Like No One Ever Was

Shit shit shit what do I do? Ok, first step, don’t panic. A task easier said than done, admittedly, but the sight of Miles and Notch returning with Nightwing helped calm me down. Hypocritically, telling the enraged Gliscor on my team, “calm down,” helped too.

She looked out for blood but gave a terse nod. A Pokemon attacking a person violently wouldn’t be looked upon well, and I wasn’t planning on just tossing them in the ocean below. Not that the thought isn’t tempting. Gotta focus on a plan. How far away are they? I listened, but it was hard to pinpoint their exact position in the tunnel. Think I have a minute at least.

Releasing the rest of my team from their balls, I started enacting a strategy. “Phantasm, make an illusion covering,” I whispered as we got out of the tent, standing off to the side. “Riolu, Dun, Miles, buff up.” Riolu began her Swords Dances, while Dun Coiled around, and Miles smirked, a Nasty Plot forming in their head.

Pulling out a lump of Light Clay from my bag, I shoved it onto my Carbink’s body. “Notch, screen duty.” They waved their ears and began focusing on the Psychic energies needed to make a Light Screen and Reflect. Then I tossed the Toxic Orb to Nightwing, wasting a few seconds fiddling with the heavy-duty gloves to wrap around the Orb so I could safely handle it.

I wanted to give him more instructions, but my breath caught in my throat as I saw the poachers strolling down the cavern towards us. They were already releasing their Pokemon, a Hypno, Arbok, and Bisharp at their sides, quickly joined by a Butterfree and Beedrill.

Theoretically, Phantasm is covering for any sounds I make, but I don’t want to make things more complicated for her. She looked quite nervous, and I wished I could reassure her. The Hypno was already giving odd glances our way.

“Dream Eater the girl in the tent and put her to sleep for good,” Baldy ordered. I raised my hand up, indicating for most of my team to get off the ground if they could. The leader’s face scrunched up, and he said, “What do ya mean she’s not-”

“Earthquake!” I shouted, and all hell broke loose. Dun slammed the ground, shattering both the stones and the illusion that obscured us from view. Nightwing and Miles easily hovered above the shaking ground, while Notch lifted themselves as close to the ceiling as they could and Riolu jumped up.

A few rocks fell from the vibrations, clipping them, which was nothing on what happened to the poachers. The Bisharp and Seviper rolled on the ground in pain, with Hypno and Beedrill not far behind them. Only the Butterfree remained unscathed, but her trainer was not, The Girl having fallen and smacked her head against the ground.

“Not wanting to give them a chance, I yelled out quickly, “Hyper Voice! Riolu, Hi Jump Kick the Bisharp, Nightwing Acrobatics the Butterfree, Notch Psychic the Beedrill-”

“Hypno, put those fools to sleep!” Baldy began, pulling out another Pokeball from his belt.

“Shadow Sneak Hypno!” I shouted out, and Phantasm, the only Pokemon able to use that Move, did so, outpacing the swinging of Hypno’s pendulum and causing him to cry out in pain. Then everyone was crying out as a wave of sound battered the poachers and their Pokemon. Miles’ use of the Move in particular left even my own ears ringing, and the others fared much worse.

Bisharp tried to get up and close with me, but a flying kick from Riolu broke his horn and smashed the Dark Type into the ground with a heavy clang. Nightwing viciously tore into the Butterfree, ripping at her wings, while Notch did much the same to Beedrill telekinetically.

“Don’t beat them up too much,” I tried to warn them, not wanting any fatalities on my hands. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Arbok, which had actually Protected itself, now slithering up and biting into Phantasm.

“Dammit, Nightwing, Bulldoze the Arbok,” I tried to shout over the din of battle. Whether Nightwing had heard me or not, it was a moot point, as some powder flapped from Butterfree’s wings had Nightwing’s eyes drooping before she fell to the floor.

Some of the poachers were unconscious or insensate from the area attacks, but not all of them, unfortunately. Middle Finger yelled something unintelligible as he released a heavily scarred and bruised Feraligator from his belt. Baldy stumbled around and clicked the button on his Pokeball to send out a Magneton as well.

The Water Type had a crazed look in their eyes as they lunged towards my fallen Pokemon, jaws stretched wide.

“Thunder!” I shouted, and Miles delivered, conjuring up a quick bolt to smite the giant alligator-like Pokemon, even underground.

