Steven certainly was something, wasn't he? After he left, Sera brought out the Absol she'd caught earlier that morning, whom she had promptly named Snow White. Pelt found it amusing that his fur was equally white since evolving, but, of course, said nothing.

"Do you really think we have a chance, Snow?" Sera consulted the borderline prophetic beast.

I'm afraid I cannot see the future in detail, the Absol answered. Usually premonitions are as vague as 'something bad is coming in this general area'. When we are fortunate, a fleeting glimpse might accompany this feeling, but it's an out-of-context snap shot. We cannot see the details surrounding it.

Mmm… "And… you say I was in such a snapshot for you?" she asked.

Snow nodded. I don't know how you're involved or your odds of success. But I know if you are to face the threat to come, I want to lend what support I am able. So to answer, I cannot say whether or not you truly 'have a chance'. ...But I hope you do, and for now, that is all we can do.

Sera hummed softly to herself. She supposed that was true. She'd always believed that when the future looked uncertain, the best thing one could do was keep trying as if the effort would ensure things would work out in the end. … She'd just… never had her own future look quite this uncertain before…

The sound of her Nav ringing made Sera jump, and she beckoned the machine closer to s- It was dad calling… She cursed under her breath, knowing anyone watching would be able to see she'd checked the Nav, so just ignoring the call would be too obvious. So she answered.

She did her best to paste on a smile when the immediate tirade began Of course, now it was both berating (yet again) for chasing Tabitha the other day and new raving about how she'd better not dare be thinking of taking that so-called "League permission" to keep getting involved in Team affairs, and-

"D-dad?" Sera feigned. "I'm sorry, the signal's kind of shaky here, I can't really hear you. Hello?" It took a moment, but Pelt quickly caught on, using his Extrasensory to first tamper with the signal for about ten seconds, then cut it off entirely for just a few more. Just long enough to drop the call. Sera smiled her quiet thanks to him, then turned the ringer volume down on her Nav before continuing.

Route 120 was pretty long, wasn't it? Sera knew this, but the density of the foliage made it take that much longer to traverse. Of course, Sapphron could have Levitated over it, but she didn't want any accusations of cheating. Which was to say, she'd already gotten a slight warning to tone that back, and didn't want to risk them trying to revoke her ability to use Sapphron at all when she really needed him…

Besides, it was only her fourth day here, and since Morgan had been lingering trying to find a Shiny Absol she'd spotted for the past three, Sera could afford to take a little longer traveling than she might have. She'd just… have to hope if anyone was on their way to Mt. Pyre, they'd be at least as slow as she was. Yeah… Tabitha said they'd be on foot, right? So… she'd just keep telling herself slow and steady was better than drawing suspicion or ire.

If there was one thing helping, it was that wild Pokemon encounters seemed to be scarcer than expected. "Helping" was a relative term, as it did get her a little spooked, but at least she wasn't stopping to battle every ten minutes.

Once, though, she was approached very directly, by an Absol significantly larger than Snow White. Flash took a threatening stance as he approached, but Sera stilled him, sensing no malice from the creature.

You are Sera, he stated, almost but not quite a question. You have made contact with the dragon clan. Sera could only assume he meant Latios and his kin.

"I am," she responded.

Wait here, he commanded. Sera wasn't sure what to make of that, and Flash didn't care for taking orders from a wild Pokemon, but within a minute of bounding off, the Absol had returned, a small circular stone in his mouth. For a moment, Sera wondered if he was conveniently providing her with an Absolite, but as she took it, she found it larger and altogether different in appearance from any Mega Stone she'd seen. You should take this. I have a feeling you will need it.

As she looked it over, she nearly asked what it was before a bell finally rang faintly in the back of her mind. "Is this a Life Orb?" The Absol nodded. "But… doesn't that hurt Pokemon who use it?"

It empowers our attacks by infusing our very life energy into each one, he clarified. So, yes, it does.

Sera bit her lip. "I'd… really rather not use something like that if I don't have to," she admitted.

Keep it, the Absol insisted. ...For a rainy day.

Sera hesitated a few moments more, but then nodded. She supposed desperate times called for desperate measures, and it didn't really get much more desperate than the potential apocalypse. Should it come to it… Well, she hoped it didn't, but she'd be ready.

