"Every Pokemon Center I've worked at has been at a seaside town," Nurse Joy said as we stared together at the massive Chinchou floating in the Center's water tank, "and I've never seen one this big."
It seemed docile enough, feelers bobbing around out of the tank. An occasional spark arced between them, splashing sharp shadows around the room. Lucky flipped out each time, trying to find the movement the shadows told him was there. I threaded my fingers into his mane, trying to keep him calm. "Is it okay?"
"She seems healthy enough," she said. "My guess is that there's Wailmer or Wailord somewhere fairly recently in her family. Either that, or her unique diet compared to most of the other Pokemon around here allowed her uncontested access to more food than usual. I was about to feed her, so we should have a better idea soon."

"Okay," I said. Hopefully my new Chinchou wouldn't eat my wallet empty.

She ended up eating more than the rest of my team usually did, but Nurse Joy said that it was an appropriate amount for her size.

I pulled her back into her Pokeball so we could go get Vola. I asked Nurse Joy, "This is my first aquatic Pokemon. Can she come out on land, or only when we're near water?"

Nurse Joy smiled at me warmly. "An excellent question! Most aquatic Pokemon obviously prefer to come out in water, but most can manage on land, as well. Mobility becomes an issue, and some can get dry if they're out too long. Chinchou and Lanturn in particular can scoot around, and they don't usually have the dryness problem."

I nodded. That sounded doable; I'd already seen Mac's Cloyster on land, "I understand." I saw Vola through the monitoring window when we got to the recovery room. She was sleeping on one of the tables, among the other recovering Pokemon. Nurse Joy held the door open for me to enter. "How is she?" I whispered.

"She's fine, now," she responded, similarly quiet. "We get a lot of Tentacool poisonings around here. It's a routine procedure at this point, unfortunately. She also had a slight paw injury, which might be tender. As long as she doesn't strain it too much over the next few days, she should be fine." Lucky laid his forelegs on the table to inspect Vola as I walked over to pick her up. She lay limply, breathing evenly as she snoozed. I gave her a little belly rub, making her twitch in her sleep. Then Lucky, reassured that Vola would be okay, barked happily, and I nearly dropped her.

I fled outside in the ensuing chaos, recalling Vola into her Pokeball and wary of Nurse Joy's certain wrath. I grabbed Mac on the way, hoping to be gone before she finished restoring order to the recovery room.

"C'mon, let's check on Janelle," I said by way of explanation.

Once we were far enough away, I gestured to a small retaining wall on the side of the road, where I sat down to catch my breath. I picked Lucky up under his forelegs, holding him face-to-face with me. "Every time I start thinking you're really growing up, you remind me how young you are," I scolded. "I know how happy you are that Vola is okay, but all those other Pokemon are still hurt or sick."
His ears flopped and he looked properly chastened, eyes downcast.

"Exactly. Let's try to stay quieter when we're inside, okay?"

He licked my face, a big, wet slurp, so I lowered him down off my lap. He paced back and forth on the road in front of me a few times wagging his tail, finally stopping at my feet and panting.

Mac smirked at me, and I sighed.

We found Janelle where she said she'd be. She chatted amiably with the redhead I assumed was the owner as Mimsey helped another Mr. Mime arrange some potted plants. The owner was taping bouquets together, while Janelle held out flowers to Snippy, who clipped bits off their stems. They all looked up as the little bell above the door announced our arrival.

"And here they are!" Janelle said, loud enough for us to hear.

"Oh, my!" the owner said, putting the bouquet she was working on into a small vase of water and getting up to walk over to us, "So you're Mac and Katie. Janelle's told me so much about you that I feel like we already know each other, so let me introduce myself. You can call me Delia."
"Uh, hi, Delia," I said.

Mac, people person that he is, was polite enough for both of us. He schmoozed for a little while, asking about what she and Janelle had been up to, how she liked Pallet, did she have family here, etc. Lucky smelled some flowers and immediately broke into a sneezing fit, so I took him outside while they talked.