While he did that, the Beedrill tried skittering towards us, despite the loss of his wings functionality, only to get Body Slammed into unconsciousness by Dun. I barely gave any attention to that as I focused on Phantasm’s fight.

“Bitter Malice! Riolu, Aerial Ace as well!” Phantasm shrieked in hatred and loathing, the Ghostly energies assaulting the Arbok before they were swiftly put down by Riolu’s heel striking the top of the snake’s head.

Lightning erupted out all around from the Magneton, who had drifted into the middle of our group. “AhhHHHH!” I howled in pain as the electricity coursed through me for a second. The Discharge they had released was also zapping all of my Pokemon, as well as several of their Pokemon and even a few of the poachers as well.

It quickly cut out when Dun whirled around and unleashed a torrent of flame at the Magneton. The fire knocked the Steel Type to ground, its magnet ends spinning wildly as it whirred out in pain, until Riolu stomped the ground, shaking the earth around us. It rose up, particularly around the Magneton, and smacked them around, knocking them unconscious.

Riolu’s Earthquake was much weaker than Dun's, but I still needed a minute to get back on my feet. So glad that Notch covered me with those screens they set up. Even with that, the electric shock still smarted, but I wasn’t doing as badly as the poachers, many of whom were crying on the ground or moaning.

Not all of them, however. Shaggy had been a bit further back and avoided the worst of the area attack. Recalling his Arbok, he shakily released a Kadabra. Teleport? Like hell you will!

“Miles, Shadow Ball!” Then to Dun, I shouted, “Triple Yawn, put them all to sleep.”

The last poacher standing proved my worries true, screaming at his Pokemon. “Get us back to the boat! Teleport!” Kadabra blinked, caught just a bit off guard by the craziness of the situation, which was a split second too long. The ball of Distortion energy slammed into the Psychic Type, exploding.

The force knocked Kadabra out and knocked Shaggy away from the clouds of drowsiness Dun laid down upon the group, putting everyone there to sleep in short order.

After the clouds dissipated, I marched up to Shaggy, the man slowly getting back to his feet. Seeing me, he tried to lunge at me, only to receive a boot to the face that knocked out at least one of his teeth.

“Now, what am I going to do with you?”

***

The rhetorical question/implied threat turned out to be harder to answer than I would have liked. The majority of my team voted for tossing them in the water like they had threatened to do to me, Phantasm and Dun in particular keen on that option. Riolu abstained, while Miles served as the only voice of reason and pointed out that we should take them to the authorities (while I pointed out that their votes were appreciated, but this ‘was a dictatorship, not a democracy’).

Calling the authorities still wasn’t working, even when I stepped just outside the cave. They (or possibly Raifort) must have set up some kind of jamming device. That left me with having to use all the rope in my pack to tie them all up after confiscating their Pokeballs.

Most of them had two or three Pokeballs on their belts, but the balls had odd marks. Like they’ve been opened up and tampered with. Cracking the shells open along those marks revealed the alterations they’d done to the wiring and I felt sick.

It wasn’t information you would find on the open web, but I had researched the dark web for all the ins and outs of the proprietary Pokeball technology. My research had been undertaken out of a need to make sure that my Pokemon couldn’t be stuck inside their balls, no matter the situation, in preparation for Turo (and feeling like I didn’t have time to go to Johto and learn how to make apricorn balls or the like with how fast the Professor was moving). However, my studies had shown me the reverse as well, techniques that criminals could use to manually ‘hack’ their Pokeballs such that they could only be opened from the outside.

Details like that made me question my commitment to keeping them alive, but only for as long as it took me to find Zorua’s hurt face. Hate comes easy to her variant, but I don’t want her to be consumed by it. In the end, hatred is going to hurt us a lot more than it hurts them. I was still dedicated to bringing them in to face justice, however, which meant waiting for them to wake up.

“What-?” Was the general sentiment shared by them as water was blasted onto their faces. “What the fuck was that for!?” Shorty sputtered out as I had Miles blast them all again with an extremely low-powered Hydro Pump.

“That was to wake you all up. Now c’mon, get up.” I tried to project strength and confidence into my voice. I beat them; that should be enough to not be afraid, right?

Either it wasn’t enough, or a nine-year-old girl’s voice simply wasn’t threatening enough to scare a bunch of hardened criminals, no matter how confident, as Baldy immediately scrambled towards me, hands outstretched to grab onto my neck.