"Thank you, Absol."

Thankfully, her trip wasn't all doom and gloom. On her fourth night, she found a Secret Base in which she could camp and try to call Tabitha again, but quickly found it was claimed, and its owner home.

Upon spotting the Key Stone hanging from her neck (her bracelet having been modified and melded into a choker), the trainer, Qypsy, agreed to let her stay, but only if she'd have a battle with him. Apparently, he, too, was a Mega User, and hadn't been able to face another trainer with the ability in years. Sera found this a fair trade, leaving her Nav with Pelt and Tank inside the base while the trainers found a spacious area outside.

Qypsy sent out, to her surprise, a Blaziken. Sera wished she'd waited just a moment to be able to answer with Flash, but Sapphron was already materializing by the time she saw the opposing Pokemon. Oh well. Qypsy promptly Mega Evolved his Blaziken, and Sera bit the inside of her mouth. Still, not wanting to give him a free shot by switching or be outdone by waiting too long to echo the transformation, she opted to Mega Evolve Sapphron instead, telling herself a Mega Legend was even more prestigious anyway.

The battle was surprisingly close, but when Sapphron pulled through, Sera agreed they could both switch Pokemon for a fresh round. "Now, let me show you what a real starter looks like~!" she boasted, eager to see the look on his face when he saw her Shiny Blaziken.

Sera retrieved Flash's ball, and Qypsy his next Pokemon's. In unison, they sent them out, and Flash materialized across from-

A Shiny Sceptile…

…

Sera stared in silence for a moment before simply bursting into uncontrollable laughter. What were the ODDS… It was nearly five minutes before she was able to continue the battle, and although she eventually won, that honestly paled in comparison to just… this experience. Wow. Wow… Just. WOW.

Upon finally getting to Route 121, Sera quickly caught a Shuppet. While she'd always found them sort of cute, it didn't seem very immediately helpful and the chance of something more useful felt worth taking. So she Wonder Traded it off, and received…

A Makuhita…

She could practically feel Wings rolling in his grave, and tried to crack a grim smile at the thought, but... She really… really hoped Tabitha was okay…

Two more days brought her nearly to the base of Mt. Pyre. She was already growing nervous, even if things still seemed quiet and peaceful, just knowing she'd soon be going off script and be facing questions about that. Of course she knew she could get away with going in general. She'd lost Pokemon on this journey, and it was a sacred place. Paying her respects would be fine. ...But if she had to wait around, how long would they humor her? Ih…

However, as Sera approached the dock, she overheard a conversation that made her heart stop.

"I'm telling you, it was definitely Aqua. I know what I saw." It was a child.

"Yeah! They said something about getting the oars before Magma!" Another child, a little younger than the first.

"That's stupid," said the elder. "Why would Magma need a boat, let alone a rowboat?"

"I don't know, but that's what they said!" insisted the younger.

"Hush," their presumably-mother scolded. "Now isn't the time for stories. Do you want to start a panic?"

But Sera didn't stick around to hear more. She entirely believed the children, except she was fairly certain what had been said was Orbs. So, while some twenty people lingered around the docks waiting for the Ferry service to Mt. Pyre, Sera opted to take the express route, hopping on Tank to surf across instead.

A Tentacool did momentarily impede her progress, but it was quickly caught and traded for… A Duskull did not feel like a promising sign right now… But, doing her best to steel herself, Sera pressed onward.

Mt. Pyre was terrifying in far more ways than she expected. The singular monolith felt much more imposing than the mountain ranges she'd seen in the past, to start. A thick aura hung around the place that made her shudder, but that wasn't even the worst of it.

There were just… so many people here? She'd always known what Mt. Pyre was, but she assumed it was mostly filled by Pokemon who had died of old age or occasionally Game competitors'... The amount of young trainers here was…

She didn't have time to dwell on this.

She scoured the tower and the mountain, inside out, finding it impossible to progress after a certain point, but that was good. Whatever mysterious Seal kept the orbs safe was still in place, and even if Aqua had apparently been skulking around recently, she found no sign they'd been here yet.

