Warren-Pokemon: 1 Deaths: 0

Carlotta-Pokemon: 7 Deaths: 0

Cheren-Pokemon: 4 Deaths: 3

Bianca-Pokemon: 4 Deaths: 3

{Reshin 22nd, 05:06am}

{Pinwheel Forest}

"Guys, guys, guys, hold on," Carlotta said, grabbing Warren and Cheren's arms as they started to climb the slope up to the viewing plateau. "We don't gotta rush. Bianca ain't seen this before, remember?"

"Oh, then we've gotta give 'er the full show," Warren said, grabbing Bianca's hat and pulling it down over her eyes. "No peekin' 'til we say so, got it?"

"Alright," Bianca giggled, clutching her hat with one hand and letting Cheren lead her by the other with Carlotta steering her by the shoulders. The group shuffled up the slope carefully, taking care not to trip in the dark. "Good view up here, huh?"

"Nothing in the world like it," Cheren promised. "Now, be careful, there are roots underfoot..."

She could hear people murmuring all around, some in languages she'd never heard before. The only other sounds were the occasional hum of a car passing somewhere nearby and the steadily increasing splash of small waves. There was a lot of weaving back and forth before she found her free hand guided to a cool metal railing.

"Okay, you can look!" Carlotta declared, patting Bianca's shoulder.

Bianca pulled up her hat, then blinked in confusion at the all-encompassing darkness. "Are we at a river?" Bianca asked, gripping the railing and leaning over. There was a feeling of space below, but no light at all to see anything by.

"I think it's technically an inlet," Cheren suggested. "Never mind. They turn off the lights for a while before dawn. That's not the view down there." With her eyes starting to adjust to the faint grey predawn light, Bianca could make him out leaning against the railing next to her with Warren and Carlotta.

"Morning, folks," a young women said, approaching them with something wide in her arms. Soft LEDs in her hat illuminated the logo of a coffee chain, and when she got close enough Bianca could see a similarly illuminated menu on the tray she was carrying. "You need somethin' to wake you up?"

"Coffee, no sugar, as much cream as you can add before the system throws an error," Cheren yawned.

The woman chuckled, tapping in the options on her tray. "Pay here, please," she said, pointing to a circle in a corner of the tray. Cheren put his cashcard on it, and after a moment the tray beeped and glowed. There was an increased humming, enough to identify the barista's satchel as a portable generator connected to her tray, which constructed a fresh cup of coffee. "Here you are! Enjoy!

"Thank you," Cheren said, taking the drink and holding it close. As an afterthought, he grabbed and pocketed his cashcard.

"Um… what kinda tea you got?" Bianca asked, peering at the tray as the menu reappeared.

The server dragged her finger across the tray, scrolling down the menu. "Chamomile, leppa, breakfast, chai, matcha, oran..."

"Does that say fruit explosion?" Bianca said, pointing at one.

"Treat! Your! Self!" Carlotta chanted, Warren picking it up on the second round. "Treat! Your! Self! Treat! Your! Self!" Cheren didn't remove himself from his coffee, but punched the air in sleepy solidarity.

"Okay," Bianca giggled. "With sugar, please!"

"Coming right up," the server said, gesturing to the payment circle.

Bianca's face fell as she pulled her cashcard out of her pocket, staring at the empty balance. "Oh, right…" she mumbled.

"I gotcha," Carlotta said, sticking her card on the tray. "I'm treatin' you and you can't stop me."

"Thank you," Bianca mumbled, going red. "I'll pay you back soon as I can, okay?"

"It's coffee, B, don't worry 'bout it," Carlotta said, giving her a one-armed hug and pressing the tea into her hands as soon as it was generated. "Blame my own mornin' brain for forgettin' you ain't won no prize money yet. And while I'm here, I'll have me a Power Smoothie," she added. The server smiled, generating a second drink in an unholy orange colour. Carlotta let Bianca go to pick up both the smoothie and the card.

"Anything for you?" the server asked, turning to Warren. A small clock in one corner of the tray beeped and flashed. "Oop, choose quick, that's one minute to sunup right there!"

"I'll have me a chai latte," Warren said, nodding at the tray and snatching the cashcard off of Carlotta. "Mom gave this to both of us, remember?" Carlotta stuck a bright orange tongue out at him.

"Here you go," the server said, processing the transaction and handing over the resulting drink. "Enjoy the show!"

