A.S.107

June 24th

I got a free watch today. Tomorrow, I'll visit the memorial.

The best way to get over anger was to confront it and let all the steam out. Or so Dawn believed, because that method had worked for her after visiting the dojo about a hundred times to break that one stubborn board with her bare fist back in grade two when she had been taking martial arts.

Therefore, in order for Sekhmet to get over her anger with Starly in general, she'd have to simply find some more, win against them and let the grudge go. After, of course, Dawn gave her a lecture on how she had to curb her viciousness and not go psycho on every Starly because that might cause some serious trouble, but the lecture wouldn't be enough to let out all the frustrations.

The problem was, they didn't run into another Starly in the wild as they wandered around in the wild area around Sandgem for hours. Bidoof? Sure. Shinx? Absolutely – the males, especially, were razed to the ground at Sekhmet's mighty and terrifying leer as their rivalry sealed their own doom. And as the sun began to set, the Kricketot began to regret coming out as they were met and were defeated by a very frustrated Shinx.

But no Starly, not a single one. And without any of the other birds around Sekhmet grew moodier. She began lashing out at all the other wild Pokémon they ran into, diving in recklessly while Dawn tried to give commands. Neptune found this all rather funny and so wasn't much of a help in calming her down.

She contemplated throwing them all into the beach south of Sandgem, but that was opposite of the direction she wanted to go to. Not that she would allow herself to get to Jubilife without first getting her Pokémon under some semblance of order and control, but retracing steps and wasting her time to head all the way to the other side of Sandgem for the sake of visiting the beach seemed like a waste of time.

Especially if it was to throw her Pokémon into the ocean. Not when she'd worked so hard to finally get them.

In the last battle with another wild Shinx, Sekhmet was so enraged that she kept on missing her attacks while the other Shinx landed its own attacks with precise, careful hits. Eventually, Sekhmet fainted. Neptune finished the other Shinx off, and made sure she was safe while running back to Sandgem.

After being healed back from fainting for the second time that day, Sekhmet was a lot calmer. Perhaps she had realized that it wasn't quite right or nice to lash out at an entire species of – very common and numerous, might she add – Pokémon just because of a grudge against one member. Or perhaps she didn't want to revenge kill all of her own species.

Either way, she was calm now. And calm meant that she could fight without being volatile. Dawn had a talk with her that Neptune occasionally interjected comments into, and Sekhmet remained calm. They managed to get down one-third of Route 202, challenge and win against a female trainer before night fully fell.

While it was June and therefore warm enough to sleep outside with a sleeping bag, the thought of camping just on the borders of a town seemed rather ridiculous.

Also, while she was no stranger to 'roughing' it, thanks to being dragged along on Barry and Palmer and frequent camping trips, she wasn't a fan of outdoor sleeping. When she could, she would take the Pokémon Center's services.

"I'm not camping outside," Dawn said flatly, and her two Pokémon didn't disagree, so the three of them trudged through the darkness back to Sandgem where the nurse now knew them by sight.

She probably could have gone back to Twinleaf. It would have been a lot more comfortable there, sleeping in her own bed and all. But if she did, Dawn thought that the chances of her actually leaving might wither away as she made no progress at all. If she was doing this, she was going to do this properly.

"One badge," Dawn said to herself, making a promise. "At least get one badge before I visit home again."

Neptune poked at her leg with his flipper. Dawn guessed that he was telling her to sleep and stop keeping him awake. She turned the lights off and crawled into the thin sheets spread on the hard bed. It made her long for her warm home and soft bed, but she fell asleep soon enough, with Neptune and Sekhmet curling up against her for warmth.

Starting out early in the morning after an extra-long breakfast where she figured out how to get Pokémon to order things they were partial to, they got through Route 202 – with only one trainer challenging them – and set foot in Jubilife before noon. And somehow, in the biggest city in Sinnoh, they managed to run into a person they knew.

"Hey, Lucas," she waved when she saw the familiar bread-shaped hat of his.

"Dawn, good to see you again." He was less awkward with her now than he had been yesterday, but still very formal and business-like, especially business-like regarding the Pokédex. Maybe he wasn't much of a conversation person, and was defaulting on something they had in common in order to not let the chat fall into awkward silence and shuffling. "How many Pokémon have you caught?"

Well, between trying and failing to stop a mad Shinx out for what would most likely be considered war crimes against all Starly and a Piplup who found his teammate's genocidal attempts funny, one.

That was what she thought but didn't say. "One," she said. "Meet Sekhmet."

He waved politely at the Shinx, but turned his attention back to her. "You might want to catch some more," he recommended. "The more there are, the harder it gets to look after them all, but in the end they're all worth it-"

Sekhmet's facial expression turned irritated and before Dawn could stop her, the Shinx rammed her body into his leg. Lucas fell flat on his behind because of the impact. "Ahh!"

"Mespirit," Dawn groaned. Every trainer knew – or should know – the rule about captured Pokémon attacking humans. Unless they were extenuating circumstances, the Pokémon was treated as a criminal and could even be put down. "Are you okay? Sekhmet!"

