CHAPTER 21: Trainer Routine

August 3rd 341 – Monday

Ugh, breeding was such a chore.

Mr. Cinders' version, now that had been nice. Lots of pups, new things every day, and Azu. Catch, Valeria missed Azu. Not the poachers, though. At least with Darren, no madmen would turn up one morning and ask him for pokemon.

Hopefully.

Valeria's eyes swept the ground as the group made their way through the patchy grass. You had to be careful, or you'd rip your skin off on a concealed rock. No shoes could protect from those sharp edges.

No wonder skarmory had skin like metal. The whole landscape was out to rip you to shreds.

Yesterday's kidnapping had been brilliant. Seeing Eeveevee soar through the sky, trapped in a metal claw half her size, had been a thrilling kind of terrifying. They'd hiked all together to the skarmory's nest, making plans, telling jokes, and whispering about the shadowy cracks in the rocks, about what might hide in there. No battling, just… exploring, and stories.

Skarmory didn't make their bramble nests in the highest places, just in places you couldn't reach, close to the sharpest rocks the cliffs had to offer. They could see her, Eeveevee, just on the other side of that twenty-yard drop. She was gingerly crawling around the nest, testing her fear of heights, tasting the swirling wind. The skarmory just stared at her, as if it had finally found a cartoon it liked on TV, except it had to kidnap its own cartoons to enjoy them. Or something.

The twenty-yard drop became a non-problem after Seth and Darren freed their flying types.

That had been the first shock.

Seth had trained a dragonite. He'd found and caught a dratini. He'd trained it past the level required to earn any badge.

Ann had gushed over the seven-foot dragon for hours, chiding Seth for keeping a secret.

Dragonite hadn't been too happy to have been locked a whole five days in his pokeball. He'd gobbled down half Valeria's weight in pokemix, before acknowledging her and Ann with a huff that wasn't all that friendly, but it wasn't mean either. It was enough to guarantee that the eevee wouldn't be food, which was all Valeria really wanted for now.

Seth had blushed to death when Nova had revealed he'd kept the dragon hidden to 'not be that guy'.

Maybe Seth wasn't boasting enough, considering.

'That's how good we're going to get,' Ann had said, eyes bright and a spring in her step, like the world was hers to take. Valeria had smiled back, fiercely wanting it to be true.

In the end, that first skarmory had been a handsome male, so Darren had captured it and put the pokeball in a yellow cube-machine.

'It reads the pokemon's signature. It's going to give me a list of the skarmory's main attributes and known moves," Darren had explained. 'I can tell if it's a good specimen for breeding that way.'

It was all so professional, and Valeria hoped scientists would get those machines cheap so that everyone could use them one day.

A quarter-hour later, Darren had declared that the skarmory wasn't what he was looking for. He showed them the readings, and yup, the statistics were nothing to boast about. Valeria had been scared there'd be a fight then, an ugly one. Because how did you tell a giant bird of steel that he wasn't good enough? Darren hadn't been scared at all: he gave the skarmory pokemix treats and Berries and said this was an expedition to learn more about skarmory. He said that humans thought skarmory were special and important to learn about.

Not that it was exactly a lie. Ann had called it manipulation, even if she agreed the skarmory's feelings mattered. Valeria called it brilliant, because just look at the size of those sharp steel claws.

She'd been dumb back then. She'd thought the poor stats had been bad luck. She'd still been hung up on those brilliant machines.

The second male had not wanted to breed. Of course, he'd not bothered to tell them that until he'd seen Darren's pokeball. He'd dived and almost murdered Darren, who'd looked a bit worried but not that surprised. Two lightning-quick blows from Lucky and a whuff from Dragonite had the skarmory decide that accepting a couple of Berries was a much better deal than ending up a fainted steel heap.

The third to swoop down and kidnap Eeveevee had been female. They'd still had to hike for a whole hour before getting close enough to figure that out. Aerodactyl was a horny idiot and almost got himself skewered. Nova almost fell off the cliff from laughing so hard.

'What happens to the kidnapped if there's no one to rescue them?' Ann had asked.

'They put them back within a day or so. They're not hoarders, just a grabby kind of curious.'

