Some Things Just Can't Be Understood

"Oh! Like that one boy at the beach?" Pheobie asked

"Yes, just like that," Maple replied.

"You took her to Cinnabar's stretch?" asked Professor Oak.

"No, this was elsewhere," Maple answered, before sighing. "The one time I'm not looking for anomalies.."

Pheobie nodded. "It was scary"

Professor Oak paused, looking elsewhere.

"...Do you know why I'm out here, Professor Maple?" asked the older man finally.

"To do research on the wildlife?" Maple ventured. He hadn't put any real thought in why the professor was outside his lab.

"...To deal with Gary," Oak answered solemnly. "Or rather, his ghost."

Pheobie didn't have anything to say as she remembered what Maple had said about who Gary was.

Maple froze. "...What?"

Professor Oak did not say anything else, looking away.

"When...When did that happen?" asked Maple.

"He and his Pokemon fought against Ash, who had become a ghost. Gary managed to drive him away, but became corrupted and taken away in the process," Oak explained. "I still don't know what led to Ash's corruption. It is one of the things I'm investigating."

"Is there anyway to fix it?" Pheobie asked softly.

"That's a big part of researching anomalies and corruption. Trying to find a way to reverse it," said Maple quietly. "We haven't gotten there yet though."

"Maybe there's something in the ships computer that could help" Pheobie stated.

"If only it were that easy," Maple replied. "The problem isn't just stopping the flow of corruption and purifying the person. It's restoring their memories to what they once were while convincing them that certain memories are twisted or false. It's not just a matter of curing. It's rehabilitating them."

"...Like restoring corrupted files on a computer?" Pheobie asked "... You could always use news footage and color association. Kind of like what I did to make the animals fall asleep, but different. Color association can be used for a bunch of things." She looked down, biting her lip before looking back up. "I want to do something to help"

Maple didn't say anything back. He didn't know how well color association would work considering that a lot of corrupted beings tended to perceive color wrongly. He didn't want to admit what a complex problem this really was.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked softly

"This is a serious problem that has plagued this world since the beginning," Professor Oak answered for Maple. "You would need more experience with glitches before you could help. But this is not something to go into lightly."

Maple nodded. Oak turned to him.

"I do not blame you for what happened to Gary," said Oak. "Knowing him he would have found his way to glitches one way or another. I think I realized that when he had his first encounter with MissingNo, but I just didn't want to admit it to myself."

Pheobie bit her lip again.

Maple rubbed Pheobie's back reassuringly. "It's not your fault. It's a complicated thing."

The trio had finally arrived back at Pallet Town and were heading for Professor Oak's house.

Pheobie cuddled her pichu. "I know"

"Chu..." it squeaked back, ears droopy. It didn't understand the topic, but it understood the mood. Groovy also stuck close to Maple, looking sad.

Maple stayed quiet, holding Pheobie's hand.

Pheobie sighed. "Is there any hope?" She asked softly.

"As Einstein once said, if we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research," Maple answered a little more cheerily. "It make take years, but we will figure it out. Else we wouldn't be doing this kind of thing in the first place."

"Okay" Pheobie murmured

"Many things used to be considered impossible," Professor Oak said, as he went over to open the door to his lab. "Pokeballs. Radio. Cars. Trains. Worldwide communication and tradingin a matter of seconds. But they're all possible now, because people worked to make them possible."

"Any thing's possible if you put your mind to it" Pheobie replied

"That's the spirit," said Professor Oak as he pushed the door open and let them inside. "Sit down on the couches there. It will take me a minute to get your Pokedex."

"Alright," replied Maple, sitting down.

Pheobie sat down next to him and leaned against him. She was still feeling down.