...But now what? Could she afford to wait? Especially with how much heat Morgan was starting to get for her delays recently… Though that brought up a good point: Morgan was still headed this way. Maybe if Sera could encourage her to hurry and swing by this way, she could linger for a day or two and have Morgan fast approaching by the time she was ready to leave.

However, when she tried to call, Morgan didn't seem interested, and quickly hung up on her. ...That. really did not feel like a good sign…

And, truth be told, Sera was getting more spooked the longer she was here. She really didn't want to try to spend the night in the cemetery… So, instead, she made sure big brother wouldn't be watching before asking about half the staff of the tower to register her number and call her if anything should come up, bluffing that her Absol seemed concerned about the tower rather than admit the true nature of her worries. Most seemed content enough to buy it, and even the skeptics still weren't going to turn down the opportunity to have a strong trainer on call 'just in case'.

Once that was done, Sera… figured she may as well actually pay her respects. Koaf, Pikachu, Wings… None of them were actually buried here, but even still…

How many times had she revived now? Two, three? If she was… very, very lucky, maybe she could still bring them all back at the end of all this, but… There was still a long road ahead…

She wished she could bring all her Pokemon out, but given that would have been both crowded and arguably inappropriate, she stuck to just Flash for now. He placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her close. Hey… It'll be okay. We'll find a way.

She nodded, but she was still trying to convince herself. "I hope you're right…"

When has our bond ever failed us before? he asked. That was true… Steven had warned them when he explained how to use their new Key Stones that Mega Evolution could sometimes have… adverse effects on the Pokemon, especially when they weren't used to the process. Sapphron and Andraste had been bound to their Mega Stones so long, they were never a concern, but Pokemon like Flash and Mithril…? Well, Steven had assured them that if their bond was powerful enough, they should get through any issues soon enough, but so far, Flash seemed to take to it like a Luvdisc to water.

Not.. that Sera 'needed' some sort of 'scientific proof' that their bond was uncannily strong, or anything. But, well, having more than just her heart to tell her how much power could be derived from that was still reassuring right now.

As Flash looked up from their embrace, he smiled and prompted, Ah, Sera. It seems you have a little fan.

Sera followed his gaze to a young girl in a pink dress, who promptly argued, "I'm not that little!"

Sera giggled and started to reply, only to belatedly realized what prompted that exclamation. As her eyes grew wide, she asked, "Wait! Can you hear him?"

The little girl's eyes seemed to fill with sparkles. "So I was right…!" The glistening soon revealed itself to be a result of watering as the girl began to tear up a little. "When I told everyone I could talk with Pokemon, they became concerned for me… But you… you can too, right? I've seen the way you carry on with them on tv, and… I have to be right… right?"

Sera had teared up now herself, promptly dropping to her knees and hugging the child, before realizing that could be taken very poorly if any of her family was around and quickly putting a more appropriate distance between them again. Too affectionate and she'd be a creep, but a celeb giving a young fan a quick hug was fine right? She was gonna tell herself that… But! Priorities! "I can, and I promise, you have nothing to be concerned about! People don't believe me most of the time, either, but…"

As she debated what to say, Flash suddenly blurted, Meteor Mash.

""Meteor Mash?"" asked the girls in unison, before Sera realized what he was doing and gasped in delight. "Ah, see! We both heard that! The same thing! What would be the odds if it was all in our heads?"

The little girl smiled brightly, and she and Sera ended up talking for nearly an hour before the girl's father finally came by. "Sweetie, we're ready t- Oh? Oh my, you're Sera Birch, aren't you? Momo's a big fan of yours. Ah- she hasn't been bothering you, has she?"

"Not at all!" exclaimed Sera. "She's an absolute delight." Momo giggled as Sera ruffled her hair. "But I guess you need to go now, huh?"

Momo frowned for a moment, but then smiled again. "Hey! Before I do, could we have a battle?" Her father conceded they probably had a little time before the ferry left, and Sera thought perhaps riding the ferry back to the mainland rather than surfing now that she wasn't in such a hurry sounded all right, so… who was she to deny a fan?