By the fifth skarmory, and third male, even Eeveevee's inexhaustible joy at being snatched up and flown high above the ground had worn thin. Catch, they'd been at it the whole day!

Valeria breathed in relief when the skarmory gently agreed to get caught instead of going all wild like the second male.

Darren shook his head at the readings.

"What's wrong with this one?" Ann said, her voice all polite and curious instead of a much deserved are you kidding me, Darren? "That bar is almost maximum. Those two are really tall too. That's three great stats out of seven, and none are bad."

Rosie laughed, a long rich laugh which sang ha ha, you silly kiddy.

So Valeria scowled for the both of them. She couldn't stay annoyed at Rosie, though. She wished she was clever enough to talk to Rosie, to make the secrets not-secrets in the proper way, but she had no idea how.

"Darlings, finding a good pokemon for breeding often takes a week even in prime habitat." Rosie said, still chuckling. "Finding a great pokemon can take a month. Go back to the road, ride to Fallarbor and set up camp. We'll keep you posted."

Valeria stilled. They couldn't mean to keep Eeveevee.

"You'll handle it without Dragonite?" Seth said.

"I'll call if I need him to track down Aerodactyl," Darren said with a half-smile. "And this old boy is old," he added with a frown. "Must be a careful one."

Right now, the old skarmory had made himself very small, wings tight against his body. He stayed close though, staring.

"I think he's great," Ann announced. "May I keep him?"

It was crazy how just by shedding some hair Ann suddenly looked twelve (well, a short twelve), and ready to tackle anything thrown at her.

Valeria dug her fingers in her long hair. They knitted themselves into a blanket the moment she stopped brushing. With the heat, there was no option except gathering them into a heap on her head and clamping it down. Loose curls kept tumbling down around her face and Nova wasn't shy with her pointed judging looks. Without the special shampoos, though, there just wasn't getting rid of the frizz or making them curl properly. For all its mess, her hair was hers, warm and heavy. Valeria shuddered at the thought of chopping everything off.

"Anabel, if people ask, you caught him yourself." Darren had a serious voice. This was his serious serious voice. "It's cool to give a pokemon to a trainer your level, but I could catch powerful pokemon you can't handle. This one's okay. Just say you caught him."

Ann nodded quickly. "It's okay for you, Skarmory? We'll be traveling and training all together, with Eeveevee, and Dragonite and Aerodactyl, and also lots of others."

Skarmory edged closer, his long beak pointed safely to the ground. He craned his neck to stare better at the pokeball in Ann's hand.

Ann's merry laughter was snatched by the wind and echoed against the rugged cliffs, filling the landscape with much needed warmth. The bird vanished inside the ball.

Rosie smiled. "Don't worry, that one wouldn't have been much of a challenge for you. Want to catch one too, V?"

Valeria blinked. Catching brought Machop to mind. A short muscled whirlwind eager to pummel his way to power. Or Geodude, who was nasty on top of wanting to be alpha. Both had attacked them, one way or another.

"I'm fine," she decided. Geodude was still a stranger, fainted in her pokeball, and Valeria didn't need Skarmory to be hers to enjoy having him around. "I don't want Eeveevee to stay if I'm going, though. Can't one of Nova's geos be bait?"

"Okay, no." Nova had six geodude, and shook her head like Valeria had said something crazy. What a drama queen. "I need them all."

What for was a big mystery.

"Use Lenz," Nova continued. "The weak skarmory won't dare get close. It'll save you time."

"Lenz?" Ann said. "You name all your pokemon?"

"Tentacruel, and yes," Rosie's mouth smiled. Her eyes smiled much less. Valeria had so many questions. "It feels right."

"It's a pro-coordinator thing," Darren said. "She's got to work at being unique. She didn't train the snorlax because he's the best pick for cute contests."

"Otto is the cutest!"

Darren snorted. "Three blasted weeks she spent obsessively climbing every honey tree in Sinnoh and shouting at me because it wasn't munchlax season."

Rosie's guilty grin told them that Darren was teasing.

