I don't even know what I was thinking. Even so… enjoy?

PS: I really should mention that the second half of the chapter gets a bit… intense. So, erm, be warned.

Chapter 12: Jubilife Got You Down?

Route 202, September 21st, Noon

"So, I have another proposition for everyone," Slifer said after Lucas' Pokémon catching demonstration. "Who here's gunning for the Pokémon League?" Dawn, Barry, and Vance all raised their hands. "Come on, no one else?"

"Hmm…" Lucas mused, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sure, I've thought about it when I was younger; everyone does. But honestly, I just don't think it's possible for most people, me included. Besides, I've found my place as Professor Rowan's assistant. I don't really need much else."

Dan could only shrug. "I never really gave it much thought." Cyan said much the same, causing Slifer to snort.

"Seriously? Not one thought? Challenging the Gyms? Tackling the Elite 4? Becoming Champion?" They looked at each other, and shrugged in unison. Slifer rubbed her temples in exasperation. "Well you need to do it anyway; challenging the Gyms, I mean. You need badges to use HMs, and you need HMs to go to most places in the Sinnoh region. If you want to complete the Pokédex, you're gonna want to collect at least a few of those. Anyways, that's not exactly important. What is is our teams!"

"What do you mean?" Vance asked.

"I want us to really commit to our teams, and really have a challenge while we do this. So I've come up with an idea: our teams, should we decide to expand upon them, should all revolve around one type or theme." This proposal was met with silence, as each Trainer tried to see the merit in the idea, and to a one failed. It was Barry who asked, "Why?"

"Because it'll be fun."

"Okay, How?"

"Okay, bear with me on this: we will all search for Pokémon to battle with as time goes on and the going gets tougher, right?" Slifer wasn't the best speech maker, but she gave her all when she believed in an idea. "So instead of getting any old Starly or Burmy, why not give your team an inventive gimmick, like a shared Type or style of move? That would make you stand out as a Trainer."

"Sure, if you succeeded," Vance said, not sold on the idea, "but with a shared Type team, most if not all of your Pokémon will have the same weakness. It's way too easy to exploit."

"Not to mention that your other example will limit you to a specific strategy," Cyan added, "which will be easy for an opponent familiar to it to counter. In short, to do either of these things with any sort of success, you would have to be an especially skilled Trainer, which none of us are yet."

"But you will be if you stick to it!" Slifer said, unwilling to let it go. "Besides, I haven't given you any incentive yet."

"Okay, what is it?"

"We make it a pot of sorts: the one who goes the furthest with their team, be it Champion, Gym Leader or I dunno, savior of the universe or something, wins one hundred thousand PokéYen each from everyone who's in it."

Everyone's eyebrows shot straight up, and thought the same thing: ¥100,000?! Each?! Any Trainer of some merit could make that much in the course of a Cycle or two in the more competitive areas of Sinnoh, but to make several times that in…

"Hold up. What's the time limit? You said the furthest to go gets the pot, but within what time period? A month? A Cycle?" Dan said, using the term for the three month period the Pokemon League challenge was open.

"Let's say… until a new Champion is crowned," she said sweetly.

"All right with me," he said, drawing a sigh of relief from everyone who knew them, which in term drew a confused look from Lucas. Everyone agreed as well, the allure of ¥700,000 too much to ignore. In time, the decisions were made: Dawn would go with a Fighting type team, Barry would go with the Steel type, and Slifer the Electric type. On the other side, Lucas would center his team around stalling tactics, Cyan would go with a strategy revolving around speed, and Dan around what he called "controlling the pace of battle".

The gaggle continued their way north toward Jubilife City, catching local Pokémon like Starly and Kricketot as the day wore on. Several battles were also held between them and fellow rookie Trainers they encountered on the way. At around three in the afternoon they set up a small, out of the way clearing for a late lunch and strategy meeting. It was going well underway when Dan asked one of the more pertinent questions of the day: "Okay, so we all caught a Starly, Bidoof, Shinx, and Kricketot each. How do we fill up their Pokédex entries?"

