Hey everyone, and welcome to, once again, the new Longest Chapter Yet! I was worried that this would finally be my first chapter to miss its deadline, but thankfully I was able to finish it in time. I'll be catching a flight tomorrow, so I won't be home until the afternoon. Once I am (and possibly after a nap), I'll update my site. Feel free to send all feedback and typos as usual, and I'll give it another pass for editing when I can. Hope you enjoy it, and thanks for reading!

Chapter 43: Risk and Reward

The second abra hunt went off without a hitch, much to Red's relief. Blue was frustrated with the smaller haul, but Leaf pointed out that even after moving to a new location, the population of abra in the area was largely depleted. On the plus side, they managed to catch more pokemon while clearing the field ahead of time: an oddish and whismur for Red, a buneary for Blue, and another venonat for Leaf, which she traded to Blue for his buneary.

Their final count ended up higher than Red predicted: 13 abra for Red, 14 for Leaf and 16 for Blue, giving them a grand total of 32, 38 and 47 when combined with the first expedition.

"This means 31 sold wholesale from each of us, after I keep one, right?" Red says as he scans each abra into his pokedex. He has a roll of blank white stickers next to him, and puts one on each ball after jotting down a number so he can pair them with the ones in his notebook, where he records who caught them and each one's Other metric.

"Seems unfair for you to just keep one," Leaf says. "Since it was your idea and all. Make it an even 30 each?"

Red hesitates, tempted. Even after their sales depress the market, each abra would still be worth hundreds. "I guess 90 makes as good a headline as 93…"

"You know what makes a better one?" Blue says. "99. I'll throw in an extra 3 of mine into each of ours. Still leaves me with 8 to sell, which is going to take a while anyway."

Red's eyebrows shoot up. "Huh. That's unusually generous of you."

Leaf kicks him below the table. "That's really good of you, Blue!"

Blue smiles and shrugs, hands on the back of his head in a way that lifts his jacket a bit, exposing the two badges pinned to his shirt. "Yeah, I've been in a good mood lately, for some reason."

Red rolls his eyes, but he's smiling too. "Thanks, Blue. In that case, you should be the one to speak during the press release."

"What? No way, it was your idea. You do it."

Red stares. "No, seriously, who are you and what did you do with Blue?"

"He's right, Red, you deserve the spotlight on this."

"But you guys both need the fame for your goals more than I do. This research and the recognition for the method is enough for me."

"Nah, I'll pass," Blue says. "I don't like talking to reporters anyway." He looks at Leaf. "No offense."

"Keep calling me a real reporter, and I'll forgive any offense. But you'll have to get over that at some point, you know."

Blue grins. "Sure. Just not now, while I can keep having you two to talk to them for me." He turns to Red. "This one's all you, bud."

Red looks back and forth between them. "You guys decided this already without me, didn't you?"

Leaf smiles. "We're both the children of Professors, and we got a huge bump from the Renegade thing, even though you did more to actually defend Mt. Moon. This was your brainchild, Red. Take center stage for it."

Red tries to think of something to say. Just take it, Future Red says. Our job will be hard enough as it is. "Thanks, guys. Speaking of media attention though, there's something else that might boost me. What's your plan for the next badge, Blue?"

Blue raises a brow. "I figured I'd head down and get Sabrina's. Why?"

"Weeell…" He pulls the envelope with the tickets out of his pocket. "How do you feel about going a bit farther south…?"

Blue spends his last day in Cerulean saying goodbye to the various Gym members and instructors he trained with. He enjoyed his time here more than the month he spent in Pewter, though that was probably because he didn't feel under as much pressure this time around. Mary congratulates him on his badge win, and bemoans having to find a new training partner for her totodile: it's gotten big, and would soon evolve to be a match for Maturin again. Blue assures her that she'll probably get her badge soon anyway, and lets her know that if she chooses to head to Vermillion next he'd be happy to train together again. The two part on good terms, which he's glad of.

He spends his lunch at the gym's cafeteria with Amy, who just finished teaching a class. "Where are you headed next?" she asks.

"Thunder Badge."

She whistles. "With a wartortle and pidgeotto as two of your strongest?"

"Wasn't my first choice, but I think I can swing it. My shiftry will take point, and if my shinx can evolve I'll have two resistant pokemon. All I need then is to visit Diglett Cave and grab a couple and I should have a solid core."

Amy rolls her eyes. "Everyone who challenges Surge stops by Diglett Cave first, so I hope you have a better plan than that. I haven't fought him yet, but Donovan says he was tougher than Brock."

Blue smiles. "I'm actually planning on evolving my shroomish by then too. I've seen how fast his pokemon are, so I'll have some surprises in store for him."

She snorts. "Well, you beat Misty in half the time I did, so I'll try to reserve my skepticism."

"Appreciated. How's Donovan doing at the plateau? Last I saw he was still working his way through Victory Road. He's what, six wins up?"

"Yeah, he's feeling pretty confident, but Reza hasn't lost a single match there yet, so he's pushing himself to train harder."

Blue nods. Rivalries are rarely advertised on trainer feeds, but if he were Donovan he'd feel pretty nervous about going up against the famous dragon tamer. "Well, tell him I say hi. How long are you going to stay in Cerulean?"

"I was originally planning to move on after I got my badge, but… this city really speaks to me. Something about it makes me reluctant to leave."

Blue raises his brow. "Are you thinking of staying for good, then?" A lot of trainers give up on their League aspirations somewhere along the way, but Blue didn't think Amy was the type.

"You know, I'm not sure," She shakes her head and gives a little laugh. "To be honest, I've been feeling a bit disheartened since you arrived."

Blue looks up from his food. "Me? Why?"

She leans forward, elbows on the table as her fork twirls in her noodles. "Your run through the Pewter matches was impressive, but you were clearly not a normal first badge challenger, and Brock slapped you down before you beat him. But then you came to Cerulean and hit the ground running, not only beating every single challenger, but doing it twice as fast as I did. You beat Misty with three pokemon left!"

More like two, Zephyr wasn't really in any condition to go back out, but Blue's been congratulated on it before, and he's not about to correct the record himself. He just shrugs. "So?"

"When I first met you in Viridian, you seemed like a hothead. Of course I expected you to be a good trainer, raised by the Professor and all, but you're more than good. And honestly, it's a bit demoralizing. This is what, your third month on your journey?"

"Two and a half, really," Blue says.

Amy rolls her eyes and spreads her hands, fork held loosely in one. "You see? It's ridiculous. For now, I'm a better trainer than you. For now, my pokemon are stronger. But what about in another two and a half months? My brother has a shot at being Champion, and I thought I could catch up to him and beat him someday, but if we keep going at our current rates you'll get there before I do! So why even bother?"

