Since the note I left in chapter one doesn't seem to be showing up, this second chapter has already been done for a little while, and I was going to wait until next week to put it up, but what the hell, I'm bored this morning. This is just to let you know that chapter three isn't going to be up nearly as fast. Thanks for reading through that.

It was a little past eight AM, and Tavis had been up for an hour and a half. Having spent a good portion of the night turning everything over in his head, and still finding himself quite uncomfortable with the plans concerning Arree, he made a small amendment to the idea. To pull it off, he had gotten up a little earlier that morning and gone out to the local Pokémart.

He sat on the bed now, still somewhat bleary and absent-mindedly tossing his newest purchase between both hands, while he watched his farfetch'd peck at his breakfast in the corner; The bird had no idea what was about to happen to him.

This was ridiculous, Tavis thought. What should have taken shotgun in his mind was the fact that he would be starting his pokémon journey in mere hours, not that his pokémon was about to be caught by some stranger he was supposed to travel with for three weeks, which Tavis still wasn't convinced was really happening anyway. Maybe not, he hoped desperately. According to his memory, Karick was supposed to have shown up about ten minutes ago, and there was still no sign of him.

Then someone knocked at the door, recognizably in Karick's method of abrupt pounding, and Tavis snorted as he got up and let him in.

"Morning!" Karick exclaimed, with the kind of wide smile that was expressly forbidden to wear before nine AM or so.

Oh, god, you're a morning person too? Tavis wanted to say, but to avoid the risk of pushing his luck too far, didn't. Instead he gave him a civil greeting and got straight to the point. "Hi, Karick. Hey, do you have your Pokédex on you?"

"Yeah, why?"

Tavis shut the door before presenting a minimized Pokéball that was mostly emerald in coloring, but with two diagonally crossed white bands on the top half, one appearing to overlap the other. "Can you use this one on Arree?"

Karick stared at it for a second. "A Pro-Tem Ball?" he asked, a trace of disbelief in his voice.

The Pro-Tem Ball was a variation of the Pokéball used for capturing an already seriously injured pokémon. They were strictly for transportation to a Pokémon Center -- capturing a pokémon unable to defend itself, with intent to keep it, was illegal -- and after the contained pokémon was released the first time, the ball no longer functioned. While the pokémon was in the ball, it was still registered to the trainer who caught it. And this ball, like all others, had to be registered to a trainer before becoming usable; This could be done with a Pokédex.

Karick sighed. "If you stop flipping out about this, yes." He snatched the ball from Tavis, then pulled a flat electronic device from his pocket and flipped it open. His Pokédex was a metallic orange color and appeared fairly new. He hit a few buttons, the process more than familiar to him by now, and held the Ball in front of the scanner on top of the 'Dex for no more than a second.

"Done," he said, pocketing his Pokédex again, and turned to Arree, who didn't stop eating but kept a wary eye on Karick. "Now, I hope you know," he continued, "that I wasn't about to waste a lot of Pokéballs on this." With his free hand, he reached down to the right side of his belt, on which an almost full set of five occupied Balls were clipped. He selected the second one from the right. "So I brought a friend with me."

Tavis jumped at this, not having considered that far ahead. "What are you going to do? That's not your plemort, is it?" He wanted to protest, but realized that Karick was right; There was no way to make Arree stay inside a Pokéball on his own accord.

"Don't worry, it's not." Karick smirked before nonchalantly letting the Ball fall from his hand. Tavis began to wonder if this was primarily an attempt to show off more of his team members, before his thoughts scattered -- the Ball exploded upon hitting the carpet, creating the familiar shower of light and a sound that had always been a little too loud for Tavis's taste.

Arree batted his wings once and took a step back; The last time this had happened, he had narrowly escaped death by the fangs of a plemort.

But something else emerged from the Pokéball this time, standing on two legs, reaching about four feet in height. Its lower body was green, while its upper half and long tail were a tan color. The claws on its hands and feet were a threatening blood red, but while it appeared to lack arms, they were in fact tucked under the frilled collar on its neck. Its grass-typing was made obvious by the large, mushroom-like growth that covered its head like an umbrella, and the toxic seed clusters that ended its tail.

