook his head. It couldn't have been! Still... He turned toward Oak, his face locked with a serious expression as he turned toward the professor. "Juniper knows now and says that she'll help out in any way she can, which includes calling her colleagues through Unova and even to the other big-name professors in the other regions. I also told her that I'd be back in Unova in a few days..."

The professor nodded and went back to scouring the rooms looking for something that apparently had gone missing or he had misplaced--the intern could not tell. His mind was more focused on the woman typing away on her little device that spat pokeballs at her. These must have been other pokemon that had been stored away for her future use, but he had certainly never seen anything like that before! Still, he cast his wonder aside as he slowly approached the intense woman, hoping to make some sort of amends before this situation spiraled further out of control.

"...I... I wanted to offer my condolences for what happened to your pokemon..." J. T. kept his voice low, but he was being sincere. It was a terrible fate to befall anyone, especially someone as well-respected as an Elite. "...I don't know why they struck now or how they got away with it, but... this should not happen to anyone, least of all you...'

"Emmy, I'm going to need you to use yo-" Angelique had paused her speech, having been speaking to a smallish Riolu that was gazing up at her with intensity. The mint-haired woman watched as J.T. came closer, her small hands curling into fists as she slightly expected him to have something to say about her speaking out earlier. Normally, she would apologize for having used such a harsh tone. But she wasn't exactly in the kind mindset right now. Her eyes narrowed as he stopped near her, watching him intensely. Emmy let out a soft growl and took a fighting stance as well - She didn't know J. T. or what he had done that might have put Angelique on edge. But she simply took a cue from her taller companion, expecting a brawl. Oh, how Emmy loved to brawl! What had come out of J. T.'s mouth did something that rare people could do when she was angry: It made her speechless. It's not that she thought his sentence was random - She would say the same had it been him in her shoes. But she was quite sure from his earlier behavior that he wasn't exactly her biggest fan.

She had met her biggest fan once. He was a creeper.

She took a moment, blinking rapidly in the way that she normally and seemingly quite often does, her mouth agape. "Rii." Emmy nudged her, looking back up to her. "I know - Shut up." She sighed, irate once more. She then quickly shook her head and placed her left hand to her face, splaying her fingers. "Er - Not you, J. T. Emmy. You shut up." The Riolu rolled her eyes and delivered a jab to Angel's calf, producing a yelp and a light kick to her own shin. Emmy did her best to lighten the mood. Slightly effective! Angelique gave a soft smile to J. T., at least glad that he didn't hate her. Or maybe he did. But at least he wasn't being a jerk at the moment. "It could happen to anyone. I'm no better than anyone else that it shouldn't happen to me." She gave a light shrug, doing her best to compose herself. She wasn't going to leave in blind anger.

"...says the woman whose face is plastered across billboards all over Unova," J. T. smirked a bit at the joke, but realized that it might have been in bad taste. Shaking his head again, he crouched down, trying to get on the woman's level. "Look, about earlier... It's just been a long couple of days for me, let's just leave it at that. I apologize for acting like a jerk earlier... It's not quite the way I should present myself to people as a future professor, I admit... Like Oak said, I can't really help you get your pokemon back, but the very least I can do is maybe keep an eye out for anything suspicious in Unova while I'm there?"

His apology warranted a light smile from her, showing from underneath the base of her palm just a bit. She lowered her hand some, looking up a bit into his eyes. She did still have to look up some, considering she wasn't really the tallest woman in the world. "Thank you...I apologize as well. I really didn't mean to speak to you like you were a child...I didn't mean to upstage you or anything, either." She gave a light sniffle and brushed under her nose gently with her forefinger. "I'd really appreciate that...I should probably go now. I'll repay the favor somehow." Ha. A rhyme. Slightly better mood. Apology: Super effective! She stood slowly and took only a step towards him, her arms outstretch as if to hug. Though, her fingers started to twitch along with the muscles in her face as though she had been suddenly paralyzed. Her hands finally formed fists and she gave an awkward, tight-lipped smile before giving him an even more awkward light punch to the arm. "Uhnn...Good luck." Way to motivate, Angelique.

"...likewise. I should get a few more hours of sleep before I begin the trek to Vermilion..." J. T. yawned before turning toward the door and walking out, rubbing his arm as he did so. Of course she'd offer to repay me... The woman has everything in the world; she could afford to do that... Still, the offer was a nice gesture, even if he dreaded the thought of being given an egg for free--an egg, he might add, he did not need nor care about receiving. His thoughts began to wander toward the next day; he had yet to hear from that Evee girl...

