(So, there's this writer on here who is one of the best writers I've ever had the luck to find, and her user here is Cantarella of Odile. Remember when I first came to Fanfiction and I said a writer from here was the first to inspire me to create an account? Yes, that was her, and I regret nothing by admitting such a thing. Anyway, let's say she inspired me again, so I'm writing my own Nuzlocke! You guys should read hers too! Anywho, here we go... /Hopes it will beat least some what good/ And that ugly title...Definately temporary till I find something better. UGH.)

What A Nice Start

"-And the purrloin is safely recovering now. In other news, more words of the so called 'activist group' that call themselves Team Plasma are continuing to spread. More and more people are starting to heed the words they speak and release their pokemon. Apparently it is for pokemon liberation, but is that really it? What do you all think of this? Any info pertaining to these people is-"

I killed the volume of my laptop with a tap of my finger after I gave a scoff. My cheek was resting on my left knee that was propped up while the other laid comfortably straight. The light from the screen reflected in my eyes as I stared down at it, watching the newswoman continue to speak her unheard words. Tilting my head to the side, I shut it completely off and snapped it closed.

"Too bad we all already know they're just as much of a terrorist group as all the groups before them." I thought out loud, mocking the woman's words beforehand. I never understood the whole 'terrorist group' thing. Some psycho maniac creates a team of criminals for the most selfish reason imaginable...Only to be crushed and disbanded by some random trainer kid. I couldn't help but wonder what 'random trainer kid' would be the one to take down those guys.

After a few minutes of silence, I heard hollow knocking downstairs. Hopping off my bed and onto the wooden floor in an oddly happy manner, I walked out of my room and headed downstairs via sliding down the railing. Thank Arceus my mom wasn't home or she'd complain to me (again) for doing it. She said I was too much like my brother. I always considered it a compliment anyway.

I landed square on my feet at the bottom of the staircase and motioned 'safe' with my arms before walking up to the door, sighing, and opening it.

Standing in front of me was a guy who looked about eighteen. He had sandy tan ruffled hair hiding under a dirty orange beanie hat, a vest of the same dirty color over a grey long sleeve shirt, baggy jeans, muddy brown boots, and dull green eyes. My facial expression grew blank from the cheerful one it once had as I stared at him.

He popped his bubblegum, staring back with the same look. "Little Miss Blair." he spoke in monotone, one arm lazily holding a box under his armpit.

"First name, numnuts. First name. Remember that." I corrected.

He scowled angrily. "Shut the hell up! Arceus, you're just like your annoying brother!"

"Why are you getting mad? You don't want me to call you 'Shevel', do you? No, of course not, that sounds incredibly wierd. So if you don't call me by my last name, I won't call you by yours."

He grew silent at my comment, his eyes closing as his right eyebrow twitched repeatedly in irritation. Yea, you see, I have a knack for making people mad. Or as they put it: pissing them off. Hey, at least you can't say I wouldn't be good at breaking the ice in a conversation.

My eyes drifted back to the box under his arm. It was just your average brown delivery box and all that. That's not what grabbed my attention. What DID grab my attention happened to be the stamp that indication where it was sent from, and here's a hint: not from Johto.

"That package for me or what?" I asked, leaning against the doorway.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Yes, it's for you, Ashurii. Just sign this piece of paper saying you got it and whatnot so I can give it to you and leave."

I grinned as he handed me the clipboard and skimmed over the words. "So you're still stuck in this dead end package delivery boy job, eh Eric?" I tsked at him as I shook my head in disappointment. "How sad. You should go to college, you know; get yourself a degree in something. You never know, you might be the next gym leader in some region! Preferably a region other than here where no one knows you."

Eric snatched the clipboard out of my hands as soon as my pen lifted off the paper and shoved me the box. "That mouth of yours is going to get you brutally mauled, Ashurii, and I'm going to laugh my ass off when that happens." he snapped, then whirled around and stalked off.

"Love you too~!" I called after him.

