"Forgive me if this is off base, since we just met and all," said Elara as she and Arden made their way toward the lab. "But are you always so sullen, or has something got you down?"

"I'm fine," mumbled Arden.

Elara frowned and glanced at Gimpy. "He tellin' the truth about that?"

"Blastoise," Gimpy said.

"Oh yeah? Go on…"

"Blas blast oise blastoise oise toise—"

"Hey, what are you telling her?" said Arden, glaring at his pokemon. "Shut up."

"—Toise blast bla."

"I see," Elara said. "That's too bad…"

"What? What's he telling you?" said Arden, looking back and forth between them. He smacked the blastoise's nose. "I told you to stop telling her things!"

"Aw, poor thing," said Elara, touching the pokemon's nose gingerly. She looked to Arden. "And you too. I'm sorry that you were attacked by Team Rocket members."

Arden shrugged. "I came out of it alright," he said, looking away. "I'm alright."

"You don't sound like you're alright…"

The boy turned his eyes to the floor. "I am alright," he said. "I'm just pissed off is all. I mean… This Rocket, Dixie, he seemed so nice. I thought we were friends and then… that. I'm angry."

"You don't sound angry," Elara said. "You sound sad."

"Hey—who died and made you psychotherapist, huh? Just 'cause you're in a lab coat doesn't mean you know everything, alright," said Arden, scowling.

Elara laughed softly. "Alright. I'm sorry—I overstepped my bounds," she said. "Forgive me?"

"Yeah, sure…"

She crossed her arms behind her back. "I'm sorry that happened to you," she said.

"I told you, I'm fine," he said. "…You're not going to tell Gaius about any of this, right?"

The young woman smiled sweetly. "I don't even know where Gaius is—how could I tell him?" she said. "But, it seems like something you should tell him. After all, the way your blastoise tells it, you only just got away from there before."

"If I tell Gaius, he's going to come swooping in here like I need help," said Arden grinding his teeth together. "I hate it when he does that. He's been doing that to me my whole life and I hate it. Whatever comes my way, I can handle it. I don't need to be protected. I'm not a little kid, and I don't need to be protected by my big brother."

"He only does it because he loves you," Elara said.

"I know, but it's not like that makes it any better," Arden spat. "I don't want to be someone that has to be saved all the time. I can handle it if it happens again. I was just caught off guard before, because of Dixie. Besides…"

"Besides…?"

"No, nothing," said Arden. "Forget I said anything…"

"There is something else, though, right?" asked Elara. "Or else you wouldn't have said 'besides'."

"Sure I would have. People say extra words all the time. It doesn't mean anything."

"I think it does," Elara said. "I guess it's fine if you don't want to tell me…"

"What do you mean 'I guess'? Of course it's fine! We just met! I don't have to tell you anything, just because you knew my brother or whatever," Arden said. "Why are you so nosey, anyway?"

"The soap opera I used to watch got cancelled," Elara told him. "So now I do this for amusement. Anyway, I think the 'besides' must be that you don't want to tell Gaius because you don't want him to hurt that Rocket you knew—eh, Dixie was the name, wasn't it?"

Arden looked at her sideways and said nothing.

"Well?" she said. "Am I right?"

"Toise."

They reached the lab and doors opened before them, revealing a nice, clean lobby with a hallway branching off of it. The girl at the reception counter looked up and greeted them with a cheerful, "Good morning! Friends of yours, Elara?"

Elara nodded. "Actually, this is the little brother of a good friend of mine," she said, leaning against the counter. "Do I have any mail?"

"Just this letter from a researcher in Hoenn," said the girl, reaching under the counter. She pulled out an envelop and handed it to Elara. "That's the same one you've been in correspondence with, right?"

"Yup," said Elara, opening the envelope. "I hope it's good news…"

"Where is 'Hoenn'?" Arden asked.

"It's far away," Elara said as she read the letter, stretching the vowels out as she spoke them, as if trying to convey the distance with her voice. "Far, far, far…"

"I went there once, when I was just a babe," said the girl behind the counter, spinning in her chair. "My papa took me on vacation there with Mama and my brothers and sisters! Oh, that was so fun!"

Elara made a squealing sound and hugged the letter to her chest. "It is good!" she said. "He got approved to send me some fossil samples from Hoenn! They're in the mail, he says!"

"Congratulations!" said the girl.

"So what does that mean?" Arden asked Elara.

"It means that I'm going to be the first person in Kanto to study the fossils of these pokemon," Elara said, putting her hands on her hips. "These are extinct pokemon that have never been found anywhere outside of Hoenn."

"That's so great!" said the girl behind the counter. Arden nodded.

"Well, come on," said Elara, turning to Arden. "Let's show you the lab!"

They started down the hallway. It was a long corridor, full of doors—some open, some closed—and potted plants. Elara pointed to a door. "That's where we keep and catalogue the specimens which aren't being actively studied," she said. She pointed to another door. "And in there is a bank of computers full with the information we've compiled from our studies. I can't take you into the storage room for security reasons, but we've got a few specimens on active study that I could show you in here—come on."

She held the door for Arden and Gimpy before entering the room herself. Arden surveyed the large room as he walked in. Computers were set close together in large blocks, humming away as their screens displayed information that he couldn't begin to make sense of. "Is it alright for all of these computers to be on with no one sitting at them?" he asked Elara.

