After filling out the forms and paperwork, Nuztai leaves the lab to finally begin his new challenge. His mother leaves with Professor Oak to head back to their homes in Pallet Town. Nuztai doesn’t get far, however, before a marill runs out of nowhere and bumps into his leg. A moment later, a young girl runs up, apologizing. She introduces herself as Lyra, but winds up chasing after the marill again shortly after.

As Nuztai begins to walk into the forest, professor Elm steps outside the Lab, calling his name. Elm informs Nuztai that there’s some new research information that Mr. Pokémon would like delivered to his lab, and asks Nuztai if he would be so kind as to get it.

Nuztai isn’t thrilled about the retrieval request, but such requests often have their rewards, as is the way in the Pokémon world. Nuztai makes his way to Mr. Pokémon’s house north of Cherrygrove. As Nuztai has yet to be able to acquire Pokéballs, all he could do is train with Tyrion along the way. But Nuztai is impressed to find that Mr. Pokémon’s research data is actually quite valuable information on Pokémon breeding, and Nuztai begins reading it on his way back to Elm’s lab. His reading is cut short, however, when he receives a frantic phone call from Elm telling him to hurry back.

Nuztai runs back, but is stopped by a young boy with red hair.

“So Elm gave an old-timer like you a Pokémon? What a waste.” says the kid.

“I’m in a hurry, brat.” retorts Nuztai. “Please step aside.”

“Battle me, and I will.” answers the kid. “We’ll see who’s worthy of receiving a Pokémon!”

Nuztai has a flash of a touch of déjà vu, and remembers his rivalry with Gary Oak when Nuzlocked in Kanto. Though this kid is somehow a touch worse. Nuztai sent Tyrion out to battle the kid’s totodile. Tyrion tackled totodile, who responded by scratching. Tyrion’s leer weakened totodile’s defenses, and Tyrion took the next scratch like a champ. Mimicking Nuztai’s strategy, the kid has totodile use leer as well, but it’s too little, too late, as Tyrion’s next tackle was now powerful enough to finish totodile off.

“You’re not bad for an old weakling!” says the kid.

“You realize I just kicked your butt, right?” scoffs Nuztai.

“What happens now doesn’t matter!” exclaims the kid. “I’m going to be the greatest Pokémon trainer in the world some day!” With that, the boy runs off.

“Elm didn’t tell me there were kids starting journeys right now, too. Maybe that’s why he wouldn’t let me choose my starter.” thought Nuztai as he begins to walk towards New Bark Town. Nintai looks down and finds a trainer card with a picture matching the kid he just fought. He picks it up, only to have it snatched from his hand. The red-haired boy had come back for it, and was now running as fast as he could away...

As Nuztai arrives at Elm’s lab, he’s shocked by the all the police in the area. When he tries to enter, he’s confronted by an officer.

“Who are you?” asks the officer.

“Name’s Nuztai.” he responds. “I’m here at Professor Elm’s summons. He sounded pretty frantic on the phone.”

“There’s an active police investigation here!” says the officer sternly. “And the first rule of crime solving is ‘the criminal will always return to the scene of the crime’! So you must be… the one who did it!!”

“Are you a rookie beat cop or something?” scoffs Nuztai.

“Hold on a second!” Nuztai and the officer turn to see the young girl from earlier run up. “He has nothing to do with it! I saw it. There was a red-haired boy looking into the building!”

“Really?” asks Nuztai. “Was he about 12 years old with a permanent scowl?”

“YES! That’s exactly what he looked like!” exclaims Lyra.

“Have you encountered this boy, too?” asks the officer.

“I had a Pokémon battle with him on the way here.” explains Nuztai. “Come to think of it, he somehow already knew I got a Pokémon from Professor Elm. He said he got one, too. He used a totodile.”

“He must be the one who stole Professor Elm’s totodile!” yells the officer. “Did you get his name?”

“Yea, actually.” Even Nuztai was surprised he could answer that question. “He dropped his trainer card and I got a momentary look. His name was Silver.”

The officer called over other officers and Lyra and Nuztai repeated their information. They were heavily thanked for their cooperation. Eventually they let Nuztai inside to deliver the research info to Professor Elm, and Lyra went back home.

“Nuztai, this is terrible…” says Elm as he sees Nuztai enter. “Oh, right, and what was Mr. Pokémon’s big discovery?”

Nuztai explains the research on breeding as he hands it to Elm. They have a lengthy discussion on it and share hypotheses before Nuztai explains he needs to go. They say their goodbyes and Nuztai heads back to start his journey.



Nuztai enters Route 29 ready to finally catch a Pokémon for his team after Lyra gave him some Pokéballs. He checks his Pokédex and presses the randomizer button Elm instructed him to use, and a crude pixel image appears of a Pokémon: Pidgey! Nuztai is once again filled with flashbacks of poor Barry the pidgey back on Route 1 on his first ever Nuzlocke journey, dying in its first battle against another pidgey. Unfortunately, it was too late in the evening to find a pidgey here anyway, so Nuztai would have to come back another time to catch one.

He journeys north to Route 46 in the off chance the randomizer would give him something he could catch, but no such luck: Aipom. As much as he would like one, he needs a Pokémon with Headbutt to find one here. Nuztai’s certainly feeling the challenge of this Journey already.

Cherrygrove: Tentacool.

Route 30: another Pidgey.

It seems he’s going to be journeying a bit with just Tyrion at his side.

As he enters Route 31, Nuztai checks once more. Rattata! Finally, something he can try to find! But by this point, Tyrion has leveled quite a bit, and Nuztai’s only chance to catch one was to just start chucking Pokéballs. Fortunately, Rattata are easily caught, and Jaime the Rattata joins the team.

Nuztai spends some good time training Jaime, and before long he is as strong as Tyrion. With his two new partners, Nuztai decides to challenge Sprout Tower. Jaime makes quick work of most of the trainers, allowing Nuztai to save Tyrion’s strength for the elder at the top. But to his surprise, Silver stands speaking to the elder of Sprout Tower as he arrives.

“You’ve shown us what you’ve got, and it is indeed good…” says the elder. “Take this Technical Machine. However, you should care more about your Pokémon. The way you treat your Pokémon can be too harsh… Rememeber, Pokémon are not tools of war…”

“You’re breath is wasted on this thief!” says Nuztai loudly as he approaches. “He HAS to be harsh to his Pokémon, or they won’t obey him. After all, he did STEAL them!”

“...Humph!” scoffs Silver. “He calls himself the Elder, but he was no match for me. Sure enough, those who lecture how you should be “nice” to Pokémon… They cannot defeat me.”

“Oh, but I can.” Nuztai responds smuggly. “Cause I will definitely preach unity and bonding with Pokémon!”

“All I care about are strong Pokémon that win every time.” explains Silver. “The rest of them don’t mean anything to me.”

“Then you don’t understand Pokémon at all, kid.” lectures Nuztai, but before he can elaborate, Silver tosses an Escape Rope over the side, and slides down to the bottom of the tower.