Steven stared at his distorted reflection in the plates of his Skarmory's back as he mentally reflected on the situation at hand. This was far from the first time his mind made that 'reflection' joke, even though there was never anyone to share it with and he realized he shouldn't have found it that amusing to begin with. He supposed he may have just been a little weak for puns in general…

Some may have argued this was hardly the time for humor, but the momentary levity hardly detracted from the gravity of the threats at hand; it just made it easier to breathe for a moment. And Steven could hardly give credence to any who would argue that was a bad thing- especially with everything at stake.

All his research, both before all this started and in these past few days, suggested that Primal Reversion was similar to but much, much more powerful than Mega Evolution. And with two creatures already considered high-tier gods as the starting point… There was still so much to be done, both to try to prevent either from being awakened and to have precautionary measures in place if they were.

Currently, he soared over Route 120- oblivious to the association the route would gain in about a week's time. Morgan had only just left Fortree this morning, if she'd done so at all yet, while Sera had left some time yesterday.

And speak of the manic pink devil… "Mercury, take us down," Steven requested.

Of course.

As they descended, he noted that Sera seemed to be just… standing there. Or rather, she looked like she was? Feigning distress? It was too dramatic to be sincere, and her Shiftry didn't seem to be responding to whatever it was, but…

He could have allowed Mercury to land and slid down like a reasonable person, but that wasn't nearly so fun as dramatically dropping to the ground and striking a bold landing pose as Mercury looped back around to land beside him. Nor did it make so strong an impression, which was very much his intent at the moment.

Sera startled at the sound and perhaps the rush of wind from Mercury zooming by so close overhead, but was visibly relieved when she saw the source. "Arceus, you scared me. To what do I owe the-" She stopped mid-sentence and glanced to her Nav, which was floating unhindered. "Ah…?"

But Steven shook his head. "It's fine. I know what I'm doing." As Sera gave a small sound of acknowledgement, Steven's eyes fell to the broken line of blatant red zigzags behind her- or what travel-direction-wise had been in front of her. "But first, what are you doing…?"

"Oh!" exclaimed Sera. "You see, I was just…" She lay the back of her hand against her forehead. "Ever so distraught, trying to figure out how on earth to get around this… invisible barrier!"

Steven deadpanned. "... Sera. You know tho-" She quickly positioned herself such that her back was to the line again and discreetly placed a finger to her lips, cutting him off. Steven's eyes dropped for a moment to the Shiftry, who just shrugged, before moving back to Sera.

"Indeed! Alas, curse my rotten luck, that I might be plagued by so insurmountable an obstacle!"

… But they were Kecleon. They were blatantly Kecleon. There was no way the professor's daughter didn't know this. "...Right. So should I just go on with the reason for my visit or-"

Sera let out a sudden sharp gasp. "Wait! I know! I'll have to use my trusty… Devon Scope!" Her what? She dug through her bag and retrieved what was very blatantly a flimsy masquerade mask, complete with feather decorations. The body was probably thick paper or thin plastic or something. "Through the power of science, even the most invisible of objects shall become completely visible!"

"... Sera."

She held the mask to her face- the mask with actual holes for eyes, not even any sort of lenses- and gasped again. "My oh my! It's a horde of Kecleon! I never would have guessed!"

She's onto us! one Kecleon exclaimed.

Run for it! panicked another. The lot of them quickly dispersed, leaving the pathway clear once again.

Once they were gone, Steven wasn't sure what to make of the whole ordeal. "You know, I'm fairly certain that simple infrared would suffice for most stealth detection needs." The mechanics required to make something universally un-invisible- especially given Kecleon used a different method than Latios and Latias, proving at least two-or-more different methods would need to be deconstructed- sounded like an impractical nightmare.

"Yeah, I know," Sera shrugged with a bright smile. "But it makes them so happy to think their camouflage actually worked." She giggled.

Steven rolled his eyes. It was a sweet gesture in theory, but he was sure they'd appreciate it far less when they expected their stripes to be equally invisible to predators only to find they weren't so lucky. "...Anyway," he went on. "I need to talk to you for a moment about Team Aqua and Team Magma."

Sera bristled, her mirth quickly draining. "... What is it?"

He looked more directly at her Nav, now. "As bold as they're becoming, we can no longer continue sweeping incidents under the rug. I've done a lot of thinking these past few days, and I believe the public needs to understand that recent events involving either team have not been isolated incidents. They are both very real and current threats, but I also want to give my solemn vow that the Pokemon League has at last fully acknowledged this fact and will be devoting itself whole-heartedly to keeping the people of Hoenn safe."

Sera looked between him and the Nav, understanding that he wasn't exactly speaking to her, expression questioning that fact.

