"Powder Snow! Cut him off, bud!"

Artis rolled across the dirt ground, bouncing over rocks and into the air. He released a blast of white snow from his mouth, stopping the Rattata from retreating.

Yuji winced. "Despereaux, Lazer Focus before he lands, follow through after!"

"Don't let him get close! Water Gun!"

Despereaux's purple fur rippled with energy as his pupils narrowed with extreme precision, his next hit was going to do serious damage. Artis didn't wait to land. Instead, he blasted off a Water Gun toward the Rattata, drenching him to cause some damage and propelling himself backward from the fight.

Artis hit the ground with a heavy thump, but his blubber had gotten used to absorbing fall damage. Despereaux's attacks all required him to be right up in the melee, and he normally used his intense speed to get in and hit his opponent hard. Since Artis had spent the last few days practicing using his Powder Snow and Water Gun in quick combination, it was almost impossible for the Rattata to get to him without taking heavy damage.

"Chain Defense Curls!" I yelled, taking advantage of the pause in the fight. Despereaux was still waiting for our Powder Snow to clear before he could approach.

"Focus!" Yuji yelled. My ears perked up, I knew from our previous battles that he was commanding Despereaux to use both Focus Energy and Lazer Focus, almost guaranteeing that his next hit would knock Artis out.

"Charge up Snowout!"

Artis rolled forward from his crouched Defense Curl position, his reinforced fur gleaming silver. He sped up, and his body was moving too fast to gain friction on the ground, spinning out like the back wheel of a race car. As he did so, heavy white snow began to cloud around him, obscuring his actual body from view. We'd started working on this trick recently, a combination of some of the few moves Artis had down.

Despereaux's focus was interrupted as the Rattata hesitated. It had lost sight of Artis and didn't have the ability to hit him blindly through the snow. Yuji's face looked as concerned as his Pokemon's.

As the Rattata looked back at Yuji for help, I took advantage of its blindness. "Now!"

Out of the cloud, Artis burst forward as a missile of silver and white, his blue fur entirely obscured by the Defense Curl and Powder Snow. He left a shower of rocks and snow in his wake, and I actually had to cover my face from the debris.

"Hold your ground! Endure into Bite!" Yuji braced his Pokemon.

Despereaux clenched his muscles, gritting his teeth and digging his claws into the dirt. A wave of cold snow hit the Rattata first, blasting forward from Artis' technique.

I suppressed my grin. Yuji hadn't seen it. He'd Endured too early.

Artis impacted him at full speed. There was the resounding smack of flesh on flesh as the tiny three-kilo rat was hit head-on by forty kilos of reinforced blubber.

Despereaux went flying, landing a few feet away. Fainted.

"Yes!" I shouted, pumping both my fists into the air.

Artis barked in celebration, his fur returning to its normal blue tone, and the ice slowly melting away.

Yuji sighed but gave a begrudging grin. He returned Despereaux to his ball, clipping it to his belt.

He walked forward to give me the customary post-battle handshake, but I rushed forward and scooped him up into a hug. I lifted him off the ground, and I heard him inhale as I crushed his ribs.

"I did it!" I cheered. "Take that, Giovanni! I won one!"

Amy gave a loud two-fingered whistle, and Hana gave polite golf claps from her spot in her lawn chair. The kids started clapping and cheering from their spot by the waterwheel, proud of themselves and our accomplishments. Harrison was particularly loud, as he'd been coming out almost every day to watch us train.

It had been five days since we started training by the waterwheel. While I mostly trained out here with Artis on his own, Amy, Hana, and Yuji had started joining us for the occasional battle between our Pokemon. We'd bought some cheap chairs and an ice cooler at the department store to set up a little training base camp out here.

The kids had loved having a constant stream of entertainment with our training, though some still preferred to go watch the other trainers at the park. I'd had a pretty constant group of at least two or three of them at any given time, and Harrison was always one of them.

The kid had a serious eye for training. Harrison had been really helpful in making calls that I hadn't seen while training Artis. He was really familiar with common practice drills and training philosophies.

Today marked our first win against a real trainer, ever. To be fair to Yuji, the match-up had been in our favor just due to the sheer versatility that I'd been training into Artis. Despereaux had been trained for a down-and-dirty quick-hit melee fight; it was hard to do that when you couldn't get close to your opponent.

If Yuji had used Achilles, whose armor I couldn't even touch with Artis' ranged moves, we would've lost, no questions asked.

None of that mattered to me, though.

Our first real win!

Yuji tapped me on the back and I put him down. He doubled over and took a deep breath, but he was still smiling.

"Oh, I'm sorry man," I apologized.

He waved me off. "It is fine," he said, standing up straight and clasping me on the shoulder. "Congratulations on your first victory!"

"Thanks, man!"

I picked Artis off the ground and hugged him. He licked my face and nuzzled into my neck.

I turned to where Amy and Hana were sitting. "Standard bet, Yuji's paying for dinner!"

Both of them cheered.

----------------------------------------

We said goodbye to the kids, letting them know that we wouldn't be training there tomorrow, and headed back into town. Eating at the Pokemon Center was technically possible, but with all the other trainers there was never a whole table available to us. So on our second day in Pewter, we found a cheap pizza place that also served sandwiches and salads. Everything was cheap and tasty, so we'd made it a customary bet for our daily battles that the loser would pay for dinner.

