Pokémon Lapis

Chapter 1: State of the League

(Gina Ikeda)

"I swear I saw him."

"You can't be sure though. I mean… it was right before we left."

Kaylee sighed, frustrated. "I know what I saw."

Gina was tired of this. She was tired of everything.

The first 48 hours after Orion had left them in a heap on Edith's front lawn had been the absolute tensest of Gina's entire life. This was saying something, as she had fled Pallet's labs in a flurry of file-deletion, fled Silph while being pursued by people who punched teens in the face, and had been almost eaten, crushed and drowned in Victory Road. Their bags had been packed, their research saved back onto discs and wiped from Edith's machine, their flying Pokémon deployed round the clock. Gav's sudden shift towards utter defeat hadn't even been something they could discuss at first—safety had been too much of a concern.

But as the hours crept by and it became clear that no one was coming for them, talk had naturally happened.

How Edith had avoided a complete nervous breakdown in light of all the debate about relocating her Pokémon Gina would never know. Her focus had been on Jason exclusively at first, but once the discussion turned to packing up her emotionally damaged and fragile animals she had finally engaged with the group. Those that could be put into Pokéballs were, and those that could not were to be teleported by the Alakazams while the others made an aerial escape—an aerial escape that had never occurred.

Once the 48 hour mark passed the real negotiations began. If we don't have to uproot the Pokémon and Edith's whole life, we shouldn't. But we could be wrong—we could be compromised—can we just ignore that? Live in fear? We could split up for a while… Isn't that what they want us to do? Go to college, get jobs, leave them alone forever? We're not leaving Edith. That much is sure. Yeah, screw that. So, what then? So—we wait.

Gav was the one who spearheaded putting all the discs and files into storage, even beginning to clean out his PDA. Victoria hovered over him while he did this, questioning, pleading, arguing, debating, or simply watching as he neatly categorized, stored, and then deleted all his backups off his device. Gina wanted to be positive—it was a good sign that he wasn't killing off all the backup data, but his PDA's storage had never been under 88% use and now it was at 14%.

In the meantime they lived out of boxes. Their haphazardly-stashed paper stacks had been a point of brief contention—keep them in the boxes for a quick getaway, or return them to where they'd had some semblance of order on shelves and in file cabinets? In the end Beth and Victoria had gone through the boxes, yanking ones they wanted to be immediately accessible and putting them back where they belonged. Victoria had yelled at Gav when she saw that, one morning, he had repacked those files into their box, but he just let her do it. He didn't complain when she unpacked them and put them back on the shelf, either, and he didn't make any more moves to adjust her organizational patterns.

It wasn't doing any good, though. Gav was determined in a way that was frighteningly free of outward depression or anger. He was simply resigned. Their project was too dangerous. They would not be so lucky as to get away from trouble time and time again. It was no longer responsible to risk their lives over and over for something that was so insurmountable. It was over.

Everyone was still there, miraculously. In that first week after they'd returned Gina had expected Amaris and Jason to leave, or even Kaylee or the Nakawas. Once or twice Victoria had even looked mad enough to go. Yet here they were, still in the familiar but tension-laden cottage, passing one another with mute nods here and there. Though they had stopped, for the most part, trying to convince Gav to snap out of it, Gina heard the murmurs—just about everyone was ready to pick this up without him.

Yet, Gina thought as she watched Kaylee gesturing emphatically to Victoria, maybe it wasn't so surprising or miraculous that they were all still here. Gav had been retreating for a month now, listening to what they had to say but unwilling to budge, but they had all been living together, working together, and fighting this fight together for years.

At first Gina had thought Kaylee would be devastated by her brother's abrupt about-face so close on the tails of not getting any meaningful information from Orion and not getting him to return to them. Instead the younger Harrison had found something new that gave her hope, and she clung to it even if it made no sense—Tim Broome. She said she'd seen him, hiding in his Gengar's field of shadow as he sometimes did, and she'd become convinced that he had allowed himself to be seen for just a second as a message—a promise that he was still their ally.

Furthermore, she'd developed a theory that beyond this, all three Champs they had met were trying to get encrypted messages to them. They want to meet—they're on our side, were the eight words Gina heard from Kaylee more than any others these days.

For a while Gina thought she was trailing into worrisome territory, a kind of delusional denial brought about by their catastrophic past month, but then she realized Kaylee was absolutely right about one thing—the Champions were trying to reach out to them. Casey Sounted had been interviewed in Pewter, mobbed by reporters due to the unusual sighting of a Champ strolling around through the streets in a city he didn't live. Casey's smile had been in place and he'd joked around and bantered with the reporters like usual, but when he dropped his parting words to them the group had been forced to sit up straight and listen.

