Author's Opening Notes:
This is another chapter that was painfully difficult to revise but luckily I had an extra half of a month plus an extra week to work on it in tandem with the month that I gave myself. Therefore I feel that I was able to put the most into this chapter that I could and make the passage of time seem decently realistic between each scene. I hope you find it that way as well.

Off-topic, I haven't even acknowledged the new Sinnoh games that are coming to Nintendo Switch. Happy 25th anniversary to the Pokémon franchise. So far the graphics are the only thing that concerns me about the new games, more so with Legends Arceus. But as for the Diamond and Pearl Remakes, I'm relatively satisfied with what they've shown so far. And I look forward to seeing how much they improve.

I would also like to address once again that this story doesn't exactly suit everyone's reading pleasure. In regards to the action and pace, it starts very slow and there aren't as many battles in the beginning as some may prefer for the sections of the story involving the main protagonist, Jade. And I only get around to more interesting story elements in later chapters that she becomes involved in.

If you feel that I'm not doing anything interesting enough with my character then you don't have to feel obligated to read a book that you don't like. It's okay if you don't like my stories. I'm sure you'll enjoy somebody else's story instead of mine. But this is how I choose to write my character and unless there is a genuine mistake I make in regards to characterization, I'll simply be going about things as I please. I hope that I'm not coming off as rude by saying this.

Disclaimer:
I do not own anything related to the Pokemon franchise. Please enjoy!

Jade had only been inside of a pokemon center every so often in her life so far. When she was old enough to walk places with her father, he would travel with her through the woods with his magnemite as their protection. Then they would exit the forest and enter Santalune city, which was a small settlement but big enough to be a city as a whole. And finally, they would arrive at a pokemon center near the entryway for William to show his daughter how a pokemon was healed from any damage they may have obtained in battles.

In the present day, Jade walked into the city, passing the large stone walls around its border, and felt a small sense of nostalgia back to these times with her father. She briefly took a moment to turn her head in multiple directions to view some of the nearby buildings. They seemed to be just the same as they were the last few times that she had come down here. The only difference was that some of the buildings were starting to look a little worn down.

"Jade? How's Kory doing?" the blonde boy that had been tagging along with her asked to break the silence.

"Oh," Jade blinked at this question and returned to reality. "Uh, he's okay. Don't worry, Swoon," she replied with a nervous smile to him.

She carefully kept her bubble-frog starter pokemon, secured in her arms as she didn't want him to move very much. Despite having used many potions on his bruises to keep him healthy, she wanted a professional to take a look at the damage that he had endured after a fight with that frightening man. She couldn't let herself get lost in nostalgia at the moment. She walked forward to the pokemon center as it was directly ahead of the two newer trainers.

Upon entering the pokemon center, she found that it was a slightly different atmosphere than she had been expecting from her nostalgia. It was a bit noisier than she had found it was when she was younger. There were many other types of trainers within the building at this time, of much diversity. Both younger trainers and veteran trainers were present within the building, talking with each other or waiting for their pokemon to be healed.

"Wow." Swoon vocalized surprise as he gazed around the main lobby of the pokemon center. "I guess Sundays are busy here." he continued speaking.

"What?" Jade turned her head towards the blonde-haired boy with a confused expression. "You knew it would be this full in here?" she asked him.

"Well, no." Swoon shrugged in reply with a nervous smile. "My parents talked about how Sundays were usually busy for official pokemon centers, but I never believed them until now," he answered to her.

Jade lowered a brow, as she was still a bit confused by this information. But then she turned her head towards the front of the lobby where she saw a woman with a fancy pink hairdo behind the counter there. The brunette-haired teen took assumption based on memory that this is who people gave their pokemon to for them to be healed. Hence she began to walk forwards towards the desk, and Swoon followed after her as his pokemon needed to heal as well.

The woman, who she had assumed correctly was the nurse at the counter, caught sight of the brunette and began to smile kindly towards her. "Hello, and welcome to the pokemon center. Would you like us to heal your pokemon?" she asked the teen kindly.

"Uhm, yes please," Jade replied shyly, as she wasn't very used to speaking to people that she didn't know very well.

"Alright, place your full pokeballs onto the counter and I'll get started. It'll only take a few minutes." the nurse spoke in reply, continuing to smile kindly.

Jade nodded in reply timidly and gently placed Kory onto the counter, who stayed still as he figured that he would have to be returned to his Pokeball to be healed. His assumption was correct as the brunette pulled his pokeball out of her bag and clicked it open for him to be absorbed back into it. Then after placing his pokeball on the counter, the brunette reached back into her bag to pull out the two pokeballs that she had used to catch a scatterbug and an uncommon pokemon, being a buneary.

As the nurse took these three pokeballs and turned around to place them into a machine behind her, Swoon moved up next to the brunette with a curious expression. "So, what do you wanna do when your pokemon are healed?" he asked her with his left brow raised. "I was thinking about challenging the gym. So we could probably end up splitting off if you still wanna," he added.

Jade turned her head towards the vanilla blonde-haired boy from her hometown and smiled softly in return. "Hehe… I would appreciate it if we did part ways, yeah," she answered him.

"Are you sure you'll be okay though?" Swoon then asked with some unnecessary concerns returning to his mind. "I don't want you to get hurt out there, especially after that one guy tried to, uh..." he began to say, referring to the man that had nearly used his honedge to kill Jade if not for Swoon and his starter pokemon intervening. "...You know."

