“I’ve decided,” Viola announced, a big smile on her face. “I want one.”

  I looked over at her as she lounged on Scoly’s stomach, rubbing at different areas of her shell. She really was a bug expert as she seemed to know all the little places that the big bug horse enjoyed the most. Both of them seemed to be greatly enjoying themselves. “Well this one’s mine, so you’ll have to find your own.”

  “Honestly I’m just shocked she’s so docile,” she said as she sat up a bit, looking down at Scoly. “I’ve had tons of interactions with Scolipedes and their line, but all of them have been extremely aggressive. It makes them hard to train… let alone even get along with.”

  “Well, she was raised by a Lucario,” I said with a gesture at the large bug.

  “And she’s definitely larger than average. Somewhere between Alpha and regular size,” she mused, completely ignoring me.

  Since that was the case, I decided to just go back to brushing Keo. The little fox had sort of hesitantly demanded to be brushed, since she hadn’t been in a very long time and wanted a reward for winning. So now all of us were sitting to the side of the arena.

  Viola had immediately demanded to see my Scolipede after the fight, and had spent several minutes now completely focused on her. “In very good shape, too. Scolipede will gorge themselves if allowed, but it seems that she has a very good diet.”

  “She is definitely not one of the gluttons.” I agreed. While Scoly ate a lot, it wasn’t outside of what I would expect of something that large.

  “What do you feed her?” Viola asked, finally seeming to acknowledge that I was still here.

  I looked over at her for a moment. “Curry, pokeblocks, and pokebeans.”

  Her brow furrowed a bit. “Okay I don’t know what two of those are.”

  “How does no one know what curry is?” I asked with a bit of a frown, turning my attention back to Keo. “Seriously, it’s not like it’s a difficult dish or anything. It’s a spiced gravy sauce most often served over rice with meat.” It was one of the things that boggled my brain the most. One of those little details that made no sense.

  She had a bit of a frown on her face. “What kind of meat?”

  “I usually use high end pokefeed and that fake substitute pokemeat stuff. Things that are high in protein and vitamins. One bag of pokefeed usually lasts quite a while because of the rice being more filling.” I looked over at her for a moment. “Did you know when feeding Pokemon that high end stuff, the serving sizes are overinflated? Because they have little to no fillers you're actually giving your Pokemon a lot more vitamins and stuff than their body can absorb. So I offset that with rice.”

  When I looked over it was clear that she hadn’t been listening, her attention once again on the bug, playing with her little arms. Scoly for her part seemed very pleased at the attention.

  “I can send you the recipe if you’d like?” I tried, attempting to get her attention.

  Viola looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. “Sure. It sounds like you’ve done a lot of research on nutrition if you can make recipes and stuff.” I pulled out my phone, handing it to her so that she could input her number. However, the moment her hand got too close there was a spark and she pulled her hand back. “Ah!”

  “Oh no. I’m so sorry,” I said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of my tone. I looked at the phone for a moment. “It’s okay, Viola isn’t going to hurt you,” I soothed the little Rotom peeking out of the side of the screen. “Sorry, they’re still really shy.”

  She was rubbing her hand, eyes narrowed at me. “Is that a Rotom?” she asked, leaning over a bit to look, which caused said little lightbulb to disappear off the screen.

  “Yes. Again, sorry. I really didn’t think they’d shock you but I should have expected it. They still shock me occasionally,” I said with a bit of a smirk.

  “Uhuh. Sure,” she grumbled a bit and just told me her number.

  After I put it into my phone, I sent her a fairly basic recipe for curry, along with some ideas for modifications.

  “So what’s your plan now?” she asked as she went back to playing with Scoly.

  I wasn’t sure if she was asking just to prolong how much time she would get to play with the big bug or if it was because she was actually curious. Either way, I had to think about it for a moment. My immediate plan would be to go to Cyllage, since that’s where the second gym was. But Lusamine was on her way.

  Maybe if I just specified that I was scheduling it for the future? That would be annoying because I had no idea how long Lusamine would be in Kalos or what she would even want to talk about it. “I need to schedule my remaining gym battles,” I decided.

  “So next stop is Grant?” she asked, her attention actually turning back to me. “Grant is so cool.”

  “Yup.” I started to put away the little brush kit I had as Viola gushed about Grant and how fashionable and cool he was. I wasn’t sure how wearing a tight black long sleeved shirt was fashionable, so I mostly just ignored her. “If you want more brushies, you just have to ask,” I said to Keo as I tousled her floof a bit.

  She huffed at me, batting at my hands. “Why do you always muss up my hair?”

  I snorted. “Because I can,” I said simply as I placed her on the ground.

  “Oh, you’re leaving?” Viola asked, her gaze lingering on Scoly.

  “Yeah. I’ll let you know when New Hope starts allowing visitors, so you can come check on all the bugs,” I said as I got to my feet and started to fish out Scoly and Keo’s pokeballs.

  There was a moment of silence, before Viola asked, “There’s going to be a lot of them, huh?”

  I nodded slowly as I returned Keo. “Unfortunately.”

  She sighed. “Bug types are the most abundant, but also the most disliked Pokemon… So many Trainers get their first chances with bug types and then ditch them as soon as they get other Pokemon…” There was a genuinely depressed look on her face as she rubbed Scoly’s shell. “I can’t tell you how many Trainers I see challenging me with bug types, only to rechallenge me without them.”

  “People are too quick to abandon their Pokemon,” I said with a sigh, also rubbing at Scoly’s shell. I know I was guilty of doing that in the game, but that was when it was a game. They were just code. Sure I still felt a bit bad about it sometimes, but it was just a game. This was real life. I wondered if Keo’s Trainer missed her. Or what happened with Eevee’s Trainer.

  Suddenly having a large bug shove her head against me broke me out of my thoughts. “Don’t be sad, papa,” she mumbled.

  I chuckled softly as I rubbed the top of her head. “Right. That’s the whole point of New Hope. Taking care of all these Pokemon.”

  “I’m really glad you’re doing all that,” Viola said as she finally got off of Scoly, but looked at her in an almost longing way. I couldn’t blame her. The big bug had quite a soft underbelly, which was surprising the first time I had felt it. “I just hope you have a way of dealing with people taking advantage. Trying to just get a hold of already trained Pokemon…”

  “Sort of,” I responded with a shrug. “We have plans for an interview process, and the decision has to be mutual between Pokemon and potential Trainer. And if someone returns a Pokemon without discussing why with New Hope, they’ll get blacklisted.” A smirk pulled at the corner of my mouth. “And depending on how bad it is, they might also lose their Trainer License.”

