Chapter Twenty-Five

It was early Saturday morning, and the hallways of F.O.C.U.S. were largely abandoned. While the staff had successfully stopped the hall-trashing parties of the previous semester, the majority of students still felt the need to hug their pillows and take the extra sleep when it presented itself. Not so Nikki, who strode along the hall with single-minded purpose. Behind her, shuffling its feet and keeping its eyes on the floor, was her Rattata. Every now and again the mouse Pokémon would look up, notice how far behind it was lagging, and sprint after Nikki with a squeak. Each time it did so she would stop and wait, and apologize for walking so quickly, but inevitably it would slow down, she would speed up, and the process would repeat itself.

Eventually she arrived at her destination, and gave a few cheerful taps on the door. She thought she could hear some sort of movement from inside, but when no one answered she knocked again. She was raising her hand to knock a third time when the door jerked open a few inches, revealing Ellison's scowling face. All of it.

After a few startled blinks she recovered, "Good morning. Is Lysander in?"

His response was to slam the door in her face, which she thought was quite uncalled for, but a minute or so later Lysander slipped out the door, dressed and carting his pair of borrowed skates from earlier in the week. Once the door was closed he apologized, "Ellison's not really a morning person."

"If you say so." Nikki was of the opinion that Ellison wasn't an anything person, but she knew how determined Lysander was to befriend his antisocial roommate and instead took hold of his hand, leading him outside, "When do you think would be the best time to go to the Pewter Museum of Science?"

Lysander shrugged, "Probably not for a few weeks. I think we should find out all we can about Omanyte first, and then use that to help us focus our research."

"You sound so scholarly." She grinned at him, and gave his shoulder a bump with hers, "I think a bunch of us should go; really make a weekend out of it."

He nodded, although part of him couldn't help but think that if they invited Lan she would spend her entire weekend in the Museum, and if they invited Conrad he would spend all of his time lurking outside the local gym, waiting to ambush unsuspecting trainers come to call on the gym leader.

Soon enough they reached the frozen pond, and Lysander congratulated himself when he was able to get his skates on and laced properly with no assistance. While he took a few minutes getting used to gliding across the ice, Nikki knelt down and tied a small pillow onto Rattata's belly to cushion it when it fell. With that done, she stood up and encouraged it onto the frozen pond, "Come on, Rattata! You can do it!"

The mouse Pokémon sat in the snow and, after watching how gracefully Nikki back-skated across the ice, shook its head.

Not one to give up so easily, Nikki said, "Look at Lysander; he couldn't stay up at all when we were out here earlier in the week, and he's making great progress! Everyone falls when they start."

After taking almost a minute to watch Lysander's progress, during which the boy felt an increased amount of pressure under the mouse's scrutiny, Rattata finally plucked up its courage and stepped out onto the ice. It managed a few hesitant steps before the slippery surface got the best of it, and down it went. Almost immediately it turned and made to go back to the snow, when a large thud indicated that Lysander had also fallen. To the mouse's surprise the boy got up, dusted off his pants, and went back to his careful sliding across the pond. Considering this, the mouse turned back towards Nikki and continued navigating across the ice.

Nikki glanced at Lysander, and on seeing his lopsided grin concluded that his fall was completely deliberate. She grinned back at him, but on seeing him lift his Pokéball from his belt she directed her attention back to Rattata and called, "Let's go further this way, Rattata, so Lysander can work with his own Pokémon."

At first Rattata seemed to protest, perhaps because Lysander was so much closer to it than Nikki in terms of skating capability, but when it saw the red energy of the Pokéball take shape into an irate Dodrio, it did its best to hustle to the far end of the pond.

Dodrio, meanwhile, had come out of its ball ready to rush Lysander and peck him, but almost immediately its legs tangled beneath it and it went down hard on the ice. Lysander skated up to it, coming to a rest just beyond its pecking range, "Hi again. Still mad, huh?"