In contrast to Plemort, the breloom appeared to be in high spirits upon being released; He bounced in place a bit as he scanned the area, trying to determine if he had been sent out for a battle. Once he spotted the farfetch'd, he took a battle stance with his claws raised and awaited confirmation from his trainer.

"Easy there, killer," Karick told him. Breloom relaxed, getting the idea from his tone rather than the literal meaning of the words. Tavis thought he heard him whine a little, this creature seemed unsettlingly eager to attack the meek little bird backed into a corner.

"You may wanna get out of the way," Karick said to Tavis while taking a step back himself. This was a bad choice of words.

"What the heck are you doing?" Tavis started to argue, still without budging.

Karick sighed and pulled the younger boy back by the sleeve. "Breloom," he continued in a calm voice, so as not to get the mushroom Pokémon riled up again, "use spore."

Breloom had, in the few moments since his trainer last addressed him, leaned down so that his face was at Arree's level. He may even have been about to introduce himself -- but a battle, it seemed, was more appealing, and he squealed gleefully before swinging his powerful tail around, aimed straight at Arree.

The duck squawked and flinched in anticipation of a full-force bludgeoning. It never came; All he felt was the great creature's tail slam into the ground inches before him. For a second after he willed himself to open his eyes, he thought that the breloom had missed its target.

Other than why does my beak feel so heavy, that was his last conscious thought.

Karick waited a moment for the cloud of little gold-colored puffs to disperse before stepping into the area, keeping his nose covered for good measure, and dropping the Pro-Tem Ball onto the collapsed farfetch'd. Tavis watched in horror, not just from the previous ten seconds but mostly from seeing his only pokémon transmuted into red energy and being sucked into an orb no bigger than a baseball. The Pokéball landed next to Karick's foot and sat motionless.

Then it jerked to the side, showing the button on the front of the Ball that still glowed gently, meaning that the process wasn't complete just yet and that Arree could still break out. Even if a pokémon was unconscious, Tavis recalled from school, it could still fight against being contained in a Ball, struggling unconsciously as if it were in a nightmare. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but Tavis also reminded himself that after the capture was made final, the pokémon's mind would go into a sort of dream-like state for as long as it was within the Ball.

Arree submitted to this quickly; The Ball locked itself shut with an audible ping! while the light on the button faded. Breloom was the one to pick it up and excitedly hand what he believed to contain a new team member to Karick; Evidently this hadn't been the first time he had assisted in a Pokémon capture, and with a sleep-inducing technique like that, it wasn't surprising.

"Good job, buddy," Karick congratulated Breloom, patting him on the shoulder before turning to Tavis and handing the minimized Pro-Tem Ball back to him. Tavis looked down at it and an odd feeling came over him. It was just as light as it had been before, and the only heat on it had come from his own hand in the first place. But it had changed somehow; He could really feel the energy of a living being inside of it. In a way, it felt like he was holding onto Arree's egg again.

It occurred to him then that, since Karick almost certainly had a full team by now, the Ball in his palm should have been transported to PC storage upon Arree's capture. Unless, of course, Karick had deposited one of his own pokémon beforehand. Had he actually put that much planning into this? Either way, Tavis supposed he should thank Karick for his help.

"What is it?" He heard Karick ask. Tavis wondered what he meant before he looked up and saw that he wasn't the one being addressed.

Breloom was looking up to his trainer without the enthusiasm he had displayed before. He stood still now with his tail drooping slightly, and briefly pled his case. "Luluum. Brel!" At this, he backed up and threw a few impressively quick punches into the air.

"Oh, I get it. You haven't had a good battle in a while, huh?" he asked, sympathizing with Breloom. "I'm gonna find us a strong trainer soon. You wanna wipe the floor with a dragonite?" Karick, now kneeling down to Breloom's level, held up his fists to execute his point. His Pokémon did the same in response, starting to hop in place again.

