Chapter - 7

Research Assistant Amanda Fouritz walked out of the Parlor Town

Research Facility to unlock the gates and see if any of Professor

Julia's special guests would be arriving. As she and the Professor

had only been up for a few moments, she had not taken the time to

dress herself properly and wore only a simple lab coat over her

Pikachu pajamas. Her hair looked as if she had slapped a mop head

on her skull and she still walked around in her slippers. As she

pressed the access code to unlock the gate, she thought she could

hear rustling in the bushes outside. She reached into her pocket to

pull out a Poke Ball to defend herself with, but she looked around the

corner and found Addison Tenton and the Kingston twins sound

asleep on the walls of the gate. She smiled to herself, knowing how

excited they must have been to set off on their journey. She decides

not to disturb them and to go and tell Julia that three of her five

guests were already outside waiting for her.

Professor Julia Pines looked herself over in her vanity mirror beside

her bed. Though she fondly recalled her days of frolicking about the

entire region of Arcana with her friends, she was content to be the

one sending others out these days. After all we've been through, she

thought to herself, I think I've earned it. Julia had grown taller since

her original adventure nearly fifteen years earlier, but she had

carefully maintained her wavy sienna-colored hair that she had been

accustomed to since she was a little girl. Thanks to all the research

papers she would read and the studies she would make, she now

needed to wear a pair of glasses that made her feel older than the

mere twenty five she truly was. I look like one of my grandmother's

old colleagues, she laughed to herself. Had she not known exactly

how old she was, she might have mistaken herself for a 35 year old

librarian.

She looked to the other side of her bed. Folded and untouched. She

sighed. She had assumed Michael wouldn't be able to keep his

promise to his cousins about spending time with them, but she would

have liked to have at least heard from him. He would often be away

on these raids for as long as nine days before even considering

coming home. I thought that after this raid, things would have been

different. Nevertheless, she threw her lab coat on and descended

the staircase. She skidded to a stop when she came into the den.

Directly to the left from the foot of the steps was the enormous bed

she had made for Michael's most trusted and domesticated

Pokémon, the Arcanine named Mufasa. She would always find the

Fire-Type Pokémon resting on his bed whenever she would come

down for the morning. But today, he wasn't there. She looked by their

couch and saw Mufasa's tail thwacking against the floor loudly. She

shook her head, smiling to herself. Mufasa saw her downstairs and

trotted over to see her and licked her fingers as she pet him. He

tugged at her coat and led her over to the couch. To her surprise,

Michael was sound asleep on the couch. On the coffee table beside

the couch was a folded piece of paper with her name on it and a

bouquet of flowers. She picked up the note first to read it's contents:

Sorry I got home so late. Didn't want to wake you, so I slept down

here. I'll tell you all about the raids in the morning. Love you sweetie.

Julia eyed Michael as he continued to slumber, completely unaware

of her presence in the room. She smiled to herself. Sleep away, you

hopeless romantic. Julia bent down and kissed Michael's forehead.

Mufasa nuzzled up to her. "Okay, okay" she told the Pokémon. "I get

you. Breakfast is coming." She patted her leg and the Arcanine

followed her out of the den and into their kitchen. Gathering his food

bowl, Julia filled it with Mufasa's nutritious and doctor approved meal

of Fiery Burger Curry. Mufasa wasn't the only one waiting for

breakfast, as Julia turned to the kitchen table and saw her Sylveon

sitting, almost angelically, looking at her with a sweet smile on her

face.

"Oh, so you want breakfast too, Bella?" she asked the Fairy

Pokemon.

Bella hopped off the table and started to sniff at Mufasa, who looked

back at her and sneezed, causing the Sylveon to run off for a

moment. Julia laughed. "You're gonna give her a heart attack, you

know?" She put Mufasa's bowl in front of him and the Arcanine bent

down and began to scarf down the curry. She then warmed up some

of her Sylveon's preferred meal, Sweet Berry Curry. She whistled

softly for Bella, who nervously sauntered into the kitchen again, all

too aware of Mufasa's presence in the room. "C'mon, Bella. He's not

gonna hurt you." Bella trotted to her own place and began to eat the

curry, while Julia gently massaged the ribbons that wrapped around

her neck and drank some of her Breakfast Tea. "I swear, I feed you

two better than I do myself." Mufasa looked to her, with curry over his

snout, and howled in approval. Bella continued to eat as if she didn't

hear her trainer's comment.