Steven forced a hint of a smile through an otherwise somber expression as he finally turned to her. "And you… Understand that you are only one trainer, and as strong as you've grown, you do have limits. I don't want to see you running off to chase the enemy into the abyss alone again," he warned.

"Ah… R-right…" Sera's eyes fell to the ground.

"However…"

She quickly looked back up. "Hm?"

"It has become quite obvious that neither you nor Morgan are very good at staying out of trouble when you come across it, so rather than continuing to ask you to do so, what I want to ask now is for you to please proceed with caution, and try not to get in over your head."

Sera's eyes grew wide. "Yes, of course!"

Steven nodded firmly, then reached in his pocket to produce a piece of Swampertite. "This should help keep you safe," he explained. What he didn't say was that certain colleagues- particularly one fussy Sootopolitan- had maybe perhaps convinced him that giving Morgan that Sceptilite the other day may have been too strong a display of "favoritism" and may have been slightly less than kosher as a result. Not that they would have even known if Steven hadn't opened his big mouth… So this would both give Sera an edge over the team with whom her path seemed to cross most often and put an end to that criticism.

He looked back 'into the camera'. "People of Hoenn," he began, "I hereby promise you as your Champion that I, Steven Stone, with the help of the entire League and brave upstanding trainers like Sera Birch and Morgan Fayel, will protect this great land from those who would see it in ruin." He shifted into a slow, confident smile. Part of it was to convey assurance to the audience, but part was far more sincere. Rumors may have started to spread already; he couldn't be sure. But this still technically counted as his officially publicly coming out… and by doing it when and how he had, hopefully most people would be too busy dealing with all the other information he was dropping to spend much time caring.

After all, they may or may not edit Sera's playback footage soon, but the live broadcasting aspect meant enough people would have seen it to get word out; definitely preferable to a press conference that might be edited before ever being seen and which would certainly have had many more questions thrown at him. This way, he had to explain neither himself nor more about the impending threats than he wanted to just now.

And speaking of said threats, the documents with what research he'd gathered should be arriving at Devon some time today, which would give his father something much more urgent to consider than his heir's public image. By the time he had time to worry about what people would think of Steven, hopefully most people would care more about 'the Champion who helped save the world' than 'the trans Champion'.

"Each of us must do our part," he went on. "So remember. If you see anyone who looks to be affiliated with either team, report it to the authorities at once. Together, we can keep our homeland safe. For no force shy of the gods themselves is strong enough to break the will of Hoenn." He breathed a quiet, hopeful sigh.

With any luck, this informal address would incite more determined vigilance than panic. And ideally, Devon would roll with it from here. He was certain his father would have fought him on the matter, but Steven did tend to be a fan of that whole saying about forgiveness versus permission. Now the options were to either back him up or to try to push the issues back under the rug from which Steven had unearthed them, sending the people mixed signals about their leadership. President Stone was an overly cautious, manipulative bastard, but he was not a fool.

Steven would have thanked the gods that there was such a prestigious pair competing in the Games right now to exploit, were some of the gods not precisely the problem…

When his speech had ended, he and Sera both stood somewhat awkwardly. "...Sooo," she said at last, "did you need me for anything else, or…?"

Steven thought it over, but shook his head. "No, I don't believe so. Other than to wish you luck, and to implore you once again to stay safe."

Sera nodded. "Don't worry about me. I've held my own against Maxie, and I get the feeling I've had more time to focus on training than he has since then."

"Mm… A fair point, but all the same, do avoid unnecessary risks if you can." As a thought came to mind, Steven smirked. "I imagine your father's already going to be after my hide for condoning you being part of the front lines at all."

Sera's laugh seemed a little forced, but any thought he may have had about it was soon dispelled as she looked him over and flashed him what he could only describe as a come-hither smile. "Though you know… If you really want to make sure I stay safe, I could think of worse company~"

Steven raised an eyebrow, then dismissively chuckled. "Cute. But I'm afraid you're not quite my type." ...Come to think, apparently his type was 'androgynous, snarky, and bitter as a Durin berry'. When did that happen... Though ah- also, not nearly-a-decade-younger-than-him, he supposed… even if… Morgan wasn't much better…

"Boooo," Sera faux-pouted before giggling. "Can't blame a girl for trying."

He could actually think of quite a few reasons he could, but he supposed he'd hold his tongue for now. Instead, he just offered her a polite nod as he climbed back atop Mercury. "There's still much to be done, so I'm off. Good luck again."

"You too~"

The Skarmory took flight, and Steven headed east to the next stop on his list.

A/N: Kind of a short chapter, but I figured (a) Steven PoV being on its own made sense enough, and (b) I really should update to clarify that last chapter wasn't the end; I just lost steam at the worst possible time, eheh. Morgan will be back in due time.