The left head screeched at him, and after it pecked at the other two heads Dodrio as a whole attempted to gather its legs beneath it and come after him again. It was partially successful, but was still only halfway raised when the left head shot its beak forward prematurely and the bird went down again.

Lysander sighed. He'd had plenty of experience dealing with Exeggcute's distinct personalities, but because of Dodrio's hostile nature—coupled with its speed and sharp beak and claws, and the fact that it only spoke Pokémon—he'd been unable to get a read on each of Dodrio's personalities so far. Before he could get started on bonding with his Pokémon, he needed it to exhaust its aggression towards him, and that meant a lot more time skating. And falling.

It was getting up again, and he skated a little closer, offering to the central head, "If you lean back, it should counterbalance your body."

To his surprise it followed this advice, and for a few brief moments the bird was firmly on its feet. Then both the left and right heads lunged for him and it went down in a tangle of heads and legs. Lysander retreated a dozen feet or so, and instead of encouraging it to rise or giving it advice he simply watched how it behaved, as he'd been unable to do while on solid ground. Once Dodrio had sorted out which way was up, it ruffled its undersized wings and tucked its legs under itself. The left head still shot irate glares Lysander's way, and clacked its beak menacingly, but the other two seemed content to sit on the ice until they could figure out how to get up. Even as he thought it, however, Lysander could see that wasn't entirely true: the right head was keeping a wary eye on him as well. It was only the middle head that seemed indifferent to Lysander's presence. It kept looking around the area, poking at the ice with its beak, and even nibbled at the other two heads in a preening sort of motion.

Wanting to test a theory, Lysander skated a little closer. He kept his attention on the right head, and was rewarded by seeing its eyes widening and its beak beginning to clack. This seemed to be all the encouragement the left head needed, for it squawked and tried to lunge at him again. The instant before Dodrio hit the ice chins first, Lysander could have sworn he saw a look of exasperation cross the middle head's face.

Across the ice, Nikki was helping her Rattata up from another fall, and continuing to give the mouse Pokémon encouragement. She could already see that its self-esteem was beginning to plummet, and hoped she could get one final good coast across the ice before returning it to its ball. After bribing it with a little bit of high-quality Pokéchow she'd asked her parents to send her, Nikki was able to convince it to try again. She put her skate boot behind it as a pushing-off point, and after stifling a sigh Rattata braced its back legs and shoved.

"Don't lock your legs up, Rattata! Nice and loose, that's it!"

Though its legs were akin to wet noodles as it slid across the ice, Rattata managed to stay on its feet. It was only when its momentum stopped that Rattata looked back at her cheering it on, squeaked in weary triumph, and then fell over. Nikki skated over quickly, and scooped it up into her arms. As she hugged it, she said, "You're really getting the hang of it! Look at Dodrio; it still can't stand up properly."

It was, perhaps, a cheap shot at the bird Pokémon, but if it helped to boost her Rattata's rock-bottom confidence then so be it. Sure enough, the mouse Pokémon turned its head from where it was comfortably cuddled in Nikki's arms and regarded Dodrio with the same scrutiny it had applied to Lysander. With a pleased little sigh, it snuggled back in.

Meanwhile, Lysander had sat on the ice and was inching toward his Pokémon at a snail's pace. When he guessed he'd gone as far as he could without triggering the right head's fight or flight response, he stopped moving and focused his attention on that head specifically, "So… what do you think's going to happen here?"

The surprise on the head's face only lasted a moment, but its presence was noted and appreciated. It seemed to him that the bird wasn't used to being conversed with, and he wondered at its past. The fact that both of the peripheral heads were aggressive, while the middle one seemed distinctly less so, was puzzling. He found himself wishing, once again, that he'd been allowed to keep one Pokémon from last semester: Exeggcute would have been able to get to the bottom of Dodrio's problem in no time.