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He had not gotten much sleep after all of the hulabaloo from the lab. The return of Team Rocket was grim news indeed--enough for anyone to lose sleep over this news. The theft of Angelique's pokemon was also rather grim news; J. T. never thought that anyone would be so bold as to steal the pokemon of an elite, but it had happened regardless of his notions of common sense. He looked at his clock: four in the morning. Arceus, why could he not sleep now?

Perhaps it was due to his mind being fully awake this early after the events in Oak's workplace, but J. T. picked himself up out of bed, determined to shake himself awake however he needed to. If this meant leaving early to avoid potential Rocket-related activity in Pallet, so be it. Evee had not gotten back to him yet, so he merely shrugged and assumed that she would not be allowed to go with him. It was just something else he did not have to make sure stayed safe in his care.

The scraggy and tynamo were both sleeping in their respective capsules. J. T. smiled as he tucked them onto his belt and made sure that all of his supplies were packed away in his bag--books, some extra money, clothes, some food and water on the go... The intern told himself that he needed to make sure he picked up a pack of cigarettes just to make sure that he didn't run out in case Angelique tried to follow them and act all buddy-buddy with him... While he could act sociable if he wanted to, he would rather put the entire ordeal behind him and move on...

Throwing on his trenchcoat, J. T. wiped his glasses and lifted his bag, making sure that it was secure on his back. After this journey, he would be back and ready to work for Oak with a clear head and all of his other problems at home. Whether Evee was coming or not was... problematic, though. She had mentioned that she didn't have the money at this time--if he was to pay for a ticket for her, it would leave a huge dent in his underwhelming savings. Then there was further food, room and board, transportation costs, supplies--he shuddered as he tried to put all of this out of his mind.

The grass outside was covered in early morning dew as the intern stretchd and looked around the sleepy town. Nothing out of the ordinary for this time of the morning--except for the activity around Oak's lab. Of course, the police showed up to help survey the scene; J. T. expected nothing less from the law enforcement officials than to show up to a world-reknown professor's lab as soon as someone had broken in. He shook his head when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye--a rope of bedsheets draped outside of an open window--

"Oh no..."

The intern began to panic. Judging by the current situation, the young girl ran off in the middle of the night, which probably meant that she would not have been allowed to leave even if she wanted to. There were two huge questions on his mind as this image lingered: how long ago had she left, and how far up Route One had she been able to get in that time?

Fearing more for Evee's safety than the well-being of her parents at four in the morning, J. T. ran out to the edge of Pallet, hoping that the young girl had not given herself the opportunity to get lost out in the wilderness. Sure, the path to Viridian was rather straightforward, but that did not mean the wildlife would appreciate someone wandering around their habitat and disturbing their sleep. The rattata in the area were rather keen on ensuring their comfort in the evenings--they were not nocturnal by nature, but there was always the occasional pack that moved from one place to the other in the middle of the night. He hoped that the girl had not the misfortune of stumbling across a few dozen purple rat-creatures in her exodus; that would probably not bode very well for her first steps in her journey.

"Evee!" J. T. shouted as he picked up the pace through the tall grasses, hoping that the quiet night would allow his voice to carry through the air. "Evee, c'mon! Where are you?"

After picking up the pace for a bit, the intern found a familiar silhouette on the horizon. He picked up the pace, feeling the burning sensation in his lungs as he tried to suppress a cough on his approach. Damn, I'm horribly out of shape... Note to self: the moment you begin to plan construction of your own laboratory, include a fitness area for yourself... and cut the smokes.

"Evee! Arceus, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" J. T. sounded both relieved and terrified to see the girl out here by herself. "What were you thinking, escaping from your room like that? Don't you know how your parents are--" he paused, realizing that the last thing the girl wanted or needed was some hot-shot intern she barely even knew playing the role of overbearing caretaker.

He sighed, collecting his thoughts and readjusting his pack on his back before crouching down a bit to get to her eye level. "OK, let me start over... Evee, are you all right? You're not hurt, are you?" Even in the dim light, he could not see anything glaringly wrong with the girl, but he wanted to make sure anyway. The biggest concern on his mind, however, was whether or not she was going to return to Pallet with him now; if the bedsheet rope out the window had been any indication, J. T. highly doubted that she would go back without a fight.

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It was the call that startled her.

The young grl had been attempting to walk along route one, clutching her cottonee close to her body. The creature was giving off odd noises that sounded like soft protests to being held so tightly. But she was hesitant to let her fluffy friend out of her grip. Even though the sky was beginning to lighten up, it was still dark enough to spook her when she saw a shadow move about in the grass. So it came as no surprise that upon hearing her name, the girl gave a squeak of surprise.