He didn’t get anywhere close, however, both because he was tied to the others in a line and because of Riolu. The Fighting Type had reached him in a single bound, her paw gouging into his ribs and leaving him doubled over and wheezing in pain.

“You, you little bitch!” He spat out while I stared down, unamused. The others tried the slightly smarter approach of reaching for their Pokeballs, only to find themselves helpless. A few tried to slip out, only to find the restraints to be quite tight. Thank you Explorer wilderness training. And Amethio said knot-tying skills wouldn’t ever be that relevant, ha!

The thought of my friend clashed awfully with my current situation, but I decided to put that aside, knowing I could call them and laugh about this whole thing soon.

“Alright, we’re going to start marching up this cave until we reach Alfronada.” I tried again, only to be met with more resistance.

“So you can hand us over to the cops? Forget about it; you can’t make us move if we don’t want to.” Middle Finger raised his one working digit of the ‘name’ I had assigned to him.

“You’re right, I cannot physically drag five unwilling adults at once. However, you may notice that I’m not holding the rope.” Gesturing through the dark, they could see the end of the rope connecting them all was tied onto Dun. “You can walk or be dragged, your choice.”

There was more complaining, but I tuned them out. They wanted to kill me and take my team. Fuck them. A few of them did try holding things up, but they quickly found out that I was not joking and stumbled forwards as the rope drew taut.

Slowly, we made our way up the winding, rocky path. The light was dim, only a few torches interspersed on the edges to illuminate the path. Usually I’d have Miles or one of the others light up the way ahead of us. Currently I had Notch and Miles floating up and down the line, keeping the prisoners from trying anything suspicious.

Well, trying to keep them feels like they can’t help themselves, I thought to myself as I saw Miles give a small shock for the third time as they tried to work together to undo their bindings. I can sorta understand why though; with how dark it is and some of the drops, if one of them slipped away, they might actually be able to get away.

The wild Pokemon gave us a decent berth, for the most part. Medichams led packs of Meditites far away, and only the most belligerent of Shellgons would attempt to confront us after Notch sent a Dazzling Gleam out.

Phantasm kept the rear along with myself, warding off any Pokemon that might try to attack us from the rear. Riolu and Nightwing searched all around, alerting us to any danger or obstacles in our way. Gah, this is so frustrating. I’d love to be exploring this cavern; it’s vast with tons of nocks and cranies and huge shelves we could explore above… But now I’m tired and marching these criminals up to face justice.

That wasn’t the only issue bugging me, however. The biggest question on my mind was: What is the deal with Raifort? I don’t think for a second she hired these goons for anything other than something nefarious or didn’t know what they were like. But she clearly has some other agenda she’s pursuing here, not just opportunistic poaching.

My attempts to ask the poachers questions about Raifort had been met by jeers, requests to be set free, or stone-walled silence. I can’t believe someone like that could become a teacher at Uva. Then again, she had some connection to the Treasures of Ruin, didn’t she? I made a note to check my journals on the matter once I had some free time.

“Hey, can we get some water? You’re killing us here,” Shaggy moaned. While he might be exaggerating things, even I’m feeling pretty tired. My legs are burning, and I don’t know how much further we have to go.

“No, we keep on going.” I ordered, and the unpopular decision was met with little more than groans as they trudged forward. No matter how tired I get, we have to keep on going. The chances of them escaping skyrocket if they have a chance to regain their bearings.

“Hullo?” A voice called down, and I perked up. Squinting ahead, I made out the shape of a heavyset hiker.

“Hello there! I need-” I began as we approached, only for the criminals to scream over top of me.

“Help us!”

“The girl’s crazy!”

“We did nothing wrong!”

“Please!”

As we came into the normal eyesight range of the hiker, I said, “Silence.” Motioning subtly to Phantasm, they crafted a quick auditory illusion over the group, simply blanking out the sounds they made. I could still tell from the vibrations their voices made against the ground that they were still talking, but myself and the hiker were granted a blessed reprieve from their nonsense.

“What’s going on here?” The man asked nervously and a little confused at seeing our strange group, a hand drifting down to the Pokeballs on his belt.

“These are a bunch of poachers that tried to attack me. I’m taking them in,” I stated bluntly. My answer didn’t seem to fully set the man at ease.

“You? You fought five adults and won? Sorry, but that feels a little unbelievable-”

“I fought Hassel four vee four and brought him down to his last Dragon,” I snarled. Something in my demeanor or voice convinced him I was being serious as he shut up (and out of the corner of my eye I saw Baldy's mouth saying, ‘Oh, fuck me’ as it finally seemed to click that his group had been outmatched).

