The news Professor Juniper told him nearly brought him to his knees, after basically running the entire way here his legs were already weary and her words put him on his last legs.
"I'm really sorry Magnus but the last starter pokemon escaped the facility about an hour ago. We can't find its current location." Juniper said while slightly bowing in apology. Her puffy light brown hair draped over her eyes, concealing the cyan orbs behind them. Those massive tits of hers that he previously would've been all too happy to see pushed against her grey top exposed an ample amount of cleavage, but Magnus never even took a peak, the sudden bout of disappointment was gnawing away at him.
It was unimaginable for Magnus, all his hopes for today came crashing to the ground. His excitement dying along with them, out of all the things he expected Juniper to say, this definitely wasn't one of them.
What would happen now, will he have to wait till a new batch comes in? No, who knows how long that could take, there's now way he could wait. Then will he have to settle for another pokemon? He was truly looking forward to choosing an Oshawott, ready to teach it how to shank things properly with that shell of theirs, but even if he wasn't able to choose one, he'd be grateful to have any of the other two.
Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott. Either one of the trio can evolve into powerful pokemon, a great start to any newbies team. That's why he worked so hard to get a chance at picking one of the three starters provided by Juniper. Now it just feels like all his hard work has gone down the drain.
If he couldn't get one, what was the point in coming down here in the first place? He might as well have just caught himself one back in Opelucid. With all these thoughts swirling about his head, Professor Juniper now finished with her apology, stood up straight and continued.
"Now you have a few options available to you" Pulling myself from my slump Magnus looks the professor in the eyes and listens to what she has to say.
"First of all, you could wait until we get another batch of starters, but with this option comes an unspecified wait. We've got no idea when the league will send them, it could be days, weeks or even months".
Still not liking the sound of waiting, Magnus listens in for the other options.
"Second option. If you don't want to wait, we can go and catch one of the pokemon nearby, there's quite a wide variety if we go down to route 18".
That's sounding like a much better plan to Magnus, there's lots of water, fighting and grass types that hang about around the area of route 18, there's even a rumour that a dragonite has made its home there. The only problem for trainers is that getting there's quite the pain. If you don't have a water type - or a boat - you need to travel through an extremely dense forest for miles and If you don't have something to navigate with there's a high chance you'll get lost within the vast sea of trees.
Just as he was about to take her up on that offer, Juniper gave him another option. One he wasn't expecting, something that's happened too many times today for his liking.
"Or as an apology for losing Oshawott and wasting your time, I can give you one of the research pokemon I got a few months back" she said while crossing her arms.
That really caught Magnus's interest, saying something for the first time in a while, he asked the professor curiously "What kind of pokemon is it?". If it's a pokemon that she was researching, there's a high chance that it's a rare one, or at least had something special about it if Juniper's looking into it.
"Interested in him, can't say I blame you. Give me a minute and I'll go get the little guy" She answered and left for the door, leaving Magnus and Fennel themselves for a bit.
A couple of minutes later, she came strutting in with a tiny pokemon perched on her shoulder. The pokemon was tiny, even smaller than a pidove, even if not by much. Still it was an eyecatcher for Magnus, he couldn't recognise it even after memorising most of the Unovan pokedex.
The little bird was primarily coloured blue, with his wings and back being the colour of the ocean on a cloudless day, while his crown and the stripe leading to the area around his face being a much darker shade. The part which stood out the most was the striking yellow on his underbelly just above the grey talons.
"This little cutie here's a Rookidee. Don't let her stature fool you though, he's quite the feisty one once she starts battling" Juniper informed me while gently scratching the bird's chin with her pale finger as Rookidee preened under the praise.
Stopping right in front of Magnus she reaches into her pocket while asking "Let me see your Pokedex from a second"
Promptly handing over the device, the professor then mashes a few buttons and inserts a small circular drive into the Pokedex. After a moment it slid back out and she returned the Pokedex to its rightful owner.
"I've just updated it with the National Pokedex. You'll be needing it if you want to take a look at Rookidee, who chirped in affirmation".
