Possible, but that just seems like it's just teasing the fanbase with "what could have been" ("we could have had your starter follow you all throughout your adventure, but decided to just cut it short and force it back into the ball after you give Prof. Elm an egg"). Since this is a game targeted primarily at young-kids, I don't think they'd do that.DorianBlack said:I speculated a little earlier, though, that they might be changing around the story a little bit so that it makes sense - you have to admit, it's really puzzling in the first two generations that the professors would just randomly give you a rare Pokémon and send you on your way with very few, if any, guidelines. Hell, if Mr. Pokémon hadn't emailed Elm before you left the lab, he would have basically just been "Hi, here's a Pokémon to keep, go wander off somewhere now".
I think they're going to change it so that he loans it to yo/sends it along with you to protect you, because of the Mr. Pokémon email, rather than the email coming after you get the Pokémon. And then, when you get back, he'll see that you've gotten closer to the Pokémon, and will then give you it and its PokéBall.
And really, it wouldn't make any sense for a professor to give you a Pokemon without its Pokeball. "Hey, take this Pokemon to protect you. But I'm going to keep its Pokeball. If things are looking bad though, and you need to run away and withdraw it from keeping it from being severely hurt, tough luck, it's gonna die." Yeah... no.