Chapter 1 - Learning About The World

Act 06 - New Companion

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Ezekiel already had nine, almost ten,  years of age. He had already discovered which type was his affinity and now his time was mostly spent studying pokemon of that specific type, how many of them he can find here in Hoenn, how to care for them, how to make them stronger, he was now wildly obsessed with pokemon of that type and was sure that they would be his path to his Ideal Performance.

He also tried to discover how he could get his hands on a starter pokemon of Hoenn, since one of them was among the strongest pokemon of his type that he could find in the whole region, if not on the overall. Unfortunately, he discovered that they are almost extinct in the wild and are only given to trainers sponsored by the Ever Grande League, which was a honor given to only a few handful of trainers each year and even they had to pass through a arduous process where they are tested in their knowledge of pokemon, affinity with the three types and battle awareness.  

In the end he decided to study to try getting a sponsorship as not only they get a starter pokemon but also get free care and rooms in the pokemon center, a free pokedex, and a expanded carrying limit of six pokemon as opposed to the five limit to the common trainers. They still had a few duties to carry as sponsored trainers but he decided that in the end the gains outweighed the losses so he decided that it would be for the best if he could get the spot.

Other thing that happened in the last years was that his mother cracked how to emulate the evolution field in the Mt. Moon and made it one of the more recent business of the family. They used the fact that Oliver was still working in casual jobs and was also used to taking care of the Nidoking and Nidoqueen evolution lines and made him the caretaker of what they call The Nido Ranch, the only place in the whole Hoenn that regularly sold pokemon of that specific line in any of their evolution levels.

Even when they lived in Kanto Oliver still sold the casual egg that Linda sprouted out for a small amount since they are commonly found in that region, on the other hand there was no actual place in Hoenn that they can find Nidoran in the wild so they are actually very pricey. Here they can get sold from thousands of pokedollars the egg to a dozen thousands the final form that had already passed through the Moon Field ™ , even more if they are born with a egg move in special. That, together with income that his mother made by working for professor Birch, means that they are relatively wealthy. Maybe even rich if you compare them with when they arrived in the region all these years ago.

Nowadays Ezekiel was commonly found either in the library of the laboratory learning about pokemon of his favored type or lost in the forest while playing with his friend Brendon. Today he was in the library reading a book about the best ways to disentangle the fur of different pokemon and the tools used for each egg type when he heard a voice yelling him from the outside, " Zek! Your father is calling, he said you should go quickly." The voice came from the nine years old Brendan, and he yelled from the outside  because he did not felt comfortable entering the library with so many busy scientists wandering there all day.

His words made Ezekiel pause his book and put a marker on the page he was, because his father rarely called him during work time and the few times that he did had been truly important.

Thus, Ezekiel walked to the outside to find the awaiting Brendon as they rushed to the ranch with haste. He did not even needed to ask him where his father was because nowadays his father was always taking care of the ranch during daytime, so they just speeded over these without thinking twice.

There they found Luke, his father's Nidoking and the unquestioned alpha of the ranch. Luke was the leader of all Nido in the ranch because he was the only Nidoking in the whole ranch at any given time, since they are extremely territorial and could not coexist with another one even of they are family. In the times when a Nidoking evolved in the Moon Field ™ they are immediately separated from the other nidos and placed inside a pokeball until a buyer came or they auditioned them at end of the month.

Seeing the two meter tall reptilian beast, Ezekiel remembered that he was ever present beside his father during work so it was very weird seeing him all alone there outside,"Luke, where's my father? He said to meet him quickly." He thought that his father's companion would know the answer so he asked without thinking, and had not been disappointed since his Luke pointed to the purple and blue barn where the pokemon sleep, which had a open door and a couple of Nidorino peeking through it.

Joining the Nidorino too see what was inside the barn, Ezekiel and Brendon both became starry eyed with the beautiful sight that greet them. There are three Nidorina walking around the room and looking anxiously to the Nidoqueen at center of the room, Linda, who was protecting something from the other ones inside the room. Their behavior was standoffish at best and weird at worst but Ezekiel could not fault any of them since he knew that some pokemon behaved beyond the common when there are eggs of their species hatching nearby, so he decided to just ignore their agitation and appreciate the beautiful sight that was before him.

Looking further into what Luna was protecting, they could see some eggs with a purple and blue pattern glowing in a slow rhythm, Linda seemed to be specially overprotective when she saw noticed that one of them was looking to the eggs. Once again another weird thing since he never saw Linda acting like that in his life since she was normally very chill and left the aggressiveness to Luke, never once having ever looked at him with such dangerous aura around her.

