//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 - An Eventful Evening 
// Story: Pokemon: Nova Aetas - The First Journey 
// by Mkchief34 
//------------------------------//

"Well, Sacre Bleu!" Professor Sycamore huffed as the taxi came to a stop outside of his laboratory. "This rain shows no signs of stopping. You two should head inside, I'll handle the fare."

Noah nodded and opened the left side door, with Twilight following close behind. Twilight knew there were spare clothes for her in her bag, but she hadn't thought of bringing a jacket with her or anything for adverse weather. Noah opened the door, and she gratefully nodded to him as they entered the laboratory's main hall.

"I was expecting it to be a bit more…scientific here." she mumbled to herself, looking at the environment. "This place seems a little underwhelming."

"Well, this is just the entrance hall." Noah replied. "Professor Sycamore's lab is upstairs, and the Pokemon house is straight ahead."

"You've been here before?" Twilight asked. "Is that why you know the layout?"

"Yeah, I've been here several times in the past." Noah nodded, exhaling deeply. "Though…the last time I was here, it was more chaotic due to an emergency situation."

"What kind of emergency are we talking about?" Twilight raised an eyebrow, looking at Noah with a bit of suspicion. 

"It was a Pokemon related emergency." Noah clarified. "It's a long story, and it…might not be a pleasant one to hear."

"Indeed, and a tiresome one to boot." Professor Sycamore added as he entered, his coat now darkened from the rain. Twilight was about to ask another question, but Professor Sycamore spoke first.

"You two should head upstairs to unpack. I'll get some dinner made for you both in the meantime. It's late, and I believe the storm outside won't pass until the morning, according to my Holo Caster's news feed."


Twilight and Noah nodded and proceeded down the hallway towards the guest rooms, however, Twilight was still quite curious about what kind of emergency that Noah and Professor Sycamore had mentioned.

"Hopefully it's nothing serious, and I'm getting all worked up for nothing." Twilight thought, walking towards a room on the right side of the hallway. "Though…from their voices it must've been bad, or even dangerous. I guess it's none of my business…but I do want to know."

As she laid down on a plush bed with blue sheets, she placed her bag to the side and exhaled deeply, as she began to fall asleep. Twilight tried to get back up and force herself to stay awake, but eventually, she gave up and pulled the covers over herself. In only a few minutes, she was sound asleep.

====

As Noah entered the lab's kitchenette, Professor Sycamore motioned for him to sit down. The Professor had managed to whip up a dish of warm rice, berry juice, and a serving of barbecued ribs. Noah thanked the Professor, and dove into his meal.

"Slow down, Noah." Sycamore admonished, eating his ribs at a more refined, slower speed. 'I don't want you to choke on something."

Noah gave a grunt of acknowledgement, and slowed down accordingly to match the Professor's pace. Eventually, he stopped and looked back towards the hallway that led to the guest rooms.

"Twilight's missing out on dinner…I hope she's alright…" he mused, with a worried tint in his voice.

"I'd imagine she's resting at the moment." Professor Sycamore replied. "Traveling from Equestria all the way to Kalos would likely put quite a strain on her body and mind. Besides, I can leave some things out for her if she's hungry later."

"That is true." Noah nodded. "I'll help clean up once we're done, if you need my help."

"I'd appreciate that Noah, thank you." The professor nodded and stretched his arms outward before standing up. "Come on, let's get started. These dishes can't do themselves, you know."

"Oh, I'm aware of that." Noah smirked, heading over to the washing machine and sink. "You know, thinking back to that…situation a few months ago really made me think about how much Pokemon rely on us, and us on them. If I hadn't found that crate at Lake Valor in time…those Pokemon would've been…"


"I know, Noah." Sycamore replied. "It was fortunate on our part that we recovered them, and were able to reunite them with their trainers or partners. It certainly was touch and go for quite some time." 

There was silence between them for a few minutes, before Noah took out a Poke' Ball from his bag, staring at one specific point. On the topside, at about forty-five degrees, a jagged white line could be seen. It didn't interfere with the Poke' Ball's functionality, and it easily could've been sealed up, but for Noah, it was a memento of the past for the Pokemon within.

He sighed, placed the ball back in his bag, and resumed washing the remaining dishes in silence with Professor Sycamore.

====

Twilight blinked her eyes, slowly waking up to an unfamiliar room. She was wary at first, but then she remembered where she was and why she was there. She leaned backwards to look at the electronic clock on the nightstand.

"It's almost eight…" she huffed out loud. "Did I really sleep that long?"

"You did, but it's fine." Noah said, placing a full plate of food on the nightstand. "We saved you a plate, and it's still warm. I know Equestrians don't eat meat, so I put the ribs away for you."

