Cherry slept silently as she and her mom passed into Iowa. It and their previous state, Illinois were both part of the Plain's League. The sky out side looked ominous as it threatened snow. Rin and Cherry were going to stop soon at a nearby Pokémon Center, when they could find one.
Rin knew Cherry was exhausted, she would be too. Between announcing that Cherry was to go on her own adventure, catching new pokémon, and then fighting a band of thieves, she was surprised her daughter hadn't collapsed sooner.
The light slowly faded as the evening hours dragged in snow. A Pokémon Center was just ahead. Rin decided this one would be as good as any. She pulled over.
"Wake up Cherry," Rin said getting out.
"A few more minutes…" Cherry mumbled.
"I know, but you can get that after we get your pokémon healed," Rin said as she reached in the back to grab a pair of bags. "Come on," Rin said pulling the young girl out of the car.
"I don't want to get up…." Cherry complained half asleep.
"This way," Rin said pulling her daughter in.
"Why did you turn on the AC?" Cherry mumbled.
"Hello, and welcome to the Turnip Town Pokémon center," Nurse Jacey said.
"Hello," Rin said with a smile. "We have a few injured pokémon, and a few that could probably need to be looked over.
"Alright," Nurse Jacey said looking at her computer. "Are any of them poisoned or in any serious condition?" She asked.
"No…" Rin said at first. "Well two may have been burned, but we applied burn heal to one."
"Which one hasn't had the burn heal?" Nurce Jacey asked.
"Cherry, come over here," Rin grabbed Cherry and pulled her to the desk. "Cherry, show her your Skarmory."
"Huh!?" Cherry opened her eyes lightly and looked at Nurse Jacey. "Nurse Jacey?"
"Yes?" She answered back.
"Are we in Tundraville?" Cherry asked.
"Sorry, she's a bit sheltered…" Rin apologized.
"No, that's my second cousin's sister inlaw," Nurse Jacey said.
"They're another large clan," Rin said.
"Oh, well, um…" Cherry had to think a moment to why they were there. "Um… I caught two pokémon, all four of my pokémon have burn hurt, Sandy's been paralyzed Oddish was beat by Sandy, Chikorita got burned by a fire, and Skarmory was burnt and then fell to the ground."
"Oh, um… What is Sandy?" Nurse Jacey asked.
"Oh… um… a Sandshrew," Cherry said as she slumped forward. Nurse Jacey stood behind a desk that Cherry laid her head on.
"Well," Nurse Jacey said. "I can have them ready to go by tomorrow morning, is that alright?"
"I need my pokémon checked to," Rin said handing over five pokéballs.
"Oh! Um… okay," Nurse Jacey said quickly looking through her computer schedual. "Are any of these badly hurt?" Nurse Jace asked.
"No," Rin answered.
"I can have them all ready by ten tomorrow morning, if that's alright with you?"
"That's fine," Rin said as Cherry stood, half asleep. "Cherry, you need to give her, your pokémon!" Rin yelled, tickling Cherry's sides.
"EEH!" Cherry squealed, jumping. "Mom! What are you doing stop it!" Cherry yelled.
Rin stopped and said, "You need to give Nurse Jacey your pokémon.
"You couldn't have just taken them off my belt?" Cherry asked grabbing the four pokéballs.
"Nope, besides you should be awake anyway, instead of standing there asleep," Rin said.
Cherry sighed as Nurse Jacey took their pokémon. "I assume you need a room fot the night?" Nurse Jacey asked.
"That's be great," Rin said handing Nurse Jacey her Gym Leader card.
"Oh, wow," Nurse Jacey said in surprise. "I wasn't expecting a gym leader so soon."
"What do you mean?" Rin asked. "We just finished the leader suite," Nurse Jacey said. "Would you like to stay?"
"Sure," Rin said. "It'll be better than our tents and sleeping bags.
"Yeah, we're far enough north here, where you almost have to stay in during the winter months," Nurse Jacey explained. "Let me get your pokémon going and then I'll show you two to your rooms. Chansey! Blissey! We have a few more for the night.
Rin watched as the two egg pokémon popped out from one of the inner halls and walked over to the counter. Nurse Jacey had placed all the pokéballs on two trays, one for all of Cherry's and one for Rin's. "Alright, lets show you your rooms," Nurse Jacey said walking out from behind the desk.