Even with the money we'd gotten for the Pinsir commission, my wallet was looking pretty pathetic from all the losses.

"So, Derek," Amy said between bites of pizza. "Are you excited about your date tomorrow?"

I quickly sat my Pokenav+ down. I'd been checking it for texts from Daisy.

"No, uh," I looked away, feeling my cheeks heat up. "I don't think I know what you're talking about?"

"Liar," they said with a grin.

Yuji nudged them with his elbow. "The rest of us don't even require Amy's... ...insight to see that's a lie." He chuckled.

Hana smiled. "Guys, don't tease him! I don't think he can get any more red!"

"Alright!" I groaned, putting my head into my hands. "Yes, I'm nervous. Can we move on now?"

"Nope," said Amy. "Where are you taking her?"

"She asked me out, so she said she was making the plans."

"She say where she's taking you?"

"I'm supposed to meet her at the museum."

"Ugh, you guys are gonna look at old stuff?"

"Hey! I like old stuff." I frowned. "And yeah, because she's supposed to be working around there, 'cause technically she's doing a work trip."

Yuji spoke up. "I'm still not sure I understand, where did you meet Daisy Oak?"

"Uh," I hesitated. "Route 01."

I didn't mention that I had gone off-route by accident on day one.

Amy gave me a skeezy grin. "Yeah. Apparently, our little guy is a charmer."

"I'm pretty sure this amounts to bullying."

"I agree," Hana came to my defense. "We should be focusing on when we're going to challenge Brock. Luckily, he doesn't allow for reservations longer than a week. We just need to be at the Gym early enough to sign up."

Yuji nodded. "I believe Despereaux and Achilles are prepared for the challenge."

I was thankful we'd changed topics. My burger wasn't quite sitting right with how anxious the talk about my date was making me.

"I agree," I said. "I think we've almost overprepared, honestly. How many pages is your spreadsheet on Brock?"

Hana glanced over before looking down at the table, abashed. "Eighteen..." She said in a small voice.

Amy snorted. "It was ten yesterday!"

Hana blushed. "I realized I'd forgotten to factor in the gym trainers for this challenge. While Giovanni prefers to get the challenge out of the way, Brock has each challenger fight a gym trainer the day before their battle."

Amy rolled their eyes. "We're going to crush the gym trainers!"

"But what if we're not prepared?" Hana looked genuinely upset at the idea.

Yuji laid his hand on her elbow. "Hana, it may be best to prepare for the times when we will not be prepared."

"As much as I agree with Mr. 'Art of War', I think we can do a healthy balance," I came to Hana's defense the same way she'd come to mine. I did, however, turn to her with an apologetic expression. "It is a bit much, though."

"Derek!" She protested.

I shrugged. "It is!"

"Watch! In your fight, you're going to win because of something in my notes!" Hana harumphed, sticking her nose into the air

I sighed. "Fair enough."

"Which of us will be going first?" Asked Yuji.

Hana's offended facade vanished as she pulled out her notebook. "Well, I went first last time, so I'd like to go last this time. It'll give me the most amount of time to observe Brock in each of your fights."

I raised my hand. "And I went last in Viridian, so I kinda want to go earlier this time."

"Do ya wanna go first?" Amy asked.

I glanced at Yuji, and the two of us shared a look. We both really wanted to go first.

"Battle for it?" I ask.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Hana wrote down a loose challenger order. "So it'll be Derek or Yuji, then the other one, then Amy, then myself?"

Everyone nodded or gave some acknowledgment.

Hana flipped through her calendar. "Alright, do you two want to battle on the day after tomorrow? That'll let us sign up the next morning and get in a week later."

I nodded at Yuji. "I'm looking forward to it, bud."

He smiled, just as determined. "I am as well."

Amy reached out, grabbed two fries off my plate and pressed them together between the two of us.

"Now kiss!" They said playfully.

I sighed. Letting a moment of silence go by as a feint, before snapping my hand across the table and pulling a slice of pepperoni off of Amy's pizza.

"This is your 'dumb tax'. It's for when you act dumb."

I bit into the pepperoni.

Amy's jaw went slack. "Hey!" They yelled indignantly.

The other two laughed at our antics.

----------------------------------------

After dinner, we all headed back to the Pokemon Center. As everyone else walked in, I lagged behind.

"Hey guys, I'm gonna make a call real quick," I called. "Be inside in a minute!"

Amy went to make a comment, a mischievous grin on their face, but Hana covered their mouth.

"Okay, see you inside," Hana said, the rest of them leaving me outdoors.

Giving it a minute to make sure that they'd actually gone upstairs, I waited by the front door. Once I was satisfied, I pulled my shoulder bag off my arm and rummaged around for a small styrofoam container that I'd picked up at the diner.

I walked around the Pokemon Center, the container in hand, and made my way to the back alley. Once I was alone, I put my hand to my mouth and spoke just above a whisper.

"Hey, Misdreavus? Dessert time!"

The air temperature dropped by several degrees, and the little hairs started to rise on the back of my neck. The shadows in the alley seemed to expand, draining out the small amount of light that leaked in from the streetlights.

Tiny whispers crawled up the back of my neck, incoherent and malicious. Their voices were inhuman, and they were quiet enough that I almost excused them as imaginary.