Blue feels… strange. Any other time, having his skill acknowledged like this would make him feel good. But this outcome is one that he doesn't want, never even thought was possible. Amy's a good trainer. She has to keep going, to reach her full potential.

He tries to find words to reassure her, and finds himself doing something he's not used to: playing down his accomplishments. "Look, you can't go by just badges. I have two already because Pewter and Cerulean are so close to each other. And I've been kind of lucky, my traveling partners… they're great, they've helped me a lot—"

"Kind of lucky isn't how I'd describe someone who started with the resources and upbringing of an Oak," she says, smiling. Blue feels indignation at that, but her next words distract him completely. "But you're more than that. If I didn't know you better I'd believe the rumors that you're using pre-trained pokemon."

"What? That's bullshit, I nev—"

"I know Blue, calm down. I said if I didn't know better, right?"

Blue relaxes, still frowning. He makes an effort to smooth his features as he realizes that some others are glancing at their table. "Is that what people are saying?"

She shrugs. "A few, but no one I know that's fought or taught you. Take it as a compliment. Besides, that thing on the mountain took serious guts, so it's clear to anyone with eyes that you're something special. But that's the problem. When there are trainers like you going for Champion, a lot of others realize that we're probably not going to make it."

Something like horror makes Blue's skin run cold. "'Others?' You mean you're not the only one thinking of giving up?"

"Relatively speaking, if some 9 year old you met today started their journey tomorrow and beat you next week, would you still go for Champion?"

Blue thinks of his fan, Dennis. Would he be upset if the kid turned out to be some super-prodigy, a new Giovanni who smashes Blue's accomplishments to pieces? "Of course it would bother me, but I wouldn't give up! If anything I'd work twice as hard. Besides, you must have known… I mean, not you specifically, but you all, we all, trainers in general, we can't all become Champion. That's not the point." This isn't supposed to be happening, he's supposed to be inspiring people. "We still have to push ourselves as far as we can, get stronger, learn about ourselves, and do what we can to help others, where we can. Even if we don't become Champion, there are still other things we can accomplish, other dreams to fulfill."

"Sure, and I'm not saying I'm giving up on that, necessarily. But when part of the motivation is that dream of reaching the top, it does take the wind out of the sails a bit, seeing the gap between ourselves and some others going for it."

Blue stares at his food, heart thudding. Leading Indigo into a new era means more to him than just becoming Champion. To do it, he needs people to believe in him, but he also needs them to be stronger, bolder. He needs them to push themselves to their limits, not give up and accept mediocrity just because they won't be the best there ever was, but because they want something better for themselves, and are willing to fight for it.

How can he do both at once? It has to be possible, right?

Or is his dream just that, and he'll find himself alone at the top, with no one to lead?

"Don't stay, Amy."

She's quiet for a moment, and he looks up to see her studying him curiously. "Why not?"

He chews noodles to give himself time to find the words, and finally swallows. "You're a good trainer. A great trainer. You can go farther than this. If you like Cerulean so much, at least challenge the League, then come back. Become its new Second, or even Leader."

Her eyes narrow, though the edge of her lip curves slightly. "I appreciate the compliment, but I've never seen you this complimentary. Why is it so important to you? And don't tell me I'm just that good, my ego is pretty solid despite what I said earlier."

"I just… I'd be sad, if I knew that my dream caused you to give up on yours."

"Well, that's sweet, but—" Amy suddenly stops, cheeks coloring. "Oh…"

Blue blinks, then glances over his shoulder in case she's looking at someone behind him. "Are you okay?" he asks before he lifts the last of his noodles to his mouth.

"Blue… I'm flattered, really, but—"

Blue chokes, and quickly coughs the trapped noodles out of his throat before washing them down with some water. "I didn't mean—anyone, I don't want anyone to give up on—"

"It's just, you're only eleven, and I'm not thinking—"

"—their dreams, I'm turning twelve next week, but that's not—"

"—of romance now, but you're a cute kid—"

Panic rises as Blue tries not to raise his voice. "—what I meant, I just want you to be strong!"

"Oh," she says again, and he relaxes until she leans forward and whispers, "Is pokemon battling your love language?"

Blue stands. "Welp, gotta go!" He checks the time without seeing it. "Thanks for all the help, hope to see you around!"

Amy is grinning. "You too, Blue. And don't worry; I won't stay long."

Blue pauses. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. I figure I'll wait until my poliwhirl evolves, then head to Pewter at least, see if I can get the Boulder Badge in less time than you did."

"Wouldn't surprise me in the least."

"And next time we meet, I won't have to hold back."

He grins. "I'm counting on it. If I'm going to become Champion, I want to fight everyone I encounter for real at least once, to know for sure that I can beat them at their best."

"It's a date." Amy winks, then laughs as he sputters something, throws some money on the table, and flees.

"Here's the last five." Psychic Ayane hands Red a trainer belt with all but the last slot filled. "That's it, right? You haven't gone and caught more today?"

Red grins. "Nope, that's it." He places the belt aside for later storage. "Thanks again for all your help." Ayane worked overtime over the past couple days to test all the new abra they caught. Red taps an amount out on his banking app and transfers it over to her. He's down to his last hundred dollars from the clefairy sales; he'll have to watch his money again until they can finalize the abra deals.

Ayane's phone chimes in her pocket to let her know the transfer went through, and she bows. "You're quite welcome. I've never participated in research before, and wiping my memory of specific events so often was an interesting experience. When will I get to hear how it turned out?"

"Hopefully soon. If the newest data matches the rest, I should finish writing my paper today. Then it's just a matter of getting a journal to look at it."

"Well, I look forward to finding out what it was all about, and how you got so many abra." She looks at Red for a beat, as if hoping that he'll reveal it now that the experiment is over.

Red smiles. "You'll find out the answer to that second part even sooner, if all goes well."

"Really?" Ayane perks up, then her face falls. "Ah, you mean you're going to announce it in some way." She sighs. "I suppose some secrets are too good to keep."

"Would you keep it to yourself, if it was yours?" Red asks, curious.

"It's hard to say. My current goals don't really require large amounts of money, but perhaps my priorities would shift if I had realistic access to it. In any case." She settles into the chair and smoothes the creases in her pants. "What would you like our final lesson to be about? Still struggling with the stone?"

"Yes, but I've got something else in mind."

"Teleportation."

Red smiles. "I guess it doesn't take a psychic to figure that out."

"I've been expecting it ever since you caught the initial batch of abra."

The basic method of using a pokemon to teleport is simple: just use the command "Register Teleport" when your pokemon is where you want them to go, then whenever you're somewhere else, touch the pokemon and say "Teleport." But a psychic is capable of "true" teleportation, or "free" teleportation: linking their mind with their pokemon's and returning to any location they've been to with the pokemon before. Some even claim that strong enough psychics can go with their pokemon to places only they have been to, but if so none have made themselves available for testing.

