#i got so distracted i have drawn no other solgaleos

[esprei]

wimdy

(reference image below cut):

[mysidewriting]

Through the Storm

From the start --> Previous chapter

Chapter Four:

The walls of Professor Oak's lab were lined from ceiling to floor in thick books. Titles ranging from things relating to the overall population of Kanto, to specific species of Pokémon. Large machines whirred in the background and an interesting assortment of the native beats wandered the lab, aiding assistants with their work or just lounging in corners.

The man himself was short, square faced, and entirely grey. He welcomed me ceremoniously with a large grin and a steady handshake. His hands were so raw with callouses that I felt as though I needed lotion after simply shaking hands.

He directed me towards a side room of the lab where some thick binders sat on a round table. I could tell by the scribbled words on the cover that Oak's work laid between the plastic. He promised my time here wouldn't be mostly reading and would actually include some hands on experimenting and sampling of the Kanto population, but for today it would be most beneficial for me to read as much as possible.

So that's what I did nearly all day. Sat at that round table with my nose in binders full of research findings and questions. As monotonous as it was, the content was shockingly interesting and exciting so I never got too distracted or bored.

Towards the end of the day I moved on to the last binder, a significantly thinner piece of research than the ones I had worked through. The cover was black and speckled with gold, a sheet of paper with a drawn rune on the front sparked my interest.

The index held nothing other than Pokémon names and page numbers, nothing I recognized at all. Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mew, and MewTwo.

Articuno, currently believed to be sleeping somewhere in the depths of sea foam cave, was one of the three legendary birds. An ice and flying type and that held unspeakable power. I wondered if it was any stronger or even stronger than Lunaala or Solgaleo. Not much information was in the research about the ice bird, and not much was in there for the other two birds either.

Zapdos was last seen in the power plant near Pewter City and Mt. Moon. It was an electric flying type and was known for striking lightning with each beat of its wings.

Moltres, the fire and flying type bird had not been seen anywhere other than the sky in the last ten years. Its location was completely unknown, and its presence was feared by many. The bird was almost entirely covered in flames, much like the Phoenix spoken of in old mythology. Despite the fact that its location was unknown, researchers speculate that it was living in a tropical environment such as the orange islands not far off the coast of Kanto.

The final two Pokémon covered in the binder had their sections merged and not much information had been provided for either of them. I'd just started reading about the psychic type, Mew, when Oak entered and informed me it was time to head home for the day. He was surprised to see I had gotten through nearly everything and agreed to let me finish the last section tomorrow.

Green had invited me to stay at house for the whole week I was supposed to be in Pallet and working with his grandfather. I thanked him repeatedly, and promised to repay the favor in the future. The guest room was made temporarily mine and I unpacked all the contents of my backpack into the empty dresser, washing my dirty clothes in his basement. I met his younger sister, a girl who sparked no resemblance to the narcissistic man whatsoever. She was shy and quiet, only two years younger than me.

Daisy was a Pokémon groomer with a magic touch, not even my still rambunctious nidorina could act disorderly around her. She was calm and didn't react negatively when I asked if she would groom Type:Null, she only asked where it was from. We had tea together and talked about various things, she told stories of Green when he was younger and more annoying than he was now.

Later in the day, as the sun was falling beyond the horizon and the rattata scurried around in the shadowed grass for scraps, Green came back to the house with another guy in tow. They were both covered in dirt and debris.

"Cinnabar is uninhabitable, in case either of you were wondering." Green said as he tossed his dirty jacket into a corner of the living room. His sister rose her eyebrows in annoyance at him but he shrugged it off. "That volcano eruption destroyed everything."

"That's not surprising." Daisy stated bluntly, still gazing at her older brother with a look of aggravation. "The news said the eruption was huge."

"Eruption?" I questioned, gaze falling on the other guy who was shucking off his own jacket and hanging it up on a rack.

"Some volcano under Cinnabar Island blew up two months ago. Red and I wanted to see if anything from the city made it." Green explained, referencing the new guy. Red the champion of Kanto, oh.

"So that old mansion and the fossil lab are just destroyed?" Daisy asked.

Red nodded disappointedly.

"That's a lot of scientific research and history lost." Daisy complained, setting her cup of tea down on the side table. She stood from the couch both of us had been sitting on for the past few hours and scooped up Green's dusted jacket and Red's as well. "You should have taken Moon with you, though." She said as she left the room, likely taking the jackets downstairs to wash them.

"We'll take you with us when you’re finished with gramps's stuff." Green said with a beaming grin in my direction. "We're going to explore Seafoam Island with you."

Seafoam! That was where the ice bird was thought to be located, excitement gripped me and I grinned back to him. "You better take me with you!"

The three of us, excluding Daisy. Went out to the backyard where Green released half his team to wander and stretch before being in for the night. Red did the same and I gazed in awe at his bulky charizard and somehow intimidating pikachu. Green half forced, half requested me to release lycanroc and Type:Null so Red could see the rare species of Pokémon from Alola. I obliged and had to stop Null from ramming into Green's arcanine out of intimidation. Kai was preoccupied showing off to the two men staring at her with amazement.

Red wasn't much for words, as I learned when attempting to ask him about his training regimen. He'd just shrugged and pointed to Green - who then explained that they trained off each other for the most part. The only thing he did say was 'sure' when Green asked him if he wanted to watch some movie before calling it a night. The Pokémon were left outside while everyone in the house nestled into the living room to watch some cheesy flick about team rocket.