I would be lying if I said the sound itself didn't trigger an instinctive need to run.

I gritted my teeth and said, "Oh dang, too bad this alley is haunted. Guess I have to run away with this caramel chocolate cake!" I shook the little styrofoam container.

All the voices were silenced at once.

And then, all together, they spoke.

"Cake?"

"Yes, fresh from the store." I popped the top open, revealing a slightly shaken dessert

The temperature returned to normal, and I heard a childlike squeal of excitement from the darkness. Misdreavus dropped her illusions, allowing the alleyway to regain some of its light.

Her little ghost form, less intimidating after a week of interactions like this, was almost cute as she floated up to the box. Her tiny red eyes gleamed with hunger and a phantom force subtly tried to pull it from my grip.

I let it go with little resistance. It had been bought for her, after all. The top popped open and she started sinking her little teeth into the chocolate cake. She squealed little noises of enjoyment as she tore into it, not letting a single crumb fall.

It's hard to imagine her as a ghost that tried to kill me when she acts like that, I thought. Though I suppose ghost types have always been known to be fickle and chaotic.

I shivered as I thought once again about how excited she'd looked when she'd alerted the Beedrill to my presence.

I stepped a little closer to the streetlights.

Misdreavus finished her cake, crumpling the container with the blue light of her Confusion move and tossing it into the dumpster. She looked up at me with her little yellow-red eyes, her tiny grin curious to see if I had more.

I shook my head. "Sorry, that's everything I had."

"Dreavous," She pouted, sticking out her lip. "Drea, drea. Dreavous?"

I couldn't instinctively understand her intentions as well as I could with Artis, as I hadn't really seen her outside of these interactions, but I got the gist of what she was asking from the way that she inclined her head toward the front of the alley.

"No, sorry again. I'm not planning on leaving Pewter for at least another week or two. I know I said we'd go see stuff, but a lot of my time is going to be spent in cities as well as the routes. So there's always going to be a balance of the two."

"Mis, drea..." Misdreavous sighed, less than thrilled at my answer.

"I just want to make sure you know," I held up both my hands in a respectful and non-threatening way. "You don't have to stay here in Petwer, or even at the Pokemon Center. You could always go explore."

A part of me hoped she would. While I had come around to the idea from the prodding from my friend, I was really intimidated by the idea of trying to train a ghost type so early in my career. The last week's worth of research had shown a fair number of trainers who had gotten too cocky too early on, and their ghost types had brought them to their end out of retaliation.

She already tried to kill me once, I reminded myself.

Misdreavus would make a very powerful Pokemon one day, and she could really set me apart from the standard trainers at my level. Mismagius, her evolved form, had access to crazy moves like Nasty Plot that would make her a force to be reckoned with.

She was a really tempting potential teammate, but all of my anxieties held me back from actively pursuing her.

At the end of the day, I had decided to fully let it be her choice. No matter what, I would fulfill the deal I'd made in desperation and let her follow me for as long as she wanted, but I wouldn't press her to be caught until she brought it up on her own.

Misdreavus didn't even consider my suggestion to leave. She shook her head and floated closer to my face, lowering the temperature of the air with every meter that she came closer.

"Misdreavous!" She said with a happy tone. The ghost pressed forward, closing her eyes and leaning her head toward me.

I understood what she was asking, but my hand hesitated.

Was this another prank?

I pressed my hand forward anyway, gently rubbing the top of Misdreavous' head.

I stiffened in surprise as I touched her ghostly forehead.

The ghost was warm.

Weird, I thought. I'd expected her to be as ghostly cold as she made the air around her, but she was just as warm as a normal living Pokemon.

Misdreavus pressed her head up against my palm like a cat, grumbling when I didn't immediately keep rubbing her head. I quickly started moving my hand, not wanting to upset to ghost. She felt solid, just like if I had been petting Artis.

She purred.

I felt the edges of my lips upturn. "You're a fan of head rubs, huh?"

"Drea drea!" Musdreavus chirped, pulling back and giving me a wide smile.

"That's good to know." I picked my bag up and turned to head back to the Center. "I'm going to a side of town I don't normally go to tomorrow. Do you want anything special?"

"Misdrea!" She pointed at the dumpster.

I chuckled. "Alright, I'll bring you more cake."

Misdreavous cheered. She flew upwards, doing a little loop, before plummeting down to the shadows that cloaked the floor. She sunk through them like a diver into water.

A chill ran up my spine, and I looked down to see that my shadow was still touching the ones of the alley.

I eyed it suspiciously. Did she...?

I shook my head.

There was no reason to think she'd tagged along.

None at all.

I ran back into the Center.

----------------------------------------

I woke up the next morning to a pile of clothes being dropped on my face.

"Put these on," Hana demanded. "I set out three tops and three bottoms that all go with each other, giving us nine possible outfits. We'll accessorize you from there."

"Hanaaaa....." I groaned from my covers. "Is the sun even up yet?"

"It is in Hoenn."

"But I'm not in Hoenn anymore!" I whined.

Amy called from their bunk. "Just do it, Derek! The rest of us are trying to sleep!"

"I concur," Yuji sighed. "Even the most rigorous training does not call for waking this early. Suffer, Derek, so that we may rest."