"Show?" Bianca asked. "We're watchin' a show?"

"Greatest show on earth," Carlotta said, leaning against the railing and nodding at where the steadily lightening sky was slowly starting to pick out the outlines of tall buildings. Very tall buildings.

Bianca was distracted by craning her neck back to look up at the highest buildings, so she was completely blindsided by how low the brilliant orange light started. It was the barest slit of sunrise between two buildings that shot across the water, setting a streak the colour of fire across the river, before spilling over some lower buildings, then up, and up, like climbing steps, throwing blocks of light and colour towards them. The city seemed to have been laid out with building heights in mind, shorter buildings rising up to taller ones, then down and up again, like a manmade mountain range. The whole city was painted deep orange as the sun crept up into the sky, the light turning the gently rolling river golden.

"There's a lotta beautiful places to watch the sunrise from," Warren mused. "Lotta natural places that are gondamn gorgeous. But I think this is pretty cool in a different way. It's so damn big, so damn pretty, an' it's all built by folks. People did that."

"It's beautiful," Bianca said, wrapping her hands around her cup, only tearing her eyes away from the honey-coloured buildings when she noticed that the light was starting to roll over her fingers. Carlotta leaned forwards, trailing her free arm over the railing as if to dip it in the river, instead soaking it in the dawn light that made her skin glow.

"Worth it," Cheren mumbled sleepily, fumbling for one of the pokeballs on his belt. "War, can you take a photo of us for me?"

"Of—oh, shit, sure!" Warren said, pulling up his photo app as Cheren released Lilli the Petilil, handing his coffee to Carlotta so he could hold the tiny grass-type up in the sunlight. As soon as the sun touched her leaves, she immediately began to trill happily, extending her little limbs and her crest as far as she could to soak up more fresh sunlight. "Step left a little, there's too much dang glare," Warren ordered, flapping a hand. "Left, lllleeee… there! Right… Lilli! Hi! Over here!" The little Petilil looked around as her name was called, and Warren took the opportunity to snap a few pictures.

"We all oughta get us some snaps long as the light's good," Carlotta said, looking around. "'Scuse me, mister?" she called, flagging down a dark-skinned young man who was with two girls who looked like they were probably his sisters. "I'll take a photo of the three of you if you take some of the four of us!"

"You got a deal, girl," the guy said, fist-bumping her and handing his device over. Carlotta gave Cheren his coffee back so she could start playing photographer.

"I hope that kid likes these," Warren said, showing the photos to Cheren. "Lilli sure seems to like it!"

"Photosynthesis looks like fun," Cheren yawned, holding up Lilli so she could see too. "We all have our own ways of getting energy." He tipped his head back, chugging the rest of his coffee in one, and promptly choking on it as Carlotta grabbed him to drag him into photography range.

{Reshin 22nd, 06:12am}

{Castelia City}

Castelia City was a lot.

Bianca openly gaped as she clung to Carlotta's bag strap, Cheren hanging onto her bag with one hand and Warren with the other. The four of them were making a human chain in the wake of Carlotta ploughing confidently through the streets, which even at such an early hour were thronging with tourists, joggers and early commuters. Every street corner was piled with signs pointing to various tourist attractions-galleries, cinemas, historic buildings, parks, clubs-as well as police stations, hospitals, and their target, the Pokemon Centre. It was visible from blocks away, thanks to the iconic screaming red extending over the bottom three of what transpired to be thirty stories of shops, medical units, and facilities for trainers. Cheren booked them into a four-bed dorm room while Carlotta dragged Warren and Bianca down the counter, scanning QR codes with her C-gear the whole way.

"We are here for fun," she declared firmly, dismissing the digital flyers for several museums before Cheren could see them. "I'm thinkin' the pier first-check it out!" she gasped, expanding and scrolling down an advert for prize matches on Thumb Pier.

"Of course you're lookin' at battles first," Warren muttered, scanning the flyers for the museums Carlotta abandoned. The flyer he picked to expand, though, was a menu. "Casteliacones first. We're early in the day, lines ain't gonna be long."

"Oooh, yeah! Says right here the line's only twenty minutes long right now!" Carlotta agreed excitedly. "CHER! HURRY IT UP! CASTELIACONES!"

"What're they?" Bianca asked, peering at the menu.