"Oh, yeah, it's fine," she said. "We always leave them on."

"Your electricity bills must be high…"

Elara grinned broadly. "Oh, they're ridiculously high," she said. "But it's for science!" Something at her hip beeped loudly and she looked down. "Oh, shoot—that'd be my boss. I have to go take this call. Can you two wait right here?"

"Yeah, sure," said Arden. With a smile, she turned and walked away, pulling a beeper off of her belt and mumbling softly to herself. Arden glanced around the room again, walking slowly toward one of the computers. "I wonder if I could play Tetris on here while I wait for her to get back…?"

He reached toward the keyboard, and Gimpy caught his wrist. "Blastoise." Arden looked at the blastoise, whose expression seemed to say 'is that such a good idea? Messing with something like that?'

Arden lowered his hand. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "It looks expensive."

The pokemon nodded his enormous head. "Blaaaastoise." He frowned and nudged Arden's shoulder. "Blas."

"Huh?" Arden followed Gimpy's gaze to a man in a lab coat and glasses standing across the room, watching them. Arden leaned in closer to his blastoise and whispered, "Has he been watching us for very long?"

"Toise…"

"Why does he keep staring over here…?"

Gimpy shrugged weakly. "Blas blas," he muttered uncomfortably.

"You think he might know about the Tetris plan?" said Arden, taking a step away from the computer. "He just keeps staring. I don't think I like this."

"Toise," Gimpy said, his tone full of agreement.

Arden stepped slightly behind Gimpy and wrapped his arms around one of the pokemon's, as if trying to make it clear that the very large blastoise belonged to him. He whispered to Gimpy, "Try to look grumpy and threatening. Maybe he'll look away." The blastoise screwed up his face and scrunched up his broad nose. "I said threatening, not constipated."

"Blas blastoise," said Gimpy, flattening his ears and looking down at his trainer. 'I could crush you easily', he seemed to be trying to say. However, Arden had trouble being afraid of something he had once had to carry every where, and which he could easily outrun anyway. Arden reached up one hand and flicked Gimpy on the nose. "Toise!"

The scientist continued to stare at them, unblinkingly. He hadn't moved and his face remained blank. Arden stared back at him uncomfortably. "H-hey," he said, waving a little to the man. "Do… do I know you?"

"You have a fossil, don't you?" asked the scientist, his voice a strange monotone.

"H-hey—I came here with Elara. I didn't steal anything," he said, lifting up his hands. "Honestly, you can ask her! I was with her the whole time I was here!"

"In your bag," said the scientist. "There's a fossil. One that's been with you for a long time."

Arden blinked. "I don't… Oh," he said, remembering his trip through Mt. Moon. If he thought about it because of the fossil, he wondered why his thoughts immediately went to the fact that he had first met Dixie there. "Y-yeah… there's a fossil in my bag. Eh—how did you know that?"

"Would you like me to revive that pokemon?" asked the scientist, his voice still flat.

"Revive? But it's a fossil, not a pokemon," Arden said, frowning. "You can't just 'revive' something that's fossilized, can you? I mean, I'm not saying I know more about your job than you, I'm just saying it seems like millions of years as a rock should kind of put a damper on its liveliness."

"Consider it cloning the pokemon, then."

"But, if you could do that," said Arden. "Why would you be studying fossils here?"

"Only I can do it," said the scientist. "It's my secret."

Arden stared at the man flatly. "Why would you keep that a secret?"

"That, too, is my secret."

"I see," Arden said slowly. "D-do you actually work here? Or is this going to be one of those things where I go back to Elara and say 'I met this weird guy with glasses and black hair' and she says 'there's no one like that who works here'."

"I work here."

"Well, anyone can say they work here," Arden mumbled, crossing his arms. "But where's the proof? The lab coat? I've seen those in costume shops. The glasses? Hardly conclusive. The nametag? I don't really know if that's your name or even your actual picture, do I? Anyone can crop their face next to a name and the title 'Dr' and have it laminated these days. For all I know, you're an absurdly prepared hobo, or an evil spy."

The scientist's face didn't change expressions. "If you don't want it revived," he said in monotone. "You only have to say 'no'."

"No—I want it revived," Arden said quickly. He unslung his pack and fished the fossil out of it, before taking it to the man. "You can revive this, right?"

"I can revive anything. It's my secret."

The scientist took the fossil from him and they stood in silence. "Well?" Arden said at last.

"It's my secret. I can't do it while you're here."

"I knew it," said Arden. "You're a fraud. You just want to steal my fossil! …not that I cared about it to begin with. Or that it in any way explains how you knew…"

"Take a walk. I'll revive your pokemon if you go take a walk."

"Alright," said Arden, looking at him sideways. He turned to his pokemon. "C'mon, Gimp. Let's see if we can find Elara."

"Blastoise," said Gimpy as they moved toward the door.

"I'm not going to see that fossil again, am I?" Arden mumbled to the pokemon.

A/N: Hey--I thought I mentioned it when I put it up, but it appears not. The Gaius-centric story I mentioned wanting to write before is up. Er, the prologue's up, anyhow. So, anyway, if that's relevent to your interests...