“Where is he?”

Nina faltered under the intense gaze that was leveled at her. “Hi, Mister Lance. Erm… If you’re looking for Red, he took off right after our battle.” The girl was still feeling a little pissed at the abrupt departure. 

“Would it kill him to say goodbye? And what’s the big deal with leaving me hanging like that?! Stupid edgelords and their aura farming. What a jerk!”

Lance groaned and let out a furious roar into the skies, perfectly expressing the frustration that Nina felt. “That FUCKING bastard! Every! Single! Time!”

Kerry whimpered and shrunk behind Nina to shelter from the Champion's rage, prompting the other girl to pat her hand in assurance.

Nina smiled and pointed towards the direction that Red flew off to. “He went that way, if you want to give chase.” In fact, she was almost tempted to follow suit and help hunt down the elusive figure.

Lance growled. “It’s pointless! It’s impossible to find that fucker if he doesn’t want to be found! Not even a fucking Kecleon is as good as that asshole when it comes to hiding!”  The fuming Champion then went on a tirade, cursing Red’s name with all sorts of colourful profanities as he stomped all around the shrine.

Nina just chuckled and turned her attention to the incredible specimen of a Dragonite that Lance rode to get here. “Hey, Dragonite. I got Berries, want some?”

Lance’s Dragonite looked down in amusement at the petite girl in front of him, then just gave a casual shrug as he lowered his head to be pampered.

“Hehe…” The girl let out a silly giggle and reached up to pet the elder Dragon’s coarse scales, marveling at all the scars and calluses that the Dragonite had accumulated over the course of his long career. Lance’s Dragonite was at least a head taller than Nitey by Nina’s approximation, with significantly tougher scales and a more dull orange colouration — a natural product of age.

“Wow, your scales are so thick and your scars are super cool…” Nina swooned. “Nitey, my Dragonite, has some scars as well, but just on his chest, from his battle with that fake Mega Charizard.”

“Not as impressive as Red’s Charizard though…” But Nina kept her thoughts to herself to avoid getting into trouble.

“Drago.” The Dragonite huffed at the girl’s compliment and continued to pick at the Berries that were offered to him. In particular, Nina noticed that he had a preference for Rawst Berries, a fact that she filed away in her head for future reference.

Nina chuckled and produced a couple of Aguav Berries as well for the Dragonite to try. “Here, I think you’ll like these as well.”

“Dra.” The Dragonite smiled and gave the considerate girl a little pat on the head. 

Seeing that, Kerry got over her anxiety and approached to examine the Dragonite as well. After all, it wasn’t always that one got the privilege to engage with the Ace of a Champion.

“You!” Lance exclaimed, pulling Nina’s attention away from his Dragonite. “You battled that man, yes?”

The girl nodded.

“Good. Tell me everything. What’s his Pokemon like right now?”

“Erm… Well, I only got to battle his Charizard…” Nina then proceeded to narrate her exchange with Red, stopping to answer Lance’s questions whenever he rudely interjected. “So yeah, we lost. But I wanna ask, is it possible? For Red to train his Charizard to become an Alpha like that?” 

While Nina couldn’t claim to be an expert, she did spend an inordinate amount of time researching the topic of Alphas and Megas during her recovery period. And none of the material she found mentioned anything of the sort. And this was a girl whose access was greater than your average layman due to Nina’s prestigious sponsors and all.

Lance scowled. “No, it’s not possible.” The man scoffed. “Or at least that’s what I would have said… until now. Heck, I’d probably say that you’re just a dumb little kid who can’t tell the difference between an Alpha and an alpha!” 

Lance squinted and got close to get a proper look at Nina’s face. “But, that’s not right either. ‘Cause I know you — you’re one of Lily’s friends. So no way you couldn’t tell.” Nina leaned back slightly as the Champion sighed in her face and moved away. “But then again, if there’s anyone who can defy the impossible, it would be that infuriating man…” Lance muttered.

“Have you told the Professor about this?”

Nina shook her head wordlessly, unsure of what to say.

“Call Professor Oak and inform him. And needless to say, whatever happened here today stays between the three of us. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir!” Both girls responded in tandem as the Blackthorn Champion gave them each approving nods, flapped his gaudy cape and hopped onto his Dragonite before taking off into the skies, at the direction that Nina pointed to earlier to try his luck.

***

After basking in the ethereal glow of sunrise atop Mount Silver, Nina rubbed her hands together for warmth as she examined the shrine before her. As usual, she enlisted Espy and Gastly for help.

“There has to be something here. Why else would Red spend so much time near the shrine?” If Valerie’s words were to be believed, the former Champion had been loitering around the summit for at least a couple of days by this point. “And what did he mean by the final piece?” Nina almost wanted to tear her hair out in frustration.

Unfortunately, there were no clues to be found, only a plaque of Unown letters hidden within the shrine according to Gastly. However, the shrine’s doors were locked and Nina dared not intrude for fear of getting in trouble or be condemned to a curse or something. 

“Besides, it’s the same garbled nonsense again — not an obvious acronym nor a palindrome. An abbreviation of something maybe?” And Nina was sure that if she came back another time, the letters would have been scrambled again. 

“The final piece… Does it have to do with the Unown maybe?”

For the time being, Nina took off her gloves and endured the freezing winds to write down all her thoughts and observations while she went about taking as many pictures as she could. The girl sighed, breath freezing as it escaped her lungs. “Stupid Red! Would it kill you to finish the conversation before leaving?!” Lance was right, the guy was an asshole.

