Is this story a serious arc story with a serious plot, or is it all episodic wacky shenanigans?


"So if I ended up on Route 12, and we're here now…" Nate studied the image carefully, trying to mentally record the information.

According to the poster-sized Kalos Town Map displayed in the Pokémon Center, there were two possible routes he could take from Shalour City: heading east would lead him back to where the boat had crashed; the very same place where he had encountered Pollux, the mysterious Sylveon. The other route would be a southwest trek through what was called "Reflection Cave." From there, it was only a short walk to the humble settlement of-

"Geosenge Town? Isn't that where that other man wanted to go?" Pollux had spotted the way Nate's finger was tracing the map.

"I think so," Nate replied. That was correct, and Nate's conscience was relieved to know that he had not accidentally misled the black-haired man in the lab coat from before. Though their initial interaction had been brief, he could not help but wonder about that mysterious stranger's intentions. Perhaps if he followed and headed for Geosenge Town as well, he would learn more; that of course was also the only possible way that the ship captain could have gone, allowing him to potentially fulfill both of his intended objectives.

"Then let's go! Quickly, to Reflection Cave!" Pollux's ribbons swayed from left to right as it jumped in excitement.

Nate was caught a little off-guard by his Pokémon companion's enthusiasm. "Y-yeah…"

Upon leaving the Pokémon Center again, they were almost immediately bowled over by a small-scale stampede of people and Pokémon, and had to jump clear out of the way until the coast was clear. Nate wanted to ignore that bizarre and unexpected happening, but as it turned out the charging brigade that he saw was actually comprised of construction workers who were informed of a landslide in the area.

"Looks like the entrance has been completely cut off by these boulders." One of the hard hat-wearing men was kind enough to inform Nate of the situation, and the boy's worst fears were confirmed.

"How did that happen?" Nate asked in a panic. "Is… is anyone hurt?!"

The man in the helmet shrugged. "We're doing everything we can, kid. I reckon it'll be quite a while before it's all sorted out."

Nate's gaze turned to the man's fellow workers and Pokémon, who seemed to be idling about, smoking cigarettes, and generally doing things that did not resolve the boulder situation in any way. The boy then looked back at the man in front of him, to whom he gave a suspicious expression.

"Yup," repeated the worker. "Quite a while indeed."

Nate could not accept that, and he decided to take action, running to the boulders and trying to lift them out of the way. As expected of a young boy though, his exertion proved ultimately futile.

One of the other workers pulled Nate back after he slumped to his knees in exhaustion. "Look, kid, if you wanna get to the town on the other side so badly, why don't you just go round the other way? Sure, you gotta pass through about four other places, but hey, that town's not going anywhere, right?"

"I suppose…" Nate pouted.

%%%

Nate took the worker's suggestion, and headed back for Route 12; not so much because he saw it as the more viable option, but moreso that he wanted to leave Shalour City as soon as he could. To Nate's surprise, the ship he had arrived on continued to remain in its lonely position of being jammed into the shoreline. Luckily, the area seemed devoid of wild rampacious Noiverns this time around. Once again, Nate grabbed some Poké Balls from the ship's cargo, and he would have also been able to make off with some of the ship's food rations, had they not been scavenged by unknown (most likely Pokémon) assailants. As a result, he still remained somewhat hungry – the lingering taste of exotic food in his mouth did help to suppress his appetite.

Now that he had the Poké Balls, it was finally time for him to capture Pollux in earnest. With one of the capsules in hand, he gave the Sylveon fair warning before he threw the ball.

The Poke Ball sailed through the air in a small arc. "Okay, into the ball you… go?"

For some reason, Pollux was unaffected by the Poké Ball, which had bounced off as if Nate had thrown a ball of scrap paper at the Fairy-type Pokémon. Again, and a third time, the boy attempted capture, to no avail.

"Is something upsetting you, Nate?" Pollux was smiling; the barrage of Poké Balls was apparently more amusing than painful for the Pokémon.

"I thought we made a pact," Nate answered, picking up the ball. "Why can't I capture you?"

