At 8 o'clock, the two Apprentice Joys arrived at the Pokécent, as they had begun to call it and went into the central tent. Upon seeing no one there, Fiona turned to Lydia and said, "Maybe Delia was wrong and she isn't here."

They heard Lana call them into 'the lab' and Lydia said, "Looks like she wasn't after all," as they walked past the desk, idly noting the two pokéballs on the table. When they were inside, Lydia said, "What are we to do, Nurse Joy?"

"You don't have to worry about that 'Nurse Joy', business with me."

Fiona said, "But…it's only right to show the proper respect to a superior."

Lana sighed and said, "Look. I am well aware that neither of you view me in such a way, so why should we pretend otherwise?"

"Alright then. What should we call you then?"

"Lana will do."

"Alright…Lana…what should we do first?"

"Take the two pokéballs that I put in the entry tent and go and catch a pokémon."

"Take…"

Lydia said, "Uhh…pardon my rudeness, but…why? We already have pokémon with us as it is!"

"That's true," Lana said. "But, I think that it's not enough to be able to heal the injuries of a pokémon. You should be able to understand the trainers that own the pokémon that you are healing. So, this one will not have a primary function of healing, but battling."

"Why? What's the point?"

Lana sighed and said, "In any case, a Joy should be able to protect her pokécentre by herself if it comes to it."

"I don't' think we'll have the time to…"

"You can spend one hour in the morning and two in the afternoon training them."

"But then…we'd only be operating from nine until…four?"

"You'll be starting at seven from now on."

"Eehhh!?" The sisters simultaneously exclaimed.

"What do you mean, 'eh?'" Lana asked.

"Well…pokécentres open at eight, so…I fail to see the point."

Lana sighed and said, "You don't have to see the point. You just need to do it."

The sisters dejectedly said, "Alright, Nurse Lana."

Lana smiled and said, "Now, get going," nodding towards the central tent.

The two sisters trudged out of the tent and made their way to the front desk, grabbed the pokéballs and exited the Pokécent. When they were outside, Fiona said, "So, what do you want to do, sis?"

Lydia said, "Go back home to Viridian City," only half joking. She sighed and said, "But seriously, I don't know. I've never even thought about catching a pokémon for the sole purpose of battle."

"Yeah. Me either."

"Maybe we should just go for a wander and see what we come up with."

"Yeah. Sure. Do you think we should go together, Lydi…"

Then, the two sisters heard a, "GET MOVING!" come from inside the Pokécent.

The sisters said, "Right!" in a high-pitch tone, jumping in fright.

Lydia said, "I'll see you soon, sis'," and turned right and walked away.

"Yeah, later," Fiona said, turning left, walking in the opposite direction.

XXXXX

A few hours later, both sisters returned at the same time and went inside. When they were before her, they placed their pokéballs on the desk that Lana was working behind. Lana said, "So, let's see them." the sisters released their pokémon and Lana saw that Lydia had caught a Pikachu and Fiona had somehow managed to catch a Taillow. She said, "Where'd you get that, Fiona? It's not native to the region."

"I thought so too, but, I asked some dock worker if he knew where some rare pokémon were and he pointed me in the direction of some island offshore. I went there and found an entire flock of them, so I had Tsareena use Grass Whistle and put them all to sleep. This one somehow managed to stay awake and challenged me."

"And you beat it with Tsareena?" Lana asked with a sceptical look on her face.

"No. I released Lopunny to battle it."

"I see," Lana said before turning to Lydia and saying, "and you?"

"Nothing so dramatic I'm afraid. I just wandered through the forest for a while before coming across it. Sawsbuck's Horn Leech made short work of Pikachu."

"I see," Lana said. "Now, Lydia, Fiona, follow me." Lana led them into one of the side tents, seeing them pick up their pokémon and follow her. When she was in the right one, she stood at the end of the table and said, "Now, show me what you can do."

"Eh?" the sisters simultaneously asked.

"So what? This is all some kind of sick and twisted test?!" Lydia exclaimed.

"A test, no. I merely want to see what I have to work with."

