"Wow. Big." Alexa and Markus were rendered almost speechless by Sinnoh's largest metropolis. Rising over the surrounding ring of forest, the city itself was dwarfed by trees itself. A few absolutely gigantic conifers rose like sentinels above the highest buildings of the city.
"I know. Aren't those the most amazing trees?" Daniel asked, entirely missing the point. "Apparently they were planted when the city was first built."
Alexa just walked away towards the city's outskirts. Markus stayed on the top of the narrow hill that marked the farthest boundaries of the metropolis. "The amount of life in there feels like standing outside an open oven," he said to the general surroundings. He'd never been anywhere near this number of people. The ridiculous concentration of humanity was like a strong wind.
Daniel sighed and lead Markus farther in. "That's just the city's microclimate," he explained. "Due to the concentration of warm bodies, lights, tall buildings, and little organic material, large cities often produce temperatures considerably above the average in the surrounding area."
"No, I don't think that's it." Markus frowned. "You haven't noticed any difference."
"Are we going to get to the city or not?" Alexa called from up ahead. "You two Slowpoke are going to leave us in the wilderness at night." Markus couldn't see why; the sun wasn't yet set.
"Speaking of Slowpoke." Daniel pulled out Torch's Poké Ball and tapped the monkey on the nose. "With the number of mobile beings in the city, ordinances require us to keep most Pokémon contained so they don't get themselves stepped on." Or overcrowd an already crowded area with any number of terrible hazards.
Alexa took a peek upwards at the looming buildings. Rather like the trees to the south of Twinleaf, they looked rude and reclusive rather than the inviting life of Lake Verity's surrounding wilderness. "I can see why that would be a good idea," she pointed out, poking Iceberg with his Poké Ball and pulling out one of Daniel's extras for Shinx. Markus did the same for Gymno and Bidoof.
Daniel noticed Alexa's discomfort at the wall of gray stone. "Don't be overwhelmed by the edge of the city," he warned her. "These buildings were built when modern settlement of Sinnoh first occurred, and they're meant for function rather than form."
"Isn't that what cities are meant for?" Alexa responded. From her perspective, living in close proximity to so many other humans could have only one purpose: saving space.
Markus was staring at the ground at the foot of the building. "This was made from the mountain that used to be here?" he asked. Daniel nodded and started to move into a lane opening to the Sandgem Road. "How come it's not totally overcome by plants?" Markus pointed out.
Daniel, bored, simply called an answer behind him. "Magic!"
"Do you get the impression that Daniel might possibly maybe be bored of talking?" Alexa said innocently.
"Well, around someone as gloriously uninterested as you, that's not very difficult," Markus retorted.
"Yeah, very funny. Now we'd better catch up to the guide before he disappears in a convenient crowd." Alexa was fully and completely aware of what happened on adventures when a large city was involved.
The Jubilife City 'roads' were mostly wide walkways between buildings, with the exception of the four roads, one from each of the cardinal directions, which continued the routes coming from other cities. From the Southern entrance, the road to Sandgem Town slid between residential buildings to the wide-open space through the ring of buildings. Some few storefronts peeked over wide lawns and around the elaborately constructed company centres. With no need for office buildings – the workforce of Jubilife used a Cloud system between small computers – each commercial building was elegant and graceful, each being used only for administration and memory banks.
At the very heart of the city, which Daniel made a beeline for, followed by his two charges, a gently sloping hill rose through parkland and meandering pathways to a grove of the biggest trees Alexa and Markus had ever seen.
Both had gawped their way up the road to the park, but now, staring up at the forest giants, their awe peaked. "Are these real?" Markus asked slowly.
"As much as it doesn't appear so, they are," Daniel confirmed. "Giant redwood trees from the near coast of the East Continent."
Alexa peered closer. She could see activity in some of the boughs. After a moment of disbelief, she snorted. "There are apartments in the branches."
Daniel launched into an explanation. Apparently, some trainers liked the different environments for some reason that could probably have involved smaller words, so each city had an area that catered to the wildly varying needs of most trainers. "And seeing sunset from the treetops is the most amazing thing," Daniel gushed after some long expositing. "On a clear day, it's possible to see the Shield."
Both Alexa and Markus stared at him, glassy-eyed.
Another voice from farther away brought the two out of their stupor as Daniel sighed. "Don't mind Danny. You get used to his blabbing after a while." A woman walked up from inside the circle of trees. She wore casual clothes and had a couple of Poké Balls on her waistband, but her somewhat freakishly elaborate purple hairstyle and ornate makeup marked her as other than normal.
"Veronica, how are you?" Daniel asked courteously. "And for your information, I do not blab. I describe."
