"Hey, Mom! What've you been up to?"

My brother and I stared at the Communicator's screen where our mom's image was displayed. It was our first real day in Castelia City, and I couldn't wait to begin sightseeing today.

"I've been fine! It's so quiet around the house without you and Nate, but I've been holding up. How're you two?" Mom responded.

"I already have over twenty Pokémon registered in my Pokédex," I told her.

"I have two badges and I'm gonna go for my third in a few days!" Nate said.

Mom smiled. "That's great! I'm so happy that both of you are having a great time so far."

"Oh, yeah. Karley from the Floccesy Town Pokémon Center said hi," Nate said. "I completely forgot to tell you until just now!"

"Karley?! I haven't spoken to her in years!" Mom sounded surprised.

Karley? Guess she's one of Mom's old friends, I thought.

"How's Hugh been? His mom told me that he hasn't called them at all yet. They're a little concerned, especially Lily." Mom asked. She looked behind us and searched the Center as much as her limited view would allow.

Hugh? Yeah, about him... I wanted to tell mom that he left, but she would've asked us why he left. And if we told her he was chasing a criminal organization, she and Hugh's parents would've flipped out. "Hugh's asleep. We were going to wake him up after we finished this call," I said, thinking of an excuse on the spot. It was still pretty early in the morning, so my answer wasn't too improbable. "He's doing great too! Right Nate?" I shot Nate a look that said, Just go along with it!

Luckily, the stars must've aligned in my favor at that moment because Nate seemed to get what I was insinuating. He gave Mom a fake reassuring look and agreed with me. He also added on that he and Hugh fought a Double Battle for their second badges.

Mom nodded slowly, one of her eyebrows raised in suspicion. "O-kay... that's good to hear. I'll tell his parents."

Not telling Mom the truth was one of the hardest things I had to do. I kept telling myself that Hugh's parents were better off not knowing what he was really doing. "I'll tell him to call his parents later if that makes it any better," I said.

"Would you? Thank you. I'll still pass on the info you gave me regardless," Mom said, her suspicion thankfully dissipating.

"We need to get going. We'll call you later today or tomorrow, okay?" Nate said a little too quickly. We said goodbye and ended the call.

"We sure dodged a massive bullet there," Nate sighed in relief. "I'm glad Mom bought our excuse. Now we can get on with our sightseeing. How 'bout we head to Castelia Park? There's apparently a lot of interesting Pokémon there."

"Yeah, that sounds good," I agreed. I pushed my worried thoughts about Hugh away. He was a strong Trainer, he could take care of himself!

~*~*~*~

Castelia Park was a little ways south of the Route 4 entrance. It was tucked away in a rather small circular area surrounded by buildings on almost on all sides. Despite having few trees and a lot of tall grass, the Pokémon here were surprisingly diverse.

There were the usual city-dwelling Pokémon like Pidove and Rattata, but there were some Pokemon I didn't expect to see. Pokémon such as Petilil, Cottonee, and even Buneary! I went through the same routine I did in the Virbank Complex while Nate trained his Pokemon for his upcoming Gym battle. Every new Pokémon I found was swiftly caught and stored away in my backpack. Even if I wasn't a good battler, at least I had some talent as a catcher.

I finished scanning a newly-caught Skitty's data and checked my Pokédex's Habitat List to see if I had missed any Pokemon. It turns out I was missing two: Cottonee, and Eevee. Eevee was a rare find around here and there wasn't very much "here" to begin with. Another incredible stoke of luck occurred when I saw a fluffy brown Pokémon with long, thin ears run out of the nearest patch of grass.

"Go, Ivy!" I sent my Servine out and ordered her to use Vine Whip. I couldn't afford to lose this lucky find so Ivy needed to use a relatively weak move on the Eevee.

Ivy's vines lightly smacked the Eevee and it retaliated with a Growl. I decided to take advantage of Ivy's lowered Attack stat and told her to use Tackle. Ivy smashed into Eevee and after that it looked like it had taken enough damage. I took out a Great Ball and threw it at Eevee. One shake, two shakes, three shakes... and a small star flew from the ball's button. I had caught it!

Ivy scooped up the Great Ball with her vines and tossed it to me. I caught it easily, Pokédex at the ready.

Eevee, the Evolution Pokémon. Thanks to its unstable genetic makeup, this special Pokemon conceals many different possible evolutions. Gender: female, Ability: Adaptability, Moves: Bite, Growl, Tackle, Detect.