Fiona asked, "Alright, who goes first?"

Lana shrugged and said, "Doesn't really matter to me."

Fiona looked at her sister and asked, "Lydia, do you want to go first?"

"I don't mind."

"Alright then," Fiona said, returning Taillow to its pokéball.

Lydia laid Pikachu down on the table and looked to the end of it and saw a number of bottles with spray dispensers attached to them. She thought, 'Figy Potion, Wiki Potion, Mago Potion Aguav Potion & Iapapa Potion? Did she make potions from the berries that we collected yesterday?! But she said that they were useless! But, that aside, if that is the case, then these potions must contain the same properties as the berries. If that's so, then…' She said, "Pikachu has a jolly nature, so it won't like things that are too dry, so the Wiki Potion is out. As is…actually…" Lydia stopped, seeing what she wanted. "It likes sweet things, so the Mago Potion is probably best." She then picked up the potion that she had identified and sprayed it into Pikachu's mouth.

After two squirts, Pikachu woke up with a, 'Chaa-aaaa!' and looked around with a smile before leaping onto Lydia's face and pulling itself up using her hair to sit on top of her head. Lydia tried to look up to get a better view of the rodent so that she could take it off of her head and reprimand it for using her hair as a ladder, but, it caused her Pikachu to tip off of the back of her head as she clutched at it. When Pikachu fell on the floor it started to laugh, causing Lydia's right eye to start to twitch.

Lydia looked to Lana and said, "How was that?" still annoyed that she was being forced to go through some sort of ridiculous, not to mention totally pointless, audition.

Lana ignored her and said, "Fiona, your turn," before she crouched down next to Pikachu and said, "So…you're not related to Ash Ketchum's Pikachu by any chance, are you?"

Pikachu cocked its head at her, saying, "Pika?" not understanding what an 'Ash Ketchum' was.

Lana shook her head and said, "Never mind. It's not really that important anyway."

Pikachu said, "Pika," nodding its head, with a look far more serious than Lydia had expected it to be possible for it to have.

When Lana stood up, she saw that Taillow was already standing up on the table. She blinked and said, "What happened?"

Fiona said, "I used the same potion that Lydia just did."

"Weren't you concerned about its effects?"

"No. Taillow has a Hardy nature, so it wouldn't matter which potion I used, none of them would have any ill-effect upon it."

"I see. Well, it's good that you take a pokémon's nature into account when using those potions to heal them, but there's really little point in it."

"Why's that?"

"Because, when I'm making them, I balance them out with powder from a berry that causes the opposite effect and Bitter Berry to protect against the confusion."

"Really?! You can do that?" Fiona asked, never having even considered mixing berries to change their effects."

"Yes."

"But…how?" Lydia asked, having come up with the idea, but, when she'd broached it with her lecturer at the time, the idea was dismissed without a thought. "The ratio would have to be exact for the berries to not clash against each other."

"That is true, to an extent. But, as the volume being made gets larger, the measurements actually become a lot easier."

"Really? How does that work?"

"It's a lot like cooking really."

"It's like…hu-uhh?!" Lydia and Fiona exclaimed.

Lana sighed and thought, 'There's going to be more to teach them than I'd thought if they can't understand even that.' She said, "Alright. Lydia, you can use this room, Fiona, use the one on the other side."

"Huh?!" Lydia exclaimed. "But…I thought that you were supposed to be supervising us!"

"Yes, and, if either of you need help, I'll be happy to provide it, and I'll take over when more serious injuries are involved. But, I can't imagine that Aunty Selene would send me two Joys that are incapable of operating on their own. So, for the relatively lighter jobs, I've no doubt that you will be more than capable enough to handle them on your own."

"And, while we'll be working…you'll be doing what exactly?"

"I'll be taking care of procurement of the other things that we'll need for this Pokémon Centre."

"Okay. So then…who's going to man the desk out there?"