On a corner, very far away from everything that was happening, Ezekiel could see his father with his back against the wall observing what was happening with serious eyes. After a few seconds just appreciating the beauty of the radiant eggs, Ezekiel finally got enough presence of mind to ask his father what was happening, "Father? You called." Also taking Oliver's attention from what was happening on the center of the room and making him give a thought before answering.

Oliver just rubbed his bald head with a hand and spoke somehow awkwardly, "Hi Zek, Brendan. Well, you see. You're a growing boy, and me and your mother decided that you can have a some responsibility. And your birthday is almost coming up, so we thought ' why not give him the next egg that Linda put out?'" He concluded somewhat unsure of his words.

Ezekiel lived with his father for more almost a decade and at this point he can say that  he knew him very well, so he understood that while his father was never a man very good with his words he was at least mean them from the bottom of his heart.

The boy was very grateful that his parents trusted him enough to let him take care of a pokemon even thought that he was still years away from the minimum age necessary to be a registered trainer, he was also very happy that he was going to get a Nidoran as his first pokemon since he already knew most of their behaviors and needs since he grew up with Luke and Linda at home.

That's why he did not spoke any further and just gave his father a very tight hug to show his gratitude before looking back to the oversensitive Nidoqueen that was almost hissing at everyone and everything that got close to the hatching eggs, "Thank you, but how I'm supposed to get the egg?" He asked with a dubious smile on his face, as if he thought of the task impossible.

Oliver gave out a low chuckle at his words and pointed out, "She'll stop being like that after they're born. It's like this every year." And as if his words are exactly what he wanted to hear, Ezekiel let out a sigh of relief since he did not believed that he could calm down a pokemon as strong as her when she was this lively, even if he had high affinity with her type and experience in calming upset pokemon.

And then he did the only thing that he could do in a situation like that, he shut up, reclined against the wall like his father did, and awaited for the time when the egg hatched. The time passed slowly while he was watching the eggs blink, time enough that made him curse himself for not bringing a book so he could past time by reading it but he was not the one at fault since he could not have expected to get his first pokemon in a situation like this one. He also wanted to complain to his father since it was his fault that he had to wait this much but he also knew that these things could take from minutes to hours and his father could not know when the egg would hatch, so he just stayed still for some more time.

Soon, Brendan decided that it was the for the best of him to get away from the aggravated mother and gave his goodbyes before walking away in a fast pace. Ezekiel had remained laying against the wall for some time when he finally saw the frequency of the blinking eggs change from slow ones to various in a fast paced rhythm, a clear sign that the eggs are just about to hatch up in a few moments.

And as proof that he was right, not a minute later the first of the eggs glowed completely white before releasing a blinding explosion of light and and leaving behind only a purple small rodent with disproportional sides ears with a small spike on its head and a generous amount of them at back. A being that could easily be identified as a Male Nidoran for anyone that knew of the species.

Ezekiel had seen many eggs hatching before during his life since his parents now owned the pokemon ranch for a while already but this time everything had been different. The light emanating from the egg shines brighter, the colors around him seemed to be more vivid, and he was sure that his heart was beating much faster than it was just a few minutes before. He did not know what made this time be different from the other times in any given category section, maybe it was because it was the birth of the first pokemon that he would ever call his own, maybe because this day truly had something else that made it different from the regular days, but he understood that this day would be marked in his memories for the rest of his life. Because even if he put all these weird feelings aside, today was still the day that his first pokemon would be born, his first partner, his friend, the one that would go with him all the way to Ever Grande City if fate allowed it.

At this point in time, he understood in a subconscious level that Linda was still very skittish but he could not contain himself before he darted away from where he was awaiting and into the nest of glowing white eggs and a Nidoran guarded by the mama Nidoqueen.

He was simply too focused in the small existence that he held in his arms to even notice the small growl that came from the giant reptilian pokemon behind him, he was just mesmerized by how such tiny being could make such deep impact into his life like this. This was the first time that he ever saw this pokemon but he already felt like they knew each other for their whole lives, it was such deep connection that Ezekiel genuinely feared being spared from the small rodent in his arms.

And as engrossed that he was in the purple hue of his new companion, the blond boy would never miss the second when the pinkish eyelids opened to reveal two red orbs that meet his own golden globes. He barely had time to register what happened when a small tear streaked down from his eye before he spoke, "Welcome to life..." And before he even noticed that he stopped, he continued, "Welcome to to life, Basil."
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Asterinium

The closest I will go to a lit RPG was what was displayed in the spoilers. Any pokemon that Ezekiel have on the party will have something similar,  should I keep the tag ?