After it was over I told them about Alola's former Team Skull. How there was nothing all that scary about them aside from some crazy crap with Pokémon from another dimension. Both Red and Green stared at me like I was insane, I just shrugged. I wasn't really allowed to talk about ultra space or the ultra beasts with anyone other than those who already knew about them.

M//I met the champion of Kanto!

H//REALLY?! Ooh what's he like?

M//quiet haha //he's got a real scary looking charizard and pikachu

G//pikachu?

H//yeah why not a raichu?

M//idk and he wouldn't tell me if I asked

L//I've met him before too! He's very quiet, but very nice //I've heard that Kantonian Raichu aren't as strong as Alolan.

G//odd.

M//Gladion, the Null you gave me tried to fight Green's Pokémon for no reason hahaha

G//you brought it with?

M//yeah!

H//I still want one 😒

G//There's only two.

L//Moon's is much cuter than yours, Bub. 😝

G//Okay?

L//she also saved me life so

M//you wouldn't have died! Just probably broke something.... haha //also she?

H//HOW DID SHE SAVE YOUR LIFE? Why did you almost die!!!!

G//What did you do....

L//Moon and I found a weird cave and explored and I almost fell off a cliff 😅

G//Moon, that's exactly what I told you not to do...

M//this was before that though! //And I guess Null is just a girl now, ok haha

H//LILLIE DONT GO IN THERE AGAIN! You either Moon what the heck?

M//I want to go back though

G//D o n ' t. I swear to Arceus, Moon, do not go back.

Mew was apparently the first decedent of the god Pokemon, Arceus. The first Pokémon that created every other Pokémon? Something like that, the way the research was written it was hard to understand what they were trying to explain. Either way, it was rarely seen but apparently whenever it did appear in front of someone it was very playful and loved to play tricks on people.

Mew was the only other Pokémon known to use the move transform, where it took on the image of another beast. Ditto, the man made Pokémon, is such thought to be a failed attempt at recreating the legendary mew.

Mewtwo, was a more successful attempt to create a clone of Mew, for research purposes. Drawings were scattered throughout the pages of Oak's work. Depicting a humanoid figure with a long tail and two spinal cords. The lab it had been created in was destroyed with 180 casualties and almost all information about the man made creature was destroyed in the exploding lab. It used telepathy to speak with humans according to the information that had been saved... only eyewitness testimonials to its power... of those who survived, all believe it was Mewtwo who had destroyed the lab - killing all the professors and assistants.

The Pokémon had escaped and was now in hiding somewhere, likely in Kanto.

I want to find it.

The rest of the day was spent surveying the wildlife just west of Lavender Town. Oak provides both of us and a small group of assistants a helicopter ride to the area. I searched for growlithe and tried to tag at least two girls and two boys with trackers.

The only thing I could think about while looking at all the growlithe was my father's pet of the species. I struggled to focus on counting the population as my mind drifted to wonder about my mother's wellbeing.

I would have to call her again, check up on the whole situation.

Most of the work I did with Oak was relatively similar to the things I did the first two days. I learned a lot about the native species of Kanto, and helped to put away some new found information about some rarer species.

I'd explored the safari zone very thoroughly, seeing Pokémon that couldn't be seen outside of the 'playground' as easily, at least in Kanto. I certainly recognized a lot of them from Alola. We studied the interactions between humans and Pokémon by interviewing with various trainers, people with pets, and businesses that used Pokémon for various tasks. I helped a few of the assistants to put together a quick report on our findings. I got a chance to explore Mt. Moon much more thoroughly then I had when I transversed it myself. Finding some new areas and tunnels that I hadn't seen when I was only looking through the caves.

All of the time spent traveling across Kanto had exhausted me by the final night of my week with Oak. I'd spent most of the time after what Green had deemed 'work' for me, just lying in bed and listening to music. Recounting all the different things I'd done and seen already was amazing to me. I still had another five months to do similar things and I couldn't even imagine what events would unfold as I traveled and met new faces and Pokémon.

I was packing up my things from the borrowed dressers when Green suddenly burst in the room, a bag over his own shoulder. "One more day with gramps, huh?"

"Yep!" I passed him a small smile, "thanks for letting me stay here."

"You kidding, kid? It was a joy." He chuckled, "You’re always welcome to stay with Daisy and me."

"Thanks! Maybe I'll come back then. Maybe I'll come by every week." I joked. I stuffed a tightly rolled up ball of undergarments into my bag, hoping the man standing in the doorway wouldn't notice.

"Uh, let's not over use my generosity here." He affirmed warily, his eyebrows low and judgmental before realizing I was only kidding. It was quiet for a moment before he spoke up again, his tone taunting. "So you know what this means, right?" He said with a sly expression on his face. Sliding around the doorway so he was officially in the room, leaning against the wall.

I stared at him quizzically, "no, what?"

"Seafoam Island soon!" He half sang, the sound falling into more laughter.

I actually jumped with excitement, dropping my bag so nearly all the contents spilled out. "Oh! Right! I want to find that legendary bird in there."

"Ha! Fat chance." His voice was loud enough to make my ears ring. "It's nearly impossible to get to the bottom of the caves."

I returned a sly grin in his direction, "I can make it down there."

His hazel eyes rolled, over dramatic. "Sure, sure."

Note: So this is kind of a super uneventful chapter and I apologize for that. I may just post chapter five later today, to make up for that. To continue off of that... Could you guys let me know what you think of length for these chapters? I'm conflicted about how much to post at a time. :c So two things - do you guys want chapter five tonight/tomorrow? (Next chapter is posted!) and what do you guys want to see with length for chapters? (For reference, this chapter was around 6 pages long. Chapter three was a whopping 13-14) Thanks!