"Best damn ice cream in the world," Warren explained, "an' the recipe's such a big gondamn secret they won't record it for generatin', an' they ONLY tell family 'bout it, so they can't make it super fast. The line's always out the damn door."

"We've gone lookin' for it every time we've ever visited Castelia," Carlotta added, "but we've had it, what, twice?"

"I've only had it once, and we had to wait an hour," Cheren said, speed-walking directly past them towards the door. "That wait won't be twenty minutes for long. Let's move!"

Sunlight was creeping down the sides of the skyscrapers by the time they found the Casteliacone Cafe. It was two stories, the upper being a sit-down cafe with "RESERVATIONS ONLY" in multiple languages scrolling along the bottom of the windows, and a stall selling ice cream distantly visible at the back of the lower level behind the winding queue that was already several layers deep. Most of the lower level seemed to consist of the roped-off queue route, with a sign at the front reporting the current wait time to be thirty minutes.

"Oh dragons," Bianca gasped, clutching her chest as the pathway moved under their feet a little after they stepped through the doors. "It's a movin' pathway?"

"Folks can be waitin' a long time," Warren said, nodding to the elderly couple in front of them, who were sitting on folding stools they'd brought. "They don't want folks messin' up their legs waitin', and it stops folks pushin' too much."

"Alright, since we're gonna be here a while, quiz me on Burgh," Carlotta demanded, turning to Cheren.

"I'm not a trivia machine," Cheren said, rolling his eyes before looking from her to Bianca and asking, "alright. One badge. What will his primary team be?"

"Any two of Shelmet, Karrablast, Dwebble, or, uhhhh… Whirlipede," Carlotta counted off on her fingers, "plus his signature Leavanny." She folded her arms, looking smug about her quick answer.

"And your best counters will be…?" Cheren pressed.

"Oh, gotta be Paden, with Pijon for backup," Carlotta said, tapping her fingers along the pokeballs on her belt. "But if he uses the Dwebble, I'm usin' Thamina. Rock-type's a bitch. What the hell are you gonna use?"

"Poncho for everything save the Leavanny," Cheren mused. "It's liable to have a grass attack, but it will definitely have a bug attack that could seriously harm Sherlock, so though it's risky, Rocky is my best option. Hopefully, his strong defenses will protect him long enough for his high attack to crush the enemy."

"Y'all better win some nice prizes at the pier to sell for potion money if you wanna tough it out," Warren warned. "Angus an' I can jump in all you want when you're trainin', but not in a gym battle."

Bianca thought over the Pokemon in her mind. Bugs, huh? So… "You think Tibby could handle 'em all himself?" she asked.

"Ready for this, Bianca?" Carlotta asked, grinning brilliantly when Bianca drew herself up and nodded. "Cool! Yep, fire's your friend here, but Penny's gonna be good backup."

"Mina, too-she knows Gust, right?" Cheren asked. "She might be ready for Air Cutter soon. Dwebble isn't part of Burgh's zero-badge lineup, so you won't have much to worry about…"

They whiled away their time in the queue discussing battle strategies, grateful for their early start as the queue behind them began to spill outside the shop, beyond the moving floor and the store's air conditioning. By the time they got to the counter and bought their cones, the sun was fully up and the air was buzzing with heat, making the chill of the ice cream as welcome as the delicious flavour as they meandered down to Thumb Pier. Bianca kept slowing down to gape at shop windows as they passed, and her friends were more than happy to join in the window-shopping, especially whenever she lingered at a clothing store.

"We're takin' you clothes shoppin' soon as you win your first badge an' land that prize money," Carlotta promised.

"You might like the Elesa line," Cheren added. "All of their clothing designs are gender-neutral and very colourful."

"Ain't the Elesa brand real expensive, though?" Warren pointed out.

"The higher-end stores, certainly, but they do have a line aimed mostly at teenagers and young adults that's purposefully kept low-cost," Cheren said, stifling a yawn in his hand. "I've got my eye on a few things myself, if we're going clothes shopping after Burgh's gym…"

"Maybe we oughta get you a nap instead," Carlotta laughed. "Early mornin' catchin' up to you?"

"I've run out of ice cream, I have no more sugar to sustain me," Cheren said, tossing his empty cup into a trash can as they passed. "Let's get to these prize matches. I think a battle ought to wake me up."