Jade sighed nervously in reply to Swoon's concerns. "I know that that guy tried to hurt Kory and me. I know that you and Kinkin had to save me as well." she began answering him. "But I don't want to look at that situation as if I'm weak and defenseless, Swoon," she said to him with a soft tone, hoping that she would begin to understand what she felt.

"I-" Swoon blinked at this with his eyes beginning to widen at her word choices. "I wasn't trying to say that you were weak," he replied in return to be clear with his brunette-haired neighbor.

"I know you weren't. And I may have made some mistakes during that battle but I don't want to always depend on others to save me either." Jade continued, smiling softly and shyly at the fact that the blonde-haired teen was listening to her now. "That's why I'd rather you go on ahead without me. I want to get stronger on my own so that I can protect myself like I want to." she finished speaking.

Swoon managed to consider her words for once and began to smile nervously at her at this. "Okay. I can accept that. I'm… I'm sorry that I worry so much about you." he answered with a nervous smile to his crush.

Jade began to smile a bit more in hearing that he understood what she wanted. "It's alright. But, also," she then began to add. "if I do manage to get strong enough to take on the gyms, can we be rivals for that?" she asked him.

"Oh. Oh!" Swoon began to grin widely at this. "Heck yes, we can! I still have to get you back anyway for your first win back in Aquacorde," he replied with a soft snicker.

Jade giggled in return to this remark. "Eheh. In that case, let's hope that I can pull my team together to win at the gym here," she replied to her blonde-haired neighbor.

"Hehe, well, you already have one more pokemon than I do, so I think you're in good shape so far. But we'll just have to see as we continue." Swoon replied with a softer laugh and started to shift away from the counter. "With that said… I think I'm gonna head out now." he decided.

"Huh?" Jade voiced a little confusion about this choice from her neighborhood friend. "Aren't you gonna let the nurse heal your pokemon?" she asked him to see what his reasoning for leaving so suddenly could be.

"Well, they've stayed in pretty good shape at the moment. I don't have a whole lot to worry about in regards to their health." Swoon replied with a nervous chuckle as he began to back away from the counter.

"Oh," Jade responded simply, finding it a bit confusing that her neighborhood friend cared more about her well-being than his pokemon's at times. "well, safe travels then." the brunette-haired teen then added to her friend with a nervous smile.

"Same to you, Jadie!" Swoon exclaimed with a sudden burst of energy, feeling himself becoming pumped for his upcoming gym battle.

Jade began to frown again, losing her smile once the boy that was crushing on her was out of sight. She still did not appreciate the nickname that he had decided to give her due to his outward and obvious crush on her. But she set this aside for now and focused on some other plans that she had. She had yet to contact her father like she said that she would when she arrived here in the city.

Hence, that was what she was going to do next. The brunette decided that she needed to give her father a call on one of the pokemon center's video chat booths. These were standard in most pokemon centers around the globe surprisingly. She sat down in front of one of the booths and dialed a number that was connected to a video chat account that her father had installed on his laptop.

Only a few seconds later would the call connect with him. The screen showed a view of her father wearing his usual worn-out lab coat, left open to show his button-up, forest green vest underneath. Something else worth noting was that his hair was a little more frazzled since hours ago in the day since she had left. Something must have happened for his hair to have gotten so unintentionally spiky.

"Jade? Ahah, hello daughter of mine! How has your journey been so far?" William greeted with a grin when seeing his daughter in his sights once again.

"Well, I, uh-" the brunette began to speak but was far too distracted for the moment by something on her father's end. "What happened to your hair?" she asked him with a confused expression.

"Oh, this?" William laughed in reply as he tried to adjust his hair with his hands. "This is a result of uncontrolled electricity. Magnemite finally evolved into a magneton about an hour ago. I had to let him out into the backyard a moment ago to test his new output strength so that he could become more used to it." he explained to her.

"Ohh." Jade laughed back softly to him, before growing a little nervous. "Uh, anyways. I've been okay, but we had some trouble with this freaky guy who attacked Swoon and me." she began to explain.

"Good word, you were attacked?" William questioned with concerns appearing in his expression. "Who was this person?" he asked with a soft yet protective frown.

"I- Uh… I don't know," Jade answered with a nervous expression. "and he was dressed strangely. He had a pokemon called Honedge with him. But Swoon's fennekin defeated it and the man ran off in the end. He was after this buneary that I caught…" she voiced her concerns towards what dangers that the pokemon that she caught may have been within previously.

"Wh-?! Alright, give me a moment to process all of this."William asked of his daughter with a soft frown in confusion. "A strange man attacked you because you caught a pokemon that can't even be located within the Kalos region... I have a bad feeling about this. That man sounds like he could have been making deals with pokemon-smugglers. The kinds of people who catch pokemon from other regions using unofficial means, and sell them for money." he hypothesized to his daughter.

Jade softly gasped at this, now understanding why the man had been so dangerous against her and her neighborhood friend. "So the buneary I found was escaping him when I caught it..." she said to herself, quietly in concern.

"It's a theory," William remarked in reply with a serious tone, still able to hear his daughter speak despite her softer volume. "You were very right to catch that buneary when you did. It'll be much safer in your hands," he explained to her.

