Pokemon Ascendance: Origins of Holon

6

"N-Nice to meet you, Professor Kukui." Elsie stuttered, partly out of nervousness and partly because she was still trying to catch her breath.

The girl with the Alolan Ninetales simply sighed and shook her head, noticing Elsie struggling to catch her breath. "Honestly Hau, she hasn't even been here for an hour and you've already ran her ragged." she then walks over to Elsie, handing her a water bottle. "Sorry you had to run all the way here. My name is Lillie and this is my partner Snowy."

"Nine!" The Alolan Ninetales yipped in greeting.

Elsie nodded, thanking Lillie for the water before looking down at the Ninetales. "This is my first time seeing a white Ninetales in person. She's so pretty."

Snowy seemed to blush at the comment, mostly cause she wasn't expecting it.

"Well Elsie, this would be the part that you would be allowed to choose one of our starters but it seems that Rowlet has chosen you." Kukui noted. "So what do you say? Will you add Rowlet to your team?"

"Well, I don't see why not." Elsie said, looking down at the grass type. Rowlet looked up at her and cooed happily. "He's certainly really nice. I'm sure that he'll get along with Prism and Sapphire just fine. I just need to figure out a name for him." she thought for a moment before an idea came to mind. "How about Ico? Do you like that name, Rowlet?"

Rowlet nodded, snuggling into his new trainer's just and in response, Elsie smiled and hugged him a little tighter. "Then it's settled. Your name is Ico. Now, it's time for you to meet your teammates."

She then released her first two pokemon. They looked around curiously before turning their attention to Elsie, who knelt down to their level.

"Prism, Sapphire, this is Ico." she explained. "He's going to be the first addition to our team."

Prism took a step forward, sniffing the alola starter before smiling. "Vee!"

"Blu!" Sapphire happily flew around, Ico soon following. They chased each other around for a bit in the air as Prism sighed, being the only flightless pokemon so far.

"Looks like they're getting along just fine." Hau said with a laugh.

Suddenly a knock came from the door, and Ico and Sapphire landed on Elsie's shoulders before the person came in. A dark brown haired boy wearing a long-sleeved white shirt underneath a sweatervest and brown pants.

"Evan, glad to see you're here cousin." Kukui greeted with a smile.

"I didn't know Kukui had a cousin." Elsie said in a whisper.

"He doesn't." Hau whispered back. "He calls everyone that."

"Oh."

"I see you got your Z-Ring from Hala already." the professor noted, seeing the bracelet on the boy's wrist. "Now all that's left is for you to pick a pokemon. Elsie here already chose Rowlet so you can choose between these two."

It was then that two other pokemon came forward. One resembling a blue seal and the other a black and red cat. Evan looked at the two before setting his eyes on the black and red cat. "Litten. I choose Litten."

Litten nodded and walked over to his new trainer's side as Evan was handed his pokeball.

"Now, there's just one more thing that I need to give you two. Give me a sec to get them."

When he left the room, Evan turned to Elsie. "So, I hear you're from the Holon Region. I hear that place is pretty small."

Elsie nodded. "U-Uh yeah. There's no gym or league there so we mainly just focus on education."

"Well that's at least a start. How about a battle?" Evan suggested. "I'm sure that you can put everything you learned to good use."

At the mention of battle, Elsie tensed a little bit. 'Battle? Right now? This is all so sudden.'

"W-Well uh...I don't think I-I'm ready for battling yet." she stammered. "A-Afterall...I just got here not too long ago...and I've only had Ico for a couple of minutes. I-I'd like to get to know Ico a little better and explore Alola a bit before jumping straight into battle."

At her response, Evan's face hardened, his yellow eyes narrowing down at the girl. "You have three pokemon yet you're afraid of one battle? Did they not teach you how to be competent?"

Elsie looked down while Prism glared at the boy. Seriously, how many people was she going to meet that insult her trainer when she's done nothing wrong?

"That's a little harsh don't ya think?" Hau asked. "All she said was that she wanted some more time to get settled. Nothing wrong with that?"

Before anyone could respond, two orange flying objects came flying near Elsie and Evan. Elsie yelped in surprise a little bit but after looking at it for a few moments, she realized that the object that had the face of a Rotom.

"An Alolan Rotom?"

"Not quite. See, we managed to make a pokedex that a Rotom would be comfortable in." Lillie explained. "So regions across the world have been trying to do roughly the same thing. This Rotom-dex is yours now."

"Hi-ya. Nice to meet you!" Rotom said in a robotic voice.

"N-Nice to meet you too. I'm Elsie."

Kukui soon walked back in. "Those two Rotom just came in the other day.  They'll help you out find your way around the islands. Evan, since you have everything, I'm guessing you're going to start your Island Challenge right?"

"Yeah. I'll probably head out to do some training before going to my first trial." Evan said as he turned to head out the door. He then said something that only Elsie could hear. "After all, it's not like there's any competent trainers around here...and there probably never will be."

He then walked out, Litten following him.

"Well, now that that's settled..." Kukui then turned to Elsie. "How about Hau and Lillie show you the way to Iki Town to meet Hala and get a Z-Ring and Amulet of your own, yeah?"

"W-Who?"

"Hala is the Kahuna of this island." Lillie informed her. "A Kahuna is someone chosen by a Tapu deity to look after the island that they live in. He's super nice."

"And he's my gramps." Hau added with a grin. "You'll need to carry an amulet with you so people know you're doing the Island Challenge. And a Z-Ring is what you'll need to use Z moves. We'll explain all that on the way."

He was about to start running again but then Lillie grabbed his arm to stop him. "Oh no you don't. We're going to be walking so that Elsie can actually look around and get to know Melemele Island a little better."

"Y-Yeah...that seems like a good idea." Elsie said, smiling a little. "Plus I can get to know you guys a little better."

Lillie nodded and held out her hand, helping Elsie up to her feet.

"Is Iki Town far?" Elsie asked.

"No, just past Route 1."

Elsie nodded and followed the two trainers out of the research lab.