“You’re early.” Professor Elm began. “I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow at least.”

Nina laughed and handed the fossil case over to the man. “Yeah, we had our fair share of excitement up on Mount Silver and decided to just Fly down instead of going through the climb again.”

Professor Elm nodded as he entrusted the relic over to one of his assistants who were all busily buzzing around, trying to set up a similar machine to the one Nina saw in Professor Oak’s place, but of a much larger scale. 

“Ah, yes. That was quite the commotion. I can understand not feeling particularly safe up there at the moment.” He said, completely oblivious to the fact that Nina was partially responsible for said commotion. “And I see you’ve met our resident Pokemon as well.” Professor Elm smiled at the Totodile in Nina’s arms, who was kicking his stubby legs out in the air with a derpy look on his face.

Actually, Nina had wanted to cuddle with Chikorita, but the Grass Type was one tough little beanie boy and didn’t like being coddled.

“It’s always nice to see our Pokemon receiving the love that they deserve.” Elm nodded in approval.

Nina giggled as she nuzzled against the back of Totodile’s head. “Are these cuties going to this year’s Johto Pokedex holders?” Not that the girl was asking out of envy or anything. Nope. Not jealous at all.

Professor Elm laughed. “Yes, we only have two this year. So it’s unfortunate, but one of them will be left unclaimed.” He said before turning to check on the progress of his assistants with a sigh, calling out to one of them whom he noticed had plugged in the wrong cable.

“I’m sorry about this. As you can probably tell, this machine is different from teacher’s in that it’s multi-purpose. So it takes a bit longer to set up and configure each time we need to change its function. I was planning on getting all this done before you arrived, but you beat us to it. Haha.”

Both Nina and Kerry smiled apologetically. “Sorry, we probably should have called ahead.”

“No, no worries at all. But while my assistants are doing their thing, I heard from Professor Oak that you have a personal request as well.”

Nina nodded enthusiastically and reached into her backpack to procure the fossil egg that she got from Brock and Forrest.

“Amazing…” Elm gasped as he gingerly took the egg from Nina and examined it from all angles. “Fossil eggs are a rare find even for someone in my field of study.”

“Do you think you can revive it?” Nina asked. 

As an expert whose main specialisation is the Origin of Life, Professor Elm was naturally quite adept at fossil revival. In fact, when Nina called in to discuss her fossil egg with Professor Oak, his pupil was the first person who sprung to mind.

The man nodded. “Yes, it’ll take some time to revive it perfectly. But if the insides are intact and well preserved, then I foresee no problems… And in exchange, would you be willing to let us study it and give us periodic reports on the Pokemon’s development once it’s hatched?”

Nina nodded fervently. Participating in a scientific study that benefited the world was much better than being forced to pay thousands upon thousands of pokedollars for a half-assed fossil revival service, which may or may not steal from her.

“Excellent! Then I shall make the necessary arrangements.”

***

“Wow…” Nina marvelled at the gelatinous appendages that were wrapped around her hand. “Lileep tentacles are kinda freaky huh?”

Kerry giggled. “I dunno… I kind of like how slick and… slimy they are.”

Nina gave her friend a weird look. “So you’re one of those girls huh, Kerry?” 

“What?” Kerry exclaimed.

“What’s what?”

“That look on your face!” Kerry cried, voice full of indignation.

“Nothing, it doesn’t mean anything…” Nina responded. “Definitely not kink-shaming you or anything…”

Kerry was mouth agape in disbelief. However, before she could rebuke Nina, Professor Elm came up to them and joined in. “Sorry for the neglect, we got a little too absorbed by the fossils. I see you found our little lost world.”

Nina smiled, grateful for the distraction. “No worries. And yeah, one of the research assistants was nice enough to escort us here.” The girl once again looked around to take in the incredible space; a prehistoric biome filled with all sorts of extinct Pokemon and plantlife. Even a whole bunch of regular animals and insects that had long since disappeared from the Pokemon World.

The girls were currently deep underground, in a massive space that was hidden underneath Professor Elm’s unassuming little laboratory. According to the assistant that brought them down here, this was Professor Elm’s greatest work; a fully self-sustaining greenhouse that perfectly replicated the environment of the Pokemon World from a bygone age. Even the air smelled different.

“Calling this place a ‘lost world’ is perfectly apt. It’s like I’ve stepped into a time machine and got transported to a slice of prehistoric time…”

Nina sighed in admiration, eyes sparkling in wonder. “I have to say, Professor. What you’ve managed to accomplish here is truly remarkable.”

Elm laughed sheepishly, blushing a little at the girl’s wide eyed admiration. “Thank you, Nina. But we’re still not quite there yet. Most of these Pokemon here are clones, which does bring about a certain set of complications when it comes to reproduction.”

The Professor explained that the purpose of the biome had originally been to recreate the perfect environment for these extinct Pokemon to live and procreate, in the hopes that their offsprings could overcome the limitations and flaws of their artificially revived parents.

“Unfortunately, it’ll still be a few more years before we can observe any tangible results. And any attempts that we’ve made in trying to cross breed resurrected fossils and clones have been met with… less than ideal outcomes.” 

Apparently, there was some sort of instinctual rejection being exhibited by the two different variants of fossil Pokemon — a puzzling conundrum that none of the researchers were able to figure out yet.

“If there’re plans on doing a full physical examination on one of these Pokemon coming up, may I join in?” Kerry asked, fully in nurse mode and completely intrigued by the biology of these long extinct Pokemon.

Professor Elm laughed. “Of course, Kerry. We do check-ups on our Pokemon all the time. In fact, I have a couple of your cousins here working for me. I’ll introduce you to them later. In the meantime, might I interest you two with some lunch.”