"Um… Dad, I couldn't fully protect myself from that man." Jade told him in honesty for him to give her a more realistic set of information. "I made some mistakes and we both almost got hurt by his pokemon. And, now I don't know if I can protect myself at all after that…" she spoke, being more open and honest with her father over what she felt despite what she had said to Swoon a moment ago.

William listened to this and grew a softer expression. "Oh, dear… Well, then I suggest you train your pokemon a bit until they become stronger. You aren't a pokemon trainer now for nothing after all. You may have made some form of mistake as you said before, but we make mistakes to learn from them. So keep that in mind and find some ways to help your pokemon become stronger." he said wisely in encouragement.

Jade took this encouragement well and slowly began to smile in return. "Right. Okay, I'll do just that then." she decided with some confidence returning to her spirit quickly.

"Haha, perfect, my daughter." William laughed softly in reply to the brunette-haired teen. "Oh, and here's a little more advice. I hear that they have a decent pokemon-battle-park where trainers come regularly to train their pokemon. That may be a good place to get a start at training." he suggested to her.

Jade raised her right eyebrow at this suggestion and smiled back. "I'll keep that in mind, thanks a lot," she replied to her father.

"Excuse me, pokemon trainer Jade Dobson, are you in the building?" the nurse at the counter suddenly spoke up, setting a small tray of three pokeballs onto the counter. "Your pokemon have finished their recovery! Please pick them up at the counter!" she continued to voice.

The brunette-haired girl overheard this and looked over her shoulder towards the counter, before returning her gaze to the booth-screen with a nervous smile. "I think I better go. My pokemon are healed now," she told her father.

"Ah." William laughed softly in return to this. "Well, I certainly hope that you can find a way to make progress with your pokemon training. I do not doubt that you'll think of something," he said to his daughter encouragingly.

Jade nodded softly in reply with a kind smile. "I'll call you again some other time. Bye, Dad," she replied to her father softly and gave him a soft wave goodbye, and reached forward to shut off the screen.

"Farewell, for now, my daughter," William replied with a bright smile. "I wish you the best of luck," he added afterward, just before his daughter could shut off the monitor.

The young brunette trainer had released Kory from his pokeball soon after obtaining him. And the two of them were now traveling through the streets of Santalune city to locate this training-ground location that her father had informed her of. On the way through the city, she would take notice of many other people who were outdoors as well, enjoying life with their pokemon.

"People genuinely love pokemon around here… I guess I'm no different." Jade quietly said to herself and her partner pokemon, making herself smile lightly.

Kory in response snickered gently nuzzled his cheek into Jade's in return, making her giggle softly in return as they walked along the sidewalk. But eventually, they caught the sound of some louder noises in the distance. The brunette-haired girl began to follow these noises curiously along the streets until they became louder. And her eyes glowed a bit as she stopped moving after a while and stared at what she saw across the street.

She spotted a large dirt field with white outlines of a rectangle around it and a pokeball-symbol in the center of this field. This was presumably the training grounds of the city. The big indicator towards this was that there was a young man with light-brown, bushy hair standing between a pair of pokemon that presumably belonged to him. One of them was a rare fox pokemon called a ninetales, which was uncommon in the Kalos region. The other pokemon in question was a quilladin, being the evolved form of the grass-type starter chespin.

"Quilladin, don't stop rolling till you sweat! We need to be ready for tomorrow!" the bushy-haired teen male exclaimed to his grass-type pokemon with a smile within his eager expression, before turning towards his fire-type next. "Ninetales, do your best to dodge these attacks from Quilladin!" he said to the other pokemon on the field.

The two pokemon did as they were instructed. The grass-type starter spun forward like a massive boulder and propelled himself forward with much momentum. The fire-type across from him meanwhile leaped quite gracefully out of the way of this nimble yet potent spin-attack. Her paws landed onto the dirt of the field again and continued this action when the quilladin rolled back towards her in a rush of acceleration.

"Yes, that is perfect, so keep it up!" the bushy-haired teen continued to speak to his pokemon with an enthusiastic smile on his face as he observed them.

Meanwhile, Jade decided to cross the street and observed the teen and his pokemon from a closer distance. The light brown-haired teen was standing in the middle of the field and allowing his two pokemon to spar with each other. And the brunette-haired girl grew more fascinated by the boy's ability to command both of his pokemon at once as she approached.

However, a mistake on the quilladin's part then transpired. The bushy-haired teen's ninetales did manage to leap and avoid the incoming attack. But his quilladin failed to stop moving in a set direction and now went hurtling towards the brunette-haired girl and her partner froakie. The grass-type would ram into the girl with a loud thud and knock her onto her back, though luckily Kory managed to leap away before he could be hit as well.

"Gah!" The bushy-haired boy reacted to this accident in his sight and ran towards the girl to make sure that she and his pokemon were both alright. "I am so sorry," he said to the brunette as he took her by the hand, assisting her first in knowing that his quilladin was generally tough.

"Ow-" Jade grunted as her hand was taken and she was carefully pulled up onto her feet. "It's okay," she stated to him despite feeling a few places hurting on the back of her head, "I'll be alright. I think." she continued to speak.

The bushy-haired boy's quilladin hurried over towards the two humans with a worried expression and gave a concerned yelp up at the young lady who he had knocked over. Kory meanwhile gave the quilladin a soft grunt or croak in concern, asking if he had intentionally done this to his trainer. The quilladin shook his head nervously with a grunt in reply, timid over the mistake that he had made.