Once upon a time, when Castelia had been much smaller but growing rapidly due to being a bustling cargo port, its many piers had been constantly full of dockhands loading and unloading cargo at all hours, and many had entertained themselves by sneaking off among the huge piles of crates and sacks and barrels and betting on small Pokemon battles. The many crates and barrels sitting stacked around Thumb Pier were likely purely decorative to invoke the historical flavour of the prize matches, as the pier itself was clearly no longer hosting any ship heavier than the handful of small pleasure yachts that were tied up along its length. Several of them were close to the banner-festooned rings of the prize matches, with the yachts' owners and their friends watching and cheering from the decks of their boats.

"Yeah, yeah, some of us ain't too good to walk," Carlotta muttered, giving the yachts a truly ferocious stink-eye. "Right, I see where we sign up!"

"It tiers by badges… interesting," Cheren commented, reading the banners. "Here's hoping we don't wind up fighting some Kalosian tourist who's been a society captain for a decade before coming to try the Unovan challenge…"

"Bring it," Carlotta insisted, straightening her baseball cap and throwing back her shoulders before making a beeline for the sign-up stall.

"Good luck," Warren said, squeezing Bianca's arm and giving Cheren a kiss for luck before heading off to find a spot around the ring where he could watch.

{Reshin 22nd, 12:03pm}

{Castelia City}

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Carlotta grumbled as she and Cheren approached the prize stall.

"I will, thank you," Cheren said smugly, brandishing his winner's ticket. "Excuse me, but would those happen to be evolutionary stones?"

"Good eye! We got water, fire and leaf today," the guy behind the counter said, gesturing to the prize sheet. "Come back tomorrow and we might have different ones, though!"

"Guess what!" Warren called, pulling a giddy-looking Bianca by the hand as he ran up to the stand. "Guess who I just watched own her battle!"

"Holy shit! Congrats, B!" Carlotta whooped, spotting the winner's ticket in Bianca's hand.

"You abandoned us to watch Bianca's match instead?" Cheren gasped, staggering for a moment, before shrugging. "…Fair. Congratulations, Bianca!"

"If I wanna see you two fight, I just gotta ask which is the best Swoobatgirl an' get outta the line of fire," Warren pointed out. "Bianca an' Tiberius gondamn nailed it. Who won yours, anyway? Ah," he said, laughing as Carlotta pointed at Cheren with a grumpy expression. "Good job, Cher!"

"And I think I'll take a water stone," Cheren said, handing over his winner's ticket. "Poncho needs it to evolve."

"Maybe I oughta go sign up to fight again to get a fire stone for Paden," Carlotta mumbled, looking covetously at the stones.

"Once a day, miss, but you're welcome to come back tomorrow!" the stallholder said chirpily, handing over a translucent blue stone to Cheren in exchange for his winner's ticket. "Better luck next time!"

"Oh! Is a fire stone what y'all need for Paden?" Bianca said, pointing out the stone on the sign. "You don't gotta wait! I'll get it!"

"Hey, hang on! You don't gotta do that, Bianca," Carlotta protested. "You oughta get somethin' you want!"

"I wanna get somethin' for you," Bianca said, turning red but holding out her winner's ticket anyway. "Consider it me startin' to pay y'all back for… everythin'. Or a gift, if that'll make ya take it, 'cause it's real darn rude to turn down a gift…"

"Yeah, mom'll manifest right here an' now to kick my ass if I do somethin' that rude," Carlotta agreed, before squealing and tacklehugging Bianca. "Thank you!"

"Y-you're welcome," Bianca stuttered, inventing whole new shades of red while the stallkeeper, shaking with the effort not to burst out laughing, exchanged it for a translucent orange stone.

"Enjoy your prizes," he managed, through a heroic effort of customer service professionalism, "and come back soon!"

"Let's find somewhere a little quieter to let 'em out," Warren suggested. They headed down the pier, away from the fighting rings, until they found a docking spot that was, while marked as reserved, presently unoccupied, the yacht that should be docked there presumably carrying its occupants off on a daytrip to a nearby island or marina.

"Okay, Poncho," Cheren said, releasing his Panpour. Despite having moved away from the busiest parts of the pier, the little blue Pokemon looked nervous around so many humans, chittering frantically and starting to hunch down himself, so Warren released Angus. The Audino cooed gently, and Poncho scampered behind him, hiding his head in Angus' back.