"Oh, that? That's easy," Lana said and smiled as she drew a strange pokéball, unlike any the sisters had ever seen, and said, "Lucario, come on out!" releasing it from the pokéball within her hand. When Lucario had appeared, the sisters noted that it seemed far stronger than any of their pokémon. Lucario blinked as he saw the two sisters that were clearly, like his trainer, Nurse Joy, except for the colour of their hair. He greeted them both before looking back to Lana, who said, "Lucario, I'm going to have you deal with the trainers and perform minor healing duties when you need to."

Lucario said, "Luca!" and went through the entrance to the medical tent, into the central, greeting tent.

When it was gone, Lana said, "I know what I said, but I don't really care which tent the pair of you decide to use, but they are equipped the same, so you can change them however you want, but I want it clean and tidy at the end of the day. Understand?"

"Yes, Nurse Lana!" the sisters said.

"But, for now," Lana said, "release your partner." Lydia and Fiona looked at each other and nodded before drawing out a pokéball from their pouches and said, "I choose you, Chansey!" releasing the standard healing pokémon from their region.

Lana rolled her eyes, but said, "Alright, you pair, go to whichever room your trainers choose and get accustomed to it. you'll be working there for a while."

"What about us?" Lydia asked.

"Us?" Lana asked. "We go to lunch," and left through the central tent, leaving Lucario at the main desk in case anything immediate came up.

As she did, Lydia came rushing after her, saying, "But…What about our pokémon?"

"What about them?" Lana asked.

"We can't just leave now, can we?"

"I don't see why not. With the exclusion of injuries more severe than what can be expected from the pokémon around here, Lucario and Chansey can take care of minor bumps and ailments far more effectively than we can."

"But…what about them? They need to eat too!"

"There is more than enough food for them available here. For us though, it is a very different story."

Lydia sighed and said, "What do you mean?" understanding Lana's point, but still not comprehending what she was saying since the berries that they'd collected must have been all used up in the potions that Lana had made.

Lana grinned and said, "Look out the back," before walking off.

"Look out the…" Lydia said, before walking around the outside of the tents to see what Lana was talking about. Her eyes widened when she saw all of the trees bearing more of the berries that they'd collected. She blinked, not understanding what she was seeing. She went back out to the front to see that Lana had left, and her sister standing where she had been.

When her sister came back, Fiona asked, "Lydia, what…?"

"I…don't understand!"

"Huh? Don't understand? Don't understand what?"

"What the hell she did!"

"You're not making any sense, Lydia!"

"I need to talk to that…that…AARGHH!" Lydia screamed, grasping her hair in her hands. She glared at her sister and said, "Where did she go?"

"Uhh…th-that way," Fiona said, pointing in the direction that they had come from at the start of the day. She watched her sister storm down the road, her strides longer than usual, as well as far more forceful. She called out, "Lydia! Wait!" and rushed after her sister to try to calm her down before they came across Lana.

XXXXX

Soon, the two sisters arrived back at the inn that they had spent the previous night in. Lydia exclaimed, "Are you KIDDING ME?!" unable to conceive of any reason that Lana would be able to have lunch there, having signed in and been informed that there was no lunch offered to guests.

They went in to the dining room that they'd had breakfast in and didn't see her. They looked at each other in confusion and sighed. They then went to the sign-in desk and rang the bell. It took a while, but Delia soon came to see who was waiting to sign in. Her eyes narrowed when she saw the two sisters standing there. She said, "Why are you two here? I already signed you on."

Fiona, in an attempt to not antagonise the nice innkeeper, said, "Well, yes, and we thank you for it, but we were wondering…"

"Where is that black haired witch?"

Delia blinked and said, "The…are you talking about Lana?" Delia demanded, annoyed that they were talking smack about her granddaughter, not that Lana knew that herself.

"That's right," Lydia said.

"Uhh…I'm terribly sorry," Fiona said. "Lydia can get rather…well…you know…when she thinks somebody is being completely unreasonable about something."

Delia sighed and said, "Alright," thinking on how Lana had been cackling about the two sisters' problems getting into the tent the previous night. She faced Lydia as she said, "She's in the house that you were at last night if you want to see her, but I would suggest, that you take a very different approach with her than you have with me, young lady."

