When Lana got to the Oak Lab, she knocked on the door and waited until it was answered by a man with brown hair. She said, "Uhh…You are Professor Oak?"

"That's right," Professor Gary Oak said with a grin. "Bet you weren't expecting that, huh?"

"Yeah. Thanks for telling me about Pallet House."

"So, was there room?"

"No. But Delia decided to let me stay in a spare room at her house for the night."

"I see. So, did you go and look at the museum?"

"The Museum?"

"Sorry. It's an inside joke that Ash and I have."

"What do you mean?"

"Delia has kept that room the same ever since Ash first left pallet town…Arceus! It'd be over twenty years ago now."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah…and that room still has every achievement that Ashy-boy ever got."

"Ashy…boy?"

"Heh, never mind about that," Gary said. "What brings you here? If you don't mind my asking, that is."

"Oh! Well…a few things actually."

"Oh? I don't usually get many guests from Sinnoh. Especially ones that I've never met before."

"Never…Oh! Apologies," Lana said. "My name is Lana Joy."

"Joy?"

"Yes. I recently graduated from the Sinnoh Academy as a Roving Nurse Joy, so I was wondering if there were any medical techniques that you were aware of that I are unavailable in the Sinnoh Region."

"I see. And the others?"

"I don't suppose you've got any experience beating Ash Ketchum, do you?"

"Hah!" Gary laughed. "Not for a long time I'm afraid."

"Oh," Lana said. "Well then, never mind. There's still the first reason."

"Hmm…" Gary said. "I don't know that I do, but you're welcome to come in and read whatever you want."

"Really?!" Lana eagerly said.

"Of course. So long as I can examine this Flygon that managed to make it directly here from Sinnoh."

"Alright, if that's all," Lana said.

"It is. Come through, here," Gary said, leading the way through the Oak Lab that was his, ever since his grandfather died. When they came out the other side of the building, he said, "Here you go. If you want to stay a few days, you're more than welcome to let your pokémon roam free here."

"Hmm…" Lana said. She shrugged and said, "I don't see why not. You are renowned for your love of pokémon. "Just so long as you restrict your 'examinations' to Flygon."

Gary shrugged and said, "I see no problems with that."

"Cool!" Lana said and released her pokémon for Gary to see.

Gary's eyes widened at the number of pokémon that Lana was carrying with her and said, "You can't carry more than six pokémon! Otherwise your trainer license will…"

"Roving Nurse Joy, remember? That limiter is removed for us since we spend a lot of our time off in the wilderness, so we need to be able to protect ourselves against a greater variety of threats than those that work in the relative safety of a pokécentre."

"I guess that makes sense," Gary said, this being the first time that he'd actually heard of a Roving Nurse Joy. "In any case, you've done a really good job raising these pokémon, Lana."

"Thanks," Lana said, "I…!" Lana's eyes widened as a herd of Tauros stampeded towards them. she said, "We…should get back inside, right?" in a high-pitched tone.

Gary thought, 'Well, that confirms it then,' and rushed inside the house, locking Lana outside. As Lana started to bang her fist against the door, Gary said, "Sorry Lana, but I can't control Ash's Tauros when they're like this."

Lana exclaimed, "Some professor you are then!" and turned to face the herd. She reached up and touched the crystal pin attached to her hat and extended her other hand forward, closing her eyes. When she opened them, her eyes were glowing blue and she said, "Calm down," in a calm, but firm, tone, bringing the rampaging herd to a stop, the pin and feathers emitting a faint glow. They all came to a stop at once, and, startling Lana, started to happily rub their faces against hers. Gary came back outside and said, "Well I'll be."

"What is it, traitor?" Lana asked accusingly.

Gary grinned and said, "I suppose I probably deserve that. I've just never seen them treat anyone like that, but Ash."

"What about May?"

"Not even her," Gary said, shaking his head.

"Hn, well, who knows. It could just be that we can both use aura."

"You can, can you?"