"Eh. That still seemed rough." the teen replied to Jade in return. "I would know. Quilladin has rolled into me on multiple occasions." he chuckled nervously.

His quilladin pouted, feeling a bit bothered that he had made the mistake at all.

The bushy-haired teen noticed this and laughed nervously at his pokemon. "Aw, buddy, I didn't mean to make you feel bad," he remarked to his second-stage grass-starter.

Jade laughed softly at the interaction between the two before deciding to ask the teen a question. "So, I assume this is a training field then? If that's what you were using it for," she spoke.

The light-brown-haired boy nodded to the chocolate-brown-haired girl. "Ah, yeah, this is Santalune's training grounds," he answered her. "Looking to train up for something important?" he then asked her while his ninetales approached from behind him, curious of the girl.

"Yeah, exactly," Jade responded with a nervous smile as her bubble-frog pokemon hopped onto her shoulder from behind. "Um- Is there anybody I need to talk with to train here?" she asked next, wanting to know if she was even allowed to enter the field at all.

"Oh, no, don't worry about it." the teen said to her in return with a soft smile. "The whole training field is free to the public. Though we typically agree to spread out along the field when a lot of trainers are already present. Everybody's pokemon need space to move around after all." he answered her.

Jade nodded understandingly to the bushy-haired boy's answer. "That makes sense. Thanks. I have some work to do." she said to him and began to walk past them.

"Need any help with what you're doing?" the teen asked her as she passed him and his ninetales, walking into the field.

Jade was caught off guard by this kind gesture and turned around to view him again while she contemplated what answer to give him. Kory chose to give the bushy-haired boy a similar expression. The brunette took a moment to consider if she needed any assistance in training her pokemon or not. And she was quick to decide that some assistance would be helpful from this teen who resembled that of a more seasoned trainer.

"Uhh… Yeah, that may be nice of you. I'm- newer to this…" the brunette decided to tell the bushy-haired teen in return with a shy smile.

The teen smiled back to her with a soft laugh. "That's okay. Let's get to work, then," he said to her and proceeded to walk past her into the field with a bright smile. "My name is Finn, by the way," he added after.

Jade was appreciative of the boy offering her his assistance to her and began to walk after him. "Ah. Well, I'm Jade," the brunette said to him in return, figuring it to be polite to give him her name in exchange for getting his.

Meanwhile, Kory raised a brow at the boy's kind nature and nervously frowned after a moment. The boy seemed like a more passive version of Swoon. As his brunette-haired trainer followed the boy, and his pokemon followed behind her as well, the froakie kept an eye on the boy for any possible flirtatious remarks or actions. His trainer did seem touchy about being flirted with and he didn't want another boy following her around like how Swoon had wanted to.

The two brunettes stopped in a more open space of the field and Jade turned her head slightly to the bubble frog on her shoulder. "Okay, you jump down here and I'll get the other two out as well," she said to him.

Kory did as he was instructed and jumped down onto the sandy field while Finn and his pokemon approached them from behind and stopped a few feet away to observe. Then Jade pulled a pair of pokeballs out from her bag and opened them both up whilst pointing them at the ground. This ensured that her buneary and her scatterbug both appeared nearby Kory as they were released.

But upon releasing the two pokemon, a problem immediately arose. The scatterbug that she had caught seemed to be a bit confused at the new area that she was standing in. But that wasn't the problem, as she seemed to act calmly and rationally at her surroundings. She was behaving quite well as a newly caught pokemon.

The buneary was a different story in comparison. She seemed to have a grumpy expression in combination with shifting around quite anxiously. And she gave a light grunt in disapproval towards Kory, who shifted back slightly at the rudeness of the pokemon that they had saved less than an hour ago in the forest. Jade reacted with nervousness as she watched the brown bunny from the Sinnoh region being irritated with her teammates.

Finn took notice of this as the brunette-haired girl stayed quiet, unsure how to intervene. "Hmm," the bushy-haired boy began to speak to her. "I'm guessing that this buneary is very feisty most of the time…?" he asked her.

"Uh, no actually," Jade answered with a shy smile towards the boy. "I- saved this buneary from some awful people. It's probably not happy that it got caught."

"Aha." Finn voiced understanding with a soft laugh. "Then you should probably tell her that you meant no harm by catching her," he suggested to her.

"Will she even listen to me right now? She doesn't look like she'll listen..." Jade asked the bushy-haired teen nervously in return, as she turned her head back to view that the buneary was still shouting at her other two pokemon.

"Hey, all you can do is try," Finn replied to her with a soft smile. "Never be afraid of trying," he then added encouragingly.

Jade took a moment to consider these words as she looked at him over her shoulder again. Then she looked down at the buneary again that she had saved earlier that day. The brown Sinnoh bunny caught sight of the brunette looking down at her and turned her anger against her instead. The brunette's eyes widened a bit in surprise as she assumed that the shouting would have been reserved exclusively for her other pokemon. Now was the time to speak up.

"Hey-!" She attempted to raise her voice against the angered pokemon to get her full attention.

The buneary grunted in confusion to this shout from the brunette, as she hadn't expected it from a human who appeared so timid at first glance.

Seeing she had her attention, Jade continued speaking. "I don't like how you're treating my pokemon and me. I know that you're probably a long way from home and you're not happy here because of that. But I don't want you to see me the same way that you saw that man that was after you. I don't want to hurt you," she said a bit more firmly and seriously to the pokemon from Sinnoh.