Lucas leapt to his feet with a small cry of dismay. "Aw, man! Did I forget them back at the Lab?! Hold on, maybe they're in-" Blind to his comrades' looks of confusion, he "dug" through the digital storage of his bag, and sighed in relief when he found what he was looking for. With a white flash and a flourish, he materialized a large instrument made of a smooth, delicate-looking nonmetallic material. "Behold! The All-Scale!" he said triumphantly.

"…"

"…Yeah, yeah, I know, the name's terrible," he said sheepishly, "But it works like a dream! Okay Dan, bring out your Snorunt."

"Um… alright." With a flash and a FWOOOOOOSH, she appeared before them. "Heya, Snorunt," he said amiably, before correcting himself, "Well, I guess it's 'Sora' now, so "Heya, Sora!"" Sora met him with a wider grin than usual, not forgetting her first caretaker. "Sora, could you step on this scale for us, please?" She did just that, and a rod of green energy shot out of the base. Stopping just above her head, the tip bent until it laid level with the top of her head. After a moment, the rod straightened and retracted, and the scale beeped, the screen at the base lighting up. Lucas read, "And Sora is… two foot four inches tall and roughly 37 pounds; pretty standard measurements for a Snorunt, if I recall correctly."

Everyone in attendance was duly impressed by the demonstration, but Cyan had to ask, "What is the limit of your scale's capabilities? How much weight can it bear?"

"That's the best part!" Lucas said, getting excited for some reason. "We (we, of course, meaning Professor Rowan along with myself and all the other Aides) designed this with materials like graphene and space-grade plastic. It can hold up to 4000 pounds, and the laser can extend up to 50 feet. The scale itself is expandable, and the instrument as a whole is borderline indestructible. There is no Pokémon this thing can't measure!" He pulled out his Pokédex and pressed the front edge of it to a gray colored square on the scale's side, removing it when the device beeped. "And now that the Snorunt entry's measurements are uploaded to my 'Dex, I can share it with the rest of you… of course, none of us owning a Snorunt except for Dan means that only he can even see the info in the first place. But, we can read everything we all have, so let's record all the other Pokémon's measurements. I even have All-Scales for the everyone here, so the job can get by quicker. Careful, though, these things are super light, so be careful you don't let it slip and fly off somewhere."

Roughly five minutes later, they had just finished with the last entry when Barry asked another pertinent question: "What's this lower box under the Pokemon's picture for?"

Lucas, of course, did his best to answer: "That box is for further information, like migratory patterns, distinguishing features, or even folklore. You won't know much of any of that for now, so be sure to read up on Pokemon in general while you're on your journey." He was somewhat surprised to hear a groan from Dan.

"Man, I thought we were field agents," he complained. "You're tellin' me we gotta do schoolwork? I didn't sign up for this!"

Lucas opened his mouth to answer, but Cyan beat him to it, fixing the younger Trainer with a hard look and saying, "You seem to forget, Hibiki, that we are on an important mission for the Professor, not a day trip to the Safari Zone. If we are to do "schoolwork" to complete it, then we shall; if you wish to leave, however, the Lab is back down the road."

Not wishing to confront the older boy, Dan only muttered under his breath and looked away. Sora, however, was having none of it, jumping on Dan's head and chattering aggressively at Cyan, who nearly fell of the stump he was sitting on in his surprise.

"Everyone please calm down," Lucas said in a half-pleading, half-cajoling manner. "Look Dan, I'm sorry, but field work isn't always going to be, you know, field work. There are some things you can't learn just by following a Pokemon for an hour and taking notes. When that happens, you gotta hit the books. And yeah, a lot of the time, it's boring. But you can learn really interesting things, and not just from the books themselves. Talking to village elders and fellow Pokemon researchers are great ways to get information."

He turned to Cyan next. "And don't get too smug over there, Cyan, 'cuz I've got a problem with you too."

"M-me?"

"Yes, you," Lucas said, sounding stern for the first time. "I can see that you're used to acting as an arbiter in your neck of the woods, breaking up fights, shutting down bellyaching from the people under you, etc. But you have to understand that as far as this group goes, there is no 'under you', or any of us, and barring the Professor, there's no one above us either. Everyone here right now works together as equals, and you need to treat them that way. That means no answering for anyone else, or strong-arming anyone who's being difficult back into line. Got it?"