“Look, I just need to take them into town so the police or Gym can deal with them.” Poaching is kind of a gray area for law enforcement jurisdiction, but I’m sure either group can deal with this. Assuming they believe me, that is.

“Ah, right. You won’t mind if I go get them then?” He said, twitching as he stared down at Dun before averting his gaze.

“That would be great, actually. Please do,” I said with a small sigh of relief as he scampered back up the cavern.

As we continued our ascent, I had Phantasm cancel the illusion she had placed over us, so I could hear them again. They’re annoying, but I’d rather be able to hear what they’re plotting, even if it means listening to them swear and moan. I think The Girl managed a good ten minute swearfest at one point there.

Luckily, it seemed the forced march had taken much of the wind out of their sails, as they had little energy to complain or try to escape as we neared the exit. Dawn’s light became visible through the opening of the cave and I moved to shield my eyes as we exited.

Of course, this was when one of them made their move. Middle Finger pulled out a knife from his boot and swiftly cut the rope holding him in the line, as well as Shorty as the final one behind him. Notch immediately whirled around and blasted Middle Finger with a Power Gem that knocked him down with a nasty crack sound.

Shorty grabbed the fallen blade, using it to free himself from his fallen comrade and attempt his own escape. Before I could even order Nightwing to swiftly hunt him down, Shorty found himself gripped by psychic energy.

Turning around, I saw a familiar face on the windswept plains before the city of Alfornada. Standing there, Tulip was frowning down at the situation, Florges at her side, the plant-like Fairy Pokemon holding Shorty in her telekinetic grip. “Nemona? What is going on here?”

“I’m so glad to see you, Tulip. Also, what are you doing here? Not that I’m not glad, just, I sent for the police or Gym… Wait, no way! You’re working for the Gym?!” I squealed.

She gave me a smile that was an interesting mix of bemused and starting to be actually annoyed (and one that I had seen a decent amount of times grace her face). “Yes, I’m working as a Gym Trainer here. Dendra has been busy with her expanded classes, and she thought I should do something more with my free time.”

Tulip had excellent control over her body and expressions, but I could pick up on a minute shift in her stance as she spoke. I’m thinking that she had one of her ‘battle bets’ with Dendra, and Dendra won. That’s pretty hilarious considering what happened in the games.

“Hey, can you get us out of here?” Baldy demanded. “This girl attacked us, it was crazy, I should press charges-” He began before Tulip silenced him by raising a single finger. Is that Psychic Aura on her part or just her presence? Though maybe the former leads into the latter…

“What is going on here - one at a time!” She clarified before turning to me.

“These are poachers. I found them in the cavern, and they tried to attack me, saying they were going to kill me and take away my team.” I took a deep breath, pushing away the tumultuous emotions that memory brought up. “I fought them, won, and dragged them up here.”

“Is this all of them?” Tulip asked. Slowly, I shook my head.

“No, there was another person in their group. Raifort. She has long, wild blue hair and dark skin. Some interesting accessories… I met her before with the group before they attacked. She hired them for ‘something,’” I said, putting as much implication into that word as I could. “She left to explore the cavern, then these five doubled back.”

The teenage model nodded before turning to Baldy and the others. “And your version of events?”

“We were ambushed-”

“-Nothing wrong-”

“-I want a lawyer!”

“One at a time!” Tulip’s voice rang out across the plains, and they all winced. That Hyper Voice really did a number on their eardrums. I should have Dun teach Phantasm how to use that Move; she has a good handle on her Ghostly energies, but her Normal Typing is important too.

A few shared glances between the criminals had Baldy talking on behalf of them. “Ma’am, I don’t know what she’s talking about; that’s nonsense. We’re just a bunch of Kantoan sailors who were exploring this lovely land when we were attacked by this girl. All our Pokemon were legally obtained; no poaching here.” I mean, decent argument if the dude didn’t sound like an axe-murderer.

“What about those Dratinis you captured?” I pipped up, earning a glare from Tulip. It also got the desired response from one of the poachers.

“What about them? We’re allowed to catch wild Pokemon,” Shaggy whined.

“So you’re admitting you caught them?” Before Baldy could immediately deny me, I added, “You aren’t denying that we’ll find them on your boat, the boat that you have keys to.” Tulip raised an immaculate eyebrow but allowed the question to go on, with the clear implications that she would be having words with me afterwards if this didn’t go anywhere. Scratch that, she’ll still have words with me after this is done; they just might be a little less cutting if it works.