"Otto dominates," she declared, flipping her rainbow braids back. "People keep copying the pokemon of previous festival winners when so many species deserve a chance. Cool contests were a sea of pichu last season, and guess what? Gamble thrashed them all." She showed them a pokeball, a mysterious smile lighting up her face. "She's my lucky charm."

White energy flashed from the ball and whoa! a huge yellow spider jumped straight on Rosie's back.

"A galvantula!" Ann exclaimed, her face snapping back and forth from Rosie to the fluffy monster. But tentacruel weren't your usual cute either. "You caught it in Unova?"

"Yup. Shake their hands, Gamble."

Hand, oh-kay. Valeria crouched with a brave face as the pokemon leapt in front of her. It outstretched a big hairy leg which ended in a nasty-looking hook. Those six eyes were definitely staring at her strange.

Valeria held her breath and shook the 'leg'. The hair were a raspy sort of soft.

Seth laughed at their awkwardness. "Watch Rosie's last videos," he said. "She goes in there with them instead of hanging back, and usually has three or four pokemon cooperating. It's great."

"Ten year olds can do decent traditional coordinating videos. I've got to stay on top of things."

"Don't get modest, Rosie," Darren chided. He turned to her and Ann. "It's not just training. The pokemon have to fit, like pieces of a puzzle. But you know the worst?"

"No," Ann whispered eyes-wide as Valeria shook her head.

"Viewers get bored. Rosie has to change pokemon every few seasons. She's on her third full team. Only Wisp, the blaziken, has been here since the start. Gamble and Otto are the newbies." He flashed Rosie a smile. "Four months is it?"

"Five on the 13th." Rosie grabbed the huge spider and rubbed her nose against the pokemon's belly, letting Gamble dig her fuzzy legs in her braids. "Gamble's my fluffy lucky charm, but," she laughed, "Lenz won't try to murder her kidnapper."

Murder. Murder. And Rosie had made them shake hands with that thing. She let that thing all over her face.

Valeria giggled at the giant spider, odd warmth replacing her nervousness. Rosie wouldn't hate Gengar, she couldn't. Not when she didn't mind this.

Lenz, the tentacruel, was as tall as Nova, her long tentacles floating in the air as if it was water. The red crystal spheres on her head shone so bright no skarmory would miss it.

"Come on," Nova said. "Let's leave them to work." She groaned when Valeria and Ann just kept staring at Lenz. "I figured you'd be blasé after seeing Eden."

Eden had to be the torterra. "We stared at Eden too," Ann pointed out. "Lenz is beautiful. They all are."

"Talk and climb down," Darren called from ten yards below them. "I don't want to spend the night here."

Valeria's knees groaned at the sight of that joke of a trail they'd followed to the nest. Her hands were one big ache despite those brilliant padded gloves Rosie had lent her and Ann.

"I think we've seen Rosie's full team, finally," Ann muttered excitedly.

Valeria grabbed her arm, leaning closer to her. "Was Rosie scared right now?"

"No! And she finally told us stuff."

Rosie hadn't told them much. But Ann's grin made it impossible not to smile.

August 4th 341 – Tuesday

Valeria breathed in, enjoying the cool of the large air-conditioned waiting room. Seth had told them to come around 10 AM to avoid queues. He'd been right. The pokecenter was empty.

Too empty. There was nobody behind the counter.

"Is there a bell somewhere?" Ann wondered while she double-checked the opening hours.

A big swing door had to open to the place where pokemon were healed. Joys, the clone nurses, took care of them.

"I can hear voices," Ann said. "Come on."

The door opened in a wide white corridor. The door to their left was open. A short slight boy with dark-green hair had their back to them.

"You've gotta be joking. Can't you cure it, Nurse? She looks healthy!"

He sounded like he was about to cry, or break something.

"I'm sorry." They couldn't see the woman the soft voice belonged to. "She is healthy but her energy levels won't grow. She –"

"She's disabled! It took me a whole week to – I almost broke my leg catching this blasted skarmory and I got myself a disabled one!" He took a shaky breath. "Stuff this, I'm going home." That's when he spotted her and Ann. "What are you staring at?"

