Everything was not okay. 

Michiko was used to wild Pokemon being a nuisance-- she still had to get rid of that Salamence nesting on her shed-- but that didn't make her prepared for it. Wild Pokemon attacks were one of the risks of going out in the countryside, where less-socialized creatures could sometimes be aggressive or mischievous when they encountered humans. But she'd never had them try to get at her in her car before, much less try to carry the whole thing away!

Of course, a full vehicle was too heavy for them to actually pick up, though she swore she'd actually felt the tires lift off the ground for a moment. But the fact that Zac hadn't even noticed (not even when she'd had to turn on the windshield wipers to clear them away) was alarming.

I am going crazy, Michi thought to herself, shaken, as her friend Jun-jun jogged up to meet them. She made doubly sure to lock the car, checking to make sure there was nothing inside. It was empty--  no slithering green bodies, no yellow eyes. I lost them on the road when I sped up, maybe, she thought, but felt unconvinced. Before today she'd never even seen a Dreepy in real life, and now she'd already seen more than she could count. 

Jun-jun's wife, Maki, met them at the door. "Please come in! It's so nice to have guests," she exclaimed. There was something strange about her-- despite her smile and warm tone, her face was almost a worried grimace. 

Michi remembered the fancy apples she'd forgotten to give Zac and made a swift decision to repurpose the gift, sending a silent apology to the red-haired man. She'd get him something different to make up for it.

"Petalburg Apples! What a lovely treat!" Maki exclaimed as Michi pulled them out of her bag and handed them over. "You're too thoughtful, Michiko. Oh, but please! Everyone sit down, dinner's ready. I've already gotten your place settings ready." She showed them through the entry into the dining room, stopping Matchan at the entryway. "Your Machamp can eat outside with the herd if it's hungry, there should still be plenty of feed set out."

Michi blinked. Lately she'd been eating with Matchan at the table, since it seemed so empty with just one place setting, but of course she couldn't do that as a guest. "Oh, of course," she said, feeling silly. "Matchan, can you find your way there?"

The fighting-type shrugged, seeming resigned, and backed out of the front door back into the darkness.  She felt a brief stab of regret. She'd been hoping to ask the Machamp if he'd seen anything on the drive over, but it looked like she wouldn't have a chance. 

Clutching her handbag and following the others to the dining table, Michi gave the room a quick once-over but didn't see any Dreepy-- not even the one that had been hovering near Jun-jun's head when she'd run into him earlier in the day. 

Why did that make her nervous? 

Still looking around herself uneasily, she sat down with the others, helping herself to a bowl of steaming white rice before passing the bowl to Jun-jun. "So Jun-jun," she said carefully, picking up her chopsticks, "You say, recently, you are being bothered by... pests?"

The farmer exchanged a glance with his wife, who had just come in holding a big plate of roast lamb. Something passed between them and Jun-jun looked away.

"Oh, we don't want to talk about that over dinner," he said with an uneasy laugh. "Let's just relax and spend a nice meal together. It's been too long since we've caught up! We'd have to get to know your new friends as well. Zac, was it?" Jun-jun leaned forward, "You said you were good with Pokemon, right? What do you know about Dr--"

Michi froze with her chopsticks halfway to her mouth. 

"--Dry feed vs. wet feed?" 

Michi sighed, slumping again. Was she really going crazy?

"Bravo!" The tour group clapped enthusiastically, the guide congratulating Michi as the silvery Arctozolt disappeared inside the capsule. "Arctozolt and its shiny form, along with many other Safari Zone Pokemon, can be exchanged at the Head Warden's office for--" Michi spun around. "Wait!" She cried, and everyone fell silent. The tour guide actually stopped mid-sentence in surprise.

Michi clasped her hands together anxiously, everyone's eyes on her. "One in four trainers suffer from Premature Catch Syndrome!" she said tearfully, "Please wait! I do not want you to be getting hurt!"

Whether touched by her concern or heeding her warning, the tour guide held back, and the group huddled together with bated breath. Hand over her heart, Michi made sure to wait until the ball shook three times and was completely still, remembering what Zac had told her. She counted for ten seconds, and then breathed out. "O-kay~!" she said, and the Ice Cave hummed and echoed with relieved cheering. 

Back in their chugga-chugga train formation, the tour group reached the far end of the cavern, where another Safari Zone employee was waiting with a big basket of Snoms. "Congratulations, folks! You've already made it to the halfway point of our Spelunking Tour, and what an exciting journey it's been already!" Michi hid her face as several people turned to her, clapping appreciatively. "Please help yourself to the customary Snom before we begin the next leg of our adventure! Remember, supplies are limited, so just one per family group, please!"