"Here," Cheren said, crouching low and holding out the stone. Pocho eyed it warily. "I wish I could make him understand how much stronger it'll make him. He's still so nervous all the time."

"He'll evolve when he touches it, right?" Warren pointed out. "Just let 'im get comfortable enough to—look, he's gettin' curious now!"

Poncho was indeed edging slowly towards the stone, sniffing at it curiously. He wouldn't move far from Angus, though, instead leaning out farther and farther until the Audino discreetly started shuffling closer, encouraging Poncho to lean close enough to poke at the stone with a paw.

As soon as he touched the stone, change began rushing up his arm. His large paw began to split into fingers, which was bloodless but apparently either painful or frightening, because Poncho shrieked and started waving his arm frantically. His arm grew longer and stronger as he did so, the fringe of blue fur around his neck beginning to grow rapidly, quickly covering his whole torso. His legs and tail grew longer and stronger as the transformation finally reached his other arm and head, where the curly blue hair on the crown of his head shot out long enough to bounce on his shoulders. It took only a few seconds, but the whole time, he shrieked and flailed in distress.

"It's hurtin' him!" Bianca gasped, pressing her hands to her mouth.

"No, it's not, all the books say evolution isn't painful," Cheren assured her. "He's just frightened because he doesn't understand what's happening. He'll calm down in a moment when he realizes."

Angus was rubbing the whimpering Simipour's back, cooing quietly to him. "Angus has 'im," Carlotta said, releasing Paden. "Hey, Paden, check out Poncho! Ain't he lookin' tough now?"

Paden looked confused at the sight of the new Simipour until Poncho, who was now more than a foot taller, chittered weakly, sparking a frantic series of shrieks from Paden. "Think they recognize each other?" Bianca asked.

"Sure they do, they can smell each other," Warren said. Paden was indeed sniffing at Poncho, then chittering rapidly at the bigger Pokemon. "Show 'im that Fire Stone, Carly!"

"Hey, Paden, check it out!" Carlotta said, imitating Cheren's low crouch and holding out the semi-clear orange stone. "Got one for you, too! Wanna evolve?"

Paden looked from the stone to Poncho. The now-bigger Pokemon whimpered something, then chittered a little more loudly. The two chattered back and forth for a minute before Paden closed his eyes and reached for the Fire Stone.

The change spread from the point of contact as it had with Poncho, splitting his thick paw into fingers, causing red fur to spread and grow long, his thin tail suddenly exploding with plumes of curly red fur and a thick white ruff poofing out around his neck. The one plume of flamelike fur on top of his head split into multiple plumes, which were the first things he started patting interrogatively at before slowly opening his eyes.

"How come it didn't look like that when none of the others evolved?" Bianca asked. "Not all… in bits like that?"

"The other evolutions you've seen are ones that happen as a result of a Pokemon building up sufficient quantities of a unique development hormone not present in humans," Cheren explained.

"A bunch, actually, dependin' on the species," Warren put in. Cheren bowed to gesture Warren forwards to take over the explanation. "Sorry, I'm buttin' in."

"You're the one studying to be a Pokemon physician," Cheren pointed out. "Have at it."

"Anyway, most species have a buncha small developments 'fore one big one that's the sorta official transition point, like from bein' a Pidove to a Tranquill," Warren explained. "In that case, it's growin' the crest that shows maturity, but you notice 'em steadily gettin' bigger before that. But some Pokemon evolve 'cause of gettin' exposed to certain kindsa radiation. You don't hafta rub the stone all over their body or anythin', it's just contact with a li'l bit flips the body's response an' it spreads cell to cell, like… cancer, I guess, except a good thing. It ain't hurtin' 'em, it ain't makin' 'em sick…"

"Even though it's radiation?" Bianca said, eying the stones nervously.

"Don't do nothin' to humans," Warren promised her, "and don't do nothin' bad to Pokemon. Don't do nothin' to most species, just a few, and I don't know why it gets the ones it does. Ain't studied it that deep yet. But see? They're doin' fine!"

Paden and Poncho were poking at each other's new fur and longer limbs curiously, while Angus smiled and clapped. "Think we can compete again?" Carlotta said, eying the fighting rings with a grin.

"First, we're feedin' those two, 'cause they need a lot of energy an' they ain't gonna feel quite right if we just throw 'em in a healin' machine," Warren said. "Then… we did your thing. Somebody else's thing next, got it?"

