Over the next few days, Jessee and James spent most of their days doing team training, while I was taken by another trainer for solo training—which mostly consisted of a lot of endurance and strength, as well as following orders to the letter. After almost a week of this, to my surprise, I was called with Jessee and James to the training hall. When we had all gotten there, Viper took a moment, cleared his throat, then said, "As you know, the teams here typically consist of two humans and a specially trained pokemon. But as you all know, due to the…uniqueness…of your situation, you do not have a pokemon assigned to you yet. We are hoping to change that today." He paused again, then gestured to his left. "Allow me to introduce you to, Meowth, the newest member of your team."

I was confused, as my eyes shifted from our drill sergeant to the brown and tawny cat-like pokemon standing next to him. I had always just assumed that Pikachu would be our partner. I was about to interject, when I remembered, Pikachu was kept in hiding. They didn't know he was there. I closed my mouth, as the pokemon in front of me grinned widely. "Now don't be intimidated er nothin'." He said, his rough voice carrying a strong inner-city accent. "I wants you'z ta treat me like ano'der one-a-da-gang!"

Jessee, James and I looked at each other confusedly for a moment. "Something seems odd about that pokemon…" I whispered.

"Yeah…I know…" James replied.

Suddenly, Jessee's eyes bugged out. "Wait, it talks…?!"

James and I took a startle response as the Meowth continued, "Not only dat, but I'm'a real good conversationalist." He laughed hysterically, a sound which made chills run down my spine. The noise was something of a mix between the normal meowing sound a meowth makes, and a looney bin. I guess this was our payment for all three of us being on the same team. Almost not worth it. Almost.

Viper went on, "Jessee, James, you are to meet the other trainees in the classroom for your next assignment. Jess, you are going to meet with your instructor in Lab A. Dismissed."

Jessee and James turned and, along with our new partner, headed off to the classroom where we had spent the bulk of basic training. I tried to slip them a reassuring smile as I headed off toward the laboratories, located near the administration building toward the back of the compound.

I came up on the laboratory complex, a collection of three buildings all connected only by awnings which blocked out the weather between one side door to the next. I entered the center building, the largest one, which was labeled with a large boldfaced A. Inside the big glass-paneled doors sat a spacious lobby area with a fancy wooden desk near the back. I walked up to the receptionist working there, a petite dainty woman in a navy blue suit, and she smiled and said, "Welcome: do you have an appointment?"

"I was sent here by Drill Sergeant Viper; he said I had to meet with an instructor here."

"Ah, yes! That would be Professor Conifer." She said, never breaking her smile. She opened her desk and pulled out a clipboard and a thin lanyard with a RFID key card hanging on it. "Please fill out your personal information here—this is just so I can issue you a temporary pass—and I'll call down the professor for you."

I thanked her and sat down in one of the many large geometric chairs lining the lobby. As I filled out all my basic information—name, birthdate, all that—I got to thinking: what exactly was it that I would be doing here? I hadn't ever seen any other recruits told they would be working in the lab. Heck, I'd never even seen any other recruits even come this way! The laboratories and administration buildings didn't look anything like the rest of the compound. They were much nicer, much neater, with big front windows and expansive lobby areas where the rest of the compound was made up of squatty building made of ugly orange-brown clay bricks with windows barely wide enough to stick a clenched fist through. Why such a drastic difference in aesthetic from one part of the compound to the next?

I finished filling out the forms and signing an unprecedented number of documents and confidentiality agreements, then stood and headed back to the desk. As I handed the forms over the counter to the receptionist, the thick double doors on the left side of the room burst open and out walked a short slender woman with a dark complexion and long forest green hair tied messily up on her head into the remnants of a bun. She wore thin wireframe glasses low on her nose and a long lab coat over a delicate white blouse and teal pleaded skirt. Her tall strap heels clicked loudly as she walked and without them I probably would have been a good foot taller than her.

The woman stopped walking for a moment when she entered the room and looked up from the clipboard she was holding. When she spotted me, she quickly turned and walked over. "Ah, you must be Jessica Newken, am I correct?"

"Yes, Ma'am." I replied dutifully.

The woman shook my hand, her grip surprisingly strong for such a small woman. "I'm Professor Conifer. I shall be your special assignment trainer for the next few weeks." She took a step back and looked me up and down. "You are quite a bit taller than Sergeant Viper originally said. No matter; we shall simply stop by the uniform room on the way to the laboratory." She pulled out a folded white coat she was holding from under her clipboard and handed it to the receptionist. "See that this is put away."

The receptionist nodded, and Professor Conifer turned and gestured for me to follow her. She scanned in to the RFID door panel and held the door open for me to follow. I did so and she closed the door behind me insuring that it locked. She then led me down a hallway and into a small room lined with racks of lab coats and various types of PPE. She scanned the racks for a moment, once in a while pulling down coats of varying lengths before finally handing one to me. "Here, put this on."

I obeyed. The jumpsuit made the sleeves a bit snug and uncomfortable, but Professor Conifer seemed satisfied anyway. "There, that should fit you much better. From this point on, be sure to wear this every time you come in." I nodded in understanding. She continued as she went out and turned off the light. "Hang your key card around your neck—you're going to be needing it a lot. And god-forbid if you loose it…" Again I obeyed, and hung the thin lanyard I had gotten from the receptionist around my neck as I followed Professor Conifer out of the room.

"Um…excuse me Professor Conifer," I asked as she led me again down the long hall and past many closed rooms. "But, what exactly am I doing here…?"

"Viper tells me you had studied pokemon medicine." Conifer replied without even turning around. "You were chosen for a special assignment that should better make use of your skills and experience."

"Well, yes, I went to Pokemon Nursing school, but for that matter so did my sister." I replied. "We were both some of the best in our class, but why was I chosen and she wasn't?"

"Only grunts can be trained in laboratory work." Conifer explained. "Your sister is classified as a partnered field agent." She glanced back at me. "Did you read all of the confidentiality agreements that you signed?"

"Yes," I lied.

"Well, then you know that the information held here is top secret, and working with a partner puts that confidentiality at risk." Conifer continued turning back to the hallway in front of her. "Grunts, however, work alone, and therefore are less likely to spill the beans—as it were—about our scientific work, discoveries, and clientele." She stopped outside a large pair of double doors, and handed me a pair of protective glasses she pulled from a box bolted on the wall. "Put these on."

I obeyed, sliding the thick plastic goggles on over my prescription lenses. Professor Conifer pulled out a pair of safety glasses from her lab coat pocket and did the same. Then she scanned her badge, made sure I did as well, and escorted me into the laboratory.