Sherlock calls her exactly one month after she left.

Bella answers. "Hey, Sherlock, what's up?"

"Nothing in particular. How goes your quest?"

"Not that well. Found a cryptozoological association that claims to have spotted Mew, concluded they're crackpots but only after getting suckered into reading a fair amount of their literature, that sort of thing. How've you been?"

"Fruitless literature. What horror," he says dryly. "I have been - living. You remain the most exciting thing that has happened here all year."

"Well, that sounds dull, you want me to swing by again while I'm trying to think of other leads to grab? I can't promise I'll be as fascinating on a repeat visit."

"We will appreciate it nonetheless."

"Sure. Might take me a day or two if I take a guild chapter route instead of a straight shot, but I'd be happy to visit again."

"I look forward to it."

"Any particular reason you called today instead of last week or next week?" Bella asks, starting to roll up clothes and stuff them into her backpack.

"It has been exactly a month. I like to be exact."

Bella giggles. "How're your 'mon doing? Does Irene like being able to fly?"

"Irene is continually delighted."

"Are the others jealous?" asks Bella innocently. "Well, I suppose only the Zebstrika - sorry, I forgot its name - would have to be."

"Watson," he supplies. "He considers himself above that sort of thing."

"Not, I hope, literally. You did say you were blessed with clever Pokémon."

"I mean to say that he is not in the habit of letting Irene's excessive smugness damage his composure."

"I figured. Bad joke," laughs Bella.

"So I observe."

"Pfft. They can't all be gems." She zips up her backpack and swings it onto her back.

"I acknowledge the point."

"We should all three of us race once I get there," opines Bella. "Flying, I mean, although if we wanted to do a landrace I could loan Branch to Tony since if I remember right he doesn't have anything appropriately quadrupedal."

"I think that would be lovely."

"And of course the fact that I'd loan Branch and not Fireflower has nothing to do with the fact that I know she's faster and everything to do with the fact that she doesn't know him well enough to decline to burn him," snickers Bella.

"If you put it like that, Tony will regard it as a challenge."

"He's welcome to try to woo my Rapidash. I don't anticipate he'll have a lot of luck."

"We'll see, I suppose."

"Renée has tried it, many times, and doesn't get anywhere," Bella says, as she leaves the building, releases Rachis, and hops on. "Fireflower is not my friendliest."

"Tony has astonishing powers of charm."

"What has Renée tried?"

"Bribing her with treats into letting Renée pet her on the nose till she's sick of it and bites, and talking half-nonsense half-'you don't wanna hurt me do you' type stuff, and getting me to intercede on her behalf," says Bella. "I can get Fireflower not to bite her, but the properties of her actual fire parts are not in my control."

"I see," says Sherlock. "No, that does not sound like Tony's sort of strategy."

"What'll he do then? Or do I just have to wait and see?"

"I would not care to venture a guess, and I doubt Tony himself could tell you until the moment approaches."

"Fair enough. He can borrow her if he can talk her into it, that'll make things interesting."

"Won't it just?"

"Fireflower actually lost a race the other day. Not with me riding her, just me and another Ace both had Rapidashes and we sent them around the block four times and she just barely came in second. She was mad."

"My condolences to Fireflower."

"I'm sure she'll appreciate that. And she'll appreciate winning even more."

"No comment."

"You think Watson'll beat her?"

"I have never seen her run."

"She's fast," Bella asserts.

"So is Watson."

"Well then," laughs Bella, "this'll be interesting either way."

"Indeed."

"I'm getting up in altitude, it's gonna be hard to hear you. I'll see you in a day or two," Bella says.

"I'll see you then."

A day later, Bella swoops in by the lake tower on Rachis.

Sherlock leans out the window and waves.

"Hi!" calls Bella as she lands and returns the Pidgeot. "How goes?"

"Boring," calls Sherlock, and he un-leans and comes downstairs.

"That's what I'm here to fix," laughs Bella when he emerges. "Haven't you got that awesome library? Have you already read everything in it?"

"Everything I strongly desire to read. Tony can keep the engineering manuals."

"He building anything cool this week?"

"Not especially."

"Man, what do you guys do all day when I am not around?"