"Hmmm… well, I know this sort of thing isn't for everybody," Cheren said, opening up some of the flyers he'd downloaded on his c-gear, "but there is a big art exhibit up in the Castle Gallery. Specifically, the focus is Myths of Unova," he added, looking at Bianca. "Artwork focusing on various gods and legendary beings. It's cheap entry for students, and it's supposed to be quite an impressive exhibit."

"Ooooh, sounds real cool!" Bianca said excitedly. "Y'all up for that?"

"If it's a gallery, it oughta be quieter than the rest of this dang city, which is the part I like," Warren said, returning Angus. "Carly? You gonna behave yourself?"

"Hey, Burgh's showin' some stuff there too, right?" she said, returning Paden as Cheren returned Poncho. "Might be able to impress him inta bookin' us in for matches personally!"

"…Sure, why not," Cheren sighed, clicking the map on the flyer to show them the route. "Let's keep our eyes out for places we can buy Pokemon food on the way."

{Reshin 22nd, 12:32pm}

{Castelia City}

The Castle Gallery didn't look like much from the outside, just another tall construction of steel and glass, but on the inside the lobby was warmly decorated, with wood paneling beneath replica tapestries depicting ancient knights battling alongside and against armour-clad Pokemon.

"Good afternoon! Konnichiwa! Buenos tardes! Xiàwǔ hǎo! Guten tag!" the girl behind the desk rattled off in a sing-song tone.

"Good afternoon! Four for the exhibition, please," Cheren said, digging in his pockets as he approached the counter. "We're high school students."

"Do you have student IDs or trainer cards?" the girl asked. They all handed their trainer cards over. "Thank you! Okay, there's your total," she said, gesturing to a payment patch on the counter. As soon as Carlotta paid, a QR code showed up on the counter. "There's a map of the exhibition, and details about each of the pieces! Please enjoy yourselves!"

"Thank you," Cheren said politely, scanning the code. "I'll pay you back later," he promised Carlotta, who just shrugged.

"Thank you very much!" Bianca said, taking off her hat and bobbing a quick curtsy to the clerk on the way past.

The main hall was large, perhaps three stories tall, with angled glass windows high above filling the quiet space with light. The walls were painted in stripes of black and white to contrast with the paintings displayed on them, and the floor was also black and white in large squares, like a chessboard.

"The whole room's dedicated to Reshiram and Zekrom, shockingly enough," Cheren said, checking the guidebook he'd downloaded on his c-gear. "The freestanding statues and statuettes—" he gestured to an apparently haphazard set of statues standing out on the floor—"are laid out like chess pieces. They're all kings, queens or generals associated with the Tao Wars, positioned according to notable traits or strengths of theirs, with the kings being Eduard and Dilwyn, naturally."

"What're the other rooms?" Bianca asked, glancing around. "This one feels too much like bein' in church…"

"Fair," Warren allowed. "How 'bout the Swords of Justice? There a room 'bout them?"

"Of course," Cheren said, leading the way. "The whole room's a triptych of Cobalion, Terrakion and Virizion, laid out in a representation of the Battle of White Forest, where the White King's forced ultimately prevailed despite the Swords of Justice inflicting terrible casualties on both sides. Cobalion is in the centre, representing the position King Dilwyn led from, Virizion on the right to represent the way the forest was on his right flank, where the Swords of Justice attacked from, and Terrakion on the left, representing the left flank attack that enveloped King Eduard's forces..."

"Oh, ain't this one gorgeous," Bianca cooed, gravitating to a small painting on the end of the Virizion section.

"Nineteenth century… the flowers around the bottom of the picture aren't painted, they're real pressed and preserved flowers. That's why the painting seems so chunky," Cheren explained.

Cheren continued to provide commentary from the guidemap he'd downloaded as they wandered around the paintings. The rooms were mostly laid out aesthetically rather than by artist or time period, arranged around some titanic centrepiece painting or statue at least ten feet tall. Many of the older paintings had climate-controlled protective cases around them, but there were newer pieces too, more than a few by Burgh himself.

"Hey, that's it!" Carlotta said excitedly, pointing out a painting with patches of colour so vivid that they overwhelmed the eyes too much to notice the darkness of the rest of the painting. It looked black at first, but on closer inspection, several areas that were different colours, all so dark that they looked black next to the eye-searing blues, oranges, greens and purples of the bright areas. "Burgh got real famous for that one, 'fore he was a leader."