I groaned, pulling myself out of my covers. I tried to wipe the tiredness from my eyes. "Didn't we already choose the outfit back in Pewter?"

"We picked an outfit. And I pulled out those pieces as options for today. There's also the high probability that we can do better." Hana started rifling through her things. "And we need to do your makeup and run you through what you are and aren't going to say or do."

I gave her a bleary look. "Why didn't we do this earlier this week?"

Hana turned, her green eyes gleaming. "Because you were too busy training!" She threateningly pointed a stick of eyeliner at me. "Now, get those on before I start dressing you!"

I was in the bathroom before you could say 'Rattata'.

After about forty-five minutes of changing between outfits over and over again, Hana finally gave me a nod of approval. She decided that we'd go with a light cream coloured turtle-neck to combat how chilly Pewter had gotten in early April. My pants were a pair of olive green wide-leg slacks, and I wore the cleaner of my two sets of sneakers underneath. Hana pulled out the scarf I'd bought her, wrapping it around my next to complete the look.

All in all, I wasn't mad with how it had turned out. Hana really had an eye for fashion, and it gave the right vibes for a day out in Pewter. I didn't start protesting again until she actually sat me down and started to apply makeup.

"Okay, this feels like a bit much," I grumbled.

"It's a bit much to put effort in on a first date?" Hana raised an eyebrow at me. "I didn't realize you were too 'macho' for makeup. Derek."

"It's not a macho thing!" I protested. "I just don't know if I'm setting the right standards. I'm not always going to have you to help me with this, ya know?"

She smiled softly. "Derek, you only get one first shot with this girl. You like her, right?"

"Yeah?" I shrugged. "I mean, I think? The whole point about this is that we're supposed to be getting to know each other. Dressing nicely is one thing, but isn't going all out like this just kind of presenting somebody other than me? I don't know, I guess I'm just not sure how this whole thing works."

Hana sighed, setting down her makeup palette. "You're not wrong. The thing is, Daisy asked you out, right?" When I nodded, she continued. "That means she's already interested in you. She's met you, she knows the kind of arena she's stepping into. You don't need to worry about being misconstrued as somebody else, you just need to worry about showing her that you're willing to put in effort for her. Does that make sense?"

"So," I blinked a few times, latching onto Hana's use of the word 'arena'. "It's kind of like a Pokemon challenge? Like... ...she's the challenger and I'm the gym leader. She already knows my type and team, and I just have to give my best showing?"

Hana gave me a deadpan stare.

I shrugged.

She grabbed the pillow off of my bed, brought it up to her face, and yelled into it, startling Yuji and Amy.

Hana gently placed the pillow back in the bed, fluffing it twice, and turned back to me with an impatient smile.

"Yes, Derek," she gritted her teeth. "Dating is like a 'Pokemon Challenge'. Now, shut up, and let me put this foundation on you."

I chose to just let Hana do her thing.

She grumbled the entire time she worked on my face, throwing out complaints about my 'single track mind' and that I 'was a battle-obsessed idiot' under her breath.

It's not my fault that basically all of my social interaction these days has to do with Pokemon battling, I thought. Maybe I should pick back up reading or something.

After another half hour, Hana sat back with a satisfied sigh. The sun had started to rise and Yuji had gotten up with it. He'd headed downstairs, grabbed us all morning refreshments, and come back right as we were finishing up.

He stopped as he walked in the door. "Hana," he said, looking at me with eyes wide. "You never cease to amaze."

She gave him a big grin. "I know, I'm a genius."

Hana handed me her hand mirror, and I turned it over.

Damn!

I stared at the reflection.

I'll say it once again, damn! I look good!

Hana hadn't done any massive changes to my face with her makeup. In fact, she'd kept everything very subtle.

She'd covered the small blemishes I'd gotten from hiking and training, as well as the few still-healing scrapes from the Viridian Forest, patching me up with some light concealer. Then, she'd enhanced all my contours to give me a much more masculine and older look. Not old, just more mature.

The final touch was the eye shadow. She'd give me just enough to have that mid-2000s boyband look, with a smokey and alluring touch to it. She'd chosen to highlight the eyeshadow with a light green colour, coordinated with the outfit, that made my dark eyes pop in contrast.

I sat back on my bed, stunned. "Yuji's right, you're a genius."

Hana gave a smug bow, and both Yuji and I gave her golf claps in return. I stood up and walked over to the mirror in the bathroom, giving my entire look a once-over.

Hana has done work. The outfit, the makeup: it was flawless. I still wasn't sure that it looked like me, but it looked close enough that I was comfortable going out like this.

At the very least, I hoped that Daisy would like it.

----------------------------------------

A bowl of cereal, a bottle of OJ, and an hour later I found myself standing outside the Pewter City Museum of Science.

The museum had been the massive domed building that I'd seen as we'd entered town. Up close, it was even more impressive. The purple half-barrel roof was huge, almost as tall as the quarry wall behind it. In front, there was a set of regal white stone stairs that led up to an arched entryway. The entire building was accentuated by the fact that there was almost no one in front of it, leaving it as a monolith among the other normal-sized buildings. It was appropriately empty for nine in the morning on a Tuesday.

I climbed the steps and my legs started to feel like they each had a Magneton weighing them down.

Did I overdress? Maybe I should have worn something else. What if she forgot, or changed her mind?

