The parade following the day's heroics was quite hectic, to say the least, though for Carly's taste, the vast amounts of people crowding around her provided by far the biggest challenge. By the time the ceremony ended, however, she found herself wrestling with entirely different feelings...

The two girls are being driven to Professor Rowan's lab by one of his aides via limousine.

Sam lays back in one of the fancy couches in it, that beat anything the Rockets had by miles. "Ah, this is the life. I can sure get used to this..."

"Y-you..." Carly's voice was as stern as it was shaky, even as she kneeled over the blonde's half-asleep frame. She lazily opened one eye.

"What, What?"

"You and I both know that I didn't do anything back there. Why did you say that I did?!"

Sam sat up and shrugged. "Meh, would've made a great story, I guess. We'll just say that you were there for moral support or something..."

"But I didn't do any--"

Sam cut her off, a little annoyed. "Are you always this high-strung? You seriously need to learn to just go with the flow."

"I am absolutely NOT high-strung. I am perfectly relaxed." Carly scoffed as she sat, unaware that she was still shaking. "Besides, what 'moral support' could I have provided the 'Great Sam', anyway?" The brunette emphasized her point by waving her arms in the air

Sam didn't react at all for a beat before bursting out laughing. "You're funny, you know that?"

Almost against her will, a small smile made its way across the shorter girl's face. "Really?"

"Of course All I've got to do is teach you the ropes of being a trainer, and maybe teach you to actually stand in front a crowd without looking like you're gonna collapse."

The small smile became a very nervous, forced grin. "Yeah... I--"

Thankfully, the driver saved Carly the trouble of needing to deal with dancing around the last part of that statement.

"Ms. Shay, Ms. Wilson...?" The man hesitated for a moment before continuing. "We've arrived at Sandgem Town."

Sandgem Town was much less sleepy than it would otherwise be. In fact, the only reason why there weren't more people around than there were was because a local Officer Jenny had set up a perimeter around the lab just for the girls to get in.

Carly forced herself to look straight ahead until she got into the building. The girl was greeted by a neatly dressed black haired boy around her age and a much older man in a lab coat.

Before she could say anything, Sam interjected. "What's up, Rowan. Nerd."

Said "nerd" glared at the blonde.

"Hey!"

"Sam!" Carly snapped before turning to the boy. "Don't mind her..." She thought for a moment. "Say, your voice sounds familiar. Have you been on that Pokémon Talk show?"

The boy looked mildly surprised. "People actually listen to that? Huh... Anyway, yeah, I work as an aide for Professor Oak."

"Yeah, my brother kind of had a crush on that Marie girl..."

Looking at her more closely, the boy seemed to realize something. "Speaking of familiar, you remind me of someone. What's your name?"

"Carly. Carly Shay."

"Ah, so you're that sister that Spencer kept talking about whenever he would sculpt for us."

"Yup." The girl felt the need to follow up with the obvious. "How many did he go through?"

"Three. The first two burst into flames for some reason. Thankfully, he had a Poliwrath there to put them out quickly."

A look of shock passed over her. A number of attempts below 5 was pretty rare for him...

"How does that even work, anyway? Does your brother just carry around gasoline or something?"

"Nope. We wouldn't let him, just in case. We still don't know how it happens even now..."

Rowan cleared his throat. "With all due respect you two, it is getting late, so I would like to get on to why you're here."

Things quieted down as the man began. "I would like to reward you for your bravery in stopping Team Rocket."

The man walked to a nearby desk and took a briefcase containing three Poké Balls before tossing them, freeing their inhabitants. A red monkey-like Pokémon, Chimchar, The blue Penguin Pokémon Piplup, and the green turtle-like creature known as Turtwig now faced their would-be trainers with a look of bewilderment.

"These were recently shipped over, so they're not quite as used to being among humans as they might otherwise be. I hope you'll treat them with kindness."

The boy spoke up. "I can take it from here, if you don't mind, Professor."

Rowan sighed. "Go on, young Fredward. I'm tired anyhow."

Sam was practically rolling on the floor. "Fredward! What kind of wierdo would name their son that?"

Fredward was fuming. "A 'wierdo' that happens to be my mother. I--"

Rowan raised his voice. "Silence, Samantha."

The blonde went from amused to angry in a flash. Gritting her teeth. She asked, "What did you just call me...?"

A light, challenging smile appeared on the old man's face. "I happen to think that Samantha is a lovely name. Is there a problem?"

Sam was about to get in his face when Carly screamed as loud as she could, making enough noise to have nearby Pokémon scattering.

"Look. I'm tired. Sam, shut up. Fredward,"

"Um... I would prefer to be called 'Freddie'."

"...Freddie. Give me the short version. Professor, thanks a lot, but can we please hurry this up a bit?"

Freddie took off on his speech. "Turtwig eventually evolves into Torterra, gaining the Ground Type, while Piplup gains the Steel Type upon its final evolution into Empoleon, but Chimchar gains the Fighting Type upon its first evolution into Monferno. Keep that in mind. I'm planning on choosing Piplup, if that's okay with everyone..."

The choices were made rather quickly. Chimchar was Sam's and Turtwig was left to Carly, not that either really minded. Rowan gave the three trainers their partners' Poké Balls as he addressed them.

"There's something else that you needed to know, but I think we all need some rest before I go over that. It can wait. For now though, I can get you three to the rooms in Sandgem Hotel that I had rented out for you."

It was strange, as much as she'd complained that she was tired, Carly found herself unable to. So many thoughts whirling around her head, ranging from what happened with Team Rocket to how Spencer was doing. She decided to take Ralts, Pichu, Starly, and Turtwig out into the room and (quietly) talk to them about everything she could think of. Eventually, she began looking out the window of the suite at the many Bidoof, Shinx, and Kricketot wandering about in the stilllness under the moon, calmed down considerably compared to the earlier excitement.

"How many Pokémon are there in the world? You know, I've been thinking... It might be cool if we could go on a little journey of our own. There's gotta be so many Pokémon, places, and people that I've never seen, even back home in Kanto.

The more she thought about the idea, the more she liked it.

"Yeah, maybe..." A yawn escaped her lips. "A world tour would be cool. The kind of fresh start I need..."

With that, she was out like a light.

Unbeknownst to the now sleeping trio, a certain young man was watching them from afar, slightly rotund with a rather aristoctatic tone of voice. His two Indeedee watched with him.

"When do we strike, Master Papperman?" The male asked.

"Soon, Harold. Soon..."

Stay tuned...

TO BE CONTINUED...