"I'll have you spar with someone in a bit, but I need you to hang tight for now, alright? Return."

Although Breloom lacked a full understanding of the human's language, he still picked up on the meaning of words that the human used often, and before returning to his Pokéball, nodded and lightly punched his trainer's fist.

Karick stood up and turned around to face Tavis.

"Easy enough. Now let's get outside before we pass out from the spore powder."

i-i-i-i-i

Jicordio, located in the south of Ayun's mainland, was a fairly densely populated city. Other than a stopping point between two other towns, it didn't hold much interest from a trainer's point of view. It was only at this time of the year, when starter Pokémon were given out, that the city saw much activity from them.

This yearly influx of visitors wasn't as beneficial to the economy as one might have expected, as these short-term tourists generally lacked money to waste on souvenirs, and a place to store those kinds of things. To top that off, they were children. Tavis supposed that was the reason he had received scornful looks from several locals that morning, between the Pokémon Center and the highschool gymnasium in which the starter giveaway was set up.

There were three stations placed in the building, the interior of which gave Tavis unpleasant flashbacks to his old school. He had arrived shortly after nine, and was presently thankful that he had; Not long after he had taken his place in line the place suddenly became packed and noisy, made even worse between the high ceiling and tile floors.

A few other kids, fortunate enough to be open to the idea of traveling buddies stood alongside their designated partners in line (perhaps they had already known each other?). Quite a few others apparently found a required escort rather humiliating, as was the case with Tavis, who had agreed with Karick that he could sit this out. He had only needed to be present for Tavis to be given his Trainer's Card and the Smart Card used for keeping his own information in his Pokédex.

Karick was presently in a set of bleachers on the far side of the room, chatting with another boy who might've been thirteen or so. Tavis looked his way frequently, and would every so often catch the two erupting into laughter. He found himself worrying about the subject of their conversation, as he could well imagine Karick telling all about what a pain he had been over the Farfetch'd that was now illegally concealed in his pocket.

It took about fifteen minutes for the line in front of him to disappear, during which time he had witnessed some embarrassing displays from trainers celebrating their newly obtained pokémon. The idiot who had been in front of him tossed his new Pokéball through a basketball hoop as he left, and probably against his plan to catch it by hand, the ball hit the floor and released a squirtle. After he hastily recalled it, the boy was then ushered out roughly by security personnel, as it had been made quite clear that pokémon were not to be released within the building to prevent any badly placed battles.

But finally, it was his turn. Tavis assessed the machine before him, a large computer that resembled an ATM, but the display on the monitor led him to believe that this model was several years old. The white text against the flat, blue background on the screen read "Transfer complete. Thank you," initially, then reverted to the first step of instructions.

"Please insert your Trainer's Card into the slot below." A giant arrow on the bottom right of the screen pointed downward at said slot, flashing in a way that suggested people who had used this machine previously had trouble locating it. Tavis took his card out of his pocket, fed it into the machine and waited for a moment until the monitor showed his information: name, age, ID number, home address, and in larger letters beneath that, "No registered pokémon. To receive torchic. Is this information correct? Y/N"

Below the monitor in the center were two grey buttons, one reading No and the other Yes, the latter surrounded by a bright pink sticker that reiterated the button's answer in bold, capital letters. Did people really have that much trouble finding those things? That was probably why it had taken so long to reach the front of the line. Nonetheless, he pressed it.

"Please wait..."

The computer spat out his card, which he pocketed again as a mass of machinery to the left hummed lightly. Then, a white Pokéball with a red rim around the middle popped out of a tube and clattered unceremoniously into a metal tray. The screen before him again read, "Transfer complete. Thank you."

Well that couldn't have been any less exciting. It seemed odd to just pick up the Ball and go on his way. Tavis exited the line with it before the next person could shove him away; This didn't really allow much time for him to let it sink in. He started weaving through the crowd of stragglers, heading in Karick's direction so that they could get out of there. Then he suddenly felt it, what had made the other kids he had seen hollering in excitement once they had been given their own pokémon. In his hand was the first of many pokémon he'd train; The key to a new, different and very welcome life. He had his starter.