I stepped through the front doors and my thoughts melted away.

The Pewter Museum of Science was breathtaking.

The doors opened up into a foyer that led to a front counter and ticket attendant, but from there the room expanded into a massive open warehouse of exhibits.

Glimmering stones, ancient fossils, and priceless exhibits were all beautifully lit in their glass display cases. The ceiling extended ten to twelve meters into the air, streaming banners that showed different sections and exhibit names, creating a sea of coloured cloth that rippled in the air conditioning. Multiple arched walkways split off of the main floor, headed to private exhibits and showrooms, and a spiraling staircase climbed into the air to a higher floor.

"Excuse me, sir?"

I blinked. I refocused on the voice calling out to me.

At the counter a few meters in front of me was an attendant in a pink hat, with long flowing brown curls. They gave me a concerned smile, getting my attention with a slight wave.

"Can I help you with anything?" The attendant asked.

I shook my head, embarrassment heating up my cheeks. I had no idea how long I'd been staring at the exhibits just past the counter. I walked up to them.

"Sorry, yeah. I'm here looking for a Daisy Oak? She said that there'd be a ticket waiting for me at the front?"

The attendant nodded. "Yes, you must be Mr. Tracy? Ms. Oak had asked me to inform her when you arrived. She'll be here in just a few minutes. Feel free to wait just inside the foyer."

"Thank you," I inclined my head.

Daisy had texted that she was doing some work at the Pewter Museum, but I hadn't realized she had enough pull to be giving requests to the front desk.

After a few moments of waiting, a door to the side of the front desk popped open. Daisy's dark blonde hair popped out of it, and she gave me the most radiant smile.

"Hi, Derek," Daisy stepped out of the doorway.

As amazing as she'd looked on Route 01, that didn't even come close to how beautiful she was after a full night's rest and the amenities of the city. Daisy stood in a long researcher's coat, white and buttoned all the way up the front. A light olive blouse peeked out of the top, and she had her hair pulled back with a dark headband, showing off her subtle but stunning makeup. A pair of gold and peridot earrings glimmered on her ears.

"Uh-" My brain rebooted. "Hi- Hi, Daisy!"

My arm awkwardly came up, unsure of how to greet her, and caught between a hug and a handshake.

She chuckled, leaning over and pulling me into a polite, gentle, and quick hug.

"I'm glad you made it," said Daisy. "I honestly worried about how you were going to do with the Viridian Forest."

"Well, I wasn't gonna miss this." I gestured not to the museum, but to Daisy herself. "I made you a promise, right?"

Her cheeks were dusted pink. "So you did."

The confidence I'd had when I'd looked in the mirror earlier was fully gone. I stood with my shoulders slouched, fiddling with my hands. I'd been looking forward to this for weeks, but now that I was here I still had no idea what to do.

Luckily, Daisy seemed prepared to cover for me.

She gently placed her hand into the crook of my elbow. "So, I have just a few more things I want to check on before we go look at the exhibits. Would you mind tagging along to the lab so that I can wrap things up?"

"Sure, yeah," I gave a nervous nod, far too aware of how close she was. "I'd be happy to."

Daisy smiled, guiding me along by my elbow. The receptionist gave us a wave as we stepped into the doorway.

The hallway behind it was long, narrow, and undecorated. It reminded me of the corridors of a school or office building, with heavy metal doors, white walls, and little personalized placards.

Daisy led me well down the hallway, having us walk for several minutes. Every once in a while, she would point out a door and mutter something about the office's inhabitants to me.

"That's Dr. Agate's office. She's really nice, but she's always out in the dig sites," Daisy murmured to me. "And Dr. Euclase can be pretty stern, I'd avoid his office."

"How do you know so much about the people who work here?" I asked, keeping my voice low.

Daisy smiled fondly. "I did an expedition based out of Pewter into the field about six months ago. Half of the researchers here went with me, and then I spent another three weeks going over the data sets with them. Grandfather really respects the institution, so he introduced me to them before he actually let me work at his lab."

"That's really cool! That must've been such an awesome experience."

"It was definitely memorable. We did a deep dive into a series of unexplored caves to map some migrational patterns of a bunch of the local Pokemon." Daisy stopped in front of a door. "This is the lab. Did you want to come in?"

"Yeah!"

All my nervousness had been... ...not forgotten, but temporarily misplaced as Daisy excitedly talked about the Museum. I loved seeing and hearing new things, especially when other people were passionate about them.

Daisy swiped a keycard and opened the door, holding it to let me in behind her. I peeked a glance at the plaque on the wall.

Dr. Spinel, Head of Paleontology and Ancient Zoology

Inside the door was not an office room, like I'd expected, but instead a florescent-lit room with stainless steel floors and countertops. There were multiple still-air boxes and computer terminals set up along them, as well as other expensive pieces of machinery and technology that I couldn't name if you paid me.

Several research aides stood at various workstations, murmuring data to each other. Barely anyone looked up when we entered the room, though several tossed Daisy pleasant glances and nods.

Daisy tossed me a look that very much said 'Wait here for a second', and walked off toward where a large balding person with a crown of ginger hair sat at a still-air box, both arms up to the elbow in the attached rubber gloves.

