New Arrival

She wasn't far from home but it still felt like a new place for Nicole. She decided that she was going to be a Pokemon breeder and she picked up two Pokemon from the lab in Talc Town. Now she needed to get supplies but there just wasn't that much stuff in the small town. she was sure there was another town not too far away though and she would get her supplies there. She could have flown since she had wings but she already made up her mind she was going to walk as much as possible and see the region from the ground and see more Pokemon that way too. She wanted company and she let her two new POkemon out from their balls. "Come on guys," she said cheerfully to her Poochyena and Growlithe. "Let's do something!"

After giving out several Pokemon earlier, Professor Spruce locked up his lab and decided to walk out into town. Before he left, he grabbed a Pokeball, thinking he might have use for the Pokemon it contained later. Well, he wouldn't need the Pokemon, but he thought someone else might. Having been busy at the time, the professor hadn't paid attention to the people who were coming to his lab - he just checked their papers and then got them the proper Pokemon. But he remembered an angel that had come in. He hadn't seen many of his kind in the area, and although he hadn't thought about it at the time, he decided he wanted to help the young angel out. Hoping she was still around, he went for the walk, sure her large wings would stand out.

He found her relatively quickly and saw her releasing the Pokemon he had just given her. A Poochyena and a Growlithe. He hadn't remembered that she had selected those two. He never remembered what he gave out to anyone, except for a certain Charmander. But that wasn't important at the moment.

"Excuse me," he said as he approached Nicole. "You just received these Pokemon from me, correct?"

Nicole was standing on the side of the road where she released her Pokemon and was just watching them. She really had no idea what to do with them now that she had them. Although her plans were to become a breeder she couldn't help but wonder how they'd do in battle. SHe was getting ready to go find a trainer or anyone else who wanted to battle just to test it out when she heard the professor. "Yes," she answered. "Nothing's wrong, is it?" She looked down at her Pokemon hoping all was well. Even though she just met them she wouldn't want to lose them so soon.

"Oh no," he said with a friendly smile. "Everything's just fine. It's just that, I recall you were planning on becoming a breeder, and I should have done this back at the lab, but I was thinking about some research and I just didn't think about it, but I thought that perhaps you could make use of this Pokemon."

The professor took the Pokeball from his pocket and held it out to her. "It's a Ditto, by the way. Should be very useful in breeding Pokemon."

"But... I already got two Pokemon," she said, a little confused. Why was he giving her another? Even as she said that, she took the Pokeball from the professor. "I don't mean to be rude, but why are you giving me this? I'm very grateful that you would want to I just don't get it."

He smiled yet again, acting as if he were the happiest person in the world. He wasn't an unhappy person, but giving out free Pokemon wasn't something that normally made him happy. For some reason, this time, it did, and there was a hint of an actual genuine smile. Not that anyone could really tell the difference. He was far too practiced in faking emotions for most people to detect it.

"I just thought you should have it. What else am I going to do with a bunch of Ditto, right? I inherited them from someone else's research, but I have no need for them, so why not give it to someone who could actually use it?" While that was mostly true, he hadn't exactly inherited a Ditto collection from another researcher - he'd just taken it when the other researcher had an unfortunate and mysterious accident. But he really had no use for them.

"Oh." Nicole couldn't help but smile, thinking she was very fortunate to run into such a nice professor. Her mental image of professors had always been stuffy old men, but Professor Spruce was very different and far kinder than she could have imagined. "I'll take very good care of him! Or her?" She wasn't sure what to call a Ditto, vaguely aware they didn't have a gender. "Thank you so much!"

"I believe you just call Dittos it," he said with a warm smile, although on the inside, he was pretty confused. Why did he have the urge to be genuinely nice to this girl? Even as he didn't understand it, he continued to speak with her, wanting to help her in any way he could. "Have you already planned out where you're going?"