But then, he realized, that wasn't the point, was it? It was supposed to be up to the students to diagnose and rehabilitate their Pokémon, without relying on a Pokémon that could speak their language to diagnose for them. Realizing that his thoughts had wandered, he turned his attention back to his Dodrio just in time to dodge yet another lunge from the right and left heads.

He was about to attempt more conversation when Nikki skated over, "We'd better go in. The first team-building exercise is in an hour, and we have to have breakfast."

Lysander nodded, then turned to Dodrio, "Looks like I'll have to put you back in your ball for now. The nicer you are the more you stay out, you know."

The central head attempted a chirp at him, at which point its siblings turned and pecked it. All three disappeared into red energy, along with their body, and Lysander accepted a hand from Nikki to help him up. She smiled, "Looks like you have your work cut out for you."

"Yeah." Lysander scratched the back of his head in thought, "I wish these Pokémon came with some kind of chart explaining their background. It'd make things so much easier."

"Ditto." Nikki scratched her Rattata behind the ears, "But this little guy just needs lots of encouragement. Isn't that right, Rattata?"

It murmured a little, but was mostly asleep from its skating ordeal.

The team-building exercise wasn't anything like they'd expected, though Lan supposed that was because Conrad had spent the entire week building it up to be some sort of competition against the other students. In reality, several teachers spread out through the cafeteria and handed out decks of roughly two dozen cards, each containing a question that the groups were meant to ask each other as a 'Getting to Know You' exercise. Quite a few students looked exasperated at having to get out of bed for this, or annoyed that the exercise was something so simple. While she didn't enjoy criticizing decisions of the school, Lan noted that many of the groups formed were people who were already friends, and therefore would know the answers to most of these questions before even asking them.

"It's probably for the best that Conrad isn't here," Lan remarked. "He would be so disappointed."

Lysander nodded as he idly flipped through the question cards. Neither of them was particularly surprised that Conrad was in the infirmary for a Pokémon-related injury, but they were both curious about the surrounding circumstances. Douglass had told Lan that Conrad hadn't come back to the room the previous night, and she'd gone immediately to the infirmary, but Nurse Joy rebuffed her in her gentle way and said that both Conrad and Erica needed their rest.

Lan glanced over her shoulder at Douglass, who was half asleep a few tables over and going through the questions with some of his former-Yellow friends. Part of her wished that they didn't have to do this activity with people from different pods; she found that there was a lot about the lethargic boy she wanted to know.

As he continued to read the cards, Lysander commented, "It's actually too bad Conrad isn't here. Or Erica. There are a lot of questions in here about things I don't know about them."

"Really?" Lan adjusted her glasses and leaned over the table, "Like what?"

Lysander held up one card, looking mildly annoyed at it. Typed on it was: Where are you from? What do you like the most about living there?

"Oh, but we know that! Erica's from... er... she's from..." Lan paused, inwardly admitted that she didn't know the answer, and resumed, "Well, but we know Conrad's from... from... oh poo."

"Vermillion," Lysander supplied. "He told me last semester, and that he worked as a guide in the Diglett cave. But he hasn't told me anything about growing up there, or anything about his family."

"I don't know anything about Erica's family, either." Lan frowned, "Perhaps this exercise isn't as redundant as I thought."

"That's the spirit!" Lysander exclaimed, doing a surprisingly accurate impersonation of Horace Reeves. He flipped to the next card and began, "Okay, first question..."

"How did you hear about the Facility for the Open-minded Correction of Unwieldy Specimens?"

"You sound like Lan; call it F.O.C.U.S."

Conrad fixed Erica with a holier-than-thou expression that was marred by the extensive bruising on both of his cheeks, "When it's yourturn, you can read the card however you like. However it ismy turn, and I choose to read it as the Facility for the Open-minded Correction of Unwieldy Specimens."

Erica did her best to give him the glare she would have under normal circumstances, but Conrad could tell her heart wasn't in it; the poison was out of her system, and Nurse Joy had taken care of the spasms caused by Lysander's well-meaning-but-disastrous use of an Antidote on her, but Erica didn't have her usual temper and that worried him. Still, he knew it would upset her even more if he made accommodations for her poor spirits, so he cleared his throat with an air of self-importance and announced, "Very well, I'll go first."

