Chapter 5 – Professor Rowan
The lab was quieter than Ryan expected.
He stood in the entrance for a moment after the door swung shut behind him, getting his bearings. Long workbenches ran along both walls, covered in equipment and open notebooks and things he didn't have names for. Data scrolled across screens mounted at intervals. Two researchers moved between benches without looking up, focused on whatever was in front of them. The air smelled of something clean and faintly chemical, underneath it the particular warm smell of Pokemon in an enclosed space.
A Chimchar sat on the edge of one of the workbenches, watching Ryan with bright curious eyes the moment he walked in.
Ryan looked back at it. The Chimchar tilted its head. Ryan looked away first.
"You must be Ryan."
A young woman in a lab coat was crossing the room toward him, clipboard in hand, efficient without being unfriendly. "Owen called ahead. The professor will be with you shortly." She gestured toward a row of chairs along the wall. "Wait here."
Ryan sat.
The Chimchar kept watching him. He kept not looking at it.
The lab had a particular kind of energy focused, unhurried, like everyone inside it had enough to do and knew exactly what it was. On the screen nearest to him, a map of Sinnoh's routes rotated slowly, data points scattered across it in different colors. He recognized the layout immediately. Sandgem in the south. Jubilife northwest. The routes connecting them like lines.
Then a door opened at the far end and Rowan walked in.
He was older than Ryan had expected. Broader than his game sprite suggested, with white hair and a face that had spent decades outside. He moved without hurrying, glancing at something on a bench as he passed it. When he looked up and saw Ryan he didn't stop just continued walking.
"The professor extended a hand. "Good to meet you, Ryan. I'm Rowan." He sat down across from him, leaning back slightly, forearms resting on his knees. "Owen's report was brief. Found on Route 201 last night, no ID, no Pokemon." He looked at Ryan with the calm curiosity of someone who had seen enough unusual things that one more didn't particularly surprise him. "How are you holding up?"
Ryan blinked. He hadn't expected that to be the first question. "Fine. Better than last night."
Rowan nodded. "Route 201 after dark with no Pokemon is not a situation most people walk away from without a story." He said it without pressure, just observation. "You don't have to share it. But if there's something I should know something that might affect your registration or your safety going forward it's better to say it now."
"I genuinely don't know how I got there," Ryan said. "I know that's not a satisfying answer."
"It's an honest one," Rowan said simply. "That's worth something." He studied Ryan for a moment not suspiciously, more like someone turning something over in their mind. "Where are you from originally?"
Ryan hesitated just long enough to be noticeable. "Far from here."
Rowan accepted that with a small nod, filing it away rather than pressing on it. "No family to contact?"
"No."
"Alright." He stood, easy and unhurried. "Then let's get you sorted. ID, legal status, a place to start that's what we can do today." He turned toward the side room. "Follow me."
Ryan followed.
He was halfway across the lab when he noticed Mara.
She was standing at a bench near the back wall, notebook open, talking quietly with one of the researchers. She must have come in through a different entrance. She glanced up as Ryan passed just a flicker of eye contact, brief and unreadable and then looked back at her notebook without missing a beat.
Ryan kept walking.
Rowan didn't seem to notice the exchange. Or if he did he didn't show it.
The side room was small and plain. A table, two chairs, a single screen on the wall. Rowan set a paper down between them without preamble.
"Basic assessment. Standard for every new registration. Questions on types, moves, basic Pokemon behavior in the field." He sat. "Twenty minutes."
Ryan looked at the paper.
He read through the questions once, then again slowly, like he was thinking about them.
Question four: What type is super effective against Water?
Question fourteen: Name two moves a Fire type Pokemon cannot learn.
Question twenty-one: What is the primary difference between a Pokemon that has fainted and one that is injured?
He already knew every answer. He'd known them for years. Some of the questions he could answer three different ways depending on context. He picked up the pen and started writing, keeping his pace deliberate, reading each question twice before putting anything down.
This is it? he thought, moving through question seven without slowing. This is what they give everyone?
He caught himself on question twelve his pen had already formed the full correct answer before he'd decided to write it. He looked at what he'd written, crossed out the last part, and replaced it with something slightly less precise. Close enough to pass, not close enough to raise questions.
Question nineteen he left half finished, like he'd second-guessed himself and settled on the safer option.
When he set the pen down Rowan collected the paper without comment. He turned the screen on.
"Practical component. I'll give you a scenario. Tell me what you would do."
The screen showed a stretch of tall grass, a trainer at the edge of it, and a silhouette of a Pokemon half-hidden between the stems.
"You're approaching a wild Pokemon you want to catch," Rowan said. "It hasn't seen you yet. You don't recognize the species. What do you do?"
Ryan thought for exactly the right amount of time.
"Observe first," he said. "Watch how it moves, what it's doing, whether it's calm or agitated. Try to get a sense of its type from its appearance before I do anything." He paused. "Then approach from downwind. Let it notice me before I get too close so it's not startled."
Rowan looked at him. "Why downwind?"
"Some Pokemon have strong senses of smell. If they catch your scent before they see you they might bolt or attack before you get the chance to do anything."
Rowan wrote something on the paper. Not much. Just something.
"Most trainers your age say throw a Pokeball," he said, without looking up.
Ryan said nothing.
Rowan set the pen down and looked at him not the same easy look from the hallway, something more direct. Like he'd just turned over a rock and found something he hadn't expected underneath.
He didn't ask about it. He moved on.
"Registration and your trainer ID are covered," he said, folding his hands on the table. "A starter Pokemon costs extra. Most trainers come prepared for that." He glanced at Ryan. "I'm going to assume that's not your situation."
"No."
Rowan nodded once, unsurprised. He reached into a folder and slid a single sheet across the table. "These are the Pokemon currently available through the lab for trainers who can't cover the standard cost. All healthy, all at a beginner level."
Ryan looked at the list.
Shinx. Geodude. Zubat. Starly. Buizel.
He read through it carefully. The Shinx was the obvious choice Electric type, strong early on, solid evolution line. He knew exactly what it became and exactly how to train it. The Buizel wasn't bad either, Water type, good speed, useful early on. None of them were bad Pokemon.
He read the list a second time.
None of them were what he was waiting for.
He opened his mouth to ask for more time and then stopped.
Something shifted at the edge of his awareness. Faint and directionless, the same feeling he'd had on the path last night the sensation of something nearby that he couldn't locate or explain.
He went still.
It was stronger than before. Much closer.
Rowan was watching him. "Is something wrong?"
Ryan looked down at the list in his hands.
Then, slowly, he looked toward the door.