“... Yeah, so what? They’re wild Pokemon, we can catch a dozen unowned Dratini if we want. Heck, you’re the only one taking Pokemon, you took all of ours!” He declared, giving me a crooked smirk.

“Well, for the first point, you’re wrong. You can’t catch more than one Dragon Type as a visitor in Paldea. And if you’d legally arrived, you’d know that.” Technically, there are some exceptions for this, like Professor sponsored Trainers and the like, but that’s not really relevant here.

That factoid had everyone, even Tulip, blinking in surprise. “Really? I’d never heard of that.”

I shrugged. “That’s probably cause you were born here. My family moved here from Unova, so I know stuff like that.” Though honestly, I know that more from my talks with Hassel than remembering the Glitterati’s moving to Paldea.

“Nemona?” Tulip questioned, her voice a little worried, and I realized I was spacing out, swaying on my feet. Damn, I’m tired. Aura cycling helped, but it has been a looooong day.

“Oh, right, the second point. Your Pokeballs?” I said, turning to the poachers and pulling out the bag where I had their Pokeballs and holding them up.

“Yeah, give them back!” The Girl shouted, her voice hoarse.

“These Pokeballs have been illegally altered to trap any Pokemon inside them.” My words caused all of them to go pale, especially as some police officers who had been walking towards us caught the tail end of that. Damn, really am too tired. Should have just brought that up first, before the Dragon thing.

There were sputtered denials, but I knew we had them now. "Alright, if that’s all, I’m gonna find someplace place to-”

“I’ll need to get a more detailed statement from you, Miss Glitterati,” Tulip said, for the police’s benefit. Telepathically, she told me, .

Sleepily, I nodded, the older girl tossing an arm around me as she helped me walk off to her house while the police took care of things.

***

I woke up from Tulip’s couch in time to see the sun just starting to set over the horizon. With a yawn, I stretched before frantically checking on my Pokeballs. All there, all good. I breathed out a sigh of relief as I took in the room around me.

It was quite a nice, picturesque, cozy house. There were little tea cozies and floral-patterned cushions. Or rather, Floette-patterned cushions. Tulip’s parents really live up to their namesake, don’t they?

There was a note on the table addressed to me. ‘Nemona, I’ve gone to the Gym to handle the poacher situation there. When you’re ready, please head over so we can talk about it (and possibly schedule you in for a battle as well).

- Tulip’

That sounds like a good idea- my stomach grumbled, reminding me of an important intermediate step as well as drawing the attention of the owners of the house. Poking his head in a middle-aged man saw me. “Ah, Marjorie, she’s up!” He shouted back into the kitchen.

“Hello, sorry to intrude,” I began. He shook his gray and violet hair.

"Nonsense, dear, no trouble at all. Our little fashionista has had much to say about you.”

“Only good things, I hope?” His smile wavered slightly at my question, answering it, even as he ignored it with his words.

"Please stay for dinner, why dontcha? Marjorie is cooking up a mean casserole.”

“Thank you, Mr. Floette-”

“Please, call me Greg.”

“Greg then, I really appreciate it, but I should probably get going. My team needs to be fed too.” While I do have plenty of Pokechow in my bag, and it’s the fancy Type specific types, I’d like to get something better for them. They deserve a reward after all their hard work yesterday.

Marjorie entered the room, looking quite elegant, if not having the effortless air of beauty to her that her daughter carried. “Are you sure? We have plenty of food for your team as well.”

“I-” My stomach grumbled again. “Ok then, I mean, thank you.” She smiled, and I soon found myself whisked to the dining room. It would be a little crowded to have most of my team inside with me, so I let all but Miles (who didn’t eat food), outside to partake their meals, alongside Marjorie and Greg’s Floettes.

“That’s quite the team you have there. Our Tulip isn’t one to hand out praises easily, and I can see she was speaking the truth about you.” I ‘mmhmm’d at Greg’s words, both unsure of what to say and hoping to scarf down more of the delicious food in front of me.

He continued, “I remember going on a journey when I was a young lad, bit older than you are now. Thought I’d be Champion someday till Kofu stopped my challenge dead in its tracks!”

“I think there were some other reasons you stopped as well,” Marjorie said with a pointed look at him.