  She blinked. “How the hell do you have the authority to do that?”

  “I don’t,” I replied with a shrug, now actually smirking. “But the Joy Clan is heavily invested in New Hope, so any Trainer that is blacklisted by us is probably going to have a bad time when it comes to Pokecenters.”

  There was a moment of silence before she nodded a bit. “That would be a fairly effective career killer. Even if the Joys didn’t also blacklist them, just being on their bad side is unfavorable.”

  Scoly was continuing to rub her head against me, clearly in some sort of affectionate mood after all that attention. I nodded to Viola as I continued to rub Scoly’s shell. “I don’t know if they will go that far, but it won’t be a secret that they support New Hope considering how many Joys are already working there.”

  She was silent for a moment, clearly thinking about something. “It’s really no wonder the Association doesn’t like you. You have a lot of sway.”

  “Yeah I’m not sure where it all came from, either,” I said with a shrug. “I just…” I frowned a bit as I thought about everything that had happened. “I really don’t know how it happened.”

  After saying goodbye to Viola I boarded a train heading towards Cyllage. Just a moment after sitting down, my phone started to ring. I didn’t check who it was, simply answering it. On the other side was Professor Kukui, looking oddly haggard. “What the heck did you and Lusamine talk about?” he asked almost hurriedly.

  “Alola, Professor,” I replied with a soft laugh. “What’s up?”

  “Lusamine and an entire research group just boarded a plane heading for Kalos,” he said flatly. “My wife has been stuck in a meeting with the Association ever since and they are demanding to know why.”

  “She’s interested in New Hope,” I said with a shrug. Which was technically a lie, but a plausible one. Well, technically it wasn’t a lie, just not the main reason. What she really wanted was to know what I had learned about Ultra Beasts. Why she wanted to do that in person rather than over the phone was a mystery to me, as was why she needed a full team.

  However, Kukui seemed unconvinced judging by the way his eyes narrowed slightly. It was honestly weird not seeing a smile on his face. “That’s not the only reason, is it?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “No, that’s not the only reason. But I honestly don’t know entirely the reason myself, so I can’t give you a good answer.”

  He stared at me for a moment before he sighed. “Okay, what do you know?”

  “She wants to know what I know about Ultra Beasts. But again, I have no idea why she reacted the way she did,” I explained and shrugged.

  For a moment he just stared at me some more before heaving a heavy sigh and slumping into his chair. “Of course it’s Ultra Beasts… She is obsessed with them…” He paused. “What do you know about Ultra Beasts?”

  “Quite a lot, I think,” I replied after thinking about it for a moment. “But I don’t think anything I know is new. Lusamine probably knows a lot more than I do.”

  “What did you tell her?” he pressed, sounding like I had done something wrong.

  “Practically nothing. Just that they’re from a different dimension, and unlike Pokemon in our world.” His reaction to all of this was a bit concerning. “Do you not get along with Lusamine?”

  He shook his head. “It’s not that we don’t…get along, we just have a lot of differences. I like that she is heavily invested in the care of Pokemon, but it’s the rest of the Aether Foundation stuff that worries me.”

  “Like what?”

  There was a pause as he seemed to hesitate. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But sixty percent of their activity is focused on Pokemon conservation, while the rest seems to be unrelated.”

  A bit of a frown pulled at the corner of my mouth. “And where did you get those numbers?”

  “From reports. They give them to the Association, but forty percent of what they do is classified. I know part of it is about Ultra Beasts, but I don’t know what else they’re up to,” he explained, almost as if he was in a rush to get the words out.

  I looked at him for a moment before I sighed. “Well, I’ll see how things go. New Hope needs backers, and people helping. A lot of people. So I need all the help I can get.”

  He nodded slowly. “Okay. But just… Be careful, okay?”

  “I will,” I said with a nod.

  “Okay. Alola.”

  “Alola, Professor,” I replied and we hung up.

  That was honestly concerning.

  Kukui made Lusamine sound dangerous. Or problematic in some way. Sure, I knew that she would be a bit obsessed, but it should be fine right now, right? Well, problem for future me.

  Shuffling from my hood soon produced Eevee, who groggily came up onto my shoulder. I raised an eyebrow as I watched her out of the corner of my eye. She took a moment to look around before looking at me. “Did I miss the battle?”

  I raised my hand up, scratching under her chin. “Sorry, I didn’t know you wanted to watch.”

  A huff escaped her as she pressed into my hand. “I like battles. Did Keo win?”

  “She did,” I replied before I went into a play-by-play of the battle and what happened. She only seemed to be half listening, clearly really tired. This seemed a bit more than her normal tiredness as well. There were too many Pokemon now and I couldn’t keep up with what all of them were up to. It didn’t help that many of them were purposefully keeping me out of the loop.

  As I spoke, Eevee was watching out the window. “I don’t know if I want to battle, but I like watching them.”

  I reached up, scratching under her chin. “That’s fine. What about evolving?”

  She pressed her face into my hand, rubbing against my fingers. “I dunno. I can never never decide…they all seem so cool. I just want to be all of them.”

  A smile formed on my face as I looked at her. “Indecisiveness is a problem… But you don’t have to worry. You can think about it for a long time, and make sure you’re sure of your choice.” Although there was always the chance she could turn into Espeon or Umbreon if she wasn’t careful. She could even become a Sylveon for all I knew, since I had no idea how that worked. Did she just have to know fairy moves? Because if that was the case I also didn’t know her moves.

  Arriving in Cyllage I went straight for the gym. I really was cheating the whole Journey system, wasn’t I? Traveling via train rather than on foot. As I realized that my pace slowed, and my brow furrowed. While I thought it was kind of dumb to make children do something like this, I was missing out on the possible adventures. The people and Pokemon I could meet.

  Was this actually the right way to do things?

  I had been so caught up looking towards future things that I had forgotten what was going on in the present. So many things had been piling up, and I realized that I didn’t have the time for adventuring. At least right now. I had too many tasks to complete. Too much on my plate.

  A sigh escaped me as I looked up at the massive tunnel into the rock wall that was Cyllage’s Gym entrance. I didn’t want all this responsibility. But it wasn’t like I could just not do it. It was annoying, but I was succeeding. Getting results with something that so many others had failed at. So much work to make everything better for Pokemon.

  In truth, if Diantha hadn’t made her stipulation about me getting to fight her in the League, I wouldn’t bother even fighting the Elite Four. Everyone wanted so much from me, and it was annoying.

