AN: I want to thank you all for all the favorites and follows! You guys are awesome! But, I would like to know what you guys think about my update schedule. I've been trying to update every 2 out of 3 days, and usually about 1.5-2k words per chapter. I was wondering what you guys thought. I put a poll up on my profile, if you have time, please try and respond if you have time.

Everest and Damien were smiling. Probably for the first time in awhile. Earlier that morning, they left Anistar. It wasn't often that they came across performers, and, today just happened to be one of those days.

They had been walking along, Swinub was scooting around on the ground, sniffing something. Meanwhile, Damien and Everest were content discussing possible Eevee evolutions, mainly for Shawn's sake. However, they heard yelling from off of the path.

"Come one, come all! And witness, the amazing, astounding feats of Greenie and Petals!" Curious, Everest and Damien shared a look before leaving the path for the woods. It wasn't deep in the forest, that they found the announcer.

There was a girl there, her brown hair reached all the way down to her waist. Facing away from the pair, Everest could only observe so much. She had a huge, silver top hat on her head, tilted to the left, clearly too big, but it made her look interesting. She had a tight dark-blue dress hanging on her, but it looked kind of steam punk, with different potions hanging off of her waist. It was tight across her torso, and at the waist it flared out, coming off of her in waves.

Watching on in amazement, the girl nodded to the Sewaddle on the ground, who shot a single string of webbing across two trees. The string hung about 20 feet in the air, and they watched amazed as the girl threw a Petil in the air. It landed gracefully on the line, not wobbling what-so-ever.

"Now watch in amazement, as Petals can complete the walk, even with a strong silver wind." As promised, the small grass type walked gracefully across the web as her Sewaddle blew the sparkles of Silver wind against the pokémon. It didn't take long for the Pokémon to finish, before jumping off directly into the girl's hands.

"Nice! That was so cool!" Everest found herself clapping for the stranger, who turned to greet the newcomers. Her eyes were wide with surprise, a blush on her cheeks.

"I agree. Your Petil must be pretty strong to be able to do that." Damien agreed, and they walked closer to the girl. Damien outstretched his hand in greeting. "My name is Damien, and this is Everest. We heard you fro the path, and wanted to see." He explained fluidly, and her cheeks burned even brighter after she shook Damien's hand, and held out hers for Everest.

"Oh, it's nothing special really. My name is Maty." Her brown hair covered one eye, on her shoulder, her Sewaddle was sizing up Damien. In one hand, she held a silver staff with a purple gem at the top. In her other, she supported Petil's weight. "We're trying to introduce a new kind of performance, one where you don't have to perform for ribbons. Just for fun." Maty explained.

"Well, I think that sounds pretty cool. And, judging by what we saw here, I think you totally have a chance!" It was true, the the girl looked so natural at it while she commanded her pokémon with ease. Joined with the fact that they followed every word, that certainly helped a lot too.

"Thank you! That means a lot! We've got a long ways to go though, don't we guys?" Petil squeaked in agreement, while Sewaddle started to pout. Chuckling at the attitude, Everest couldn't help but be reminded of her own snarky friends.

"There's always room for improvement. Come on out Icee." In a flurry of ice and snow, her recently evolved Eevee appeared, looking at the newest human curiously. "This is one of my pokémon. So, do you have any others?" Maty nodded, a grin on her face, and she called out her other pokémon.

"This one is B. He's the evolved version of Froakie, Frogadeir." She smiled proudly, hands at her hips, and the trainers watched in amusement as B followed her posture, and did the same.

"So, are you collecting all the gym badges? Or, doing showcases?" Even if she was trying a new thing, didn't mean she wasn't doing normal competitions, otherwise, why would she be in the middle of nowhere?

"A bit of both, wanna try my hand in everything. So far, I've only got one badge though." The girl took off her hat to show off the Iceberg Badge.

"Wow! You beat Snowbelle! I've heard that's one of the most difficult!" With new respect for the girl, Everest was surprised. Perhaps she and Damien could beat it as well.

