Faba, the legendary… no, that's to strong of a word, wouldn't want to give it away… The... accomplished (ooh, that's a good one!) The genius man of science, Pokemon trainer, and mere Aether Foundation Employee.

No, it was better than that. A member of the world's leading Pokemon conservancy and beacon of technological advancement. After all, they obviously still wanted him working there, or Lusamine would have fired him… And he was still contributing. (Ah! That's the word!) A major contributor too…

With the carefully constructed response in the text box, Faba glanced over it for typos and grammar errors which might invalidate his argument. He reclined in his office chair, the creak of the old springs interrupting the ambient server hums and buzz of the air conditioning. With a twist his bear, he sent it with a satisfactory chuckle.

"I'm an accomplished professional in my field, and a major contributor to our field. I've even challenged the Alolan Champion with my team of Pokemon. The branch would have relocated me by now if they didn't want me. My promotion is just days away."

With that done, Faba navigated to another tab on the computer and returned to the all-important task of sorting data into tables. Judging by the placement of the scroll wheel on the side of the box of numbers he had been trapped in, he was near 65% completion. No, maybe that was closer to… 75%. He had to admit the figure could be wishful thinking, but he also had to admit that he really couldn't tell. The boxes and rectangles blurred together, losing their shape, and the guess was no where near scientific.

As he studied the distance between the bottom of the scroll wheel and the bottom of the screen, he caught sight of the time in the little box in the bottom-right corner. It featured little Lunatone illustration, which slowly alternated between two sprites bobbing back and fourth.

4:00AM.

Any time now, the a little pixelated Solrock would overtake the Lunatone as it tracked the sunrise.

The realization hit Faba in a wave that pushed him into a slump over his computer, droopy-eyed. It was 4 AM? He had been at it that long?Tiredness washed over him alongside the disbelief. Now, it certainly felt like it was only 65% of the way there…

He sent his computer into its sleep mode. He could just get an early start in the morning… And morning's not that far away.

The faint light of his Pokemon sleeping behind him showed him his baggy-eyed reflection in the shut off screen. His mouth hung open, his beard untrimmed. It reminded him of the interns under his care, and mixed emotions stirred. It was the same face he would scold about missed deadlines and efficiency only… Almost a year ago. Or was it longer than a year now?

Then in the reflection, he saw his eyes spring back awake, tired or not. He couldn't stay here, as a lowly intern any longer than absolutely necessary. He had to earn his way back into Lusamine's favor, shorten the time between this dull streak and his future. He bit his lip, and drew all the determination he could muster, awakening the deep pools of invisible, untapped energy reserves he hadn't used since his college years. Then, like a zombie, he began typing away.

Alakazam stirred, sleeping on his side with his spoons tucked under his head like a child's pokedoll. Faba had already returned the blazing white light of the LED screen to the room, while his keystrokes were muffled by the urban hums.

His team of five were scattered around his bedroom-office hybrid, an invention that had been conceived after his demotion and loss of an office space. Interns took their work home with them, if they wanted to be something more than interns in their lifetime. Fortunately, while been on top of the world, he had bought a place fitting his… Not ego, his reputation. Self-described reputation. In other words, it had plenty of floor space.

Just the stirring of one of the psychic-type pokemon, combined with their trainer's emotional disturbance, sent a shutter through all of the sleeping Pokemon. Claydol rocked in the corner, then settled. Raichu kicked his leg, laying face-first on his floating tail, distinctly the soundest sleeper there. Bruxish burrowed a little deeper into the sand in the small wall-set aquarium, which only had room herself, the water, and the sand. Slowbro laid curled up against the tank's wall, enjoying the coolness. He seemed to be the second most peaceful sleeper until he opened his eyes and started staring blankly at his trainer.

Faba was at that chair a lot recently, especially at night. Making the little click-clack sounds, staring at the light-giving square as though he was in a trance. Plus, the longer he stared, the longer he seemed to do it.

