It was a bright and early morning in Loch Alstan, and a busy one, too. Nearly a hundred staff members were gathered in the employee lounge of the Reiland Institute for Research, chatting away as they got ready for another day of work and study. Andrea was present as well, seated alone at one of the tables; to the left of her was a half empty mug of mint tea, and to the right was an empty plate, speckled with biscuit crumbs. In front of her was the local newspaper, the Daily Loch, opened to the housing section. Row upon row of houses, apartments and other rental properties were on display, with giant red X's crossed through most of the cheaper offers.

"How am I going to afford any of this and pay off my student debts..." she muttered to herself. As she continued to search for living arrangements, a coffee cup appeared on the end of the table. She looked up to see who had placed it there.

Patrick yawned heavily. "Morn'," he said. "Sleep well?"

She shook her head. "I don't think I'll ever get used to motels... I need to find a proper place to live."

He laughed. "I still can't believe you came here without a plan."

"Yeah, yeah, very funny..." she said as she crossed out another candidate. "This is depressing."

"You'll find something. Check the south side of town, lots of cheap stuff down there. Lots of riff-raff down there, too, but at least you'll have a roof over your head."

Two more giant red X's appeared on the page. As she looked back at it, nearly the entire page was awash with red ink, and it was enough to frustrate her deeply. "I need a break from this..." she grumbled with a sigh. "What am I doing today? Will I be put on another project, or do we still have unfinished business regarding what we found in Nettlefield?"

"I was about to talk to Dr. Reiland about it. You should come with, I'm sure she'll want to hear about your first day on the job."

Dr. Reiland was seated in her office, struggling valiantly with a small orange bottle of medication. With every failed attempt, she shook her frail-looking hand and breathed in and out to dull the pain of her crippling arthritis. "The nerve of these pharma companies..." she growled. Another attempt was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Yes? Who is it?"

A muffled voice came from the other side of the door. "Good morning, doctor! It's Patrick!"

"Ah, just a moment," she called out. She dropped the bottle of medication onto the table, then reached for her cane. With a brief countdown, she wobbled to her feet and approached the door, then began to disable the locks that sealed her away from the outside world. She opened the door and greeted her guests with a warm smile. "Ah! If it isn't Patrick and Ms. Dennison!" she said as she returned to her desk. "You've returned sooner than I expected. Was there trouble?" She motioned for the two to have a seat.

"No trouble, ma'am," he said. "We're actually done."

"Done? Already?" she asked. There was a distinct tone of disbelief behind her words.

"Yes ma'am! You can thank our newest hire for that." He patted Andrea on the shoulder rather roughly, if not enthusiastically.

Dr. Reiland glanced at her with a quick and studious look before returning her attention to Patrick. "I'm interested to hear what you mean by that... and what you've found, of course."

"We're pretty certain that we locked down the cause of the illness that's swept across the Miltank herd at the Gates Dairy Farm. We've ruled out that it's a problem with the feed, and the illness isn't contagious as far as we know."

"Then what is it? How is it spreading?"

"Are you familiar with Blastcap?" Andrea asked.

"Blastcap... Blastcap..." Dr. Reiland muttered to herself as she searched the depths of her memory. "I've heard of it, but I'm not very familiar with it."

"It's a fungal species of Pokémon, it reproduces with clouds of spores... unfortunately, those spores are quite toxic, and they seem to be the root of the problem at the farm." Patrick added. "It's native to the Mangada region, but it's been introduced to ecosystems across the world, including here in Lanark... we might have a big infestation around Nettlefield."

"How big?" she asked.

"You took pictures, didn't you, Andrea? Show her."

Andrea retrieved her phone from her purse, navigated to the photos she took the previous day, then handed it to Dr. Reiland.

"I'd say we walked at least an hour and we didn't even find the end of it! It must have been spreading out there for years."

Dr. Reiland's eyes widened quite rapidly as she flipped through the pictures. "Oh... oh dear, that's... that's quite something..." she said. "This is... problematic, to say the least."

Patrick nodded. "It is. I'm going to get in touch with the Ministry of Wildlife to see what they can do about it. They've dealt with this kind of problem before, back in the 1960s, surely they can deal with it again."

Dr. Reiland handed the phone back. "How many of these Blastcaps did you find?"

Andrea and Patrick glanced at each other in silence for a brief moment before she answered. "None, actually."

She tilted her head to the side. "None? I'm afraid I don't follow."

"We found one Pokémon out there, but the R-Kit couldn't properly identify it." Her voice began to crack as she continued, as if she weren't confident in her words. "It said that it was an unknown species?"

Dr. Reiland lit up. "Unknown species, you say?" she asked. "Did you capture it, by chance? This could be big!"

Once again, the two glanced at each other until Patrick spoke up. "Unfortunately I had to, umm... destroy it..." he said in a sheepish manner. "It posed a considerable threat not just to us, but to the village as well. Very violent little bugger. Well, big bugger. Much taller than me."