“Ah, yes, meeting the love of my life had an effect on me as well.” While they shared a look, I quickly directed Miles to send off some texts to my friends and family, letting them know I was in Alfornada.

“What was your team like, Mr- Greg?” I asked, in between bites.

“Oh, I had a fierce Croconaw and a Tinkatink to go along with my dear Floette. They aren’t here,” he added, seeing me looking out the window for them. “Hard to keep a full team fed when you stop traveling.”

Instinctually, I wanted to grab my team and hold them close. “I don’t plan on stopping traveling any time soon. Becoming Champion is just the first step for me.” Sure, I know that he doesn’t want to take away any of my Pokemon and that I won’t ever have to give up my team even if I quit this instant with my family’s help, but still.

“Oh ho ho!” He said it with a laugh, and Marjorie smiled kindly as well. They weren’t looking down on me per se, but it was clear that they thought my dreams were childish. That I haven’t met the realities of the world yet. How can people not understand how incredible this world is, how limitless? For people to just settle down and aim for mundane, boring jobs when there’s such magic in the world… I don’t get it.

“Is something out there?” Marjorie asked, and I snapped my attention back to her.

“Huh?”

“You were staring intently outside, dear.”

“Ah, it’s nothing, just thinking of all the places I want to go and all the sights I want to see.” It’s probably just a coincidence, but my gaze out the window there went to the Great Crater.

After we finished dinner, I helped clean up before they offered me the guest bed. Still feeling tired (but not so much so that I launched myself straight onto the couch like I had this morning), I agreed. It’s easier than finding a hotel to stay at right now, but I should find a way to pay them back- Dendra?

I sniffed around and found her scent coming from the bed, despite also being able to make out that it had been washed recently. Ah, right, she’d probably be the one who uses this the most. It’s odd having such a great sense of smell in this world. Or maybe it just feels odd that my sense of smell was so bad back in my past life.

Getting to sleep was a troublesome affair, not helped by the bad dreams plaguing me. Visions of my Pokemon being taken away from me danced in my head. No matter how much I tried to run after them, the faceless poachers grew farther and farther away until I fell to the ground. Then, my family - my first family - showed up, taunting me that I had ‘abandoned them too.’ I tried to refuse and-

Waking up with a start, I found myself pinned to the bed, Dun looking down worriedly at me. “Oof,” I said mildly, trying to shift him to the side so I could breathe easier. He does make an excellent weighted blanket, though. “I’m fine, just need my nightmares to stay in their damn lanes.”

The door opened up, and Tulip strode in. To the regular eye, she looked as poised as ever. Under my discerning gaze, I could see the extra makeup applied underneath her eyes to hide the bags that were forming. “Are you alright?” I asked immediately.

She arched an eyebrow. “I feel like I should be asking you that.”

“I’m fine,” I said instinctually before wilting under her glare. “I… will be. Just some bad dreams, they’ll pass.” Or fade away, just like the memories of my first li- bad train of thought all aboard the new train! Uhhhh is that breakfast I smell? Pancakes! Pancakes sound great right now.

A frown marred the model’s face. “I wish I hadn’t taught you to flicker your thoughts like that. It makes you hard to read when you go through emotions so fast,” she grumbled.

“Heh, I think that’s just part of how I work naturally. I tend to hop from idea to idea, really frustrates Cyan sometimes.” Which isn’t to say my Aura training with her hasn’t helped me hone that as a skill.

Finally shifting out from under Dun, I got up. “Shall we get breakfast?” Surprisingly, Tulip shook her head.

“I’ve already eaten, and they need me back at the Gym. Can you drop by today?”

Nodding, I said, “Yeah. I’ll be there after breakfast.” The meal was a quick (yet tasty) affair, with me heading out shortly after. Gathering my things (mainly just my bag), I waved Mr. & Mrs. Floette off before heading out into the city.

Getting a good look at it, I was reminded of when I’d come here before to train with Tulip and Dendra and how unique it was. The city was unquestionably beautiful, with almost every building painted in bright colors and fun patterns, garden boxes, and benches on several streets.

All the artistry served as a contrast for the actual design of most of the buildings (sans the modern, sleek Gym Building I was heading to) in the city. From houses to shops, each of them had a very blocky, bulky design. When combined with the wall around the city limits, it gave the picture of the place once being like a fortress. At least until they decided to trade and connect with the rest of Paldea, after it became apparent that no one wanted to scale a mountain to try attacking them.

