Ted looked around as his fellow trainers recieved their starters. He was happy that he ended up with his Poochyena, as the Poochyena picked him. That had to mean something. Sure the dog was darned cute, but it's teeth looked pretty sharp and it looked as if it could really pack a bite. As that last kid got his Pokemon he grinned his lopsided grin at the Professor. The Professor cleared his throat suddenly, and began looking at each one of them. 

"Well, I suppose that's all in order now," he began with a slight smile. "Turned out better than could be expected. You must be a great batch of trainers then! You remind me of a trainer I once knew... Oh but that's in the past. Anyways, I have a proposal for each of you. This is what may be considered a large burden for children to carry, but our results here when choosing pokemon were so great I feel I can ask this of you. Now, where did I put those..." he said, rummaging in a filing cabinet behind him. "Aha! Here they are! Top of the line, state of the art, Pokedexes!" he said, holding out 4 different red square devices with a LCD screen. "These'll record every Pokemon you see. It may not be much to you, but as a Professor this gets me valuable field data that I can otherwise not get. I will not force these on you, but it'd be greatly appreciated for you to take one of these," he said, smiling in reassurance. After everyone did he picked up his speech again, "And so your Pokemon Journey will begin. I think the most important thing for you to remember going forward here is, a sword is only as powerful as the weilder. You must have strength for your Pokemon to have strength. Remember that. Here, I'll escort you to the door."

Rowan ushered everyone out of his lab, and once again the gentle sunlight kissed Ted's face. He had crossed a threshold, one that couldn't be crossed over again. He had recieved a pokemon. Turning to the two newcomers he didn't know, he attempted to shake each of their hands. "Nice to meet you, the name's Ted. I don't think we've been formally introduced?"