Slowbro couldn't remember if he would be shooed away if he got close… But he wanted too, and in his own way, considered it thoroughly. Faba's bed looked comfortable.

Not that it mattered if he wanted to anyways, since Shelder was asleep. If he moved, Shelder would bite down hard so Slowbro couldn't sleep at all.

These were the thoughts broadcast to the rest of the room, sending another wave of awareness, and another shudder of sleeplessness through the Pokemon. Now, one shared thought drifted among the psychics, one they came to individually.

Hypno was the only one that hadn't joined them that night, or any night they slept out of their Pokeballs. "Ace" was a title given to the strongest Pokemon in a team, usually something conventionally impressive or reliable. Hypno wasn't called an "Ace," but he was Faba's first choice in battle. He was also the first Pokemon he trained to the rest of the team's knowledge, and the only reason that their trainer could get a full nights sleep, whether he knew it or not.

Alakazam assumed he did, since Hypno's Pokeball was always kept somewhere on his person. Tonight, it was the pocket of his labcoat, which he was wearing casually open over a Masked Royal t-shirt he had thrown on after work.

Alakazam stopped snoring, but continued laying there. There was no point in disturbing the rest of his body… even if he would prefer to also rest his mind.

A faint psychic tap rolled Claydol side to side, which annoyed it… probably. It was very hard to hell with Claydol, for many reasons. It was a new addition to the team. Something about a life-giving ray of light, a connection to the Blinding One, and a deep desire to impress Lusamine. Claydol continued to rock back and fourth on its own will, continuing to make noise, until he tapped into the side of the aquarium base.

Bruxish gnashed is teeth in revolt, and Faba winced. The silence was interrupted so suddenly that it had caught him off guard, and his fingers had smeared onto the keyboard. Once he pressed undo a couple of times and found his place, he spun in his chair and glared at the aquarium's general direction.

Fortunately, Faba was relieved to see all of his pokemon in the identical places that they were laying in an hour ago. It could be troublesome when his whole team woke up… which was part of the reason for the restriction on the number a trainer could have out at once. With a sigh, he settled himself back into his chair and returned to his work.

The whole point of having them out tonight was to keep him awake, and they had gotten him this far. Just seeing them curled up so peacefully brought a bundled feeling of being rested himself and determined to continue pushing, and that was definitely being useful.

But his jacket did seem lighter… It's important to be very aware of all your belongings on you at all times, organization is a key to success. But, was more of a perturbed feeling that brought the missing Pokeball to his attention. He shuffled his hand through each pocket, then felt a fuzzy warm, weightless Raichu bump into his leg. That sprang him to his feet, sensing the coming coup.

That's the problem with Pokemon, they learn from their masters. Of course they're just as crafty!

Alakazam had a spoon in mid-flight heading to press the Pokeball's button, but Claydol beat him to it, dropping a psychically-stiffened pillow on top of it to do the job. Without direction, the red light found its own path to an empty spot of wood floor by the bed, just behind his office chair.

Faba stepped out of the way and slid the chair under the desk to make room, where the wheels thumped in resistance to a gob of unmanaged wire. "You should all be ashamed of yourselves. Being inside his Pokeball is the only way Hypno can sleep too..." He said, reaching for the Pokeball. Alakazam's ear twitched at the scolding, and Hypno's Pokeball went flying across the room.

Hypno sat against the wall, slumped in a way that looked like he had been sleeping, blinking a few times to adjust to the light, (the bright light, Hypno are comfortably nocturnal.) First he made sure his pendulum was hanging and untangled, then he glared towards Alakazam for the rocky release, and offered a few Pokemon words to share it. His fellow yellow Kantonian psychic-type responded with a growl that drifted into a yawn.

"Alakazam," Faba began, using his "trainer voice," which was very similar to his "branch chief voice." Alakazam looked up, and the pokeball slowly rolled back out from under the bed. Faba quickly snatched it up with a plastic clatter, and sat back down with a sigh, shuffling the Pokeball back into one of his pockets.