As the group passed into the next tunnel, the staff member handed them their door prizes. "Here's your Snom... Here's your Snom..!" Michi came up next in line and the employee fished around in the basket for a moment before pulling out another adorable bug. It wiggled as they handed it over. "Here's your Snom! Happy Snom-Spelunking!"

"Snom!" Michi cried happily, hugging it to her chest. 

The group descended the ledges one by one, securing the climbing equipment they'd been given to the appropriate rock fixtures and laughing a little nervously as each one shimmied down the rope. Like the rest of them, Michiko had watched Sammy the Snom's easy five-step instructional video before she'd been allowed into the caves, but their descent was still punctuated by giggling and little screams from people who rappeled too fast or lost their footing. There would be some sore muscles in the morning!

"Aaaand HALT!"

Halfway across the ice chamber, many of them craning their heads to admire the spectacular view up above, they stopped and clustered around their guide as the man pointed ahead of them. A silvery, fishy-smelling Pokemon who waddled on two flippers had emerged from behind a greenish boulder. "Dead ahead you can see a rare beauty, folks-- a shiny Arctozolt! But which half is shiny, the front or the back? Ahaha!" 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Ice Cave!" the tour guide said, and the group clustered behind him with gasps and cries of delight. The guide stood on a shallow ledge that jutted only a few feet into the cavern, giving them an expansive view of the huge chamber beyond. The rocks arched up to form a huge, dome-like ceiling high above them. More notably, the rocks were studded with tiny patches of shining icicles, places where the natural dripping meltwater had frozen underground and filled the many small holes Michi had noticed before.

It made for a spectacular effect, thousands of gleaming facets like stars in a planetarium. Michiko even saw a spiky little Bergmite clinging to part of the ceiling, blending in with the frozen crystals. The ice actually seemed to have taken on a luminescent green tinge, either in the light of their headlamps or due to the nature of whatever minerals fed this cavern. Indeed, there was a dark, greenish cast to the stone as well.

"You'll see the walls are actually formed of green basalt, a common igneous rock! The color is due to natural deposits of olivine, commonly found in this region." The tour guide said, gesturing around them. "We are currently standing in what's known as a lava tube, or 'pyroduct'! A variety of these little volcanic vents run underground throughout the region, most of them connecting to Mt. Chimney or other, now-dormant volcanoes. We're lucky to have quite an extensive one of our own here at the Safari Zone!"

The tourists oohed and ahhed, many eager to ask questions. Michi clasped her hands together, eyes shining. Wasn't geology interesting?

The thick, solid cold of the caves was familiar, but still took Michi's breath away. Ruins were all like this-- even on the hottest days, there was a part of the earth that the light and heat never touched. She usually preferred summer for ruin-exploring with her husband for this reason, but the tour group had come knowing what to expect. Up ahead of her she could see people adjusting their earmuffs, well-padded silhouettes shivering in the glare of headlamps.

"Ooh, look!" Someone had stopped a few places up in line and was leaning forward, their lamp veering towards the wall. A familiar, terra-cotta head was poking out of a small hole in the stone. Now that Michi-- along with others, judging from the direction of the beams-- was looking, she could see there were many, many holes in the rock. The cave was almost like a lattice, the soft stone chewed and worn away by digging Pokemon. Speaking of digging--

"Be careful of Trapinch," Michiko said carefully, gently tapping on the person's shoulder. She really wanted to say shoo! but contained the urge. As far as First Impressions went, hers wasn't positive. "It has strong bite, so maybe keep hands close!" The other person pulled their hands in quickly and the two laughed quietly together before there was a light tug down the line and the tour guide called them on. "Come on, ladies! We're coming up on one of our first attractions!'

[attr="class","leaguecardinner"]

Matchan had never thought of himself as a cat person, but everything changed when the Skitty attacked. First it had used Sing, which had lulled him to a peaceful sleep face-first on the ground while Michiko gardened and sang to herself obliviously behind him. He'd had terrible dreams filled with dancing Morelull and woke to a feeling like he was having all his energy drained by a hostile fungus. He also woke to the feeling of a Wake-Up Slap, which all in all should have resulted in a distinct, confirmed dislike of cats.

But then the Skitty had looked up at him with the sweetest, squintiest little eyes and bared its little bug-fangs and gone <Mew?> and his eyes had turned into big hearts. Literally-- an Attract attack projected itself towards him, melting his Grinch-like heart (Matchan himself would have been skeptical at this description) and causing it to grow three sizes even before the holiday season.