"Well, the business that brings me here is personal," Casey had said, rubbing the back of his neck and glancing briefly to the side before he recovered and gave the cameraman another smile. "I'm looking for some friends, actually. Couple of them are from Pewter and I figured I'd check in on them, see if they're okay."

"If they're okay?" the reporter had asked, alerted at once to the strange wording. "Do you worry they aren't?"

Casey had paused, but then waved the question off with a chuckle. "I'm sure it's fine, but Nick, Tim and I would still like to see for ourselves what they're up to and that everything's fine." He had refused to answer questions after that and had waved jovially to the assorted group of reporters before hopping on his Pidgeot and taking off.

Nick Mentaro had been more subtle, but it had been the general consensus of the group at large that he was referring to them when he'd gone on the record at a VR refurbishment meeting and said, "The safety of trainers who wish to challenge the League is priority. And I don't just mean those who emerge from VR. I mean those who challenge the Four after that as well. It's absolutely paramount. You shouldn't see trainers running out of our building, panicking or scared or hurt."

Broome had been silent so far, but there was a scheduled Champion interview that would be televised later that day for the State of the League address, and it was a silent agreement amongst them that they would be tuning in to watch. In the hours that preceded it Kaylee had taken to trying even harder to drive her point home about the Champs. Victoria, who had been showing a lot of restraint and patience today, seemed to be wearing thin after a solid hour of debates.

"Even if those messages are urging us to gather—and to be honest, yes, it looks like they are—" she said, anticipating what Kaylee was going to say next, "It's much, much more likely at this point that it's a trap."

Sometime when Gina hadn't been paying attention Kaylee had learned how to take a deep breath, let it out on a long, slow sigh, and simply say, "I don't agree," before excusing herself from the room and heading down the hall. It was eerie—she'd always had the hottest head of their group, but she was changing, undeniably, and Gina could see the pang of regret on Victoria's face as she watched her go.

Once they had established that they were, very tentatively, safe, Amaris had taken to pouring himself back into alpha gene and Factor A research. Gina wasn't completely sure why. He'd been holing himself up in his room more and more often, though when she came by to visit his serious expression would falter just a little and he would almost never turn away her company. It was a nice change even if the rest of his behavior was bordering on erratic.

There was one odd thing that she hadn't been able to figure out, though—one of the first questions he'd asked her after the frantic panic died down was what she had seen when Wyland's ghosts knocked her out. This had been news to Gina, as she hadn't had Hypnosis used against her or her Pokémon at all during her fight with him. Amaris had clammed up at once and she'd known better than to press him about what had happened, but it was a frightening implication—if Wyland's ghosts had used Dream Eater on Amaris, did that mean Wyland could be privy to some of his knowledge or memories?

Gina had gone to Zahlia in the end with her questions. Though she didn't have much information to give her, Zahlia had agreed that she was likely on the right track in her thinking. It was possible that Wyland had gotten a positive ID off them from whatever he saw in Amaris' head, even, and that could have been what drew Lance out to confront them if all the Four were working together. Zahlia had let Haunter out after that and, as far as Gina could see, had never returned him to his Pokéball once since then. They were locked in nonstop practice now, Zahlia trying to fine-tune his Dream Eater ability and get his mild ADD under control. Gina wasn't sure if she had a real goal in mind or if it was just something to keep her busy.

Though she'd wanted to, and had come close to doing so many times over the past few weeks, Gina hadn't been able to bring herself to ask Zahlia about Orion and Zeke and how she was handling everything. Zahlia kept things close to the vest on her best days, but she knew that the Ghost-trainer had suffered almost more than the rest of them in the aftermath of their last day at the Plateau. At the end Zeke and Orion had literally fist-fought with her as the catalyst to their explosion. Zeke was terrifying—possessive, unhinged, and his affection for Zahlia bordered on twisted and brutal. While he genuinely seemed to hate her, and certainly all of the rest of them, it was obvious he was also coming from a lifetime of an almost addiction-like dependence on her. If there was one subject she avoided even more than Orion, it was her brother.

Jason, meanwhile, had done no such concealing of his rage and disappointment. It was only Edith's quiet, stark distress at the idea of having to uproot her whole life in a matter of minutes that had snapped Jason out of his breakdown on her front lawn. Somehow he had managed to shelve his issues long enough to help them get sorted, though Gina had seen his dark, brooding thousand-yard stare as he packed, instructed Alakazam on how and where to teleport the more delicate Pokémon, and did periodic checks of the skies on Fearow. That look had never really left him since then.