  I reached up and rubbed the side of my head, trying to prevent a headache. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted the Z-Ring, still snuggly wrapped around my wrist. I hadn’t taken it off since the confrontation with Malva, unless I was showering. “Once I’m done with all this nonsense I’m going to take an actual vacation, I think…” I muttered before entering the gym.

  Inside was an absolutely massive cavern, with a hole in the ceiling showing the sky. In the center was a boulder just as large, and covered in colored geometric shapes. The whole thing had been converted into a climbing wall.

  Over to the side I could see a small building with large glass windows, and inside, thankfully, was a receptionist.

  Walking inside, I noticed a few other Trainers, most likely waiting for their turn to battle. “Excuse me,” I said as I reached the desk. “I’d like to schedule an Elite Battle with Gym Leader Grant, sometime around five days from now?”

  The moment I mentioned Elite Battle the secretaries typing stopped and she looked up. All the conversations behind me also stopped. “Elite Battle?” she asked, as if trying to confirm.

  Were they really that rare? There had to be quite a lot of Elite Trainers considering what I had seen back in the League, but I guess they were rare enough? Or maybe there was some other channel to do this that I wasn’t aware of. “Yes,” I responded as I handed over my Trainer ID.

  The look on her face was something that I was expecting. She was quite shocked, and actually took a moment to seemingly remember that she had a job to do. “Ah- Pokemon Expert Jason….uh… One moment, I’ll contact Grant.”

  I put up my hand. “Not necessary. I don’t have time for the battle right now,” I lied, “Which is why I want to schedule it for five days from now.”

  It was clear that she was hesitant, but nodded. “Okay. Uh… Any particular time?”

  That was something I hadn’t really thought about. “What is the earliest time slot?” I asked, deciding that I could probably schedule two or three battles in one day just to get it over with faster.

  “The earliest is uhm…” She had to type on her computer for a moment. “Ten in the morning?”

  After thinking for a moment I nodded. “That will work.” I could do that battle, eat lunch, and then do a second against Korrina.

  “Okay,” she replied with a nod. “I have you scheduled for five days from now, Thursday, at ten in the morning.”

  I blinked but then nodded. That would make today Saturday, and I had honestly completely lost track of what day of the week it was. “Thanks,” I said with a wave over my shoulder as I made my way out.

  Next stop was Shalour.

  Maybe I should have challenged Korrina while I had been there? Definitely would have saved me a trip.

  As I was walking up towards the skate rink slash gym I realized I never did check to see if Korrina actually made it back from Mega Island.

  Judging by the way everyone seemed to not be worried everything was probably fine.

  I hadn’t even made it to the secretary when I heard a very familiar voice. “Jason!” Stepping back, Korrina flew past me and nearly slammed into the wall. She spun around, stumbling a bit as she clearly hadn’t been expecting me to dodge. “You left me!”

  My brow arched. “Might want to phrase that differently,” I commented as I glanced at the crowd that was forming to watch, since she had just shouted.

  She cleared her throat, skating up to have a proper conversation. “You ditched me on that island with no way to get back. I was stuck there forever!”

  “And yet here you are,” I mused, gesturing towards her.

  “Yeah, because I had to-” she stopped, looking around. She huffed. “We are going to talk about this somewhere more private.”

  “I’m actually a bit busy right now,” I said as I looked at the secretary. “You see, I was just here to-”

  The collar of my coat was suddenly grabbed by her Lucario. “It won’t take long,” they said, though their calm tone didn’t match the annoyed look on their face.

  It seems that Korrina did not have a nice island adventure like I did. “Okay, well I might have time for a chat,” I said with a bit of a chuckle as I was dragged towards one of the doors. Sure I could fight, but it was more amusing to go along with it.

  The moment we were out of sight of the public, Korrina spun around and glared at me. “You ditched me.”

  “I left you with your grandfather,” I replied with a shrug.

  She let out a loud groan. “I mean, I’m glad he is sorta alive, but at the same time that was so boring,” she complained. “He just would not stop. Talking about how I was now supposed to be the keeper of the island, and had to safeguard its secret while guiding those worthy. How the heck am I supposed to know that?”

  I leaned up against the wall, a bit of a smile on my face. “Unfortunately that’s just something you’d have to learn.”

  Again she groaned, slumping against the wall before sliding to the floor. Her Lucario shifted from foot to foot, wanting to help but unsure of what to do. “But how? He didn’t even explain it to me. What if I get it wrong?”

  “But you see, that- that’s the best part. You can’t be wrong,” I said, gesturing at her with my hand. “You’re the one in charge now. Any decision you think is a good one, is now the correct decision.”

  “But my grandfather-”

  “Isn’t in charge anymore,” I cut her off, smiling a bit. “He put you in charge, therefore you’re the one who gets to make all the decisions.”

  She stared at me for a moment. “But what if someone does something bad with what I give them?”

  I waved a hand vaguely. “That’s not on you, that’s on them. No one who actually cares about you is going to get upset because someone else did something bad. Did people get mad at the Pokemarts for all the pokeballs they sold to Team Flare?”

  “That’s different,” she replied with a huff.

  “It’s really not.” I shifted and sat down beside her and after a moment her Lucario did the same on her other side. “Korrina, you’re not going to be right every time. No one is. But it’s not your responsibility for others to not abuse the power they’re offered. Trust your gut when it comes to people. Trust your instincts, but verify. Talk with them. Test them. And I’m sure you’ll do great.”

  She was quiet for a moment, digesting what I said. “But what if I make a mistake?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes. They’re part of life.” I reached over and pat her shoulder. “And you’re going to make so many more. And so am I. So is everyone else. That’s just how things go.”

  “But why do I have to be the one to do it?” she complained, leaning against her Lucario with a sigh. “Why do I suddenly have all this responsibility?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Most people don’t get the choice of turning down responsibility. You think I wanted to be a Pokemon Expert? Wanted to set up a reserve?” I ran my hand down my face. “I just wanted to help, and it snowballed more and more. And now I’m responsible for more than ten thousand Pokemon, control what is looking to be a massive organization, and I have to not just win the League, but beat the Elite Four and challenge Diantha.”

  There was a moment of silence before she scoffed. “Well now my problem seems pretty small.”

  I laughed again, shaking my head. “It’s not a competition.” Shifting a bit, I got to my feet. “Just don’t worry about what ifs. What will be, will be and all that nonsense. And if it gets too hard, ask for help.”

  She closed her eyes, leaning against the wall. “Yeah. You’re right.” A smile pulled at the corner of her mouth, and she laughed softly. “Valerie is right. You’re good at explaining things.”

  “Before everything else, I’m a teacher,” I said with a smile. “And I like teaching, so I try to be good at it.”