The buneary started to furrow her brow in more confusion than anger at her new trainer's words. She didn't want to hurt her? Was that true? She eyed the human's face in suspicion for a moment to see if she was lying at all. But the brown bunny began to lift her frown slightly as she realized that the teen was being genuine with her words. Perhaps she had captured her to protect her from those nasty men from before.

Jade noticed that change in expression and slowly kneeled to the brown bunny with a more concerned expression. "I'm not able to take you back home… but I can try my best to take care of you, okay?" she said softly to the pokemon. "I won't let those people or anybody else get you again. I promise," she continued.

The buneary slowly lessened her frown again with a more nervous expression forming on her face. With how genuine the teen was being, she felt rather guilty over cursing off her and the other pokemon on her team. She felt that she had let out her frustrations verbally against them for no reason now. She looked down at the ground with a quiet noise of apology to the newer trainer, acting shyly for a moment.

Jade lightly smiled as she recognized that the buneary seemed to understand her. "I forgive you for shouting at us. I just hope that you'll work with me here so that we can protect each other as we go," she asked of the pokemon.

The buneary looked upwards into the eyes of the trainer before her and decided to comply. The teen had been genuine with her words and the brown bunny from Sinnoh recognized this. Granted, there were still a few ways that she could fend for herself if the brunette-haired girl was secretly a bad person. The bunny could be disobedient if she chose to treat her poorly. Hence she gave the girl a soft nod in understanding for the moment.

"Great." Jade began to smile a little further at this response and stood upright again.

"There, see? Now you can get started with training," Finn spoke up with a soft grin, content that the girl had managed to succeed with helping her pokemon to get along with her and her other team members.

"Right," Jade said, though her confidence began to falter a bit in reaction to this. "...I don't think that I know where to begin," she then said to Finn with a quiet sigh.

The bushy-haired teen reacted with a soft laugh. "Ah. Well I can't help you with everything, but my advice to you is to focus on your pokemon's strong points and when that's covered, try figuring out some new techniques that they can learn," he advised with a soft smile.

Jade considered this information curiously, and a question came to mind. "Uh… How will I know what techniques my pokemon can and can't learn?" she asked for more clarity on the suggestion that he had made for her.

"Don't worry about that. A trainer's Pokedex should give you enough information on what types of moves they can learn," Finn explained a bit further. "Like you um… experienced, I managed to get Quilladin to learn the rock-type move rollout," he chuckled nervously about his grass starter's accident that Jade was involved in. "The Pokedex should have a visual example of how the move is used, so as long as the pokemon that you're training can learn it, you should be able to use that to teach it to them," he finished explaining.

The brunette-haired girl listened closely to all of this and nodded in understanding to the light-brown, bushy-haired boy. "Alright. I think I understand," she said to him, attempting to stay within the confidence of what she knew now.

"Hehe, you'll do great, don't worry," Finn replied to her kindly and began to turn around to his pokemon. "You two, we should probably be heading off now," he said to the pair of partners that he had, who both gave noises in understanding to him.

"Huh? Weren't you training here a second ago? Aren't you going to continue?" Jade asked him in the confusion of his sudden departure.

"Well I would stay to do that, but I have to hurry to meet up with some other trainers on route twenty-two. I'm gonna challenge them with my new techniques," Finn explained with a soft smile as he and his pokemon began walking away. "So I have to get going. I hope I'll see you some other time!" he continued speaking as he and his pokemon began to hurry away, heading north down the street.

Jade watched the bushy-haired boy rush down the street with his hair moving around much like a cheerleader's pom-poms as he exited the field. She turned around to face her pokemon again who were simply quietly chatting with each other. She took notice that the buneary was starting to get along with the other two pokemon within her party. This was certainly good, but at the moment, the brunette-haired trainer had no inkling as to what moves that she would have to train these three.

But then something else came to mind in the moment. "Nicknames!" Jade exclaimed in realization. "I haven't given either of you nicknames yet, have I," she remarked to her pokemon with a soft smile.

Both her buneary and her scatterbug turned to look up at their trainer in the confusion of her realization and what it meant. Meanwhile, the bubble-frog pokemon, Kory, snickered to himself, finding it entertaining that his trainer wished to nickname all of her partner pokemon so far. The three pokemon watched for a moment as Jade thought to herself a bit longer in regards to names that she may be able to use for them.

It only took the chocolate-brown-eyed trainer a few more moments before coming up with something for the Sinnoh-rabbit pokemon first. "Hm, what if we called you Nicole? Would you be okay with that?" she asked her softly, aware that the bunny was more sensitive to being told what to do.

The buneary tilted her head at this and thought for a few seconds over the name. It wasn't the most creative sounding name but she decided that it was passable and nodded in reply to the brunette. Nicole was now her name.

"Okay, that's gone down, then," Jade smiled eagerly to this reply before turning her gaze to the bug-type of her team, who she found was a bit more difficult to generate a name for. "Hmm… Now, for you… What if we named you Katy?" she asked the bug-type.

Scatterbug shook her head at this as a no in reply, wondering if her trainer could come up with something a little nicer sounding.

"Ah. Okay, well…" Jade replied and continued to think to herself for a moment, wondering what other names that she could try with the bug type. "Maybe… Lulu? What do you think?" she asked the grey caterpillar once more on her next name choice.