The thoughts of history and what might have been inevitably had my mind turning towards Raifort. Looking through my journals, I had noted that she was a ‘suspicious character,’ with the hints dropped in the game. The interest in the Treasures of Ruin was particularly worrisome, though I didn’t think that was her goal here.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember much more than that from the games. What could her goal here be? I don’t believe it’s as simple as stealing a Pokemon.

I also investigated online and found that Raifort wasn’t a teacher. Neither was Saguaro, Salvatore, Miriam, or so many others. Jacq and Clavell were just listed as post-grads, researchers connected to the school, but no sign of them being teachers (or the future director). Tyme was actually the current Montevenera Gym Leader, her sister not having taken her place yet.

Will this change things so she doesn’t become the History teacher at Uva? Then again, I don’t think for a second that she was truly unaware of what those poachers were like, so maybe it’s not too bad if we don’t have her there. Then again, the current staff lets the bullies run rampant, so they aren’t great either.

Without any leads to follow up on, I was headed to the Gym. The walk through the peaceful city did a lot to help ease my nerves, just by seeing the happy people walk through it without a care. I still had a bit of twitchyness after my encounter with the criminals, always keeping Miles out as we walked, but it helped. Not every shadow hides something nefarious.

While we walked, I had Miles take a few photos of the city and message my friends. Last night I had told them that I had arrived, but today I actually gave them a bit more of a status report. Mostly.

GlitterOnYouCrazyChampion: ‘Feeling refreshed and rested now! The small scuffles behind me, I’m appreciating the beauty of Alfornada and the amazing view from the mountaintop.’

MasterChef: ‘Are you gonna to chck ut the leaping Tower!?’

AmethystExplorer: ‘What kind of scuffles are we talking about?’

GlitterOnYouCrazyChampion: ‘Yes, yes, I’ll look at the Leaning Tower. Probably after my Gym Match. The Olive Fields were alright? They make very big olives, but they’re out of season right now.’

AmethystExplorer: ‘Are you ignoring me?’

AmethystExplorer: ‘Nemona??’

GlitterOnYouCrazyChampion: ‘Aha, sorry about that, must have missed your messages.’

GlitterOnYouCrazyChampion: ‘Just, some battles. Fought two Tera Pokemon down on the Alfornada detour; here let me send you some pics. [attached files]’

TooCute4U: ‘Nemona, why does it sound like you’re hiding something?’

GlitterOnYouCrazyChampion: ‘:sweatdrop. Umm… wait, Lacey, why are you awake right now? Isn’t it like 5 in the morning for you?’

TooCute4U: ‘Drilly had a tummy ache. No answer the question!’

TooCute4U: ‘*now’

GlitterOnYouCrazyChampion: ‘Ugh fine. I fought some paochers and had to take them in and it was a long hike up the cavern, ok?’

MasterChef: ‘WUT? NEMONA ARE YOU OK!?!?!?’

TooCute4U: ‘oh nooooo!’

AmethystExplorer: ‘...Where are these poachers?’

CyanGlitterarti: ‘Nemona, do you need help? I can leave school.’

Best (Worst) Girl: ‘Good morning everyone.’

Best (Worst) Girl: ‘*scrolls back* What the fudge?!’

GlitterOnYouCrazyChampion: ‘Sorry everyone, gotta go, entering a Gym Building which means I’ll mysteriously lose all service for as long as it takes everyone to calm down.’

CyanGlitterati: ‘How could that possibly be how Gyms work? It makes no sense’

GlitterOnYouCrazyChampion: ‘That’s why it’s mysterious 😜’

Turning my attention away from that, I marched forward, through the sliding doors to the monolithic Gym Building in front of me. The lobby had quite an energy to it, no one moving frantically, but all of the League employees moving about swiftly, carrying documents or the like back and forth. The few police officers and lack of any civilians in the lobby also added to the pressure of the environment.

Tulip was in the corner and made a beeline for me as soon as she saw me. “Ne- Miss Glitterari, it’s good to see you.” She called over an officer and said, “If we could get your statement now, that would be appreciated.”

I nodded, knowing I’d have to face the music. And being prepared means I know what tunes to play, hopefully. They took me off to a conference room to take my statement. The officer, a middle-aged woman, smiled kindly as she said, “Don’t worry, dear, this should all go very smoothly. Just tell us what happened from your perspective.” Well, hadn’t expected them to be so nice to me. Then again, I am a nine-year-old girl, and they are a bunch of scary criminals.