  “Well, you are.” She leaned more against her Lucario, who had put their arm around her to try and comfort her.

  “Thursday,” I said suddenly. “Sometime around three.”

  Her eyes opened and she looked up at me confused.

  “That’s when I’ll be coming back for an Elite Battle. I need that Elite Rumble Badge,” I explained with a bit of a smirk.

  She blinked up at me. “Huh?”

  “Thursday at three,” I repeated as I turned and made my way out. “See you then.” I waved over my shoulder.

  Before the door closed I heard another, “Huh?” from her, which caused me to chuckle.

  There were quite a few people outside the door, crowding around it. All of which seemed to stiffen when it opened and I was standing there. My brow arched as I surveyed the crowd. “Did you need something?” I asked.

  It was almost funny the way that they all scattered.

  I just laughed it off as I made my way out of the gym and towards the train station. Korrina would be fine. The thought of giving her my number so that she could ask me for help crossed my mind, but I already had too much on my plate as it was. She could always get in contact with me via Valerie if she really needed to.

  But now I had to potentially deal with someone I wasn’t sure of.

  Stepping off the train in Coumarine just reminded me of how much annoyance I had here trying to get a boat. There had also been a few Flare bases here, though interestingly enough they were all quite far from the gym.

  And what a ridiculous sight the gym was. A massive tree, with huge ropes wrapped around it. Large platforms made of mushrooms connected together with brushes and rope nets in varying places around.

  What was most surprising was who I could see in front of the entrance. The slightly hunched older man, wearing a green beret. “I was wondering when you’d finally come around,” he said as he looked me over.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Gym Leader Ramos,” I greeted as I came to stand in front of the man.

  He continued to look at me for a moment before he nodded. With a surprisingly quick movement he tossed something to me, and I barely managed to catch it. It was a small thing shaped like a leaf with the veins forming the shape of a plant and a star near the bottom. I raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t want handouts.”

  There was a smile on his face as he waved his hand vaguely. “You either take it, or you don’t get it. Gym Leaders are allowed to refuse challenges, and I’m just petty enough to refuse every challenge you put forth for the rest of the season.”

  I frowned a bit at him. “Why?”

  Again he seemed to be studying me. “I have no doubt that you could easily beat my best Pokemon. And while I would relish the challenge that battle would be, there would be no point as I’ve no lesson to teach you.”

  My brow furrowed a bit. “What lesson?”

  He nodded a bit, as if expecting my question. “Every gym has a purpose. A reason for Trainers to challenge it. Although that seems to be something of the past nowadays…” He rubbed at one of the odd whisker-like beard things he had.

  “And what are they supposed to teach you?” I asked, genuinely curious. This was the first time I had heard about this.

  There was a smile on his face as he began to explain, “Santalune is to see if a Trainer is ready to begin their Journey. Cyllage is to test if a Trainer has the potential to be stronger and willing to put in the work. Shalour is to see if Trainer and Pokemon are compatible. Coumarine is to test the teamwork of Trainer and Pokemon. Lumiose is to see if the Trainer is serious about their Journey, or if they will succumb to the comforts of civilization. Laverre tests the bond between Trainer and Pokemon. Anistar forces the Trainer to adapt to an unfavorable opponent that is better at strategy. And Snowbelle is supposed to show that the Trainer is also part of the battle, whether they realize it or not.”

  I listened to his explanation, thinking about each concept. There was a certain flow to it and I could see how they were, in theory, building a good Trainer. “That sort of explains Wulfric.”

  Ramos frowned. “That fool twisted the purpose of his gym for his own sadistic tendencies,” he spat. “So many of the older people don't understand what it was all for.”

  “Wulfric said it was for war,” I said with a wave of my hand vaguely in the direction of Snowbelle.

  However he shook his head. “He has always been a fool. His father glorified war to a sickening degree, and he ate it up. How they ever allowed him to become a Gym Leader boggles me.”

  I nodded. “He was unhinged. The moment he started losing he tried to kill me.”

  Ramos nodded. “I saw the battle. You are lucky that your Lucario saw what he was doing and acted in time. Though she should never have had to do that.”

  “Yeah, Cara is… Well she’s always been impressive,” I replied with a bit of a shrug.

  “Is she recovering?” he asked, which kind of surprised me.

  “Yes,” I said with a nod. “She’ll be fine in less than three months.”

  “Good. Good… It wouldn’t be the first time Wulfric had snuffed out a Pokemon because of his own ego.” Ramos sounded quite disgusted with the man. It was good that he seemed very different from all of the older people I had met.

  “So is it because of that battle you’re just giving me this?” I asked as I held up the badge.

  He nodded. “While that little fox you have seemed to be pretty disobedient, you said it yourself that you were letting her battle because she wanted to. And she paid the price for it in her loss. But it was the act of your Cara that showed you trained her very well and the way she didn’t even hesitate to throw herself in the way of danger to save you says a lot.”

  I looked at the badge for a moment before sighing. “I would prefer a battle and actually earn this the proper way,” I complained as I shoved it into my bag.

  Ramos just chuckled. “Unfortunately you’d not have any difficulty with me. While I have several Pokemon at the Elite level, they are old and past their prime.” He rubbed at his whiskers again. “I think it’s time I start looking for a proper successor.”

  “Don’t look at me,” I said as I took a step back. “I’ve already enough to do.”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “While you would be a good choice, I know you’re far too grand to be confined to a simple gym.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Well, good luck with that.”

  “Good luck with the League,” he said with a slight wave before he turned and walked back into the gym.

  It was really weird that he had been out here waiting for me. For a moment I wondered how he knew I was coming. But at least he seemed to think similarly to how I did. It was also interesting to learn more about the gym system, though it was pretty clear that it wasn’t being followed. It also brought into question the numerous smaller gyms. They definitely didn’t fit into this system.

  As I made my way back to the train station, I realized that I only had three gyms to go. What would I do for the next several months? I couldn’t do any traveling, as much as I wanted to just go back to Alola I had Alma to look over. And I was fairly certain that they wouldn’t let me take an incubator on a plane without getting some special permission that the Association was sure to try and prevent me from getting.

  Maybe I should work on a way to dismantle the Association?

  That probably wouldn’t be as easy as Team Flare, but then again that didn’t take too long.

  Although now that I was thinking about it, I should focus on training. I needed to battle Diantha after all, and needed everyone to be strong enough to get to that point. Keo was almost to the point I would be comfortable with her evolving. Sliggoo needed to evolve. I needed to confirm Essy wanted to train. Liar, Bungle, Disaster, and Immodest would also need to be seriously trained. And the Absol.