It's the most useful practical advantage that nearly every psychic is capable of, and Red has been imagining the uses he could have for it ever since he discovered his gift. "So, can you teach me in the time we have?"

"Not fully, but I can give you the basics, so that you can work on developing it along your journey." She gets to her feet. "Let's go to the roof. We can use these for practice." She gestures to the five abra she brought, and he slings the extra belt over his shoulder before following her out the door and toward the elevators.

"As you've probably picked up from various TV shows and movies, teleportation has to be done outside," she says along the way. "Do you know why?"

"I used to think it had to do with walls. That teleporting needs open space to move through, however quickly or invisibly, and walls or a roof might interfere with that. But what I read about it recently seemed to say that the pokemon wouldn't be able to even register an area that's indoors as a teleport site in the first place."

Ayane nods. "Incidentally, both appear to be true. If you register a teleportation site in an open field, and someone builds a house there afterward, or even a shack, the pokemon won't go."

"What about putting up just walls with no roof? Or three walls and a roof?"

"Still no."

Red frowns. "That doesn't—"

"—make sense," she finishes with him, and they both smile as they enter the elevator. "I wonder, my precocious pupil, whether you will ever experience enough surprises that you stop expecting the world to 'make sense.'"

"Oh, I don't say it because I'm upset with the world. It's just my way of signalling confusion. So, does the direction matter? Like if I build three walls, but leave the shack open to the east, then ask an abra to teleport there from due east, would that work?"

"I don't recall that experiment being done. But a pokemon can teleport from inside a building, so surely it cannot be a case of being simply unable to pass through walls?"

"Hm. Good point. Still, worth trying to make sure."

They reach the roof, which is occupied by a pair of trainers flying a noctowl and a fearow around in some kind of maneuver test. Red feels a stab of envy and grief. He still doesn't have a flying pokemon, and the reminder of his lost hoothoot threatens to open a crack of grief in him.

He focuses instead on early afternoon sunshine warming his skin, and closes his eyes to take a deep breath, then another. Ayane quietly waits for him to orient himself back into a more cheerful mental state. When he opens his eyes, mood placid again, Ayane is smiling. "You've come a long way, Red."

Red bows. "I had a great teacher. And it was just a mild one, this time."

"Two things to be thankful for, then." She leads him to the teleport landing zone and they find an LED pad with a blue circle on it. "Go ahead and scan your trainer ID." Red does so, and the circle turns into a red X. "Now, summon an abra onto the pad, and prepare yourself for the connection."

Red takes an abra from the belt over his shoulder, then puts the belt down on the roof. He's about to brace his arm, then decides he can use the accuracy and catching practice.

But first, he purposefully stretches his mind into the false-state of mental connection that brings his partition down. It's not nearly as strong as it used to be, so the sudden flood of grief and loneliness and fear doesn't provide as sharp a contrast. He focuses on his breathing again, imagining himself on the stone in the river, with the sun and wind against his face. The water is dark and violent, washing up against his legs as the memories of his father and the finality of death makes his heart pound and tears threaten.

But on the next exhale, he forces himself to think of Bill and his goals. People are out there, fighting for life. He breathes in deep again, the pain laced with anger at his own helplessness, and on the exhale he reminds himself of Ayane's praise, of how much stronger he's gotten. He inhales fear at leaving the city again and risking wild pokemon encounters, and on the exhale imagines Pichu on his shoulder, nuzzling his neck.

We'll keep each other safe, he promises his pokemon, then Blue and Leaf, Professor Oak and his mom, the whole world. Together, we can work to keep everyone safe.

"Go, Abra!"

His pokemon appears about where he wants it, and he manages to catch the ball on its return. Its mind instantly connects with his, and the real partition falls as their minds enmesh, drawing all his psychic power in feeding him his pokemon's mood and senses. Red gasps, and a tear rolls down his cheek. He feels the urge to retreat, to bring up his mental shield and disconnect, but forces himself to bear it, one breath at a time, going over his positive thoughts over and over, exhale after exhale, and focusing on just living in the moment, experiencing his senses, until he at least feels like things won't get worse.

"Well done," Ayane murmurs. "Now, slowly focus more on your abra's senses, starting with its physical touch."

Red does so, using that focus as the new distraction from his grief. He feels the warm sun on his skin, the cool wind blowing his hair and against his ears. He feels a drop of sweat going down his neck as he sits on the warm, smooth platform. Wait, he's standing, the abra is sitting while the sweat goes down his neck. Or is it the abra's neck?

A sudden rush of vertigo makes Red step back, then put both feet to the sides, steadying himself as he concentrates on nothing but the sensation of both their bodies. There's an itch on his ear, and he lifts his hand up to scratch it before realizing that it's the abra's ear. The abra's ears are also the ones feeling the wind on them, much more sharply than his. A moment later the abra raises its arm and scratches the itch, and Red feels vertigo again as they both lower their arms at the same time.

He wonders vaguely how all this feels for the abra. It's probably more used to it, and for far more different minds and bodies, considering some of the other pokemon in its habitat. At least Red has arms and ears.

"Good, Red, very good. Now as I'm talking, stop focusing on touch and begin focusing on sound. Focus on my voice until you can hear it through both sets of ears." By the end of the sentence he's listening in stereo, once from close by and again from a bit farther, the sound distorted and meaningless. That's how abra hears human language, Red thinks, so fascinated that for a moment the swirl of dark emotions threatening to suck him in are totally muted. One of the trainers with the birds blows into their whistle, and he feels the abra's ear flick up at the sharp sound, then its body twitch at the sound of the pidgeotto's cry. He knows that if it were still wild, the abra would have teleported away.

"Alright, that's enough for now. Withdraw your mind, then open your eyes."

Red begins withdrawing on his next exhale, until he finally feels grounded in himself again. He opens his eyes, then wipes at them, the wind cold against the tear tracks on his face. He feels the grief and loneliness ease as the partition finally rebuilds.

"That was amazing," he gasps, breathing hard at the usual post-psychic wobbliness in his mind. It's just a shadow of what he felt when he first met Ayane however, and easily ignored as he smiles at his abra.

"So." Ayane lowers herself to sit on the roof, legs crossed. "Tell me what you experienced."

Red does the same, then goes into as much detail as he can as he takes a berry out of his pocket and tosses it to his abra, who snatches it out of the air with one claw and brings it to its snout. Ayane raises her brow when he describes the strength of the connection, and nods when he explains the sense of vertigo.

"Even given your proximity to the abra, your link is very thorough for your first time, as I suspected. But that physical confusion is why it takes so much practice to be a psychic trainer. You got very little of the abra's thoughts or emotions, if any, because you were so grounded in your physical sensations, both as a method of concentration and to manage your particular… handicap. That also made it a bit easier to tune into its body. But you missed a lot of the experience as a result."

