"Hey Kate!" Kate turned up to see Barlow smiling. "I was wondering what was taking you soo long to make it to the base. Hey, are you…crying?" Kate quickly wiped the tears away.

"No," she said quickly. "Sorry you had to wait soo long, I was saying goodbye to my friends who were heading for Fiore.

"Ah," Barlow replied. "Shall we go to the base now then?"

"Okay then!" Barlow grinned. "Congrats on graduating from the Ranger School! You are now a ranger!" He handed her a styler. "The styler you had until now was not as functional because you were just a student. But now, as a ranger, you get this upgraded capture styler! Now you can voicemail other rangers and have a partner Pokémon! Speaking of, whose it gonna be?"

"Um, I think I already have a Pokémon in mind…" Kate grinned as she thought of Pascal.

"Great, great! Now, I have a mission for you! Crawford has a newspaper he delivers to the nearby folk and I want you to help him. Got it? Kate nodded as she followed Crawford.

"So, I heard from Ms. April that you and Keith saved the school on graduation day," Crawford said grinning. "That is pretty cool!"

Kate smiled. "Yeah, but I wonder how the Pokémon even got there…"

"Oh well. No one fusses over the little things, unless they're boring people." Crawford stopped walking. "You're not boring, are you?"

"Wha-hey Crawford!"

"Just kidding! Hey, let's hand out these papers already!" They went, house after house, until all of Vientown had a paper.

"We're done, right?"

"Nope. Sorry Kate, but there's more. We're going to Chicole Village." Kate shuddered at hearing the name of her home. Crawford noticed this. "Something wrong?"

Kate shook her head. "No, I'm fine."

They walked into Chicole Village, and into the houses there. One by one, the papers were taken and thankyous were given. At last, they had reached Kate's old home.

"Um, Crawford? No one lives here." Kate exclaimed quickly.

"Really? I always remember giving the paper to a lady who lives here. She had pink hair-"

"Yeah, she, uh, moved. So we don't need to go in."

Crawford grinned. "Seems like you don't want to go in. If you want, I'll go by myself-"

"No need. I-I'll go." She opened the door and sighed in relief when she noticed that Lavana was not there.

"Keck!" a Pokémon stumbled down the stairs.

"Pascal!" Kate ran over to her friend.

"You know this Pokémon?" Crawford tilted his head to the side.

"Uh, yeah, he's an old friend. I wonder how he got here, though…" Kate said, petting the scales of Pascal. "Hey, that reminds me! Pascal, how about being my Partner Pokémon?" Pascal nodded in agreement.

"Great! Now you've got a Partner Pokémon too! It looks like this house really is empty, so let's return to the base!"

"Are you two done?" Kate and Crawford nodded. Barlow smiled. "Good, because I have another mission for you! That is, if you're up to it."

"Yeah, I can do it. How about you Kate?"

"I'm up for it, Barlow," Kate said.

"Good, good! Kate, do you remember on your 1-day internship how the Pokémon acted?" Kate nodded. "Well, it seems as though the Pokémon in Marine Cave are acting similarly. I want you to check it out."

"Roger that, leader! I'm out!" Crawford burst out the door, and Kate followed.

Marine Cave was a humid place, thereby giving it the name. Puddles of water lay around the floor.

"Watch out Kate!" Kate looked up from her wet uniform to see a Zubat charging at her. She reached for her styler.

Seconds later, she had captured the Zubat. But the Pokémon would not let up. It charged past Kate deep into the cave.

"What's with that Pokémon? Why didn't it-"

"Yeah, I didn't really get it either. Let's just go in deeper," Kate responded curtly.

They walked deeper into the cave, into a circular room-like area. In the center stood a tall red machine.

"What is that?" Crawford whispered.