Dr. Reiland leaned back in her chair, deep in contemplation. "Ah... I see... I don't suppose I can blame you for what happened, but we may have lost a rare chance to document a new species... I may need to start contracting professional trainers to assist in matters such as these, perhaps it would have ended a bit less tragically."

"Believe me, I wanted to capture it, but the risk was simply too great. I probably owe Andrea my life if she hadn't stepped in to help me out. That thing snared me with a vine and started to reel me in like a fish, her quick thinking was the only thing that saw me untangled."

"Is that so? I want you to make a note of that in your report to the Ministry. We don't want anyone getting injured or killed while they investigate and deal with this problem."

"Yes ma'am."

"Also, I want a detailed report of just what this creature was. There will be some gaps that we can fill in later, but this could be groundbreaking. It's not often that we get to announce a new species of Pokémon!"

He nodded. "I was going to going to write that up later today. I have some physical samples I brought back to analyze, I'll include my findings in the report as well."

"Is there anything else noteworthy about the creature you've found, or the problem with the Miltank herd?"

He shook his head. "Nothing notable. What do you think, Andrea?"

"I think you summed it up pretty well," Andrea answered.

"Very well, get started on this as soon as you can. I look forward to reading your report and getting in touch with Ministry officials."

He leaned over towards Andrea and spoke softly. "Mind emailing those pictures to me? I don't think the Ministry will take this seriously without some sort of evidence. Pretty unbelievable circumstances, if you were to ask me."

"Sure thing."

"Send them over to padelaide-reilandinstitute-org, I'll get the report taken care of later today."

As Andrea began to tap away at her phone, Dr. Reiland asked, "How would you rate Ms. Dennison's performance, Patrick?"

"I think she did very well! Nine out of ten, easily." he said. "A bit hesitant to do some of the things that needed to be done, but when she got around to doing it, she did a good job."

"Hesitant?" Andrea and Dr. Reiland asked in unison.

He leaned towards Andrea and spoke softly once again. "Ya know, the whole dead cow business." His attention returned to Dr. Reiland. "I don't blame her, it was pretty grim for her first job. Were I in her shoes, I'd have probably felt the same."

"Understandable," Dr. Reiland offered.

"I also let her do most of the analysis, to see if she was up to the task. She already seems well acquainted with the R-Kit and knows how to use it effectively."

"That was quick," she said.

"And her intuition saved us a lot of time. It didn't take her long to figure out what we were looking at. It just... sorta clicked in her head that maybe we should look at the Blastcap as a potential cause of the problem. She learned a lot during her studies, and I'd wager that a lot of it stuck with her even if she's forgotten the finer details. Something like that could be invaluable."

"So you would say that hiring her was a good decision?"

"It's still early, but... hell yeah. I think we struck gold."

The positive remarks were a load off of Andrea's shoulders. She knew that she did well in Nettlefield, but the haunting specter of doubt lingered above her regardless. A smile crept across her face as Patrick continued to praise her efforts, her knowledge and her work. Breaking away from the tradition of years past, she slowly began to feel confidence in what she was doing.

"If that's all, doctor, I'd like to get started on this analysis."

"That will be all."

He nodded politely as he stood up. "Nice working with you, Andrea. I think you'll do fine here."

"Thank you!" she said.

Before the two of them could even get halfway to the door, Dr. Reiland spoke up. "Ms. Dennison, would you mind staying for a moment? I'd like to speak with you."

Patrick nodded towards Andrea. "I'll catch you later."

Andrea cautiously returned to her seat and began to think about what the doctor might want. Once again, doubt began to flood over her, so she put it all out of mind and masked her thoughts with a warm and patient smile.

Without a word, Dr. Reiland began her struggle with the bottle of medication again. It took a few awkward moments of silence before she offered it across the desk. "Would you be a dear, please?"

Andrea grabbed the bottle, opened it with relative ease, then handed it back to Dr. Reiland.

"Damned arthritis medication. What sense does it make to put it in such an impossible to open bottle?" she said as she poured two round pills onto a small tray. Afterward, she grabbed five other bottles of medicine and placed them at the edge of her desk. "While I have you here, perhaps you could open those as well."

Andrea happily obliged and began to work on the first bottle. Curiosity about the large amount of medicine that Dr. Reiland appeared to use on a daily basis started to get the better of her. The question begged to be asked; what was it for? However, she insisted on being respectful. "I'll assume you didn't ask me to stick around just to open your medication."

"You would be correct," she replied before she swallowed the two pills. "Patrick's review of your work yesterday was... glowing! And I must say, I'm impressed... if what he says is true."

The caveat that Dr. Reiland added at the end worried her greatly. "Excuse me?"