"Really? Wow. To me it felt incredibly rich."

She smiles. "Even the smallest of marvels is still a marvel. But tell me, did you feel the abra's tail at all?"

Red blinks. He casts his memory back into the experience, to the feel of the warm rooftop under his—the abra's—legs and rear. "No. Was it raised up?"

"No, it lay behind it, just as it does now. Why do you think you couldn't feel it?"

"Because I don't have a tail?"

"Because you don't know what having a tail feels like. Your mind is not used to processing that stimulus. This is why a psychic trainer requires hundreds of hours of practice, just to begin to use their gift in battle. Your mind, your very brain itself, will change as a result of this process. The more time you spend in another pokemon's mind, the more your brain will adapt to understanding stimuli unique to that pokemon."

The hair on Red's neck stands on end as he imagines his brain shifting and changing from what just happened. He knows he's being silly, that it's probably just growing extra cells and new connections. His hand rises to rub at the nape of his neck. "Does that have side effects?"

"Some. This is partially why learning Amnesia will also be an integral part of your psychic skill set."

"Okay. Yeah." Red lowers his hand and takes a deep breath. "So, what do I do next?"

"Your development of this skill will require prolonged immersion in the mind of the type of pokemon you're training with. First focus on the physical sensations, one at a time, then coupled, and so on, until you can fully inhabit either body at will, and then both together."

Red tries to imagine feeling two bodies at the same time. "And all the practice will prevent me from being overwhelmed by that, I take it?"

"Yes. It's easier with pokemon that are smaller and have simpler bodies, and even easier the more similar their anatomy is to yours. But the true difficulty is in the lack of guideposts. Only you can know if you are fully joined, and you must be wary of assuming you are prematurely. For example, there are more than just the traditionally identified five senses. You must also learn to feel pressure, pain, balance, motion, hunger, temperature, and so on. The more you can naturally inhabit the senses you are familiar with, the more you will become aware of the senses you are not. This can be an incredibly powerful tool, as many pokemon experience the world in ways we do not, and borrowing their senses can often help you survive dangerous situations."

Red is nearly giddy with excitement as he imagines the possibilities, but after a moment he remembers what they came up here for in the first place. "So, what does all this have to do with teleportation?"

"Merging with the body and feeling the senses is the first step. Once that occurs you will better be able to sense the pokemon's moods and thoughts, and eventually even its psychic connections. When you can fully inhabit a pokemon's mind as it registers a teleportation site, you will understand how to recall that experience. I believe this will be less difficult for you than others."

Red nods. "It sounds right up my alley."

Ayane smiles and tucks some hair behind her ear as the wind blows it. "I believe you will go far in this field, Red. More important than the particular strengths of your gift, your dedication and effort have been all a teacher could ask for. It has been a pleasure guiding you in the first steps of your journey."

Red's heart sinks as he realizes that his time must almost be up, and that this would be goodbye. He gets to his feet, and she does the same. "It's been an honor learning from you, Ayane-sensei." He bows. "I don't know how I'm going to find someone to replace you."

Ayane smiles and bows back. "I think you'll manage. And if you ever pass through Saffron City, be sure to request a meeting with Leader Sabrina. If anyone in Kanto will know what to make of your unique mental shield, it's she."

Leaf spent most of her final day in Cerulean monitoring the comments on her new article, and occasionally responding to them or private messages. A pop-science website of middling fame offered her the most for it, and she's happy with the reception it's getting. Her following continues to grow, slowly but steadily, until she has about as many as the average 4-badge trainer.

It feels good having the article done and out there, so she can focus on the next thing. Laura was right, it's better to move from one project to the next and follow what interests her. And luckily, she doesn't even have to search for a new article idea: the S.S. Anne ticket is going to open a whole new world of topics for her to write on, and she can't wait to start looking into them.

Still, Leaf can't shake the lingering questions she has about the Renegade's murder. While she lets Professor Oak look into it from his end, she figures there's no harm in reaching out to Zoey and seeing if there's anything else she learned. Leaf doesn't want to get scooped, but maybe she can point Zoey in another direction and see if they can both get a story out of it, if it turns out to be something sinister after all.

Unfortunately, Leaf can't seem to get in contact with the reporter. All her calls go unanswered, her messages unreturned. As the day goes on, Leaf sits on her bed and tries not to freak out. Maybe she's really busy. Or irritated with Leaf and ignoring her. Or somewhere without internet access.

Not poisoned to death the way Yuuta, was, surely. That's just her being paranoid, right?

But if she's not being paranoid in believing that an unknown psychic dug around in her head, it seems sensible to be even more paranoid about what they might have gotten out of her. After confirming that Zoey hasn't published anything or done any interviews in the past few days, Leaf finally tries checking in with the news sites and organizations Zoey most often works with, in case any of them know where she is or have heard from her recently.

When that doesn't work, Leaf finally just finds her address from their correspondence and heads out of the Trainer House, summoning Bulbasaur to accompany her. The sun is starting to set, and she enjoys walking through the crowds of pedestrians and tourists going in and out of brightly lit stores as she makes her way through the city. She'll have to remember to ask the others if they want to grab dinner together tonight, so they can all enjoy the city one last time before they hit the road. She passes an ice cream parlor with people sitting out front, and stops to get a cone of mint chocolate chip for herself and a cold poffin for Bulbasaur.

It's all a pleasant distraction, but she keeps imagining what she'll do if Zoey doesn't answer her door, and what it might mean.

When she finally arrives at the apartment building, she types in Zoey's apartment number and waits for her to pick up. The ringing eventually ends without answer however, and Leaf bites her lower lip, wondering what to do now. Bulbasaur wanders over to the glass door and tries to walk through it, only to bump his nose. He extends his vines and presses them against the glass, moving them up and around as if trying to find a way through, and Leaf withdraws her pokemon before he decides to start whipping it.

She takes her phone out and pretends to read something off the screen as she paces back and forth, waiting for someone to open the door. About five minutes later she spots someone coming out, and pivots to head toward the door so she can reach it just as they do. She keeps her eyes on her screen as they open it and holds the door open for them, then slips in and puts her phone away.

The lobby is clean and upscale, but not enough for a front desk, thankfully. She finds the elevators and rides up to Zoey's floor, then finds her apartment in the maze of hallways. The indoor quiet after walking the streets is suddenly oppressive, and her steps slow as she approaches the door, heart thumping. She wishes she'd asked Red or Blue to come. Her hand itches to rest on Bulbasaur's pokeball, but that's silly, even if Zoey is lying dead in her apartment (Stop that, you're being ridiculous) there's no reason for there to still be any present danger.

Throat dry, Leaf lifts her arm and presses the doorbell. She looks left and right in the hallway, unable to keep herself from checking for any watching parties. Maybe there's a camera in the light overhead.