"Tony works on his various projects and wages an eternal battle to get the Porygon to let go of him so he can do science. I talk to the computer and beat up the wildlife."

"Those projects and that computer must be super-interesting to entertain you guys consistently."

"Perhaps we are just eternally bored," he suggests.

"Then why wouldn't you figure out something to do, and go do it?"

"All right, perhaps we aren't."

"Where is Tony? Project-ing or shooing Porygon?"

"I believe he is currently drinking coffee."

"Ah, I feel so misled. Next you'll be telling me that in addition to talking to the computer and fighting with the wild 'mon you also sleep."

"I have been known to!"

"Do you go into the nearest towns much, even? If I lived here - and I'd read everything in your library already - I'd get bored."

"We do occasionally visit. But the towns are not all that much more interesting."

"Sometimes there's seasonal events and the like. Fairs, local tournaments, shows."

"I suppose."

"Well, here I am to liven up the place. I think Rachis deserves a rest, but my quadrupeds are all ready to go."

"Ah, yes. Shall we introduce Tony to Fireflower?"

In answer, Bella releases her Rapidash and pats her neck. "If he's up for it as you predicted."

"Good afternoon," he says to Fireflower.

"Dash," Fireflower says.

"Well, that's a start," he says, amused. "Just a moment. I will fetch Tony and see if you like him any better."

Fireflower snorts disdainfully and noses at Bella, soliciting treats. She receives a treat.

He fetches Tony.

"Hi!" says Tony.

He glances at Sherry.

He shakes his head minutely.

"Raaaapidash."

"But of course he does. Go on, Tony."

Tony produces treats!

Fireflower consumes them, flicking her tail. She doesn't even appear likely to bite him, although maybe that's because Bella's right there supervising.

Tony beams.

"Yes?"

"I sometimes guess at what my 'mon are saying but not usually in much detail."

"Coooool. How'd you learn to do that?"

"I didn't. I always have."

Bella tilts her head. "How?"

He spreads his hands.

"Are you psychic? I never heard of a psychic who had that particular ability, but, you know."

"I do not know if I am psychic."

He shrugs.

"Raaaa," agrees Fireflower regally, tossing her head.

"What can I say, I like to state the obvious," laughs Tony. "I bet you're great in a fight, too, huh?"

"Raprapidash!"

Tony grins and nods.

Fireflower nods back.

"And fast, I hear you're super fast."

"Radpidashdashdash rapidash."

Sherlock murmurs a translation into Tony's ear - 'I am the fastest, that other Rapidash cheated!'

"I'll bet they did!" laughs Tony. "We were all thinking of having a race, you interested?" He offers her another treat.

"Raaapid. Rapidash."

'Bella's gonna win because I'm the best,' translates Sherlock.

"You totally are," says Tony. "You're the prettiest and the fastest. But Bella was thinking of asking if I can ride you instead, what do you think of that?"

"Raaaaa? Rapidash! Rapidashdash."

Sherlock murmurs, 'What? That would just leave her with the Sawsbuck. He is slow and stupid.'

"Yep," says Tony. "But that's okay, 'cause you'd still win, right?"

"Raaaaapidrapidash."

'But it would be silly of her to let you borrow me because I would win,' Sherlock relays.

"Yeah," laughs Tony, "she only offered 'cause she wants to see if you'll do it. I, however, know that you are awesome, and I am awesome, and awesome goes with awesome." He holds out another treat. "We cool?"

"You are so the awesomest," he agrees. He didn't even need Sherry for that one.

Fireflower looks him over again, then says, "Rapid."

'Fine, I guess I won't set you on fire,' Sherlock provides.

"That," says Tony, "is because you're awesome."

"I honestly believe that the other way would only have taken longer," says Sherlock.

Bella laughs. She tosses Branch's Pokéball and swings herself onto the Sawsbuck's back. "Shall we?"

Tony reaches out a hand to Fireflower, slowly to make sure she has time to decide not to burn him, and when he has verified her cooperation he climbs on her back.

"Countdown," says Sherlock, "start on the beat after 'one'?"

Tony is fully capable of hanging on all by himself.

Watson's top speed keeps pace pretty well, and he manages to put himself between the Rapidash and the lake.

Well, okay then.