Pointing the Pokedex at Rookidee, it only took a second for Dex's automated voice to start giving off information.
'Rookidee, the tiny bird pokemon. A flying type. Rookidee are feisty and territorial pokemon and will bravely fight against anybody, no matter how big or strong that opponent is. They are able to store some of their own energy after every battle, so they can grow a bit stronger even if they lose.' the voice informed.
'This Rookidee has the moves: Leer, Peck, Power Trip, Hone Claws, Fury Attack, Roost and Sky Attack'
"Damn, you're packing some serious moves aren't you" Magnus said, impressed at what he saw making the receiver of the complement chirp.
"While Rookidee is proficient at most of his moveset, he still has trouble with Sky Attack, and most likely will until he evolves. Such a powerful move isn't made for a weak body, but I'm sure you already came to that conclusion yourself" Magnus just nodded in affirmation while Rookidee angrily cawed at the professor for calling his body weak.
Not being able to use Sky Attack properly isn't surprising as it's basically the Giga Impact of flying moves. Rookidee using it as he is now would most likely end up with disastrous consequences.
After she finished Magnus skimmed over some of the other important information the Pokedex had on Rookidee.
"So Rookidee is from the Galar Region" He asked the professor, realising the reason why he had never seen the pokemon before.
Letting the bird fly from her shoulder to the ground in front of me, she replies "Indeed, a colleague over in Galar sent him over at my request. Rookidee here has the ability 'Big Pecks' , a rare ability for his species, therefore I wanted to understand what effects it had on the species and if the ability was any different from the norm. For the past few months he's been aiding me with my research. I was close to sending him back into the wilds over in Galar but then… this morning happened and I thought Rookidee might want to tag along with you".
'Rookidee then, Huh' Magnus thought. After having a peak at the Pokedex he was more than okay with a partnership, one of the parts he looked at was Rookidee's evolutions. In the tiny bird's final form, he morphs into a titan of a pokemon standing 7ft tall, that's nearly the size of a Dragonite and even gains a steel typing to boot.
Whatever pokemon he might've caught at route 18 can wait, once himself and Rookidee's stronger he can go back and have a look.
Leaning down next to Rookidee I ask him "What'd you think about that then? Want to team up and I'll help you get real strong?". Seemingly debating with himself for a moment, Rookidee then squawks loudly and begins to fly around Magnus's head.
"Looks like that's settled then'' Juniper says. Reaching into her pocket once more, she takes out 10 basic pokeballs in their un-primed state, one being Rookidee's pokeball which she sat to the side; they were so small she could carry them all in the palm of her hand. Before handing them over she dug into her other pocket and pulled out a single pokeball sportin a different design.
With Rookidee now calm and perching on Magnus's shoulder, she finally got to hading the items over, Magnus seeing the design on the variant pokeball exclaims "Your giving me an ultra ball?"
Just shrugging in return, Juniper replies "It's the least I can do to show my appreciation for you coming all the way down here. I know the flight's would've been expensive, so just think of this as me squaring you up."
Magnus stared in wonder at the rare ultra ball in his hand. These rare variants have a much higher catch rate, and because of that they come with a hefty price tag. Just this one has already covered the money Magnus spent on the flights, plus a few hundred extra. Juniper never had to do this, but Magnus isn't going to refuse now that she's offering.
Stuffing the capture devices into his bag, he reaches out and grabs the badge case that Juniper was now offering him. With that he had everything and was ready to leave after saying thank you to the Professor and Fennel.
Before he walked away though, Juniper requested "Can I ask one more thing of you before you leave?"
Happy to oblige with whatever her request is Magnus responded "Sure, as long as it's not something impossible"
"You don't need to worry about performing the impossible. A simple request really, all I want is for you to note down any changes Rookidee's ability goes through during evolution, and show them to me whenever you've got the time" She explained.
An easy enough task, and one that will have a direct effect on his team if the ability morphs into something else. "I'll keep an eye out for it then"
"That's all I ask. Goodbye Magnus, enjoy your journey" Juniper said while waving next to Fennel.
"Catch you later then" Magnus said, and with those parting words set off away to Route 1.