"I'm fine," Lucas waved it off, apparently used to such physical treatment from his experience working with Pokémon at the lab. "Maybe she mistook what I said as me calling her weak and you needing 'more power'."

Dawn thought that what he said was a disturbingly good profile of her Pokémon. "What are you, the Pokémon whisperer?"

Sekhmet gave Lucas a leer and smirked when he flinched. "I'm just saying," he continued on. "It'll be hard to look after a lot of them for sure, but more Pokémon would mean that there's going to be that much more joy in your life."

"That's . . ." she thought before saying the next words. "Kind of cheesy."

Lucas deflated slightly. "Is it?"

"Yes. Very."

That had been an invitation to friendly teasing, but Lucas clearly didn't see or take it as such. "Oh. Well, in that case maybe you'd prefer studying about Pokémon instead. Have you been to Jubilife's trainer school?"

She had, but it had been around two years ago and her memory was a bit fuzzy, so being the concerned ally he was he offered to escort her there. Somehow, he managed to navigate through the tall buildings and busy streets to reach a familiar school with the Poké ball logo.

"This brings back both good and bad memories," she sighed, and then turned her head to make a face of confusion when Lucas jostled her.

"Sorry," he muttered even when it wasn't quite his fault. The blame lay in the hands of the man in the long brown trench coat who had bumped into him. "Hey – Mr. Looker?"

Brown trench coat guy froze in surprise. Then, said brown trench coat guy grabbed her and Lucas by their wrists and yanked them aside, to the small cramped space between the school building and a neighbouring establishment.

Sekhmet lunged towards the guy, but said guy simply evaded the charging tackle her Shinx threw at him. "Who are you?" he hissed to Lucas, but his eyes flitted to Dawn's direction as well. There was still daylight, and she saw his face clearly. His face was cleanly shaven, thin with a serious look. He couldn't have been too old – Dawn guessed maybe late twenties, early thirties at most – but he already had lines etched around his dark eyes and a few strands of white in his hair. The thickness of his eyebrows almost made the total effect comic, but his obvious seriousness right now offset that look pretty well.

"Er," Lucas raised his hands slightly in surrender. He glanced back at her and it was obvious that he regretted recognizing this guy. "I'm Lucas. One of the lab assistants at Professor Rowan's lab in Sandgem . . . ?" he let the sentence trail off into a question. After all, they were in an otherwise unoccupied alley with a stranger who seemed rather wary at best.

Luckily, that was enough for the guy Lucas had called 'Looker'. He relaxed, and his stern face turned quite a bit friendlier. "Ah," he said sheepishly. "I have not recognized you. My sincerest apologies, Lucas. I hope you can forgive me for the misunderstanding."

Now that he wasn't hissing, Dawn could tell that he spoke with a soft, lilting accent. Nothing too harsh or strong enough to distort and confuse the meaning of his words, but certainly present. Kalosian, maybe.

But as for what he was saying, well, Dawn was confused. "Umm . . . ."

Looker looked at her as well, curiosity clear. "And this is?"

Lucas made a snap decision. "This is Dawn. She's also one of Professor Rowan's assistants."

Which wasn't a lie, because the whole point on her journey was to help the professor's research out. The knowledge did startle her, though. Her, the Regional Pokémon Professor's assistant. He probably had scores of them –hundreds, more likely – but it was still quite a special kind of thought.

Looker made a few circles in the air with his right index finger. "We have not been acquainted?" he asked, and shook her hand. "A pleasure to meet you, Dawn."

"Same, er . . . ." Was Looker really his name? It was a weird one, for sure.

"He's a member of Interpol," Lucas told her at the same time Looker spoke. "Please, call me Looker."

The two guys stopped talking and looked at each other, Lucas with apologetic sheepishness, Looker with surprise. "I suppose there's no harm in telling one of Professor Rowan's assistants," Looker said slowly. "But please, Dawn – keep it a secret."

The best thing to do in a situation like this was probably to walk away and forget that she had heard anything.

She was curious, though. "You're Interpol," Dawn said.

Interpol. The International Police. A law-enforcing organization that existed beyond the boundaries set by regional pride and cultural differences, it was first conceived in the thoughts of Drake Aragon, Seventh Champion of Hoenn. A 'trial' version of the organization had been launched nearly a decade after Drake had introduced it under the name of the Global Police, but they had failed when war broke out with Orre. It was only in the Goldenrod Conferences that the bones of Drake's ideas were structured and laid out into what was the International Police. Interpol would – in theory – catch criminals that abused customs to 'get away with it' and be big enough to take on the big bosses.

So far, Interpol was working better than its predecessor. They hadn't done anything with Hoenn's situation a few years back, when the entire region had nearly broken out into civil war in the struggle between Team Magma and Team Aqua and had actually come close to being destroyed by awakened gods, but they had stepped in to help with Team Rocket in Kanto after the princess of the Sevii Islands and her fiancé had been threatened during the invasion of Saffron City.