  And what was I going to do with Rotom?

  Too many Pokemon.

  I think after all my gym battles and settling New Hope some more, I was going to just disappear into the woods again for training. That sounded like a really good idea. Maybe somewhere in New Hope as well. Set up some sort of training ground deep in the woods on the edge of civilization.

  That sounded fun.

  Exiting the train into Lumiose I thought about just how big this city was. Now that I was here and thinking about it… I pulled out my phone and dialed a number as I made my way towards Prism Tower. It took a moment before a very familiar Jenny appeared. “Jace? What’s wrong?”

  I smiled at Adria. “Nothing,” I said with a shake of my head. “I just wanted to ask if I could visit Lysandre Labs. Actually, is that what it’s even called anymore?”

  She seemed to hesitate before sighing. “I suppose you can? We’ve still got it locked down and guarded. Any particular reason why?”

  “Just wanted to check something,” I explained, looking up at the massive tower.

  Again she hesitated. “Is this… one of those things,” she tried to emphasize the word those, referencing my knowledge of future events.

  “Sort of,” I replied. Mostly I just wanted to check the place out, and see if I could get information on what they were doing. Although I was sure the Jennys had already investigated, I doubted they deleted anything, so all the information should still be there. I wanted to see if they had found the Giant Rock, or other information they had.

  “Okay,” she said with a sigh. “I’m guessing you’re in Lumiose?”

  “Yes. I’m at Prism Tower. About to sign up for a battle,” I explained.

  “I’m on my way,” she said with another sigh before hanging up.

  I chuckled a bit before going in. Thankfully this was much easier than any other place I had gone in. I didn’t stick out as much, and it wasn’t long before I had an Elite Battle scheduled for Friday, just after noon. The secretary had looked at me a bit funny, but he didn’t seem as surprised as any of the other places.

  I was actually rather excited to meet Clemont, because I wanted to talk with him. He was supposed to be a genius, and an inventor. Which I would believe, since he’s the one that invented the Rotom Pokedex. With his help, I was sure that I could get some sort of prosthetic made for Keo. And if it worked out well enough, he could do the same for numerous other Pokemon and people.

  It took almost a full hour before Adria finally arrived. There would always be something weird about being picked up in a police car, but as long as it was a Jenny it would be fine. As soon as I closed the door, she turned to me. “So what is this about?”

  “Are all the computers still there?” I asked, looking over at her.

  Her brow furrowed. “Yes? We’ve had our analysts go through everything, but there’s still quite a lot they don’t have access to.”

  “Really? Even after so long?” I asked, arching a brow at her.

  “Their computer system is more high-tech than anything we’ve ever seen,” she said with a sigh as she turned towards the road and began driving. “Our best just isn’t able to do it. So we’re waiting on a team from the International Police.”

  I nodded a bit. “I see.”

  “But they’re busy dealing with something in Sinnoh right now, so most of their focus is there and we’re low priority since the threat is allegedly over,” she whined, clearly really annoyed with all of this.

  Did that mean Team Galactic was active in some way at the moment? Or was it Team Rocket doing stuff? “Do you know what they’re doing?”

  She shook her head. “No. They won’t give details, not that I really care. They’re so far away, after all.”

  “You should care,” I said with a slight chuckle and she glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. “Think about it. If it was on the scale of Team Flare and the Ultimate Weapon, distance wouldn’t matter.”

  “That reminds me,” she said as she pulled out her phone.

  “Hey, focus on driving. Don’t text and drive.”

  She rolled her eyes and pulled up something, showing it to me. “Is this that AZ person you mentioned?”

  Suddenly all of my attention was on the phone screen. The picture was a bit blurry, but that was indeed AZ. “Yeah, that’s him.”

  “This was taken from a security camera near the Geosenge Flare base containing the Ultimate Weapon,” she explained as she was thankfully watching the road. “He didn’t get very close, which is why the picture is of low quality.”

  “Did he do anything?” I asked as I took the phone from her, examining the picture more.

  “Nope. He appears on the edge of the camera range for a few minutes, just observing as far as we can tell, and then he leaves,” she said before taking her phone back and slipping it into her pocket. “From what we can tell, it’s the first time he’s appeared on camera. Or at least that we can find.”

  “Well, that’s definitely AZ.” I shrugged a bit. “He was at the Christmas party in Laverre’s gym, but he disappeared before I had a chance to talk to him.”

  “For someone so large he is hard to find,” Adria grumbled as she pulled in front of what was a large gate. There was a guard post with two Jennys standing inside as well as a few police officers. She rolled the window down as one of the Jennys approached. “Hey Lilly.”

  “Adria? What’s going on?” The Jenny known as Lilly looked past Adria at me. “Who’s this?”

  “This is Pokemon Expert Jason.” She straightened up a bit at Adria’s words. “We’re here to look at the facility. Jason wanted to check on some of their research.”

  Lilly seemed to hesitate for a moment, glancing between the two of us before looking back. “Open the gate.” The other Jenny seemed a bit unsure, but did as she was asked and the gate slowly slid out of the way.

  “Thanks. I’ll make a report on everything once we’re done,” she said, which got a nod from the other two.

  That felt a bit bit weird and I looked at Adria questioningly.

  She glanced at me before shrugging. “Technically you’re not allowed to be here.”

  “Me specifically, or people in general?” I asked.

  For a moment I saw her expression tighten a bit before she relaxed. “You specifically.”

  I raised an eyebrow at her as she parked and I moved out of the vehicle. “Interesting.” I took a moment to look around at the sizable parking lot. There were only a few police vehicles, including a really large van.

  The entrance itself looked like the lobby of some sort of office building, with a large empty desk at the back, and on the wall was an absolutely massive painting of Lysandre and his Pyroar. There were a few sitting areas and a few screens on the walls, but other than that it seemed empty.

  “Is there a server room?” I asked as I looked at her.

  “There is, but we can’t get to it.” She gestured for me to follow. “We’ve only gotten access to what is classified as level one clearance. Level two areas are difficult to breach, and we were warned that attempting to force the doors would trigger a self-destruct.”

  I blinked at her. “Seriously? He rigged this place to explode?”

  “Apparently,” she replied with a shrug. “And we have checked, and there are explosives scattered throughout the building. Here.” She swiped a card through a keypad before opening a door, revealing what looked like a small lab. There were a few machines spread about as well as three computers.

  “Hm, alright. Let’s see.” I moved in front of one of the computers, turning it on as I sat down. It was rather basic, and unfortunately seemed to be isolated from the overall system and only contained what was going on in this room. Which was something about pokeballs and their efficiency. The other two computers were identical. “Are there any other places, or are they all like this?” I asked as I turned off the third computer.