They headed outside so as not to disturb the other visitors, and near the dock Momo sent out her Jigglypuff. Sera decided Pelt had been lagging behind the others a bit in terms of raw power lately, so he could both use the training and would provide a little easier opponent for Momo.

"Ah~! Hi, Pelt!" she exclaimed. "He's one of my favorites!"

"...Mine too," Sera admitted sheepishly. "Not that I don't love all my Pokemon a lot, of course~" But Tank, Flash, Pelt, and… she supposed Sapphron had a lot of potential since she'd met him. They held a bit of an extra special place in her heart.

Sera checked her Nav- still offline given the location, but the battle interface still working fine as a local service- and offered Momo the first move. Wake-Up Slap wasn't a bad choice at all, though with Pelt already being wide awake it didn't hurt too much.

Pelt followed the move with a Leaf Blade-

And Sera's breath caught in her lungs as her Nav beeped urgently. Critical Hit...

"My Pokemon! You aren't in pain, are you?" Momo rushed forward, but Sera was staggering backwards, hands pressed to her mouth, tears forming in her eyes. She… she didn't… of all the accidents they'd had, she…

Pelt wasn't sure what to do either, just shuffling awkwardly, and the girl's father stood in shock as well. When Sera finally tried to step forward, Momo began mumbling without looking up from her Jigglypuff. "It's more fun to be with Pokemon than to talk to people…" Sera… could feel this, from the depths of her soul. As friendly as she tried to be with people, and as much as she craved human company at times, given the choice on the average day… "Battling with Trainers… might be a bit fun though…"

...Suddenly, this child had become incredibly creepy, and while Sera told herself she was probably just in shock and not really thinking about what she was saying, she still didn't really feel like waiting for the ferry to get out of here anymore. So she just um… She made her way to the girl's father, apologizing, and giving him enough money for a Revive and then some, and her contact information so she could approve the purchase if they wouldn't sell to him directly. She didn't… have a lot of Revive credits to start with, but… she would not have been able to live with something like this on her conscience.

After apologizing profusely again, she recalled Pelt and Flash and sent out Tank, eager to get away as quickly as possible.

Sera had traveled late into the night to get to Lilycove rather than camping, crashing late and sleeping in late as a result. She'd expected the only way for today to be worse than yesterday was for her to get word from Mt. Pyre, but the call that woke her-

"She did WHAT?"

No, no no no no, Morgan, what? How were they supposed to… Ohhh, Sera really, really hoped this was some kind of long con Morgan was pulling… She wouldn't really just abandon everyone, would she…?

It wasn't, and she would.

In fact, while Morgan still intended to hunt down that elusive Absol, she'd left Route 120 for now, at least after convincing Andraste that everything would be fine. The only rules they were breaking were Devon's and the League's, after all. And as much division as there seemed to be in the League… Well, honestly, if Steven stepped up and got things under control, part of her all but assumed he'd understand and grant her pardon; he didn't like the Games anyway.

And if not, things would still be fine. They could get by out here, and if they ran into trouble, they could still tackle it, even easier without the League holding their collective leash, for that matter.

Andraste was skeptic, but she admired Morgan's conviction, and… she supposed she could agree that the system as it existed- as she'd seen it thus far- did not seem like a desirable one to be a part of...

Admittedly, Mithril may have helped convince her, too. Xe was becoming very persuasive.

So, with a little help from them, Kitsun, and the Guild, Morgan was able to retrieve all the Pokemon she owned to move to her own personal storage in her new Secret Base, set up way out in the middle of nowhere. Not that she'd have bothered storing them at all if she could be sure how her Exp Share would react to more than six Pokemon, but she supposed six was plenty to ensure she could continue training at the rate she had been. And with more and more excursions into the Wilds now, that rate was faster than ever.

Morgan had a feeling she would like this new routine. Wake up in her base, fly out to the Berry Gardens for a while, battle some Pokemon, go search for that Absol, battle some more, heal everyone with berries, head back to base. Wake up, berries, battles, sear- OH!

She… She actually found it!? It had taken nearly two weeks of searching, but she was so happy! Honestly, the only downside to her new solitary lifestyle was her inability to rub Peppermint's gorgeous pink and red coloration in Sera's face.