“Well, I had just made it to the entrance of the Alfornada Cavern when this- this woman came down and…” I gave her a slightly truncated version of events. Telling the truth seemed like a solid strategy, though I skimmed over certain details. Like how I was able to hear the poachers talking about killing me and taking my Pokemon from so far away, and how much I may have threatened them to force them to move along.

She asked for a bit of clarification along the way, like details about Raifort (which I had little on), and some of the injuries the poachers had (which was fairly easily accepted as me just trying to stop them from escaping, especially given the stunt Middle Finger had pulled in front of Tulip). Plus, some of those injuries were caused by their own Pokemon or the necessity of battle happening in that enclosed of a space.

The biggest question they had was on how I knew about the Pokeballs being tampered with. “We only saw a few scuff marks on the side of the casing of those Balls. How did you know that they had been tampered with and in such a fashion?”

Right, probably shouldn’t mention I’ve been trawling the dark web to know that. “I mean, the fact that almost all of them had those marks was a pretty clear sign of some kind of tampering. That and I took out the poachers before they could release their full teams, but none of the other Pokemon released themselves to help. Plus, they had Pokemon like Magneton, while Electric Stones aren’t that expensive, not for the kind of operation they’re running. Clearly, there was a lack of trust between them and their Pokemon. At least, between some of them.”

I’d bet good money that Middle Finger lost his namesake from that Feraligator. Probably not when it was fully evolved, though. I could definitely see him stealing a regional starter when it was just a Totodile, and then abusing it until it was too scared to fight back anymore.

“Only some of them? Why do you think that?” The officer asked and I blinked.

“It was hard to see in the cave, but some of the Pokemon had scars and other signs of abuse. But others… that Hypno Baldy had-”

“Bald- you mean Mr. Moreau?” The officer asked, and I blushed.

“Uh, is that his name? They never introduced themselves, so I just gave them nicknames in my head.” Both the officer and Tulip gave me bemused smiles at that. “Anyway, the Hypno communicated with him telepathically, and the Hypno had a well-brushed mane. Not like, a sure sign of anything, I just thought…”

The officer grimaced, and Tulip nodded. “The Gym can investigate as to any collaborators amongst the Pokemon.” She didn’t sigh out loud, but I could feel the exhaustion coming off of her. Right, as this is a Fairy Type Gym, she’s probably the only Psychic specialist here to help deal with that communication. I hadn’t delved too deeply into the law there, but Pokemon choosing to break the laws and work with criminals was a complicated subject.

“Alright, you’ve badgered the young lady enough now, don’t you think?” A male voice entered the room alongside the man himself. The gray-haired man strode in imperiously, his manner aided by his immaculate pink suit and violet faux-fur trim cape trailing behind him.

Wow, his getup is just as ‘extra’ in real life as it is in videos. Then again, I think all Gym Leaders are like that. Katy had a baker's outfit on for our fight, though I noticed it wasn’t the same as the one she used to actually bake with me, so it was probably closer to a stylized costume.

“Leader Oberon, good of you to join us." The officer said in a tone that implied the opposite. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but-”

“But what? We’ve already found outstanding warrants for the bunch. This young lady did us a huge favor in capturing those rapscallions.” Turning to me, he said, “And I hear you’re looking for a match against myself.”

“That’s right, sir.”

He grinned broadly. “I see no reason to delay you further then. Usually we’d have a Gym Trial where you’d play Key-p away with some of the Klefkis; they can be quite vicious when it comes to defending their keys. But I feel you’ve been through enough of a trial in bringing these scoundrels to justice. I’d be happy to face you right awa-”

“Ahem,” the officer cleared her throat. “While I can agree we have enough information from Miss Glitterati for the time being, I’d like your assistance in dealing with the criminal investigation. Particularly in investigating this Raifort character - she might still be around town and we have some questions for her.” Her smile was sharp and even had Oberon wincing.

“Ah, perhaps in a few days, then.” He offered me, and I nodded.

“That sounds good to me. Oh, and it should give you enough time to prepare your A-game, because I’d like to face your strongest team, sir.” There was a flash of shock from both him and the officer, but Tulip just nodded her head.

“I’d advise you to take her on that, Oberon. She’s a stronger Trainer than I am.” Tulip’s recognition got a serious nod from the Gym Leader.

“Very well. I shall let you know in a few days time when we’re ready. And on that day, you shall face the might of Paldea’s greatest Fairy Trainer!”