  “Everything on level one seems to be self-contained laboratories,” she said with a bit of a sigh. Honestly I wished she had said that sooner.

  “Okay… Can I see one of the doors that require level two access?” I smoothed out my coat as I made my way towards the door.

  She hesitated for a moment. “You’re not going to try and break it, are you?”

  “Of course not. I assume you’ve looked for other types of entrances?” I asked as she led the way deeper into the facility.

  “We have. But anything with windows or outer doors are all level one,” she explained as we came to a large set of reinforced double doors.

  Looking around for a moment I could see what looked like a control panel on the wall beside the door. I took note of several things; a keypad, a card swipe, and a biometric scanner. “Have you tried forcing someone to open them? Some high ranking person?”

  She sighed. “We were told not to. Malva is the one who warned us about the explosives, and she doesn’t have clearance. Chief Jenny said that we should stop the investigation and just wait for the International Police.”

  “Annoying…” I muttered as I looked at the panel before kneeling down. I spent a moment going through my bag before pulling out a butter-knife and began using it to unscrew the lower portion of the panel. I should get some tools just in case.

  “Here.” I looked back, and Adria was holding a screwdriver.

  “Ah, thank you.” I put the knife away and went back to opening the panel.

  Adria watched silently for a moment. “So… what are you doing?”

  “Looking,” I said as I set the panel to the side and looked inside. This was probably a dumb idea, since my technical knowledge was limited to putting together a few computers and some DIY electronic repairs.

  “Can you get the door open?” she asked as she knelt down beside me.

  “Probably not, but no harm in looking.” I paused, looking at a certain part. It looked like a small red tube and I pointed at it. “Is that the explosives?”

  She went a bit stiff before nodding. “Yes.”

  “Okay, good to know… Look, so these two wires connect to the bomb. One of them goes to the control panel, the other goes towards the door. So I’m guessing there’s something in the door that detects if it’s breached, and this one is for if the control panel is… I don’t know, messed with?” I mumbled, trying to see if I could figure anything out. But I was getting nothing.

  “So it won’t explode if we cut those wires?” Adria asked.

  I shrugged. “Maybe? Or that might make it explode. I’m no expert on explosives.” I turned my attention to the door, looking at the edges. It wouldn’t be difficult for one of my Pokemon to demolish the door, but that would trigger the explosives.

  My phone buzzing startled me and I pat my chest a few times. I guess I was a bit on edge considering there was a bomb right next to me and probably a lot more nearby. Pulling out my phone I could see the Rotom who looked nervous. “I… I can open it…” they said softly.

  I blinked at them. “Are you sure?”

  Adria looked up. “Who’s that?”

  The Rotom nodded. “Y-yes.”

  “Okay.” I moved my phone near the control panel. Before Adria could question anymore, little sparks jumped from the screen as Rotom slipped out. It looked around nervously for a moment before jumping into the screen.

  After a moment it appeared on the screen. “O-okay. I uhm… I can… I have their systems.” Without any more explanation, the doors suddenly opened.

  Adria and I tensed, but there was no explosion. I turned to the screen and smiled. “Well, very good job.” They smiled shyly at my praise. “Do you have access to everything?”

  They tilted back and forth for a moment before disappearing. They returned a moment later and nodded. “Y-yes. I can…access everything. I…uhm… this is… I did this a lot…”

  “They taught you how to use security systems?” I asked, my brow furrowing slightly.

  “He…he would… give me like… little computer things and I had to get into them and unlock them…” I could see the little guy shaking just from remembering things that it had been through. Suddenly I realized they had turned this little Pokemon into a living hacking system.

  I reached forward and gently touched the screen. “Are you going to be okay doing it to help?”

  They hesitated for a few moments before nodding. “Y-yes. I… I want to help…”

  “Thank you,” I said with a rather big smile. “Okay, so where is the server room?”

  They disappeared again and I removed my hand. “I’m going to leave this out of my report,” Adria mumbled as she looked at the screen.

  I chuckled. “I would appreciate that. It seems like they trained this Rotom to bypass security systems. It’s extremely smart. Also, don’t call them Rotom please, they don’t like it,” I whispered the last part to her.

  She nodded. “What should I call them?”

  “I usually just call them little one, or something similar,” I replied with a shrug. “They’re still deciding on a name.”

  Again she nodded and the Rotom appeared on the screen again. “O-okay. I found the uhm… the server room? I think? It’s where there’s lots of computers? It’s really deep and down an elevator.”

  “Okay, do you think you can lead us there?” I asked, giving them a smile.

  They nodded and appeared on another screen on the other side of the doorway. “This way. The elevator is uhm… not too far?”

  We walked forward, following the instructions given from little speakers or from screens on the wall. It was just a few hallways down, and the elevator opened as we approached. Which honestly was a little creepy.

  Rotom appeared on a little screen in the elevator and one of the buttons lit up without anyone pushing it. Five floors down. “Jeez this place goes deep,” Adria commented as she studied the panel.

  “The fact no one knew about all this is annoying… No oversight.” I looked at Rotom, who was swaying slightly to the soft elevator music that was playing. This poor little thing was a great example of why there needs to be people checking things. “Hey little one, can you disable all the explosives?”

  They blinked at me a few times before disappearing.

  “Is that a good idea?” Adria asked, clearly concerned.

  I shrugged. “There might be other ways to trigger them. For all we know, Lysandre might have some way to do it remotely.” From what I knew of this Lysandre, it wouldn’t surprise me if he did something like that. Then again, he might also be so egotistical that he thinks he can’t fail and never did it. However… Xerosic might be the type.

  “Self-destruct disabled,” came a little voice from the screen.

  I smiled. “Thank you. Ah- are there any people in the lower levels?”

  Again there was a pause and they disappeared just before the elevator stopped. The doors didn’t automatically open, which was a bit worrying. But after a moment they opened. “There’s uhm… a few individuals outside of the facility, but you’re the only ones inside.”

  “Okay, thank you.” Again we started to follow the little ghosts' directions.

  “You think some Team Flare members might be able to get in?” Adria asked.

  I shrugged. “They probably have other ways in and out. It’s a big secret base after all, and if I was building something like this I’d have several.”

  She nodded. “Okay, that makes sense.”

  We came to what looked like a rather unassuming door. “Uhm… This one is difficult…” came a little voice.

  “We’re in no rush,” I assured them. “Take your time.”

  Suddenly a phone started going off and I looked over at Adria as she pulled it out. Immediately she frowned, sighing heavily before answering. “Yes, Chief?” I noticed how she angled the screen so that the background was only wall.