Then he was stopped.

"Hey, which pokémon did you get?" A girl with long brown hair, probably a rookie trainer like Tavis was, stepped in front of him. By the time he raised his head to meet her, she was no longer looking back at him, but her green eyes were set on the hand in which he clutched the Pokéball.

"Torchic," he answered. He thought about returning the question, only out of politeness. Then he caught himself, trying to make sense of the sad, pathetic little expression he was met with when she looked at him again.

The girl wasted no time in getting to her point. "Oh, wow, I've always wanted a torchic!" She turned her head then, facing the ground. "But, I was so busy when we had to register for them, by the time I got to, all the torchic were taken..." she trailed off weakly, and stood in silence briefly before glancing back up to Tavis.

What did she want him to say? "Um, I'm sorry," was all he could come up with. Hopefully, he thought, that was all she would be looking for.

It wasn't. She dramatically clasped both hands together against her chest, as she leaned forward with her eyes wide. "Won't you pleeease trade with me?"

Tavis had worried that the conversation would end up here, but didn't actually believe it would happen. It took him several seconds to be able to use his voice again, but all he could do was stutter. "Well, uh, I--"

Say NO, he thought. Tell her no, she can probably find someone else who will do it. It would be a challenge to make that happen, however; He expected the girl in front of him to start crying at any second. What if she couldn't find someone else?

And why did he deserve a torchic more than she did? It was only recently that he had decided that was the one he wanted, and she seemed to have had her heart set on one for a long time. He just happened to get there first.

"Alright," he sighed before he knew what he was doing. His chest stung when he realized that he had really just agreed to cooperate.

His ears stung immediately after that; The girl squealed in much the same way as another one he had watched receive her treecko earlier, then she leapt up and wrapped her arms around him tightly, making him tense up.

"Thankyou thankyou thankyou!" she cried before releasing Tavis and allowing him to breathe again. "There's a trading machine over there, wanna do it now?" She was holding onto his shirt sleeve now, lightly tugging him in the direction of the double PC in the opposite corner of the gymnasium, which told him yes, they were gonna do it now. He followed her lead through the crowd, desperately waving at Karick as he passed the bleachers, but the teen was still heavily engaged in chatter. There went hope for a way out.

The two approached the trading PC, which had been set up in this room for situations like this one. Well, not entirely like this one, Tavis thought. Usually both trainers involved wanted to take part. He had learned how trading worked in school, but that had been a while ago, and he was somewhat rusty on the process now. He only stood and watched as the girl navigated through a few menus on a touch-screen, and slid her Trainer's Card through the front of the computer tower. She covered the keypad with one hand while typing in a password with the other. From a new window that popped up, she selected the trade icon. Tavis copied what the girl had just done.

It then occurred to him that he had no idea what Pokémon he was about to get -- he wasn't even sure it was one of the starters, this girl could very well have been conning him in exchange for a rattata or something.

"Hullooo? Put your Pokéball in the machine."

He almost asked what she was trading over before he glanced at her monitor and saw that pokémon's data. It was, in fact, a regular starter -- one that he had wanted when he was little, actually -- and scolded himself for having been so suspicious. He looked his Pokéball over one last time before hesitantly placing it into a round indent on his side of the machine. This activated a sensor, whether it was weight or motion Tavis couldn't remember, but a tube situated above it quickly sucked up the sphere.

In a few seconds, Torchic's data appeared on the screen in front of him, then next to it, the data of the other Pokémon. Torchic looked so much better, he thought, before shoving that out of his head. He was in too far now, there was no point in making it harder. Beneath the two windows on the screen he now saw a confirmation prompt, and pressed "accept."

His chest stung again, and his stomach tightened. He had done it without even thinking. Acting like that never brought good results.