"Yeah. Isn't that right, Lucario?" Lana asked as Lucario started to make its way over to get the annoying Wild Bull pokémon away from his master. Lucario let out an affirmative grunt, looking at Gary before generating a bone made of purple energy, that had fire at the tips, between its hands.

Gary thought, 'Her Lucario knows Shadow Bone? Well…' and turned to look at Lana. '…Ash, your daughter is just as surprising as you are.' He said, "You can go wherever you like within this ranch while you're here, if you want to check out the other pokémon."

"Really?!" Lana asked.

"Of course. It's not often that we get a Nurse Joy come here."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. It's too bad really."

"Why's that?"

"Well…it's a bit selfish of me, really. But it cuts into the time that I would otherwise be spending doing my research."

"Oh," Lana said, a disapproving look on her face.

"Hey! Don't misunderstand," Gary said, holding his hands in front of him. "I put whatever I'm doing down until the pokémon has been healed, but, it does take time away from my research."

Lana sighed and said, "I suppose I really can't blame you," thinking of all the times that she'd been annoyed when she was distracted by someone when she was studying. "But, I left most of my healing things back at The Pallet House, so I think I'll stick around for a few days before heading off. In the meantime, would it be at all possible for you to show me the healing machines that you use."

"Well…" Gary hesitantly said. "I wo-ould…but most of them are pretty rundown, so, when something serious comes along, we sent it over to the Nurse Joy in Viridian City."

"I see. Could you show me anyway?"

"I don't see why not. Like I said, I'm not sure what good it would do."

"They ran a few classes on repairs at the academy, so…"

"Alright, sure. If you can get them up and running again, just come and ask me about anything you want."

"Alright. How about a battle then?"

"A…uhh…okay. Anything except that."

"Why? You said that you beat Ash Ketchum. That means that you used to compete in the Regional Leagues, right?"

"Well…yeah. But that was years ago now. I'll tell you what. My son just came back from competing in the Kalos League recently. How about you battle him instead?"

"Sure, how'd he do?"

"Top Four apparently."

"Top Four, huh? Sure. I think that that would be good practice for me."

"'Practice'?"

"Yeah. I've battled Ash Ketchum before and he gave me access to the Battle Frontier. I've decided that it's about time I take up that challenge, but…I've been studying for a while, so I haven't had the chance to enter any official competitions recently."

"Oh. I see…hmm…if you're concerned about your skills, I could arrange a tournament in a week's time."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I could probably even arrange Ash to come here for it too, if you want."

"Uhh…no thanks. I don't want him preparing anything special for me, if that's possible."

"Alright. That's fair. In that case, I'll see what I can do about organising a tournament anyway."

"Thanks," Lana grinned.

Gary said, "Now come on, the machines are this way," leading the way into the healing rooms.

When they were there, Lana looked horrified. She said, "These machines…when did you get them?"

"I'm not sure. I think that it would have been just after gramps handed this place over to me, so…about fifteen years ago. Why? What's wrong with it?"

"Well, that explains it then."

"What do you mean? What explains what?"

"These machines have a lifetime of about ten years before they start to break down. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that it's still working!"

"Is that so?"

"Well…yeah. That's why I said it."

"Sorry. I didn't know."

"Surely they told you when you bought it?"

"No. actually, I got this one second hand, so it could be that it was quite a bit older."

Lana sighed and said, "Well, I suppose that this is proof enough that you don't get Nurse Joy down here very often." Gary shrugged, unable to muster a defence. Lana sighed and said, "Can I have access to your vidphone?"

"Certainly," Gary said, leading the way to the loungeroom, where his vidphone system was hanging on the wall. He said, "There you go," nodding at it. "I suppose I can trust you to not break anything?"

Lana levelled a venomous glare at Gary, who left with a grin. When Gary was gone, Lana punched in the number for the Viridian City Pokécentre. When it was answered, the Viridian City Nurse Joy said, "Hello, this is the Nurse Joy from Viridian City. How can I help you?"