"How chivalrous."

"Not at all; I like hearing myself talk," Conrad gave a haughty sniff and was rewarded with a brief smile from her.

As soon as he'd heard that the two infirmary-bound students were awake and alert, Principal Jefferson had arrived with a bounce to his step and handed them their set of 'Getting to Know You' cards, enthusing about strengthening the student body by having it strengthen the personal relationships within it. Conrad had pulled a face at the principal's retreating back, both at the man's attitude and the fact that the much-anticipated team building was nothing like the competition he'd been envisioning. Still, the cards gave him something to do until Nurse Joy gave him the all-clear, and part of him was already anticipating his next encounter with Poliwrath.

"As you've no doubt surmised, I didn't initially come here because I wanted to help rehabilitate all the troubled Pokémon in the world." Conrad paused, expecting commentary and ready to call her on interrupting, but when all she did was keep listening he continued, "I wanted to start my Pokémon journey like any boy anywhere, but when I saw the kinds of Pokémon most people our age have—Pidgey, Rattata, Spearow, that sort of thing—I decided there had to be a way to get better Pokémon right out of the gate. We can't all go grubbing at the door of some kooky old professor, after all. So one day, this trainer came into town to challenge our gym leader—"

"Where do you live?"

He felt tempted to inform her that they hadn't reached the hometown card yet, but couldn't bring himself to do it, "Vermillion. You?"

He could have sworn she hesitated for a moment before replying, but decided it was just her exhaustion as she answered, "Saffron."

"Fair enough. Anyway, he came into town to challenge the gym leader, and I sat in to watch the match. They have an observation balcony, so why not, right? This guy had incredible Pokémon: an Alakazam, a Machamp, a Dragonite... it was insane. I asked him how he got all those high-profile Pokémon, and he told me he'd attended F.O.C.U.S. and they gave them to him. In retrospect he really undersold his own part in rehabilitating—an Alakazam must have been hell—but I ran home and started getting my application together right away."

"Sounds like something you'd do." Erica waited for him to continue, but then realized he was giving her expectant looks and sighed. She subconsciously picked up a lock of hair and began to toy with it as she talked, a behaviour he couldn't remember her displaying before, "I guess I came at it from the opposite way you did. I didn't want anything to do with Pokémon for most of my life, and you can take that flummoxed look off your face. Neither of my parents is interested in the League, or owning Pokémon, so I got used to living without. It wasn't just me; most of the kids at my school didn't own Pokémon. Anyway, I was out walking with some friends and we saw some Spearow attacking a Nidoran in the park. It happens pretty often in big cities, since there isn't a whole lot of food for them to scavenge, but for some reason it really upset me that time. I think it's because it actually looked to me for help. Not our group; me."

Conrad smiled, "So you rescued it?"

Her voice was flat, "I didn't even point it out to the others. I turned my back on it and we kept going to whatever party was on. But it bothered me the whole night. I ended up leaving early. And no," she informed him, seeing the questioning look he was giving her, "not to see if it was still there and rescue it. I went home."

"That... doesn't sound like you at all."

"No?" Erica smiled, more to herself than him, and relaxed back into her pillows, "Well that's comforting." After a few seconds of silence she pointed out, "You want a happy ending."

The hesitancy in his voice surprised him as he asked, "Is there one?"

"It's the only reason I'm here. One of my friends called me to ask why I'd left early, I told him, and then I went to bed. Three hours later he showed up at my front door muddy, wet, and covered in scratch marks. He was holding the Nidoran under its front legs and it was hissing and kicking at him something fierce. He told me she didn't want him, even though he'd found her; she wanted me. I didn't even know how he could tell it was a female." Erica shook her head, "So he brought her in, and we wrapped her in a towel and made her some apple sauce, since I didn't have any Pokéchow. When he put her in my lap she started purring. Did you know Nidoran purr?"