After a little while, Mac and Janelle came back out. Janelle was cradling a paper bag under one arm and smiling.
"I take it things went well here," I said. The anger from the beach was gone, and I wasn't about to bring the topic back there.
"Yeah!" she enthused, jogging past me. "Now get moving! If we hurry, we should make the last ferry for today!"

"The what?" I asked, running to catch up with them.

"There's a ferry that takes a really pretty route to Cinnabar Island, and the last one of the day apparently has a fantastic view of the sunset," she panted. "Since there's nothing else worth doing here, I want to catch it today instead of tomorrow."

"Ah," I said, beginning to pant myself as we ran through town, "Of course."

I didn't really have an argument for that.

To Cinnabar, then.

To be fair, it was pretty. We stood by the railing watching the sun drop in the sky as I introduced everyone to my new Pokemon. The huge Chinchou had no issue keeping up with the sedate pace of the ferry. Snippy rode on her back, and Cloyster kept up with a series of high powered jets that saw it constantly blasting ahead and then falling behind.
"Everyone, this is Leviathan," I said.

Mac nodded in approval. "Like the myths people told about Lugia and Kyogre."
"Yep," I said, "Levy for short, I think."

"She's kind of cute," Janelle observed from her seat, fashioning some of the flowers she'd gotten into little accessories. "Those eyes creep me out, though."

I swatted her shoulder lightly, "Be nice!" Levy didn't seem to have heard, or at least taken notice, but I wasn't going to have let her feelings get hurt.

Dart flew over us, careful to avoid getting too close. It had only taken one inquisitive nudge of a bobbing antennae to convince her that inspecting our new friend was more trouble than it was worth. Spin, who had apparently adapted Mud-Slap into Sand Tomb, according to the Pokemon Center's scanner, lay napping. He'd already gotten acquainted with her during their battle on the beach, which I suppose was enough for him. Lucky was peering over the side carefully, as though he expected a Tentacruel to try to pull him off the deck any second. Vola, who hadn't even seen the battle at the beach, just watched our round new teammate cut through the waves from my arms. I had no doubt she'd get a better introduction when Levy was in better range for some kind of mischief, but she was settling for planning.

As the sun started to go down, Levy began to stand out more. Our Pokemon were silhouetted by the soft glow from her feelers, giving us fleeting glimpses of them beside the boat. It looked almost haunting when she occasionally submerged, a watery witchlight whispered of by sailors. By the time it would have been fully dark, though, a new source of illumination came over the horizon ahead of us.

The faint fire of the volcano that Cinnabar Island was built on was only visible as a dim corona around the peak. It had settled down considerably years ago after it had last erupted, burying most of the island, but it hadn't quite gone dormant.

"I don't get why people live there," I mused as we watched the skyline of the island grow in the distance. "What benefit can outweigh the cost of knowing that your home could be covered in lava at any time"

"The thirst for knowledge can motivate people to do some pretty stupid things," Mac replied from his deck chair. "Though I'm not even sure I can call this particular one stupid. Studying the volcano has given scientists insight into some incredibly valuable geological features over the years, and the proximity to the unique landscape and resources around it has been the catalyst for quite a few technological advancements. Most of the residents are-"
"O.M.M., you are way too hot to be this big a nerd," Janelle interrupted.

I smirked.

Mac quirked an eyebrow at her.

I thought she blushed a little, but it was too dark to really see. "It's just, you always start spouting stuff like some kind of almanac whenever we go somewhere. Aren't you training with the fighting-type master? When do you find time to train with all the studying you must be doing to know all this?"

"Actually, I was born on Cinnabar. We moved to Viridian before the eruption, but yeah. I guess I just happen to know a lot about the places I've lived."
Now she was definitely blushing; she'd turned away from Mac to hide it, but that left her facing me, and it was visible even in the darkness. She retreated to the rail and muttered, "Oh, shut up. Why are you also so right all the time? It's not fair."

She was obviously trying to be too quiet for him to overhear, but I heard a faint chuckle from him. Ironically, she was too busy grumbling to catch it.