Interpol was young, but beginning to carve out a niche in the world for themselves. It was working as well as a young organization in a rapidly changing world could.

The question was, what was an agent of Interpol doing in Jubilife, slumming around? Dawn doubted that he was on vacation – he wouldn't have introduced himself as International Police if that was so – and she couldn't think of any other reasons why he would decide to hang around Jubilife while still working, except that he was on some kind of duty. That much was obvious, from the way he had dragged the two of them into the alley to avoid being seen or overheard.

Dawn gestured, and Sekhmet returned near her feet. The Shinx didn't exactly play cuddly Skitty and rub her body against her booted ankles, but she did take a firm stance nearby. She had bonded pretty well to Dawn after seeing the benefits of being a trained Pokémon (such as food). "Is Looker your actual name?"

He shook his head. "A codename," he explained. "And it is better that way."

She wasn't going to argue. Instead, Dawn continued on. "What are you doing in Sinnoh? I thought the Interpol HQ was in the Ranger Union."

Looker studied her face, and Dawn had the feeling that he was committing it to memory. "Did the professor warn you about thieves?"

A bit taken aback at the question, Dawn shook her head to give the honest answer, even if she considered the question redundant. Who didn't know to be careful of thieves? "Hm," Looker said. "Well, then. I'm sure you've guessed, but I'm in Sinnoh on assignment. There have been . . . unsettling reports about a criminal organization in the region, stealing Pokémon and disobeying laws."

"A criminal organization?" There hadn't been anything like that in the news. Dawn leaned in to listen better. "Like Team Rocket and Magma?"

Looker gave a shrug of his trench-coat wearing shoulders. "I'm afraid that the investigation is still in the beginning stages," he said. "But these are heinous people, yes. Criminals that must be caught for the sake of society's safety."

Words she could wholeheartedly support and believe in. Dawn nodded, trying to encourage him to continue speaking.

Lucas shuffled on his feet. Looker caught the action and gave a friendly smile. "But it seems that I've been holding you both up!" he exclaimed. "Please, don't let me bother you. I shall simply be on my way, and let you continue on with your journeys. The golden ages of youth, after all, must not be wasted in the presence of a foolish one who should have spent his own times better."

He leaned slightly back from them, body already postured to be ready to leave the two of them. "May I request that you pretend to not recognize me," he said lightly, "should our paths cross once more? I must be vigilant while on duty, you understand . . . ."

Looker was ready to flee the scene any second now. "What if we see some suspicious people?" Dawn asked him, hoping to make him continue.

The tall man gave her a polite smile. "Then, first, please alert the local police," he said. "But," he added when he saw the disappointed look on her face. "Should I happen to be present, then please."

It wasn't like she knew how to contact him or anything – of course it would be when he was nearby. Dawn just nodded and gave him a bright smile, and then he was on his own way.

Dawn and Lucas stepped back into the well-lit city again, and watched until the brown trench coat disappeared into the waves of moving people. "Interpol, huh?" Dawn asked Lucas.

He kicked at a pebble absent-mindedly. "He came in to meet the professor one day. They talked for a long time in his office before Professor Rowan introduced him to everyone at the lab and had him talk about how to act when faced with criminals after research information."

A security talk? That didn't seem like what Interpol did. Sure, Professor Rowan was an important person and Sinnoh's Pokémon Professor, but his safety, as well as the security of his research should have lain in the hands of the Sinnoh League. "What did he say you should do?" she asked, interest even more peaked now. There had been a time when she had dreamed of joining Interpol, chasing down bad guys and crushing them before they could hurt people. It had been when she had been eleven years old, beginning to realize that her dreams of becoming Champion might not be possible and a backup plan had to be made.

Barry had snapped her out of that slight depression, of course, with his bravado. There had always been something about her blond friend that made his very presence energizing. Just listening to his bold talks and loud voice made Dawn feel stronger and surer in her own mind. Her plan, her path was all through the same road. Champion – and then, the backup plan was Elite Four or Gym Leader, just like Blue Oak of Kanto. She knew she could accomplish it.

Lucas adjusted his hat. "Just that we shouldn't incense any people trying to threaten us and always try talking. You know, 'I don't want to hurt you but I will if I have to'. Agent Looker said that the people that might bother us will mostly be cowards, and when they don't see any fear from intimidation attempts they'll get scared themselves and leave us alone."

So someone was after the professor's research?

"Probably," Lucas admitted when she asked. Now, the two of them were in the school. Barry had indeed signed in at the guest trainer log, so they were making their way down to the drop-in classroom. Hopefully he was still here. "Which is why most of us don't actually carry around any important papers, files or drives unless we absolutely have to. Here we are."

He didn't come with her, and excused himself to work on tagging the local Pokémon. "Good luck on your journey," he said as a farewell.

Dawn wished him something similar, and then she grinned when she caught the sight of the light blond hair that defied every rule of hair in unwritten existence.