The scatterbug seemed to give a happier squeak in return to this name being suggested. This name seemed more unique to her and she appreciated that her trainer hadn't forced some sort of name on any of them.

"Cool. Lulu is, then." Jade smiled back with a nervous laugh, content that it didn't take very long to think of a better name for her pokemon. "With that out of the way, let's use whatever daylight is left to train a bit," she then said to the three pokemon before her, wanting to keep her confidence in being able to protect herself...

For the remainder of the evening, Diantha wore a white sun hat with a light-blue band across the base of it. The sun was shining in her direction as she trekked up a hill on the outskirts of Kiloude city. She was hoping to meet with a very important person that she believed would have some information for her. Specifically, information regarding the man that had challenged her with evil intent earlier that day at the pokemon league.

It wouldn't be long before she lifted her head again after climbing the hill carefully to view the sweet expression of a smiling floette that had come up to greet her. This floette of course was a very different type of floette with a blue lower body and red rings around what was considered this Pokemon species' ears. And the magnificent, rare flower that this floette held in her hand was indication enough that the current champion was right where she needed to be.

The floette then let out a little noise in greeting and proceeded to hover away towards a small, homey-looking house made of wooden boards on the outside to give it a log cabin feel. Diantha recognized the house and put on a gentle smile at the quiet, peaceful location. She walked up to the oddly tall door, giving it a gentle knock with her hand which seemed to echo throughout the inside of the house. This echo could be heard through the open windows as well.

Only a few moments later would a man answer the door. This man stood over nine feet tall, forcing the current champion to tilt her head upwards to view his face. The man's hair was incredibly long, and on top of it, he wore a faded, orange wool hat. He wore a worn-out roughed-up dark-gray jacket with a similarly colored sweater underneath, and blue jeans as well as makeshift boots. This was the man that Diantha had been seeking this afternoon.

The man would give a very minuscule smirk down at the woman. "...I expected Calem," he said, partially jokingly to the woman.

Diantha gave him a gentle smile in acknowledging his joke. "Hm. You do know he's left the region in the last few years on a research trip... I barely even hear from him anymore..." she sighed gently, her smile fading as her second sentence began.

"Hm," the man replied with a gentle nod, and grunted softly as he carefully stepped out past the enormous door frame that was constructed specifically for him to fit through.

Diantha would step aside for the over three-thousand-year-old man to step out slowly, tilting his head skyward as his precious floette played to herself in the flowery fields of the hill. He seemed to grow a discontent expression at the sky, and how rather silent the winds and the air felt on their own. His chest felt a little sore as he was disheartened, a familiar feeling to him as he started in the direction that the sun was headed.

"...There is a storm coming," the man would say with concern in his voice. "Are you prepared to face it, champion?" he asked out, not speaking directly to the champion present with him.

Diantha slowly held a concerned expression and her eyes tilted away from where he stood. "...Not yet," she stated truthfully to him. "But that is why I've come here, AZ. I'm hoping that-"

"I have no information towards what could be causing this metaphorical storm…" the man identified as AZ said as he gazed back in the direction of the sky. "I may not be able to help you unless I knew more about what you were facing presently."

Diantha started to give a little frown towards the man's nerve to interrupt her. But then she recalled that the man was not used to much social company these days unless it was with his pokemon. Quickly forgiving him in her mind for his interruption, she slowly stepped towards him, prepared to inform him of the events at the pokemon league from earlier that morning.

"Then I'll tell you," she said to the man, sighing gently before continuing. "A man ventured into the pokemon league and challenged us. He was defeated, but he cruelly claimed that the pokemon league was full of lawbreakers and thieves and that his family heritage deserved the champion role more than myself," she explained and continued after. "He then threatened me with some type of fire-filled grenade and disappeared."

AZ's eyes widened slightly at the mention of such a man who wished to take everything for his family line. He looked over his shoulder at her with a concerned frown against his face. And the champion caught notice of this change in his expression. She saw that this seemed to ring a bell for the three-thousand-year-old man. Eventually, he began to pivot himself the rest of the way around to face her properly.

"There is something very unsettling about this…" AZ remarked in reply to the woman softly as he frowned in his concerns. "If that man wanted control over the region due to his heritage… Then he may be taking an approach that an old foe of this region once took so long ago,"

An old foe…? Diantha thought to herself curiously at his words. "Who may that be?" she then asked him.

"I cannot say anything for certain…" AZ said and turned his back on the woman once more, staring out at the reddening sunset. "But amid the war, three-thousand years ago, our side faced battles against people with precisely the same ideals as the war-bringers from that time," he explained further to her. "They were our main opposition… the ones who killed floette so long ago…" he muttered, recalling the days so long ago that turned him into a revenge-driven man in the past.

His floette worriedly hurried to his side, gently nudging against AZ's hand to try and comfort him. Diantha was told of this man's origins years ago when she first met him, and she understood that his life had been full of dread until his floette had returned to him. And while she felt a bit guilty over making him bring up his past, the information she was given was very fascinating to her, as well as a bit frightening.

"So, what you're saying is that a predecessor of an enemy of Kalos in the past has attempted to seize the title of champion in the present?" the champion asked to be certain of what he was saying.