The door stays closed. Leaf leans forward and presses her ear to it.

Silence.

Leaf presses the doorbell again, listening to it chime through the door. How long should she wait here? She can entertain herself on her phone for awhile, but she should be packing, preparing for their morning departure…

Hope has already fled by the time she presses the doorbell a third time, and she turns around and slides her back against the door, head resting against it. She takes her phone out and begins typing a message to Blue to let him know where she is when the door opens behind her, spilling her backward with a yelp.

Her body freezes as she stares upward in shock at… Zoey, who stares down at her with a face carved of stone.

"Miss Juniper. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Leaf is already scrambling to her feet as she stuffs her phone in her pocket. "Hi, Miss Palmer. I'm sorry for coming uninvited, I was worried about you."

"Worried? I'm fine. Why would you be worried about me?"

Leaf stares at the reporter, who stands in her doorway in casual home attire. Zoey looks softer with her hair loose around her shoulders and no makeup on, but her eyes are as clear and focused as ever. There's no sign of sickness or injury, she just looks… normal.

Leaf begins to feel very foolish.

"I just haven't seen you around in awhile, that's all."

"I've been working. I just got back from Cerulean South this afternoon after looking into the home invasion there."

"Ah. Good." Leaf wants to ask her if she got her messages, then decides against it. Busy or not, the reporter could have responded if she wanted to. Clearly she didn't, and Leaf just feels like she's imposing now. All she wanted was to make sure Zoey was okay, and she's done that. "Well, I'm heading out of town, so, I just thought I'd say goodbye. Have a good night." Leaf raises a hand in a wave and turns away.

"I thought you were planning on writing something about the city?"

Leaf turns back. "I was, but the article on the dig site kind of took the place of that." Leaf smiles. "It's not exactly the eye-opening investigative piece I was hoping for, but I'm still grateful that your tip led me to a story. Now I've got a new opportunity in Vermillion, so I'm heading down there."

Zoey studies Leaf, and something in her face shifts, the polite blankness leaving her features. Leaf fidgets, smile fading. She's about to say goodbye again, when the reporter suddenly says. "You're the reason my sources on the mountain have all dried up, aren't you?"

Leaf's head jerks back. "What?"

"That fluff piece on the dig site. You were looking into the tip on the Renegade and cluelessly bumbled around until someone important noticed. Potential leaks were cracked down on, my sources were all confronted or scared quiet, and now I'm out of a story."

Shock slowly turns to simmering anger as the reporter's accusation registers. "That's not what happened."

"Then what did happen?" Zoey leans against her doorframe. "You tell someone about who gave you the tip, so they could freeze me out?"

Leaf clenches her jaw shut before a response can come out, realizing at the last second that this kind of blunt accusation is an effective way to bully someone into spilling their secrets. "My investigation is still ongoing," she says, words clipped, "and I didn't tell anyone about you." Though Giovanni may have figured it out, with that psychic…

Zoey doesn't appear phased by her glare. "Well, seems you have it all in hand then. So what did you want with me?"

"I told you, to say goodbye. I don't know why I bothered. See ya."

"You said you were worried about me before," Zoey says as Leaf turns away again. "Why? Did something happen? Were you threatened?"

Leaf should just start walking, she knows she should, but anger makes her look over her shoulder. "Why would someone threaten me? I was just cluelessly bumbling around."

Zoey passes a hand over her eyes, fingers massaging her temples. "Look, I'm sorry I said that. I've had a frustrating week, and I blamed you. I can be a bitch when I lose a story I've spent a lot of time on." Zoey steps back and holds the door open. "Come inside, let's talk about it. Maybe we can work together to figure out what happened."

Guilt rises to war with Leaf's anger. Even if Giovanni didn't explicitly figure out about Zoey from Leaf, her investigation did probably lead to the reporter losing her sources, through no fault of her own.

But the apology does little to soothe her pride, especially when she knows Zoey is just hungry to get back on the story again. "If your sources aren't talking to you anymore, we don't have anything to discuss. And I really do have to leave Cerulean. Thanks for the interview and tips." Leaf forces herself to head for the elevators.

"Wait, Juniper! You're in over your head! Leaf!"

Leaf rounds the corner without looking back.

Red's last night in Cerulean feels bittersweet. Pewter had a relaxing calm to it, and a growing restlessness made leaving exciting, but Cerulean feels beautiful and vibrant and… safe.

Leaving that safety has extra impact. Where before he was eager to continue his journey, make new discoveries and catch new pokemon, it's the dangers of the road that keep Red occupied now. The more he thinks about it, the more he thinks he was lucky to survive the fire in Viridian and the paras rampage on Mt. Moon. And surely someday his luck would run out. After his conversation with Bill, the chance at a real safeguard against death makes the fear of risking it that much worse.

As the anxiety rises however, he reminds himself of the second day of their journey, when he met Donovan's skarmory on the rooftop. He was paralyzed by fear then, but his priorities helped him get past it. And those priorities haven't changed: Learn about pokemon, become a good trainer, help people, gain fame/funds, so he could someday be a Professor with his own lab to help discover the origin of pokemon species.

And he's on his way with each of them, made more progress than he would have imagined when he started out. But all that stops if he lets the knowledge of Bill's potential solution to immortality make him fear death even more.

As he and Leaf decided after they met the reclusive inventor, the wide view should only motivate them to work harder.

Such are Red's thoughts as he makes his final trip around the city with Blue and Leaf. They do some last minute shopping and enjoy a post-apocalyptic movie where some mythical pokemon awakens from the depths of the planet and sends an electromagnetic pulse through the atmosphere, shutting down all technology and returning humanity to the dark ages. Afterward they enjoy one last meal at their favorite teppanyaki grill, then head back to the Trainer House. Along the way, Red only half listens to Blue and Leaf argue over the movie protagonist's decision to give up on people in outlying towns so he could focus on just saving those in his, and uses the rest of his attention to reach out with his psychic abilities to sense the minds of those they pass by.

Entering a meditative state and increasing his inner awareness is easy for him to do now, even while walking, but the sensation of the other minds is a confusing mess. He feels them in echoed reflections upon his own mental landscape, as if his mind is a core of "immediate" emotions with others only touching the edges and imprinting briefly on it. As soon as he identifies the abstract sensation, he tries metaphors out until he finds one that fits: his mind as a deep lake, with dark depths of depression lying mostly out of sight, buried for now under some happiness and companionship, and above them at the very top, a calm and curious surface. But that surface isn't quite placid; dozens of rain drops plink down and send out ripples, rain drops of excitement, joy, annoyance, pleasure, worry, and more—

(—except raindrops isn't right, raindrops are intermittent, these are continuous like thin streams, but they feel intermittent because my attention can't hold them all at once and most of them are moving all around me—)

—until over time he can isolate the feelings of Leaf, who's consistent in clarity and strength. Her "stream" falls with more force than the other raindrops, and spreads its ripples farther and with more effect. Blue, of course, emits nothing that Red can detect, while the rest of his mind-lake is peppered chaotically by the drops of everyone around them, like small, quick rain clouds zipping overhead, a blur that he can barely distinguish from his own emotions when he—

"Red?"