"Wake up, Cherry," Rin said nudging Cherry and then pulling her along.
"We'll go up to the trainers lodgings first," Nurse Jacey said starting to climb the stair case. Cherry had her eyes closed against the light, and hadn't seen the stairs, so when she had gotten to them she tripped. Nurse Jacey turned back, "I guess we should probably use the elevator."
Nurse Jacey walked them to the elevator. Inside Nurse Jacey hit the forth floor. "Wow, we're going to be up there…" Rin said looking at the floor numbers, "Or at least compared to Tundraville's homes and Pokémon Center."
"This center has been remodeled for more trainers and traveling gym leaders," Nurse Jacey explained.
"You have lots of gym leaders coming through?" Rin asked.
"Not really too many, but there have been in recent years, so we just took one of the bed rooms and remodeled for gym leaders, to give them a little more room and privacy," Nurse Jacey explained. "With this Gum leader gathering, I've had three pass through just this week."
"Oh," Rin said getting ideas to find out who was going to be in the tournament. "What leaders were they?"
"I'm sorry, I can't give you that information," Nurse Jacey said, knowing what game Rin was playing at.
"Darn…" Rin said, "What about their pokémon types?" She tried again.
"Also, I can't give you," Nurse Jacey said.
The elevator dinged to a halt at the third floor. "This way please," Nurse Jacey said leading the two out. Happiny's ran around the floor cleaning with rags attached to their feet. Nurse Jacey stopped at a door and turned to the other two girls. "This will be where your daughter will be sleeping," Nurse Jacey said, "Please insert your trainers card."
"Uh… Trainers card?" Rin asked.
"Yes, please," She smiled at them.
"Uh… Cherry is exactly entered into any league yet," Rin said with a light laugh.
"If she has a breeding card or some other Pokémon registration ID on her, that would work too," Nurse Jacey explained.
"Heh, heh, he…." Rin laughed sadly. "She doesn't…"
"What's the matter, mom?" Cherry asked suddenly.
"Your awake?" Rin said in surprise.
"A bit…" Cherry said sleepily. "What's wrong?" She rubbed her eyes.
"Nurse Jacey here, need some form of Pokémon registration," Rin said.
"Oh… I don't have any…" Cherry said. "Is there somewhere I can sleep?"
Nurse Jacey sighed before speaking, "You just lucky I don't always follow the rules, Miss Laundry. If its alright with you, Mrs. Laundry would you allow your daughter to sleep in same room with you?"
"Of course," Rin said wondering about the odd question. "Why did you even ask that?"
"Well, some trainers and their parents stay separate, while others go back and forth, so by regulations I must ask," Nurse Jacey explained.
"Ah… I seem to remember our Nurse Jacey complaining about those too," Rin said. "Some trainers actually called our Jacey crazy."
"Most of my family gets that," Nurse Jacey said. "With current laws, we sometimes have to actually ask if we should give life saving surgery," Nurse Jacey sighed.
"Well, I guess, where's our room now?" Rin asked. Cherry had fallen asleep on her shoulder.
"Right this way," Nurse Jacey said putting on a smile again. Nurse Jacey stopped at the a more lavish door than compared to the rest in the hall. "This is the Gym leader room. Just slip your Gym Leader card through this slot," Nurse Jacey indicated a little card reader next to the door.
"Okay," Rin said pulling out her card. She inserted it and a little red light indicator flashed green with a loud click. The door was slightly pushed open, when it unlocked. "Thank you Nurse Jacey."
"No problem, you both have a good night yourselves," Nurse Jacey said giving her good nights. "I'll be downstairs till ten, if you need anything from that point on Chansey and Blissey will help you out."
"I don't think you'll be hearing a peep out of us," Rin said. Nurse jacey laughed and said good night.
Rin shut the door and turned to their room. The room was large and had two beds in it. One was already occupied by Cherry. Rin sighed; the young girl was quick for sleep, now. The room had a large domed roof that looked out at the night sky; snow was starting to cover it. Just like the beds, there were two book shelves, two couches and two computers with phone line hook ups.
Rin placed the bags at the end of her bed, and walked over to the computers. She put started to dial out to her home. After a few seconds her husband picked up. "Hello? Oh! Hi, Dear," Mr. Laundry answered.
"Hi, honey," Rin said with a smile. "How are you two doing?" She asked quickly.