She started and turned hesitantly. Had her parents come for her already? No, it was too early, so who--Oh. The form of J. T. greeted her, the man looking a tad worn out. Had he run all this way? She blinked at him but wasn't able to get her question out. He was already speaking in an odd tone so it was difficult for her to make out if he was angry at her or just relieved to see her.

"Evee! Arceus, you nearly gave me a heart attack! What were you thinking, escaping from your room like that? Don't you know how your parents are--" The man took a breath and bent down a little so that the two of them were on eye level. She frowned. Even he was treating her like a little kid. "OK, let me start over... Evee, are you all right? You're not hurt, are you?" He asked her gently, looking her up and down.

She took a step back from him, puffing her cheeks a bit as she shot him her best glare. (Admittedly, not all that fearsome) While she was touched that he even bothered asking after her, the way he was acting around her clearly indicated that he did not think she would be well-enough on her own. "I'm fine!" She said shortly, the pokémon in her arms giving a pleased sound at the sight of the intern. She paused, realizing that if J. T. had caught up to her, that meant he hadn't left yet. Perhaps it had been silly to think he had departed so early in the morning.

"I'm not hurt, okay? So you can relax. I was going to the next town over anyway," She didn't finish her sentence, mostly because she was trying her best to make it seem as if she had everything together. Truth be told, she had no idea where to go beyond Viridian and had been hoping to rely on J. T. for that knowledge. But she wasn't about to ask now, not when she was trying to prove a point! She was most certainly old enough to be adventuring. And she'd show him too.

The intern breathed a sigh of relief when Evee replied that she was fine. Knowing the area, he was aware that rattata could be rather vicious creatures when disturbed from their slumber, but that was not to be the case--for now, at least. He realized that the quicker he could get the young girl back home, the less likely it would be to have either of them be attacked in the middle of the wilderness--a rather tame excuse for wilderness, but wilderness nonetheless.

"How can I relax when I woke up nearly forty-five minutes ago to see a rope made of bedsheets hanging out of a second-story window, Evee?" the intern asked, his voice slightly more intense. He figured that if she was going to protest returning home, he'd at least try and provide reasons for her to do so that were logical. "Especially with police everywhere? It's an Arceusdamn miracle that you weren't caught trying to run!"

Here he went! Her cheeks puffed up even more as she pouted, finally crossing her arms so tightly that her cottonee squeezed out from her grasp. "Nee!" It squealed, flailing around and hovering to the ground where it bumped against J. T.'s leg. The girl didn't pay it much heed, she was too upset at what he was trying to do! There was no way she was going to go back home, not after how much effort it took to get out in the first place! And it wasn't as if he minded her coming along yesterday. So why was he being such a meanie now?

"I'm nearly legal age anyway!" She retorted, huffing. "Besides, it's not as if there aren't other kids out adventuring anyway so what difference does it make? I have money"--That I'll need to take out pretty soon or I'll be cut off from my funds, she finished internally--"And I can use that as a means to get to where I need to go!"

She realized there was a flaw in her argument, a huge glaring one at that. She didn't exactly have a place to go or anywhere that needed her attention. She would've just been following J. T. But she was a bit too upset to care about that. Why couldn't he just see that she'd be fine? Sending her back to be confined just wasn't fair.

"So climbing through your bedroom window at dark'o'clock in the morning seemed the best way to get started on your journey?" he replied, raising an eyebrow as he stood back up to his full height and wiped his glasses on his shirt. "Speaking of journies, where exactly did you plan on going after you hit Viridian anyway?" He replaced his glasses back on his nose and inadvertently reached for his inner coat pocket, hand almost ready to pluck a cigarette out of the box hidden away when he realized that he had been chastised the previous afternoon by this same girl for it. Thinking better of it for the time being, he tried to play it off as an itch across his chest before bringing his arms across his chest, mirroring Evee's current stance.

A nervous blush worked its way on to her cheeks and she tried to fight it down. Of course he had seen her mistake, but that wasn't going to stop her! "I-I uh... was going to go get badges!" She proclaimed, her voice breaking a little at the end. Where had that come from? Oh well, it was out now... "And once I do, then I'll have proven all along that I was old enough to be out here and strong enough to handle things on my own!" She proclaimed, gaining more confidence as she spoke. Yeah, it was a good idea! She'd get the badges and then her parents would have to acknowledge her.

"With what, a newborn cottonee that doesn't know how to fight?" J. T. retorted, taking a step closer to the girl. "I don't understand what's gotten into you all of a sudden! First it was the conversation at your house (which I assume did not go very well otherwise this situation would not have occurred at all), then your escape, and now you're acting all stubborn for no reason! Evee, you asked to come with me--if you were so adamant about that, why did you leave without me? Especially with Team Rocket on the loose?" He did not want to be this confrontational with the girl, but he felt it necessary to have her see how rash her decisions had been and what sort of consequences she could receive because of them.