"Well, honestly, B and I got lucky. We were about to loose, for the second time in fact, when suddenly, he evolved! Mainly running on adrenaline that we won." Maty shrugged, but had a mischievous look on her face. "So I suppose that means we're gonna be rivals now?"

"Of course! We're going to Snowbelle next. You must be headed to Anistar then?" Damien sounded so proud and excited, they couldn't be the only ones in the running after all.

"Yep. Olympia won't know what hit her with Greeny on my side." Said Sewaddle was currently chewing on her hat, but she ignored it, before she pulled out her Pdex. "Don't suppose I could get your numbers? It's been a lonely road." Everest nodded excitedly and took out her own, hoping that it would cooperate.

**ESIBS**

All the way across the region, there was a secret meeting being held. Each person present had come up with an excuse as to why they needed to be absent for a day, and it was hidden knowledge. No one needed to know that all eight gym leaders, as well as all of the Elite Four had gathered in one spot.

They were definitely an odd group, one that you would never expect to see in public all together. They were all so different, but, they had a couple things in common. The main one? They all were well aware that Kalos was falling apart.

"This is all ridiculous!" Siebold snapped, hands hitting the table as he stood up, his normally calm demeanor was gone. "Her incompetence has costed the lives of all of Dendemille."

"We all know that! It isn't her ability in question! It's what we are going to do about it!" Valerie's high pitched voice cut through the room like a knife, her stare a challenge for anyone to argue.

"This is just another test for us, another wall to get over. It will be a challenge, but we will persevere." Grant cut in, waving his hand.

"We don't need a stupid metaphor right now! We need a solution! None of us are powerful enough to beat Diantha!" Korrina yelled, bristling in anger. Her usual helmet and skates were gone, in its place were a more formal attire.

"Please. Friends. Yelling isn't helping. I have a solution, that is why I called you all here today." Olympia stood above the angry group, and, they all calmed, ready to listen. "Viola, Clement, and I have all been challenged by a trainer, her name is Everest. I've had visions of her battling with Diantha. She has great promise, and has only just started." The woman began, pulling up an image of the girl. She may or may not have taken pictures of the girl during their battle.

"Isn't she one of the trainers who discovered Dendemille?" Drasna asked, suddenly a part of the conversation. Leaning forward, she tried to remember what the Ranger reports said.

"Yes, she and her traveling companion crossed over route 17 in one night, without Mamoswine." That drew all of their attention. That wasn't something to ignore.

"So, what do you recommend, Olympia? We allow a small child fight our battles for us?" Malva sneered. That wouldn't look good either? Right?

"No, that is good, imagine the headlines. New trainer defeats champion. That would draw everyone's attention!" Clemont murmured excitedly.

"If we were to just happen to go out of our way to help her, we could hurry the process a bit. Not to mention, she's been targeted by team Rocket, she's already defeated them once. She's powerful, new trainer or not." Ramos' wise voice cut in, and quiet murmurs of agreement went up.

"But, do you truly believe she's that powerful Olympia? We don't have years to waste trying to train her up. If we have better chances to try and get a Legendary-" Malva began, and didn't take long for her to be cut off.

"Not this again Malva. We are not capturing a Legendary!" Siebold frowned, sneering. It was an awful plan, not only would they be trying to capture an uncontrollable entity, but when it turned its anger back on the humans, they could be in an even worse situation than before.

"I truly believe that this is the best way. She's powerful, and not only that, but she cares deeply for her pokémon. She has a pokémon in her care that was abused and tortured by a poacher. In her care, it has flourished." They all remained silent, letting the past few years events fall over them. How exactly had they let this happen?

These were supposed to be the protectors of Kalos, and… now? They were depending on a new trainer. But, there was hope in their hearts where there hadn't been for a long time.

**DEDRS**

"If I ever see another Durant, it will be too soon."After talking with Maty for awhile, they had parted ways, promising to keep in touch. After that, it was a three day walk to the next town, through a Durant infested route, which were dangerous when angered, which led to many long runs under the sun, trying to get away from them. And finally, Couriway Town was in sight.