Finding Red

4

A sharp shrill rang through the air, as the same red-haired boy Crystal encountered the previous day went bounding by. She heard the cries of wait, as he pursued hot on the heels of a Totodile, stumbling off towards Route 29. Somehow the sight almost made her laugh enough to forget that she was about to walk that way, and she was vaguely aware of how the Elm's Totodile tended to act up like that. Which is when she realized that Totodile was probably the Professor's. Despite the heavy backpack, she took off at a sprint.

"Professor!" Crystal shouted as she ran into the lab. "Are you alright? What happened? How did Totodile escape?"

It was chaos. Lab techs, her former coworkers, were running around and Professor Elm was aggressively pointing to and fro. Crystal ran up to the professor, who seemed satisfied she was there. He took her into a hug, and barked commands off into space for a moment. Then, out of nowhere, he spoke to her, making Crystal jump.

"That boy!" Professor Elm cursed, shaking his head in shame at the ground. "He stole your Pokémon."

Crystal flinched. "Excuse me, what?"

"Your Pokémon," said Elm. "Your mother sent you over to receive a starter Pokémon, did she not?"

"Absolutely not!" Crystal shouted, losing immediate control of her emotions at just the implication of the statement. "I may be forced to go on a journey, but I will not be forced to become a trainer as well."

The noise from Crystal's exclamation was enough to make the lab pause. The lab techs looked up at her from the tasks they'd been told to do, while Professor Elm gave her a confused stare. She returned the confusion. Crystal was under the impression that she was to thank him for the gift he left at her doorstep. Not for a Pokémon. She had been explicit with her mother that she didn't want to be a trainer. The heat of her soul weighed down on her, as she thought of the reasons for her resentment. She could think of nothing more than marching back home and sending another Pidgey to Amanda saying she'd changed her mind.

"No," repeated Crystal, at a more silent and hardy level, trying to keep herself calm enough to stay true to her promises. "I don't want to become a trainer."

And that was when Professor Elm began to laugh. Crystal stood there, completely and utterly incredulous and confused as her anger fluctuated from the high pitches in his voice. Soon, it melted as he walked away, leaving the room in a confused state of quasi-silence. She glanced around, wondering what was going on as the cackling began to fade to her ears. She then stared at the fellow lab techs, who shrugged, and she recalled how when Elm had something in his mind, he became a kooky sort of person about it. If he was just going to walk off laughing after someone stole his Pokémon, then so be it. Why should she care?

"Stop," said Professor Elm with that eccentric and calm voice as always, as Crystal turned for the door, about ready to leave.

She faced him, as he held out a Pokédex and a silvery Pokéball, and shook her head.

"Did you not hear what I said to you?" she asked, stepping backwards. "I'm not a trainer."

He smiled, which only seemed to make her anger return. "You realize you don't have to be a trainer to own a Pokémon, right? I know you always avoided being around when trainers were here, but you do realize that it's dangerous out there right? I'm not here to escort you anymore."

It was true. Of the few times that Crystal had left New Bark Town, it was always with Professor Elm. She loved the Pokémon, especially seeing them in the wild, but she wouldn't dare go into the wilderness without an escort. In the time that she'd observed Pokémon behavior, she had become afraid of it. Mentally, when she thought of wild Pokémon, she saw Pidgey picking at Caterpie and Ursaring clawing through trees.