"Oh good, a town," Mel said, clearly relieved. She walked a little faster at that. Some of the noises around them were somewhat alarming, and she was more than ready to be inside.

Ithica stayed close to her, breathing a short sigh as they got close enough to make out individual buildings. At least they were safe now, that was good. Dratini's pokeball was still held tightly in her hand.

"Okay," Mel said once they were in the town. She was passing her own Pokeball nervously between her hands. "So, we're here. Yay team. Where do we go first?"

Ithica looked around, trying to figure out what they should do.

"Well," she ventured, "in the show, Officer Jenny has a habit of overreacting to things. And more often than not, Ash and them stay at a pokemon center for the night. So maybe try to find the pokemon center and see if we can beg a cot or a couch?"

"Sounds like a solid plan," Mel agreed. "Let's go." She started walking again. The Pokémon center shouldn't be too hard to find, it usually had a nice big glowy sign out front.

Ithica's eyes darted towards the sky when she saw some flashes of lightning in the distance.

"Oh, come on," she groaned. "Please don't rain on us, please don't..."

Mel said a few very bad words when she saw the first hints of the storm.

"Run," she told Ithica grimly before she started running.

"Right," Ithica said, running as well. She could hear the thunder rumbling behind them, and within minutes, the rain started to come down. Ithica swore colorfully as the downpour started to soak her clothes.

Mel was still swearing quietly when they finally got to the Pokémon center and darted inside. She shook her head, dripping on the front mat and looking very upset about this.

"Oh my!" Nurse Joy hurried over to them. "You're soaked to the bone! Here, come get dry. Are your Pokemon alright?"

Ithica jumped when Nurse Joy came over. She wasn't expecting that so soon.

"Yeah, I think so," Mel replied after a moment. "They're in their balls." She grimaced as she dripped. "Sorry about the mess..."

"Don't worry about it," Nurse Joy said as a Chansey bounced over with a stack of towels. "Now, let's get you cleaned up. It's certainly nasty out there, and you don't want to catch a cold!"

Ithica just nodded and took a towel. Dratini's ball was still clutched tightly in one hand.

"Thanks," Mel said automatically as she took a towel, wrapping it around herself and starting to dry off. She kept glancing around, half-expecting things to change suddenly.

"You two go get warmed up," Nurse Joy said, shooing them towards the baths. "Give me your pokemon, I'll make sure they're in tip top shape by the time you come back out."

Ithica hesitated, and then handed over her single pokeball. As soon as she did, Chansey started ushering her towards the baths.

Mel was only a few moments behind Ithica, and ended up in the baths as well.

"This is not how I expected this to go," she said, although she was relaxing slowly as she warmed up. The bath really was quite nice.

"Same," Ithica murmured as she settled back into the bath. She could still hear the rain pouring outside. "None of this makes sense in the slightest, but my inner child is still shrieking with joy because there's a Chansey."

"Oh god I know, right?" Mel shook herself a little. "This is all so surreal and yet so awesome at the same time."

"Now we just need to figure out where we are and how to make money and we're golden," Ithica said, grinning a bit. "Though that second one shouldn't be hard, depending on how hard battling is."

"Right." Mel snorted quietly. "Sure, this sounds like a piece of cake, no problem. At least we know the rules."

"No kidding," Ithica replied, nodding. She sighed and sank further into the hot water.

Out in the main room, Nurse Joy had figured out that the pokemon she was looking after didn't belong to the two girls who came into the pokemon center. Not sure of what else to do, she called Officer Jenny to come and investigate.

It didn't take Jenny long to arrive, and she was all business once she was there.

"Explain what you meant earlier," she said to Nurse Joy. "About these two girls...?"

"Well, it might be nothing," Joy started, glancing back towards the baths. "But a pair of girls showed up, soaked to the bone from the storm, so of course I couldn't just leave them dripping in the doorway. I offered to look their pokemon over while they got warmed up. But their pokemon don't belong to them, or at least aren't registered to them. The registration data from the pokeballs is blank, and for such rare pokemon, I thought it was strange."

"Blank?" Jenny frowned. "That is odd. Blank pokeballs don't just show up." She walked over to the balls, picking one up. "This is very unusual. I think I should question these two, find out what's going on."

"Just be careful if you're going to let those pokemon out," Joy advised. "I don't know where those girls managed to find a Dratini and a Larvesta, but it's best if you don't rile up the pokemon inside my center."

Jenny looked briefly surprised to hear what kind of pokemon the two girls had brought, and then she shook her head.

"No, they're fine where they are for now," she confirmed. "I have no intention of upsetting the pokemon here."