"…Yes," Cyan replied, not quite meeting him in the eye, "and… my apologies."

Lucas cleared his throat, looking slightly embarrassed. "I mean, I'm not really doing this to undermine you or anything. It's just that we need to work as a unit, and we can't have that with resentment and tension in the air."

"I understand, and you will have no need to worry in the future."

Lucas smiled, and the conversation moved to other, safer topics until the end of the hour, where they continued on their journey.

It was late in the day when they made it to the city limits. There, a grand, multilayered skyline of glittering glass and steel greeted their gaze. Already, lights were blazing throughout the metropolis, despite the fact that it was barely sunset. Above the city itself, bird Pokémon large and small weaved through the air. "Well," Lucas said, breaking the silence, "I guess we should head to the Pokémon Center; there'll be rooms there for Trainers-"

"Way ahead of ya!" Barry said, zooming off despite Lucas' call of, "Hold on! Do you even know where you're going?!" He groaned aloud and told the rest of the group, "We're going to have to find Barry before we get to the Center, guys. Sorry, but a big city really isn't safe at night."

"It's fine by us," Dawn said, somewhat embarrassed. "We'll cover more ground if we split up."

"Good idea," Lucas replied. "It'll be you, me, and Dan in one group, and Cyan and Slifer in the other-"

"Actually, if I may interject," Cyan said.

"Shoot."

"I feel I may have better success searching only with Mistral; I may be otherwise distracted working with others."

"Well…" Lucas took in the sight of the other Trainer, taking note of the size and muscle advantage he clearly had over others his age, and those many years older to boot. With a Pokemon at his side, not many people would take the risk of messing with him. "Go right ahead. Slifer, you're with Dan." Ignoring their groans of irritation, he simply gave the order to move out, and they split up as decided to begin their search.

Thirty Minutes Later…

"Hmm…" Barry mused to himself, looking at what appeared to be City Hall, judging by the lettering on the front saying "CITY HALL". "Well, Frigate, we might be lost. Darn, it's getting dark, too…" The Piplup could only peep sadly and sit on the curb, resigned to that status five blocks ago. "Aw, come on, don't be like that!" Barry said in an attempt to cheer his partner up. "We can just go in and ask someone where the Pokémon Center is!"

'They probably won't listen to you.'

The teen nearly jumped right out of his skin at the 'sound' of a voice that wasn't a voice. He whirled 360 degrees, trying to catch a glimpse of its source, but the oddly deserted street gave no sign.

'They have their own problems to deal with,' a second voice echoed in his head, rougher but definitely female, compare to the ambiguous monotone of the first.

"Who are you?" Barry shouted into the air, even as fog began to roll in. Aw, HELL no. "S-show yourselves!" A pair of shadows formed in the fog maybe twenty feet away, and that was all he needed to see. "Frigate, use Bubble!" Apparently of the same mind as his Trainer, the Piplup immediately let loose a heavy froth of bubbles directly at the two shadowy figures… who instantly disappeared, leaving the attack to drift lazily out of sight. "Aw, HELL no!" Barry exclaimed aloud this time, whipping his head from left to right in vain hope of keeping them in front of him.

'Really? Attacking us?' the first "speaker" said, a cool amusement coloring their words.

'And after we were considerate enough to show ourselves, too,' the second "speaker" tutted.

'Still, if what they want is a battle, I suppose we can oblige.'

"Frigate, stay close!" Barry yelled, aware of a change of pressure. The fog was beginning to churn as high winds cut into it from all directions, a sure sign of power building up. The worst part was, he knew he wouldn't know what his assailants meant to do with it until it was too late. He briefly considered running, but he dismissed it out of hand; the only thing dumber than trying to fight invisible attackers was trying to run away from invisible attackers. All of a sudden, the wind changed direction, this time blowing to his left. "Frigate-"

'Boop.' Barry's already diminished vision instantly turned pitch-black as Frigate leapt onto his face with a cheep of terror. Of course, this fact didn't quite connect in Barry's head until he was on top of the nearest lamppost. Giggling coming from directly below only stoking both his fear and his fire, he pulled off the wailing Piplup and shouted down, "All right, are you gonna tell me what you want, or are you just gonna keep screwing with me?"

