Chapter 1: A Late Beginning

"Alex, are you awake? Come on, we're going to be late," shouted a female voice on the other side of the bedroom door. "I thought you were really looking forward to this?"

"Yeah, I'm almost ready," replied a boy from inside the bedroom after a second, surprised that his guest wasn't waiting outside and instead apparently broke into his house. So surprised, in fact, that he'd forgotten to get angry that she used his real name. "You can come in," the boy added, just after pulling on his shirt, black and torn. The boy, in his early twenties, ran his hand through his untidy dirty blonde hair, trying to make it look somewhat controlled. He then reached for his belt and began to secure it through the loops on the brown jeans he matched to his shirt. He looked up as the door across the room opened.

The girl who stood in the doorway eyed Alex and blew a kiss at him. He just stared in return, captivated by the girl's face as the sunlight caught it, reflecting in her beautiful green eyes and brightening her features. She was about the same age as him, he knew, only a few months between their birth dates. Her golden hair was, as usual, back in a long ponytail that fell down just past her waist. Her top was something of her own design, a vibrant red shirt with only one sleeve – the top of the shirt curved downwards at the neck to a little under the right arm. It was short, leaving her stomach exposed down to her black leather skirt, complimented by long socks, a bit darker red than the shirt, and her favorite black boots. She was holding a bright green bag over her shoulder.

"'Morning, Kimiko," Shadow said, all thoughts he previously had of what day it was now wiped from his mind.

"'Morning, Shadow," the girl replied brightly. "Come on, get your bag and let's go! You did pack last night like I suggested, right? Please tell me you did."

"Uh, yeah," Shadow replied. Hesitantly looking away, he glanced quickly around his small bedroom twice for his backpack, feeling embarrassed when he didn't immediately spot it. He sighed and slowly swept the room with his eyes… starting by turning to check behind him (blinding himself momentarily by the morning sunlight that was shining in through his two windows in the process), passing the empty black-cushioned chair he'd set in the corner for reading, quickly scanning the cluttered desk pressed up against the adjacent wall and the section of white-carpeted floor under it, and then the third wall of the pale green room, where a dresser sat next to the door to the closet. At least he knew his backpack wasn't in there because he had packed it last night and hadn't been in the closet since the morning before, when he gathered everything he'd need for his journey from it.

Moving on, his eyes found Kimiko again. For a second, he forgot why he was looking around the room when his eyes only had to look directly in front of him to see what they were looking for. But then Kimiko rolled her eyes, a taunting smile on her face, and pointed to something on Shadow's left. His eyes followed her finger. She was pointing to a dark blue backpack resting on top of an unmade bed. Shadow slapped his forehead, having completely forgotten about it when he saw the girl, and reached for it, placing only one strap over his shoulder.

He looked back towards the girl blocking his doorway and took a step towards her. She looked down and raised an eyebrow.

"Shoes?" she asked, now pointing at Shadow's bare feet. Shadow looked down also and sighed again.

"That would be nice, wouldn't it?" he said, setting down his backpack on the bed. Kimiko couldn't suppress her giggle this time as he pulled a pair of socks from his dresser and pulled them on, followed by his white sneakers.

"Now are we sure we have everything this time?" Kimiko asked teasingly, winking at him. "Food? Money? Brain?"

"Yes, mom," Shadow replied, also in a joking tone, as he stood up and replaced the backpack on his shoulder. Kimiko walked up and kissed him quickly before turning and leaving the room, heading downstairs. Shadow waited until she had started down the stairs before quickly heading to his desk and hastily retrieving his house key, which he had indeed almost forgotten. He really was glad Kimiko tolerated the memory loss that had a habit of plaguing him whenever he was near her. As he reached the bedroom door, he turned and gave the room one last glance, trying to burn the image into his mind, before closing the door and heading downstairs, where Kimiko was waiting.

Crescent Town was a fairly small and quiet place, to the point where all of the few inhabitants knew each other. Shadow and Kimiko walked hand-in-hand through the town's main road in the chilly morning breeze, though the silence was awkward and unusual. Shadow knew Kimiko was just as excited about today as he was himself, what with having had to wait almost ten years after the normal age children usually start their Pokémon journey, but he couldn't help noticing her lack of enthusiasm since she left him back in his bedroom. Shadow glanced at her through the corner of his eye; she was actually frowning now, her eyes rather unfocused, seemingly lost in thought.