"There's no proper way to be certain of this unless that man mentioned anything about the war at all," AZ replied, continuing to stare towards the sunset while he softly pet his floette in appreciation for her attempted comfort. "You should search for more evidence of this claim that you have created."

Diantha nodded in reply to this. "I'll be searching for it at the Lumiose library tomorrow. First on my schedule in the morning," she said to him, standing tall in referring to her mission given to her by the Anistar gym leader, Olympia.

AZ lightly frowned away from her sight. "That's a first…" he muttered quietly to himself, which caused his floette to react with concern. The woman only seems to deal with the region's affairs when they directly involve her. As do the gym leaders and the elite four, the three-thousand-year-old man thought to himself.

"What was that?" Diantha asked, having heard the man speaking but not what it was that he had said.

"Nothing," AZ replied to the woman, carefully seating himself to continue watching the sunset. "I wish to be left alone with my thoughts now… And my pokemon," he said to her softly and more respectfully.

Diantha nodded respectfully in return and began to head in the direction from which she had come up the hill previously. Now she understood what it was that she had to browse in the library for tomorrow during the early morning. She needed to study the history of Kalos' long, forgotten past. And she had to seek out any possible evidence that the dreaded challenger that had faced her earlier on the present-day had any relation to the three-thousand-year-old war…

Much later into the evening, street lamps activated along every road in Santalune City. Most people were settling into their homes by now for a late dinner or were tucking their kids into bed. Meanwhile, the bushy-haired teen named Finn was walking his way down a sidewalk towards the city's pokemon center. Many travelers would spend their nights at a pokemon center. Those types of buildings often provided bedrooms similar to a hotel building.

Finn happened to be speaking with somebody by using his holo-caster feature on his Pokedex. "Yeah, no worries Josie, I can make it to the tournament on Saturday. Where is it being held again?" he asked a friend of his over the call.

The holographic image that the holo-caster was projecting was a young lady around his age with a dark skin tone, a fancy black hairdo with green streaks in it, and a vibrant set of emerald eyes. "It's being held in the gardens of the Parfum Palace," the girl explained to Finn with a soft smile. "Your Quilladin better be prepared this time around. Or else my little will knock him flat on his face again," she added with a little giggle.

"Eheh. I'm more concerned about how the owner will react if you don't win. You are his favorite," Finn replied to the girl with a little snicker.

"Hehe- I suppose I am, but if he doesn't want to give up the prize to someone else, he'll have to deal with me never returning to his tournaments again," Josie replied with a slightly devious smirk on her face for a moment. "I may be good at battles but playing fair is important to me as well."

"Hehe. Same as me," Finn said in return with a smile as he turned right at the corner ahead of him to approach the pokemon center. "I think I better hang up now though," he then told the black and green-haired girl.

"Wait, one more thing," Josie insisted quickly to the teen. "Can you find one more person to participate? Our eighth participant tapped out at the last minute to join some weird thug-group that's talking about taking over Kalos," she asked of him.

"Thug-group? What…?" Finn questioned with slight concern in his expression at this information.

"I know, right? It's weird but they don't seem that threatening so I'd just leave it. They're mostly weak trainers anyhow," Josie suggested in reply. "But can you please find somebody else to join the competition? The palace owner typically cancels the tournament if we don't have a full roster," she asked him again, assuming the likely consequences.

"No worries, it won't be too hard to find somebody before the end of the week. That's plenty of time for me," Finn said, feeling confident over locating a new trainer who could participate in their competition.

"Great. I'll let you know if I find anybody before then," Josie replied to him with a bright grin. "See you then!" she said to him before hanging up the call, her image on the holo-caster disappearing as she did.

Finn chuckled softly to himself as he turned his holo-caster off and stuffed it into his pocket. Though he didn't pay attention to what was ahead of him while he did this. And as a result, he ended up colliding with somebody who was walking in the opposite direction as him towards the pokemon center. He flinched and stepped back in surprise at the collision while the person that he had run into almost fell backward had she not kept her balance in time.

Finn looked ahead of himself and was surprised again to see that the person he had bumped into was Jade, remembering her from meeting her at the training field earlier that afternoon. "Jade?" he asked in his surprise of seeing the brunette again.

"Ah, Finn, hey," Jade replied to the taller teen with a nervous smile. "I didn't mean to bump into you like that, sorry," she apologized quickly to him.

"No, it's totally okay, I should have been watching where I was stepping," Finn replied, deflecting the blame onto himself with a nervous laugh. "So, how did your training go today?" he then asked her.

"I'm exhausted," Jade answered the question with a soft laugh, "and I only had a small snack in between training. But I think that my team is starting to come together nicely."

"Ah great," Finn replied with a bright grin before looking to the left at the pokemon center door. "Uh- we should probably get through the door before you continue talking," he laughed softly.

Jade blinked at this advice and realized promptly that the two of them were blocking the entrance and exit to the pokemon center by standing there. "Ah, yeah sure, sorry," she replied awkwardly with a laugh in her embarrassment.

Finn snickered to her in return and began towards the entrance with her walking by his side. "So what's the progress on your team?" he asked her properly.

Jade smiled up to him properly as they passed through the doorway. "Well, I'm happy with everybody so far. Kory is starting to get the hang of water-pulse. Lulu needs a little more work before she can evolve, and Kory has been trying to help Nicole learn quick-attack faster. I think I'm doing good so far," she stated with a shy laugh.

