"Welcome!" Gail cried, "To the Aviary Gym!"

The small group oohed and awed as she opened the large double doors to the circular gym building. They entered into a long hallway that was held up by many large arches, covered in creeping ivy vines. There were rooms to the left and right and they continued down the hall.

The hall then rounded and they walked past many windows that let in the bright sunshine. They finally reached two large doors that had pictures of the 5 infamous ledgendary birds carved into them: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Ho-oh and Lugia. A border around the birds pictured the rest of the known bird pokémon in the world.

"Before we go into the Hatchery, I need to ask all of you to PLEASE be very quiet. If you absolutely HAVE to talk, whisper, please! AND PLEASE KEEP YOUR HANDS IN YOUR POCKETS!!!" she added in a screech.

Krystal and Jacen obediantly shoved them in, in fear of Gail's wrath, and Bram stood horrified looking frantically for pockets to put his hands in. He began to whine, "But I don't have ANY pockets!!"

"Well, then.... Just keep your hands to your side," Gail replied, closing her eyes in attempt to control herself, fists clenched.

His hands immediately stuck to his side, pulled by some unseen force.

"I say this only in respect for the pokémon. We have some expectant mothers. If you startle them, you could disrupt their egg-laying cycle. We also have many indoor incubators, so please DON'T touch them! The eggs are very fragile, and WE CAN'T LOSE A SINGLE ONE!!!....Okay?"

They nodded quietly with a nervous chuckle.

"Okay then!" she said in a friendly voice, pulling open the large doors. They scurried inside, and she shut them silently behind them.

It was a very large room seperated into two sections. On the left lay a few different types of habitats, seperated by glass walls. There were many types of trees, a desert landscape, and even a large cliffside. All over lay thousands of nests, almost every one occupied by a bird-type pokémon. The floor was covered in other bird pokémon who were eating food and drinking water out of small bowls. Others were perched on perches camouflaged as logs and small trees.

Jacen was amazed to see so many bird pokémon in one place. There were pidgeys and spearows, plus rare pokémon like some farfetch'd and even a large Pidgeot that was perched high at the very top of the cliff, asleep on it's large nest. Also walking about were some psyducks and doduos. Krystal and Bram however, were more interested in the other side of the room. Krystal ran up close to the glass of a large incubation room. She looked in and saw many different eggs of all sizes and colors. Bram studied one large chamber at the back of the room which contained hundreds of white eggs.

Every single egg sat in a small nest. They were arranged in columns and there seemed to be about 20 per column and at least 30 columns spanning across the chamber. A large library ladder was parked at the end of the columns.

Between the sections lay a tiled mosaic-like path that cut the room in two. Gail walked down to the end of the path, where a mega-sized computer system and a 10 ft. monitor sat. She motioned for the group to follow. At the computer was another girl. She typed at the console. Her jet-black hair was sticking out under a feather-hat and as she turned, Jacen noticed she had bright yellow eyes.

"This is Heather. She is one of my assistants here at the gym. She monitors the incubation chambers and makes sure the conditions are just right for the eggs. Different pokéeggs need different levels of heat and humidity."

"Hi, Gail." Heather said, smiling at Bram. Bram returned another suave smile.

"How are the pidgey eggs?" she asked.

"Right on schedule," she reported, "Who are your friends?"

"A few out-of-towners. I'm giving them a tour, and then this little one," she pointed at Krystal, "Wants to battle me."

"I have some important news," Heather started.

"What?" Gail asked.

"I think... it's today..." she revealed. There was a look of surprise on Gail's face.

"Are you sure?" she hurriedly asked, "Isn't it a bit soon?"

"What? What's today?" Krystal stepped forward and asked, "What's going on?"

"You may be in for a real treat today, Bram," she told him, ignoring Krystal, "The Great Hatching is a spectacular site."

"What is that?" Jacen asked.

"Only the greatest event of the year!" replied Gail, "It is the time when all of our pidgey eggs hatch. I should have known it would be early this year, because of the unusually cold weather patterns. And most of the staff is out for vacation this week..." she paced around, looking at Heather and then at the chamber full of eggs.

"Can we manage with only ten staff members?" Heather asked, who also began to look a bit worried.

"What about us?" Bram suggested, "I'd be glad to help!"

"ME Too!" Krystal called out, "And you too Jacen, right?"

"I guess," he began.

"I don't know... We need properly trained people--" Gail tried to explain.

"But Gail," Heather interrupted, "If they don't help, we're in danger of losing some...Remember last year--"

"Don't remind me. That was a hard time," Gail looked very gloomy.

"What happened, Gail?" Bram asked.

Gail took a breath and explained, "Last year's hatching was also very early in the season. But earlier than this, in May. Many of the pidgeys hatched too quickly and we weren't able to keep them in their nests, a large number fell out of them and died. We had too few on staff to watch them and had used up most of the food for the other pokémon. Worse yet, there was a malfunction in the computer system and one night it got too hot in the chamber and some of the late eggs spoiled... It wouldn't be so hard if we could convince the Gym Association that we need extra funding to build safer, newer facilities."

"Then you do need us?" Krystal asked, feeling sorry that such things had happened.

"I guess, it couldn't hurt," Gail finally answered, even managing to look at Krystal, "But first, we should get you some new clothes."

Krystal looked down at her stained clothes and was throughly embarassed, "Thanks, I guess I do need some..."

End of Chapter Four
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