"What's wrong?" he immediately asked.

"Nothing," she said quietly, then, knowing Shadow wouldn't let this response stand, she elaborated, "thinking about my sister. It's gonna be weird not looking after her anymore."

"She'll be fine with your aunt," Shadow replied, and squeezed her hand reassuringly. She didn't seem at all comforted by the thought, so Shadow raked his brain for a change of subject. He had been about to ask how she'd gotten into his house, but now that his mind was clear, he remembered that she had a key – he'd given it to her, after all. Instead, he thought of something more interesting. He'd been meaning to ask her again for a week anyway, so now seemed as good time as any.

"So, uh, have you decided what Pokémon you're gonna pick?"

This seemed to catch her attention. "No," she sighed. "Squirtle is so cute, but Torchic is too. And both evolve into really good Pokémon. I don't even know what I want to train in addition so I can't very well decide based on what types my team might need in the future."

"We can do this another time," Shadow said. "We've had to wait this long, another month-"

"No!" Kimiko said fiercely, stopping in her tracks. "Not a chance. I've made you wait so much longer as it is."

"You didn't make me wait," Shadow reminded her, also stopping. "I chose to."

Kimiko muttered something under her breath, but it did not go unnoticed by her partner, having been so accustomed to this behavior.

"It was not a stupid decision," Shadow said, regretting his suggestion to postpone their journey further. "We'd agreed to do this together from the beginning. It's not your fault you had to take care of your sister for the last five years. And there was never a chance of me traveling the region without you, you know that, so please don't start this again."

They stared intensely at each other for a few moments before Kimiko broke the silence.

"You can be so stubborn sometimes."

Shadow laughed loudly. "Ha! Look who's talking," he shot back. Kimiko smiled weakly before leaning over and kissing him, which he eagerly returned.

"I'm sorry. You're right. I just… feel bad, you know? I know it bothered you enough having to wait till you were fifteen…"

"Yeah, well, what are overprotective parents for, eh?" Shadow said, smiling again also. "Besides, helping care for the Pokémon at the lab made it less painful."

"You spent a lot of time caring for that Chikorita," Kimiko pointed out suspiciously as they started walking again, still hand-in-hand. "I know you were planning to pick her as your starter, but isn't that cheating a bit? Helping her to practice moves before you even officially own her and all?"

"I can't help it if the Pokémon I was going to pick anyway became attached to me," Shadow just said, though his smile only widened. "Besides, it's not as if she has any real battle experience, I just helped her learn a few new moves, at her own request, by the way. So it's not really as if she'll give me a huge advantage over any other starter."

"I guess. But you and she already have a sort of… I dunno, a bond or something already."

"I think you're just jealous," Shadow said. "She just wanted to be the best starter she could be. It's only natural for her to bond with whoever it was training her so intently."

"Maybe I am… I mean I am kind of sad that I never got that close with any of the Pokémon I worked with. But that's just it, though. Normally a trainer doesn't get to bond with his Pokémon before he owns it."

Shadow considered that for a minute. While it was true that most trainers don't even meet their starter before they obtain it, was it really like cheating to befriend and help train a Pokémon, knowing it would become yours later anyway? He tried to convince himself that there was nothing wrong with it, that he was only helping the Pokémon at her request, not for his own gain. He felt unsure now, however, if he could really justify that, and he struggled to keep the thought out of his mind for the rest of the awkwardly silent walk to the region's resident professor's research lab.

"My, you two are cutting it close," came a deep, raspy voice as Shadow and Kimiko entered the lab a short while later. After looking around the odd sitting room that looked like it belonged to a house rather than a Pokémon lab, the couple headed to the room beyond the door at the back, assuming that was where the voice came from.

"Sorry Luke, there was… something we had to take care of. Today of all days," Shadow replied as they entered.