It hadn't taken much for Jason's borderline-Rhyhorn to evolve into a Rhydon, and it was sheer dedication that had evolved Psyduck not very long after that. He'd started wearing his hair shorter, cutting it haphazardly one night after it wouldn't stop slopping into his eyes, wet with water and sweat. It had been an awful cut and Edith had coaxed him into letting her even it up. Gina hated the look on him, missing the messy, carefree spikes and even the ruffled, unkempt look he'd had to adopt once he stopped geling it.

One unforeseen side-effect of the project "ending" had been Edith's sudden period of calmness and softly understated relief. Of course she was still worrying herself sick over Jason, but she was visibly less stressed and her OCD, aggravated by stress, had calmed down a great deal in the past month. Gina figured it was probably an undeniable relief that they were done with this constant danger, as supportive as she'd been of them this whole time. Being left behind for two months while they traversed VR and the IP… Gina hadn't even been able to handle being left behind for half an hour at the prospect of waiting for Amaris to challenge Olivia first. She couldn't imagine what Edith had gone through and felt a twisting of guilt in her stomach every time she thought of it.

Kaylee had been way too distracted to pursue Gina's pseudo-promise that she'd talk to Jason and Edith once they returned from the Plateau. It was either that or she understood, the way Gina did, that it was something that could certainly not happen right now, and could very possibly never happen. On some level Gina had known and understood this from the day Orion had left them, his notebook and his three-sentence apology the only things left to comfort them. The idea of sitting them down and explaining that she was tied up in unrequited, uncomfortable feelings would have been laughable if it wasn't so mortifying. Gina had a physical reaction to it every time it flickered into her mind, a cringe and a need to get up and move around, as if she could outrun her own thoughts.

In the end it was the avalanche of what they didn't know versus what they did know that killed her. All they did know was that Orion had done them a solid based on his father's orders to get them out of there. No one had come after them at all so far, and it meant—well, it could mean anything. But Gina was not alone in feeling that it was very likely that they were being protected, shielded somehow from Nakawa and the rest of them, rather than being carefully lulled into a false sense of security. There was no reason for their enemies to wait so long to come after them if they knew where they were.

Gina's musings had taken her outside without her strictly being aware of where her feet were leading her. Even now there was always some "firepower" on guard outside, just in case, and today it was literal. Charizard turned his massive head to look her way and blew out a plume of steam when she walked up to him. Ever since his evolution he had been much more outwardly affectionate, but he was, gratefully, still a brat. Gina wasn't sure if she could handle a complete 180 degree personality swap from her oldest friend on top of everything else. As if to prove this point Charizard headbutted her in the shoulder and Gina stumbled from the display of fondness that had much more oomph than it had before. Then she hugged his face while he gently thrashed like he didn't want the affection when she knew he really did.

"Up for a ride?" she asked, and Charizard rolled his eyes at her like this was a huge inconvenience. He adored flying, though, and could not deny it as he lowered himself down so she could climb aboard.

Charizard flapped his massive wingspan twice as Gina crouched low over his back, slinging her arms around his neck. He had acted like this was choking him at first and she'd believed him, trying to find a new way to ride until she'd understood he was trolling her. She supposed it was sort of humorous to imagine that anything Gina did to him now was more than a minor blip on the radar. His skin was so much tougher and hotter to the touch now, and more than once he'd bested Blastoise in a spar.

They took to the skies, but kept low. This was deeply disappointing to Charizard, and to Gina as well, but she couldn't blame the others for telling her to fly low, especially with his tail flame. They wanted to draw as little attention as possible.

As her starter flew in low, wide circles, testing his boundaries and creeping ever skyward, Gina buried her face in his back, closing her eyes. The urge to look for Pallet always took her when she was flying, even though there was no way she would be able to spot her hometown from such a low vantage point. The homesickness had started in VR and now that she was closer to Pallet than she'd been in months it had risen to almost insurmountable heights.

Speaking of which—"That's enough, buddy. Little lower." Charizard let out a sigh of smoke and Gina sighed with him. "Yeah, I know. It sucks. I want the clouds, too."

When they landed Kaylee was peering out at them with clear anxiety on her face from the open window. "Come on!" she urged, and Gina hit the ground running, Charizard banking up and away so he wouldn't clip her with his wing. "It's gonna start!"

For one second Gina had thought this was actual news, but then she remembered—it was interview-watching time. Of course, she thought, shaking her head and snapping her long hair back into a quick ponytail. It was already hopelessly windblown from her short ride. As she pushed her way into the house she saw that the others were already gathered, each in their usual seats facing Edith's tired old set. Only Gav was absent, still diligently plugging away at his PDA at the kitchen table. Gina made a brief face at that, wondering if the Harrison siblings had argued about his lack of interest in watching the broadcast.

Gina took a seat next to Zahlia on the floor, trying to get comfortable without anything to lean on. A commercial for Pokéchow was ending and after the catchy jingle—why buy anything else?—the screen went black and filled back up with a dark blue backdrop.