Barry stood at the front of the classroom filled with uneven desk rows and lounging trainers. He was staring at the board with enough concentration to bore two holes with the sheer force of his eyes alone. That was just how he was. In things he considered trivial or boring he couldn't give a second's worth of focus for, but for important, interesting things he could go on for hours without budging a muscle.

"Barry!" she called from the back of the room in a volume just a notch above the inside voice level. Not like anyone here cared – they were just hanging around, playing cards or trading items.

He whipped his head back with a mirrored grin. "Yo, Dawn!"

She knew just by the way he was grinning that he was proud of something. When she got closer he practically stabbed the blackboard filled with neatly written explanations about statuses with his finger. "I memorized everything on this board," he bragged. "Just quiz me if you don't believe me; I'll get it all right."

"I believe you," Dawn said.

"Mm-hm," Barry swaggered slightly. "After all, it's a trainer's job to make sure their precious Pokémon aren't hurt in battle. And that's what I am – a trainer."

"A good one," she added for his sake.

"A good one," he agreed before finally remembering his manners. "So, what brings you here?"

"Excellent question." Dawn dug through her bag and pulled out a slightly rumpled package. "Your mom told me to give this to you when I saw you."

"Mom? Why didn't she give this to me when I was at home?"

Dawn snickered. "Because you ran out before she could say anything."

"Oh. So what is this, anyways?" easily distracted as usual, Barry tore the package open and took out two books. He flipped through the pages, finding illustrations on routes, cities and towns. "Hey, it's a map of Sinnoh!"

Dawn touched her pocket, feeling her own worn and battered copy that she constantly consulted whenever she planned out her journey. Hers was just a single page, showing the basic outline of the region.

Barry glanced at her, and then he shoved his hand into her coat pocket – "Hey!" – and yanked it out. It ripped slightly, the creases that had been folded and refolded countless times too frail to last under his rough treatment. "Hey!" she protested again.

"Man, Dawn," he said. "What are you going to do with a map like this? You're going to get lost in the first three seconds."

"Will not," she grumbled, but she knew he was right. She had no sense of direction whatsoever.

Barry handed her one of his books. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to.

"You sure?" she asked him even as she took it.

"I have two," he shrugged. "And you probably need it more than I do."

Which was true. Even when she had been the caretaker of the two, he had always been the one to keep track of directions and locations. Perhaps this was why Aunt Margaret had given him two, so he could give her one.

Barry flipped a few pages through his map before he stopped on Oreburgh. "That's my next location," he said, yanking the straps of his backpack onto his shoulder. "See ya."

"You're leaving?" she asked.

"Well, sure," he shrugged. "My first gym badge is waiting for me there. Can't keep it waiting too long, you know? Want to come with?"

A tempting offer, but Dawn had to decline. "I'm going to train a bit further," she explained.

Barry rubbed his chin, just like his father did. "If you're going to stay," he said, "then you should battle the trainers here. Get stronger and all, you hear? Otherwise, you're not a rival fit for me."

Dawn raised both her eyebrows, unable to raise only one. "Who won the battle we had?"

"That was a fluke!" he screeched. "I'll win next time, you hear?"

Same old Barry. She smirked at him. "Sure. Good luck on your badge."

"Same. Okay, see ya!"

And then a blond streak shot through the door and he was gone.

Since both Lucas and Barry had advised that she give the school a post-trainerdom whirl, she stuck around. When she took a pop quiz on statuses and found that she knew everything, the teacher – who had finally slunk inside to check on one-day trainers – suggested that she battle some of the kids in the regular class who had yet to start their journey. The students there were obviously eager to try out tactics and battle items in actual battle, and she found it a nice way of training not only Sekhmet and Neptune, but also herself so she would get used to being in trainer battles, even if they were simple ones.

"You're strong," the girl with the Bidoof said, recalling her fainted Pokémon. Next to her, the boy with the Starly nodded. "Even with the X Attack . . . ."

Dawn shrugged. "It's only because we managed to knock you out before you could fully use your item," she said, patting Neptune and trying to make him a more humble winner.

Sekhmet licked her paw and grinned.

Both of them didn't really need to be healed, but just in case Dawn dropped by the center. "Behave," she warned them as they were recalled. The nurse smiled at that as she took them away on a tray.

After a ten minute wait, Neptune and Sekhmet were as good as new. "Let's get going, then," she told them. "I think we have about three more hours before the sun sets, and –"

And she wanted to get a bit more training done before night fell, but she never got around to saying it out loud. "You think you have about three more hours?!"

At the outraged squawk, Dawn stumbled in shock.

A chubby man with a rather cool set of mustachios stomped her way. "Child," he said to her. "Do you mean to say that you don't have the time on you?"

"Umm . . . ."

Mustachio-man grabbed her hands and checked her wrists, bare of everything except a bracelet of stone beads, with a glare to shame an angry Staraptor. "I say, I say!" he said. "This is most unusual."

"What's most unusual?" she asked when he released her hands – with a flair that suggested disgust, to add. She washed her hands and applied lotion to them regularly, and didn't find them disgusting to the point of offense. In fact, she didn't find them disgusting at all.