She said something quietly, and the researcher turned and smiled at her. They spoke in low tones, talking animatedly to each other. While they spoke, I glanced over into a still-air box that was unattended next to me. Inside, there were large fragments of a curved stone laid out in a spiral pattern, each one with a thin gray shell-like quality to it.

Not 'shell-like', I realized. That is a shell, a fossilized one!

The fossil fragments had been laid out to recreate the helix pattern of the original shellfish Pokemon that had died thousands of years ago. It was almost a full meter across, taking up most of the space within the box. On the side of the container, there was a label that said: OM - #0139, Specimen 34c.

I looked down at the fossil with amazement and a little bit of envy. With the wonders of modern science, certain labs could regenerate the DNA in fossils to create fossil Pokemon. These Pokemon were known to be very powerful, often dominating in battles due to their hardiness and violent disposition. In Hoenn, a trainer had made it to the top four of the Evergrande Conference last year with their ace, an Armaldo. I wasn't sure what kind of prehistoric Pokemon Kanto had, but they were sure to be powerful. Only people who were already pretty well off or career trainers could afford them, though, because of just how rare an intact fossil was.

I looked back up as Daisy returned, the researcher in tow. They were taller than I'd realized when they were sitting, and their heavier form took up most of the aisle as they moved.

"Derek, this is Dr. Spinel," She introduced us. "He's the head of the paleontology department, and I've been working with him on my Bellsprout migration project. His department has a ton of data on the ecology of Kanto and its relation to the Pokemon living here."

"It's nice to meet you, sir" I offered a handshake and bowed my head in respect.

"There's no need to be so formal!" Dr. Spinel's voice boomed as he enthusiastically returned my handshake. "It's always good to meet one of Daisy's friends, especially when it's the young man that she's been so very fondly talking about." He shot her a smug grin.

I glanced at her and she wouldn't meet my eyes, instead blushing with full force.

"Now then," he continued. "Are you ready for the test?"

My eyes shot back up to his rosy face, easily a head or two taller than me. "Excuse me?"

Dr. Spinel raised an eyebrow. "The test? Did no one tell you?"

"Uh-" I gave Daisy a panicked look, but she gently shook her head, also unsure. "I- I'm sorry, I didn't realize that-"

Dr, Spinel burst out laughing, causing several research aides to look our way. "I'm kidding! Why would there be a test?" He was chuckling so much that he had to wipe his eyes. "I'm sorry for the joke, but it's one of the few ways to pass the time in a lab. I need to get my laughs in where I can"

I gave him a polite smile, but he'd fully got me. I was still recovering from the sheer panic of being faced with a pop quiz.

Daisy stepped in. "Dr. Spinel spends large stretches of the year locked in the lab with the newer research aides. I should've realized he'd try to pull one over on you." She sent him a disappointed glance. "I just thought he'd behave himself when meeting a guest."

He wavered under her scolding. "Yes, yes, I apologize." He cleared his throat, straightening his posture. "So, Derek, was it? Do you happen to have an interest in the Pokemon of the ancient world?"

I took a breath, steadying myself and letting an actual grin settle on my face. "Yes, sir. I'm a big fan of Pokemon in general, so ancient and mysterious Pokemon are just that much more interesting." I glanced at the fossil that I'd been looking at a moment ago and stepped in front of it. "Actually, I was just admiring this one here. What Pokemon did this belong to?"

"Ah, you saw that one, did you?" Dr. Spinel stepped forward, pulling a clipboard from next to the still-air box. "You have a good eye. That's a Helix Fossil, belonging to the Omanyte line. That one specifically belonged to a rather old female Omestar. Radiometric dating puts it at between sixteen to twenty-thousand years old."

I resisted every urge to pull out my Pokedex and start looking through the pages of the Pokemon he'd mentioned.

"That's amazing!" I said instead. "I haven't actually seen a Pokemon fossil in person before, so this is all really cool."

"Oh?" Dr. Spinel gave me an excited look. "Then you should make the most of your trip today. With the League instating Mt. Moon and Grandpa Canyon as protected sites, fossils are becoming rarer and rarer here in Kanto as our dig sites are being fully excavated. We've had to cordon off this collection from the League for research because they keep trying to revive them!"

He gave Daisy a smile. "You should make sure to show him the Aerodactyl exhibit. It's still as breathtaking as the day we finished assembling the skeleton."

She nodded. "I'm planning on showing him the Ancient World and New Horizons exhibits. Between those two, I think we'll have a full day."

He turned back to me. "You're lucky, young man. Not many people have the opportunity to explore this place with an expert. Even though she spent only a few weeks here with us, sometimes I feel as though Daisy knows more about this place than I do. Though, not enough to sneak off and get into trouble." He winked at me.

"And that's enough of that," Daisy grabbed me by my arm and started to lead me back to the door. "Thank you for everything, Dr. Spinel. I'll make sure to get you the rest of that data once we've finished up."

He nodded. "It was nice to meet you, Derek. I hope you'll visit us here at the Pewter Museum again."

"Yes, sir! I'd love the opportunity to."

"Daisy?" Dr. Spinel called as we started to leave.

She turned back. "Yes, Dr. Spinel?"

"The lab coat?" The balding researcher held out his hand expectantly. "I seem to recall you mentioning an amount of effort that went into your outfit?"