"Good evening, ladies and gentleman," a rich, sonorous voice greeted them from the speakers. "You are watching the 2045 State of the League address. Today we will be talking with Timothy Broome, our current Champion from the Indigo Plateau."

The screen faded again and now they were looking at a conference room that held only Broome, looking a little tired, and a decidedly not-tired interviewer with an over-caffeinated smile that bordered on manic. Gina's stomach twisted unpleasantly at the sight of the Champ who had been so good to them at the Plateau and she fought the conflicted urge to both watch and look away.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," the interviewer said, parroting the voice-over almost exactly, only with his own upbeat tone. "I'm reporting live from the Indigo Plateau where we are here for our State of the League address with our current Champion, Timothy Broome! Broome, as you know, first won his League Challenge in 2039 and recently re-won that title from Mary-Jane Worthington just over six months ago. Thanks for having us, Tim!"

Broome gave him a small smile and a nod, but Gina could almost read the question in his weary eyes—like any of the Champs really had a choice in the matter? Something had been stealing sleep from the current Champ lately, and it could be any number of things. Gina recognized the tired, been-up-too-many-nights look, becoming well-versed in it on the faces of her friends. Kaylee, she saw, had both legs tucked up to her chest and was nibbling furiously on one of her thumbnails. Gina wondered if she had spontaneously evolved into a species of human that didn't need to blink.

"Such a pleasure to be here, such a pleasure," the interviewer said, ending on a sigh like he was on Cloud Nine. Gina fought off an eye-roll. "Well, where to begin? There certainly have been some very newsworthy items brought to my attention, some questions from our viewers and some interesting developments in the past week alone!" Broome merely nodded in agreement, apparently not feeling the need to fluff this with small talk and needless statements of the obvious. A little thrown off, the interviewer dove into his first question, which elicited a slight scoff from Amaris. "Well, as I'm sure most of our viewers at home know, your friend and fellow former Champion, Nicholas Mentaro, recently expressed his very strong views about the safety and conditions of not only Victory Road, but also the League Challenge itself. It's true that reports have been increasing as far as VR injuries go, but would you say that this is a problem that's really been getting worse in previous months?"

There were some half-hearted chuckles from their gathered group. Broome's passive expression changed at this, though, and he repositioned so he could lean one elbow on the conference table and face the interviewer better. "It is most definitely a problem," he said, clearly and with no room for argument. "The amount of injured trainers—and Pokémon—coming out of VR has increased steadily over the years. It's worrisome, to say the least." He frowned and looked to the tabletop as if remembering something. "I take a few trips in there every few weeks, to keep my senses honed and train my team, but even I have encountered some trouble with the wilds in there. They are much, much more aggressive, and that's only one layer of this."

The interviewer looked like he wanted to interview, but Broome looked up, his blue eyes taking on a colder expression as he held the man's gaze. "And you expect a still young and rather inexperienced trainer with less knowledge and fewer skills than the pros to take this on, just as easily? If so, you're dead wrong. We have to figure out what's going on down there—and something is going on down there—soon. I'm not going to have any further injuries or deaths in this route if I can help it."

Though this was a dream come true, a Champion actually giving real answers on relevant issues, Gina soon realized that this man had been hoping for an MJ. In fact, he'd probably been prepping to interview MJ herself before Broome had swept back in and reclaimed his title. It was a horrible mis-match of interviewer to interviewee. Instead of a peppy, popular, positive marketing wonder he had this serious, stern young man who was bringing up subjects that had been either doggedly avoided or flat-out not explored before now. Gina frowned. What had he been expecting? He'd asked what he thought. Perhaps other Champions in the past had tried to sugar-coat VR, offering encouraging words and keeping up the spirits of the would-be challengers. Broome, clearly, was going to do no such thing.

"Well… ah, although it's an off-season, have you and your fellow Champs seen many contenders make it through VR to challenge the Four and the League?" It was a sort of a random question, only just barely tied in with the Champ's answer, and Gina felt a momentary pang of pity for his poor improvisation skills. She didn't miss the way she and the others leaned closer to the set though, wondering what, if anything, he would say about their group.

Broome paused for just a fraction of a second before speaking, his eyes flicking back down to the glossy, reflective surface of the conference table. "We… recently had a group come during the off-season, yes. There were three among them who were looking to challenge the Four and the League. I mean… don't get me wrong," Broome said, looking back up now, his face a little more open than it had been a moment ago. "As long as you believe in your Pokémon, and you've trained them up and trust them, you can do anything. But I have to say that these three—they had the real, solid potential to get past the Four."