"You are a trainer, yes?"

Dawn looked down at the two Pokémon with her. What possibly gave her away? "Yes."

"Yet you have no Pokétch!" he boomed in her face, the whites of his eyes visible due to his rage. "A Pokémon trainer without a Pokétch is like pasta without sauce! Like candy without sugar! Like . . . like . . ."

"Peanut butter without jelly?"

"Precisely!" Dawn flinched when a fleck of spit landed on her cheek and discreetly tried to wipe it away with the edge of her coat's sleeve. Too absorbed in his dramatics, mustachio-man didn't notice. "I assume, my dear, that you do know what a Pokétch is?"

"Yes," she felt like she needed to add something, to be polite. "The ads are cool."

"Ah, yes, the commercials. I directed them myself – but that is not the point! A trainer without a Pokétch!" he took in a deep, rattling breath before letting it all out in a furious bellow. "This is an outrage! A gross error of the cruel universe! And," he dropped his voice. "It must be fixed."

Dawn tried to break it down to him gently. "I'd buy one if I could, but they're kind of expensive and I'd rather hold my funds back so I can help my Pokémon."

Not a lie. She would rather use money she had for the sake of her Pokémon rather than a fancy wristwatch. Her mother could always get her one, as could the rest of the family, but Dawn wasn't partial to the idea of her family bankrolling her through. Neither was Johanna, nor the Steele family, famous for not bankrolling their training family members through everything. To even start thinking about getting the Steele monetary support behind her she'd have to earn six badges.

"No need for money, my dear! There is a week-long campaign going on in Jubilife right this moment! As the president of the company that created the Pokétch, I extend my heartfelt invitations for you to join! In fact, I insist that you partake in it!"

Which was how she ended up on a manhunt for clowns. "Why clowns?" she asked her Pokémon as they wandered down the streets of Jubilife. "I mean, sure, they stick out, but why clowns? Why not people in Pokémon cosplay or something?"

Luckily, she didn't have the clown phobia and didn't fear any harlequin, even when they were dressed in a gross shade of yellow like the one that stood next to the mart. "Hello, hello, you found me!" the clown, sounding much like mustachio-head-corp to her. "Before I give you the coupon, you must correctly answer a question! When Pokémon fight and win a battle, they get experience. True or false?"

"True."

"AB-SO-LUTELY CORRECT!" he bellowed and she flinched as, for the second time that day, someone's spittle fell on her cheek. "Have a coupon!"

She only read what was on it after there was a safe distance of five buildings between her and the loud clown. "Coupon One," she read aloud. "Two more to go."

The next clown was in front of the Jubilife TV station, juggling a few Poké balls. "Oh, hi!" he smiled at her, which proved to be a mistake as several of them fell onto his head. Onlookers laughed while he chuckled sheepishly. "Guess that was a mistake," he said as Dawn helped him collect them. "So, you here for the promo event?"

"Yes. Already have one coupon."

"Great. Here's my quiz for you. Can Pokémon hold items?"

"They can." To verify her answer she tossed a Poké ball at Neptune, who caught it easily and spun it on the tip of his beak to show off. A small girl clapped as she and her parents walked by.

"Wasn't quite what I was going for, but works for me," the clown handed her a coupon.

"Thank you."

As she walked away, Dawn flipped the coupon to read . . . "Coupon Three?"

She must have missed a clown somewhere between. Dawn doubled back with Neptune and Sekhmet a few times before a flash of the gross yellow caught her eyes. Going to the western part of the city, she found the third – or second – harlequin in front of the company, munching on a hot dog while rummaging through a rather cool Crobatman lunchbox. "Oh hi," he said when he noticed her standing there with the coupons in her hand. "Here for the campaign, I see."

Dawn realized that she was witnessing someone ditch work for lunch. Normally she would have reprimanded or at least reported him discreetly, but . . . .

That Crobatman lunchbox. Someone who loved Crobatman even in his adulthood couldn't possibly be a bad person. "Yes."

"Okay," he dusted the area around his painted mouth carefully with a napkin before pulling a cue card out from behind her ear. "Moves," he read aloud, "not just Pokémon, have types assigned to them as well. True or false?"

. . . This wasn't a campaign so much as it was a free giveaway of Pokétches. Not that she was complaining. "True."

"Yup. Here you go."

"Thank you," she said and took Coupon Two. "Nice Crobatman lunchbox."

He didn't take it as a sarcastic jibe, and instead smiled at the sincere compliment. "Thanks. It's a limited edition."

She nodded in return, but found nothing else to really say. And then, feeling rather awkward, she fled the area and hastily returned to the company's owner, who, true to his promise, was standing exactly where he had been earlier on.

"Are those the coupons?" he seized them from her hands. "Let me count them using the app on my Pokétch. One, two, three . . . ."

Either he was showing off the functions of his watch, or he was really bad at math. Dawn watched as he furrowed his brows in thought before snapping his fingers. "That's right! Congratulations, you just won yourself a free Pokétch!"