The owner of the raspy voice, the man called Luke, who looked to be in his late thirties, sat off to the right at a desk, engrossed in whatever paper he was looking at. He marked something on it with a pencil near the end, perhaps the point where he stopped reading, and looked up at the new arrivals. He looked as if he'd been up all night – his white lab coat was unbuttoned, open, and stained with what looked like coffee, and the red tie he was wearing was actually untied and lazily thrown around his neck. His dark brown hair was ruffled and sticking out in places, as if it had been pulled at multiple times. The man's glasses were ever so slightly lopsided and his blue eyes bloodshot. On the desk next to his paper sat what appeared to be the remains of some sort of meat on a plate and, indeed, a nearly empty mug of coffee.

"So, today's the big day, huh?" said Luke. Without waiting for a reply, he looked at his watch and added, "You're lucky this isn't the normal season trainers start coming around, else you'd have nothing to choose from!"

Again without waiting for a reply, Luke wheeled his chair back, stood up, and headed for a door across the room. "I'm sorry for my appearance," he went on, "I had completely forgotten you were coming today for a reason other than work. It's going to be very empty around here without you two. Follow me."

"Professor Hawkins, where's Professor Spruce?" asked Kimiko as they followed the man. He had led them to a room in the very heart of the building, the room where all the Pokémon were stored in their pokéballs. All around the room were shelves upon shelves of the little red and white spheres, arranged nearly in rows with occasional breaks between them for people to walk through, like a row of bookcases in a library. He stopped in front of a computer with some kind of green tube connected to the back of the monitor.

"Oh, he's in the very back, apparently one of the eggs hatched really early this morning, and it turns out it's a Pokémon he's never seen before. Not sure how it happened, honestly, we don't have any Pokémon in the lab that hasn't been discovered yet."

Shadow and Kimiko exchanged a glance that pretty much meant Well, duh.

"So he told me to tend to you when you got here," Luke continued. "I just was so absorbed into my research that I had forgotten to eat or get prepared or anything else. Anyway, Professor Spruce is busy examining the new Pokémon so he asked me to give you his best wishes and good luck on your travels, and please do remember to check in with us once in a while." Luke then bowed slightly, and looked expectantly at the couple.

"Uh, Luke… you haven't given us our Pokémon yet," Shadow said.

"What? Oh! Oh my… I'm so terribly sorry, I'm just extremely tired you see and I've gone through a few mugs of coffee this morning to try to stay up and my memory isn't what it normally is under these conditions, but you obviously know how I normally-"

"Professor," Kimiko cut him off. "Our Pokémon?"

"Right, right, I'm sorry. So then, I assume you both know what Pokémon you would like to choose?"

"I do," Shadow said, stepping forward.

"I think I know who you want," Professor Hawkins said, "but let's see if I'm right. Well, Shadow, who is it?"

"He's going by Alex now, professor," Kimiko pointed out.

"Oh, really? Given up on the nickname, then?"

"No, I have not," Shadow replied with a hint of annoyance. "I've just accepted that it will be what I need for all the official trainer registration junk, since it's my legal name and all. But I'm keeping the nickname. Anyway, I've chosen Chikorita," he finished, not wanting to discuss the name he so loathed.

"Aha! You're very predictable, my young friend. The way that little Pokémon follows you around, you would think you're her mother or something, it's really quite cute-"

"Er… yeah," Shadow said, interrupting.

"Yes, right, well." Luke cleared his throat and walked over towards the computer. He typed something rather fast, and a few seconds later, a pokéball dropped out of the green tube.

Professor Hawkins stood up and reached for the ball, but before he could pick it up, it automatically opened, releasing onto the desk a tiny, green animal with four short legs and a short tail. The little creature had a ring of darker green spots around her neck, and a large leaf atop her head.

"Chiko!" the Chikorita squeaked happily.

"Hey there," Shadow started. "I guess I'll get right to the point. I'd like to ask you something. I've, er… I'm technically a new trainer, so I'm going to be starting my journey, and I've… well, I'd like to know if you would like to come with me and be my official starter."

Shadow immediately felt nervous. What if Chikorita said no? What if she wanted to stay at the lab? He mentally slapped himself for not thinking of, and preparing for, that possibility sooner.