"I... did not."

"Neither did I. I kept her around for a week or so, petting her and spoiling her rotten. It was incredible how quickly she adjusted to living inside; thinking back on it she must have been a tamed Nidoran that got lost or abandoned, but at the time all I could think of was how she'd seemed to know I'd help her, even before I knew it." Erica glanced at him, "That's when I started looking into F.O.C.U.S. The rest is history."

"What happened to the Nidoran after that week?"

"I convinced her to accept my friend as her master. He's a trainer, so she's keeping busy. She was a Nidorina last I checked in; still loves apple sauce." Erica finally realized she was toying with her hair and dropped it, "Anyway. Next question."

"...are you okay?" Conrad would be the first to admit that he wasn't great at reading people (it would take a bit more work to get him to say he was quite bad at it), but it seemed to him that there were a lot of emotions Erica had skimmed over as quickly as possible. He leaned over, reaching across the distance between their beds to put a hand on her arm, "I mean, if you need to let it out, to talk to someone... I could go get Lysander."

Erica's initial snort quickly turned to laughter, and after half a minute or so she palmed away a bit of water from the corners of her eyes, "I must be losing it if you can make me laugh."

"Hey!" Conrad turned his indignation levels to maximum, enunciating each word clearly, "I will have you know that I am hilarious."

Erica shook her head at him, but rather than comment further she reached over and plucked the next card off the top of the stack, "Okay, next question: What did you find was the hardest part of coming to F.O… oh, excuse me, I mean to the Facility for the Open-Minded Correction of…"

"Skip it."

Erica blinked at him. She'd expected him to call her on mocking him, not ask that they skip the question. She supposed that if she were Lan or Lysander she'd question if they were allowed to skip cards, but seeing the faint aggravation on Conrad's features she just shrugged and tossed the card onto the discard pile, "Skipped."

"Thank you." Conrad picked up the next card, "What does your family do for a living?"

"Skip it."

It was Conrad's turn to blink at the return of Erica's flat tone, but he discarded the card. He could not, however, resist commenting, "If we answer the rest like this we'll be done the pile in no time."

"Fine by me. Oh, here's a good one: What have you enjoyed the most about your time at F.O.C.U.S.?"

Conrad considered tossing out a glib response, but doing so would seem shallow after Erica's confession about her past indifference to Pokémon. Instead, he shook his head and cautioned, "I'm going to sound like Lan."

"Go for it."

"I've enjoyed the friendships I've made here." Conrad wondered if she'd make any sort of remark this time, but once again she didn't and he continued, "When I first came here, I thought I didn't care if I made any friends or not; I was just here for the Pokémon. It frustrated me to no end that the rest of you were putting equal time into making human friendships and befriending your Pokémon, and I wasn't making any progress even though I put everything I had into training. It was stupid of me; here I'd come to F.O.C.U.S. to get powerful Pokémon in a non-traditional way, and I was trying to master them using completely traditional techniques. Then there was you, buying coffee and doing aerobics and wearing shorts that were practically underwear, and your powerhouse Pokémon responded to you and loved you."

"I can see how that would be galling."

"Oh, it was. But then there was that whole fashion war fiasco, and when I saw that our group might fall apart… it worried me. It worried me because I'd never had friends before." Conrad smirked to himself, "Sounds weird, saying that, but I never really cared before I came here; I just cared about getting the best Pokémon team in Kanto and competing in the League. But once I had friends, it was a scary thought to lose them."

"True friends have that effect on you." Erica grinned, "I've enjoyed meeting all of you as well, even ifyou've gotten on my last nerve more than once."

"The feeling's mutual, I assure you." Conrad almost went to draw another card, but then paused, "So your answer's the same as mine? Making friends?"

From the drawn-out pause that followed he guessed the answer, but it still surprised him a little when she confirmed it with a, "No. I'm glad you're my friends, but it's not what I've enjoyed themostabout my time here."