"Come on Aunt Serene, you know it's me."

Serene Joy grinned. "How are you Lana…wait…" she said, looking at the number. She asked, "Why are you in Professor Oak's Lab? I thought that you were still studying back home?"

"I just graduated and was on my way to the Hoenn Region when Flygon started to get to tired. That's when I decided that it would be an idea to set down at the next bit of land, which happened to be here."

"I see. In that case, what can I do for you? I don't have any of your pokémon here."

"I know. Professor Oak told me that he was having some problem with his healing machines, so I offered to take a look at them for him."

"And?"

"He had a Mk XIV PHM made by Silph that he got second hand fifteen years ago."

"Seriously?!" Nurse Joy exclaimed.

"Yeah. I was hoping that you had some newer ones that you could ship over on quick notice."

"Hmm…unfortunately, we just had our machines replaced a few months ago, so our machines are all gone now."

Lana sighed in regret. "Then I don't suppose you have some trainees working in your pokécentre, do you?"

"Well…yes, but…"

"How long will it take for a new machine to get here?"

"It should be about two weeks. Why?"

"Like I said, I'm registered now, so I could take over for you as Supervising Joy for that time, if you let them come here."

"I don't know. You only just finished training, so…"

"As a Roving Nurse Joy."

"Oh! Well, in that case, certainly. It would probably be a very great help for them to have some training under a Roving Joy."

"Oh! And you'll probably need to come here next week too."

"Why's that?"

"Professor Oak is planning a Battle Tournament next week that I'm going to take part in."

"I see…hmm…I can't. Tell him that I'll see what I can arrange for it."

"Thanks!" Lana said, a happy smile on her face. "Well, I'll be seeing you then."

"Yeah. Whenever you need me."

"Hopefully that's not too often."

Selene smiled and said, "Yeah. My sister can be rather trying."

"That is an understatement."

"I suppose."

"Well then…bye," Lana said.

"I'll see you when I see you, Lana," Selene said, hanging up as a trainer came in, holding a Caterpie that was suffering a severe burn.

Lana hung up herself and looked over at the large book case and went over to it, her hand ghosting over the titles as she searched for anything remotely related to either Ash Ketchum, or Healing techniques. When she found one called, 'Healing Techniques of the Ancient Pokemopolitans', she took it out, sat down in the couch opposite the shelf, opened it and started to read.

XXXXX

After she'd hung up, Selene went and found her apprentices and called them in for a meeting. When they were the pokécentre's meeting room, she said, "I need two of you to go to Pallet Town for a few weeks."

The apprentices looked amongst themselves before one stepped forward and asked, "Why? What have we done wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just that the daughter of an old friend just called, and she needs some help healing pokémon in Pallet Town until they can get some new machines installed in Professor Oak's Lab."

Another apprentice said, "I didn't think that they had a Nurse Joy in Pallet Town."

"They don't. She's a Roving Nurse Joy, and is only going to be there temporarily. Now, do I have any volunteers, or do I need to choose two of you myself?" The Apprentice Joys all started talking amongst themselves, trying to convince one another why it shouldn't be them that went, causing Selene to sigh. She said, "Fine! Lydia, Fiona, you two will go," naming the two that had been speaking.

"Eeehhh!?" The two Apprentice Joys exclaimed. "Why?"

Selene said, "Because, the pair of you seemed like good choices," before leaving the meeting room to inform the Centre's other Joy what was happening.

As Selene walked off. The other Apprentice Joy's gathered around the two that had been selected and gave them their commiserations, none of them wanting anything to do with the backwoods town that had somehow managed to convince the Professor Oak to move to it. Lydia sighed and said, "Well, the decision's been made anyway, so there's nothing that we can do about it now."

Fiona sighed and said, "That's true, Lydia, but if we appeal to Raylene, maybe we could convince her that it would be better for an Apprentice Joy from another town to go and help out this Ruffian Joy."