She leaned back in her chair and studied Andrea's reaction. "Don't take this the wrong way, Ms. Dennison... While Patrick is one of my most trusted staff members, he has a nasty habit of embellishing the truth a bit when it comes to our female employees. It's usually harmless, but it can be quite worrying at times."

"I... umm... Everything he said was honest, ma'am."

"I noticed that the second room my secretary rented at the motel in Nettlefield was cancelled. He didn't act inappropriately, did he?"

The question seemed out of left field to her. "What? No! He was a perfect gentleman!"

She readjusted her posture and accepted the opened bottle from Andrea, then handed over another. She could tell that Andrea felt nervous about the questions and decided to ease up, as she seemed genuine enough to be trusted. "I shouldn't worry you with these kinds of questions. They are best asked of him, I apologize... In any event, I had a job lined up for one of my other employees, but his work ethic has been shaky at best. He's a smart one, but he's also lazy and tends to cut corners if he thinks that no one is watching. This might not be something that we can cut corners on."

Andrea placed another opened bottle onto the desk and got to work on yet another. "What do you have in mind?"

"Are you familiar with the village of Doranshire?" she asked.

Andrea tried to think. She knew that it was the closest village to the town where she grew up, but that alone summed up her knowledge about it. "I know of it, but don't ask me any trivia about it."

"It's been in the news recently. Over the past couple of weeks, there have been some strange incidents reported... flickering lights in the woods, odd and 'unexplainable' sounds late at night, that kind of stuff. It's been causing quite a stir with the locals, and the village council is starting to demand answers."

"Bumps in the night?"

"Among other things. I know this isn't your area of expertise, being a biologist and all... but I need someone reliable. Someone who can find answers. From what Patrick has told me about you, you fit that description well."

"You want me to go chase a ghost?"

She downed the pills, then handed another bottle to Andrea. "Heh. It does sound a bit outlandish, doesn't it?" she asked. "But we are women of science. We know there are no such things as ghosts, not in the traditional sense. There is always a logical and physical explanation for everything, a few bumps in the night should be no different."

Andrea objected to the idea. "If I'm honest, doctor, this sounds like a waste of time."

"It may very well be. But it is our duty as scientists to uncover the truth and to help those in need where we can. There may be something more serious at play here than just a few ghost stories."

Andrea thought for a moment about how silly it all sounded, but she realized that she wasn't in a position to argue the matter. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that complaining about the work she was receiving, on her second day no less, would almost certainly be career suicide. She gave in with a sigh, but tried to mask it with a smile. "If you think that this is worth the time, and that I'm the right person for this job, then I'll do it."

"Good to hear! I can understand if you're hesitant to take on this kind of work, but it warms my heart to see you consider it."

"Doranshire's a long way away, though..." Andrea noted.

"It is!" Dr. Reiland began to type away at her keyboard. "It's much too far to walk, so you'll be taking the train! Unfortunately, there isn't a direct line to Doranshire, so there will still be some light footwork for you."

"Where's the nearest station?"

"Aughrim."

"I wouldn't call Aughrim to Doranshire 'light' footwork..." she said. She began to think about what would be involved with reaching the village of Doranshire from Aughrim; a couple of days of travelling the roads, at least, and that would be if nothing happened on the way. "Hold on. Patrick's going to be analyzing the samples we brought back from Nettlefield. You don't expect me to do this alone, do you? Things got pretty ugly on the road, I was lucky that he was there to protect me!"

"There is no need to worry, you won't be doing this one alone. I have an associate who is also interested in the happenings in Doranshire, and he'll be sending one of his contractors to investigate as well." She turned the screen on her computer around to let Andrea see; the photo of a young woman with long, chestnut brown hair and strikingly blue eyes was on the screen. The woman's face was grim and emotionless, almost as if the photo was a police mug shot. "The lady in question is a master Pokémon trainer. There will be no trouble on the road, I assure you. You'll be meeting her in Aughrim."

"What's her name?"

"Tamara Dahl. Are you familiar with her, by chance?"

Andrea shook her head.

"She's a two time champion of the Indigo League, champion of the Asperia League, master of the Silver Conference, and has earned 44 gym badges from across the world."

The woman's achievements were impressive, even to someone as ignorant about Pokémon training as Andrea. "You weren't kidding when you said a master trainer..."

Dr. Reiland let out a bemused chuckle.

"So... what will I be looking for in Doranshire, exactly?"

She downed the last of her pills and gathered up the bottles in a neat and orderly manner. "That's up to you, there could be any number of causes. However, I would suggest getting a closer look at the local reservoir."

"Think something's in the water?"

"It's possible. If the water is contaminated, lives could be at stake and an evacuation would be logical. Of course, it could be something else entirely! Use your brain, you'll figure it out." she said with a smile.

Andrea shook her head as she thought over what was asked of her. "Will that be all?"

"Yes. Stay safe out there!"