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During the whole of a dull, bright, yet soundless day in the mildness of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on Pidgeot-back, through a singularly dreary tract of clouds; and at length found myself, as the shades of the night slowly fading away, within view of the melancholy Pokemon Laboratory. I know not how it was --but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible.

I looked upon the scene before me --upon the mere building, and the simple landscape features of the domain --upon the bleak walls --upon the vacant eye-like windows --upon a few rank sedges --and upon a plethora of trees that formed the border of the town --with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveler upon Pokeblocks--the bitter lapse into everyday life--the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart --an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it --I paused to think --what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the Pokemon Laboratory? It was a mystery all-insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered.

I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural creatures which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my Pidgeot to the precipitous brink of a blue lurid square lake that lay in unruffled luster by the lab, and gazed down --but with a shudder even more thrilling than before --upon the remodeled and inverted images of the white walls, and the thick tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows.

Nevertheless, in this lab of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Professor Oak, had been one of my idols during childhood; but many years had elapsed since my last thought of it. A letter, however, had lately reached me in a distant part of the country --a letter from him --which, in its wildly importunate nature, had admitted of no other than a personal reply. The ‘Prof.’ gave evidence of a sense of superiority. The writer spoke of Pokemon—and his acute interest in the subject—and an earnest desire to see me, as a Professor, and only a Professor, with a specific, strict purpose, but with a tone of cheerfulness. It was the manner in which all this, and much more, was said --it the apparent heart that went with his request --which allowed me no room for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still considered a very singular summons.

Ellie had already decided her fate before her feet touched the ground. She would be dead. Six feet under. Well, she'd like to be cremated upon death but you get the metaphor. This place was horrid. Horrid and full of death. She could already see blood flowing out of the walls of the lab. The blood of poor tiny little baby Pokemon sent to their deaths by a man named Professor Oak. Or... so she heard, anyways. Mommy dearest had told her so, so it must be true! It had to be! Mother was never wrong! Usually. On rare occasions she was completely wrong and just being judgmental.

The girl hesitated a bit, getting off Mother's Pidgeot. If what she was told was true, she would be getting a Pokemon today. Along with a bunch of unnecessary stuff that will probably never come in handy. But before getting anything at all, even a first impression, she would have to conquer the dark dungeon of death and dying. Many trainers who had come in had not ever left the lab with Pokemon... or their lives! But... this building didn't seem like a dungeon, not one bit! It looked like a normal large house fused with a small town doctor's office. Well, at least the ones in the old movies.

She patted that one Pidgeot that she had just spent like three hours with flying over Pokearth from Sinnoh to a small, dinky region to the northwest. But... from above it was pretty. No one told her it was pretty. Ellie closed her eyes tightly as the bird rose into the air with large flaps of large wings, stirring up dirt and rocks. Like Sand-Attack. That Pidgeot was probably just trying to sabotage her, blind her right before her journey. Seemed like a thing that Mother would train her Pokemon to do. Not just to her daughter, but everyone. Glad she didn't live with her anymore, she was.

Time for the entrance room of the dungeon. Those had like... easy monsters in them, right? Ellie could take them out alright. Although she had no real experience, she had her fair share of World of Warcraft battles. Those were about the same, probably. Ellie stepped inside, bracing herself for skeletons hanging on the wall by their wrists, blood and slime cascading down the wall in soft ripples. Wild little monster things running about. But no, it maintained the same white ambiance as the outside had. Were they hiding somethi- OMG A MONSTER! This was your chance to gain some real life experience, Ellie! A Staryu who was meandering past her, for some reason outside of it's Pokeball was instantly seen by the keen eye of Elizabeth Heart. It seemed surprised, though you couldn't really tell since it didn't have eyes or a mouth, and started to run away upon view of a girl's frightening look of violence. Ellie chased it and it turned around, thinking the girl might want to take her. Ellie stopped right infront of it and reared her foot in preparation for a swift kick to the Pokemon.

"Stop! What are you doing? Seems we have quite a wild child on our hands." Professor Oak intercepted the not-so-powerful kick extremely easily with a palm of his hand. He was a relatively old man, dressed in a white coat and wore a red shirt. Ellie hoped he changed it at least every other day. Somehow she doubted it, though. Whenever she saw Prof. Oak on T.V. or something, he was wearing either the same or a similar red shirt. Oak smiled warmly.

"I-I... I'm sorry! I'm not really like this! I thought... I thought it was attacking me." Ellie sulked her head. The Staryu looked all around, rather oblivious to the whole fiasco going on.

Oak patted Ellie on the head. "No harm done, miss. For the real matter of this situation, let us go into my office and I'll introduce you to Pokemon if you don't know anything about it, or I'll just give you all the stuff you need and I'll get out of your way." Oh, okay. She was just being stupid and over reacting about this whole thing! There was no dungeon, or dead bodies that she knew of, but...

Follow an strange old man into his office? Didn't that seem rather... dumb? Oh well. He protected her from monsters. She nodded and followed Oak into a room not far from where they had currently been standing. He sat down in a swivel chair facing away from her, then dramatically swiveled to face her, holding a Pokeball. "This is a Pokeball." He said in a matter-of-factly tone, putting a finger in the air like this was a lecture. In essence, it was, though.

"I know." Ellie said hesitantly. She didn't want to seem rude in front of a professor! Maybe an aide though, those didn't matter.

Oak seemed impressed. "Do you now?" He nodded, and set the Pokeball down on his desk. He then crossed his fingers and looked Ellie in the eye. She flinched back a little. "Now, for the real order a business. Your first Pokemon. Which one would you like?" Oak set out a few Pokeballs, each one with a label of a Pokemon's name.

Ellie concentrated, she would have to make this choice amazing! It would be her partner for the rest of her life! Or until she abandoned it in the PC or she kicked it's brains out. At this point in time, the Staryu from before meandered in. Ellie paid no attention to it, just the Pokeballs in front of her. Ekans, Growlithe, Chansey... I don't like any of these. She looked troubled, and Oak asked her what was wrong. She shook her head, and just pointed to the Staryu. "I'll just take that one." Ellie said without much confidence. And who did she think she was? Choosing Pokemon like she chose a pair of shoes.

Oak nodded, and pulled out a standard red Pokedex from a drawer in his desk. "He's been here for a while." He said, for no real reason other than to say something. He handed her the Pokedex. "You know what this is, too?" Ellie nodded. Of course, she didn't know, really, but she didn't want to waste any more of Oak's time having to explain things to her. Plus, it was kind of against her morale to accept help. It wasn't a pride thing, she just didn't really like people all that much. "It seems someone taught you well. I like that." Oak smiled, clapped his hands as if to turn on one of those clap-lights, but it was really just to call an aide. He suggested all other questions be transferred to the aide and to have a nice day, after which he promptly left the office. The aide had come into the office with a rolling cart, on it five Pokeballs, a town map, and one whole Potion. Well that was generous. [/sarcasm]

Ellie commented that she did indeed have no further questions, greedily took all that was there on the cart, as well as that Staryu's Pokeball, and left the lab. Well, that wasn't so bad. After all, she was expecting a dungeon.