Author's Note: Struggled with a bit of writer's block these past weeks, but it's been clearing up pretty well now. I don't mean to update so far apart, of course. If you've got the time, consider leaving a review! It's pretty much the best thing you can do for a writer like me, seriously. Thanks!

"You what?" Ray asked over the phone as he walked. "I thought I heard you say you caught a Pokémon."

"I did!" Gabe said with a bit of defiance. "If you don't believe me, I'll send you some pictures. I caught a Blitzle before I left, and get this. As soon as I catch another Pokémon I like, I'm gonna challenge a Gym or two!"

"But you're doing alright?"

"Yeah. I'm gonna go searching for another awesome Pokémon."

"Okay, well, I can't wait to… hang out again." Ray sighed. "Sorry for the… the whole thing, the whole mess. And for not being around…"

"Oh, it's no problem," Gabe dismissed. "I've been feeling much better since waking up and going home. Growlithe and I are gonna battle and train and stuff."

"Uh… okay then. I'll see you in like a week."

"Bye, Ray." Click.

Ray returned his C-Gear to his wrist. After a moment of silence, he couldn't keep his thoughts to himself anymore. "Gabe's different somehow," he said to Kristy. "He's not afraid of battling anymore, and he caught a new Pokémon. He's never done that before."

"Really? That's pretty weird," Kristy said. "At least he's back."

"Ah, are you talking about the boy who went in a coma after the Horizon scandal?" Ingo asked. "I saw a short news segment on him."

"You're the one who stopped Horizon," Emmet realized.

"Well, it wasn't just me," Ray said hastily.

Ingo rubbed his chin. "Yes, your Pokémon must have been of great help, too."

That wasn't quite it either, but Ray didn't bother disagreeing with the two subway masters.

"Speaking of your Pokémon," Ingo continued, "did you just recently catch that Braviary? He seemed reluctant to enter his ball."

"Well, it's pretty complicated," Ray said carefully. He glanced at Kristy, who shrugged. "He just doesn't like the ball, that's all."

Ingo glanced up at the sky, with one hand raised to shield his eyes. "He sure is vigilant, flying around up there all the time. I'd like to see him battle."

"He's not watching for anything," Ray said knowingly. "He's just enjoying the view."

"You know what I realized?" Acewing asked over the rushing wind. "Now that I'm a Pokémon, maybe we can convince Ray to take us to Almia! Wouldn't it be great to go back there, finally?"

Tretters remained silent.

"If Logan doesn't get in too much trouble, and we can convince him, he can come too. We'll see how everything's changed."

Tretters flew in closer. "Why were you afraid to go as a human?" he asked with a cold stare.

"What do you mean? Why're you looking at me like that? I wasn't… afraid… I mean, Logan got me to leave, and then it was easier to just stay in Hoenn—"

"I might not've been able to talk to you then, Stanley, but I've known you since before you first picked up a Styler. I know when things bother you. And going back home bothers you."

"Well, I ran away!" Acewing cried. "I didn't want to just go back and… and be ashamed of everything."

"You know Logan exaggerated it. All you did was break a rule that was going to be put out of practice soon anyway. Everyone would have been ecstatic to see you return, Stanley. But now that you're not even human, they won't recognize you."

"What should I do?" Acewing sighed. "Now I'm afraid I'll be totally forgotten, and no one will remember me."

"Don't worry about that. What I want you to do… is just think about what happened. Do you remember? Let the rhythm of flight just go on its own, and we'll relive what happened years ago. I'm no psychic, but I'm under the impression that you have repressed those memories."

Acewing sighed again. "Okay, well… it started…" He shook his head. "Give me a minute."

"Who knows? Maybe being a Pokémon helps."

"Shh." Stanley listened hard to the wind, then tuned out the blustering noise. He stared dead ahead, until he was just staring into space. He was flying as slow as he could without falling.

"I think I remember now," he said. "Remember our special spot? It was there..."

–

Stanley was sitting at the harbor, fiddling around with his Browser. He had his favorite spot to himself, with an amazing view of the boats coming in and out. Tretters was perched at the edge of the stone dock, searching the water for fish Pokémon. The two of them had a break between Ranger assignments—the first rest in at least a week of tiring cases and investigations. Stanley liked having a spot where no one bothered him—being a higher-level Ranger brought along some popularity, but he didn't know whether he liked it or not. People always asked him about his exploits, and he had to give the same answers over and over again. Logan usually did the talking for him, actually, now that he thought about it.