"Thank you," she said as she accepted the pink box the head had pulled out from a digital storage key.

"Enjoy!"

While shopping for supplies, she checked out her new watch's applications. A digital clock, a calculator, a step counter, an email and a status checker for her party Pokémon that she synchronized to her Poké balls immediately. Pretty decent and useful.

"Seems like we saved ourselves some money," Dawn told the two Pokémon that appeared as perfectly healthy on the status app. But the items she could buy were still restricted by badge count (zero), and the shops didn't have anything in her price range. The day was still young – still time to look for trainers willing to battle.

They saw that Looker was drifting around the east of the city, towards Route 203, so they avoided that area and opted for the northern Route 204.

It wasn't a bad experience. Sekhmet took down five wild Starly and one that belonged to a trainer without once losing her temper – although the aggression was still there – and learned how to use charge. When they tried the electric converter, it worked perfectly.

Neptune, not to be outdone or outshone, pounded and bubbled away everything including the grass-type Budew some of the trainers used. He also made himself learn water sport.

"You know, friendly competition's good and everything but you're supposed to be on the same team," she reminded them as they headed back after filling Neptune's Poké ball from a pond. With the sheer size of Jubilife, she guessed that the center would be booked full if they didn't go early.

They were too tired to argue. Dawn returned them and hurried to the center so they could be healed.

"We'll head out towards Oreburgh tomorrow," she promised them in their room. "I think we're ready for our first gym challenge."

And then she remembered. "Oh. Wait. Before we head out to Route 203, we just need to drop by somewhere first."

At their inquiring looks she gave them a sad smile. "It's something that you two should really know, since we're going to be together for a long journey."

For the rest of the night, she alternated between texting Lyra on her new watch through the email app and laughing at the comedy show playing on TV in the waiting room.

The next morning, their final stop in Jubilife City was the memorial.

She really should have come here in the first place, but she had been trying to delay it. It was one thing to visit a gravestone, another thing entirely to go to the site of death. It was bad enough seeing it everywhere, every year around a certain time. The video of the Global Trade Station being destroyed by far too many explosions, taking lives of over a thousand gone in flames of fanatics had been filmed at this very site.

Dawn thought she could hear the screams of the dying and shook her head to clear it.

Neptune and Sekhmet must have sensed some shift in her emotion as the three of them approached, because they fell into a respectful silence. She appreciated that.

Dawn laid the soda she had bought earlier on in front of the memorial, next to a few roses and some other flower she didn't know the name of. There were always flowers or offerings here, even in the winter. No one wanted to forget the victims, or let their spirits sit in abandoned silence. No one wanted to forget.

But they buried the memory of the days before this away, and they hid. They let the bullies win. Dawn scowled at the hypocrisy of 'never forgetting'. "Do you know the story of the 11/9 attack?" she asked, not expecting them to.

Her Pokémon shook their heads. "Well," she said slowly, thinking over her words. "There was . . . There were people who didn't agree with what choices the Champion was making. So to make a point, they brought a lot of Pokémon and made the building he and his friends were in explode."

That didn't come even close to properly explaining just what had happened, but she couldn't go into detail, not in front of the obelisk, and not here. It wasn't fair to retell the reason why all these innocent people had lost their lives like she was reciting a history paper at the sight of their death.

"This was the Global Trade Station," she said. "It's where people traded Pokémon with other people in different regions before the trade system was made easier to access. They dealt with other things, too. Stocks, banking and all that."

She knew where the one particular name was. Fifth column, twenty-seventh row, golden script on black marble. A bit too far for her to be able to see from below, but she knew where it was.

"They made the Global Terminal to replace it – it's down a few blocks from here – because even when bad things happen in life, trades still need to be made and money still needs to be dealt with."

Because even when sad things, even when bad things happened, the world went on spinning and living.

Her Pokémon fidgeted. Sekhmet got closer without a treat being offered and butted her head against Dawn's leg. Neptune patted the top of her foot.

Years ago when the pain was fresh and she was a child, when someone who didn't know asked what her father did for a living, she would freeze up before bursting into tears. Now the wound was healed, not as sore and fresh. It still hurt, but it wasn't a crippling pain. "My dad was working in the Global Trade Station when they – the disagreeing people – set off the explosion."

It wasn't a crippling pain anymore. It was part of a motive, a drive that kept her going. A fire burning to add to her ambition.

Dawn patted her Pokémon on their heads. "I'm telling you this for a reason," she said quietly, but her voice was strong. Good. "On this journey, we're partners. I won't say we're friends yet – I'd like to be, but friendship takes time to be strong and permanent. We'll get there later if I have something to say about it, but right now, we're partners."

Her two Pokémon, both just as ambitious as she was, looked straight back at her with clear eyes. The two of them both knew what she was saying to them. They understood her words perfectly. "This means that we can trust each other with our backs, alright? It may be hard for the two of you to trust me, but know that I trust you, and that I'll have your backs no matter what."