Veronica rolled her eyes. "Of course you do, honey," she agreed noncommittally. "Which is the terrifying part: you're actually saying something with all those big words.
"I am fine, my darling," she continued, "and I trust that you're having a wonderful time at the beck and call of the professor?" Veronica took great pleasure in imitating Daniel's formal speech whenever possible.
Daniel shrugged eloquently. "There are places I would rather be, but Rowan's assistant is hardly the worst situation I could foresee." Veronica chortled at 'foresee.' Foresight was a common skill among Psychic trainers, one which Daniel showed no sign of possessing, which caused no end of mirth for his contemporaries.
"Now, Veronica, I happen to know that the trainer house is one of the last places you can be found on a broadcasting day. What could Jubilife City's top trainer want with the visiting Owners?" Daniel, as usual, had seen what Veronica wanted spot on.
Before she could reply, Markus interrupted. "Oh my gosh it's Vee," he gushed. Veronica, the leader of all the powerful Owners in Jubilife, filmed the news for the entire region and had various other celebrity appearances. While not on the same teen idol status as Daniel, Veronica was much loved by much of the populace by her stage name, Vee.
She seemed happy to see Markus. "Oh, it's always lovely to meet a fan," she told him graciously. Then she turned back to Daniel and got back on topic. "I was hoping that I'd see someone capable of taking over something important for me," she said tartly. "I wasn't likely to find anyone in there," she pointed back to the trainer house with a thumb over one shoulder, "but thankfully, you're here to pick up the slack." Without further ado, she grabbed Daniel by the arm and dragged him away from the others.
Alexa gave Markus a mock sad face. "You can't expect them all to want to talk to you," she said in a falsely sympathetic voice.
As soon as Alexa and Markus were out of earshot, Daniel snatched his arm from Veronica's grasp. "What was that for?" he asked, hurt. He hated having people touch him.
"Don't play dumb, honey, it doesn't suit you," Veronica remonstrated him. "And anyway, you're such a twig that dragging you is like carrying a Gastly." Veronica popped a Poké Ball off of her belt and released her Musharna.
"All joking aside, we've got a teensy little bit of a gigantic issue lately," Veronica pointed at a diagram Muun was apparently projecting onto the air. Daniel knew better. The projections of a psychic Pokémon were entirely figments of the viewer's imagination, though it could be guided to produce fairly specific imagery.
Of course, some Pokémon couldn't produce a coherent image to save their lives. "Am I supposed to be looking at a ring of pink with bunches of red polka dots?" asked a bemused Daniel, blinking a few times to see if that changed the projection.
"Yes. Now shut up, honey, and I won't keep you long." A disapproving glare. Daniel smiled benignly and shrugged, backing away a bit to see the whole image easily. Veronica pointed at the diagram again. "This ring is the residential area of Jubilife City, and each red dot is a reported Pokémon theft since the last League meeting." There were red spots scattered haphazardly throughout the city, and a troubling number of them.
Daniel, not trusting his first impression, counted up the spots quickly. "That's over a hundred thefts in forty days, Veronica," he pointed out in a flat monotone. "It's not possible."
"That's what I thought, until I started posting watchers all over the city," the newscaster detailed a few points on the major thoroughfares, and Muun obligingly produced a scattering of green patterns to denote the route of each patrol. The projection now looked like a spastically decorated doughnut. "They told me that a vast number of very brazen criminals with some very powerful Pokémon sneak around the city at night, stealing Pokémon from any facility not locked up totally airtight." Obviously it frustrated Veronica very much, as she pouted at the image and jabbed several of the red points with a long fingernail. Muun made an exasperated grunting sound at his dramatic Trainer.
"So what's your course of action?" Now that they had gotten down to the actual problem, Daniel was all business. "We were warned about the crime rate at the meeting, so you should have had a contingency strategy fully prepared."
Veronica frowned again. "Since when do I ever have anything ready on time?" She pursed her lips. "And even if I had been fully prepared, trainers able to deal with those Pokémon don't just grow like daisies."
"How strong are we talking?" Daniel looked intrigued now. As always, the opponent's power was the clincher of any deal for him.
Veronica pulled out her videocam. "Here." With a lazy action, she tossed it at Daniel, who fumbled to catch it. "There you see one of my top apprentices in battle with one of the thieves. Poor dear never stood a chance."
Daniel watched the footage, nonplussed. "Clumsy ordering and attacking by both sides," he pointed out after a moment, leaning against a short tree. "Basic patterns, and repetitive strikes. I can see your influence on your protégé, though. He's got your dramatic flair."
Veronica twisted a lock of purple hair worriedly. "As you can see from that, I'm in a bit of a bind. Darling Anderson isn't getting his Pokémon back until tomorrow, and I can't cover his shift tonight myself because of an interview I have to take about the crime rate."