"Noted," Lydia dismissively said before storming through the hallway that led to the backyard of the inn.

Fiona looked apologetically at Delia and shrugged before looking away and calling out, "Lydia! Wait for me!" and rushed after her sister, in the faint hope that she could bring some sense of calm to what was looking to be a rather spectacular catfight if her sister had her way.

When Lydia was out of the inn, she made her way over to the house, ignoring the Mr. Mime that was watering the gardens, and the Leafeon that was lying next to the path. She opened the door so fast that her sister was surprised that it stayed on its hinges. She burst into the front room and looked around to see Lana wearing an apron with a smile on her face as she poured some powder into a measuring cup. She lost it. She said, "Are you seriously telling me that you've left our pokémon back there, alone, just so you could bake a god damn cake!? How can you possibly consider yourself a Nurse Joy?!"

Lana looked up, furious at the impertinent Apprentice Joy questioning her ethics as a Joy. She said, "I am a Nurse Joy, trainee." She forced the bag onto the bench and stepped around it. "As such, I have final say on when you leave my tutelage. And I can make that a very long time if I choose to." Lydia stepped back, horrified at the thought that she might have to follow the Ruffian Joy into the sticks.

That was when Fiona burst in. Feeling the tension in the room, she said, "Nurse Lana! Please, forgive my sister. She's clearly just overreacted to whatever it was she saw behind the Pokécent!"

"Pokécent? What's that?"

"Well…it's…uhh…urk!"

Lana sighed and said, "It doesn't matter, really."

"Well…it's what Lydia and I are calling the setup back there. It's a pokécentre made out of tents, so…we thought that Pokécent was appropriate! That's all!" Fiona said, squinting as she flinched away.

Lana sighed and said, "Pokécent, huh? Make's sense. I like it."

"Really?" Fiona asked in a squeaky voice, surprised at the light tone that Lana was using. When Lana nodded, she sighed in relief.

Lana said, "In any case," rounding on Lydia, frowning angrily. "What is it that I have done that makes you think that you can question me as a Joy?"

"Where do you get off, carrying on like you did about what those berries that we collected were, and then go off and make a damn orchard out of them?!"

"I merely pointed out that the ones that you managed to acquire were not the ones that I directed you to get. I never said that they weren't useful. It's just that the ones that you got originally, weren't remotely close to what I asked for, and aren't useful in any way in crafting medicine by themselves. Including them with the ones that you subsequently acquired though, is a different story. I told you earlier that I used the Corrn Berry to counter the Wiki Berry's negative effects for pokémon that have a dislike of dry food. The same goes for the other berries that you collected. As to the orchard, I would have thought that you of all Joys would appreciate what I did."

"Why's that?"

"Because, now you won't have to go out and gather up more every night for me." Lydia and Fiona let out relieved sighs. "Although, if you really want to, I wouldn't forbid you from doing so."

"Uhh…no no. That's fine. Really.".

"As to what I'm doing now, I come from the Sinnoh Region. We have crafted certain recipes that have the effect of raising and lowering the condition of a pokémon using those same berries in the making of poffins. When I mentioned it to Delia, she said that it would be alright to use the kitchen in the inn to mass produce them if I could impress her with some made here. How you think that you can conflate that with me not being worthy as a Joy is beyond me!"

"Well…I…uhh…um…" Lydia sighed and said, "Sorry. I overreacted."

Lana sighed and said, "Well, I suppose I can't really say that I blame you, all things considered. In any case, would you like to learn how to make them?"

"I guess?" Lydia said, not seeing much point to learning it as a Nurse Joy, but able to, at least superficially, see the point of learning it to help out a trainer.

"Sure, Nurse Lana," Fiona said, hoping beyond hope that doing so would cause Lana to ease up in her criticisms of them and their performance whilst under her supervision which was, clearly, going to be hazardous to their health if it continued on as it was for much longer.

Lana, seeing the two different reactions, thought, 'Clearly different reasoning was involved in their answers, but so long as the conclusion was the same, it doesn't really matter in the end.' She said, "So then, in that case…"