"What is it?" Bianca asked, tilting her head and squinting. "What're all those shapes?"

"Well, they're real abstract, you, uh—I guess you kinda gotta know what they are already to recognize 'em," Carlotta said, sticking her hands in her pockets and looking up at the painting. "He's usually got it hangin' in a protective case in 'is gym, so I've seen it on TV plenty, just never in person before. It's these three native weather gods—can't remember the names, but they're wind, thunder an' earthquakes. That one up there, it's sorta humanoid but also lotsa real thin, sharp strands, like lightnin', right? And that one's real big but blurry 'round all the edges like it's shakin', like an earthquake?"

"Oh, I get it, that one, all them brush strokes look like the wind!" Bianca said excitedly. "Wow, Carly, you didn't need the guidebook or nothin'!"

"She ain't an art buff, it's just this one paintin'," Warren ribbed his sister, who elbowed him affectionately.

"Even so, your passion for this painting is very evident, young lady. If you don't mind my saying, it's very impressive."

"Uh, thanks," Carlotta said in surprise as they all turned to the patron who was standing a few feet behind them. She was a startlingly tall, striking woman in a ribbon-festooned dress in an eye-searing shade of pink under a black corset. She smiled at them, blinking slowly. Her eyes were odd, almost a little too large for her face, and she must have been wearing some kind of colour contacts that blew up her pupils and grey irises until her eyes were dark from edge to edge. She either had abnormally long legs, too, or more likely was wearing very high platform shoes under her floor-brushing pink skirt. "Sorry, was I gettin' loud there? I get too loud for libraries an' museums an' stuff sometimes."

"Not at all, I just happened to be approaching this painting myself in time to hear your description," she woman said. She spoke Unovan with a trace of an accent, though it was unidentifiable. "To be so interested in Burgh and his work, and this piece specifically… are you trainers?"

"Guilty as charged," Cheren said. "Are you?"

"Oh, yes," the woman said with a smile. "I do enjoy Burgh's work. He paints in a very modern style, but takes his inspiration from older sources that many modern artists forget, which is why I believe his art has its place amongst the many ancient works here. Young lady who knows this painting so well, I assume you also know why much of the painting is dark and formless?"

"Oh, yeah… well, you see them three weather gods?" Carlotta said, looking back up at the painting. "So, there used to be twelve of 'em, way back when 'fore colonization. One for each of the Twelve Great Tribes, tha's a whole thing we're gonna hafta bring you up to speed on while fixin' how badly your Taotri school fucked up your history… pardon my Kalosian, ma'am," she added, a little embarrassed, to the stranger.

"Consider it pardoned," the woman chuckled, covering her mouth with her long sleeves as she laughed. "The historical context is very important."

"Anyways…" Carlotta coughed. "Twelve tribes, each had a different weather god that was theirs.'Cept then, y'know, the settlers happened, an' the civil war, an', uh, a lotta stuff… Anyways, seven of them twelve tribes still exist, but only three of the gods. All the rest of them dark shapes are all them dead gods."

"Their gods… can die?" Bianca whispered in shock. "Didn't know gods could do that."

"Nah, didn't figure your folks would be big on that kinda idea," Warren said, shrugging. "There's lotsa faiths where gods can or have died, though it don't always stick. But in this case, it's a real big deal. Do we even know names of them dead gods?" he asked Cheren. "I think I remember somethin' about it bein' a real private thing…"

"A few of their names were completely lost when the tribe they were patron of was wiped out," Cheren explained. "Some of the remaining tribes have also lost a lot of information about their gods, because colonization caused massive cultural disruption, preventing stories and traditions from being passed down. All of them have many epithets, but traditionally their true names were known only by a tribe's wise man or woman, the only one who would have any direct communication with the god in question, and to this day, the surviving tribes keep whatever they've managed to preserve or recover on the subject of these twelve very private."

"Hey, it's their faith, up to them what they do with it, though I gotta admit to bein' pretty damn curious about them dead gods," Carlotta mused. "We about on the money, ma'am?" she asked the stranger, who started clapping.

"And they say children today don't care for the arts or history," she laughed. "You cannot blame the original peoples of Unova for taking care with their surviving gods. Do you know what it is that killed them?"