Tavis could hear the inner mechanics start up, and in a short time, his monitor displayed silhouetted images of both Pokémon moving across the screen, passing each other in the center. After both had reached the other side, the Pokéballs tumbled out of the tube and into the metal trays. Or his did, at least; The girl had caught hers in her hand before it landed, and almost immediately turned around.

She looked to Tavis one last time as he picked up his Ball. "Bye, and thanks again," she said before jogging toward the doors, just short of a run. She must've really been eager to meet her torchic, Tavis thought, not without a touch of bitterness. He looked at the Pokéball again. This was wrong, but it was done. He made his way toward the bleachers to find Karick again, only to meet him halfway.

"Hey, you're done?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Let's go."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

i-i-i-i-i

Upon reaching his room in the Pokémon Center, Tavis locked the door and collapsed onto his bed. To be alone again was bliss. Just being inside that gymnasium with the hundreds of other kids seemed to have drained him, but he couldn't relax once he had left; Karick had started by suggesting that he let his starter out of the Ball like all the other kids were doing just outside the building, but Tavis explained that he'd rather do that at the Pokémon Center, where there weren't so many distractions.

He hadn't said much else during the walk back, except in response to Karick's repeated questioning about what was bugging him, he should be happy, first pokémon, blah blah blah. Eventually Tavis told Karick that he was just tired. He never knew why it was, but that line always worked when he wanted someone off his back.

During that time, however, he had begun to convince himself that he hadn't exactly done anything bad. He pinpointed the intense guilt on feeling like he had betrayed Torchic, after such a long time of telling himself that trading wasn't right and he'd never do it. But that wasn't exactly the case. He and the torchic had never actually met one another, and that girl -- he never caught her name, did he? -- probably hadn't even sent her starter out.

No, his starter, he reminded himself. He pulled himself up and reached into his pocket, taking out both Pokéballs, and set the Pro-Tem on the nightstand. As much as he would have liked to have Arree out again, he was sticking to his original plan, to get acquainted with his new pokémon without disturbance. He took a seat on the floor with his legs crossed, briefly studied the Premier Ball as he maximized it, and dropped it onto the floor, releasing the pokémon.

At first, the only thing he saw odd about it was the way it was sitting, curled up slightly and facing the floor, but watching Tavis out of the corner of its eye. He also realized then that it looked smaller than he thought it should have; Yes, he was sure of it, the others he had seen with their trainers outside the gym were bigger than this one. And it might have been the lighting in the room, but this one's scales seemed a little dark, an indication that it was unhealthy or just unhappy.

But it probably wasn't related to its health, Tavis noted. The flame on the tip of its tail was burning brightly, a sign of high energy for a charmander.

It was scared. Why? The other starters he had seen all had an air of confidence about them. To Tavis's understanding, the pokémon that were given out all had some level of training in obedience, to make it easier for new trainers to handle them. Maybe it was just nervous.

"Hi, Charmander," Tavis spoke softly to it, seeing if that wouldn't calm it down. "I'm Tavis. I'm your friend. See?" He lifted his hand from his lap and brought it slowly to the charmander. It was no less than a foot away before the lizard's eyes widened and it backed up, poised stiffly on all fours and starting to make a low growling sound.

"It's okay," he said, trying his best to sound reassuring. Although he was aware that that wasn't one of his strong points, he was still taken by surprise when the charmander whirled around and darted clumsily underneath the bed. Tavis ducked under it, finding that it was easy to spot; Its tailflame lit up its face, gleaming in its frightened blue eyes.

He almost reached out again, then admitted that it would be useless. Something was very wrong about this. He sat up and thought about it for a moment, then picked the Pokéball up again and aimed it at the charmander. "Return," he said. A red beam of light shot out of the button, and upon contact with the pokémon, it was sucked back into the ball. He leaned against the bed and looked at it again, suddenly getting the feeling that the girl from before hadn't really wanted a torchic so badly.

i-i-i-i-i

Arree remained in the Pro-Tem Ball still. Tavis had decided not to take him out just yet, as his sudden appearance in Tavis's pokémon registry could complicate things, and while he worried that he had somehow been left in there for too long, he continually reminded himself that Arree was just fine. He kept the Ball in his pocket though, as he left his room. He was again in the hallways of the Pokémon Center, now becoming quite used to the place's setup. It was a shame that he wouldn't be around here too much longer. Probably.