"I know, right? What use is it really to try to learn something from one of them? It's far better to learn how to use the proper healing machine's in a modern pokécentre, like this one or the one in Celadon City." As Lydia mentioned Celadon City, her, and all of the other Apprentice Joy's' mouths started to water, thinking on the fact that, as it was the host to Silph Co.'s Headquarters, the pokécentre there got all the latest in healing technology first.

Fiona and Lydia then left the meeting room and made their way to Nurse Raylene Joy's office and knocked on the door. When they were let in, Fiona said, "Nurse Raylene…"

"Yes girls?" Raylene said.

"Nurse Selene just assigned us to go to Pallet Town."

"That's right. She just left. What about it?"

"We…don't think that that is a good idea."

"Oh? And why would that be?" Raylene tersely asked.

"We think that, since we have no intention of becoming a Ruffia…cough cough…Roving Joy, our time would be better spent working here, under the guidance of you and Nurse Selene."

Raylene sighed and said, "I thought it might be something like that. The answer is no. I won't be countermanding my sister's decision."

"But why?"

"Not only does a hierarchy exist within this pokécentre, there is a reason behind every one of my sister's decisions." She sighed again before saying, "Look. I understand where you're coming from. Believe me. But, Roving Joy's have access to knowledge and skills that we Nurse Joy's that work in pokécentres do not have. Just as we have skills that they tend to lack. Who knows, maybe you could even teach this Roving Joy something while you're there."

"I see," Lydia said. "So then, you're saying that we'll need to teach her what to do?"

"I'm just saying that it's possible. But, keep in mind, she is still a Registered Joy, thus your technical superior."

"Alright," Fiona said. "Thank you for explaining this to us nurse Raylene."

Lydia said, "Do we…uhh…have to leave now?"

"No. tomorrow is best. There's only a few hours of daylight left and I wouldn't want you getting hurt walking there in the dark. Lydia and Fiona sighed in relief that they could stay in a proper city for even one night longer.

XXXXX

A few hours later, Gary came out to see that Lana was still where he'd left her, reading a book about ancient healing techniques that had been written by the girl genius, Professor Eve. He thought, 'Well, she's certainly nothing like Ash used to be. Must get it from her mother…whoever that was.' He said, "You're still here?"

"What do you mean? It's only…!" Lana's eyes widened, shocked at the time, having been completely absorbed in the book. "Yikes! I'm so sorry!" Lana said. "I'll go now!" and forced the book onto the coffee table, leaving it there as she turned to leave.

Gary said, "You can take that with you if you want?"

"I…can? Really?" Lana eagerly asked.

"Of course. I don't really use it that often, and, if you bring it back when you're done, I don't see the problem."

"Thank you!" Lana said with a smile as she gathered it up before leaving. As she reached the arch that led to the foyer-area, she turned back and said, "Oh! I organised for some Apprentice Joy's to come here for a few weeks and a family friend said that she could see about getting some temporary replacements for the machines until the new ones come in too."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Who is it?"

"The Nurse Joy in Viridian City went to the academy with my mother and they've stayed in touch."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks for that," Gary said, thinking, 'that's going to save me a lot of work, and keep those favours that I was going to cheque in for later.'

Lana said, "Well, I'll see you tomorrow," and left to rush back to Delia's house. When she was outside, she held her hip, panting. She gasped out, "I…didn't…think that…that would…take me…so long…I must be…really out of…of shape…!" she forced her breathing to even out until she was better before opening the door. When she did, she was met with the most pleasant aroma that she'd smelt…just about ever. She took a deep breath in before letting out a satisfied, "Aaahhh. That smells good!"

Delia smiled and said, "Well, I should hope so."

"What is it?"

"Lots of things. There's spaghetti bolognese, chicken Florentine, duck l'orange, and, for dessert, apfel strudel."

"So much?" Lana asked, her mouth watering.

"Yes."

"How?"

"It's been a while since I've had someone staying with me, so I guess that I may have gone slightly overboard."

"No no. I mean, all the ingredients…and the time too, come to think of it."