Gina couldn't watch this part, feeling her ears heat up at the compliments. She stared at Edith's very shiny floors, watching the muted reflection of the interview there instead. "But, it's my understanding that they didn't make it past the fourth challenge… and they up and disappeared." Gina had to snap her head back up at this now, anxiety roiling through her. Was he going to do something like mention them by their aliases, or say that they'd fled in a panic and had been involved in a big fistfight on the lawn? "So… I'm kinda hoping they're doing okay," Broome said, giving a slight shrug and averting his eyes again. "If it's just the residual sting from a loss, my advice is to brush it off, get back on their feet and try again. Mew knows I have had my fair share of defeats."

The last bit of what Broome had said didn't quite ring true, tacked on like it was for the benefit of the viewers at home. Gina knew he believed the words he said, but that he did not for a second buy that their group had vanished for any reason that had to do with anger over a loss. She glanced at Kaylee's profile, dyed blue in the light from the screen, and finally saw her blink slowly, once. Then she rubbed one eye ferociously, trying to rehydrate it, while she kept the other locked on Broome's face.

"Would these be the friends that Casey Sounted was looking for in Pewter?" the interviewer asked, and Broome simply nodded once, not giving him more information. Gina watched the interviewer's face for a moment, trying to read if he was going to pry more, but he seemed to feel there were better things to talk about. To her immense relief, he moved on. "Well… speaking of the fourth challenge! I have an unconfirmed source that says our very own Dragonmaster, Lance, was seen back at the IP in recent months. Can you say if this is true or not? If he is back, do you know why?"

Broome frowned slightly at this question, glancing quickly to the side and back the way people usually did if they were looking around for some sort of prank. Gina wondered with a sad pang if he had picked up this trait from being Casey's friend for so much of his life. "Well… yeah, he's back… he's the fourth combatant of the Elite Four. He was gone for a while solely because we haven't had very many challengers. It being an off-season, and all."

The interviewer looked both flummoxed and embarrassed and Broome's expression smoothed out a little. Evidently he was taking slight pity on him. "Ah, I see! It's just, there have been rumors of his retirement…" he prompted, and Broome nodded slightly.

"Well… although I'm happy to see him back, he should definitely think about his retirement. Mew knows he deserves it. But I'm assuming he wanted back on because he missed it. We didn't get very far with plans to replace him, otherwise I'm sure you and the viewers would know all about it by now." The interviewer nodded, still slightly red under the collar after his blunder. "Can't blame him, really. I know I recently started missing being in a position that can make a real difference in our region."

"That brings me to my next question," the interviewer said, looking a little shocked that for once the transition had been smooth. "I'm sure a lot of us at home are wondering what made you decide to pick now as the time to re-win your title from MJ. Is there any special reason behind that?"

Broome chuckled slightly. "Well… as I previously stated, I started missing it. I know that might come as a shock since I was never really one for the cameras, but there are other reasons to miss being the current Champion, other than the limelight. As I said, I missed having the opportunity to be able to make a real change and help better the lives and bonds between trainer and Pokémon… and just, humans and Pokémon in general." Gina caught movement out of the corner of her eye and glanced at Amaris, who had tilted his head to look at the screen with a critical eye. She thought she knew what he was thinking—it all sounded so good on paper, or in this case, on screen. Yet the shrouds of suspicion they wore were firmly in place. "Pokémon deserve to be helped out and protected, as much as us. Plus…" he grinned slightly and lowered his blue eyes, rubbing the back of his neck a little. "Gotta say, I missed the high-pressure battles too. Always loved those."

The interviewer beamed at the first actual smile he'd gotten from Broome, but before he could capitalize on that and move them in a happier direction it was over. Broome flicked his eyes back up and seemed to freeze the interviewer mid-interruption. "Besides that I had some other matters that I felt needed to be looked into. They will be discussed at a later date, so please respect that and don't ask. I understand it's your job, but… please." The "please" bordered between a polite request and an absolute statement, and the interviewer seemed to know this was a dead-end right away.

Still, he was a reporter. "Well, you seem very determined on this subject, although I'm bound by my job, as you say…" he chuckled and Broome sighed very softly, not smiling but not looking angry. "So you won't be able to shed any light on this, not even a little?" Broome just blinked once at him, slowly, not deigning to repeat himself so blatantly. "No?" the interviewer confirmed, chuckling nervously. "Ah well folks, it was worth a shot! I know one part of being a Champ, or part of the League in general, is working closely with fellow former Champs, the Four, and Gym Leaders on Pokémon policy, as you mentioned. Certainly we need folks like you on these committees!" Broome didn't smile at this, not falling for the flattery, and the interviewer quickly plowed on to arrive at his point. "However, how do you feel about the disappearance of Vincent Warren? It's a bit of an old news item now, but Nathan Fremont had some friction before being sworn in as the new Vermillion Leader... I understand if you don't want to get on anyone's bad side," he added with a weak chuckle, "but we're dying to know what you think of this development, as well as Whittaker-Cheng's very public disappointment in Warren? Do you think Fremont will do this important job better?"