  “Adria. Why are you at Lysandre Labs? And why is Jason with you?” came the familiar voice of Chief Cassandra.

  “He wanted to check out the facility,” she said simply, completely throwing all blame onto me.

  There was a moment of silence as the two of them stared at each other. “And? What did he figure out?” It honestly felt kind of good that she just assumed that I had actually managed something.

  Adria looked at me and I nodded at her. She sighed. “He managed to breach through all the security systems and disable the self-destruct. We’re currently working on accessing the server room.”

  Again there were a few moments of silence before I heard a thump. “Dammit. We should have just called him to deal with it. I knew he would be able to do some kind of bullshit.” There was another thump, sounding like she had shoved something off the table.

  “In my defense, I wasn’t sure I could do anything,” I inserted myself into the conversation.

  Adria shifted the camera so that it could also see me. I could see Cassandra glaring at me. “Okay, and what did you do?”

  I shrugged, a bit of a smile on my face. “Secret.”

  “Got it,” came a voice from the side and the door lock clicked.

  “Was that a Rotom?” Cassandra asked, rubbing her face.

  “No?” I moved into the room rather than stick around. I found a computer and made my way to it. It powered on before I even got there. Having a Pokemon that can integrate with technology definitely feels like cheating.

  “There’s a lot…” the Rotom said, appearing on the screen, opening several different screens. “What uhm… what are we looking for?”

  There was a smile on my face, not missing the fact that it had said we. “Look for anything on something called the Giant Rock.”

  They nodded and began flying around folders and opening up documents and closing them just as fast. It looked like they were really good at this, and they seemed really eager to please. I didn’t want to think of what they did to this poor little thing to have them reach this level. They were able to write programs, bypass extremely complicated security systems, and filter through what looked like tens of thousands of files and folders.

  “Found it!” came a little triumphant voice and several things opened. “It’s something that’s in Hoenn?”

  “Shit.”

  “What’s wrong?” Adria asked as she walked in, apparently done with her conversation.

  “Seems that Team Flare was already working on Plan B for world destruction,” I said with a sigh.

  She leaned over, frowning at what was on the screen. “Giant Rock?”

  “It’s a stone full of Primal Energy.” I paused as I had a thought. There were coordinates to the location of the temple, but from this report it looked like they hadn’t managed to open it and actually get the stone. “Little one, can you look up information on Zygarde?”

  It nodded before disappearing back into folders. “What are you looking for now?”

  “Just checking things. Can I ask a favor?” I looked back at Adria.

  She frowned at me. “You can ask, but I’m probably going to say no.”

  I chuckled a bit. “I just need you to tell Steven Stone about the Giant Rock.”

  There was a beat of silence. “Huh? Steven Stone? You mean the Steven Stone? Heir to the Devon Corporation Steven Stone? That Steven Stone?” Her tone was getting more and more frantic the more she talked.

  “Yes. That one,” I replied with an amused smile.

  She just stared at me, completely flabbergasted. “What the hell makes you think I can get in contact with Steven Stone?!” she practically shouted.

  I shrugged. “It was just a question.”

  “Found it,” came the voice of Rotom, seemingly very happy.

  “Excellent. Good job. Can you send everything about the Giant Stone and Zygarde to my phone?” I asked as I held it up.

  There was a moment of hesitation before it nodded and my phone buzzed. It had sent it through text. Though what was interesting was that the number I received it from seemed to be corrupted and was just a jumble of symbols.

  “Very good job,” I said with a smile. And they actually smiled back. It was the biggest, truest smile that I had seen appear on their little face. It seemed that they really liked being useful. I would need to think of things for them to do.

  However Adria was frowning at me. “I really shouldn’t let you have all that.”

  I shrugged as I stood up, holding out my phone and Rotom leapt from the computer back into it. “Can’t really stop me, now can you?” I teased as I slipped the phone back into my pocket.

  She opened her mouth to respond before closing it, frowning even more. “No. I can’t.”

  With a small laugh, I gestured towards the door. “Come on. With the self-destruct disabled, the Jennys can ransack the place to their hearts content.”

  Making our way out was very easy. The only thing Rotom really had to do was activate the elevator, which seemed to have quite a lot of security protocols. Adria wouldn’t talk to me, clearly annoyed by my teasing.

  In fact, she was so annoyed that when I tried to open the car door, it didn’t open. Puzzled, I looked up as she started the car. I gave her a questioning look and she just stuck her tongue out at me before peeling out of the parking lot.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “How petty.”

  It wasn’t difficult to actually get out of the facility, as the Jennys at the gate just let me pass without issue. They all seemed to find it extremely amusing that I had been ditched. And they were still laughing as I got on Scoly. Until all of their communicators went off. I vaguely heard the order to lock-down the facility.

  All of them looked at me, and I just waved before riding off. As I made my way back to Lumiose I passed several police vehicles heading towards the laboratory. I was extremely amused to see one containing Adria, who had clearly been told to head back.

  I just laughed as I urged Scoly faster, riding her all the way back to Laverre. She was extremely happy to be able to let loose and just run. Eevee also made an appearance to ride on my shoulder and enjoy the wind. She liked to go fast.

  When we finally arrived at the Laverre Gym my legs were a bit numb. I really needed to go riding more often to build up my tolerance. I was shaking out my legs when I came in, looking around at the small group of people. There weren’t that many here today, although it was quite late now so the battles were probably over for the day.

  Coming up to the station, Allie gave me a smile. “Hey Jace, how did things go?”

  “Well, two new badges to add to my collection,” I said with a chuckle.

  She blinked. “Two?”

  I nodded with a chuckle. “Yeah apparently they’re just giving them away.”

  Allie smiled a bit. “Gym Leaders can give them without a battle if they think the Trainer is good enough that it would be pointless.”

  With a sigh I nodded again. “I’d rather fight for them. But yeah, I get it. Is Valerie available? I need to talk with her about something regarding New Hope.”

  She shook her head. “She’s in a battle, but I can send her to your training area when she’s done.”

  “Thanks,” I said with a nod as I walked off.

  When I opened the door I was amused to find Cara lounging on Dee again. It seemed that the dog really enjoyed the comfort of our resident nurse. Rather than going to tease her, I released everyone that I had been carrying and made my way over to the seating area to prepare dinner.

  “Hey, little one, do you think you can get me a phone number?” I asked to my phone sitting on the counter.

  “Uhm… I don’t think so?” came a response after a minute.

  I nodded. “Can you call Gaston?”