As they reach the opposite side of the lake, Watson begins to pull ahead. He is better able to navigate the contours of the shoreline and turn sharply around obstacles without losing speed.

"Do they now. I'd be up for another lap."

"As would I."

"Count me out," says Tony.

"That's all right, I can ride Fireflower." Since Tony's already vacated her, Bella vaults up. "I bet you can do it, pretty one," she coos. "Yes you can."

Fireflower's a bit more attentive to Bella than she was to Tony. And she's smarter than Branch. She trots up beside Watson at a click of Bella's tongue and shoots the Zebstrika a challenging look. "Dash."

"Zeb," says Watson aloofly.

"Zeb, zeb," says Watson. Sherlock pats him.

Bella pets Fireflower. "You did good, sweetie." And she puts her away. And she gets her hairbrush out of her bag and attacks her ponytail. "That was a rush, she's almost never running flat out when I'm riding her."

"I don't frequently get a chance to experience Watson's top speed, either," says Sherlock. "It was enjoyable."

Bella finishes disentangling her hair. "All right. Now what?"

"Good question."

"Could have a non-racing type rematch. I dunno, I do other things, just I'm usually in other places when I do them."

"Other things such as...?"

"Let Renée teach me to knit, wander into houses in arbitrary towns and get into conversations there, explore miscellaneous wilderness, I tried making my own Pokéballs from whole Apricorns once, I think about the best ways to address immortal Pokémon if I ever find any, I once went through a brief phase of entering Pokémon Contests but decided I didn't like it. Also I read a lot and do extensive self-analysis but neither thing is a particularly companionable activity."

"And how did the Pokéball project fare?"

"Well, I only made two, so I don't know whether to attribute the fact that they completely failed to work to poor craftsmanship or to luck."

"How do Pokéballs in fact work? I don't actually know. Tony undoubtedly does."

"I don't know about the mechanics of it. Let alone how people can get 'mon into PCs, which is part of why I don't do it and have never owned more than six. I was just using an instruction booklet on hollowing apricorns that gave step-by-step walkthroughs for various apricorn colors but didn't say anything about the whys and wherefores."

"Hm," he says. "Any interesting conclusions about how to address immortal Pokémon?"

"I figure I should come at the ulterior motive obliquely," Bella says. "Probably should spend some effort demonstrating myself harmless and indicating that I do not intend to try to catch them, because I bet they get that a lot and it hasn't yielded results so far anyway."

"How does one demonstrate harmlessness to a legendary pokemon, I wonder. Perhaps you should bring Tony along. He's very charming."

"And you too, maybe, in case I track down one that can't speak human."

"I would be happy to help."

"Awesome. The explorer and the charmer and the psychic translator."

"Hm," says Sherlock.

"Hm?"

"The magic translator?" suggests Bella archly.

He laughs.

"The translator who studied audio of chattering 'mon in such exhaustive detail as to have learned what has eluded all linguists, for forever," she says with a dramatic gesture, "and who should really publish if it's that."

"It is not that."

"Then I can overlook your failure to publish! Do you know what it is?"

"I have my suspicions, but I don't imagine they are especially plausible."

"You could tell me anyway."

"Perhaps I am a Ditto in disguise," he deadpans.

"...Okay, I know I offended you last time you suggested you had an unusual theory about a thing, so I'm not even going to address that one."

He laughs. "Sorry."

"No big deal."

"Do you suppose it's dinnertime yet?"

"Nah, not really, unless you guys eat really early."

"Our schedule is flexible, insofar as it can be said to exist at all. But you're right, it's early. How shall we pass the time? Beat up the wildlife? Go ask Tony how Pokéballs work?"

"I would actually really like to know how Pokéballs work, d'you suppose he's up for an impromptu lecture?" laughs Bella.

"There is," says Sherlock, "one easy way to find out."

"Let's go perform the experiment."

Laughing, he heads for the tower.

Tony is on the ground floor, sitting at a computer with a Porygon in his lap.

"Hey," says Bella. "Which one is that?"

"Hi, Bob," says Bella. "So, we were wondering how Pokéballs work and Sherlock says you probably know."

"I do know," says Tony, "but unless you understand five-dimensional topology and space-folding, the explanation is pretty much 'um, magic?'."