The two girls nodded fervently, tummies rumbling in hunger. They had completely forgotten to eat amidst the excitement of touring the prehistoric biome.

***

“Are you a Pokemon Trainer?”

Nina smiled in amusement and lowered her gaze to the young boy who came up to her. Professor Elm had invited them to his home for lunch and the kid was his youngest son.

“Yes, I am.” She replied. “What gave it away? Was it the Pokeballs on my belt?”

The kid frowned, feeling like he was being sassed but didn’t quite understand how. “Err… I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!” He exclaimed as he pointed at Nina with a wide stance.

The girl chuckled. “You seem quite young. Are you even old enough to own Pokemon?”

“Of course!” The boy reached out to drag the hand of the Totodile who had been tagging along with Nina since just now. “Totodile is my Pokemon!”

“Pretty sure that’s a starter earmarked for this year’s sponsored trainers…” Unsure of how to reply, Nina just looked across the table towards Professor Elm, who was looking on in exasperation.

“Toki…” Elm sighed. “I told you, you can’t choose a starter yet. But well,” he glanced at Nina with an apologetic gaze. “I suppose it won’t hurt to just do one battle.”

Nina laughed. Seemed like the Professor had a soft spot for his son. She wanted to tell him not to spoil the kid too much, but ultimately just nodded and agreed to the bout. “It’ll be a good first match for Poppy anyway.” And with that, they moved over to the Professor’s backyard.

***

“Alright, Poppy. Remember everything that you practiced with Gastly? Now let’s put it to the test. This’ll be your first battle, buddy. So let’s win this and impress the others.”

“Po-po!” Poppy barked and clapped his fins together in excitement.

“We won’t lose, Totodile!”

“To!” The Totodile responded, but with the same blank, derpy expression on his face that he always wore. So no one could tell if he even understood what was going on or not.

“Alright trainers, are you ready?” Professor Elm called.

“Ready!”

“Three, Two, One… and begin!”

“Bubble Cloud, Poppy! Let’s fill the space with pretty bubbles!”

“Po!” With a happy cry, Poppy did as he was told and began spewing an iridescent cloud of micro bubbles from his squishy round nose. This was actually a move that Nina’s junior, Fuyumi, developed with her Krabby. But she figured it would work well with her Popplio, so she shamelessly appropriated it for her own use.

“Use Bite, Totodile!”

“To!” Totodile charged in with his stubby legs, but was ultimately knocked onto his ass by exploding bubbles the moment that he made contact.

“Totodile!” The kid exclaimed with gritted teeth. “Use Leer!”

Nina nodded in approval, fully in Gym Trainer mode. “Appropriate use of utility moves, not bad…”

Poppy, on the other hand, had never encountered utility moves before, so he momentarily froze as a feeling of discomfort washed over him, creating a small opening for Totodile to charge in with his gleaming fangs.

Nina chuckled. “Time to show off, Poppy. Do a front flip!”

The girl’s assuring voice brought the Popplio back from his stupor as he barked out in excitement and launched himself into the air, did an impressively showy flip, before making a perfect landing behind Totodile’s back with a smug grin and fins spread in triumph.

“Great job, Poppy!” Nina exclaimed with rapturous applause. “Now, let’s show off your singing skills! Disarming Voice!”

Totodile flung his head left and right, unsure of where his target disappeared to. When all of a sudden, he was assaulted with Fairy Type Energy imbued soundwaves from the back, causing him to yelp out in pain and fall flat on his face.

“Totodile! Get up and use Water Gun!”

“More bubbles!” Nina cheered.

“Po-po!”

The two juvenile Pokemon kept going at it until Totodile fainted and Poppy cried out in triumph, ecstatic about his first win.

“Great job, Poppy! I knew you could do it!”

“Po!”

Nina scooped up her little seal baby and nuzzled at him affectionately, making sure to also wipe away the moisture dripping from his squishy round nose.

Meanwhile, Kerry had moved in and was currently tending to the fainted Totodile.

“Not fair!” The Professor’s son cried. “That Popplio knows more moves than Totodile!”

Nina chuckled. “It’s not about the number of moves that a Pokemon knows, kid. It’s about how well they use ‘em.”

“She’s right, Toki.” Professor Elm chimed in before his son could embarrass himself even further with his childish outburst. “Let this be a lesson to you — it’s not a loss if we can learn something from our failures. The moment we stop learning is when we finally lose ourselves.”

Toki wilted as his father bent down to give him a pat on the head. “And besides, Nina is a Gym Trainer at the Cerulean Gym. So when it comes to Water Pokemon, she’s probably more of an expert than I am. So instead of arguing with her, why not take this opportunity to ask questions and improve yourself instead?”

At the mention of Nina’s Gym Trainer credentials, Toki lit up and immediately looked towards Nina with glittering eyes, eliciting laughter from the girl.

“Oh please, Professor… I saw your impressive collection of Water Types downstairs, you’re not fooling anybody with your act. But well, I wouldn’t mind answering any questions that Toki might have about our battle.”

The boy cheered and they soon got into an impromptu training session at the back of Professor Elm’s house.

***

Author's note:

We're celebrating 200 chapters over on Patreon today with a double release! Hurray!!!

So in consideration, please allow me this shameless plug.

If you've enjoyed this story up to this point, you may consider stuffing my little tip jar and getting some extra chapters in return.

Unfortunately, I don't have enough backlog to do double releases for everyone today. But rest assured that you guys will get a double as well once we hit Ch 200 on the public release.