"We can get you a skarmory," Ann stammered. "A friend is looking for a special one, so there's heaps he's not catching."

The boy snorted. "I'm not owing anything to some golden grubber. I'm done."

Golden grubber?

"But… why?" Ann exclaimed. "How many badges –"

"Got six from Kanto, home, and seven here," he said, defiant pride hardening his gaze. "How do you even know when you catch a pokemon, that they're eighth badge material? I thought I'd caught good ones!"

How could you know? Valeria shuddered, her mind filling with the nurse's voice, this time telling her that Eeveevee and Geodude had something wrong.

Valeria started when the boy punched the wall. Ouch. "I've done the training thing a million times already! I'll never get one ready before the winter."

"But wait, no!" Ann, just get out of his way! "Can't your friends-"

"Right, friends. They left for Ever Grande after I lost the fourth bloody rematch." Chin raised, he stared down at them. "You can't tell at first, but there's always a loser. Sooo, who's the loser among you two…"

Valeria narrowed her eyes. Okay, that dude has a problem.

The pink-haired Joy finally popped out of the room.

"That's enough, Mister," the nurse cut in firmly. "Calm yourself." She flashed her and Ann a welcoming but harried smile.

"Whatever, I'm going home. Can't believe I miss my stupid sister…"

Valeria had to flatten herself against the corridor wall to not get shoved. The boy didn't look back as he stormed out of the building.

Ann's jaw didn't want to close. "But… He can't…"

"He got his starter not this summer, but the one before," Nurse Joy explained. "It's a good length for a Journey. It's important to also know when to stop and move on."

Ann didn't look like she liked that answer. "What's going to happen to his pokemon?"

"He's going to return his pokedex to his hometown's Professor and they'll discuss it." Nurse Joy's voice was kind and soft. It blew away Valeria's nervousness. "Hundreds of people work with former trainers, companies, and government institutions to find places for the pokemon trainers don't keep. We all care deeply for them. Now, what can I do for you?"

"Full health check-ups," Ann said eagerly, handing over her pokeballs. Valeria's fingers paused right above Gengar's. No, better keep him secret.

"Do you think we'll start hating our Journey one day?" Ann whispered as Nurse Joy left. "I can't imagine it happening…There's so much to do!"

Valeria nodded. She missed lazying around and reading, sometimes, but here she could make all the choices and every day was full of new things. And there was Ann, nothing could beat that, even when things got tough.

It was a good quarter-hour before Joy would get the health-check results. They fiddled curiously with the uploading machines and admired the wall full of pictures. Pictures of hundreds of trainers with their pokemon.

"That's Flannery," Ann exclaimed. "Her grandfather, Mr. Moore, was an Elite Four when Dad was little." For someone who hadn't wanted to journey, she sure knew a whole lot. "Ghosts, she's pretty..."

The picture showed a girl with scary-wild hair, half-torn gray clothes, and a blinding grin. The redhead had one of the small armored aron at her feet, and three friends laughing all around her.

"She's working at Lavaridge Gym now. I bet she'll be Gym Leader one day. She had to be starting out just like us."

Flannery's picture was circled with a gold thread, like everyone a little famous. It was so fun to see so many famous people when they'd been kids.

"Look, Roxanne!" Ann gushed. "Wow, that's a swablu."

Seth kept saying that Roxanne was one of the very best Gym Leaders even if she did just the first badge. She was an assistant-teacher or something at his school, but he barely ever spoke of the other teachers. Kid-Roxanne was cute, with thick ribbons in her hair; she stood stiff, though, as if there was an invisible wall between her and her little pokemon.

"She looks scared of it," Valeria muttered. "With the way Seth goes on about her, it's nice to know she was nervous too, when she was little."

Ann's fierce side-hug was unexpected, and her grin brought picture-Flannery's to shame. Valeria laughed, hugging her back.

The rushed up to the counter when Joy finally came back.

"Your pokemon are all healthy. Your Geodude is a she, and I pumped her back awake. She's still low health and she'll be exhausted until she gets a few hours' sleep. She's… less happy than the others. Knock-out capture?"