Something had flickered across Broome's eyes at the mention of Fremont, and for the first time all interview Kaylee tore her eyes away from the screen to look back and gauge the reactions of the group. Gina met her eyes and bit her lip, wanting to offer her some sort of camaraderie but unable to decide how she felt. "As of right now," Broome began delicately, "I'm hoping he will. I won't… have high hopes for him, since, for all we know he could be another Warren, after the title alone. I agree with Whittaker-Cheng in this respect, only about my disappointment in Warren," he added, and Kaylee began to say something to the group but clamped down on it as the Champ went on. "I even felt the pain of waiting for him to finally appear for a battle… Nick, Casey and I waited in that line for hours." He cracked a very slight smile and once again the interviewer seemed to want to drag the show off into a happier, fluffier direction. Broome wouldn't have it. "But at the same time, I'll hold out hope that he's better. Although I've heard about some semi-troubling personal matters concerning him that I will not go into, since it's not my place," he said, needing to physically lift his hand to stem the burning tide of questions the reporter seemed about to spew. "That said, I plan on meeting with Mr. Fremont to find out just where we stand on the Vermillion Gym and its hours of operation."

Jason let out a long, slow sigh as the interviewer tried feebly and failed once more at getting more info on Broome's lead on Fremont. "Damn. He's going to go talk to dad willingly? Good luck to him."

"But, see—" Kaylee said, staring at the screen to make sure they weren't missing anything. So far it was just more invasive questions being utterly stonewalled by Broome. "This is what I mean. He doesn't know what's going on with Fremont. He's not with him."

"That doesn't mean he's not with Nakawa, or—" Amaris interjected, but cut himself off as the real interview finally resumed, the reporter's attempts completely thwarted.

"We all know that you, Mr. Mentaro and Mr. Sounted traveled together during the crux of the new reforms that have made VR more unnavigable. Yet you three made it through alright!" Broome frowned again, clearly wondering if this would be an attempt to brush off the severity of the VR issues, but the interviewer hurried to finish his thought. "Would you have any advice to trainers who might be feeling discouraged about attempting VR in light of all this recent news?"

"Now that," Broome said, offering a kinder smile, "is a question I like answering. Make good friends with other trainers and don't give yourself a bad name. If you have some good friends, travel with them." He put extra emphasis on the last two words and Gina squinted as if she was trying to see through the screen and into the contents of his mind. "Don't try to be the macho, tough type and do it all alone. Allies and companions provide not only extra eyes and ears to help keep you and each other safe... they also have your back, help you through your troubling times and are there for you." Gina swallowed around a lump of emotion, feeling that she was in that delicate state where the slightest thing could set her off, but thankfully Broome broke a little bit of the tension with what he said next. "They can be your comedic relief…" he pretended to cough over the name Casey Sounted! and the interviewer frowned at him as if genuinely worried for his health before he got it. "Or, they can be the serious and truthful friends that always give their opinion no matter what the issue…" again he name-dropped Nick Mentaro! through fake coughs. "But, bottom line, there are others out there looking for a friend. You'll find them in the most surprising places. These friends also include your Pokémon, of course."

Gina struggled to decipher the messages, feeling like she was playing a game with someone who didn't realize he was playing. So much of what he said could be taken two ways—either as a simple and straight-forward message to prospective trainers, or as a more targeted message at their group. She could sort of understand now why this had driven Kaylee to utter distraction. "Treat your Pokémon with the love, care and respect they deserve and they'll grow in leaps and bounds. I got here today—sorry, I misspoke—I'm alive today because of these Pokémon." She let out a soft sigh, transporting a message to Broome as if he could really hear it. I really, really want you to be legit… please don't be a liar. Then Broome's eyes flicked directly to the camera and the words he spoke next floored Gina. "'Don't let your partners fall.' That's a quote written on the tribute wall by Vincent Ostwak, it's a favorite of mine and the favorite of a friend's, as well." Alright, now I know you're talking to us, Gina thought at Broome, her eyes shifting over to Kaylee, then Amaris. He had revealed to them later that night, the last peaceful one they had spent on the lawn, that he had chosen this as another of his favorite quotes. Gina was almost certain that Broome was talking about him as well as Kaylee when he spoke of his friends.

