“Hello there! Welcome to the world of Pokemon! My name is Samuel Oak. People call me the Pokemon Professor.”

Nina looked towards the front of the lecture hall with starry eyes. “I can’t believe I’m hearing Professor Oak’s opening speech in real life! This is so surreal!”

While Nina was being starstruck, Beverly just laid her head down for a nap right beside her. This little lecture was mandated for the older girl because she was to receive a Pokedex next year. She could have done this at any time but kept putting it off until now.

Of course, this did not mean that Nina and all the other kids in the hall are Pokedex recipients like Beverly. At this point they were merely candidates. In fact, most of the children don’t even know why they have to spend two hours of their precious summer break being stuck in a musty old lecture hall and listening to an old man gush about Pokemon.

“...Others use them for battles. Myself? I study Pokemon as a profession.”

Some children yawned, some secretly played games under their desk. Meanwhile, Nina was diligently scribbling notes as the Professor spoke. Though it was mostly a rehash of the contents from Professor Oak’s magnum opus, simply titled: “The World of Pokemon”. It was the book that cemented his name as the Pokemon Professor.

He spoke about the bonds between Pokemon and humans, why a Pokemon working together with a human being can grow and develop at a faster rate and the significance of a trainer’s journey.

He also spoke about Friendship Evolutions, a field of study which Professor Oak pioneered and which he still remained extremely passionate about. “The fact that friendship evolutions exist at all is concrete proof that Pokemon and humans were always meant to coexist and work together hand in hand.”

This was when Nina raised her hand to ask a question. “I fully agree with your statement about humans and Pokemon coexistence. But there have also been reported sightings of friendship evolutions like Crobat and Sylveon out in the wild, albeit extremely rare. What are your thoughts on this.”

Oak gave a sagely node and seemed to scribble something in his little tablet. “A very good question. Truth be told, wild friendship evolutions remain a blindspot in our study of the field,” he confessed, with a somewhat dour tone.

“We are making an effort to track colonies of Pokemon in an attempt to observe the natural occurrence of the phenomenon. But as you can imagine, such an endeavor is extremely time and resource consuming while not guaranteed to yield results.

“Some of the proposed theories include previously trained Pokemon which have since been released into the wild or the steady accumulation of Type Energy over time. The former is supported by the relatively short lifespan of wild Sylveons, while the latter seem to indicate there is a certain threshold in which a Pokemon can simply force their evolution.

“Regardless, our findings and conclusions regarding friendship evolution remain unchanged. This is simply another avenue for us to pursue in order to further bolster our studies,” he added in the end.

Nina thanked the professor and settled down to take her notes.

***

After the lecture, most of the kids ran off to play while Professor Oak simply watched over them like a kindly old grandfather. However, Nina and some of the older kids who enrolled in the local trainer school opted to approach the podium and engage with the professor.

“Hello professor, sorry to bother you.”

“Ahh… Nina is it?” The man was reading off a sticker on Nina’s shirt with her name written on it. “No bother at all. In fact, you asked some excellent questions during the lecture,” praised Oak.

“Thank you,” blushed the girl. “And yes, my name is Melina Jones, but Melina is also my grandma so most people call me Nina. If you don’t mind, I recently read some of your findings on Alpha Pokemon and would like to ask some questions about that.”

“Cheh, show off,” heckled one of the people in the line, but they promptly wilted under Beverly’s bad bitch glare. One of the more useful traits that the girl learned from her cousins.

“Now, now… the pursuit of knowledge is an admirable affair. We must never discourage those who dare to ask questions,” he said with an amicable smile. But Nina also noticed the man writing something in his tablet, probably marking a demerit on the heckler’s profile.

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“Let’s see here… Ah, you’re one of Bill’s. That explains your boundless curiosity. And the Cerulean Gym as well. Very impressive,” he added, before grabbing a chair and sitting down to face Nina. “My apologies, my legs aren’t what they used to be. Please, do proceed with your questions. I’m not an expert on the matter, unlike my cousin. But I do have some knowledge.”

Nina nodded in understanding, telling the professor not to worry. The man was in his sixties now, so some degeneration is to be expected. “While I was reading through some of the material on Alpha Pokemon and Mega Evolution, I had a thought. Given that the two phenomena are closely linked to Infinity Energy, Is there a possibility that Alphas are simply a more natural occurrence of Mega Evolution? This would be in line with the Primal Reversion Theory.

“That said, I did look up pictures of Alphas and compared them to their Mega Evolved Counterparts and there does seem to be an obvious difference in appearances.”

Professor Oak gave the girl an approving nod and hummed in consideration. “Interesting, what made you think that Alpha Pokemon are linked to Infinity Energy?”

“There was a study that someone did recently — I’m sorry, I forgot the name of the author — and they wrote about a potential correlation between the increasingly unstable dimensional rifts in Alola and the more frequent emergence of Alpha Pokemons. Most of it was just numbers and statistics without much substantiation, but it seemed reasonable enough to me.”

Oak chuckled. “A very astute observation. Have you ever seen an empowered Pokemon in person, by chance?”