"What're you thinking about, Tretters?" Stanley asked his partner. "Food?"

–

"I was thinking about evolution," adult Tretters interjected. "I was unsure if I wanted it or not."

"I wonder what it's like to evolve," mused Acewing. "I guess I sorta felt it when I transformed, but I don't think evolution's that painful."

"Evolution feels incredible. Anyway, you should go on..."

–

The little Spearow cawed at Stanley longingly.

"Want to go off?" Stanley asked his bird. "We can go see if anyone needs anything."

"I knew you'd be here," said Logan from behind. "This your new spot?" His Nidorina scrambled across the dock, chasing Tretters around innocently.

"Don't tell anyone," Stanley said. "And go find your own spot."

"Did you see any big boats come in earlier? People are saying a ship from Sinnoh's come here."

"Sinnoh? Where's that?"

"Up north. They have Pokémon we've never seen before."

"Well, I did see a big one come in. Let's go see."

They didn't have to go looking for ships after all, because the passengers were all over Pueltown. Stanley and Logan were drawn to one guy in particular, who was showing off his Pokémon. It was some sort of water weasel, wearing a flotation tube around its body.

"This is Floatzel!" the foreigner said, appearing bashful but obviously enjoying the attention. "He's a little shy, haha." Everyone smiled as the Floatzel ducked away in embarrassment.

"Now that's a cool Pokémon," Logan said. "I think the tube is part of it! That's pretty sweet."

Stanley agreed—Floatzel was pretty awesome—but he didn't say anything. He was a bit annoyed that Logan also liked the Floatzel, because Logan was always better at getting his way. If anyone got to play with a Floatzel, it would be him and not Stanley.

But the Floatzel was distracting him, so Stanley could walk off without Logan tagging along.

–

"Wait…" Acewing said slowly. "Why was I starting to avoid him? I feel bad for doing that."

Tretters stared forward. "I think I know. Nidorina talked to me about it before—"

"Oh, that reminds me!" Acewing burst. "I gotta talk to her sometime!"

Tretters didn't like being interrupted. "Calm down… Nidorina told me Logan wanted to have more than just one partner Pokémon. I think he set his sights on that Floatzel, to be honest. I'm surprised he didn't even glance at Kristy's Buizel."

"Yeah, I think that's what it was. Okay, I'm going to concentrate again."

Tretters smiled just like a therapist would. "Go ahead."

–

Stanley wanted to have more than one Pokémon, too, not that Tretters wasn't good enough or anything. But having multiple Pokémon was something Rangers just didn't do. No one owned any Pokémon—they befriended one or two wild Pokémon, and left it at that.

But the majority of people from Sinnoh had their spheres around their belts or in their bags, and inside those were Pokémon. The Poké Ball introduced an additional relationship, one that Stanley didn't understand.

As Stanley watched the tourists from afar—many of them showed their caught Pokémon—Logan trotted up to him excitedly.

"I've been talking to these people, and I have an idea you might wanna try out with me," he said confidently. "You know how those people with the balls, those Trainers, you know how they have battles?"

"Um, you mean they fend off wild Pokémon, right? I hear our wild Pokémon are some of the least aggressive compared to theirs."

"No, they actually battle each other with their Pokémon."

Stanley looked at the foreigners again, suspiciously this time. "Wait a minute. Why would they want to do that?"

"Most of the time, it's for fun," Logan explained. "They, like, heal their Pokémon afterward. I mean, us humans have wrestling and stuff for sports, right? Sports where people sometimes get hurt, but they're still really fun—"

"That doesn't sound fun! It sounds like the Pokémon have no choice, because they've gotten caught by their red ball things."

"That Floatzel looked fine," Logan said. "Shy, but also really happy. I think it's all up to the person, whether the Pokémon have it good or not."

"So… so what you're saying is, you want to try out battling with me?" Stanley asked very quietly. "Against who?"

"Against you! Let's battle each other! We can go right to the healing center afterwards, and tell them it was just a scuffle with a tough wild Pokémon."

"Not when we could've easily handled it with our Stylers," Stanley uttered.

"Well then, I guess we left them at home."

