Years ago, Littleroot Town, Hoenn

Shaun had been in the middle of packing his suitcase when the phone call came. At age 14 he was finally going on a journey, years after many young people in the region left home. But he was unusual in that he wasn’t about to collect a pokemon from the local professor and head out to try his skill at pokemon training. Instead, he was heading out to a little-explored land to try and document its pokemon. To that end, he’d finally earned enough to purchase himself some equipment, the most espensive of which was his fancy brand new camera. He’d gotten distracted by admiring it (again) when his mom called down the hall to him. “Shaun! The Professor’s on the phone for you!”

“Be right there!” he called back as he finally settled the camera in its padded case. The only Professor around was Prof. Birch, the man Shaun had been working with for the past 2 years or so. Shaun figured his mentor probably wanted to say goodbye before his young friend headed off to a distant new region.

But when he took the phone he was surprised to hear Prof. Birch, “Good morning, Shaun! Can you stop by the lab sometime today? I have something for you.”

Nothing Shaun said could get the Prof. so say anything more. So naturally, curiosity drove Shaun to head right over. His house wasn’t far from the lab, since Littleroot was not a big town, so he was there in minutes. It seemed Birch expected this, since he opened the door before Shaun could even knock.

“There you are!” he told Shaun delightedly. Whatever it was he wanted to show Shaun, it was good. Shaun opened his mouth to ask again, but he was cut off. “What’re you waiting for? Come in, come in!” Birch insisted, and herded the young man inside. He still refused to answer any questions until he’d practically pushed Shaun though the lab and out the back door.

Shaun’s attention was instantly diverted to the pokemon grazing at a leafy tree in the fenced in-yard beyond, and his eyes went wide at the sight of it. It was a Tropius, which he was plenty familiar with. He’d photographed them before, and had seen pictures of a rare form of it with an unusual coloration, where all the colors were much brighter. But the one in the yard was stranger still. Most of it was the middling green and dim brown of a usual Tropius, but it had highly unusual markings; slashed of bright green on the leaves and swirls and dots of golden brown on the legs and neck.

Naturally, Shaun’s first instinct was to reach for his camera, before remembering he’d already packed it away, and in his haste he’d forgotten to bring his bag anyway. So he settled for asking, “What’s caused this? I’ve never seen a pokemon like this before.”

Birch had been watching Shaun, hands on his hips and grinning widely at his assistant’s reaction. “Thought you’d like him. I found him on my latest excursion,” the professor replied. “As far as the scientific community can figure, markings like this are caused by a weaker form of the gene that causes a pokemon to exhibit a variant, or “shiny”, coloration. This is the first case of it I’ve seen here, but it’s been documented in other areas, like the region you’re about to leave for.”

Shaun nodded, his eyes still on the Tropius, before realization hit and he turned sharply to look at the professor. “Wait, there’s more?”

Birch threw back his head and laughed, the sudden noise making the Tropius turn his head to look at the two humans. “Yes indeed! It’s an exciting discovery, and I look forward to seeing what we can find from such pokemon. And word has it that you’ll be able to see many more of them in Zatao! You’re a lucky young man, to be able to explore it,” he said, clapping Shaun on the shoulder fondly.

Ah, yes. That reminded Shaun that he couldn’t stay here and help document this new variation. He looked regretfully at the Tropius, wishing for once that he wasn’t leaving just yet. But it seemed a shame not to get a few good pictures of this pokemon before he left. “Hold on, I’ll go get my camera,” Shaun blurted out, whirling around to rush home.

But Birch only laughed again and reached out to grab the boy’s shoulder. “No need to rush off so fast. You’ll have all the time in the world to photograph him at your leisure.” At that, he pulled a pokeball out of his pocket and proffered it.

Shaun stared at the orb, comprehension dawning slowly. “Wait…you’re giving him to me?” He glaned up at the professor’s face, his own a mixture of confusion and surprise.

Birch was grinning again. “I couldn’t let you leave on a journey without a pokemon, could I? That would be irresponsible of me! And I don’t have any of the normal starters around, so you get this fellow instead.” He gestured to the Tropius with his free hand, still holding out the pokeball with the other.

Shaun glanced at the large pokemon, who’d gone back to munching on leaves. Excitement and uncertainty warred on his face as he tried to insist, “But, I can’t take such a rare pokemon. You can’t have had long to study him.”

Birch just waved away his protests. “There’s not much we can get from him beyond bloodwork, and I’ve already taken several samples. Or I suppose, sapwork, since the main oxygen-carrying fluid in Grass-types, even the mammalian ones…” he trailed off, then chuckled. “I can never stop, eh? Hazard of the profession. Regardless, he’s yours. Here,” he pulled a couple of large Sitrus berries from his pocket and held them out along with the pokeball. “He likes fruit. May as well get to know him, eh?”

Shaun’s excitement finally won out and he grinned back at the older man. “Thank you!” he blurted out, almost went to hug the professor, turned the motion into grabbing the fruit and pokeball, then scrambled over the fence (which was a noticeably awkward endeavor with both hands full.)

Birch just chuckled to himself as he watched the boy finally make it over to the Tropius and offer it the fruit. He was a good lad, who’d more than earned the pokemon and would take good care of him.