"Tavis!" he heard someone call from behind, knowing full well who it was before he turned around. Karick approached him quickly. "I was looking for you. Think you're gonna be ready to leave soon? I figure we can still get to Saniranes by dark."

"Oh, right. Um, I don't know when I'll be ready. I have kind of a problem..." Tavis held up the Pokéball.

"Really? What's up?"

He shrugged. "Don't know, actually. My charmander's acting weird, I was gonna go ask one of the nurses here about it."

"Charmander? Didn't you say you were getting a torchic?"

He had told Karick that, he remembered sorely, on the way to the starter giveaway. "I traded it," he said before he could shut himself up. The whole story was embarrassing, but with any luck, Karick wouldn't push it further.

"Why'd you trade it? I thought you were going to be a bird trainer or something."

He had told Karick that, too. Maybe it would be a better idea to avoid talking about himself in the future, Tavis thought, grinding his teeth. "Charizard flies. Now I--"

"And you made it pretty clear that it was birds and not flying-types..."

"Just never mind!" Tavis barked. "You're giving me a headache. I'm going to go see what's wrong with him, I'll get back to you in like fifteen minutes." He didn't get more than a few steps past Karick before being stopped by him again.

"Bet I can save you the trip."

Grudgingly, Tavis turned back to Karick. Something in the older trainer's voice said there wasn't going to be an ounce of sincerity in what he was about to say. And something in the grin he was trying to fight agreed. "What," he growled, eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

"It's easy. You're cursed and its spreading to your Pokémon." Tavis only met that with a stare, which Karick stupidly took as a cue to continue. "I mean, they say that Pokémon grow to reflect their trainers. Arree's a good example, don'tcha think?" he chuckled.

Tavis didn't even try to come up with a retort for that. All he could get out after a few seconds was, "you son of a..." Then he turned on his heel, leaving the rest of that thought up to Karick's imagination. After speaking with someone about the charmander, , he was going to make a complaint about Karick. He couldn't put up with this for three weeks, he just couldn't.

"Whoa, whoa." Karick circled around and cut him off before he got too much distance. Tavis didn't even look at him while he tried to pass, but Karick sidestepped and again blocked his path. "Sorry, alright? Shouldn't have gone that far," he surrendered. Tavis nearly told him to buzz off, but Karick was faster. "Look, I guess I'm just excited about this, you know? I'm sorry."

Tavis thought about it for a second, then sighed. Okay, so he had overreacted a little. "Nevermind it. How about I meet you at your room when I know what's going on?"

"Deal. I have some stuff to repack anyway. Seeya then," Karick waved, and the two went on their own ways.

Until Tavis remembered that they'd probably want his identification and stopped short. He patted his right side pocket, retrieved his silver-colored Pokédex and stuck his hand inside, then turned back and followed Karick's path. "Shoot. I think I left my Trainer's Card in my room."

Karick kept walking and called over his shoulder, "they can get your ID from your Pokédex."

"I know, but I didn't really look into how to use the Smart Card thing."

"Easy," Karick said as he came to a halt. "You got it on you?"

"I don't think... oh, wait." Tavis had put the fragile card into a smaller pocket for protection. That hadn't been his best idea, evidently, as he had forgotten about it until then.

Karick took the Pokédex and flipped it around, looking at the back. "Ah, the good ol' brick model. I remember these. From four years ago." There was a panel on the bottom half that Tavis might not have found on his own, which Karick opened. "You know the new ones have a voice recorder? Card goes here."

Tavis dropped the memory card in Karick's extended hand and watched him snap it into place, replace the back panel, and open it up to inspect the screen. "And you are all set," he said -- while still holding the device in front of his own face and pressing buttons. Tavis let him do this for a few moments before realizing with a start what Karick was probably waiting for.