"Just fine, I just put Cadan to bed. How are you two doing?" Mr. Laundry asked.
"Between me explaining to her what was going to happen and then a little run-in we had with team rocket; she's out cold," Rin said turning to look at Cherry. "I'm a bit worried though, you sure we should do this?" Rin asked. "I mean, she hasn't prepared or anything."
"Don't worry, Rin, I got that all covered," Mr. Laundry said. "Did you tell her about me?"
"She was amazed, even more so, when I told her how you funded half of Professor Terrace's research," Rin said.
"When are you two going to see him?" Mr. Laundry asked.
"We should be at his lab by afternoon tomorrow," Rin said trying to do that math. "I think."
"With the way you drive, I'd say more like midday if you get an early start," Mr. Laundry said laughing.
"Oh, hush," Rin laughed also. "But, we wont be getting too much of a head start," she said, turning serious.
"Why's that?"
"Cherry caught two new pokémon…"
"Wow, all in two days?" Mr. Laundry asked.
"Yes, but…"
"Which ones?" he asked interrupting.
"Uh… an Oddish and a Skarmory, but THAT's besides the point," Rin said making sure her husband could cut her off. "So, all we had that could actually fight team Rocket was Cherry's Skarmory. Well the skarmory caught up to the balloon and started shedding it. I forgot to mention, they were using a fire pokémon to propel themselves, but anyway, they turned that fire pokémon on Skarmory, and well it wasn't a pleasant fall for little Skarmory."
"Hm… I see," he said. "Did Skarmory have a bent beak or wing?"
"I don't know, I haven't had a chance to look at it," Rin explained. "Cherry was a little more protective of the little thing after its fall. Whenever she wasn't sleeping she had a hold of its pokéball."
"I assume you got all the pokémon back from team Rocket?" he asked. "Yes, we left as soon as we got ours."
"It was apparently quick," he said. "There was a news story on it this evening, the police mentioned you both, not by name, but they remembered your gym."
"Heh, heh," Rin laughed. "You wont believe how we caught them," Rin said smiling.
"Do tell," Mr. Laundry said.
"Well, we down to one pokémon. You remember that Swinub I've been training?" Rin asked.
"Yes, don't tell you caught them with that," he said.
"We did, with a little help of a Lucario too," Rin said.
"Darn, you," Mr. Laundry said. "Whenever I'm not with you, you see all the good pokémon."
"What can I say?" Rin laughed. "I guess its just my cool personality." Both laughed at the comment.
"Now, on with your story," Mr. Laundry said.
"Yes, well Officer Elburg was down a crew of Growliths and Arcanines. She asked if I had any, and I said 'all I have is my swinub,' and she got all excited and wanted to use it. So I let her, and sure enough that little thing knew right where to go. Elburg said it was the funniest thing watching the little swinub mow over the thieves. That's where lucario came in. One of the thieves started to run, and Elburg sent her Mightyena after it. With in a few seconds, both were out of sight, we chased after of course as the police rounded up the first thief. At some point or other the lucario showed up and tripped the man, and the Mightyena was able to take him down."
"Wait, you said they were out of sight, so how did you see the lucario," Mr. Laundry asked.
"Well I slowed as I caught up to the man and when I looked to the side, me was disappearing into the forest," Rin explained. "Officer Elburg said there had been several sightings before the thieves came in, but apparently Cherry was the first to actually come into contact with it."
"What!?" Mr. Laundry asked shocked and disappointed.
"Yes, that's right, but I'll let cherry tell you tomorrow when she wakes," Rin said with a smile.
"You tease me so much…" He sighed.
"So how are things on your end?" Rin asked.
"Mostly the same, quieter and less frigid," Mr. Laundry, joked.
"'You tease me so'" Rin mocked, and then both laughed again.
"But anyway, I better let you go, your probably wanting some sleep also," he said.
"What do you mean?" Rin asked. "I called you, and I'm not letting you go," Rin teased more.
"I…"
"Hold on," There was a knock at the door. "I guess I got to let you go, night love," Rin said hanging up.
Rin walked over to the door and opened. Nurse Jacey stood out side with Blissey. "Um… what's the mater?" Rin asked stepping mostly out of the room.
"We've had a development with the Skarmory," Nurse Jacey said. "I'll need you and your daughter to come right away."