"But you can do it with apricorns even if they don't work as well as the techy kinds, apricorns just - grow that way," laughs Bella, "are they magic?"

Bella giggles. "That," she asserts, "was cute."

"In terms less likely to make my pointy cuddle-buddies abandon me: Apricorns just do the same thing naturally that manufactured Pokéballs do with careful engineering."

"I should tell Renée about your issue with pointy cuddly 'mon, I bet she'd knit at least three fluffy Porygon-shaped sweaters before she got bored."

"Next time I call her, will do. I cannot guarantee that these sweaters will not be in garish colors."

"It's not like Porygon are known for their fashion sense."

"Yeah, I'm just imagining poor Bob in something in two shades of green and red-orange. With a pompom on top of his head."

"I promise you, if you send me fluffy Porygon sweaters, I will find Porygon who want to wear them."

"I suppose you haven't got a shortage, there's probably three in the flock with taste as terrible as Renée's."

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking."

"So if Pokéballs work by magic, how does PC storage work? I don't quite trust it for my 'mon but I know people who rotate out a few extra critters. I tend not to associate with outright collectors, but some people can be sincerely friendly with ten 'mon, or can only manage three out at a time and have to store three but love all six, you know."

"PC storage works by more magic!" says Tony. "I don't totally understand it, but apparently the development process involved reverse-engineering Porygon. Dad got kinda mad about it."

"Were Porygon harmed in the process?" asks Bella, frowning.

Tony spreads his hands. "No way to know," he says. "We don't track every single Porygon in the world. I mean, they said none were, but Porygon code is tricky stuff."

"Oh dear."

"Yeah. So. Not that I can prove anything, and maybe they didn't hurt anypory, and I'm sure the system works just fine, but - I don't use PC storage."

"I had no idea there was anything dodgy about how it was invented. I just didn't think I ought to be taking possession of a creature I didn't plan to keep around."

"Yeah, I hear ya."

"Slightly more tempted to devote some time to some sorta activism project, now, but I don't think I could actually make a dent, it's too convenient and like you say it works, the 'mon never seem traumatized - though I suppose I wouldn't know, I can't actually understand - you ever talk to a Pokémon that's been stored, Sherlock?"

"Not that they mentioned, no. Should I go and find some and ask?"

"I'd be interested in the results if you ever did. I suppose you'd have to go a bit out of your way to hunt them up."

He shrugs. "I like a challenge."

Bella laughs a little. "Come to think of it, I think some of Charlie's standard-issues might've been boxed before he got them. I'd have to ask, but it wouldn't surprise me."

"I will happily talk to them if so," laughs Sherlock.

"I'll call him after I talk to Renée about Porygon sweaters," says Bella.

"Perfect."

"Maybe I should just call now, Renée will be home now and by the time she lets me off the phone Charlie probably will be too," muses Bella, and she starts cycling through apps on her Pokétch.

The boys leave her to it.

Bella departs the tower to avoid disturbing them, although if they happen to be curious they could open a window. She phones Renée, makes small talk, listens to Renée talk about ill-fated baked goods, then explains that she has this friend who has this problem with these Porygon, and she was thinking sweaters. Renée takes the idea, squeals over it, and says she'll start figuring out a pattern right away. And she's going to let the kindergarteners vote on colors. Joy. There's a little more catching up - stories from the school, news about neighbors and Renée's Pokémon - and then Bella hangs up.

"Did I hear that right about the kindergarteners?" inquires Sherlock, out of the window.

"Ah-huh. Renée is going to pitch the idea of Porygon sweaters to twenty-four five-year-olds and get them to help her design them," sighs Bella.

"Well, that is bound to have entertaining results."

"Maybe some of the Porygon are in fact five years old?" suggests Bella hopefully.

"I believe that some of them are!"

"There we go, then, there should be relatively little trouble matching sweaters to wearers unless Renée has more attention span than I credit her with."

He laughs.

"Is it, like, a secret that you can understand Pokémon? I can find some other way to tell Charlie that you want to talk to his," Bella says.

"It is not something I would like the entire region to know, but I don't have an intrinsic objection to explaining it to Charlie as long as he is not the gossipy sort."

"That," says Sherlock, "is an interesting notion."