"Thank you," he said, slightly embarrassed.

"No problem."

Karick tapped another button and continued reading what was on the screen.

"... Can I have it back?" Tavis requested sheepishly.

"No, I'm not done rooting through your personal info yet. Hey, this says you're eleven," he read, raising the Pokédex a foot to dodge Tavis's hand. "I thought you were ten."

"Well I'm not, so give it back," Tavis reached for it and missed once more when Karick turned around.

"Don't flip out, there's not even anything interesting in here. Ooh, you're 4'11, just wait 'til your mom... Calandra finds out." Karick beamed at the opportunity to further torture Tavis, who now conceded defeat and stood scowling with his arms at his sides. "And you only have Charmander registered. Does that mean Arree's still..." He suddenly went quiet and fixed his eyes on the Pokédex for a few seconds. "Dude, how'd you get your hands on a female charmander?"

"I-- what?"

"It says here your charmander's a girl. Is that why you traded?"

Tavis made another grab at his Pokédex, and was surprised when Karick didn't resist. In his charmander's information page, right next to the species name, was the symbol for a female.

"I didn't even know," he stated in disbelief.

Unless it was an error of some sort, this was an extremely unlikely find; It was common knowledge that, because of the naturally low ratio of female starters to males, only males were given out publicly. While obtaining a female privately was possible, they didn't come cheap.

But, if that was the case for the girl who had Charmander before, why would she so readily give her up, just because of the odd behavior?

"I dunno," he answered himself aloud, shaking his head. "I'm just going to find someone to talk to. I should be back soon."

With that, he headed toward the elevators while Karick made his way back to his room. The metal doors came into sight once he rounded the corner. The Pokémon Center's medical care unit was mostly situated on the first and second floors; It had a separate lobby on the first floor which Tavis had not yet ventured into, but figured that it couldn't be that difficult to find a nurse. He wondered if it would take much longer than he expected.

But this recent development made him question as well, what if they found that Tavis shouldn't have gotten a female starter? What if they thought that he had stolen her or something? Or that the way she was acting was caused by mistreatment on his part?

He sighed, studying the elevator before him for a good while.

i-i-i-i-i

So much for the rain they predicted today, Tavis thought, looking into the clear blue sky overhead. There was barely a cloud above the city and the sun shone brightly, and although it had gotten significantly hotter as the morning progressed, the breeze flowed and the air was drier than it was in Zephyr. It was still a welcome change from the kind of muggy late-spring days he had grown used to.

Saniranes, in the east, was their next stop, an eight-to-ten-hour trip according to Karick. They were no more than thirty minutes into that, still walking along the right side of the highway, but now passing very few buildings and a natural horizon could be seen on either side. It was only a matter of time before Karick would ask how the visit to the medical center went, and in fact Tavis was surprised that it hadn't happened already.

"So," Karick finally started, to break the silence between them, "what is going on with your charmander?"

Even through coming to the conclusion that Karick could read minds, Tavis was at least thankful that the question had been worded that way. He'd just have to pick his own words carefully.

"She'll be fine, I'll just have to be patient with her. I'll take her out and have Arree meet her, once we get away from the road," he said as a car zoomed by to punctuate his sentence.

He'd transfer Arree to one of his own Pokéballs then, too. That wouldn't be too hard, if he was still sleeping once he was sent out. Arree was still officially registered to Karick, Tavis realized again.

"Hey, Karick? I don't think I thanked you this morning, for helping out with Arree. So, uh... thanks," he shrugged.

Karick snapped his fingers. "That reminds me, we need to discuss payment. You owe me twenty bucks."

Tavis came to a stop again, then sped up to meet Karick's pace again. "You're not serious, are you?"

"Nah," Karick shook his head. "I charge interest by the minute. You're gonna be payin' this off for a long time." Tavis snorted again.

The road soon curved to the left, and a wooden sign pointing straight east broke off their path.