The Sylveon's ribbon feelers billowed like they were being tossed aloft by a strong wind. "That's exactly why I had to make a pact with you. You see, even for a Sylveon, I am different to most other Pokémon."

"I noticed," Nate muttered under his breath.

"If you must know, the truth is that I actually have a master already."

"Who is he?"

"I can't tell you that until the time is right. What I can say was that I was instructed to make a pact with a suitable Trainer."

Pollux's enigmatic words only served to further Nate's initial suspicions… but they also raised some compelling questions. When would the time be right? Why was Pollux's master looking for a suitable Trainer? And what made Nate "suitable"? Did they know he had saved the Unova region from Team Plasma? Compared to the incident involving that young trainer from Nuvema Town who had defeated the very same team two years before that, Team Plasma's presence had been more clandestine and had received less public attention… it didn't make Nate feel much of a regional hero.

On the bright side, he at least had a reliably powerful Pokémon accompanying him in this unfamiliar region. So long as they steered clear of Poison and Steel-types, Pollux's Fairy-type abilities combined with Nate's skills as a well-experienced Pokémon Trainer would surely keep them safe… Nate hoped. He only wished that he could keep the Sylveon in a Poké Ball, should he need a break from the Pokémon's telepathic chatter.

Continuing along Route 12, Nate spotted a gate leading to what appeared to be a Pokémon ranch, which seemed to remind the boy of Floccesy Ranch from back in Unova; it hadn't even been a day away from there and Nate was already feeling a little homesick. The ranch he saw before him was not quite as large, and not as many plant crops seemed to be growing there, but the boy was drawn to it nonetheless, by the Pokémon that inhabited the area.

With curiosity piqued, Nate crouched down to meet one of the quadrupeds at eye level. The Pokémon's white-furred face seemed friendly, and he could conclude from the leafy pelt surrounding its neck and sitting atop its back that it was a Grass-type Pokémon, and here had to have been at least a dozen of them roosting about in this ranch alone.

"Maah…" the Pokémon in front of Nate bleated cutely, and even gave the boy an affectionate lick on the hand when he held it out.

"Skiddo is usually very friendly towards humans," Pollux explained. "Some people can even take rides on them!"

The thought of riding a Pokémon around like a bicycle tempted Nate; he looked left and right, and saw nobody else around. Tentatively, he positioned himself beside the Skiddo, and raised one leg over, mounting the Pokémon's back. When he lowered to rest his full weight down, the Skiddo immediately gave a loud bleat of excitement and galloped wildly.

"Wh-whoa!" Nate instinctively took hold of its long, firm horns, tightly gripping them like handlebars to prevent himself from falling off. Skiddo didn't seem to mind; it was already content to run freely about the ranch's fields, giving the boy more than his fair share of scares by jumping seemingly insurmountable ledges, and charging towards the unfenced precipices leading to the sea, only to turn around to safety at the last second. Its frolicking had continued for several minutes, and by now Nate had his fill of excitement – and then some.

"…How do you stop this thing?!" Nate shouted.

Pollux tried to help by shooting his Moonblast attacks at the Grass Pokémon to slow it down, but the blasts of light didn't travel fast enough and missed, and there was no way of predicting where Skiddo would go next. Nate was grateful for that at least; as much as he wanted to get off safely, he was fairly certain that getting hit by a ball of light energy would not end well for him.

"Cotton Spore, ol' Jumpluff!"

Nate couldn't see who had just said that, but not long after, he could feel that the Skiddo had come to a quick stop, and upon dismounting, he could see why: the leafy Pokémon was now half buried in a thick bed of white fluff, unable to move its legs at all.

"Yeh've gotta be careful around them Skiddo, yeh know." That voice from before belonged to an old man in green, sporting suspenders and a worn-looking handkerchief around his neck. He was accompanied by a blue Pokémon that floated in the air, with balls of cotton for hands, which Nate recognized as Jumpluff, a Pokémon he had seen about no less than once or twice in Unova.