Sekhmet lightly head-butted Dawn's hand. It wasn't rejection, but rather a one-sided high five of a sort. Neptune took one of her hands with his downy flipper and shook.

Dawn stood up and gave one last look to the memorial. "Good. Let's get going, then."

It might have been her imagination, but she felt like their support of her was a lot stronger now than it had been before.

Looker was no longer around Route 203, so she assumed that she was allowed to pass. A short way down, she saw Barry, who was just taking something from a grumbling trainer. "Hey!" she called, and jogged up to him. Neptune recognized him, and began to explain to Sekhmet just who the blond kid was in Pokémon speech as she hadn't met him before.

He waved back and bounced impatiently on his toes. "You're late, as usual," he sighed. "You better have gotten tougher!"

"I could say the same for you," she countered. "Seeing as we beat you the last time, I'm going to be disappointed if you didn't get even a little stronger."

"Of course we did!" he yanked his sleeves up roughly. "And I'll demonstrate, too! Go, Starling!"

Dawn sent a mental prayer up to Mespirit when she saw his Starly. That was a big Starly.

If Sekhmet had really gotten her grudge against the birds settled, she wouldn't react to the large bird. If she hadn't and went into berserk mode again, Dawn would return her before going back to work on her in the routes around Jubilife. "Sekhmet," she said, "let's see if you have your anger under control."

Her little Shinx didn't go into crazy mode, but her intimidate was still enough to make Starling cower. "Thank Mespirit," she muttered, and then raised her voice. "Tackle!"

"Hey, no fair!" Barry protested when Starling fell with a single blow to the neck, having been too shaken to properly protect his vital regions. "I wasn't ready!"

"Sorry," she said, not quite apologetic. It wasn't a formal battle between the two of them, and he was the one always nagging her about not being on top of things. This was his fault. And knowing him, he'd recover.

Like she predicted, Barry shook it off. "Alright then, trusty buddy! Go, Champ!"

The Turtwig bound out happily. When he recognized her and Neptune, he gave a little wave with his stumpy leg before falling over due to losing his balance. "Hey, little guy," she said. "So you named him Champ?"

"Yeah! Because we're going to be the toughest ever! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!"

"You'll have to beat us first!" But her mind was going into overdrive even as she said this playfully. Grass had an advantage over water. Did Champ know any grass-type moves?

She remembered how Champ had withstood so many attacks with ease during their first battle. He had a high defense.

And Sekhmet could solve that problem easily with a move right up her alley. "Can you keep going?" she asked the Shinx, who yowled. "Then let's do this! Leer!"

Champ flinched at the fearsome look on Sekhmet's face. "Quick!" Barry ordered. "Counter it with withdraw!"

Dawn, a bit taken back, had to recover quickly. "Keep leering at him!"

"Cover your defenses! Withdraw, withdraw, withdraw!"

Barry was . . . surprisingly patient. Whenever Champ tried to peer out of his shell and look for an opportunity to attack, Sekhmet's eyes were there to glower. This was only countered by the constant withdrawal and rearranging of limbs within the shell to cover the drops in defense.

Sekhmet was getting impatient. And, judging by the way her leers grew more and more murderous, she was getting outraged. Finally, she leapt forwards and tackled the shell Champ was hiding in.

"Heh," Barry smirked and Dawn did a double take. Had he actually based a strategy on this? He didn't know her Pokémon, but he had actually managed to stay patient enough until Sekmet's limited amount had run out.

. . . Or he could just be happy that he had an edge. She was looking at it too closely, when she needed to be quick on her feet.

Barry snapped his fingers. "Champ, let's move to the offensive as well!"

The Turtwig kept most of his body within his shell, but used his two rear legs to propel his entire weight into a leaping Sekhmet's stomach. When she got to her feet again and tried to jump him, he hastily pulled his legs back in.

It wasn't another struggle for defense. Not when Sekhmet was too incensed to listen to orders. She charged recklessly and was hit with strategic tackles. When she shook too much on her feet, Dawn called her back. "Time! Potion break!"

She pulled a spray bottle out of her bag's item storage and gave Sekhmet's entire body a good spray. "Don't overdo it," she warned the electric type that was squirming in her hold, ready to go out and battle again. "I don't want you to get too hurt."

Dawn wasn't sure if Sekhmet had even heard. The Shinx had gone right back to glaring at Champ, who stood looking like he could go on for the rest of the day. Sekhmet leapt right back in.

"Alright, I think that's enough withdrawals," Barry sighed. "Tackle barrage!"

Champ was slow. His bulk, while amazing in defense, did cost him in speed. But he was pretty strong. Soon Sekhmet looked just as battered as she had before the potion.

This gave Dawn two choices. One was to recall her and use Neptune while Sekhmet was healed to freshen her up, and the other was to let her fight until she was knocked out.

Sekhmet obviously wanted to go down fighting, but Dawn still didn't know whether Champ knew any grass type moves or not. And if Sekhmet was out, Neptune would be nothing but fodder for grass based attacks. She needed to keep Sekhmet in reserve.