"Then what is?"

"…" She went back to fiddling with that same strand of hair before finally answering, "I've enjoyed getting to know myself. Call me selfish if you want."

Conrad shook his head, "Seems pretty obvious to me you've gone through a metamorphosis; if you were back in that park now, with those Spearow picking on that Nidoran, you'd beat the crap out of them."

Erica shook her head, "Probably not, but at the least I'd do a snatch and run. I know you said that your behaviour's really changed since you got to know us, but mine has too. If I were to restart the school year as I am now, there are a few things I would have done differently. I wouldn't have put the super glue in Suza's conditioner, for one. She's a snot, but she didn't deserve it."

"Agree to disagree?"

"You say that, but would you have done it?" Erica fixed him with a look, "Don't lie."

"…okay fine, I wouldn't have," Conrad admitted. "Did you do stuff like that pretty frequently then? In Saffron?"

"I wouldn't say frequently, but let's just say it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment idea." Erica sighed, "I've been doing a lot of thinking over the last week, with all my time spent in here, and I realized I've changed a lot. I like the changes, but it makes me wonder what I'm going to do when I graduate. I don't think I'll be able to stand the people I counted as friends before I came to F.O.C.U.S."

"Pfff, the answer to that's obvious." Conrad sat up, crossed his arms, and stuck out his chin in a patented Conrad Dole pose, "You're coming with me as I embark on my quest to get Victory Badges and battle in the League. It's a pretty exclusive invitation; you're the first one to get it."

Erica smiled at him, but then realized with embarrassment her eyes were watering. Before she could even think of an excuse to make, Conrad grabbed the box of tissues on the side table between their beds and held it out to her, "Poison powder's pretty rough on the sinuses, huh?"

She took a tissue and dabbed at her eyes, "The worst. Thanks Conrad."

"You're welcome." Conrad put the box back and picked up another card, "Come on, let's bang the rest of these out. What will you do…"

"…with your Pokémon once you graduate from F.O.C.U.S.?"

"Oh, that's an interesting question." Lan shifted a little, allowing Persian to rub its forehead under her chin as it wandered back and forth across the bench, "I suppose the real answer will have to wait until we see what other two Pokémon we'll acquire this semester, but we can still make a guess with the ones we have now."

Lysander nodded, "I know Conrad's going to enter the League no matter what Pokémon he gets, but I think I might join him."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Lysander's elbow was on the table, and his palm was propping up his chin, "Either that or enter more surfing comps than I have in my entire life. Evolution stones are expensive, and I promised Staryu I'd get it one. Plus I'd have Blastoise to help me out. As for Exeggcute… I don't know. They might want to stay with your dad."

"Some of them, perhaps," Lan was thinking of the female egg, and how it had fended off her father's Raichu with a butter knife when the mouse Pokémon tried to cuddle with Lysander the previous autumn. "Now that you mention it though, I'll probably ask daddy to look after Persian. Now that I have Pokémon, I want to go out and do my own research, and as lovely as Persian is I don't think it would be one for forest camping."

Persian's response to this was to utter a disgruntled meow and begin to knead Lan's thighs. As she squeaked multiple "ow!"s and attempted to unhook its claws from her flesh, Lysander commented, "That's probably a good idea. I have no idea what to do with Dodrio; I'm still trying to figure out the cause of its aggression, but I found out a few interesting things today when Nikki and I went skating."

"Ow! Really? Ow, Persian!" Lan was finally able to convince her Pokémon that she'd had enough of this particular kind of affection, and it switched to licking the side of her head, "What did you notice?"

Lysander was eager to share his findings, "Its middle head seems to be the least aggressive of the three. Not only that, but it's the one that seems to be the most aware of its surroundings when it comes to solving problems. The right head is the most wary; it'll only let me get within a certain distance before it attacks, and when it does the left head attacks with it. The left head's the most aggressive, and from what I can see it does the least amount of thinking."