When he didn't answer me, I shrugged and spun on my heels and walked back inside, closing the door with my foot behind me. As I did so, a fox-like pokemon with purple and red fur jumped up from behind the couch to peer at me with its amber eyes. My gaze locked with his as I walked over to set the box on the sitting cushions, not once looking away from him.

"What's that, Ashurii?" it spoke up finally, hopping up beside the box.

I beamed at him. The pokemon beside me was Zoro, my Zorua. It's a pokemon native to Unova, but Zoro was given to me by my brother, Black, who happens to be in that very region at the moment. Zorua's and Zoroark's alike have been known to speak to humans through telepathy, thus explaining why I ca actually hear him right now. Zoro's been with be for only about seven months, but we're like best friends, you can say. I talk to him more than I do anyone else in this boring little town, anyway.

"It's a package, obviously." I teased, then looked to read the words. "Black sent it from Castelia City, it seems."

"Nii-chan sent it? Open it, then!"

I'd never know why Zoro called him Nii-chan, nor would I ever ask. I just assumed Black was a nice 'older brother' to Zoro as well before he was given to me and left it at that.

I opened the box to see a pair of black boots with grey laces. I clapped as I kicked my slippers off and shoved them on. My brother knew my tastes so very well. Why was he even sending me these in the first place? My birthday was last week and I was now sixteen. OH YEA, it's my time to act adult...ish.

I posed, one foot on the couch while the other stayed on the floor as I looked off into the middle distance dramatically.

Zoro stared at me apathetically. "...What the hell are you doing, you moron." he said to me after a few moments of silence.

"Okay, let's go try 'em out~!" I cheered.

Zoro rolled his eyes as he jumped on my shoulder and I left the house, closing the door and locking it behind me.

I was greeted with the sight of the tiny place that was, in fact, my hometown: New Bark Town. As I walked along, some of the neighboring housewives stopped their chattering to stare at me with a mixture of disgust and surprise on their faces. Why did they ALWAYS look at me like that every time they saw me? I blinked and stopped walking to look down at my clothes. There wasn't anything wrong with them, was there? All I was wearing was my favorite black jacket I always wore, a long sleeve grey shirt that looked similar to Eric's, tan cargo shorts that stopped a little below my knees, and my brand new boots. I mused in deep thought. Nope, it couldn't be my clothes because I always dressed like this. Was it my hair, then? I ran my left hand through my jet black hair that stopped at my shoulders and had a side bang hanging over my right eye and shook my head.

"And yet, I still don't know why they-"

"Ashurii~!" shouted a cheerful male voice as someone hugged my from behind, causing me to yell in shock.

"Gah! What-Let me go!"

The person complied eventually and I spun around, coming face to face with my grinning friend Hibiki. "Hibiki!" I growled.

"Whatcha doing, Ashurii?" Hibiki questioned, that tuft of black hair hanging in his face bouncing as he tilted his head to the side and smiled.

"I was-"

"Ah, well, it doesn't really matter if you tell me. New boots, walking around, etcetera. They're from your brother, right? Say no more."

I nodded, rolling my eyes in the process. Once I did that, the front door of the pokemon lab I lived next to, run by the jittery and most probably schizophrenic Professor Elm, opened to reveal aforementioned professor. As his eyes laid on me, a smile appeared on his face and I couldn't help but cringe. Oh Arceus, that look...

"Ah, Miss Ashurii, I was just going to find you! Hibiki, bring her inside right away!" Professor Elm called out.

"Okay, Professor!" Hibiki agreed, grabbing me by my wrist and tugging me toward the building.

"What? No, traitor-!" I whined as he dragged me, Zoro cackling away from his place on my shoulder.

Hibiki pulled me inside the lab and closed the door behind him. I huffed and folded my arms childishly which made him laughed and pat my head.

"Come on, it's probably nothing bad." he reassured me as he ushered toward the back where Professor Elm was currently telling people to do this and that in a voice that was probably too quick for them to comprehend and shuffling through a mess of papers on his computer desk.

"...So...What do you need?" I asked slowly.