"Th-thank you." Nate was still a little dizzy from the ordeal.

Pulling out a large pair of shears which he wielded like scissors, the old man trimmed off the Cotton Spore that had held the Skiddo in place. Once it had trotted off to rejoin the rest of its kind within the ranch, the Jumpluff scooped up the remaining fluff and stuffed it into the tuft of cotton on its head.

"'Tweren't nothing," he replied to Nate. "Always happy to save the day for me dear little grandson."

"Grandson?!" Nate blurted out. He hadn't seen this man before as far as he could remember.

"That's right, m'boy! It's me, Grandpappy Ramos, don't yeh recognize me?" He gave the boy an affectionate pat on his head.

When Pollux approached to inspect Ramos, he was quickly picked up by the old man. "Well, well, if it isn't yer pet, Mr. Wiggles! Seems he's evolved, too!" The Sylveon tried to escape Ramos's grip, flailing ribbons every which way, but his age was of no hindrance to his ability to grasp a struggling Pokémon.

"Why don't yeh drop by me house, sprout?" Ramos ruffled at Nate's unkempt brown hair. "Last yeh told me, yeh've been wantin' to travel and see other regions. Yeh can tell me all about it over some tea and cookies."

Nate was admittedly quite touched by his kindness, but the boy had places to be, and there was little chance, if any, that he was actually Ramos's long-lost grandson. "Sorry, but I'm not-"

"Not hungry? Well, ain't that swell. But it'll be dark soon, so yeh best be comin' along with me."

Ramos didn't let go of Pollux, no matter how much the Sylveon had tried to break free, giving Nate no choice but to follow the old man to Coumarine City, a humble place bearing an impressive port where a few boats were docked. They all continued to walk through town, entering the train station, boarding the train to the other side of the city, until they came to a small cottage not too far from the city's Pokémon Center.

%%%

"Now, just make yerself at home, and I'll get the kettle boiling." Ramos finally put Pollux down on the floor and turned one chair to face the TV in the room, waiting for Nate to sit. Once Ramos was out of the room, Pollux quickly jumped into Nate's lap, using ribbons to press the boy's soft cheeks together.

"I don't know what this old man is up to, but I don't think I like him much."

"Alright, alright. We'll get outta here… as soon as this show is over," Nate answered, his eyes fixed on the TV screen; apparently, some of the cartoons he saw in Unova were also broadcasted in Kalos.

As soon as the end credits played, the Sylveon skipped over to the front door, pawing desperately at the surface. Nate then stood to his feet, and his fingers took hold of the doorknob. Opening the door, he was only a few steps out into the evening sky before a sharp voice called out from inside the house.

"WHAT'RE YEH DOIN', WHIPPERSNAP? I TOLD YEH, IT'S DANGEROUS TO BE OUT AT THIS HOUR!"

Ramos's Jumpluff, who had been keeping watch outside, launched a flurry of cotton balls which clung onto Nate and Pollux, trapping them in place and restricting their movement.

"Sorry I had to do that, but I can't have me grandson running 'bout when it's dark." Ramos dragged the cottony captives back inside, and locked the door before using his shears to snip them free of the binding fluff.

As lonesome as the man seemed, Nate knew he had to tell him the truth. "I'm not your grandson. I'm Nate!" he asserted, brushing some residual cotton out of his hair.

"You're late?" Ramos cupped one hand to his ear. "Late fer what?"

"No, my name is Nate!"

Ramos scratched at his balding head. "Your neighbor's neat? Well, that may be nice to hear, but we can visit him in the morning if yeh want. It's time fer bed."

He gently ushered the boy into a bedroom, which was decorated – or more accurately, overflowing – with Pokémon plush toys. Nate wasn't much of a plush enthusiast, but he was actually just a little jealous of this grandson's collection.

Watching a riveting documentary in the TV room, Ramos held Pollux in his lap as he sat, stroking the reluctant Sylveon's soft fur.

"Believe yeh me, somethin's just not quite the same with that boy," he mused to himself. "He used to be blond, last I could remember…"