"I buy in bulk for the Inn, and, whatever is left, I use for myself. As for the time, these aren't too difficult to make if you know how. Why are you so surprised?"

"Well…my mother always tried hard, but her abilities in the kitchen were always…rather lacklustre, I'm afraid."

"I see. That's too bad." Delia said, "Well, that aside, time to eat." And put the four foods on the table before going back to the cupboard and picking out two plates before picking out some cutlery and taking them over the table and setting two places, directly opposite each other. She said, "So, how was Professor Oak's?"

"It was…interesting…to say the least."

"How so?"

"Well…I would have thought that Professor Oak was…you know…older."

"Well, Samuel Oak was quite a lot older than Gary, who took over as Owner and Lead Researcher of The Oak Laboratory after Sam died."

"I see. Well, that aside, there was this really strange herd of Tauros that charged at me for some reason, then calmed down almost immediately."

"Well, that sounds like Ash's Tauros."

"Yeah. That's what Professor Oak said. I said that it could be that we both use aura and Tauros recognised that, and that's what caused it. But that still wouldn't explain everything, like why they seemed to be happy as they stampeded towards me in the first place."

"Well, I suppose that it doesn't matter that much, does it?" Delia asked, wanting to avoid the subject as much as possible if what Ash had told her was right and that Lana was unaware of the fact that he was her father.

"Yeah. I guess," Lana shrugged.

"So, what are you going to do tomorrow?"

"I've organised some other Joys to come here for a few weeks, so I'll be training them while looking after the pokémon in this Town until the Professor gets some new healing machines that will actually work."

"Wait. You will be training them?"

"Yeah. Why? You got some kind of problem with that?" Lana asked, for some reason getting really irritated at the woman doubting her word.

"No no, nothing like that," Delia said. "I'm just surprised. You seem to be a bit too young to be training anyone. That's all."

"Oh. Well, I assure you I am a Registered Joy."

"I don't doubt it," Delia said. She sighed and said, "I'm sorry for the misunderstanding."

"That's fine," Lana said. "By the way…"

"Yes?"

"Is there any place that I could set up a temporary ward in Pallet Town?"

"What would you need?"

"Some tents, tables, chairs, healing elixirs, potions, status healing medication."

"Don't you have a tent with you?"

"I do, but it's only a two person tent. I'm going to need something a lot bigger for treating pokémon of any size."

"Hmm…there is a meadow down the road that you can pitch tents in. You can probably see if Maggie has any in her market. She usually has all sorts of odds and ends available that the other stores in town don't normally carry. As for the rest…you'd have to see Gary, because there aren't any Pokémarts here."

"That's fine. I can mix them up myself if I can find the right ingredients in the forest, so there shouldn't be any problems there."

"Oh! Is that really all it takes?"

"More or less."

"So, you said that you were going to challenge Ash, didn't you?"

"Yes. Oh! Right! I was wondering something."

"What is it?"

"Why, after reaching the Top Four in the Sinnoh League, did he lose in the Quarter Finals in Unova?"

Delia sighed and said, "Ash…used to change out his pokémon team with every new region he went to. Unfortunately, that resulted in him having access to less fully evolved pokémon that he could call upon. And, in a finals battle…"

"I see," Lana sighed. "That is…problematic in its own way."

"How so?"

"If you're telling the truth…which I don't doubt…" Lana said, seeing the look that Delia was levelling at her. "…That means that Ash was reaching the final rounds with technically weaker pokémon than not only those that he had access to, but those that he was battling against too and now that all of his pokémon have evolved…" Lana bit her lip. She sighed and said, "Ah well, I guess that I'll just need to try even harder now."

"If you don't mind my asking…"

"What is it?"

"Do you have a plan for when you face him?"

"Not strictly. But I'm certainly going to have the second round be 'Land'."

"Why's that?"

"You don't really think that I'm just going to reveal my whole strategy to the mother of my greatest challenge, do you?"

"Well…when you put it that way…" Delia said, laughing contagiously.