  Without a response the phone started ringing. It only rang twice before it was answered. “Jason! What do you need?”

  Looking over, I was actually a bit surprised to see that Rotom had properly possessed the phone and was floating nearby me. I smiled a bit. “I need Steven Stone’s phone number. I have information on something that he would be interested in.”

  Gaston startled and looked around. “You mean… Like, the Steven Stone? Heir to the Devon Corporation Steven Stone? That Steven Stone?”

  A bit of a sigh escaped me as he had pretty much the exact reaction as Adria. “Yes. That one. Tell him I have information on an interesting stone and give him my number.”

  “I uh… Don’t have access to that sort of information,” Gaston admitted.

  “Then give me Professor Birch’s number,” I said with a far heavier sigh this time.

  “That I can do,” he said with a smile and a moment later my phone buzzed.

  “Thanks. Little one, please call Professor Birch.”

  Gaston let out a little “Eh?” noise before the call was disconnected and the phone started ringing again.

  This time it took a few rings before it was answered. “This is Birch!” came a rather jovial voice. “May I ask who is calling?”

  I smiled and looked at the screen. The Professor was a rather rotund individual with brown hair and a chinstrap beard. It looked like he was somewhere out in the field using his phone. “Hello, Professor. I’m Pokemon Expert Jason. I had a favor to ask of you, if you’re alright with that?”

  “Ah! The newest Expert! Great, sure. What do you need?” he asked with a smile.

  “Can you pass a message to Steven Stone?” I asked.

  Thankfully he did not have the same reaction as everyone else. “Ah, young Steven? Sure, I can do that.”

  “Thank you. I just need you to give him my contact information and tell him I have information on a very interesting stone,” I explained with a smile.

  Birch chuckled and nodded. “Well, if an Expert is calling it interesting, then I’m more than sure he’d be excited about it. I’ll send him a message.”

  “Thanks Professor.”

  “No worries, Jason! Now, I’m a bit busy. So I’ll send that message and get back to it!” he declared before hanging up.

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. The Professor always seemed to be up to something, but I guess you have to do that sort of thing when you specialize in habitats. The question now would be how long it would take Steven to contact me. Probably a few days? He probably had a lot-

  My phone started ringing and Rotom answered it. “Hello?” I asked, wondering if this was who I thought it was.

  On the screen appeared a rather young looking individual, dressed in a fancy suit. His hair was a steel blue and his eyes matched. “This is Steven Stone, I got your message from Professor Birch,” he said with a big smile.

  I stared at the screen for a moment before I laughed. “Well, glad you’re excited. Little one, could you send Steven all the information we have on the Giant Rock?”

  Steven waited patiently and I could tell the moment he got the information as his expression became very serious as he started to read over all the information. “Is this accurate?” he asked after a few minutes of reading.

  “As far as I know,” I replied with a shrug.

  “Well, this definitely requires investigation.” He was already out of his seat, and I could hear him moving around. Probably collecting things. I had seen the Key Stone pin that he had, so he should be able to get into the temple. “I do have to ask, why give this information to me? Why not investigate yourself?”

  “I’ve got too much work to do at the moment. No time and you’re right there,” I explained. “And I heard that you’d definitely want to have a chance at this.”

  Suddenly the noise stopped and he appeared back in frame. “And what is this information going to cost me?”

  I vaguely waved a hand in the air. “Not cost, per se.” I smiled a bit at the screen. “But if you want to show gratitude, I run an organization in Kalos called New Hope.”

  “I’ve heard about that,” he said with a nod. “You’re taking in a ton of Pokemon that have been abandoned or confiscated for the purpose of rehoming. A very noble pursuit.”

  “But not financially stable,” I admitted. “We need backers. Supporters.”

  He nodded. “And you want Devon Corporation to… do what exactly?”

  “Mostly endorse us. You don’t have to contribute financially, although that would be helpful, we mostly want The Devon Corp. to acknowledge what we’re doing and give their support even if it’s just verbal,” I explained. This wasn’t scheming, right? Could it be considered scheming? Using Steven’s obsession with stones and using the information Team Flare gathered to entice him into helping. That was just… the smart decision, right?

  Steven frowned a bit, his brow furrowing. It was clear that this was a bit of a problem, but I had already given him the information and he had seen it. It would leave a bad taste in his mouth if he were to use this information without giving anything in return. And there was no way he was going to ignore it now that he knew about it. “I see… Well, I’m sure Devon Corp. can do something to help New Hope, as long as this information proves useful.”

  “Excellent. I’m sure whatever you decide will be extremely helpful,” I said with a smile. This was a bit manipulative, but I needed to throw as much as possible at New Hope and force its success. If I had to be a bit underhanded in how I did that, it was fine. I’d get over it.

  “Right. Okay, well I have an expedition to plan,” he said, the excitement already returning to his tone. “Thank you for providing this to me.”

  “Of course,” I said with a smile and a bit of a chuckle when he hung up. I was going to make all of this work out and get so much support that no one would be able to try and topple what I was building.

  I was passing out plates when Valerie found her way in, taking a moment to locate me. “Hey, what’s going on with New Hope?” she asked, getting right to the problem.

  “Well…” I paused for a moment, thinking on how to properly word it. “You could say that we have a VIP coming to visit.”

  Her eyes widened and I could practically see them sparkle. “Oh? Who? Do we have a Professor? Or some high ranking Trainer?”

  I smirked a bit at her as I let her run through a few options before she ran out of steam. “President of the Aether Foundation, Lusamine.”

  Valerie stared at me for almost a full minute. “You’re joking, right?”

  A snort escaped me and I shook my head. “Nope."

  Lucario - The group mom, battered and out of action

  Lucario - This dog wants violence.

  Scolipede - Pokemon transport unit

  Primarina - Doing big seal things

  Audino - Trained Nurse Pokemon

  Diancie - Big sparkly that just wants to throw rocks at people

  Eevee - Living that sleepy hood life

  Sliggoo - Deadly chew toy

  Mimikyu - Very skilled seamstress

  Banette - Silent but persuasive?

  Vulpix (Alolan) - A bit too battle hungry

  Espurr - Little cat that likes pokebeans.

  Liepard - Big hungry cat

  Houndour - Just a little pup

  Houndoom - Bit of a space case

  Mightyena - Super serious

  Fennekin) - Not up to too much yet.

  Rotom - Shy little zappy

  Absol - Future problems

  Houndour

  Guff

  Bleak

  Rascal

  Dilly

  Fret

  False

  Grubby

  Muddle

  Gabby

  Dwindle

  Crass

  Houndoom

  Poochyena

  Mightyena

  Sneasel