Lyne pushed the doors open from the gym and stepped out into the fading sunlight. "Well that was pretty quick and easy, wasn't it Rotom?"

The electric pokemon that had an uncanny resemblance to a fishing rod's bobber buzzed loudly in his face.

"Yeah, yeah, the fight is over so you can go back into your pokedex I suppose." He pulled the red box out of his pocket and presented it to his pokemon, which happily invaded it in an instant.

"What did I tell ya?! My ghostly powers could just handle her normal stuff and then I could give them an amazing zap to take care of them!"

"I feel like choosing to battle with you was a little bit of a cheap approach," he said with a sigh. "Oh well." He looked at the lowering sun. "Guess we should call it a day though."

"Gah, really?! I'm not tired at all! Let's keep up the excitement!"

"Well yes, you wouldn't be tired, you're literally made of energy. Humans, however, are not." Lyne yawned and forcefully grabbed Rotom's floating pokedex. "Come on now, time to go find a place to sleep."

"Fine! Just let go of me dang it!" The pokemon was released from its trainer's grip and floated after him. "So do we finally get to sleep outside all adventurous-like?!"

"What? Do you think we're a bunch of neanderthals? No way, we're sleeping in a hotel tonight."

Lyne and his Rotom chatted off into town, as if without a care in the world.

The leader of the Nacrene City gym stepped out of her gym and looked out upon the two as the walked off. Her large teal afro seemed to sag under its own weight as she frowned. She untied her peach colored apron and let it fall to the ground. "My goodness! If the next generation of trainers is filled with the type of people we've been getting lately then we're all doomed!"

-----

"What do you mean 'you're out of rooms?!'"

"Sorry," said the hotel's manager. "None of our guests seem to be planning to leave any time soon, and they're the ones occupying all the rooms."

"I thought that hotels were supposed to be a thing you only stay at for a few days!"

"Who told you that?" asked the manager with a confused look. "In fact, I'm not even sure I see them ever leave their rooms. Actually kind of suspicious now that I think about it." He looked puzzled as he stood in the same spot that he always stood, night and day, for many years now.

"Oh whatever! If that's how it'll be then I need to get a move on to figure something out before it's completely dark." He walked out the door flustering.

Rotom popped out of his bag. "Yay! I guess that we get to sleep outside after all!"

"How does that even affect you in the first place?! You'll just go back inside your pokeball for crying out loud. No," Lyne said resolutely, stomping on the trail bound out of town. "I'm just going to have to go to the town before I can sleep then."

"Wait! Isn't the next major town Castelia! There's no way you're getting home tonight!"

"Looks like I don't have much of a choice," he said.

They walked on in silence for quite some time. Darkness had fallen and Lyne's mood collapsed. Bags started to grow under his heavy eyes, and his movement got slower. He continued doing this until he couldn't take it anymore.

"I can't take it anymore!" he shouted at the sky, then sat down. The lighting was scarce as the sky got increasingly cloudy and the moon was covered up. "And it looks like it's going to rain before too long. Great. Just great."

Rotom observed his trainer's pouting. "Come on, Lyne! It's not that bad! Let's just set up camp and call it good for tonight!"

"Don't you get it Rotom? Don't you understand?!" The day's stress was finally catching up to him. "I didn't bring a tent! Or even a sleeping bag! I came completely unprepared! I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. Quit my job and go after Ira? Yeah right. I couldn't manage that even if I tried my hardest." Tears started leaking down his face. "I just want to go home and forget this ever happened. I want to go back to my cramped lab at work, even if my work is ultimately stolen in the end. I just want to go back to where I know I can sustain myself."

The pokemon looked at its trainer in sadness. "None of that's true, and you know it."

"No, it definitely is."

"Nope, it's not. You don't want to go back to work, at least at that job. You don't want to give up. What you want is to see Ira again."

"What would you know, you're just a pokemon!" Lyne's sadness flashed to anger. "And how do I know in the first place that Ira would rather be with that Elron guy or not! This is probably all in vain in the first place!" His anger faded away and left only sadness once again.

Rotom was speechless. It was having a hard time figuring out how to comfort its trainer. Under normal circumstances, it would have just given Lyne a little shock, but those words hurt.

Suddenly, Lyne's pokenav buzzed.

"Huh?" He pulled it out, tears drying on his face, then he looked at the little egg shaped device. His eyes widened.

There, on the screen, were images flashing up on the screen. Images of Ira. Images of Ira, with a familiar scientist in the background. After those had run out, new objects started covering them up. There were Ira's notes and reminders that had to do with Lyne.

He was shocked at the flood of information in front of his eyes. What did this all mean? Then, he finally realized. While it was a while ago, Ira definitely had feelings for him at some point: he had a chance. The images and familiar events reminded him of better times when he was happy. The nostalgia was groundbreaking for him.

Lastly, the pokenav's screen went dark for a second, only to come back on with a map, and a little red blinking dot in the center. Porygon's face popped up in the corner of the screen, and was gleaming at its accomplishments.

Lyne knew what this meant. He knew where to find Ira! This wasn't a wild goose chase that would certainly end in disaster after all!

He wiped his face and stood up proud and tall. "Thanks, Porygon. I owe you one little buddy."

Porygon came out of the device and floated happily in the air in front of him, welcoming a pat on the head from its trainer.

"Well, let's get this show on the road!" He started into a run towards his home city of Castelia. That's right! How could I forget?! This means more to me than anything else at the moment, and I can do it, because you know what?! I'm freaking Lyne, genius scientist!

"Hey! What are you doing?!" yelled Rotom behind him, trying its best with Porygon to keep up. "Do you seriously think that you can run all the way home, you pasty white nerd?!"

"You bet! I have a renewed sense of purpose! Nothing can stop me now!"

-----

Lyne passed out onto the dirt trail a few minutes later, panting wildly.

"We tried to tell him. Oh well, let's at least put him on some grass or something until morning."