Two people stood outside of Professor Willow's lab at 9am, per Candela's emailed instructions. The first was a tall woman, dressed entirely in tweed. An unfortunate shuffle of genes had dealt her a large, hooked nose set between her beady eyes. The second was a boy, who suffered from the inverse facial arrangement: big watery eyes set too close together, separated only by a button nose that sat too high. This gave him the appearance of being perpetually pressed against a pane of glass. It was a wonder his giant round glasses could balance on his barely-there nose.

Candela checked the time on her communicator to confirm the hour before she opened the door to the lab. This couldn't be the entire turnout. Willow had expected at least 20 trainers to show up. Candela had to admit that 20-odd new trainers would have been a handful to take on alone. Maybe this was for the best.

"Hello! Welcome! Come on in!" Candela said, stepping back to let them enter. She stopped herself from cursing as she saw the forgotten tray of coffees still outside the door, then slid them to the side with her foot as casually as she could manage.

"Go on, Darrin," said the woman. It wasn't a phrase of encouragement. Rather, it sounded as though the woman were profoundly fatigued, and was passing young Darrin off not just for the morning, but preferably for life.

"Oh, so, just Darrin today?" Candela said.

"Yes, and let me tell you, I can't thank you enough for un-cancelling," the woman said with an air of real appreciation.

In the back of Candela's mind, a flicker of doubt formed. "Uh, sure, of course. It's such an important day, after all, and I-"

But the woman was already clipping down the sidewalk in her practical beige heels. She waved to Candela and Darin over her shoulder. "Goodbye, Darrin! We'll see you later! Good luck!"

Candela wondered if the "good luck" was for Darrin or for her. She looked the boy over. He was a stout child, with pasty skin and feathery brown hair. He wheezed a little as he breathed, and his mouth never fully closed. His expression was unreadable.

"Hello, Darrin," she said, leaning on her knees to get closer to his height. "I'm Candela. It's nice to meet you."

Darrin said nothing. He only stared at Candela with his buggy eyes, which Candela had yet to see blink.

"How old are you, Darrin?"

He looked up and to the side, thinking. "Seven."

Seven sounded young for a new trainer, but not unreasonable. After all, Candela caught her first pokémon at about that age, and it wasn't even through a lab. Besides, Darrin's guardian was probably across town by now, judging by her speedy retreat.

"Great!" she said. "Welcome to Professor Willow's lab."

She guided Darrin toward the middle of the room so he could get the full effect of the pristine white floor tiles, the gleaming equipment, the colorful lights of the dozen or so machines and stations that populated the largest section of the building. Candela closed her eyes to savor the soft beeping of the computers and the lemony scent of lab disinfectant. Though she preferred to live in disorder, she could appreciate the tidiness and precision of the lab. After working so tirelessly to rebuild it these past few weeks, she felt especially inspired by the place.

"OK," said Darrin.

Candela reeled back a little. "OK?"

Darrin shrugged.

Fine, so he wasn't impressed by the lab itself. No problem. Maybe his vision was so terrible that he couldn't see it properly. Candela pressed on.

"Anyone can pick up a pokéball and capture a pokémon on their own, but by joining me here today, you're taking the first step to become a Willow-certified trainer for this particular lab. As such, you'll be part of our research team. You'll be able to transfer pokémon to us for our research, and in exchange, you'll receive training candies and the guidance of your team leader."

"When do I get the pokémon?" asked Darrin.

"OK, forget the spiel. The spiel's boring," said Candela. She waved for him to follow her across the lab, toward another door. "We'll get straight to the point. Come with me to our practice field, and I'll show you how to capture your first pokémon."

§

The sun should have felt warm against Candela's skin, but for some reason, she shivered as she led the way across the practice field. The sky was clear and perfect, and the wide expanse of grass that served as the lab's capture-training area glowed a vibrant green. She could see the neat lines in the lawn where it had recently been mowed, but she couldn't smell the bitter-earth scent of cut grass through her stuffed up nose. She sniffed deeply, trying to clear her nostrils. She'd been able to smell inside, so this had to be a fluke. Still, she would have liked a tissue, had Spark not selfishly absconded with them all.