She glanced at me and blushed. "Oh, right! Thank you," Daisy said, unbuttoning her white research coat.

Underneath, she was wearing a light olive blouse and cream-coloured pants, the inverse of the outfit Hana had picked for me. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought we'd coordinated outfits.

My eyes widened in realization.

It was planned! Hana, you evil genius!

As much as I didn't think about her as one, between being a champion coordinator and the Pokemon Professor's granddaughter, Daisy was a public figure. All Hana would have had to do was some cursory searches to find Daisy's preferred colours, and boom, she'd have what Daisy was most likely to wear on our date.

It went even deeper than that. Every single outfit that Hana had made me try on this morning had followed this colour scheme. She knew what she was doing, and it had gone exactly to her plan.

Daisy handed Dr. Spinel the coat and locked her elbow into mine. She glanced at our two outfits, and I saw her smile as she looked us both up and down. She didn't say anything about it, but I could tell she liked it.

Dr. Spinel called behind us. "Don't get into any trouble, you two! There are no gaps in the security cameras to sneak off into." I couldn't see him anymore, but I heard him chuckle at his own joke.

I picked up the pace as a blush started working its way up my neck.

"Don't mind him," Daisy said. "He's just teasing me for bringing someone over. He always has to get the last laugh in"

"I really thought I was going to have to pass a test," I gave a nervous chuckle. "I mean, I'm good at tests, but that doesn't mean they're any less stressful."

Daisy raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? How'd you do on your STCE?"

I gave her a smug look. "746 in the written, 799 in the practical. 1545 overall."

The Standardized Trainer Competency Exam was a test that each trainer had to take to get their training license. It was a two-part test that judged a trainer's actual knowledge, and their ability to apply said knowledge in the field. Both sections were scored out of 800. The scores themselves weren't very valuable to anybody after taking the actual exam, but it didn't mean that there wasn't an entire culture of comparing your score to other people's, especially among new trainers.

She gave me a begrudging nod. "That's pretty good."

"Pretty good?" I said, pretending to be offended. "I did better than ninety percent of the people cramming for the test. How'd you do?"

Daisy shrugged, but her amusement told me she was putting on a show. "Well, it was a few years ago, so I'm sure that the test changed a bit."

"Oh, come on," I rolled my eyes. "How much better did you do?"

"800 on the written, 775 on the practical. 1575 overall."

My eyes widened. She was Professor Oak's granddaughter and an academic at heart, so there was no way she was going to score lower than me, but a perfect score on the written was unreal. You could feel your way through the practical with some knowledge and some common sense, which is how I'd gotten as high as I had, but the essay questions alone on the written exam meant you had to have a perfect memory of the material and the ability to translate that to whatever the questions were.

"You're amazing."

Daisy started out of her preening grin, red rushing up her neck. "Thanks, Derek," she said softly.

She grabbed my hand and led me toward the exit to the private section of the museum. We popped out of the same door we'd come in, depositing us next to the front desk. We walked through the foyer, out into the open hall that I'd seen as I'd come through the front doors earlier.

All around me were precious stones, artifacts, and fossils on display. Even with our detour to Dr. Spinel's lab, it was still barely mid-day, and there was almost no one else wandering the museum floor. We had basically the whole place to ourselves.

"So, of the two exhibits I wanted to show you, one is on the first floor and one is on the second. Where do you want to start?"

"I'm always a big fan of working my way up. Let's start down here?"

She smiled wordlessly nodding and pulling me along to the back side of the museum towards a massive gold banner that had an illustration of the fossilized skull of a dinosaur Pokemon and read THE ANCIENT WORLD in large letters. Ahead of us were displays of fully assembled fossilized skeletons, massive displays that were contained behind glass cases. Illustrations and information on the Pokemon in their revived states were present below them. There were easily over a dozen different species on display, even including Pokemon that weren't native to Kanto. I especially recognized the fossils for Armaldo and Cradily, two Pokemon that had been discovered in Hoenn.

The crowning jewel of the exhibit was the skeleton of an Aerodactyl, a massive winged reptile. While the plaque said the average specimen was about two meters tall, this skeleton came in at a whopping four meters tall, more than double the average. Its wingspan took up most of the back wall, and it towered over the other fossils.

"This is amazing," I said. "Like, really, I had no idea the museum would have this many fossils on display."

Daisy nodded. "Pewter takes its rocks really seriously. Fossils, evolution stones, meteors; anything that has to vaguely do with geology, they have their hands on. This museum is the number one in the world when it comes to rock collections."

"And, by virtue of you working here, does that mean you're also a, uh, rock person?"

She giggled. "No, not at all. My expedition just happened to be delving into Mt. Moon, and the people here are the experts. Well," Daisy tilted her head as she reconsidered, "I guess I technically was looking for a rock, but that's nowhere near my actual field of study."

"Yeah, I remember you mentioned last time that you were still deciding on a specialization, though you'd been thinking about Pokemon migration. Is that still a thing?"

"I think so. I'm going to decide after I finish my report on the Bellsprout migration, but I really do think that Pokemon movement on a mass scale is just so interesting. And there are so many historical references to entire populations of Pokemon just up and moving to a new place that I don't think I'd ever run out of things to study."

