***Kanto Region--Palette Town: Present Day***<br/>Rich golden sunlight spilled through the glass of the limousine, gently warming the hand atop the arm rest and kissing the lightly tanned cheek leaning close to the window. Deep brown eyes gazed through the shielded opening, watching the comfortable little houses give way to steadily larger structures of silver that cast long shadows over the ground. The towers, multifaceted with windows, glinted like jewels studded in the lead gray spires reaching to the sky. Palette Town used to be so much smaller. Truly it had grown so much more than anyone could have imagined.<br/><br/>It had to be funds from world-famous trainers like Ash Ketchum, or from Samuel Oak's legacy. The lab was still here, somewhere after all. Not erased, simply forgotten when the old man left. Someone would have to go back soon and gather his old things. Charity assumed that it would have to be her.<br/><br/>She took in a slow breath and recounted her own experiences here. This was the birthplace of her own adventure, longer ago than she cared to think. She remembered it vividly, how afraid she had been when she'd first set foot on strange soil. And yet, somehow she found the will to go on, and her motivation to move forward empowered her. Swallowing hard, she couldn't help but feel choked up about how much things had changed. She loved it here now. She never wanted to go back.<br/><br/>Her eyes stopped seeing the reflection of her own face in the glass, and she noticed for the first time that the deeper they got into the city, the slower the driver seemed to move along the twisting streets. There were people.... lots of people. They all lined the streets, waving their hands excitedly. Some of them were holding signs with bold words on them, trying to get news cameras to focus on them for a moment so that they could convey some message to a loved one. But others held up signs for her.<br/><br/><em>"Welcome Home, Professor."</em><br/><br/>A large banner stretched across the road ahead read. They passed under it, and Charity laughed a little to herself.<br/><br/>"This is really kind of ridiculous." She spoke aloud to the driver of the limo.<br/><br/>"Not to them," He answered with a chuckle. "And besides. you can't tell me it doesn't cater to your ego just a little."<br/><br/>The woman blushed, but shook her head, smiling and turning her eyes back out the window. Law enforcement officers on Rapidash trotted into the streets, riding along side and in front of her vehicle, escorting her to the hotel where she was bound to get off.<br/><br/>The vehicle came to a stop, and she convinced herself to open the door, feeling a little self-conscious that so many people were watching her. She knew that they were there because she was their hometown professor. She was the new pokemon prof. And she was still getting used to it. It didn't help when the sound of trumpets played for her as she stepped out the door and onto the street. She grimaced slightly. Had she known this would be a parade, she would have dressed differently, and maybe done something more flattering with her curly hair other than tying it back in a ponytail.<br/><br/>Thanking her escort for holding the door, she let him go with a gentle nod, but before she could address the crowd or her own need to run inside and get to a room away from all of the chaos, she found herself nearly running into someone, headlong.<br/>