James, meanwhile, had arrived at the front door of the Oak lab. Realizing that he had forgotten to steal the real Professor Oak's keys, James wondered how he would get inside. Trying the doorknob, he discovered that his fears were unfounded.

"Tee-hee, that was almost too easy," James smiled as he opened the front door and stepped inside.

"MUK!!!!"

The sludge Pokémon, happy to see Professor Oak, came dashing down the stairs and leapt up to greet him.

"No! Get off of me you…" James was knocked to the floor and then disappeared under Muk's slimy bulk.

"Oh, you're back soon, Professor," Tracey said as he came into the hallway. "Is your head still bothering you?"

"Mmmmphhh."

"Oh, get off of Professor Oak, Muk." Tracey pulled the affectionate Pokemon off of James. "Now go outside. Professor Oak's had a hard day today." With one last slimy kiss, Muk got off of James and headed down the hall.

"Thanks, twerp…uh, I mean…" James then realized that he couldn't remember Tracey's name. He had always referred to Ash and his companions as "twerps".

"Tracey." The boy gave James a funny look. "Are you sure you're feeling all right, Professor? You don't have a concussion from that bump on your head you got earlier, do you?"

"No, twer…I mean, Tracey." James replied as he stood up and tried to scrape Muk's purple slime off of his clothes. "I'm perfectly all right. What makes you think that there's anything wrong with me?"

"Well, it's just that you're acting rather strange," Tracey said. "Maybe you'd better go lie down."

"Nonsense, I'm perfectly fine," James insisted, shrugging off Tracey's arm. "Now show me where I keep all of the rare and valuable Pokémon."

Tracey gave James a funny look. "Show you…? Um, Professor…the Pokémon are all either here in the lab or the preserve."

"Oh. Well then, lead on, twer…Tracey," James ordered.

Tracey, who by now was quite worried because Professor Oak couldn't even remember the way to his own lab, guided his boss to a nearby couch.

"Professor, why don't you lie down here for a little while? I'll tend to the Pokémon." Tracey reached for a nearby quilt and covered James with it. "You just get some rest, and don't worry about a thing while I go give Doctor Proctor a call."

James snatched the blanket off of his legs. "Nonsense! I'm perfectly fine, twer…Tracey! Now take me to the lab this instant or else I'll fire you for insubordination!"

Tracey, after ducking to avoid being hit by the lamp James had just thrown at him, decided that for now it would probably be safer to humor Professor Oak. "Uh…okay, Professor. Come with me and we can continue working on that experiment we were doing earlier."

Finally, James thought as he followed the younger boy into the laboratory.

"We were in the middle of analyzing the data on the evolution of Slowpoke to Slobro that Professor Westwood had sent over when we went outside to work with Cubone, remember?" Tracey handed James the stack of papers sitting on Professor Oak's desk.

"Of course I do," James replied huffily as he began thumbing through them. "I am a professor, you know."

"Professor, do you think the increase in Slowbro's eosinophil to basophil ratio that Professor Westwood observed is due to an immunological response to Cloyster's presence? Or do you think it's due to another form of mast cell response?" Tracey asked.

"Uh…it's…it's whatever you said about the basketphils," James, totally overwhelmed by the scientific jargon, said as he quickly put down the report. "Never mind that now, twer…Tracey. What I'm more interested now is checking out all the Pokémon in the lab."

"Oh. Speaking of checkups, Professor, you said that today you were going to give that new Tauros a physical."

Even though a Tauros wasn't James's idea of a rare and valuable Pokémon, it was a Pokémon , nonetheless. "Well, where is it?" James looked around the lab impatiently.

Tracey gave James a funny look. "Professor, it's still in the holding pasture outside where you put it this morning."

"Oh. Well, let's get going then, twer…Tracey. I haven't got all day." James then started off in the direction of the hallway.

"Professor, where are you going? The backyard is that way."

"Oh. I knew that." James turned around and headed in the opposite direction.

"Um, Professor…that's the front door." Tracey took James's arm. "Professor, maybe you should forget about the Tauros today and go lie down. I think that bump on your head is affecting your memory."

"Let go of me, twer…Tracey! I tell you, I'm perfectly fine." James shook off Tracey's hand. "Now unless you want me to hire another assistant who obeys his boss, you'll take me outside to the Tauros right now!"

Alarmed by his boss's threat, Tracey decided that for now he'd be better off doing what Professor Oak asked him to do. He led James outside to the barn at the bottom of the hill.

James peered inside the barn. "So, where is it?"

"Over there."

James's heart leapt into his throat as Tracey pointed to the largest Tauros he had ever seen standing in the nearby field. "Is…is that it?"

Tracey nodded. "Yep. You said that you were going to show me how to properly restrain a wild Tauros. I'd really like to see how you're going to do it, Professor. You said that this Tauros was one of the wildest ones you had ever seen in your thirty years as a Pokémon researcher."

To emphasize Tracey's point, the bull Pokémon snorted and regarded the pair with a murderous expression.

Tracey handed James a thermometer. "Man, good thing you're the one giving it a physical and not me."

With a trembling hand, James took the thermometer from the boy and Tracey opened the gate to the pasture. The bull Pokémon stamped its hoof in warning and shook its horns threateningly in James's direction.

"Uh…nice Tauros," James said with an ingratiating smile as he slowly approached the wild Pokémon.

The bull Pokémon's eyes narrowed as it regarded the interloper warily.

Tracey watched his boss curiously. "Uh, Professor…what are you doing?"

"I'm going to take its temperature, you idiot! What does it look like I'm doing?" James snapped.

"But Professor, why are you approaching the Tauros from the front? Shouldn't you be moving towards the back end instead?"

"Back end? What are you talking about, twer…?" Then James understood what Tracey meant. "Yeeeeesh!"

Horrified, James dropping the thermometer. As he bent over to retrieve it, the Tauros, who had also figured out where the thermometer was supposed to go, charged.

"Professor, watch out!"

James looked around just in time to see the Tauros aiming straight for his rear end. "No! Nice Tauros! Nice…!"

Tracey watched in horror as the Tauros sent James sailing overhead. As he landed with a thump in a nearby thorn bush, several startled Pidgey went flying in all directions.

To be continued…