I was confused. Detect? That didn't sound like a move Eevee could learn normally. Maybe this Eevee was special?

You should keep her! This thought popped into my head. Keep this potentially special Eevee? No, this rare Eevee needs to be studied! I argued with myself. You need a new team member! The desperate side of my myself argued back. As dumb as it must've sounded for me to argue with myself, I wasn't wrong with the new team member part, and holding onto this Eevee could score me some major points with Juniper if I figured out this little mystery! All she really needed was their data. I only sent the actual Pokémon to her to show how dedicated to the Pokédex project I really was. And on top of that, having more Pokémon would make me a stronger Trainer. Against my better judgement, I decided to keep the Eevee.

I sent out Slinky and I showed them the Great Ball. "Ivy, Slinky, we have ourselves a new team member!" I announced to my Pokémon. I already knew what I would call my new Pokémon. A lucky find, and a even luckier capture. "Meet Lucky!" I said. Lucky burst from her ball in a flash of blue light and fell to the ground in a tumble of brown and white fur. She landed on her back with her paws in the air and looked up at Ivy and Slinky.

I introduced Lucky to her teammates. "Lucky, this is Ivy and Slinky." Ivy smiled at Lucky and Slinky padded over to Lucky and licked the side of her face. Lucky smiled too and let out a happy squeak.

Wow, they're getting along already! I thought happily. I then knew it was the right choice to keep Lucky after all.

I still had to catch a Cottonee so I returned Ivy and Slinky to their Poké Balls, keeping Lucky out, and began scouring the rest of Castelia Park for my missing catch. Not five minutes after I started looking, I found a ball of white cotton with leaves on its sides floating between clumps of tall grass, a Cottonee. Hopefully, Lucky would be just a good catching partner as Ivy.

"Okay, Lucky. use Bite and don't let go!"

Lucky ran at Cottonee and it lunged forward with a Tackle. Without me telling her to, Lucky dodged the Tackle and bit down on one of Cottonee's leaves. Since Cottonee was so light, Lucky was able to whip it around a few times before it managed to free itself.

"Use Tackle!"

Lucky crashed into the Cottonee's side, knocking it to the ground. I took out my last regular Poké Ball and threw it at Cottonee. Three shakes later and I caught it.

I crouched down to meet Lucky's eyes. "Lucky, could you bring that Poké Ball to me?" I asked.

Lucky glanced from me to the ball sitting on the grass, its red and white coloring standing out against the deep green around it. She stood over the ball, opened her mouth as wide as it could stretch, and somehow managed to fit her mouth around half of the ball. Head still lowered slightly to the ground, probably from the ball's weight, she brought it over to me. I praised Lucky and pet her. I knew she was going to be a great addition to the team.

"You there, young lady!"

I looked away from Lucky and saw someone standing a few paces behind me. I was immediately interested by this person because his appearance somewhat reminded me of Professor Juniper as he was wearing a pristine white lab coat. He was also wearing white medical gloves, black pants, a black shirt and shoes under his buttoned-up coat, and square wire-rimmed glasses. His short blond hair was slicked back against his head and a part of it was dyed blue. The dyed part was gelled in such a way that it stuck out and created a sort of "halo" around his head.

"Yes? Can I help you, sir?" I asked, intrigued and weirded-out at the same time.

"Your Eevee... The way it flawlessly listened to you despite you catching it minutes before. And how you managed to bring out its power against that Cottonee without its Tackle making contact. Simply astounding!" the man rambled, ignoring my reply.

I felt uneasy. His comment about me just catching Lucky meant he had been watching me for at least ten minutes! How long had this man been watching me? I didn't know whether to be polite and say thanks, or run away and find my brother. I took the Poké Ball from Lucky and returned her to her own ball, not taking my eyes off the man.

"Do not mind me! Your Eevee just interested me, and I couldn't help but call out to you," the man apologized, waving his hand dismissively. "I'm sorry for interrupting, I'll be going now." He turned away and headed away from the park.

"Rosa, you're never gonna believe this!"

I heard Nate's voice and turned to see him running up to me. I saw a Herdier running beside him and realized that Lilith had evolved!

Nate looked to where I was looking previously and saw the retreating form of the man I'd been talking with. "Who's that guy?" he asked.

You're asking the wrong person. "I... have no idea." I shrugged.