[center][h2][color=0072bc]Dewmeadow[/color][/h2][/center]

The professor nodded at Rowan, giving him a faint smile. The longer he stuck around, the more the boy reminded him of himself as a child. His hand caressed the door frame and his chin rested on his shoulder, watching the group instantly become friends. They'd go far. [color=f26522]“I’m sure if y’all stick together, this group could accomplish anything,”[/color] Dogwood said.

With a wave and a smile, the professor left the three of you inside the terminal room, going to work on any of the infinite inventions contained in his laboratory. Despite the group’s silence, the room was anything but. Pistons shrieked, cogs whirred, and the terminal appeared to be downloading data constantly. Its scratchy, digital blips blended in surprisingly well to the factory environment. The whole experience was a sort of song, a strange symphony of nuts and bolts. It couldn’t be denied that Dogwood, albeit quirky, was brilliant and a visionary. He likely appreciated the arts as much as he did the sciences. A song of technology proved it. It was interesting, the dichotomies he represented. Lover of studying Pokémon, cool, calm, collected, but sometimes fearful up close. Building an urban environment in a rural habitat. It made you question Dogwood’s origins, and why he was even there in the first place. Why build like this? And why here? Why study Pokémon at all?

The living laboratory was interrupted by your proposals, breaking the barrier of ice that separated the three of you from talking. The bond was formed amidst the clanking, banging, mashing infrastructure of metal and steel. Your group was strong, and could only be reinforced with time, dedication, care, and effort. You wondered where the three of you would go, who you would meet, and where you would end up. Which among you was the Pokémon master, if any of you? Who was the most clever? The brave one? The glue that held the team together? Or did each of you have parts of each of these things? Whatever the case, the team from Dewmeadow set out, representing The Dogwood Company in profession and status.

About an hour had passed when you stepped outside, the sun only rising about the width of a finger if you held your hand in front of you. There was no sign of the children who were playing tag from before. The people of Dewmeadow were wide awake at this point, conversing on porches and transporting goods to neighbors or working the fields for harvest. And just as you turned to set out on the wide, earthen trail that led from the meadow, you were interrupted by a sharp cry from behind the laboratory.

An old melody you’d heard from childhood, the Benny Hill theme song, played in your head as the three youngsters and their Pokémon rushed from the mechanical beast that was Dogwood’s laboratory. The game of tag had evolved into a 6-player game, the young trainers attempting to catch their equally enthusiastic Pokémon. The boy with the green-banded safari hat and butterfly net was sprinting after a Caterpie. The Caterpie squeed in delight, scooting at surprising speed through the blades of grass that rivaled its height. The girl in white and black uniform skipped toward a long-haired Oddish. The Oddish hopped on its heals, zigzagging away from the enthusiastic junior. Leading the pack was the blonde lass in pink dress, sprinting with arms outstretched towards an abnormally fluffy Mareep.

[color=fff79a]“Eep! Reeeeep!”[/color] the Mareep cooed, galloping just out of reach from its trainer. Small discharges of electricity coursed through the bountiful hills of its fur.

The rag-tag group ended up circling you, falling as ashes after a game of ring-around-the-rosy. They took deep breaths in sync with their Pokémon, exhausted from their hour-long session of hyperactivity.

[color=f49ac2]“Hey!”[/color]

Well, not too exhausted, you supposed.

The blonde-haired girl in pink dress twisted upward, spinning into a stance. She couldn’t have been older than ten, her face child-like in wonder. Her rosy dimples were accentuated as she spoke. They wiggled with each syllable said.

[color=f49ac2]“We should battle! And, uh, if you lose, you have to play tag with us!”[/color] She exclaimed. The other two young trainers sprung to their feet and nodded, laughing between breaths. They showed their approval by taking stances and having their Pokémon line up in front of them.

[color=f49ac2]“Deal?”[/color]