"So the peripheral heads are aggressive, while the middle one isn't? That's fascinating." Persian's enthusiastic grooming knocked Lan's glasses askew, and she readjusted them before continuing, "I suppose if you can figure that out, you'll be significantly closer to finding out how to tame it."

"That's what I'm thinking," Lysander nodded. "I noticed when I talked to the right head, it looked surprised; like it wasn't used to be spoken to directly. But the middle head took what I had to say and worked with it without any surprise at all."

"That can't be a coincidence; that the aggressive heads aren't used to conversation and the docile head is." Lan bribed Persian into ceasing its grooming session by scratching it under the chin.

"I didn't think so either." Lysander sighed, "I know we're supposed to be the ones diagnosing our Pokémon, but sometimes I wish Exeggcute were still here to talk to Dodrio for me."

Lan nodded, traces of sadness spreading across her features, "They could talk to Erica's Butterfree while they were at it. She can't even have it out of its ball for thirty seconds before it attacks her with some kind of powder."

"You don't have to remind me," The scolding he'd taken from Nurse Joy still echoing somewhere in the back of his skull. Then he tipped his head toward the door, "Come on; looks like other people are leaving. Why don't we go see if she and Conrad are free to go?"

"Okay!" Lan swung her legs over the bench and stood, patting her hand against her leg, "Come on Persian! We can stop by our room on the way; I have a few things for her."

Lysander watched how easily Persian followed Lan's command and smiled. She might not have acquired any TMs for the cat Pokémon yet, but he was sure she'd qualify to receive a second PokéProject on Friday.

As he approached the infirmary, Martin could hear Nurse Joy speaking with someone inside. For a few moments he thought that someone was Erica, and that she was being handed a bill of clean health sooner than he'd anticipated, but as he got closer he could hear that the second voice was definitively male. As the boy stepped out into the hallway, it was only second nature for Martin to turn his head and lift one side of his upper lip in disdain; the boy's face was excessively bruised, and he doubted the cream Nurse Joy had handed him would do much to reduce the swollen, splotchy, purple and green appearance of the boy's cheeks.

For his part, Conrad eyed the immaculately-dressed boy wielding a large bouquet of flowers and a ribbon-wrapped box that almost certainly contained chocolates with some disdain of his own. As they were about to pass, he asked, "I don't suppose you're from Saffron?"

"Celadon." Martin would have tossed his hair if his hands weren't occupied, "Though I can't imagine that it's any business of yours."

"Wow." Conrad turned and called over his shoulder, "Have fun with this one, Erica!"

He ignored Nurse Joy's irritated glare and continued on down the hallway. Martin, meanwhile, bestowed his second-most-charming smile on the underappreciated nurse and asked if he might be able to offer his well-wishes to Miss Hunter. Whether thankful for his manners or just distracted at thinking of how to politely phrase a nasty letter, Nurse Joy waved him through. Martin steeled himself for the worst and stepped around the privacy curtain separating the infirmary beds from the nurse's station to reveal…

…what appeared to be a perfectly healthy Erica, watching him with one eyebrow raised and a sceptical expression on her face. He pouted at her, "From how Roselyn was carrying on I expected you to be at death's door."

"You should have come yesterday." There was a definite dry tone to her remark, "Pallid cheeks and a nauseous stomach 'til dusk."

"I'm sure, but you see the chocolates only arrived this morning." So saying, Martin approached the bed and set the wrapped box on her lap with much aplomb. The flowers were harder to find a spot for; her bedside table was littered with half a dozen Get Well Soon cards. One of them, he noticed with a little jealousy, appeared to be hand-made and contained very accurate drawings of all her Pokémon from the previous semester. Still, he was able to shift them aside—taking note of all the names in them, of course—and set the sizeable bouquet down, "You'll note, I'm sure, that I've also provided these lovely calla lilies with a vase. Custom-made, one-of-a-kind glass, naturally."