Skity was very smug about this new development. She was sitting on his shoulder while he worked on yoinking the Morelull, as she'd bid him to do, but the mushroom's Ingrain made it a pesky weed. Fortunately, Zac's Trapinch was able to help. Less fortunately, the man captured the Skitty's prize treat in a Pokeball, which she objected to with an angry mew, arching her back. She stared vengefully at Zac, who had betrayed her deeply. Matchan hung his head, feeling like the most useless cat-husband. 

"Matchan, did you get the mushroom away from Hello Skitty?" Michi looked up as the group returned, wiping her brow. "Oh! You are getting along!" she exclaimed, immediately charmed by the contrast between the delicate little pink Pokemon and the huge, strong Machamp. It is like the cherry trees in the spring, she thought, clasping her hands together earnestly as she watched Matchan pet the purring Pokemon with two of his four hands. She wished she could take a picture! 

Matchan seemed so taken with the Skitty that Michiko actually took off her gloves to go get her bag. She didn't have many Pokeballs left so she'd been planning to save them, but she thought even Pokemon deserved to have pets-- just like Hello Skitty and her pet Charmmy Catty. And she and her husband had been talking bout giving Matchan more responsibility.

"Matchan, if you promise to be taking care of Skitty," she said to Matchan warningly, handing him the Pokeball, "You may catch her." He took it from her gratefully, then instantly and immediately dissolved into red light and swirled away inside it. Michi's face dropped into confusion and dismay as all her gardening supplies as well as the Skitty suddenly fell to the ground. "Wah!"

She was still for a moment, holding onto the brim of her hat. "I... think Pokemon cannot catch Pokemon," she said, honestly still baffled, then laughed. She scooped up the other ball that had rolled by her feet, tossing it towards the stunned Skitty. "Oh well! Now I know!"

The Skitty disappeared and Michi collected both Pokeballs before turning to Zac, glancing up at the sun. It was getting near sunset, and while they had finished planting the garden (and Poturtle) itself, they had yet to construct any kind of protection to keep the plants safe from frost and other pests. "We are still working, but, I worry... you have plans tomorrow, yes?" She didn't mind coming back to finish the garden on her own, but it did make her a little nervous to be on her own with so many wild Pokemon around.
 

"Tonight?" Michi asked, feeling scattered and distracted by the Dreepy she could still see whizzing around behind the oblivious Jun-jun. She tore her eyes away, forcing herself to focus. "Tonight for... visiting Jun-jun Farm?" 

She paused. She had been envisioning Zac going there in the early morning, when Jun-jun and his wife were feeding all the cute little farm Pokemon and tending to the fields. It seemed like a nice thing to be filming, but she had forgotten Zac was the adventurous sort. Maybe he liked the element of mystery at night. "Do you have... night vision camera?" she said after a moment of hesitation. "To see... pests?"

The Dreepy floated by again. Was she the only one who could see it?!

Perhaps Zac was also politely pretending not to notice. Michi resolved herself not to look and bent her mind to the question: was she up for visiting her childhood friend's farm on a night mission? I haven't had so much excitement in a long time! she thought, putting a hand over her heart. Did she really have any business tagging along with a professional? Then again, she was curious! I wouldn't have to wait to see it online, she thought, and it would be nice to chat with Jun-jun some more. She hadn't seen his wife in a long time either!

"Zac is very smart, and understands wild Pokemon very well," MIchi said after thinking, "He will do a good job. I have many pests in my garden," the little Petalburg woman added, "Maybe, I can help too!" She seemed to grow more cheerful. "My husband is not home, so I do not have to do cooking. I would like to come!"

She finished checking out and gave the giant collar and leash to Matchan for the fighting-type to hold. Out in the parking lot she could see Jun-jun's truck, which she thought he'd probably had for the last twenty or thirty years. It did not look road-worthy or able to fit herself, Zac, and their shopping bags unless someone rode in the back.

"Mmm--" she said, stopping. She'd parked her husband's car nearby the Pokemon Center when she'd first come to meet Zac and it occurred to her it might be easier (and safer) to drive separately. "Maybe I will drive, and we will meet you there. Matchan needs lots of leg room." 

Matchan audibly sighed. They watched as Jun-jun got into the driver's seat, the door slamming shut with a rusty squeal. As he started the vehicle up, Michiko blinked. She rubbed her eyes. There was no mistake: small but distinct, she could see a Dreepy clinging to the truck's radio antenna as it pulled away.