"Return! Neptune, go buddy!"

Barry grinned. "Tackle!"

"Bubble, then pound him when he's near!"

It turned out that Dawn was lucky in two ways. Champ had not learnt any grass-type moves and he had been significantly worn out by Sekhmet before she had been switched out. Neptune managed to knock him out with a pound that hit a critical spot after hiding behind a bubble attack. "Whoo!" she cheered, jumping up and down before picking up Neptune and Sekhmet. "We won! Yeah! Go, Team Dawn! Go Sekhmet! Go Neptune!"

"Whaaat?" Barry gawked, quickly returning Champ. "I lost again? No way!"

"Yes way!" she crowed.

"Well, that's it!" he clenched his hands into fists and raised them into the air. "That's the last time I lose! And then I'll be the world's toughest trainer!"

"No, I will!"

"No, me!"

"No, me!"

After the fake trash-talk, bravado banter, they ran to the Pokémon Center and had everyone healed up. "I'm going to have to challenge the Oreburgh gym to toughen up," he said when he received Champ and Starling from the receptionist.

Dawn shot him a look. "After all that talk about me being slow, you're telling me you haven't even challenged the gym yet?"

"Hey, I was getting to know Starling better," he protested.

"Hey."

Sekhmet scratched the back of her neck with the star on her tail. "What?" she asked the bird that had just fluttered down onto the ground next to her. Neptune was with Champ on the other side of their trainers, apparently chatting. She supposed she should follow his example. It appeared that her girl was a close friend to the blond boy. Not close in the sense like a mate, but something like a fellow member of the pack. If they were close, then she would see the bird a lot.

"I just wanted to say that was a good battle," he said.

She eyed him. "And?"

"Does there always have to be an 'and'?" Starling asked. When she continued to give him an unimpressed look, he sighed and continued. "But I'm going to beat you next time."

Sekhmet snorted and stretched her front legs. This bird was under high delusions. "Bloody unlikely," she told him frankly.

Starling bristled. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you're not going to beat me, of course," she replied calmly. This bird had been stronger than the one that had knocked her out a few days ago, and yet she had won against him. Now that she was strong enough, there was no need for her to defeat his kind to avenge the humiliation she had felt for being knocked out by a creature that was supposed to be weak to her. "I am lightning. You are a bird. I will always be stronger than you."

"Oh yeah?" Starling fluffed up. Sekhmet shot him a glare that had him flinch.

"Yes."

The two older members of the teams were also having a conversation, but they weren't building rivalries like the other two. Rather, they were getting reacquainted now that they weren't in the too-clean building that had reeked of sanitizer.

"How's training treating you?" Champ was a very relaxed Pokémon. Neptune had noticed that about the Turtwig, back when they had lived in the lab and he hadn't been called Neptune. Before Dawn, as the time could be called.

"Good," he replied, stretching a flipper. He fancied that the earlier pound had left a ghost of a pain on it. He could get through it, easily. "The girl's pretty smart, even if she's weird. I suppose I'm fortunate." She was likeable enough to earn his help, anyways.

"Yeah, I feel the same about mine. He's loud and runs fast, but he always makes sure that I'm with him." Champ shook his head. "Wonder how she's doing."

There was only one female he'd be referring to in his presence. "The Chimchar?" Neptune dug for a memory. "Heard she goes by the name Charlotte now." Or something like that. He was pretty sure it was Charlotte, though. She had been proud of it when they had met again a few days ago, just as proud of the fact that she was on her trainer's shoulder.

Bah. His name was one of a powerful deity's, and it was his job, his sacred duty to protect his trainer because she needed help and power standing behind her. He couldn't do that if she was carrying him around like some baby. He needed to hurry and evolve into a Prinplup, and then an Empoleon. He'd been stuck in this tiny, baby like form – and the lab – for far too long now, and didn't want to stay a Piplup for any longer than he had to. Cuddling in public was degrading and adding to the humiliation, and his trainer understood that fine even if she was a girl. Chimchar – Charlotte – apparently didn't.

"Weird name. Maybe it's because she's a girl."

"Maybe," Neptune agreed, pleased that his friend had followed his path of thought. "The assistant boy always did like her more than us."

"His loss," Champ shrugged. "Our gain."

Some hissing from his teammate's direction had him look over, where Sekhmet was leering at Starling. "She's going to be a handful when she learns electric attacks," he grumbled.

"Never had to worry about that," Champ sniffed, lying down on the ground and making himself comfortable. "Probably never will."

AN: When Lucas was demonstrating how to catch a Pokémon, he had a female Chimchar (and I was all WTF man). Later, during the tag team battle against the grunts, the game forgot and made her male. I decided to write her as female for the whole story because it was cool that the NPC default got a female starter.

Global Police: For those of you who played FRLG, on the S.S. Anne there's a gentleman who refers to himself as a member of the Global Police. The timeline was changed so that the Global Police was like the predecessor to Interpol. I based the succession and the concept off of the creation (and failure and subsequent replacement) of the League of Nations.