She could feel the first stings, the first signs that she was not coping well with this at all. She knew she wasn't being that rational and she knew that her stubbornness wasn't helping the situation at all. "I-I just..." She trailed off miserably, looking down at her shoes as her vision got a little blurry. She swallowed, trying to force the feeling back. "I didn't know if you'd left or not and I didn't... want you to leave without me." She tried to keep her voice even but still, the strain caused her voice to hitch.

Her cottonee looked up at her with its large eyes, seemingly confused at her dejected nature. She bent down, burying her face in the cotton so that she wouldn't have to look back up at J. T. "I don't want to go back there. And I thought you'd take me with you because you didn't seem to have a problem with it yesterday. I can't go back home a failure." Her words came out muffled but she hoped he heard her. It was always hard when she knew she was fighting a losing battle and her odds at persuading J. T. were low.

"You're absolutely right--I didn't have a problem with it yesterday because I didn't imagine that I would have had to chase you through Route One before dawn just to make sure you weren't attacked by Team Rocket or a swarm of rattata after escaping from your bedroom using a bed sheet rope..." J. T. was slightly winded from that sentence, but his resolve was still rather strong. "This is the sort of thing that your parents are afraid you would do, Evee... Just because you're old enough doesn't mean you're able to take care of yourself on your own. I mean, look at me: I'm what... six, seven years older than you? And I'm still barely able to go out in the wild and take care of myself in the wilderness..." he chuckled.

"The point is, Evee, that you think you're ready for this grand adventure for going off on your own... but you're not..." his voice trailed off, letting the words linger in the still early morning air. "Not many people your age are, to be honest. That's why most trainers leave in small groups with friends they trust--they take care of each other, survive with each other, thrive in the wilderness and make sure that they're all OK. Doing what you did--going out on your own without any sort of plan except for 'escape'--is exactly why your parents are afraid to let you go out on your own..."

She was silent for a few minutes after he finished speaking, wiping her eyes on the pokémon's fluff. She still did not bring her face up to meet his gaze, hiccupping slightly as she adjusted her weight. Nothing she said would persuade him she was set about leaving. How was she supposed to win this argument? Maybe winning wasn't the key here. If she could only somehow have him agree that she could journey in the first place...

"Then why can't we go together? You can fend for yourself and if you're around, then I'll be just fine." She hiccuped again and finally peered at him shyly from behind her cottonee. "And if I'm going to learn, then why not bring me?" She asked softly, hoping that he might concede to a different angle.

"And what happens if your parents react by sending police after me because I supposedly kidnapped you?" The intern unfolded his arms and cracked his knuckles, staring off to the side and hoping that someone was not listening in to their conversation that probably should not have been happening at all in the open air. "What if they start a campaign with flyers and advertisements asking 'Have you seen our daughter?' everywhere? They'd think I'm a criminal--" he paused, realizing that he was only making himself more nervous trying to think about that almost inevitable possibility.

"You're not a criminal..." She mumbled, not that her words made much of a difference anyway. "Just take me as far as Viridian. I-I just need to make a phone call." Angelique had said that she was allowed to call and maybe with the woman's endorsement, she'd be safe. "If it doesn't work, then... then I'll go back home without a fuss." She sniffled, looking at the ground again.

"If what doesn't work?" J. T. asked, raising an eyebrow incredulously.

"My phone call." She responded, trying not to give specifics. She had a strong feeling that J. T. would be heartily against seeking out Angelique's help, given what happened back at the lab. But she didn't exactly have alternatives at this point and this would buy her some time, at least, to think.

The intern sighed and finally let his arms drop to his sides. "...I guess I see no harm in that..." He took a few steps closer to Evee, crouching down to her eye level once again. "Come on, you coming or am I leaving you behind again?" he chuckled, trying to lighten the mood but not quite sure whether it was successful.

Relief washed over her at his words. She was unable to hold back her excitement and before she could stop herself, the girl shot up and wrapped her arms around J. T.'s torso. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" She exclaimed, unaware that her cottonee had rolled away from her and was currently flailing helplessly in a nearby bush. She blushed with renewed embarrassment and immediately let go of him, looking away quickly. Oops! She had gotten carried away.

"U-Um, sorry!" She said, trying to busy herself by pulling her pokémon out of the bush. So she had gotten herself a few additional hours. Not much to work with but it was more time than she had had before. And maybe... she wouldn't have to return home if everything worked out. She crossed her fingers internally. Hopefully everything would.