Gina had become lost in thought and tuned in to realize that Broome seemed to be speaking about a topic he felt very passionately about now. "I'm not gonna leave my family in the arena to get killed just for the sake of some title. You go after my family and you'll see how we stick up for each other. I know you all have seen what I'm talking about." Whatever he was talking about, the interviewer knew it too, and Kaylee hastily scribbled something on a pad of paper Gina had not seen tucked away by her feet. "I'd gladly give up the title and all of this if it meant no Pokémon would be hurt or worse, killed in battles that get out of hand. I know I'm not the only one who would do so without a blink." Broome listed healing supplies to keep on hand, referencing a few sales and good deals throughout Kanto, and when the subject of merchandise and Silph came up, it seemed to remind the interviewer of something he had been about to ask him earlier.

"This whole business with Silph reminds me… Warren went on record not long before he went off the grid in support of the very controversial 'Pokémon Performance Enhancers' that Silph was supposedly marketing for a time. Of course we know that once that news story broke they immediately denied the allegations and said, I quote," he seamlessly lifted a paper, very prepared for this portion of the interview, "'PPEs were only ever in development, never seriously tested or marketed. Warren spoke erroneously on an issue that he had little knowledge of. We certainly wouldn't dream of releasing anything that would harm Pokémon, either wild or trained.'" Gina snorted at that excerpt. What a PR nightmare for Silph, having to backpedal like that with the Pokémon Liberation Front and other interest groups breathing down their necks. "Do you buy this or do you think there's more to that story?"

Broome gave something that was a strange mix of a smile and a grimace. "While… in some cases Warren would blab unintelligibly about certain issues, I never knew him to throw around a name like Silph. Especially, you know, about something so specific as to mention the drug, to imply that he was on board with them and a real supporter of it, I mean." He paused and let out a short laugh. "It doesn't strike me as something that he 'had little knowledge of.' So, yes. I am inclined to believe there's more to this story." He took a breath, let it out slow, and addressed the camera directly for his next part. "So therefore, now is as good a time as any to announce that I am starting my own formal investigation of the Silph company."

"What?" Kaylee asked the television, and Jason let out a loud whistle. Amaris muttered something but it was drowned out by Victoria saying "shhhh!"

The reporter had buried him in an avalanche of questions but Broome was not done yet. "There's one more thing I want the viewers at home and the citizens of Kanto to know. I'm also spearheading a formal search party for former Vermillion Gym Leader, Vincent Warren." The flabbergasted reporter's face was sort of priceless but their group babble had broken out, unable to be contained now. Kaylee ran forward and crouched down near the speakers, trying to hear the last of what Broome was saying, because—Gina's heart jolted with alarm—the current Champ was standing up from his interview, apparently done with it. Gina tried to worm her way closer while Victoria and Beth traded excited talk with one another.

"What'd he say, was that it?" Gina asked, crawling over an ottoman to get to the screen. The show had just switched to a commercial break quite abruptly and Kaylee shook her head, her wide brown eyes latching onto Gina's.

"He just said he'd be in touch and would give more information when it became available, but for now those were all the questions he would take, that he's been very busy and is still working to finalize some of the things he just talked about. And he just—" she stared at the screen, flabbergasted, and gestured to it like it could answer her. "Just left."

Gina finally overheard part of what Beth was saying, her voice excited and rising above the din. "No one, I repeat to you, no one would put their reputation on the line like that unless they felt like they could deliver! He's investigating Silph? Himself? Who does that? No one does that, no one has even dared to mention this on any kind of broadcast—you know, you know the only reason he got away with it is because he did it so fast, it wasn't scripted. And you know why he left like that? So suddenly? It's because he knew they'd kill the feed soon anyway after he goes on record and says all that stuff about Silph and Warren to the entire nation."

"That's a little much," Victoria said, shaking her head. "I mean, all he said was that it was likely Warren knew more about the PPEs than he let on. It's not like he said 'Silph is the root of all evil in this world and I shall vanquish it.' Just, hold on, don't get so ahead of yourself—"

"No, Victoria, seriously," Kaylee said, leaping up and leaving Gina to stare at the set. "This is what I've been saying. There's no way he'd risk something like this unless his thinking aligned with ours."

"You know, that's what we thought about Whittaker-Cheng," Victoria said, her voice exasperated and flat. "We thought, 'hey, look at this fine, upstanding guy who's speaking out against Warren and going on record with unpopular views.' We thought that and we approached him and what happened? They kidnapped Orion and tried to trap us in the Gym."

"Hold up," Gina called over their argument, for the show was back on, though the image was not of the conference room. It was back to the main studio where a group of flummoxed reporters were trading quips and speculation. The group hushed in time to catch the second half of the first exchange.

"Well, that was abrupt! Didn't think Broome would deliver so riveting an address, did you?"