"Yeah." Valeria giggled, her nerves melting away. Ann grinned back, and the pokecenter suddenly seemed much more welcoming. "How long must Geodude stay to feel good again?"

She didn't want to use all her Berries on geodude, or wait three days before having her battle, when the pokecenter did it all for free.

"Six hours. Do you have the papers for the two eevee?"

They had already shown Joy their pokedexes, and now they held their breaths as Joy scanned the file Mr. Cinders had given them. She finally nodded. "Great, thank you. Your starters haven't been to a pokecenter since their pre-Journey check-up. These say the eevee were sold to you in mid-July, but you left Mauville mid-May." Catch, they could see all that? "This… this is the first time you show up at a pokecenter. Everything's going well?"

Valeria nodded with a tight smile. She couldn't let Gengar faint, not for a long while, because Nurse Joy would never believe she'd caught him.

"There are available councilors for trainers," Joy reminded them. "The addresses and contacts are on the brochure by the counter. They're free, it's anonymous if you want it to be, and you won't get in trouble. You'll get help with your pokemon, your money, dealing with fights with your travel companions, homesickness, trouble with other trainers… the doors are wide-open girls."

Joy looked so kind that Valeria almost allowed herself to believe that seeing those people would solve all her problems in a blink.

"We know," Ann said and catch, she looked guilty.

Nurse Joy frowned. The woman wasn't going to let it go.

So Valeria lied. A simple lie to stop the questions. "Torchic and Treecko didn't like us. They kept fighting and… They left." Sorry, Treecko. "It was tough to accept, but we wanted to go on, so we spent time saving up money and bought the eevee. Now we're starting over."

Ann was staring at the ground, her cheeks burning red. "We just want to train and earn badges… like everyone else!"

"Left?"

"Yes, we freed them after a few days," Valeria said, her jaw clenched. "They were fed up with us for some reason. They were happy to leave."

"Why… why didn't you go back with them to the Professor? Or come to us?"

Valeria shrugged. "They wanted to leave."

"We just couldn't get them to like us…" Ann muttered, staring furiously at the ground.

Valeria's shoulders slumped when Nurse Joy put her arms around them. She felt bad for lying now, but she had to.

"I'm so sorry... Girls, I'm going to have to signal the loss of your starters in your file. Don't forget you'll have to show up to your November meeting."

Valeria didn't want to think about November. November was school starting again. It was Mauville and Gene and not-Ann.

"We never meant to miss it," Ann exclaimed, looking almost offended. "We'll have badges and great stories to tell."

Joy laughed. "I hope so! Just don't forget to take advantage of the many allies you have. We all want you kids to have great Journeys."

Not all. Valeria had to smile, though. It was rare to meet grownups that nice.

She left Geodude with Joy. Her training would have to wait for the afternoon.

She smiled again, Eeveevee on her back with her paws on her head, for the picture session. Ann was crouched next to her, shaking both from laughter and Espeon's weight on her own head.

"We'll get golden threads around our pictures too, later," Ann promised.

Her purple eyes lingered on the trainer-pictures as they exited, something hungry Valeria couldn't name lurking inside them. Something Valeria hadn't expected to see when they'd begun journeying.

She desperately hoped it wouldn't be anything bad.

Oo*oOo*oO

Espeon crouched, her eyes narrowed at the pokeball.

Valeria pressed on the button, her heart thudding in anticipation.

Geodude appeared in a cloud of white energy, fists balled and teeth bared.

"Geodude –" The rock-type had her back to Valeria. She headed straight for Espeon. "Wait, no!"

"Espeon, ready Iron Tail," Ann called.

"Geodude, back off!"

Valeria might as well have been talking to an actual stone. The pokemon had become a blur, arms wrapped around herself, energy swirling, ready for the attack.

"Recall her, now," Seth snapped.

Valeria fumbled with her pokeball. Finally Geodude vanished in a flash of red. What if she breaks out? What if she's too mad? Valeria let the ball drop to the ground in sudden fear, not wanting it to burst in her face.

Espeon growled. Valeria didn't need Ann to hear the 'I told you so.' The 'get rid of her.'

Pokemon weren't meant to make you feel powerless. "Now what? She won't even give me a chance to talk."