Professor Elm jumped with a jolt at the sound of my voice as I turned to face him, his hands squeezing tightly to the papers in his hands. "A-Ah, yes, that's right! Ashurii, I'm friends with a man known as Mr. Pokemon. He just emailed me saying he's made a new discovery of some sort. I-I'm busy as it is here, so do you think you could go see whatever he has?"

"How about you-"

Hibiki covered my mouth and smiled innocently. "She said she'd love to, Professor!" he answered for me.

"Wonderful..." Elm said with a sigh of relief as he turned to a table, then yelped in fear.

"Wha-What's wrong, sir?" spoke up one of the assistants with a worried stare.

He shook his head quickly, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "N-No, no, it's nothing. I'm fine. Anyway, Ashurii, I have three-"

I finally tore Hibiki's hand away to laugh. "Ohhhhh, haha, you think I need a pokemon better than Zoro to do such a simple task?"

"You tryin' to say I'm not good enough, you old schizoid?" Zoro barked angrily.

Professor Elm shook his head quickly. "Not at all! Ah, anyway, here's the directions, here you are!"

Hibiki accepted he piece of paper with a nod. I opened my mouth to speak once more, but didn't get a chance before Hibiki hauled me out just as quickly as I came. Once we were out, I shot an expectant glare, but he didn't flinch at all like most people (and sometimes pokemon) did. Instead, he folded his arms and practically glared right back.

"Oh, don't give me that look." he chided me. "You were acting like you were positively bored and wanted something to do, so I decided to help you out." he held his hand up, signaling it was not yet time for me to speak as he continued, "And yes, usually it's my job as Professor Elm's assistant to do such things, but starting today I'm going on my own pokemon journey instead."

My stare had grown apathetic by the time he was saying this, so he grinned and continued on some more, much to my annoyance.

"So I see you already have your backpack with you? Ah, it's the color black as usual..." he held out a little bag. "That's good! You're going to need it to carry these potions for Zoro!"

"Are you looking down on me, Echo?" Zoro demanded, baring his teeth.

Hibiki laughed lightly as he put the potions in my bag. "Now, why would I do that? All pokemon are weak in the beginning, you know that."

Zoro huffed and looked away.

My fluffy headed friend stepped back and took something out of his pocket, my PokeGear. He tossed it to me, which I caught after scrambling a little for it. I was, like, literally catching inept. Throwing was included free of charge, unfortunately...

"Your PokeGear came back today. You wanted it customized, right?"

"Does it got that insignia I wanted?" I asked, examining it.

He nodded. "Yes. It's on the back and it's also been made into the background screen."

"Perfect~." I chimed.

"You shouldn't wear so much black, Ashurii..." Hibiki mumbled, frowning. "I worry about you..."

I looked up at him and gave him an "are you serious?" look.

He cleared his throat. "Well, you should get a move on now, Ashurii. Professor Elm's phone number is already registered so he's there if you need him or vice versa."

"...How come you're helping me?"

Hibiki smiled that innocent smile once again. "I just want you to have fun, Ashurii; to have fun, experience some kind of adventure. That's what a good childhood friend usually does, right? Get going." he told me.

After eyeing him a bit, I nodded and headed off down the road. I could still his smile hitting my back, and somehow...It felt odd.

...

"Ha! That was too easy! And here I was worried I'd get hurt? I wish Echo was here so I could rub it in his face!" Zoro cheered in triumph as took our first steps into Cherrygrove City.

I snorted. "Oh, Zoro was scared?" I mocked him.

He flinched and looked up at me, obviously embarrassed. "What? No, of course not! The term is WARY, thank you!"

"Oh really~..."

"Yes, really!" he retorted, lifting his nose high up into the air as he walked briskly beside me.

"So you have no need for the pokemon center?" I questioned as we started walking past said center.

"Not at all!" Zoro answered as he reclaimed his place on my shoulder. "Besides, we got potions. We're good."

"Right. Even though we have a limited supply. Of course. Onto Route 30 then~."