Red blinks. They're in the Trainer House lobby, between the elevators. He turns and sees Blue and Leaf staring at him. "Sorry," he tells Leaf. "Zoned out a bit."

She smiles. "Was just saying goodnight."

"Right! Hope you sleep well, and see you tomorrow."

"You too. Sweet dreams." She waves and enters the elevator to the girls' rooms.

A moment later the other elevator opens, and Blue and Red step in and head to their room. "I know we have an early morning, but I'm not really tired yet," Blue says as he sits on his bed and starts to take off his shoes.

"Well, hang on, I'm actually not either. Wanna go downstairs and have a match first?"

Blue blinks. "What, really?" He grins. "You're asking me to train for once?" He gets up, grabs his bag, and slings an arm around Red's shoulder as he heads for the training rooms. "My dear Red, I thought you'd never ask. All our sessions are finally rubbing off, huh? You've been missing them?"

"Something like that," Red says, struggling out from under Blue's arm to grab his own bag. Another good reason to keep Pichu on my shoulder at all times: deterrence. "I just want to make sure I'm prepared for the road again. After what happened when we left Pewter…"

Blue nods. "Good plan. You've just barely managed to keep up while training our weaker pokemon, a couple weeks off and you'll fall way behind."

"I've been busy."

Blue hits the elevator button, then raises his hands. "Not judging, just saying. I'll be glad to have a consistent partner on the road. Even Leaf is coming around, I think."

"Really? Should we invite her?"

"Nah, she still doesn't want to do any actual combat. But maybe soon."

They reach a standard battle room and go to either side of the arena sketched out on the floor. "Actual combat sounds good. I want some pokemon to evolve soon," Red says, unhooking his starter's ball. "So give me your best shot."

Blue raises a brow. "You sure? Because my best shot is Kemuri or Maturin. Which is fine by me, since I need to practice reining them in better."

"I'm sure. Make it Maturin."

"Alright then. I'll stick to her least damaging moves."

"So, what's a fair matchup for me, given that?"

Blue crosses his arms and cocks his head to the side. "Ask yourself that. Who do you think you can beat her with, if you use a minimum amount of pokemon?"

Red kneels down and opens his bag as he considers, taking out the extra pokemon that he doesn't carry on his belt. He mentally goes over all he knows of Blue's wartortle from their matches together and the battles he watched against Ariya and Misty. Maturin's tough shell means his nidoran's attacks would be less effective than he'd like, and she has Ice Beam, which means his bellsprout and his new oddish won't last long in a straight fight. Pichu is fast enough to get at least one strong hit in, but is so frail that a single return attack would make Red fear for his safety even without a super effective attack.

Brute force could work. Just keep throwing attacks out until he wears Maturin down. But he'd rather win with a strategy in mind, and as he considers his spinarak and charmander, an idea comes to mind. Psychic and Ghost attacks work by strange rules: some need line of sight, others work like projectiles or area of effect attacks. Night Shade emits a mental attack in a cone, affecting anyone in its path… but while the spinarak displays the pattern on its back when it uses it, the pattern itself doesn't have to be seen, nor does the spinarak have to see its target.

Another minute of thought, and Red looks up. "Oddish, Spinarak, Caterpie, Charmander."

Blue looks at the ceiling and rubs his chin. Red waits for Blue to try and figure out his strategy, going over his own in his mind and trying not to let his nerves take over. He feels the urge to reach out with his mind the way he did at Bill's, see if he could get an idea of Blue's feelings, give him some clue as to what his plan is. He'll have to get used to fighting that instinct, or he'll accidentally do it at the wrong time and get someone else upset with him. Either that or get used to pretending not to know how others feel, like Ayane does. Lucky that Blue is Dark, really, so Red doesn't have to worry about it with him.

"Okay, let's do it," Blue says. The two put their facemasks on, and Blue widens his stance, then unclips his diveball. "Ready? Set… Go, Maturin!"

"Go, Caterpie! String Shot!"

"Tackle!"

Maturin hits his caterpie and sends it bouncing across the floor, but it flips itself while in the air so that it's still facing the wartortle when it lands. Long strands of sticky filament shoot out and latch onto the wartortle.

"Bubble!" Blue yells, and Maturin sends a stream of shimmering orbs out.

"String Shot!"

The bubbles reach his caterpie and explode, knocking it around and cutting off its attack. Red's heart leaps into his throat as he watches his pokemon tumble and roll along the ground. He considers trying again, but doesn't want to risk the bug any further.

"Caterpie, return! Go, Oddish!"

"Bai!"

"Dodge!"

His pokemon leaps away on its short legs, barely avoiding the ice beam that spreads a sheen of frost on the ground where it was standing. "I thought you were going easy! Poison Powder!"

"Bai, then Dodge! Going easy is one thing, surrendering is another!"

The beam of ice connects this time, and Red quickly withdraws his oddish, heart pounding as he watches Maturin try and avoid the cloud of spores that were sent out. The sticky string attaching it to the ground slows Maturin long enough for her to get coated however, and Red feels a small surge of hope. Time is on his side now.

"Go, Charmander! Smokescreen!"

"Bubble!"

"Dodge!"

Charmander flings a glob of black goo at Maturin, the projectile billowing smoke outward. About half a dozen large bubbles float toward him in return, and Charmander leaps and scurries around them, managing to avoid all but one. It touches his shoulder and gives an explosive pop, knocking him to the side and drenching him in a fine mist.

"Bubble!"

"Smokescreen!"

Again the bubbles are sent out, and again Charmander sticks a glob of sludge to Maturin. Charmander is hit by another bubble, and the resulting pop knocks him head over tail. Red begins to consider withdrawing him, but the wartortle is now the center of a haze of smoke. Her aim should be way off.

One more should do it. "Smokescreen!"

"Tackle!"

"Dodge!" Red yells, heart sinking as Maturin runs fast enough to emerge from the smoke and avoid the third glob. Charmander tries to run, but Maturin cuts him off with a full-body tackle that knocks him out of the arena's lines and against the wall. Smoke begins to surround Maturin again, though she's batting at the burning globs on her shell, knocking some of it away.

"Smokescreen!"

"Bubble!"

The black blob hits Maturin straight in the belly, and she coughs as the smoke billows up directly in her face. The bubbles go wide this time, and Blue yells "Tackle!" again.

"Dodge!"