"It'd pass the time," laughs Bella. "If you wanted to. Obviously it's optional. You could probably even do it from here, as long as it works over the phone? Maybe it's body language or range-limited psychic powers, I dunno, that'd make it harder to work from home."

"I have never tried it over the phone. I don't frequently have reason to phone a Pokémon."

"Wanna try it? I'll go out a ways, toss somebody, call you? Zag's smart enough to understand phones."

"By all means!"

Bella wanders out of earshot, and tosses Zag and explains the experiment. And then she calls Sherlock.

"Hello, Bella. Hello, Zag."

"Crystal clear," laughs Sherlock. "Thank you, Zag."

"'Testing, testing, testing' and then 'no problem'."

"Noone! Lin linoone?"

"According to Bella, I am psychic," says Sherlock.

"Did he ask how you do it?" Bella laughs.

"Yes he did!"

Sherlock laughs.

Bella hangs up the phone and wanders back towerward with her Zag at her heels, nuzzling the backs of her legs every few steps and threatening to trip her. She tolerates this with good grace. "So you work over the phone," she says.

"Apparently so."

"You want me to bring you a job application from Charlie's department, when I swing by with the Porygon sweaters?"

"I think that is a fine plan."

"Charlie'll be thrilled."

"Hooray for Charlie."

"How amenable are the vocalizations to exact-words translation? That'll probably come up if the 'mon are being witnesses."

"...How do you mean?"

"Like, if somebody's Starly sees a couple of shoplifters arguing, and the conversation the Starly witnesses contains, like, proper nouns - names - times, little clues that could be used to identify them - will the Starly be able to reproduce those to you, assuming it's smart and has a good memory and wants to help?"

"Yes."

"Interesting. I wonder how that works."

"I haven't the least idea."

"Does it only work if you're reproducing meanings or could a Pokémon give you - song lyrics in languages you don't know? Outright nonsense words? Onomatopoetic sound effects?" asks Bella in fascination.

"I have not studied these questions extensively."

"I wanna try it and find out, d'you wanna try it?"

"Do you have an experimental protocol in mind?"

"Um, I know the lyrics to one song in what is probably badly garbled Ancient Cinnibar? And I could make up sound effects and nonsense words. And I could go out in the woods and make a fool of myself with all three things with Zag and then come back and he can say 'linoone' at you a lot and we'll see if you can reproduce whatever I said."

"Let's try it."

"You don't speak Ancient Cinnibar or know any songs in it, right?"

"Correct."

"Prove it," laughs Bella, "what'd he say?"

Sherlock repeats the sequence. His imitation of Zag's imitation of Bella is quite good.

"Okay," says Bella, "I have no idea how any of that can be encoded in repetitions of various parts of the word 'Linoone', so I'm leaning towards the psychic-or-maybe-magic explanation again."

"Has there been much study made of how Pokémon communicate with one another?"

"You certainly are," says Sherlock to Zag.

"Do you and yours want a rematch?" Bella asks.

"I am sure we could be convinced."

"We could try random toss, would that be fun?"

"I believe it would!"

"I bet your smart computer can do random number generation. Three on three again?"

"I accept your terms."

"All right." Bella returns Zag, puts him on a spot on her string of them, names his ball, "One," and the one on the other end, "Six."

"One two three four," says Sherlock, producing four Pokéballs.

"And - how do we get random numbers out of the computer?"

"We ask nicely, of course," he says, loading a Pokétch app.

Bella waits. She doesn't think she has that one.

"What do I get?" Bella asks.

"Okay. And our second and third tosses?"

Bella gets 5 and then 4; Sherlock gets 4 and then 2.

Sherlock tosses Mycroft, who copies the Rapidash complete with mimicking her attitude.

Fireflower is offended. She's fierce when offended. There is considerable stomping and attempts at poisoning involved. Fireflower's also the one holding the Leftovers, which is a slight edge, and more so in a prolonged fight.

This is definitely a prolonged fight.

"Don't be rude," Sherlock says mildly, and throws his Porygon-Z.

"Rapidash," snorts Fireflower, and she hits the ineptly nicknamed You with a gout of flames.

"We can't help the way we're made," Sherlock murmurs, and You hits back.