"Well, the cultural imperialism of—" Cheren began, but the woman held up a hand.

"Not what wiped out people's knowledge of them," she clarified. "Do you know what it was that slaughtered the gods themselves in combat?"

"Uhhhhh… y'mean, literally killed 'em?" Warren asked uncertainly. "'Cause I never heard stories 'bout that…"

"I am sure you have heard stories, but they do tend to warp over time," the woman said, looking sadly up at the painting. "And of course, people looking from the outside in are always looking for the allegory, the pattern, not the unsettling reality that death is cold and meaningless more often than not, even for gods." She blinked slowly when she saw their expressions, then bowed her head. "Forgive me. I have a great interest in mythology myself, but my interests do tend towards the macabre."

"They, uh… sure do," Carlotta said. "Though, damn, I really wanna know more 'bout whatever it was killin' gods, now. Must've been a hell of a fight."

"Hell is a good descriptor for a true war," the woman said quietly. "I am going to move on to view the exhibits for Cobalion, Terrakion and Virizion. Thank you for allowing me to intrude on your visit for this long." She bowed formally. "Do enjoy the remainder of your visit."

"Oh! Wait, ma'am, you said you're real into mythology, right?" Bianca said, digging into her bag and withdrawing the small sculpture she'd purchased in Nuvema. "Do you know much 'bout this one?"

"Ahhh… quite rare for anybody to know of this one," the woman said, her long fingers ghosting around the figurine without ever quite touching it. "Where did you come by it? Or did you just buy the statue because you find it cute?"

"I mean, it is real cute, but, uh… well, I saw it," Bianca said insistently. "I mean it, I saw it! That actual Pokemon, real life!"

"I believe you, young lady, and I envy your good fortune," the woman said with a smile. "This one is something of a modern myth, an urban legend, perhaps. Little is known of this one, not even their name. There are only theories, if you are interested."

"Yes, I'm interested!" Bianca said excitedly. "What do you think it is?"

"Do you know why Cobalion is the leader of their kin?" the woman asked, holding up three fingers. "Because Cobalion was born first. Then, later, Terrakion joined Cobalion to fight at their side, and later still came Virizion. I see no reason why a fourth could not come along, in due time, when needed, do you?"

"Huh… I guess it do kinda look like 'em," Warren said thoughtfully. "I mean, same kinda general shape, y'know?"

"It's true that there is a large stagger between myths of Cobalion, Terrakion and Virizion first appearing," Cheren commented. "But adding a new god to old stories would be… weird."

"They are not gods, merely immortal divine warriors," the woman said, smoothing her skirt. "Let us hope they are simply passing through, rather than massing for battle. Good fortune in your gym challenges, children." With that, she turned and walked off into the triptych room, a ruffly split in her skirt revealing that, yes, she really was wearing extremely high platform shoes.

"See, this is why I don't go to art galleries," Carlotta said to Cheren once she was out of the room. "Art folks are nice but gondamn weird."

"You don't go to galleries 'cause they throw you out for bein' loud," Warren said, glancing anxiously in the direction the woman had gone in case she'd heard them and then dragging Carlotta away. "Let's go see them Victini figures, get y'all some luck for fightin' Burgh, how 'bout that?"

{}

{}

Happy New Year, everybody! I've been home for Christmas and New Year, and it's been great being home for the first time in two years! Been very relaxing. Stuff's definitely been getting on top of me, but I think I've got some stuff sorted out to get back on track next year. Thank you for your patience!

Thank you immensely to Llyarden and cjapples of the Nuzlocke Writers' Forum, who helped beta this chapter! Thanks to the fabulous Key-chan and Isis_The_Sphinx for all of their brainstorming help and all of their inspiration! Special thanks to Incasa and Songwithnosoul for consistently leaving wonderful reviews! And thank you very much to everybody who keeps reading, whether you review, kudos, or just enjoywhta I write! I hope you've had happy holidays, and I hope 2019 is good to you!

Warren

Angus the Audino

Carlotta

Owain the Dewott, Loyal the Herdier, Paden the Simisear, Pijon the Tranquill, Roland the Boldore, Thamina the Gurdurr

Bianca

Tiberius the Tepig, Wilhelmina the Woobat, Penny the Tranquill

Cheren

Sherlock the Servine, Poncho the Simipour, Rocky the Boldore, Lilli the Petilil