'Screwing with him sounds fun, eh, Lucy?'

'Alas, we have a Job to do. Alright, come on down, kid, we won't Bite.'

"How do I know you're not gonna mess me up the moment I come down?" Barry asked incredulous.

'Because if we wanted to harm you, we would've done it by now.'

"Well… I, um…" They did have a point; he seriously doubted that the distance afforded to him by the woefully inadequate lamppost made any real difference to the duo. Still, he wanted to be just a little more sure before he waltzed into their arms. "And you promise you won't attack me if I do?"

'Not unless you attack us first,' the second speaker replied half-jokingly.

'And hey,' the first speaker said, 'as a show of good faith, I'll even do this.' With a thrum of energy, the fog melted away, allowing Barry to get his first real look at his attackers: the first one was an odd looking Gardevoir; its "fronds", which normally would fall in such a way as to make a sort of dress, were parted at the front in a style reminiscent of a longcoat. It was also slightly built up in the chest and shoulders, so while still slender, it couldn't be considered waif-like like most Gardevoir. 'Ta da,' it, or rather, he, continued telepathically, 'now you can see. Aren't I generous?'

'Yeah, yeah, that's cute and all, Lucian,' the female speaker, a scarred Lucario that nearly matched the Gardevoir's height, chimed in, 'but if this kid's anything like me, he's about to explode with impatience, so how's about we give him a few answers?'

'All right, all right,' the Gardevoir said, waving off his partner. 'The basics should suffice for now: I am Lucian, and she is Barda. We are normally called Team CBB, but our third member is MIA at the moment, so it's just 'Lucian and Barda' for now. We were going our way when we heard your predicament, so we were just going to tell you why going into the mayor's office is a waste of time.'

"So what changed your mind?"

'I was REALLY bored.'

"That's your defense for attacking a child?!"

'It wasn't a defense, just an explanation.'

"Whatever! Why can't I go in?" he yelled, realizing that he was too heated to continue going down that tread and forcing himself back to the main issue, though not without promising himself that revenge would come later.

'They're preoccupied with the flock of Skarmory attacking the city,' Barda said nonchalantly.

Skarmory? "But they're Johto Pokemon. Why are they here in Jubilife?"

'What, have you been living under a rock the last year?' she asked, incredulous.

"Close: Twinleaf Town."

'Figures,' she huffed. 'Okay, CliffNotes version: a year ago, give or take a few months, a huge oil tanker shlepped into Canalave City just a few hours west of here. There didn't seem to be a Captain, and when Port Authority came a knocking, it became clear that there weren't any humans, period. But when night fell they heard all sorts of cries and screams coming from the hull. They had a crew beach it and tear it open, and the moment they did, a the single biggest horde of Pokemon you ever saw raced out like they were escaping a wildfire, all of them native to Kanto and Johto. Fast forward to now, and they're all over Sinnoh, screwing up the ecosystem like nobody's business, breeding like crazy and driving out native species that can't do it as fast. Doesn't help that the Indigo League is basically ignoring the whole debacle and leaving the Sinnoh League to deal with it by itself. Supposedly, they keep the 'Mon out of their cities and the like with Specie-specific poisons, hunter Pokémon charged with rooting them out before they take hold, etc. Kanto in particular's a technological powerhouse, though. Sinnoh, being Sinnoh, Sinnoh, has a much more Pokémon-friendly policy in general (along with an emphasis on history, theology and spirituality, and the environment, but that's not important right now), so it can't very well do that, now can it? So, in retaliation, Sinnoh just cut off trade with Kanto, so now both sides are pretty steamed at each other. But, since Kanto relies on Sinnoh so much for raw materials and Sinnoh is friendly with Unova, (who's basically like a second Kanto, which means things like tech and medical advances are still flowing into your end), Kanto's definitely left holding the crap stick.' The Lucario was met with stunned silence from her three listeners. '…What?'

"…"

'…What!?'

'Nothing! Just… your CliffNotes version was really, uh, in-depth,' Frigate said.

'Aw, thanks, little guy!' Barda said, taking it as a compliment.