"Where's the pokémon? There?" Darrin asked, pointing toward an ovular track adjacent to the practice field.

The track sat just behind the hatchery wing of the lab, and Spark often used it for hatching. Today, a tauros galloped around it, wearing some sort of saddlebag. This had to be part of Spark's experiment.

"No, your pokémon options are right here," Candela said.

With a practiced flourish, she withdrew three pokéballs from her pocket and flung them into the air a few yards ahead of Darrin and herself. A charmander, a squirtle, and a bulbasaur materialized in a glare of red light and landed gently on the turf. A thrill sped through Candela's heart as they cried out a challenge to the would-be trainer. No matter how many Starter Days she participated in, the rush never faded.

"OK, Darrin, I have a starter pack for you here," Candela said, swinging a small backpack from her shoulder. It felt heavier today, for some reason. After she handed the pack to him, she straightened and massaged her shoulder. Her muscles ached, probably thanks to the past weeks of lugging chunks of replacement machinery around.

Darrin opened the bag, flinched in surprise, and dropped it. Cayenne pounced out of the bag and latched herself onto Candela's foot.

"Hey!" Candela tried to shake her off as carefully as possible, but the vulpix gripped tight, growling all the while. Finally, Candela managed to catch her by the nape of the neck and detach her. She held the fussing pokémon in front of her in disbelief. "Cayenne! What's the matter with you? Go back inside!"

Candela set her down, and she bounded toward the hatchery track, with only a brief glance over her shoulder. Spark would look out for the little jerk, Candela supposed. Though she'd only known Cayenne a short while, this kind of aggression was unprecedented. Candela pushed away her feeling of guilt and turned back to Darrin.

"Sorry about that, kid," she said. "Pokémon are full of surprises, you know? That's part of what makes them such incredible creatures. So, uh, consider that Lesson One, right? Anyway, there's a pokéball in that pack for you. Go ahead and pull it out."

Darrin nodded shakily and rummaged through the bag until he found a pokéball. He held it up to Candela for inspection.

"Yes, good, you've got it. Now, approach one of the pokémon and throw the ball to capture it."

She turned aside to wipe her nose on her sleeve, keeping watch on the boy out of the corner of her eye. He shuffled a few steps toward the bulbasaur, lined up his shot, tripped over his feet a little, lined up the throw again, heaved his arm forward, and dropped the ball on the ground, where it popped open with a sad, ineffectual click. He looked back at Candela with a stricken expression. Tears started to well in the corners of his eyes.

"Don't worry about it! It takes some getting used to. You've got some more in the bag," Candela said.

Darrin rustled through his pack and pulled out another ball. The bulbasaur watched uneasily as the boy drew his arm back. This time, the ball didn't even go forward. It slipped from Darrin's hand while it was still behind his back.

"Oh no…" Darrin whined.

"It's OK!" Candela said. She coughed a few times and rummaged through the bag for Darrin. "See? You still have some more. Keep trying."

And he did, the poor wretched child, with exactly as much success as before. How did Willow have the patience for this? Usually, he was the one in charge of Starter Days. Candela mostly released the pokémon and encouraged kids to pick the charmander (obviously the best of the options) or the bulbasaur (so they'd at least have type advantage over some of Blanche's precious water pokémon). Candela's frown deepened with each wildly off-target throw. The bulbasaur flopped in the grass and yawned, throwing the occasional questioning glance at Candela.

"Trust me, buddy, I know," Candela grumbled under her breath.

"Ms. Candela? I'm out," Darrin announced, holding his bag upside down. An incubator clunked to the ground, but no pokéballs followed.

"Of course you are," Candela said through gritted teeth, forcing herself to maintain her smile. She contemplated the incubator for a moment. "I'll just run and get you more, OK? Why don't you gather up the dropped ones so we can reset them in the lab later?"

Darrin nodded somberly and, at a painfully slow pace, began to gather the busted pokéballs. Candela waved to the group of starter pokémon. They'd been bred specifically for the purpose of accompanying beginning trainers. They were intelligent, dependable pokémon, and Candela trusted them to keep an eye on the boy for a few minutes.

Candela paused to clear her throat before striding toward Spark's hatchery.