As Julia sipped her tea, Amanda walked into the kitchen. "Good

morning, Professor. Sorry to disturb you."

"It's not a disturbance, Amanda" Julia replied. "Good Morning to you

too."

"I found the Kingston twins and Addison Tenton were camping

outside the gates. Should I let them in?"

Julia chuckled to herself. I guess all Kingstons do start to act alike

after a while. Always eager for the next adventure. "Yes, you can let

them in. Tell them to wait in the lobby until I come in. And when

you're done, see what you can do about the big Ursaring on my

couch."

"There's an Ursaring on your couch?" Amanda asked, almost afraid

to know the answer.

"The Ursaring just happens to be the Champion of Arcana. He

wanted to be awake for this, so make sure he is." Amanda bowed

and left Julia alone again. As Julia sipped more of her tea, she found

the ribbons of her Sylveon had wrapped around her hand. She

looked down and saw Bella smiling up at her, having licked her plate

of curry clean. Julia picked her Pokémon up in her arms and held her

at the table, gently bopping her in the nose playfully. It didn't take

long for Mufasa to wander his way over to her and wait for the same

treatment. She pointed towards the den. "You want to cuddle too?

Go cuddle with Michael.' Mufasa took off at almost a gallop for the

den, leaving Julia and her prized Pokémon as the Sylveon licked her

face. We had our adventure she said fondly to herself. It's time to

send them on theirs.

{A Few Minutes Later… }

Ryan woke up after dozing off for what only felt like a few minutes.

He yawned loudly and tried to survey his surroundings. Matthew was

asleep, his head resting on his knapsack. Maybe we were a little

tired after all, he thought to himself. Looking to his left, he saw

Addison was also asleep, her head resting on… my lap? Ryan's face

immediately flushed with color as he tried to figure out what he was

supposed to do with his crush's head resting on him. He looked past

Matthew and saw Holly and Tommy Queensbury coming up the

road. He gently nudged Addison and kicked his brother to wake him

up. Addison dozed, until she realized where her head was and she

immediately scrambled backwards, her face as red as Ryan's.

Unable to look each other in the eyes, the two waited in awkward

silence until Holly and Tommy arrived.

"Hey guys!" Holly called out to her friends. While generally kind and

caring, Holly was about as typical a rich girl as they came. She

always wore the best clothes, the most in fashion hair styles and

always spent every waking moment making herself stand out from

the crowd. She had strawberry-blonde hair that usually was braided

neatly below her ears and sky-blue eyes. Instead of appearing to

display the latest fashions that were popular in places like Lumiose

City in Kalos or Castelia City in Unova, she wore ordinary newbie

training clothes, a white and blue top with a navy blue skirt. "I hope

we didn't keep you guys."

"No" Addison replied, working up the strength to answer her friend

despite her face still a deep shade of red. "We were actually hoping

to get in soon."

"Good" Tommy Queensbury replied. Though a few years younger

than his sister and her friends, Tommy insisted on being allowed to

accompany them to get their own Pokémon. Julia had been hesitant

to, but graciously accepted when Mr. Queensbury gave a

considerable donation to the Research Facility. Despite being a

Queensbury and Holly's trueborn little brother, the two looked and

acted like two completely different people. Tommy was always

playing with all the other local kids at Parlor Town's Park and trying

to muscle his way to playing with Ryan and Matthew. He had an

almost taupe colored and often disheveled pile of hair on his head

that looked as if he had just spent the last 20 years sleeping. He had

almost endless amounts of energy to play and have fun, though he

would usually feign exhaustion whenever actual boring work had to

be done. "I was afraid we'd miss out."

"Nope" Ryan said, once more kicking his brother awake. "We've just

been waiting for our invitation in."