"Yeah, you can look at it that way," Aleron said with a shrug. "Eh, not my call to make though. So where're we headed?"

"The door marked 'observation,'" Margaret replied. "My parents should be in there."

"Sounds good," Aleron said, following her over. She glanced at each of the rooms and paused at one marked 'fire'. She was highly tempted to go in and see if there were Fire-type pokemon in there.

Margaret went to the observation room and knocked.

"It's open," she heard from inside. Opening the door, she went in.

"Maggie," her father said, surprised. He turned away from the observation window. Down in the room, Margaret could see a little girl playing with a Wooper. The two looked like they were having fun.

"What, I can't drop in on my parents?" she asked. She looked around. "Where's Mom?"

"Janie went out to Sinnoh for a research trip," her father replied. "What brings you here? Who's your friend?"

"Oh, sorry, this is Aleron," Margaret replied. "A friend I met over in Johto." She hesitated for a moment. "Something weird's been happening."

"Weird how?" her father asked. "You can talk to me, Maggie."

Aleron waved a little when she was introduced but otherwise just stood there and watched.

Margaret hesitated, and then explained what was going on. A troubled look flashed across her father's face.

"We wondered if such a thing might happen," he murmured.

"What?" Margaret asked.

"Nothing, Maggie," he replied quickly. "It's nothing for you to worry about."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't worry, Maggie, really." He started to shoo them towards the door. "You two must have other places you want to be right now, so I won't keep you any longer. Besides, I have to keep going with this observation. Stop by again, alright?"

Before Margaret could protest, he had ushered them out the door and closed it again.

"I'm guessing that's not normal," Aleron said, staring at the closed doorway with a little bit of confusion.

"That was really not normal," Margaret replied. "I mean, they always call me Maggie, but... What did he mean by he wondered if this would happen? I was never part of the interaction studies..."

"Maybe you were?" Aleron shrugged. "I mean, you said they only let you play with the psychic pokemon."

"But... They never put me into the observation room..." Margaret replied, trailing off... She shook her head. "I don't get it."

"Or maybe you just didn't know. I don't know." Aleron shrugged. "I have no idea what he meant. But it would explain why you can understand your pokemon."

Margaret was silent for a moment, and then swiped her badge to open the door labeled 'psychic.'

"Let's go find out, then," she said. "I may not have known, but the pokemon probably understood."

Aleron nodded and followed her into the room, looking around curiously. She'd never had much interaction with psychic-types before this.

There was silence in the room for a moment after Margaret walked in, and then about a dozen different pokemon started clamoring at once. A Chimecho wrapped itself around one of Margaret's arms, a Slowpoke waddled up and sat down on her foot, and a few others fought for her attention.

"Guys, guys, I missed you too," Margaret said over the noise as she tried to untangle the Chimecho from her arm. She nudged the Slowpoke away. "Pokey, off my foot, you're heavy." A Drowzee lumbered up to her and hugged her legs, almost making her fall over. Immediately, a Kirlia started scolding him.

"Sweetie, don't yell at him," Margaret said. "I missed you all too. Hey, listen, I have a question. You all know how sometimes they bring people here for the interaction studies, right? I wasn't a study, was I?"

The pokemon looked thoughtful for a moment, except for he Slowpoke, before giving her various affirmatives.

"Okay, I think even I can tell that's a yes," Aleron said, raising her eyebrows. She still wanted to go see the fire-types though.

"That was a resounding yes," Margaret replied. Carefully, she pushed the pokemon off of her. "Pokey, really, I need you off my foot." When the Slowpoke didn't move, she sighed. "Someone help?"

Immediately, four of the pokemon used Kinesis to lift up Slowpoke and set him down a few feet away. Slowpoke looked a bit confused, but yawned and went back to sleep.

"Thanks," Margaret said. "I'll come back again, alright? I need to go, though, my others are waiting for me. Yes, I actually do have pokemon of my own now." A little Wynaut waddled up from the back and asked her a question. "You have to ask that?" Margaret replied. "Of course they're all psychic. I spent too much time with you all to change that."

Aleron chuckled and shook her head, following her out.

Margaret closed the door behind her, not that it would make much of a difference to a horde of psychic types. Most of them knew Teleport, which was proven when a little Ralts Teleported out, hugged her legs, and vanished again.

She noticed when Aleron kept glancing at the door with 'fire' on it. Going over, she swiped her card and opened the door.

"Come on," she said. "Technically, I'm allowed anywhere here, and you're with me."

"Awesome." Aleron grinned and followed her in. A Flareon looked at her, growled once, and went over to go see what she was doing in his territory. She looked at the Flareon for a moment before crouching down and offering her hand. The Flareon sniffed her a few times before rubbing against her hand, and then a few other pokemon emerged.

Margaret stayed near the door and just watched. She had no connection to fire-types, so she wasn't really all that interested. The Torchic she saw was cute, and so was the little Magby, but she wasn't too interested in interacting with them.

Aleron let out a whuff of air as she was knocked over by an enthusiastic Growlithe. "Well hello there," she muttered, patting the top of his head. "Guess you haven't had visitors in a while, huh?" The growlithe merely laid down across her chest and stomach with a little while, and Aleron laughed quietly.

"People with affinities to the different types are fairly rare, according to the studies," Margaret supplied helpfully. "They probably haven't had anyone show any interest in them for a while."

"Yeah," Aleron agreed, rubbing behind Growlithe's ears. "I bet my two would love these guys. Jolteon grew up around quite a few fire types, so he's used to all their quirks."

Margaret grinned.

"It looks like they like you," she commented. It wasn't the full-on tackle like she'd gotten from the psychic-types, but it was obvious the fire-types were comfortable with Aleron.

"Not bad at all for a first meeting," Aleron agreed as she managed to move Growlithe to her lap, greeting the Torchic and Magby as well. "This is actually pretty cool."