Preserve

New Beginning

Rubie cycled down the road toward the Tarik Region Pokemon lab to receive her first pokemon. 

She had recently flown to the bottom left corner of the Egyptian-like-region as she had heard it was the best region to get one's first Champion Badge. And it was the Summer Holidays. Unfortunately, her older sister, who had already become the Kanto Champion, their home town, had been sent with the twelve-year-old to look after her. 

Rubie appreciated the dirt paths, different to the concrete she was so used to in Saffron City. They kicked up dust behind her bike as she pulled her breaks and parked it outside the lab, not thinking anyone would steal it. A lady looking in her mid-twenties to thirties with short stubby legs and a rounded body was standing in the doorway and smiled as she saw Rubie. 

"Ah! My first test subject! Come in, come in!" she said happily. Rubie, a bit confused by 'test subject', gingerly walked in and was overwhelmed by the number of fossils and bones and pokemon skulls. 

"Welcome to my lab! My name is Professor Tamarisk! I'm not interested in the biology of pokemon or the way they evolve- I'm only fascinated by the History of Pokemon!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air, "Day after day, I receive information from trainers and diggers all over the region and are inching toward uncovering all the secrets of pokemon past!" 

"There are multiple trainers?" Rubie asked as she approached three sleeping pokemon napping on a bean bag and kneeled on the cold floor. 

"Well, really only two others, but that's beside the point!" the Professor said quickly and brushed her lab coat down, "It seems my other apprentice is late! You may have the first pick of starter Pokemon. Go on, quickly!" 

Rubie checked the name tags around each of the pokemon necks. 

Narpion, the Fire Scorpion Pokemon.

Maantimus, the Water Hippo Pokemon.

Najik, the Grass Fox Pokemon.

Without hesitation, Rubie picked up Najik, the cutest, and pulled off the name tag. Najik opened its bi, brown eyes and squirmed in happiness. Rubie was suspicious that it looked a little bit too similar to Leafyon...minus the leaves, but didn't say anything. 

"Ugh! Did YOU take Najik? That's the Pokemon I wanted!" a high-pitched, feminine voice wailed. Rubie and Tamarisk spun round, Najik clutched in a tight hug by Rubie. 

"Uhm, yes?" Rubie asked. The girl, about Rubie's age twelve, had ginger hair tied in a plait that fell to below her waist. She wore a blue and white short dress and on the white belt that held the dress together were six Pokeball holders, most likely to hold her future team and had an expensive-looking white backpack slung over her shoulders. Rubie sheepishly looked at her tattered old rucksack laying on the floor. 

"How DARE you! I give you the HONOUR of seeing me come to begin my fabulous journey and you dismiss it by taking MY pokemon?" she screamed in a fit, receiving annoyed looks from the scientists in the room with them. Tamarisk blushed, 

"Now, now, there are still two pokemon left to choose from-" she pleaded, but the child stormed up to the beanbag and picked up Maantimus, then set him down in front of Rubie.

"Maantimus, ATTACK!" she yelled and pointed right at Rubie! Tamarisk coughed, 

"I don't think a Pokemon battle in the middle of my lab is such a good idea, Mudalil," Tamarisk started but was cut off, 

"People call me Lil, okay? And there's no way this meanie is getting away for making me upset!" she snapped. Without choice, Rubie lay her Najik on the floor. 

Lil flipped the nametag over, as did Rubie, to find a list of moves the pokemon currently knew. 

"Maantimus, use Water Pulse!" Lil commanded and pointed at Najik, Rubie panicked, 

"Uh, Najik! Try to dodge it and use Vine Whip!" 

The Maantimus snorted a water 'jet' out of its nose, straight for Najik. Najik tried to dodge it but was tripped up by the paw. The vines wrapped around its tail unfurled and lashed out at the enemy pokemon. Maantimus, being weak to grass type moves, fell to the ground in a trance after the vine smacked his head. 

Lil stomped her feet and began crying. 

"WAAAH! You're soo mean!" she wailed and slumped to the ground, hugging the squishy, chubby Maantimus. Rubie shrugged and caught the one hundred pokedollars thrown her way by Lil. She slipped it into her belt pocket. Tamarisk emerged from behind her desk. 

"Alright, now, next time, let's keep the pokemon battles out of the lab...away from the fossils worth millions?" she suggested and grabbed a Pokedex and Memory Stick, "I've manufactured new pokeballs where you can plug a memory stick into your pokeballs and then into the Pokedex. I need you to fill this up so that I can send my archaeologists to new sites searching for their ancestor's fossils. I've started to think whether maybe pokemon have adapted over time, evolved, even! This could be a great discovery if I get the evidence!" 

Tamarisk gave both of her test subjects a memory stick each, a dex each and five pokeballs, not including the one that contained the starter chosen. Lil found a glowing crystal and spray bottle lying around and gave them both to her pokemon before returning it and fitting all of the pokeballs into her belt. Rubie mumbled to herself and just shoved the pokeballs into her worn rucksack. She refused to return her Najik, however, just in case she got 'attacked' again. 

"Where do we go first?" Rubie asked, ignoring Lil as she stormed out, eyes glued to the map on her dex. Tamarisk sighed and fixed her eyes on the apprentice that actually seemed interested in helping her in her research. 

"If I were you, I'd skip the first gym, poison type, the gym leader is far too powerful. Instead, Make sure you make a stop at the main cave on route three and deliver these directions," she advised and handed Rubie some paper stapled together in the regional language, "After that, think you can head to the Fossil Museum that my older brother owns and challenge the Gym inside it. It's a rock type gym so you'll have an advantage with your grass type starter." 

Rubie grinned and nodded, stuffing the papers into her bag and slinging it over her shoulder. The Professor smiled and a thought came to her mind, 

"Oh, and remember to ask my brother about his progress on the Khamun Project!" she said as Rubie jogged outside the lab with a thumbs up. She jumped onto her bike and cycled north onto a dry field with a beaten-down dirt path past a sign which had the message; 'Route One' scratched onto it.