Chikorita relieved him of his worries, however, as she screeched with glee and jumped off the desk towards him. He nearly tripped as he lunged forward to catch her before she hit the ground from her miscalculated leap of joy. He cradled her in his arms as the Pokémon rubbed against him affectionately.

"What about you, Kimiko?" piped up Professor Hawkins, who appeared to have just been sleeping on his feet since the Chikorita had emerged.

When she didn't answer, Shadow turned around with Chikorita in his arms to see Kimiko leaning against one of the shelves, her eyes unfocused again. It took him a second to realize that something was wrong with the picture before him, something more than just Kimiko's distant expression.

Then it hit him. He leaned forward slightly, holding out his arms, and Chikorita jumped to the ground out of instinct. Shadow was thankful that she'd understood, somewhere in the back of his mind. He called Kimiko's name as he ran forward, barely catching the shelf she had been leaning on which was beginning to fall backwards, unable to support the added weight of the girl leaning against it. She gasped as she stumbled away, and Shadow was able to push the shelf back into a standing position before it toppled over.

However, one pokéball was apparently not secured well in its place and fell to the ground, where it opened in a flash of light. When the light faded, a small, blue Pokémon had appeared next to Chikorita. The little creature had what looked like a fin on its head as well as its tail, and a few bright orange whiskers on its face. Shadow recognized it as a Mudkip.

"I'm sorry little guy," Kimiko said as she watched the terrified creature. Tears began to form in the little blue fish's eyes, which had grown wide upon seeing other living beings. Kimiko knelt down and offered Mudkip her hand in an attempt to make herself appear less threatening. Mudkip did not look convinced, as it slowly backed away.

Kimiko pulled her hand back as Chikorita walked up to the shaking creature and sniffed it. The Mudkip seemed to be frozen in fear as Chikorita walked around it, sniffing curiously. After making a full circle, she looked at Mudkip with a smile and said, "Rita!"

Mudkip screamed in terror and ran forward, diving into Kimiko's lap in an attempt to hide as Kimiko and Chikorita looked at each other in surprise.

"It's okay, she won't hurt you," Kimiko said, taking the blue creature in her arms and holding it against her chest protectively. The Mudkip then looked up into her eyes, examined her face for a moment, then apparently decided she was telling the truth after all – its shaking had stopped, though it still looked frightened.

As Kimiko stood up, careful not to scare Mudkip again, Chikorita extended a vine from one of the spots on her neck around Mudkip's pokéball and handed it to her trainer. Shadow, in turn, held it out to Kimiko.

"Would you like to go back into your pokéball now?" she asked the creature. In response, the Mudkip climbed out of her arms and up onto her right shoulder, and proceeded curl itself around a strand of her hair.

"I think he likes you," Shadow pointed out.

"He wasn't intended as a starter," said Luke suddenly, which made everyone jump. He was sitting in the chair by the computer, still looking very worn out, but apparently awake – Shadow guessed the noise from Mudkip's screaming woke him, or that he was never really asleep and just resting his eyes. "But it does seem that he's warmed up to you."

Kimiko carefully picked Mudkip off her shoulder to get a good look at him. Shadow thought he seemed somehow smaller than the last Mudkip he'd worked with at this very lab. Somehow, he looked cuter, too. Perhaps it had something to do with the large eyes that were just begging to be brought along with them.

"Okay," she said after another minute, smiling at the creature. "You'll be my starter, then."

Shadow, now carrying Chikorita, extended his hand to his girlfriend; likewise, Chikorita extended a vine to Mudkip. "Congrats," he said.

Immediately, the water Pokémon squeaked in terror and buried his face in Kimiko's shirt. She began to rock him in her arms like a newborn baby.

"Well," said Professor Hawkins as he stood, "the professor had, thankfully, set up the documents for your trainers licenses on this computer, but I'm afraid we don't have any pokédex to give you, since trainers don't normally start showing up for another four months or so, so for now you will have to just go on without one until you can buy one in the next town. You can register your new Pokémon online with your license, so you should probably do that now. And then, I suppose you're finished here. When you do get a pokédex, that can serve as your identification and license too, as well as Pokémon registration and all that."

"Sounds good," Shadow said, sitting in front of the computer first with Chikorita at his side and Kimiko and Mudkip right behind him.