Fireflower goes down, but not without a fight. Bella's next toss is Branch. Branch knows a self-healing attack and can hang in there for a good long time, especially against You's defensively-oriented attack array. Long enough. Branch has no commentary on the situation, besides the occasional "Saw!" that roughly translates to "Rar! Gonna get you!"

You holds its own nevertheless.

Sherlock's last toss is Watson.

"And yet," says Sherlock, collecting his Zebstrika.

"Mean old random number generator," laughs Bella. "Stuck my flier with your zapper. Oh well."

He laughs.

"If you did, I don't remember. Tell us again!"

"He was Renée's. Renée doesn't do a lot of battling, though, and Zag was always scrappy, and when I was eight he started following me around whenever she let him out of his ball, probably because I'd read him books and pet him and generally treat him like a stuffed animal except worth talking to. I got him as a present because Renée noticed he liked me, and I gave him the most juvenile possible nickname, and went off with nobody but him to start training when I was ready. Where'd you guys get your first? I guess that would've been Candle as a Charmander, and Mycroft? Correct me if I misremember."

"Dad imported Candle for me because I thought Charmanders were the coolest thing," volunteers Tony. "And I called him Candle because I'm not very creative."

"Tony caught Mycroft, actually, but he has always liked me best. I started a little late."

"How come?" Bella asks Sherlock. "I'm having a hard time picturing Tony being keener on training 'mon than you."

"I spent the majority of my childhood in the house library, which is why I have already read all of its good books and most of the bad ones."

"Huh. And then you scooped up Mycroft and went out - fairly standard after that? Did you catch your others yourself?"

"I caught Irene and Watson. You came from the flock, of course."

"Of course," laughs Bella. "I caught Fireflower and Rachis myself, but those are the only ones, the others are trades. Through the Guild."

He nods.

"Some of the other aces think it's weird to spend a long time on personality matching - if you're good enough, any 'mon you own will do what you say, so, they figure what's the point - but I was really careful about getting ones that liked to fight but didn't live for it," Bella says. "Traded away some excessively peaceable critters and one bloodthirsty little beast of a Marill till I had a balance I liked."

"The peaceful ones went to like-minded trainers, I hope?"

"Well, I was working through the guild and it's a battling-oriented guild, I just couldn't think of any other way to find traders back then, but I did my best. There's a few people who are sort of alumni, like, they're no longer really planning to challenge the League but they keep paying dues and showing up to meetings. I had a lazy, easily bored Starly that didn't want to do anything, and that one went to a collector, I felt relatively okay about giving that one to a collector to get Branch."

Sherlock nods.

"Foreign collector," Bella adds, "or I couldn't possibly have interested her in a Starly. Of course, I think approximately the same thing was going through that one guy's head when I traded him the Marill back for Dusk - Dusk was still an Eevee then - I think Eevee must be really common where he's from or something and he thought he was getting a deal."

"Has Dusk received a change of name?"

"Previous owner didn't name him. I called him Poofball, for a while, he was so fluffy, but he evolved pretty quick and I knew what I was aiming for all along, I wasn't ever trying to get ahold of a stone or anything and I did have to tell him off for trying to evolve in the daytime once."

He laughs. "Eevee are extremely fluffy."

"Dusk was an above-average-fluffiness Eevee. In his winter coat if he curled up a little he was round, plus ears. Actually, you know what, I have pictures -" She flips through Pokétch apps, and finds her photo album, and navigates, and then displays her wrist with a truly poofy Eevee curled up in a large-eyed fluffball shape on a pillow. "I think he prefers being all sleek, though."

"Oh my goodness," says Sherlock.

"I want to hug him," says Tony. "That is the fluffiest thing I have ever seen."

"You were indeed cute," says Sherlock, "and are indeed beautiful."

"Can I hug you anyway?" says Tony to Dusk.

Dusk prances across the table to accept a hug.

Tony hugs him.

Dusk is quite cuddly in spite of having traded in his floof.

"You are super cuddly," says Tony, cuddling him.

"Eon!"

Bella decides that this also belongs in the photo album. "Smile!"

Tony beams.

Tony giggles.

Dusk noses Tony's chin in a friendly sort of way, then gambols back to Bella and sits in her lap. She feeds him a bit of her dinner that she didn't quite have room for and he chews on it happily.

"Awwwwwww."