Charmander easily evades the smoke covered wartortle, but Blue yells for another tackle and Red is forced to keep his pokemon moving. Smoke is starting to fill the room, and the fans overhead turn on automatically to suck it away.

Red watches their pokemon run around until Charmander has a solid lead, then risks another Smokescreen. But though it lands, Maturin's return Bubble attack is so wide that Charmander is nearly hit again. Even with her sight obscured, Red can't risk another Bubble landing, and he quickly extends Charmander's ball.

"Return, Charmander! Go, Spinarak! Night Shade!"

"Gaw!"

Spinarak raises its abdomen, only to get blasted by a jet of water. "Night Shade!" Red calls out again, and this time Maturin misses. The stream of water abruptly cuts off as Maturin takes an unsteady step backward, then falls to all fours, shaking her head.

"Gaw!"

"Night Shade!"

The water misses again, and Red's spinarak continues its mental assault. Red's so caught up in the battle he almost misses Blue walking along the side of the arena so that he's closer to his pokemon.

"Hey!" Red yells. "Stop, you'll get caught up in the attack!"

Blue ignores him, face completely calm as he keeps moving until he's directly behind his pokemon from Spinarak's position, and Maturin is right between them. "Gaw!"

Maturin shoots water again, and this time it nails Spinarak directly, knocking Red's pokemon back and to the side.

"Oh bullshit," Red mutters. Did Blue just…? "Night Shade!"

"Gaw!"

Maturin shakes her head again, water dripping from her mouth as the mental attack hits her, and Red can see Blue flinch. But his Dark nature protects him (Sure, NOW he's okay with being hit by it) and he steps to the side to line Maturin up between him and Spinarak's new position again. "Gaw!"

Maturin shoots straight out, and though some of it strikes the ground in front of Spinarak, the rest hits Red's pokemon again. His fists clench. I was right, he can aim her by his position. Still, the poison and mental attacks combined should be wearing Maturin down. He just has to wait a little longer. "Night Shade!"

"Gaw!"

The two pokemon continue to exchange attacks, and Blue keeps shifting his position to ensure that Maturin can aim through the smoke around her. She still occasionally shoots the water too high or low, but enough hit for Red to see his spinarak visibly weakening, its movements slowing down until it can barely raise its abdomen.

To make things worse, the same smoke that lowers Maturin's accuracy makes it hard to judge its health. Blue is familiar with his pokemon and probably has an internal clock ticking down, but Red doesn't know how quickly a wartortle will succumb to an oddish's poison, or how many mental attacks it can take before it passes out.

He should have used an Ember attack or two with Charmander, tried to burn Maturin. As it is, he feels his hope dwindling. As always, Blue looks calm and sure, giving nothing away, and Red finds himself frustrated by the inability to check his mental state. He finally decides that his only hope is to try for Maturin's.

Red ignores the battle for a moment, focuses on his breathing, and extends his psychic sense. He feels the echoes of minds through the walls and ceiling around them, but ignores everything but those in the same room. He focuses past the alien, unreadable noise of his spinarak and toward the mind just beyond it.

Weakness floods through Red, every breath painful as his stomach (no not the stomach something else) churns and jets water through his throat and out his mouth in a spray—

"Red!"

Red is on his hands and knees, vomit on the floor. He gives his head a brisk shake, then looks up to find Blue staring at him in shock as their pokemon continue battling.

Red fumbles for Spinarak's ball and aims it forward. "Spinarak, return!"

"Maturin, stop!" Blue dashes toward him and unhooks an antidote from his belt. He sprays it into the smoke cloud around Maturin as he runs past, leaping around and over puddles of water and poisonous spores until he kneels beside Red. "You okay?"

Red leans back until he's sitting on his haunches, breathing deep and grimacing at the taste in his mouth. "Fine," he says, and clears his throat before spitting. "Water?"

"Sure, yeah." Blue grabs Red's canteen from his bag and brings it to him. He waits for Red to take a deep drink, then asks, "Is it your stomach? Think some of the meat was undercooked?"

"No, nothing like that," Red says, laughing a little as he wipes at his eyes. His body feels completely fine, the borrowed sensations fading moments after he disconnected from Maturin. The only lingering effects are from his body's reaction, and the usual upwelling of grief that he quickly confronts with his positive emotions and reminders, with some success. It helps having Blue beside him, obvious worry on his face. "I thought I was going to lose, so I tried sensing how hurt Maturin was."

Blue looks at him with a mix of alarm and fascination. "You can do that now?"

"Not well, apparently. But yeah, it's a new thing I'm practicing."

"Red, you idiot! You poisoned her and hit her with half a dozen mental attacks!" Blue looks up to check on Maturin, who's still somewhat obscured by the smoke cloud, but appears to be sitting down and resting now. "No wonder you threw up."

"Actually, I think it was in sympathy with her Water Gun." Red grimaces as he remembers the sensation of liquid traveling up his throat with powerful force, and his stomach heaves again. Thankfully it calms down after. "But yeah, there might have been some carry over from the rest too. Blue, she's in pain. A lot. I think it was the poison, which you cured, but you should heal her more." Red rubs his arms as he remembers the sensation of pain that radiated over her skin.

"She's taken worse, but yeah, now that I know you're not dying…" Blue stands and goes to his pokemon, spraying her with a full potion bottle and feeding her some berries as the last of the smoke fades away.

Red takes deep breaths until he feels normal again, mind lingering on the sensations he shared. It's one thing to see how badly hurt pokemon get, and another to feel it… especially for effects that aren't visible.

"Hey, so, how much longer were you going to keep Maturin out?" Red asks, getting to his feet and taking his pokemon out one at a time to heal them up. He brings Spinarak out first and sprays some potion on its bruised and cracked carapace. "Was I close to beating you?"

"Another twenty seconds, probably. Were you going to keep Spinarak out that long?"

Red considers it as he withdraws the bug. "I don't know. I guess it depends on how many more times Maturin scored a hit. I'd like to think I'd have won if I stuck to it, but maybe not: I only tried using my g—the psychic thing because I was desperate." Red almost called his powers his "gift," a phrase that always struck him as pretentious before he started training with Ayane. It still seems that way now, but he's clearly more used to it. Still, he'd rather not use the phrase in front of Blue. He doesn't know how jealous his friend might still be, and would rather not risk rubbing it in.

"You know what your problem is?" Blue takes a spray and a towel from his bag and starts cleaning Maturin's shell. "You don't take enough risks. Your plan was good, but you had a lot of chances to lock that up earlier. If you kept your caterpie out for another String Shot, or let Charmander fire off a couple Embers—"

"Caterpie could have probably stayed out a bit longer," Red admits as he sends his Charmander out. The fire lizard looks around frantically until it finds Maturin, but a quick command brings it out of battle mode. Once it's relaxed, Red takes his towel out too and begins drying him off between a few sprays of potion. "But I was worried about Charmander. I regretted not attacking with him too, but I didn't want to risk him getting hit with another Bubble. And he accomplished his objective anyway."