"Thanks." Twilight nodded gratefully, beginning to eat, and it didn't take her long to clear her plate. She cleared her throat, causing Noah to glance at her in a curious manner.

"I didn't mean to intrude earlier about the emergency you mentioned." she said quietly. "It wasn't my place to ask about it."

"It's okay." Noah replied. "Would you like to know the full story? It's okay if you don't."

Twilight nodded in response.

"Well, here goes." Noah sighed. "This was about three months ago in the Sinnoh region, near Lake Valor. I was hiking along the lakeshore when I noticed a storage crate just sitting there, and judging from the condition it was in…it had been underwater for a good amount of time. Sitting next to it in the mud was a damaged Pokeball."

"I opened the crate, and found more Pokeballs on a six-by-six rack, four racks deep." he continued. "I called Officer Jenny on the spot, and she was there in a few minutes, along with Nurse Joy."

"The thing is, once we got the crate and all the Pokeballs back to the Pokemon Center, Officer Jenny found a symbol printed on the crate that made her call for backup,  right then and there. It was the insignia of a woman called Pokemon Hunter J."

"A pokemon…hunter?" Twilight asked, not sure if she would like the answer.

"A person who steals Pokemon, either from the wild or from trainers, to sell on the black market." Noah replied, making Twilight's jaw drop. "Pokemon Hunter J was regarded as the best of them all."

"She sounds really evil." Twilight replied. "I hope she gets caught sometime."

"That's the thing, Twilight." Noah sighed. "She's dead."

Twilight's train of thought came to a screeching stop as she pondered what Noah had just said.

"She's dead? Then who killed her?" she murmured, feeling quite horrified.

"I'll get to that." Noah nodded. "A few months before that, Hunter J was in deep with a criminal group called Team Galactic. Their leader, Cyrus, wanted to create a new  world in his image, and to do that, he needed the powers of the Legendary Pokemon Dialga and Palkia, who control time and space. In order to get that power, he needed the Pokemon called the Lake trio, consisting of Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf."

"Team Galactic soon captured Uxie and Mesprit, but before that, those two Pokemon used a powerful move called Future Sight. That move essentially creates a powerful storm of psychic energy to strike the target at a later time, so keep that in mind."

"Once Pokemon Hunter J departed in her airship, after being paid by Team Galactic for her efforts in capturing Mesprit and Azelf…the Future Sight attack hit J's airship dead on. It began to fall into Lake Valor, where a massive vortex awaited it. Once it hit the wall of water and began to sink deeper into the lake…the airship's engines went critical and it soon exploded."

"The only trace of J that was recovered was her tracking headset." Noah continued. "She and her crew were never seen again, but there were still plenty of Pokemon who were lost when the ship went down…or so we assumed."


"So some of the Pokemon on board survived?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, once Cyrus was defeated and the Lake Trio were freed, they allowed us to send salvage divers down to the wreck. They were able to extract a bunch of the crew's Pokemon that were in their Poke Balls, and a good amount of other Pokemon that had been turned into statues. We assumed that was the end of it…until I found that crate." Noah replied.

"As it would turn out, the Poke Balls in that crate contained more stolen Pokemon that we were able to send back to their trainers safely. The one thing that caused the emergency was the damaged Poke Ball I found."

"There was still a Pokemon in it, but we couldn't know what it was unless we got it out of the Poke Ball. Which was tough to do given its damaged state. A Poke Ball maker named Kurt came down from Johto to help, and we barely managed to transfer the Pokemon out to a new Poke Ball."

Noah sighed deeply, before continuing in a more quiet manner.

"Inside that Poke Ball was Pokemon Hunter J's partner, Salamence."  he said. "It took us a week to get him back to physically full health, but his mental state was something else. Salamence was distraught over losing the only partner he had ever known, and it was really hard for him to adjust to being without her."

"He would lash out in sadness towards anyone that approached him, and he isolated himself from other Pokemon. It was looking bad for a while, until I volunteered to take him with me and become his new partner." Noah sighed, remembering the troubles that followed. "For a while, Salamence wouldn't listen to me, and even then, it was hard to get him out of his Poke Ball in the first place."

"Three weeks afterward, Salamence and I got through to each other, and he's been my best partner ever since. He outgrew his old vicious temperament that J had forced into him, and he's a lot better now…but he doesn't really trust anyone apart from me."

"I'm so sorry to hear that." Twilight said quietly. "At least he's found a new partner in you. That must mean something to him." 

"Yeah, it does." Noah replied, standing up and stretching. "Hey, we should rest. Tomorrow's another big day. I'm sorry I had to ramble on like that."

"It's just fine with me. Goodnight, Noah." Twilight smiled, and as Noah left the room, she laid back down to sleep as the rain began to ease up outside, signaling the storm was passing by.