As we walked past the Pokemart that was right beside the Pokemon Center, I stopped to see an old man that was incredibly agile for his age talking to a red haired guy that seemed completely uninterested in whatever he was prattling on about. He started to inch away, but it wasn't long before the old man noticed and grabbed him by the sleeve to drag him along some more.

I couldn't help but snicker as I watched the guy complain to the old man. "Hey, Zoro," I whispered, pointing to the two of them. "Check out the redhead being dragged."

"Aren't the young ones supposed to be strong?" Zoro said in a low voice, joining me in my little laughing fit.

"Hehe...Ahem, Alright..." I sighed, slowly recovering from my joke. "To Mr. Pokemon."

"Lead the way, princess!"

...

Giving a short summary of out little walk from Cherrygrove to Mr. Pokemon's house, it'd probably be something along the lines of the following: we met some dude when I walked into his house thinking it was Mr. Pokemon's, and he thought it was fate that we met so he gave me an apricorn box; we accidentally ran into the middle of a pokemon battle and almost got mauled by the very pokemon that were battling; we were given the correct directions to Mr. Pokemon's house by the trainers (quite rudely, I might add), and finally found ourselves standing on the doorstep of his house. The FIRST thing I'm going to do is give him a little lecture on why you shouldn't live so isolated from civilization no matter what kind of distance...

I gave a sigh of relief when I saw the mailbox I saw said 'Mr. Pokemon'. "About time we find his freaking house..." I growled, putting my hand on the handle.

"Let's hope it was worth it." Zoro added.

I looked at him as I started opening the door. "Well, Hibiki was pretty nice after all. Traveling and battling with you is pretty fun!" I said. "Hello there~? Mister-" I began, but the first person I saw when I walked inside definately wasn't some guy named Mr. Pokemon.

I saw a man with tannish hair with a little bit of grey showing in it sitting in a black leather chair. His current wardrobe consisted of a white button up dress shirt, khaki pants, and a brown leather jacket. He turned his head to look at me quizzically with his brown eyes, his left hand steadily holding a teacup.

"OAK!" I croaked, flinching anime style.

The only thing could do was freeze up. I mean seriously, who DIDN'T know Professor Oak? You either know him, or you've been living in the center of the earth. Seriously, he's known all over! And yet, here I am standing in front of him looking like some stupefied toddler...Nice...

"Yes, that's me." Professor Oak said, setting his teacup down.

"...H-Huh?" I stammered, shaking my head quickly as if I just woke up from a trance.

"You said '', did you not?" he raised a brow.

"Oh, technically I did, but..." I mumbled, searching for the right words.

"Oh!" shouted the man sitting next to him to Professor Oak as he stood up, making me turn my attention to him. He was wearing a dirt brown suit that looked completely hideous and a fedora to accompany it. I couldn't help but wince at the fashion disaster in front of me. "You must be Ashurii!"

I nodded. "Uh...Yea?"

He walked up to me and shook my happily, grinning away. "My name is Mr. Pokemon!" he paused, the spoke again, "Well, it's actually Tiberius Wolfe, but everyone calls me because of my love for pokemon research. You were sent by the Professor Elm, correct?"

Arceus, I look dumb. "Yes..."

"Ah, of course you are my dear. Please, make yourself at home until I return!" Mr. Tiberius-no, Mr. Pokemon?-told me as he walked quickly out of the room, leaving Zoro and I with Professor Oak.

I glanced over at him and saw that he was now eyeing my over the rim of his teacup as he took a sip. I sighed through my nose and stared at the door Mr. Pokemon had ran through. We could now hear crashes every few seconds from wherever he was. Were all researchers messy? I was seeing a pattern.

"Miss Ashurii, was it?" Professor Oak asked, catching my attention.

I completely turned to his this time, and Zoro pressed his body closer to my neck warily as I did so. "Uh, yea, that's me."

"What were you saying when you walked inside, again?"

I tilted my head to the side in confusion. "I was telling Zoro that I thought traveling and battling with Pokemon was actually pretty fun."

"Are you a pokemon trainer on a journey?"