Erica couldn't help but rub the bridge of her nose in borderline exasperation, "Why?"

"So they can stand up and look pretty, of co—"

"You know what I mean." On seeing the rather blank expression on his face, Erica realized that he didn't. She sighed, "Flowers? Chocolate? Why are you making such a big deal out of this?"

"Not just any chocolate." Rather than do as she'd expected—as others had done—and pull up a visitor's chair, Martin sat directly on her cot and nudged the box closer to her, "Imported European chocolate. Each one hand-poured into a different seashell casing."

He noted the way her hand seemed to twitch almost involuntarily toward the ribbon's bow, but she snatched it back at the last moment and frowned at him, "That's not answering the question."

"You're in ill health. It's the duty of your friends to shower you with all of your favourite things in your time of need. Not just a few paltry cards with Pokémon doodles." The flash of annoyance that appeared on her face was unexpected, and he hastily continued, "Though of course I must remember that not every student at this facility has the same financial means upon which to draw as we do."

"That's the first intelligent thing I've heard you say." Erica couldn't help the sharpness in her voice, and felt nothing but unease that he seemed to take it in stride; as if it were to be expected. It reminded her all too well of the way things had been before she'd decided to apply to F.O.C.U.S., and that, if nothing else, prompted her to continue in a milder tone, "Thank you for the gifts, Martin. They weren't necessary, but they're appreciated."

"You're welcome, they were, and I'm glad," Martin preened quite visibly. "They are your favourites, aren't they?"

"…I don't hate them." Erica didn't know where he was getting his information, but she was in no mood to press him for details. Hoping to throw him off balance—and perhaps take his preening down a notch—she queried, "How are things going with Magikarp?"

"Oh, splendidly." He no doubt thought his offhand remark went over quite well, when all it did was highlight that the opposite was most likely true, "It has lots of enthusiasm for such a useless fish. Why don't you try a chocolate?"

"Later; my stomach's still pretty sensitive." She noticed the disappointment on his face and offered, "Would you like one?"

"Oh, no no. Those are just for you." He gave her leg an encouraging pat and stood to go, "You're no doubt tired, poor dear. If there's anything else you need, be sure to let me know."

Her first thought was that hell would freeze over before she asked Martin Aldred for favours, but she put a smile on her face and answered, "I will."

Later that evening, Martin made his way to one of the far arenas. It had been a few days since he'd last administered a rare candy to his Magikarp, and according to the schedule he'd drawn up for the benefit of the teachers it was time to administer another. Fortunately the arena was abandoned at this time of night, and that was the way he liked it. Much as he understood that F.O.C.U.S. was about rehabilitation and one couldn't expect to always get a desirable Pokémon, there was something particularly degrading about owning one too stupid to do anything but flop around and make undignified noises.

Once he released his Magikarp from its ball, he let it "splash" around for a minute or so while he unwrapped the rare candy. Used to the crinkle of the wrapper by now, the fish Pokémon soon went still, quietly regarding Martin from where it lay on its side, its lungs heaving air in and out like bellows. When the candy was ready, he tossed it to Magikarp with a practiced flick of his wrist, and the Pokémon gulped it down in a single swallow.

"Ugh. The least you could do is chew it."

He noted the slight narrowing of Magikarp's eyes, and that the fish began to pump its tail back and forth. Preparing to do some more splashing, he supposed, and never mind that there was no water in which to splash. He rolled his eyes and went about folding the used wrapper in his usual fashion. That was when Magikarp gave a great flick of its tail and shot towards him, its entire body slamming into his and knocking him clean off his feet. He hit the ground flat on his back, the wind driving from his lungs immediately. As he attempted to push himself up and regain his breath Magikarp attacked again, sending him rolling several times over. Before it could tackle him for the third time, he managed to hold out its Pokéball and wheeze, "Return."

Several long minutes passed before he was able to pick himself up off the arena floor and stagger back to his room.