Nina nodded. “I once went on a trip to the Safari Zone with a friend and his family. There was an Alpha Donphan who strayed away from his territory and stumbled into us. That was probably the most afraid I’ve ever been in my entire life.”

“I see, that sounds unfortunate... It was good that you managed to escape unscathed. Alpha Pokemon are not to be trifled with. There is a reason why not even Champions and Elites count Alphas among their roster. These are Pokemon who would sooner die fighting than submit to the whims of a human.”

Nina nodded in agreement, an involuntary shiver coursed through her spine as she thought about the overwhelming presence of the Alpha Donphan.

“Now then,” continued the Professor with a wink. “What if I told you that people have described feeling a similar aura from Mega and Alpha Pokemon?”

Nina buzzed in excitement. “Then this might be a potential link between the two phenomena.”

Oak smiled. “Indeed… Truth be told Nina, our research into the association between these phenomena are still in a very nascent stage. So unfortunately I can’t provide any definitive answers.

“But tell you what, I’m scheduled to pay a visit to Bill tomorrow for lunch. Why don’t you come along as well and we can discuss this further. I doubt we have enough time today without holding up the line, and I’m sure Bill wouldn’t mind either.”

Nina lit up at the offer, only to be brought back down by a light chop on her head by Beverly. “We’ve got work tomorrow at the Gym, Nins. Ain’t now way I’m letting you ditch me to go have fun.”

The younger girl wilted. “Aww… I’m sure Misty wouldn’t mind if I take an extra day. Please…”

But having been desensitized to Nina’s Baby-Doll Eyes, Beverly remained stalwart as she forcefully squished her junior’s cheeks to deny her.

Professor Oak laughed out loud at the two girls. “She’s right, dear Nina. One shouldn’t shirk their responsibilities. I see here that I have the contact information of your school. I’ll check on my schedule and make arrangements for a video call for another day. So no need to worry and just focus on your Gym duties for now.”

“Thanks, Professor!” Beamed Nina.

***

“Oh come on, Nins. Are you still pissed off that I cockblocked you?”

“Beverly!” Yelled Nina. “That is not the appropriate word to use. Where in Distortion did you even learn that from!”

Beverly winced at her junior’s admonishment. “Sorry, sorry… my bad. Sheesh, you sound like my mom.”

Nina sighed. She was still a little annoyed but at least she got a one on one video call with Oak lined up, which was arguably better. That said, it was dependent on whether the professor remembered to follow up on that promise.

“I’m fine. Come on, let’s go to the cafeteria and explore the campus a little. I've never been to Cerulean College before.” Nina dragged Beverly by her arm and made her way to the cafeteria.

As far as higher education institutions go, the Cerulean College was fairly mediocre with the usual spread of studies available. If anything, their Arts program was probably their most well known faculty given the nature of the city attracting all the appropriate talent.

This was reflected in the campus decor as Nina and Beverly passed by all sorts of art pieces and paintings done by the college students.

“I don’t get it, is that supposed to be art?” Asked Beverly.

The two girls were looking at a cordoned off area where there was a whole bunch of garbage glued together in a pile on the floor. It seems that the nonsense plaguing the contemporary art world of Nina’s past life has found its way here in the Pokemon world as well.

Nina simply laughed and shrugged. “Maybe it’s supposed to be a Garbodor or something? All I know is that I’m losing my appetite looking at it.”

“Eh, who cares.” Shrugged Beverly in return. “I wonder if mom is free right now, maybe we can grab lunch with her.”

Nina looked to Beverly with a face full of surprise. “Your mom works here? Is she supposed to be the lunch lady or something?”

Beverly’s eyebrow twitched as she squished her junior’s cheeks aggressively to punish the girl for her crass words. “How could you say that?! I’ll have you know that my mom is one of the lecturers here. She teaches Marine Biology, that's how she and dad met.”

Nina rubbed at her sore cheeks and wanted to make a comment about how Beverly fell very far from that particular tree, but ultimately chose to hold her tongue.

And just as expected, Beverly’s mother was the polar opposite of her daughter, looking every bit the working professional in her cardigan, pantsuit, and thick rimless glasses.

“Ah you must be the Nina I’ve heard so much about. My name is Chelsea. Thank you so much for befriending our Beverly. She can be quite awkward at times, so not many people are willing to tolerate her.” Greeted the woman.

“Mooommm… Shut up, you’re embarrassing me!” Whined the girl in question.

Nina giggled and greeted the woman in return. “Not at all. It’s actually Beverly I should be thanking. She takes real good care of me at the Gym.”

The two then began trading stories about Beverly, causing the girl to flush pink like a Jigglypuff.

“I have a lot of time right now so let’s head out for lunch. The food in the cafeteria is subpar even on the best of days. I know of a quaint little cafe by the Quay. The owner and I both came from Kalos so she gives me special treatment,” said Chelsea.

“Oh, if you’re talking about Nancy’s place, I’m actually friends with her son. I didn’t know you were half Kalosian, Bev…”

The three leisurely chatted as they strolled through the Quay and had a pleasant lunch together before going their separate ways.