Daisy's eyes shined the color of peridots as she talked about her research. We were slowly walking through the Ancient World exhibit, but neither of us was actually looking at the displays in detail. How could I, when Daisy was so interesting to listen to? She spoke knowledgeably and with passion, two characteristics that made her excitement contagious.

Before long, an hour had passed and we'd finished the prehistoric section of the museum.

Daisy glanced back at the displays. "That went a lot more quickly than I'd thought, I'm sorry if we rushed through that."

I waved her off. "It's fine, I'm having a great time. Plus, we can grab a bite to eat after this if we end up shooting past the next one." I hesitated. "I mean, uh, if that's okay with you?"

Daisy brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "I'd like that."

I grinned from ear to ear. "Then let's get through this next exhibit. You said it was on the second floor?"

She stood up straight in excitement. "Yes! It's just up these stairs."

As we walked to the spiral staircase, Daisy told me about her hyper fixation with the exhibit. "To be honest, this one is my favorite. It's called New Horizons, and it focuses on the space age and the minerals that can be found on other planets. I especially love their collection of extraterrestrial stones and space-age equipment."

We made it to the second floor and my attention was immediately drawn to the exhibit across the floor.

"These guys have a space shuttle?" My eyes went bigger than saucers, and any pretenses of walking slowly were thrown out the window. I rushed past glass display cases and detailed plaques to get to the display. We were seemingly alone up here, as there really weren't any other visitors at this hour and the staff seemed concentrated on the first floor.

I rushed up to the exhibit, where the Pewter Museum had a full, actual space shuttle. The white silicon paneling was scrubbed clean but pock-marked and darkened in places from where it had reentered orbit. The nose of the shuttle was face up, towards the far ceiling of the exhibit, and the wide wings of the shuttle were spread over their football-pitch-sized wingspan. It was raised half a dozen meters off the ground, letting us see up into the main engine nozzles.

"I saw a couple of these launch off of Mossdeep when I was a kid, but after they retired the program my mom and I stopped making the trip. I always wanted to go up in one, but they were so inefficient and broke constantly. In fact, they once built an entire shuttle out of spare parts because it was cheaper-" I paused, realizing that Daisy hadn't spoken up in a while.

I looked back at where Daisy was, and she was giving me a look that I couldn't place. Daisy had both her hands clasped behind her back and her lips pulled back in an amused smile.

I blushed. "What?"

"Nothing," She chuckled. "I was just enjoying listening to you talk."

Legends, she's pretty.

"Uh-" My brain malfunctioned. "I uh- I do that a lot."

"Mhmm," Daisy's eyes glimmered. She took a step to be next to me. "So your mom also enjoys space shuttles?"

I looked back up at the massive machine. It was easily forty meters high, from tail to nose, and loomed over the two of us. It was beautiful.

I shook my head. "Not really. I think, she just liked how much I liked the launches."

"She sounds lovely."

"Yeah, she's pretty great," I turned to Daisy, who had joined me in looking up at the shuttle. "What about you? Any interest in space?"

Daisy smiled without taking her eyes off the ship. "The first Pokemon I ever caught was a Clefairy," she said simply.

Whoa...

To non-trainers, that wouldn't have meant a lot. But to me, that told me everything I needed to know about Daisy and space.

Clefairy was a Pokemon synonymous with the Moon. Outside of specifically needing moonstones to evolve, they could be found in 'places where the sky touched the earth'. We had some in the Meteor Falls in Hoenn, but everybody knew about the tales of groups of Clefairy living in Kanto's Mt. Moon. The tiny pink fairy was rare, but people who got their hands on one always found themselves drawn to the stars.

"That's incredible."

Daisy finally looked back at me, grinning from ear to ear. "She's amazing. I found Luna the first time I went through Mt. Moon, and she helped on my expedition while I was looking for the Moon Stone. Not just one of its fragments, but the real one."

That was the legend. Deep in the caverns of Mt. Moon, there was supposed to be a single massive moonstone, a meteor that dropped from the moon to the earth thousands of years ago. All of the other stones found on Mt. Moon were just slivers of it, pieces scattered by the impact. If somebody could find the real one, they'd find one of the most coveted legends in the world.

"Ever find it?" I asked.

She frowned, but her excitement was still clear in her eyes. "Not yet. But studying how the Clefairy were drawn to Mt. Moon is what sparked my interest in Pokemon migration. One of these days I'm planning on heading back into the caves to try again."

"I'm sure you'll find it," I said, meaning every word. "And hey, maybe I'll get to be there when you do?"

Daisy leaned into my side, resting her head on my shoulder. We both looked up at the space shuttle. "Maybe you will."

She interlocked her fingers into mine, and my back went stiff. I'm sure if anybody looked at me, I'd be bright red.

I'd never done this before, and my mind was a mess.

Holy legends, she's holding my hand! What do I do? Are my palms sweaty? Should I-

A metallic click sounded behind me as someone pressed something cold into my back.

"Sorry to break this sweet moment up, but you two love birds need to come with me," a deep and raspy voice said behind us.

Daisy flinched, standing up straight, but her eyes widened as she saw the man behind me.

I breathed in slowly, my heart slamming in my chest for a completely different reason than it had been moments before.

I turned.

There, standing behind me and holding a gun, was a middle-aged man in a dark cap and black clothes, embroidered with a bright red letter on his chest.

A red 'R'.

Team Rocket.