"You want me to take it."
Veronica nodded. "Obviously."
"Get some toadie of yours to watch Alexa and Markus, and I'll get on it. After all, you have to make things seem normal for the masses."
"Yep! You know the orders from on high." Veronica did an impression of Cynthia, deadening her voice and staring blankly. "'Everything has to keep stable as we deal with this threat' and all that." Stability in Jubilife City being bustling insanity on the edge of collapse, but Daniel didn't mention that.
"Where do you need me?" Daniel asked, looking back at Muun's diagram.
Veronica gave Muun a dismissive flick, and he resignedly showed a flashing point in the Southwest of the city.
"I'll just go explain what I'm doing to Alexa and Markus, then." Daniel headed back towards the tree.
Veronica thought for a moment, then sent her parting shot after Daniel, "They're not toadies, by the way! They're slaves!" Daniel shrugged, not stopping or turning around.
When Daniel returned to his charges, he found Alexa and Markus exploring the ring of trees. "They have staircases going up them," Alexa said in wonderment.
"And the centre tree has a tunnel among its roots," Daniel supplied. "Is that a problem?"
Markus popped around the trunk of a particularly wide tree. "Tunnels? Are there Pokémon?"
"Obviously. Now, Veronica's asked me to take care of a task for her, so you two can go explore while I'm away. She'll have someone to keep an eye on you so I don't have any awkward explaining to do to your parents." His task of warning them done, Daniel turned to go off on patrol for his peer.
As he walked away, Alexa and Markus stood in silence for just a moment. "Do you think we're allowed to sleep in the tunnels under the tree?" Markus queried his friend.
Daniel spun around. "You are not getting one of the underground rooms," he said dangerously. "I don't care how high up in the trees we end up sleeping tonight, but I refuse to sleep underground." He headed off quickly after that.
"So," Alexa said after a moment, "want to explore some tunnels?"
For the rest of the evening, Alexa and Markus explored the park, not roaming into the city proper at all. Highlights included their 'discovery' of a 'secret' tunnel that led right into the trainer house connected to the central tree, and Markus tripping over a sequence of small Pokémon right after one another. There was much laughter from Alexa.
All in all, the two of them ran Veronica's apprentice, Anderson, into the ground fairly quickly, and he made a promise not to lose the use of his Pokémon again. Jubilife's protector didn't hold back when she punished her own protégés.
Veronica, remembering that she hadn't told Daniel when he was getting replaced on the watch, had to call him shortly before going on set to tell him that his relief would find him around midnight. The interview went well from her perspective, with her giving little away except promises of safety, and the interviewer not really pressing her for more information. Most of Jubilife broadcasting community was scared of irritating the media giant. She even ended up giving little tidbit warnings unasked for: most of the stolen Pokémon were unevolved, most crime scenes were concentrated in pockets of the city, et cetera.
Daniel had somewhat of a more difficult evening. Jubilife was a vast community of ease and plenty, with many devices constantly connected to the E-network. Tens of hundreds of people each day kept track of their favourite Trainers, Coordinators, and Owners, so it shouldn't have been surprising that Daniel's entrance into the city was reported almost immediately. By the time he left the tree circle – an area reserved for travelling Owners, a mob of fans had formed, waiting silently for his appearance.
The crowd pounced as soon as they saw the Gym Leader, in a not unfamiliar manner: all manner of shrill screeches were to be heard, and objects and limbs were thrust in Daniel's direction in extreme haste. "Excuse me," Daniel said after a moment, and they all quieted down in an instant, eyeing their idol expectantly. "I have business tonight which I have to get on with alone. I would appreciate privacy, at least until midnight." Surely that would deal with them, no matter how rabid they were.
A moment of penitent silence from the mass of humanity, and then, "Well, I'm following you to get to talk to you first when you're done!" It was a young man near the front with a Gallade figurine. One who apparently had no filter for his words. An instant clamour rose up. Apparently, this was grossly unfair, they were the ones here first, and why did Daniel have a right to refuse attention, anyhow? Eventually the screeching rose to ridiculous levels, and Daniel slipped away without much trouble.
Unfortunately, there was another group waiting to intercept him by the time Daniel reached the edge of the park, and another at the very first crossroads on his patrol. The fans congregated wherever Daniel could be heading, and there were various declarations of attraction or idolization better not recorded. By the time the moon rose, Daniel was muttering about how there would be no thefts here tonight; there was far too much noise for it to be safe for them.
In the end, in order to be an effective patrol, Daniel had to resort to cloaking using his Mr. Mime. His preference at that point would have been to knock every fan out with his Alakazam and appropriate any and all Psychic Pokémon memorabilia, but there were nasty punishments reserved for such crimes.