"Pick that ball out and let her out. If she attacks again, ball her. Do it until she stops. Talk when she does, and use small words."

"She's got a personality, she knows moves," Ann said with an encouraging smile. "You just have to show you're serious about this."

Feeling a bit more confident, Valeria picked up her pokeball.

The second time, Geodude didn't leave. Instead she stared squarely at Valeria. Valeria smiled in relief and opened her mouth.

A clenched stone-fist headed straight for her.

Catch! Valeria ducked, waving the pokeball in a panic until her thumb found the button and Geodude vanished.

"Is that normal," Ann said, worried, "or should we free her?"

Valeria's cheeks burned.

Seth snorted. "Not all pokemon can be your friends. Pokemon species like geodude, they don't get 'friend'. They get alpha and beta. They get listening to the boss. If you want a geodude, you've got to be the boss."

"You could have just said 'it's normal'," Valeria snapped, her knuckles white around her pokeball.

If Geodude wanted to play hardball, she'd play.

Again, she freed Geodude. "Drop your fists by your side," she shouted.

Five seconds later, Geodude was back in her ball.

"V, wait, she didn't-"

Ann was frowning at her.

Seth had said boss, she – "No attacking me isn't good enough," Valeria explained. "I want her to obey."

"Again," Seth urged. "The faster she learns, the quicker we can have fun."

Valeria took a deep breath.

She didn't shout this time. She kept her voice firm. Useless. The third time, Geodude tried to attack her, the fourth, the pokemon tried to flee.

"If she wants to leave, you should let her," Ann pointed out, crouched next to Espeon.

Valeria's lips twisted. Machop and Skarmory were so perfect. Why?

Ann was right, though. Valeria freed Geodude, again, and let her dash away.

Geodude zoomed off like dragonite had said he wanted to eat a rock. She suddenly stopped dead, some twenty yards away.

"You won't ever become stronger, acting like this," Valeria called.

Geodude dropped to the ground and grabbed a rock.

"Drop the rock!" Valeria raised her pokeball. "If you want to leave, fine. If you stay, though, I'm your alpha."

Geodude held the rock in front of her, without lifting it, her eyes darting all around her. She turned to Espeon, still not lifting the rock.

Catch, it had better not be such a circus every time she caught a new pokemon.

"You'll battle Espeon, and everyone else. If you want to stop, say stop. You can't grow stronger if you're fainted. Now, you drop that rock!"

Geo finally dropped the rock, her eyes still suspicious as she hovered over it.

"Geo?" The pokemon raised her fist at Espeon.

"Come back here, we'll make space for you two to battle." Valeria kept her pokeball close even when Geodude finally obeyed. "When I say 'stop', Geo, you stop," she stressed.

A few minutes later, Valeria thought she had won. Geo rolled towards Espeon at incredible speed. Espeon glowed silver, her tails raised to parry.

And was thrown back. Espeon crashed down, a blur of purple fur, and struggled to bounce back to her feet. Geo was stronger, much stronger.

Geo cackled with glee, her large hands cupped before her and gathering an orb of orange energy.

"Back, Geo," Valeria called. Geodude kept going. "I said back!"

Valeria raised her pokeball, grinding her teeth, but her eyes fell to the stiff furball next to her.

"Eevee, Tackle," she decided.

Eeveevee sped off like her leash had been cut.

Valeria balled Geodude before she could recover from the blow. She took a deep breath and hooked the ball to her belt. "Time out. I'll free her in an hour."

Was it time-out, though? Pokeballs were comfortable.

She turned helplessly to Seth. "You think she'll behave now?"

"Not being allowed to finish fights is frustrating," Seth assured her. "She'll get it. You need to be more stubborn than she is."

That sounded like a lot of stubbornness. "Should I make the time out longer then?"

"No. There's a pact. You catch pokemon, keep them safe and healthy, and get them strong. In exchange they obey you. You've got to show her you're going to keep the 'getting her strong' part of the pact and not take ages to do it, then she'll listen."

Valeria took a slow breath. "I want to evolve her, and to get her strong enough to get at least the fourth badge. How long will that take?"