Logan always surprised Stanley on a daily basis, but nothing like what he had just suggested. It was shocking how different two brothers could be—Logan dove headfirst into all sorts of things, and that made him exceptional. A real go-getter, as his teachers had pointed out. Stanley, on the other hand, only excelled when he knew what he was doing. And only when he was comfortable. That made him exceptional too, but also a lot more cautious.

"It's our uniforms on the line, if we do this," Stanley said sternly, even though sternness hardly deterred Logan. "I mean, I sort of want to, but the other Rangers wouldn't like it…"

"I think Nidorina wants to," Logan said, picking up his Pokémon. "You should ask Tretters."

Tretters, hearing his name, stopped stalking someone's Wurmple and hopped up on Stanley's arm expectantly.

"Do you want to… um… participate in a battle, Tretters?" Stanley asked. "We'll heal you right away if you get hurt. It'll be against Nidorina, though…"

Tretters looked back and forth from Stanley to Nidorina, then solemnly nodded yes.

–

"I did not do that," Tretters laughed. "I was jumping up and down in excitement!"

–

Tretters jumped up and down in excitement. Stanley's heart sank, because he would rather watch a battle than participate in one himself.

"Come on," Logan said, leading Stanley away from town. "It'll be fun, no matter what happens."

"I guess so," Stanley said. Logan could be rash, but he was usually right about that.

–

"Are you okay, Stanley?" Tretters asked. "I mean, Acewing?"

"You know, I had no idea birds could cry," sniffed Acewing. "Ugh, they're flying away in the wind." The tears sparkled like bits of glass as they plummeted out of sight. "God, I miss Logan now…"

"Oh, don't cry, Stanley. I believe in us. We'll get Logan to stop this mess he's making, and then we'll go to Almia together."

"I guess it was a good idea to go to Unova after all. Look what's happened so far, ha!" Acewing laughed, but the tears refused to stop flowing.

"I wonder what Pokémon Logan would turn into," Tretters said, changing the subject. "Do you think his transformation thing has to do with personality? Because I think Braviary fits you well."

"You think so?" Acewing said. "I don't know… It seems like it's giving me way too much credit."

"You might think that now, but I think you haven't had any purpose for a while now. We've just been drifting around these past few years, haven't we?"

"Yeah… that decides it! No matter what happens here, we're going to Almia, and I'm going to put this to rest once and for all!"

"That's the spirit!" Tretters cheered. "I never thought we'd ever be able to talk about things like this… thanks, Stanley."

"Well, you have Logan to thank, actually."

"That I do… and there seems to be a big building up ahead, in the middle of nowhere."

"That's a mall, kinda like the one in Lilycove. Except it's on the road for some reason."

"Well. We've flown far ahead of the others, so we might as well rest on the roof here."

"I wonder what Pokémon Ray would be," Stanley said. "Or Kristy." He wanted to keep the conversation light—he'd felt enough memories and emotion for one day.

"I have no idea. Sometimes Ray can be strong-willed, but I can't place it exactly."

"And Kristy's always strong-willed, but in a different way, heh!"

"Oh, come on!" Kristy pointed. "You're telling me you don't want to go and see what's in there?"

"It's just a mall," Ray said slowly.

"Yeah, I know, but lots of malls sell things you can't get anywhere else!"

It was the only landmark on route 9, and Ray figured that meant the mall could be built as large as possible. A separate, smoothly-paved walkway led away from the road and up to the mall's front doors. It didn't look as crowded as other malls Ray had seen, but that was probably because it was between towns. He could see people walking around on the upper floors, looking out the windows.

Ray knew she wanted to go in there. "Maybe we should keep going, though..."

"We can forge ahead, while you visit the mall," Ingo said. "It's fine."

"There's no rush," Emmet added. "Just a subway glitch. It usually works flawlessly."

Ingo waved goodbye. "Until we meet again! You should stop by the Battle Subway sometime!"

As they walked away, Kristy pulled Ray to the side. "Maybe we should've told them what was going on."

"I didn't want them to freak out…"

"Or you just didn't want to get laughed at?"

"I don't know." Ray scaled the steps leading to the mall. "Anything you need from here?" he asked, embarrassed. "Pokémon food or something?" He called down Acewing—he was dozing off on the roof, apparently—and told him, "We'll be in the mall, but you can stay around outside with Tretters."

Acewing nodded and flew off, and Ray followed Kristy into Route 9's large shopping mall.