Being so distracted, Daniel almost missed a few attempted thefts, but managed to thwart the Pokémon thieves from a distance, though they always managed to escape his telekinetic traps. When midnight rolled around, he was tired, irritated, and discouraged. The only outward sign of this discomfort was still more exasperated reactions to the knots of fans figuring out how to disable Copier's camouflage techniques. Eventually, stopping just short of casually kneeing one particularly amorous pubescent girl, he flew off back to the Trainer House with Vena. His relief, who had just arrived and been sensed by Copier, was left to clear the crowded streets.
Done with their explorations, Alexa and Markus nervously took a room in the branches of one of the trees. Markus was fascinated by the running water so high up in the canopy, while Alexa was fascinated by the way the addition to the tree had been designed and built as a part of the forest giant. Everything in the main room was wooden, and the only reason the bathroom was less so was fear of water damage. The flooring was indistinguishable from the frame of the bed, which was attached to the bedside table, and so on. While Markus busily calculated the water pressure required to reach so high up, Alexa lay on her bed with her reading screen propped up by her chest. Iceberg sat at her feet.
"Alexa, do you realize how much energy is required to raise water up here? Or even how they built something so massive so high up?" Markus wondered aloud.
"No, because that's what you're trying to figure out," Alexa said, rolling her eyes. "Actually, I do know how this was built." She returned to her book as Markus gave her an eager glance.
"Really? How?"
"Pokémon."
"You're no fun."
"You're interrupting my reading."
Iceberg sighed at his trainer. "What's so fascinating about a mass of random black splotches?" he grumbled. He had scrabbled up in front of his Owner's face at first, but quickly lost interest in the book.
Alexa ignored him. He had been making comments to this effect since she had started ignoring him when they entered the room. She kept reading. "Wow, talk about dated," she said after a few moments.
Markus, staring out the window to try and guestimate the distance to the ground, turned around. "Now you're distracting me," he pointed out. "But what is it?"
"This book," Alexa complained. "There are maybe three female characters, and only one is actually useful. The other two hide in their homes and do nothing. Dated."
Markus popped onto his friend's bed and looked at the title of the book. "Wow, this is ancient. I didn't know you read things from the Cultural Awakening."
"Awakening is right, if this is a snapshot of what they were awakening from," Alexa huffed. "Seriously, there are nine main characters, and every single one is male. And all the politicians save one are male. What were these people thinking?"
Markus now rolled his eyes. "It was a really long time ago. Anyway, wasn't all that 'ere' and 'thus' language done away with four millennia ago?" Markus was not the greatest historian.
"More like two, but that was still half a millennium before this book," Alexa said, distracted by the pages of adventure again.
The two of them sat in companionable silence for the rest of the evening, occasionally broken by Iceberg arguing over bed privileges with some of the new Pokémon the two Owners had befriended. A Geodude and a Starly had joined the ranks of Pokémon after Markus's little tripping episode, having been least annoyed by the intrusion. Alexa's new Starly ended up relegated to the bedside table after the squabble, and the Geodude attempted to burrow into Markus's bed, a quickly discouraged pastime.
Eventually, trying to stay up and wait for Daniel became a less and less attractive concept, and the two of them went to sleep with all of their Pokémon long before Daniel arrived through the open window, having been guided to the correct room by Vena's telepathic tracking abilities.
"Well, Vena, we might have to fly out of the city at this rate," Daniel told the huge bat. "Hopefully the fires of obsession die down in the morning." The boy raised an eyebrow at Alexa and Markus, sleeping surrounded by a small crowd of Pokémon each. Alexa looked by far more comfortable, cuddling with a fluffy penguin, an electric housecat, and a baby bird, though Starly's beak was digging into her neck a little bit.
Markus, on the other hand, had an earthen turtle, a bucktoothed rodent, and a floating rock sleeping with him. He looked supremely uncomfortable with Geodude on his chest, so Daniel gently woke the living geode and quietly explained the delicacy of human anatomy. The Pokémon was happy to move onto the floor, thankfully.
After cleaning up, Daniel got into his own bed. His vast array of Pokémon, unlike the tiny collections of his companions, remained safely inside his Poké Balls. Letting them out might have made the room collapse.
"Well, we're definitely not sticking around to sightsee," Daniel told Vena, who remained outside for a while. "I'm getting out of this city as soon as those two are ready. Try to get some sleep before morning, will you?" Being generally diurnal, Daniel coaxed most of his Pokémon into resting at night and working in the day, an arrangement not completely comfortable for night hunters like Vena.
"I wonder if Veronica deals with the same sort of rabid fan base?" Daniel mused to himself for a while, until he also fell asleep.
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