“Niite~”

Nina chuckled and thanked Nitey who embraced her from behind with a layer of warm Fire Type Energy. The Dragonite had been in needy baby mode ever since he lost to Charizard. And combined with his latest loss against Forrest’s Steelix, this was probably Nitey’s first ever losing streak, not counting the casual spars against the Cerulean Gym’s Pokemon of course.

“Are you upset Nitey?” Nina asked as she leaned back for a kiss.

“Niite…” 

“Aww… My poor baby…” Nina gently caressed her partner’s snout. Despite Nitey’s carefree nature, he was still a Dragon after all. So naturally, he was possessed of some competitive pride.

“Once we get to New Bark Town, let’s spend a bit more time there and do a bit of training. We’ll be close enough to commute to Mount Silver and make use of all this Ice Type Energy — Ice and Water are two elements that synergize very well together and I have a few ideas on how we could combo them in battle. That sound good to you?”

“Niite!” Nitey nuzzled affectionately against his partner and tried to boop his nose against Nina’s like he used to, only to end up smooshing her face instead.

“Nitey…” Nina groaned, before giggling and returning the boop.

***

New Bark Town, located between the border of Kanto and Johto, used to be a military outpost, until Professor Utsugi Elm took over the position of Johto’s regional Professor. Now, it mostly served as a pit stop for the Kanto-Johto express as they made their way towards Cherry Grove City where the central bus terminal was.

One might call the man crazy for setting up base in such a volatile location. But as the star pupil of Professor Samuel Oak, he inherited the former Champion’s pacifist leanings. 

Professor Elm’s intentions of founding New Bark Town was to use himself as a human shield to force the Johton League to think twice about committing to any acts of aggression. Not that he was naive enough to think that his mind, however brilliant it was, was worth whatever contrived delusions of gain that the Johton bureaucrats would conjure up to justify their bloodlust. 

Which was why he also worked hard to turn his little town into the region’s primary repository of knowledge, housing a good majority of the Johton League’s data servers as well as serving as the primary node for the region’s Pokenet.

Thus, if New Bark Town fell, Johto’s entire communications network would be crippled.

Hence, the majority of the town’s industry, sans a number of tourist chop shops near the bus station, was based around the Johton Professor’s research lab. In fact, there wasn’t a single household in the modestly sized town that wasn’t employed in some fashion by Elm. 

Which was why Nina found it weird that the actual lab itself was just a humble four storey building located near the outskirts. The girl chuckled. “Seems like Professor Elm inherited Professor Oak’s simple tastes as well.”

That was the first thing that caught Nina’s eye. The second was obviously the Pokemon. “A Chikoritaaaaaa!!!” The girl squealed as she rushed over to a trio of Pokemon with Berries in hand.

“Hey, little guys. Want some Berries?” 

At first, the Pokemon seemed wary of the strange girl, until a jovial looking Totodile with a limp tongue waddled over to be fed.

“To! Totodile!”

“Hehe…” Nina grinned like a fool and proceeded to pamper the baby crocodile rotten, being careful not to stick her fingers too deep into the Totodile’s powerful maw.

Seeing that their friend was unharmed, the other two regional starters steadily approached as well, with a whimpering Cyndaquil sticking close to a stern looking Chikorita’s tail.

Nina held back her excitement and grabbed more Berries from her pouch, making sure to really take in the Chikorita’s marvellously herbal scent as she ran her fingers through the leaf Pokemon’s remarkably fuzzy body — the texture was almost like a thin layer of cotton coating a smooth, bean-like outer skin.

“Oh gosh, you guys are so cuuute.” In an ideal world, Nina would go about collecting every single one of the regional starters. But not only was it beyond her means, but it was also quite impossible. 

“Man, the idea of taking over grandma’s daycare after she retires is looking more appealing by the day. Maybe I can convert it into a breeding ranch as well? Like what Brock is doing.”

“C’mon Kerr.” Nina beckoned. “Don’t you want to play with the Pokemon too? It’s not every day we get to meet the iconic Johton starters.”

However, the nurse girl looked apprehensive. In particular, she seemed to be wary of the Cyndaquil who Nina was currently snuggling.

Nina laughed. “Oh please, are you still hung up on Professor Ivy’s story from the inter-school meet?” The girl made a mental note to tell Professor Oak about his former student’s misdemeanor. “It’s all just unverifiable folk lore… I mean, look at him! How could such a cutie possibly be a degenerate?” Nina held the juvenile tapir Pokemon up for Kerry to see. 

The Cyndaquil looked extra cute as he whimpered in Nina’s arms, trying his best to hold in the sputtering flames on his back to avoid burning the nice human who fed him tasty Berries. Seeing that, Kerry’s face softened as she reached out and gently took Cyndaquil into her embrace.

“You're a considerate little guy aren’t you?” The young nurse leaned in to kiss the Cyndaquil on his pointy nose and proceeded to tickle the Fire tapir’s soft belly, eliciting giggles from the Pokemon.

“Hello there!” Midway through their Pokemon time, they were called out by a man with glasses who looked like someone stuck the leafy top of a pineapple on a bowling pin. “Are you two girls here for a Pokedex by chance?”

Nina beamed her best smile. “Hi! Professor Elm? My name is Nina, and this is Kerry. We have a delivery for you, from Professor Oak.” 

The girl’s words caused the nerdy Professor to jolt in excitement as he hurriedly ushered them into his lab.

***

Author's note:

I had a nightmare where Google Docs made it so that you couldn't disable their stupid AI assistant thing. And everytime I tried to write a funny line, the thing would pop up and ask if I wanted to insert some stupid meme to it, and I would have to manually move my mouse over and dismiss it.

*shivers* Oh the inhumanity...