Seth shrugged. "You're new to this, but I'll be helping at first, so a month or so. It depends how serious you are about training and how many hours you put in."

"You'll keep helping us?" Anabel asked with a hopeful smile.

Seth nodded. "Sure, we can start later today. Espeon will learn how to beat Geodude."

"Es-peon spay! Espay, spay, espeon. Espeh-"

Seth just laughed as Espeon tried to convince him to let her fight Geodude straight away. Eeveevee joined in, eager to support her sister.

Ann had crossed her arms. She was… sulking? "Darren said the geos were scrubs."

"They are, but Espeon is barely trained and still undersized."

Valeria was tempted to step on Seth's foot just because. Espeon had gone quiet and let herself fall to the ground, her nose between her paws. Seth did look sorry then.

"Espeon will become a great pokemon," Seth announced, "but there's train in trainer. You're going to have to put in the hours."

Catch, did he want Valeria to step on his foot?

"We will," Ann said, with a smile Seth didn't deserve. "Thanks for helping."

"Does it bother you? That I'm keeping Geo?" V bit back a grimace. She really should have asked that yesterday.

"Of course not, just train her well." Ann's grin grew almost evil. "Espeon's going to be really eager to battle her. Seth, what was the move with the orange light?"

"Smack Down," Seth replied. "So that's three moves, all damaging: Rock Throw, Rollout and Smack Down. Neat for a wild pokemon, but you'll better know them inside out by tomorrow."

Valeria nodded, not trusting herself not to sound ungrateful if she said anything.

"Guys," Nova called, slinging her backpack down as she jogged up to them with Growlithe at her feet. She'd gone to get supplies. "Cough up what you owe me and pack these away."

"Seth has more than twenty badges. Who cares if he's bossy," Ann whispered as they went to get their share. "He's earned it."

Valeria blushed. "Tell me you're super observant and I wasn't that obvious."

"Well, I don't think he noticed. He'd have said something, right?"

Catch.

"Seth, what's a golden grubber?" Valeria called after him, putting on her most grateful smile.

Seth handed her share of supplies. "An idiot who doesn't realize trainers aren't called 'owners' because training matters." Valeria tried to forget the bossy and to only focus on his words. "They spend their time looking for rare wild-types to trade for common but strong ones. You see them hanging around the high-level gyms, trying to trade ditto, scyther, clefairy, or, I dunno, a shiny gligar, for top-trained pokemon. Why?"

Valeria frowned. "I think a guy we met at the pokecenter didn't get that Darren was a breeder and thought he was looking for a shiny skarmory…"

Ann kept sneaking glances at her as they put everything away. At some point, Valeria stopped pretending not to notice.

Ann's shoulders slumped. "V, you… you didn't catch Geodude because you thought I was embarrassed by you, right? You wanted her too."

Valeria rolled her eyes.

"I just want to know if something's wrong," Ann whispered, "please. I can feel you're afraid or angry sometimes, but I can't tell why. I thought you were nervous about catching pokemon, and maybe training, but… I need you to tell me."

Valeria found herself shaking her head. She wasn't even sure what there was to tell.

"You can't tell me that I should understand. I can't read thoughts. I don't know if it's me, if it's… Gengar, if…"

Ann's voice had gone hoarse, her fists were balled. She looked… scared. For real. Valeria flinched. She knew she had to say something.

"Gengar tells me nothing. He just leaves, explores, comes back." Probably spied on everyone… He'd struck her as sulking a little ever since she'd not said 'well done' for telling them Rosie was feeling real bad about losing the festival and her journey ending. He said he needed time to 'assess', whatever that meant. At least, he didn't sound like he wanted to leave.

"Okay, so it's not him. What is it, then?"

"Ann, our pokemon are great. Training's great." She forced herself to smile. The smile became true, because it wasn't a lie. Not most of the time. "I'm fine. I… I'd tell you. I… need words to explain it before I can, though."

'Feelings come easier than words. Words you have to go find,' Dr. Fiori had said.

Anabel stared for almost too long. In the end, she nodded, shyly smiling back.

Next chapter, Talking it Out, will be up in ten days.