I shook my head, my gaze lowering to my feet for a split second. "No sir, I just came out here to retrieve an item from Mr. Pokemon as requested by Professor Elm."

Professor Oak hesitated a moment. "I see." he said as he stood up and walked up to me. From his jacket's left pocket, he pulled out a shiny rectangular black box and tossed it in his hand once before holding it in front of me. "Would you want to if I gave you the option to right here?"

My eyes widened. "Excuse me?" I questioned to clarify is I had actually heard correctly.

"Do you know what this is, Miss Ashurii?"

As he said that, ran clumsily back into the room with something in his arms and that silly grin still plastered on his face. "I'm back! Anyway-" he started, but silenced himself when he saw the "predicament" before him.

"...That, Professor Oak, is a Pokedex and judging from the design and pristine shape it's in, it's also the latest model." I analyzed, slowly looked up to meet his gaze.

Said professor nodded and put it in one of my hands. "I want you to have this Pokedex."

"Hah? You're kidding! You don't even know us at all!" Zoro yelled from my shoulder, his voice making my ears ring in pain.

He chuckled at Zoro's remark. "Indeed I don't. However, I've always been a good judge of character. I've done this once before to a young trainer I met, and let me tell you...He exceeded my expectations! Haha!" he then gave a happy sigh. "That is why I'm giving you this."

I stayed silent, so he continued on.

"To be honest, Tiberius told me you were running an errand for Elm, so I decided to stay here to see if you could possibly be the one to take over ownership of that Pokedex."

"Speaking of me, here you are, Ashurii!" Mr. Pokemon interjected as he walked up and gave me an oversized egg, which made me stumble back a few steps.

"It's a pokemon egg, you know. A friend I know in Ecruteak gave it to me. It looked rather rare, that's why I wanted to show Elm! Professor Oak himself says he's the best in pokemon evolution."

Professor Oak nodded curtly. "Indeed he is. Any who, I must be going to Goldenrod for my radio show." he explained, then pat me on the shoulder. "Ashurii, I implore you to go on your own journey. If you tell Elm what happened here, he'll give you your trainer card."

"...That's sounds incredibly cliché." I told him with a blank stare.

Zoro held in the laugh in his throat as the two men in the room stared at me like I was insane.

Eventually, Professor Oak gave a laugh said a simple "Farewell now" to us, and headed toward the exit. I turned to watch him leave as his words continued to ring in my mind as if he was still saying then. Once his hand landed on that doorknob, though, I felt my hold around the pokemon egg tighten as what I was thinking leapt up from my throat:

"That person that exceeded your expectations was Red, wasn't it?"

He looked back at me. "Why, yes, it is." he confirmed, then patted a fist onto his palm. "And now that I'm remembering him, he's actually mentioned your very name before! How ironic is that? Anyway, goodbye now!"

And then he left, leaving the door wide open.

I nibbled on my bottom lip as my eyes scanned the doorway, then lowered them to stare down at the speckled white egg in my arms. 'I know.' I thought.

I decided against remembering anything related to him, though. There wouldn't be any need to because of what would eventually be waiting at home for me.

"Shouldn't you be heading back to Professor Elm, Ashurii?"

"Yep! Ahaha, see you later Mr. Tiberius." I replied cheerfully as I walked out the door to head back to New Bark town. If I knew coming to do something a simple as this, I would've accepted alot sooner. Red being mentioned once isn't going to hurt, anyway.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

(A/N: Random: Eric Shevel (pronounced ERIK SHA-VELL, not shovel. lol)...I've always liked the way it sounds. I think it sounds awesome. And then there's "Echo", aka Hibiki. I'm having Zoro call him that because Hibiki means sound/echo in japanese last time I checked, and it sounds like a good nickname for Zoro to give him!

...So...Yea! First chapter of my Nuzlocke. It sucks, I know, oh well... But knowing myself, it's better than it actually looks because I have confidence issues or something. =_= Hope you guys liked it too! Till next time, I hope?

Hn...And I'm sure there will be SilverxOC eventually. Eventually, my friends.)