Raichu, pulled by some invisible static or considence, began bumping his leg again. With a push of one finger, he was began to drift back to where he was sleeping. Raichu himself wobbled a little before settling mid-air.

Hypno had already wandered to the other end of the room, and met the surge-surfer. His eyes glowed as he studied Raichu's head, and Faba assumed he was probably looking at his dreams like a menu. Raichu out of any of his pokemon probably had the nicest dreams. Hypno looked up to share his reaction, as though Faba could see the same thing. Faba couldn't help but grin a little.

Alakazam sat up to protest openly, displeased with the result. How could they be more awake?

Faba turned back to the computer with a smirk, twisting his beard and settled in to check his inbox with a soft chuckle. They may have learned from him, but they weren't the master of cunning they thought…

Soon enough, Alakazam's grumble slowed and slurred until the growling noise of his Pokemon Cry became a garble snore. He heard the spoons slid back into place. The occasional gnashing teeth stopped and Claydol fell against the wall, which had a dent forming from all his rocking. Raichu's began snoring loudly, enough that he could have woken them in the first place. That was a testament to the psychic type's power and natural advantage, since Raichu hadn't been awake in the first place to be put back to sleep. Or, Hypno had disturbed his sleep by eating his dreams…

Faba finally looked over at his partner in (this is not a) crime with a fond smile, catching the last few seconds of his work as the shock blinked out of Slowbro's eyes. With his back turned, Hypno bent down to work his ability on the Shelder too. When he was finished, he turned back with a grin on his face, shown only by his smiling eyes. The two shared a quiet, gleeful cackle at the situation, and one by one each Pokemon was returned to their Pokeball.

"Thank you, Hypno." Faba said with relief, getting up to open the Aquarium's lid to return the last team member. "I knew I could count on you…" He mumbled off trying to think of something better. It was a very corny, trainer-ish thing to say, but he couldn't think of anything else right now. Hypno seemed to take it well.

Faba returned to his chair with Hypno sitting besides him on his bed, where he happily accepted a few pats of approval. Then the mighty intern returned to the spreadsheet, and began scanning the numbers for where he lost his place.

Now it was quieter. The thought came to him of Wicke, the current Branch Chief, chewing him out in the morning, and he sharply drew in his breath. It was so embarrassing, such a disgrace to his career and accomplishments, but he had given the opportunity for such disgrace when…

Deep down, he knew it was just teasing, but just the thought of allowing disgracing of his name when he could simply eliminate the possibility of it happening was… was… he felt his train of thought melting away. Hypno was hunched near the shallow space between him and the computer, almost off of the bed, and the pendulum was peacefully swinging in his peripheral vision.

Faba groaned, accepting the reality quickly and beginning to follow the pendulum with his eyes while fighting to at least send the computer into sleep with his other hand. He would probably wake up with a sore neck from sleeping half-fallen out of his chair, and that was if he was lucky…

Mohn used to take pictures of him sleeping and show him in the morning, back when the Aether Foundation was just starting out…

The powerdown noise to the computer...

Faba's face was thoroughly settled against his keyboard, entering an infinite amount of black dots into the password box as he snored.

Hypno set to work immediately. His eyes glowed a faint blue color as he had a nibble of his dreams. It could be a pleasant dream, or a terrible nightmare… but neither of them would ever know how they would progress, as the nibble became eager consumption.

It was something set in the white-tile labyrinth Faba spent most of his time with. Something where Mohn and the Alolan Champion and Lusamine and her family and all the other people who had influenced his career's upward and downward momentum would wander around ad libitum. Then, no matter how interesting it was, he would end up working on some mathematical or chemistry equation, since that was the activity making up most of his time.

Hypno tonight's dream settle in… wherever he stored them after eating them. Probably his mind, though science hadn't found an answer to that mystery. To that invisible energy source Pokemon have. Either way, while he digested, he was as sluggish as a Greedent who's belly was full of berries. He blinked a few times, then returned the pat on the head and left the bed, sitting in a slump loyally besides his trainer's chair.