"Fossil Revival Machine? Sounds like part of my daily facial routine!" Buzzster said, laughing at his hilarious joke and giving Finnegan Fjord a conspiratorial elbowing as the little doctor continued her well-informed explanation. He leaned in close and slipped on his reading glasses as she revealed her blueprints.

"Well ain't that somethin' and a half," he said, nodding at the cute little design. "Love the wheels! Looks like a snow machine! Are you sure this this isn't what killed the dinosaurs?" He laughed again, filling the meeting with his booming excitement.

"Count me in too! I've got a feeling this is something big," he said, rubbing his hands together. "And if you can Dr. Hammond us up a dino or two with just a few pieces of locally-sourced scrap then that's a better bloody magic trick than any I've ever done!"

Zac struggled out the other end of the log. "Lot bloody longer than I'd figured from the look of it," he said, panting. He'd crawled for the better part of a mile and his arms were raw and ragged. Somewhere along the way he'd reached a fork in the log, and had used La Trixia's fire to see the internal signage more clearly. He'd followed the directions for greem junction, of course, ignoring the sign that said Fantastic Clearing, and now here he was.

Somewhere along the way he'd taken off his coat jacket. The extra elbow padding had been nice at the start, but by the end he'd been cooking in the suit. He stood up, covered in wood-rubbings and moss-stains, and looked around his destination. A small sign in the middle of the clearing proudly proclaimed Welcome to Green Junction.

Greem junction was a lot of things. It was an overgrown clearing at the edge of a cliff, full of mushroom-claimed stumps. It was a meeting place for a dozen overgrown trails that all apparently pointed to Mediocre Clearing and it was apparently the spot where two-dozen Murkrow had set up nests in a burnt-out tree.

He'd been expecting some sort of vibrant village, or maybe a jolly market like at the ren faire, but instead it was all just foliage. He was also certain that his eyes were playing tricks on him, because the whole place seemed to be covered in a thin, green-ish filter. I guess that's the greem, he thought, rubbing his eyes.

"Go away!" cried one of the Murkrow, its hat bobbing in indignation. "This is our place!" said another, perched on the edge of its next. "Go!" "Squawk!" "Go!"

"Whoa, whoa, fellas," Zac said, putting up his hands. "I'm just bloody trying to find my way out of here! I'm not causin' any trouble, am I?"

Cream slammed into the Vulpix, sending the luxurious red fox flying right into a thick birch. She hit the trunk, then the ground. She was barely moving, a perfect sitting target for Chikorita. "Not too sporting, is it?" Buzzster asked Furrlicity Purrfection , "but the show ain't over until you've mopped the floor, ay? Go on then! Get 'em Chikorita!" Buzzster said, but his Pokemon hesitated.

"I think she's had enough," Chikorita said. "Besides, I want a name. Did you hear the fancy name she's got?" asked his starter, pointing her leaf at Furrlicity Purrfection 's extravagantly named Deerling.

"Oh. Is that, like, normal though? Seems kinda hard to remember. What if I name you something easy to remember, like Bud!"

"I don't like that one bit.

"Well how about leaf?"

"You're just naming parts of my body!"

"Uh. Petal?"

"Well now that's even worse! I don't have any petals! You're making me feel self-conscious!"

"No!" Buzzster said, hands up. "It's, like, uh, aspirational! And look!" He leant down and placed a massive, calloused hand on the side of the little Pokemon's neck. One of the buds on her neck bloomed into a gorgeous, pale-purple Gladiolus. It looked like a floral pendant, and the thick stamen gleamed with pollen. Buzzster hadn't gotten a handle on any of the UI for this game, but his passive ability? Well he'd been messing around with that all afternoon.

"There we go! One bloody beautiful flower! What do you think?"

Chikorita looked down, trying to see her neck clearly "Whoa! Yeah! Okay call me Petal!"

Their naming ceremony was interrupted by a spit of flame from the base of a nearby tree. The flames singed Zac's jacket and left a blistering black mark along Petal's side. The pair looked over to see Vulpix struggling to stand, its eyes aflame with indignation.

"Sorry, did I interrupt?" she asked, in a posh accent. She spat another ball of fire and Zac and Petal moved back.

"Oh yeah. That's just like La Trixia," Buzzster mumbled. "Petal, can you finish her off?"

Chikorita was already running at the enemy. She dodged another shot or flame and slammed head on into the Vulpix, knocking the little fox head over tails, and out cold.

Zac brought up his map. It was a mess of squiggly lines that wove through the zone, tangling and untangling like knitted spaghetti. "Huh," he said, brows creasing. He'd been lost in the woods for almost an hour, and had only just stumbled upon a set of wooden signs.

The three signs shared a signpost, and each of them had one tapered end to help point the way to their promised destination. The lettering was big, bold. As if the person who had painted on the letters had been incredibly sure of their directions.

^
| ANTIGRAVITY PITFALL proclaimed the sign pointing directly upwards. Buzzster looked up, but all he saw was the afternoon sky, peeking through the crowded Autumn leaves.

<-- THE MIGHTY SNEELUS said the sign pointing left. Buzzster assumed that a Sneelus was some type of Pokemon. He only had his starter, so he wasn't too intent on some big battle just yet.

The last sign was attached right at the bottom of the sign, and it pointed straight down at the ground.

| YOU ARE NEAR HERE Well that wasn't helpful at all.
V

Zac huffed out a breath, and was about to try his luck with the Sneelus when he spotted a fourth sign. This one was nailed to the outside of a hollow log. GREEM JUNCTION --> said the sign, pointing into the darkness of the log. "Now that's more like it!" said Zac, feeling a surge of relief. A junction usually meant traffic. People, stores, assistance.

He got on his hands and knees and crawled into the log in search of GREEM.

Zac let out a whistle, and scratched his chin. "Startin' me off with the easy ones, ay?" he joked. "I'll tell ya what, Doc, the first part is way harder than the second. I've always loved fairytales. I'll hedge my bets and use Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella, because they're both great examples of what I'm talking about." Buzzster was on a roll now.

"In Jack and the Beanstalk, everything's far from ideal. He's poor, his mum's sick, and he barely has two bent pennies to rub together. And then he gives his last thing of worth to someone who promises him magic. Now normally that would be a tragedy about a naïve boy, but no! Jack was right to chase magic, and it pays off! Wild adventures up into the clouds! Giants! Magical items that bring them wealth and happiness." He slapped the cover of the book he'd placed on the desk. "That's the world I want to live in."

Zac appeared to have forgotten about Cinderella, so he moved on. He pondered the second half of the question.

"I don't like Hansel and Gretel," he said. "Too much cannibalism."

The second question was far easier, and he shot back an answer almost as soon as the Ash had finished speaking. "Rum and coke. Easy. Everyone knows how to make one, and nobody's ever out of the ingredients. Besides, I've got a bit of a sweet tooth. Just like Hansel and Gretel I guess." He laughed, an easy laugh that filled the cold lab.

"Saved the best for last then. Just like a math test. Okay then doc, well how about I answer your question with a quote." He cleared his throat. “There's a part of me that thinks perhaps we go on existing in a place even after we've left it.” He nodded slowly, as if savoring the taste of the words. "I read that in a book once and it's stuck with me. That's what I think the afterlife is. It's the world still spinning once we're gone, but changed for us having been."