"Wait, what'd he say?" Barry asked, confused; unfortunately, the telepathy the two Pokemon employed only applied to them.

'Oh, he only paid me a small but much deserved compliment. Now, back to the matter at hand: City Hall can't and won't help you find the Pokemon Center, so we may as well!'

"How do I know you're not just gonna mess with me again?" Barry asked, understandably dubious.

'Kid, for all you know, this is just a dream we're letting you experience while we steal your organs,' Lucian answered. 'As it is, you might as well come with us. Or not. It's not like it matters anyhow.' Whether or not the Gardevoir did indeed mean for that to put Barry at ease (and it was truly impossible to tell with him), it failed on every conceivable level: the teen's immediate response was to run twenty feet away, breathe deeply for a bit, and then, with the grace of a running start, hit Lucian with a kick to the gut that brought to mind a SWAT team leader breaking down the door of a meth lab. With all that said, Lucian went down, and everyone froze for different reasons: Frigate was waiting for Barda to make a move, Barda was debating whether to burst out laughing before or after she kicked the boy in half, and Barry was looking at his surroundings to confirm his… let's call it a hypothesis.

After a few moments, he nodded and said, "Well, unless he's the greatest psychic in the world—and I can think of at least one reason why he isn't—we're not in a dream world."

Before, then.

Barry was surprised to see Barda start to giggle, and then laugh out loud, before saying, 'Yeah, you really were askin' for it this time, Lucy!'

Lucian sat up, rubbing his stomach and grimacing. "Ow. Barda, bring that crazy bastard over here. I'm blasting him from the bottom up so he can watch himself burn."

"W-what?" Barda asked, taking a step back.

"WHAT?!" Barry echoed, not quite believing himself what he just heard… and then froze as he realized that it was what he just heard. Physically. With his own two ears. The way the two strange Pokemon stiffened when they realized it too convinced him it wasn't just his brain misfiring. "You two can TA-" Pain exploded in the back of his head. Unable to stand, let alone keep his eyes open, he crashed to the ground and slipped into unconsciousness.

Barda drew her arm back, letting the glow of her Force Palm blink out. "And now to deal with you," she said to the stunned Frigate.

'B-but,' he said, babbling in his horror, 'how-'

"If you mean the attack, and how neither of you even saw me move, trust me, the further you go and the stronger you get, today's gonna end up looking like a party trick; if you mean the talking thing, the story's way too long to get into right now, and don't you think that's a little inappropriate to ask at the moment?"

Frigate latched onto her use of phrases like 'the further you go'. 'You mean, you're not gonna k-kill us? I mean, you could have done Barry in right then, but he's still breathing.' A snore from the aforementioned Trainer confirmed this.

"No, no, you don't have to worry on that front. You should be worried about this!" She instantly flashed forward and punted him straight into the air. Leaping after him, energy flickered into being around her palm as she brought it up. Seeing this, Frigate could only ask, 'Why!?'

She seemed to ponder the query the moment before striking, finally saying, "Call it… incentive. Sweet dreams." With an inexorable downward swing, her Force Palm hit the defenseless Piplup with the power of a mortar, sending him crashing to the ground with enough force to leave a crater. Landing noiselessly, she checked the Pokemon at the center: out cold, but breathing fine. "You'll both live," she said to the unconscious youths, "and odds are, you won't remember the finer details. But you will remember the most important thing: There is an opponent that defeated you utterly, and without mercy. Let that drive the two of you to become strong, to try and surpass me, so that when we meet again—and we WILL meet again, make no mistake!—you will be strong enough to stand against me. But train hard; I won't be slacking off myself, you know." She sauntered over to the now standing Lucian and said, "I swear, all this trouble because you wanted to mess with a few kids. What would your mother say?"

The Gardevoir shrugged. "Wouldn't know; haven't seen her in years. For all I know, she'd be the type to throw me a parade. It'd certainly explain why I'm so messed up."

"Yep. Shall we go?"

"Yeah, I think we did all we could do in this part of the region, so we should head back. Grab on." She held his offered arm, and the two disappeared in a blink of white light.

So… that was fun, eh?

…Please don't crucify me.