"Certainly didn't! He's always been one of the more quiet Champs. Maybe he's taking a leaf out of Mentaro's and Sounted's books?" There was some chuckling but Gina saw how uneasy their faces were, and how plastic their smiles were as well.

"Well, one thing we know for sure—he was referencing the Challenger battle fiasco of 2041 there, wasn't he?" one asked the other, and she clapped and her eyes lit up.

"Yes, I thought so too! 'You go after my family and you'll see how we stick up for each other.' Gotta be, right?"

Kaylee had pounced on her pad and was scribbling some more to herself, and while she was distracted Gina orbited around the discussion that had roped in Amaris now as well.

"It could be a trap," Amaris allowed. "Anything could be a trap at this point, we all know this. But it's a risk to not take risks sometimes. Sounted, Mentaro and Broome were the closest we've ever come to having solid, reliable sources and allies in positions of power. I know we've all been thinking how it was very convenient that they were all there during our fiasco with Lance, but I've done some reading—" Kaylee looked up at Amaris with wide, hopeful eyes, but he ignored her, "And those three as well as MJ and a few others are almost always at the League when they aren't taking care of their own private side-businesses. So it could have been nefarious timing or it could have been an unfortunate coincidence."

Victoria sighed, rubbing her temples. "So you're saying we should call him up right now?"

"Well, not right now," Blake said blandly, watching as the show went back to commercial. "I imagine he's being crushed in a horde of reporters right now and probably can't come to the phone."

"It was a huge gamble," Gina said, not realizing she was going to be speaking until she was. "He just put himself in danger if he's not on their side. So, there's that."

"Again," Victoria said, now firmly behind both of her hands. "What we thought about Whittaker-Cheng."

There was a scrape of a chair from the kitchen and the group looked over at Gav, who was rising to his feet. For a protracted, tense second Gina thought he was actually going to come over and participate in their talk. Then he headed down the hallway and her spirits went with him as he retreated.

Gina tuned out the debate, but she was discovering who fell on each side of the divide. Blake and Amaris were not sold, still suspicious but wanting to explore all options, Victoria was playing to the side of caution, and Beth and Kaylee had been won over. Zahlia was keeping quiet and Jason was only piping in to bring up points and pose more questions, keeping his opinions about Broome to himself. It was likely, Gina thought, that he didn't even completely know where he stood on this issue. He'd been understandably preoccupied.

The second there was a lapse in the talk Gina cleared her throat. "An announcement," she said. "Off topic, not that important but I want it to be said while we're all gathered here." Nervous looks were cast her way and she sighed. "Nothing bad. Just—I really want to go back to Pallet. Not forever, obviously," she added, seeing Jason's look of distress. "Just… since we're sort of at a really extreme standstill, have been for the past month, and probably won't be picking up this project again in any sort of really intense, meaningful way for a while…" she could see Kaylee wanting to interject and held her hand up to halt her, feeling sort of like Broome fielding interview questions for a second. "I really can't stop thinking about mom, and Alana. I'd rather stop by and show I'm alive, make up some story so they don't think we're up to anything."

Victoria furrowed her brow, obviously disapproving but waiting until Gina was finished talking. "We're not giving up on this project," she asserted, and Kaylee gave a very small sigh. "We're stuck for now, on certain issues," she said, giving the younger Harrison a pointed look, "but we will be diving straight back into what we've been doing. If you want to go home and lie… saying that you're done when we aren't… that's fine." Gina felt a curl of hurt at her words before she realized Victoria didn't mean any offense by them. She was just trying to drive home a very important point. "Just realize that all you'll be doing is putting their minds at ease, not realistically promising them that you will never be in danger again."

"In light of this announcement that most of the population of Kanto just saw, I think it's a good idea," Amaris added. "The less remarkable and strange we are the less likely it is that people will try to draw lines between what Broome just announced and what we were doing in the labs. I'll come, too."

Gina was unable to hide her surprise at his offer to accompany her, but secretly she was beyond relieved. Having to face both her mother and the scores of confused, angry lab assistants on her own had been a task that made VR look inviting. "Okay," she said, giving Amaris a small smile. "Alright, good. We'll… we'll go soon, then."

"Okay," Victoria said, turning back to the television and seeing that the credits for the very short address were now running. "And I might as well go on the record here and say that, although this particular group of people has a very nasty habit of running off and doing things on their own, I will personally tan the hide of any of you who talk to Broome without the rest of us knowing." She cast a piercing, deadly look out over the rest of them that managed to be simultaneously frightening and touching. "Just saying."

Author's Note: Welcome to chapter 1 of Lapis! As a warning, my chapter buffer is running critically low, so there might be actual waits longer than a week between updates if I can't find the time to crack out a bunch this weekend. I'll do my best and update my profile so you know what's up!