Get it Right

Iris had never been good at chemistry. Engineering had been more to her liking, and environmental science. Not. Chemistry. Brown eyes stared down at the mess on the counter in front of her, before glancing to Blackthorn. He in turn, stared down at the sizzling concoction that was an appropriate bright, toxic green. Thankfully, he’d learned after the first time, and they both had protective equipment on: masks and goggles, as well as dexterous latex gloves.

This was the fifth potion she’d managed to screw up, and she wasn’t sure exactly how else she’d get the ingredients wrong. One had tasted like candy sour apple, for crying out loud! At least that one hadn’t burnt a hole through the table at any rate, like this one was. 

“Let’s uh… take a five-minute break while I get this cleaned up. Get some water from the vending machine or something.” Blackthorn sounded exasperated, and she didn’t blame him. Iris herself had no idea what she kept screwing up on. Carefully, she stripped off her gloves, tucked her safety goggles on the top of her head, and pulled the mask down once she’d stepped away from the table to be safe.

It frustrated the woman that she couldn’t nail the mixture, and as she exited the lab, she looked up and down the mostly abandoned hall. She dragged a hand down her face, groaning, before wiping at her eyes to stop the tears from escaping. Nope. Nope. She wasn’t going to cry. She could figure this out. She could figure it out. Iris walked down the hall to the vending machine and tapped the sensor on her wrist to the payment button. A crisp cold bottle of water fell into the bin at the bottom with a loud noise that made her flinch. Instead, she scooped it up and cracked it open, taking a sip.

The act of drinking reset her breathing, which in turn reset her brain, forcing her to stop and actually think logically about the problem rather than emotionally. Emotionally didn’t get the problem solved. She’d figured out complex wind turbine machinations, she could figure out a damn Full Restore. She took another drink, this one a bigger one then the last, and it was only then she realized how thirsty she was. How long had they been working on this? Iris flicked her finger across the sensor on her wrist to unlock it and pull up the clock. Yeah. more like an hour and some change, but they’d had to take a break in between each failed potion so the lab staff and Professor Blackthorn could make sure it was safe for her to come back and try again.

She flicked her finger down the other way to shut off the display and wandered down the hall again, sipping at her water as she went, her thoughts drifting. Babbu had been taking a beating from Team Cynic members and her stores of medicine were running low to keep doing it. Her stores of medicine and her stores of credits. She wanted to help how she could, but her team wasn’t strong enough. So when she learned that Professor Blackthorn was offering free classes teaching students how to make specific medications like a Full Heal and a Full Restore, she jumped at the chance to be a better trainer and caretaker for her Partner, let alone her other Pokemon. Babbu deserved better.

Iris turned as she reached the end of the hall and turned, her eyes focusing on the water swishing around in the bottle still. The gears turned and ground against each other, and before she knew it, she was back at the lab where her lessons were taking place. She felt bad that she kept wasting valuable resources trying to make what he was teaching her, but at the same time, she’d not expected to struggle so much either. Click, click, click…

The gears turned and moved in her head, her mind going through the instructions again, bit by bit. Something wasn’t adding up, and she finished off her water (it wasn’t a big bottle after all), shoving the bottle in one of her many pockets. The woman pushed open the door and slid her mask back on her face and her goggles back over her face. A step wasn’t making sense in her head. “Professor, can I see the instructions for the Full Restore, please?”

“Sure. Something wrong?” He handed over the sheet that had the step by step instructions and she looked it over, her brows furrowing. Yep. That’s what she thought.

“I was misunderstanding one of the steps. Can we try one more time?”

“Certainly!”