"You're focusing too much on your strategy. Tactics have to adapt in the middle of battle, and you need to grab every advantage you see. Let your pokemon fight as long as they can: that's what potions and pokemon centers are for. I told you I was going easy anyway, remember?"

Red frowns at the idea of purposefully fighting his pokemon until they pass out, especially after feeling what Maturin did for just a few seconds. But Blue is right that Red would have probably won if he let his pokemon fight longer, and he needs to get used to letting his pokemon take the same risks they will in the wild. "You're right. I guess I'm still a bit overcautious after losing Spearow and Rattata."

"I get it. Losing my pokemon in Viridian sucked too. But you're not doing them any favors by being soft on them during training."

Red nods as he feeds Charmander. His pokemon is nearly as tall as his waist now, and Red smiles as the fire lizard butts its head against his thigh and nuzzles it. Red strokes the warm scales on his head, then withdraws him and brings Oddish out for a quick defrosting and healing, followed by Caterpie.

As soon as the bug sees Maturin again however, it bursts into light, causing Red to leap back in surprise and stare as his first pokemon evolves.

"Woah! 'Grats on your first evo, Red! I mean, it's a caterpie, they evolve if you blow on them hard enough, but still."

Red grins, voice wry. "Thanks, Blue." He watches the light fade to reveal his new metapod, its hard carapace gleaming in the overhead lights. After it seems to realize it's not in battle, it waddles over to the berries he laid out, and Red kneels down to feed a few into the slot-like mouth on its front. "I guess I should go for a butterfree soon." He wonders how close to evolving his other pokemon are, and feels a surge of confidence. He may have lost the battle, and the mid-battle psychic experiment didn't go so well, but he still feels more prepared for leaving the city than he did before.

"Yeah, then you'll finally have a flier," Blue says as he withdraws Maturin and goes to the wall to hit the button marking the training room as in need of a clean up. "Sort of. I mean, it's a butterfree—"

"Shut up, Blue."

On the morning of their departure, Red wakes up extra early and grabs a cab out of Cerulean North. He spends the ride drinking tea to chase away his lingering sleepiness and looking over his paper for final edits. Ayane's final batch of abra confirmed the trend, and the correlation is clear as ever.

At the lower bounds, no abra with an Other of less than 21% could lift more than 28 kg. The empty space in the top left quadrant extends rightward until Other climbs over 25%, and then data points begin to track upward to 28% and 34 kg, after which the dots become a seemingly random cloud. But in that empty space, the null hypothesis seems clearly defeated.

Which means there seems to be something in the abra that the pokedex doesn't understand, the same thing it didn't understand in the spinarak. And that something is probably related, at least a little, to the abra's psychokinetic strength.

Red works his way down the document, fixing typos and doing some final edits while ignoring his car sickness as best he can. He also does his best to restrain the excitement coursing through him. He's too used to disappointment to assume that this would be as big a deal as he thinks it will. But reserved optimism or not, the depression that's weighed him down over the past two weeks is at its weakest when he considers the results. It's nice to bask in that feeling, awhile.

When Red considers the potential implications of this research, he can't help but feel a bit like a fraud. It was the Professor and the rest of Pallet Lab's hard work that made this new pokedex, after all, and without it he never would have had the idea to try and measure his spinarak's psychic ability. When he brought it up to Professor Oak, his mentor laughed.

"And what, you think luck had no part of my career? If I had been born just a couple years earlier or later, someone else would have been the first trainer with all the new technology available to make the discoveries I did. But it still took a lot of work to make them, and then follow through with the rest of what made me a Professor."

"I still feel like I'm cheating. You're the one who developed this pokedex, you and Dr. Madi and the rest of Pallet Labs."

"Red, you are part of Pallet Labs. Whatever you accomplish with what we taught and provided for you is an extension of our work. We paved the roads for those like you to have the opportunities you do, and make new discoveries. To be the next ones to teach us all something new."

Red makes a final edit in his Conclusion, then sends it off to Dr. Madi to check over and leans his head back against the seat. He closes his eyes for the rest of the trip to let the mild nausea pass, smiling slightly. If everything goes well, anything Red has to teach will be soon outstripped by how much more there will be to learn. What the physical substance that correlates with psychic powers is, whether it's the same between species, whether there's a cutoff point between species labeled Psychic Type and those that merely have access to some psychic abilities… There will be a lot to study, and a lot of others besides him studying them. It won't just be his project anymore, but a collaboration. One that Red will have to keep working hard in to stay at the forefront.

And as much attention as Red gets for it, he'll always know who he has to thank… one of whom he also needs to apologize to.

The cab pulls up to Bill's house, and Red thanks the driver, then tells them to go back without him. Red goes over to the front of one of Bill's houses and stands in front of the door. He looks for the camera lens, then waves to it.

"Hey, Bill. I don't know if you're up or not this early, so I didn't call ahead, but we're heading south today and I just wanted to say goodbye. And to say thank you. You've been a lot of help to me, more than anyone but Professor Oak, and I appreciate it more than I can say."

He takes a deep breath. "I also wanted to apologize. I'm still new at the whole psychic thing, but that's no excuse for letting my emotions get the better of me. I'm sorry for violating your trust and privacy, and I hope I can make it up to you by going to the Cruise Convention. More than that, though, I wanted to offer you something in return."

He unclips his abra's ball, the strongest one he caught and thus one of those he'll be keeping for himself. "I understand your reasons for what you said, and your offer to store others who are already suspended is really generous. So I'm going to set your house as a teleport point, just in case I need to get someone to you. I won't pretend it's not also in case something happens to me. But I'm also doing it so that if you ever need something, I can come to you right away." Red smiles. "Even if it's just to bring you a soda."

Red wonders if Bill would say something if he's awake. Red's pretty sure the house records its surroundings, but whether it would tell Bill that he came by is a different story. He'll send Bill a message after to let him know, but just in case…

"If you're awake and okay with that, make the clefairy appear again. If not, the arbok."

Red waits another few moments, tensely preparing his nervous system for a realistic arbok to suddenly appear beside him. Instead a clefairy appears pops up beside him instead, which makes him jump anyway.

Red grins at the clefairy, which disappears a moment later. He brings up his mental shield, then summons his abra in the grassy field by the house and says, "Register Teleport." Then he returns it to its ball and brings out his other abra.

"Thanks again, Bill. Talk to you soon."

He puts a hand on the smooth fur of its head and says "Teleport," and with a wrenching, shuddering twist, the grassy fields and houses around him are replaced by the rooftop of the Trainer House. He feeds his abra a pokepuff, then withdraws it and heads down to collect his bag and meet Blue and Leaf.