Tia goes home to visit her Poke Ball specialist parents.
Tia smiled as she approached the house, which was small, but had a wide and spacious yard to hold the various Pokemon milling about. She recognized the members of her mother’s and father’s Pokemon teams and waved at them.
“Tell them I’m coming in!” she called out.
She placed her hand on the doorknob when a sudden “BOOM” shook the house. A pillar of smoke rose from the chimney.
Tia stared blankly at the door. “Uh…” She then shook her head and opened the door. “I’m home… Mom? Dad?”
Smoke filled the house, and Tia could see her mother standing in the kitchen, wiping soot off of her glasses and beating sparks out of her hair and lab coat.
“Whew,” she said breathlessly, “That wasn’t exactly the result I expected!” She opened a window to let the smoke out, and called out, “That Flamethrower was a bit too strong, Zen! Could you tone it down a little bit?” The throaty roar of a Blaziken answered her. She looked over at Tia and smiled delightedly. “Tia! You’re home!”
“Hi, Mom!” Tia answered, “Do I want to know what you’re up to this time?”
Her mother looked at her sheepishly. “Yeah… sorry if the kitchen looks like a volcano erupted! The gas lines in town haven’t been working too well, so I had to get Zen to help with the heating.”
Tia laughed. It was just another one of her mother’s run-of-the-mill experimental accidents that occurred at least once a week. Naomi Cade was a Poke Ball specialist, but she occasionally dabbled in more general scientific mayhem. She had also been one of the best Pokemon trainers around when she was a kid, and now, she usually had her Pokemon team help out with her work in the craziest ways.
“Heads up!”
Tia turned her head, only for an Ultra Ball to zoom past her head. Naomi caught it with ease and inspected it.
“What’s the issue?” she called out.
“Faulty clasp,” her father answered, sitting at a desk piled high with Poke Ball design drawings and calculations. “The Ball doesn’t open when it touches a Pokemon, like it’s supposed to!”
Naomi frowned. “That’s not a design issue,” she said, “it’s poor manufacturing!” She threw the Ultra Ball back to him.
He caught it without looking, his head still buried in calculations. “Tell that to Silph’s assembly line.” Then, he looked up, and seeing Tia, he smiled. “You’re home!”
“Hi, Dad!” Tia answered, “Have you eaten yet?”
Her father laughed. “Thirty minutes ago. All thanks to the clock you sent me after you left for Johto.” He pulled out a small Hoothoot cuckoo clock.
Tia smiled. Nathan Cade was always deeply absorbed in his Poke Ball design work, and always lost track of time. It was a good thing Silph allowed him to work from home, or else he’d never be home. She remembered buying the Hoothoot clock when she first arrived in Azalea Town and giving it to her dad as a gag gift, but he seemed to be putting it to very good use.
“How long will you be home?” Naomi asked, “We heard you were traveling around Johto doing Poke Ball testing and something special for Professor Oak!”
“A couple of weeks,” Tia answered seriously, “I’m taking a break.”
“Well, nowhere’s better than home!” Nathan said, then pointed absently at the stove. “Honey, it’s burning.”
Naomi turned around. “What? Oh, no!” She grabbed a fire extinguisher and violently sprayed the stove.
“Heh-heh…” Tia laughed nervously. Business as usual.