"Good? It sounds more like great," Finn replied to her with a soft laugh. "You're really getting the hang of this by the sound of things."

Jade shyly smiled back in reaction to his words. "I hope so… but you definitely gave me a head start this afternoon," she then said to him with a soft laugh. "I want my pokemon to be able to defend themselves as much as possible. And today was a good start towards that goal," she stated to him as they walked up to the counter.

The nurse at the counter smiled towards the two teen trainers as they approached. "Hello! You're both up rather late but we can certainly heal your pokemon for you if you'd prefer," the woman offered to the two of them.

Jade turned her head towards the nurse with a smile. "Yes please," she replied, taking her pokeballs out of her purse to place them onto the counter.

"Certainly," Finn replied with a bright smile to the nurse and he too carefully unclipped his pokeballs off of his belt to place them onto the counter separately from the brunette.

"I'll be just a few moments with them then," the nurse smiled kindly as she gathered the pokeballs together to place them all into a pair of healing machines behind her.

Finn turned back to his newer brunette-haired friend again as the nurse did this. "Well I hope that you feel confident enough in yourself to take your team far enough for that," he encouraged her kindly.

"Thank you," Jade replied with a shy laugh.

"Speaking of your team," Finn then began to say before she could say anything else, "I'm looking for a trainer to participate in a tournament that's happening off near route six. The only requirement is that you have one badge at least to participate. It's a sign that you know what you're doing," he explained in full to her.

Jade became perplexed at this request. It was barely a day into her attempt at properly being a pokemon trainer and she had already been asked to join a small tournament. But she would still need to obtain a badge to participate in it. Luckily for the bushy-haired boy before her, she did plan on attempting the gym to see if she could be strong. It was also to see if she could catch up to Swoon, who she assumed had already gotten the badge from the gym further into the city.

The brunette-haired girl tilted her head up at the teen in return. "I don't have any badges yet. But I want to try to get one from the gym in Santalune in a day or so if our training goes well," she explained to him with a nervous smile. "So if I get the badge by then, will I have time to try out this tournament?" she asked him.

"Sure! Sounds alright to me. It doesn't take too much effort to reach where the competition is happening, so you have some time available," Finn replied with a bright, kind smile to his new brunette-haired friend.

"Okay! Great!" Jade remarked a bit more excitedly which caused her bushy-haired friend to laugh softly at her joyful exclamation.

Now she had somewhat of a plan in mind as to what she wanted to do to begin her journey. Within a day or so she would attempt to challenge the Santalune gym. And if she could obtain the gym badge from it, she would follow Finn to wherever this potential tournament was taking place. She felt very confident now that her pokemon training would be worth more than just learning self-defense if she could train them well enough. She looked forward to seeing what the next few days would bring.

Though unbeknownst to anyone in the area or within the pokemon center, a small drone of some kind hovered just nearby the building to be granted sight through the left window. The drone's video camera lens aimed to view through the window and tracked Jade secretively. It watched her closely as she spoke with Finn...

Within an anonymous location, a large screen was propped up as a computer monitor within a very open room with dark lime-green lighting. The two men of Team-Tyrant had arrived within this location after rounding up every one of their purchased pokemon aside from the buneary they lost. At the moment, they were the ones piloting the drone remotely to spy on the newer trainer with brunette-hair who had captured the buneary from their smuggling haul.

"That's the girl," the crimson-haired man from before spoke in a spiteful tone. "She's the one who deprived us of a potential mega-lopunny," he grumbled in irritation. "But she's weak. Her friend had to jump in and save her. And now that her friend isn't around her currently, we can move out and get rid of her," he said with a grudge in his voice against the young brunette.

The cyan-haired man turned his head to his partner with a soft frown. "Yeah? And what happens if she gets stronger on us somehow? We're never able to know a thing about anybody when it comes to trainers nowadays," he said to his partner.

"Like I give a crap. I can be way stronger than that little piece of trubbish," the crimson-haired man claimed amid his anger.

"If you insist. But if you fail again, Dagger is going to send his tyranitar after you. He just challenged the champion at noon and didn't succeed. And I won't try to save you if you try taking out your anger on that newbie trainer." The cyan-haired man frowned towards his partner while he explained all of this to him.

"Fine. I'll make both of you proud then," the crimson-haired man smirked back to his cyan-haired partner in return with a sinister expression. "And I'll slay this little pest," he then added.

The cyan-haired man rolled his eyes at this vengeful remark. "Yeah, well, don't hurt her in public or broad daylight. That'll just give us away to the police. I know you, man, and I know you'd pull something like that if you could," the grunt said to his partner.

"Like I give a crap, we'll be doing stuff like that regularly once the boss gets strong enough to dethrone Diantha," the crimson-haired man said in return with a devious smirk.

"What are you two fools doing?" A voice with a very irritated but unenthusiastic tone remarked out against the two grunts.

The two grunts flinched and looked over their shoulders to view the monitor room's entrance behind them. Then, a man with navy blue long hair walked through the entrance, staring the two grunts down with a soft glare. He was a member of this Team-Tyrant but his outfit had differences compared to theirs. He had a light-grey hood of some kind draped against his back, and his shoulder pieces were a darker shade of metal, built to be tougher than the ones that the grunts wore.

"Admin Isaiah. We-" the cyan-haired grunt began to speak to the higher-up within their army.

"We've been tracking down a girl who stole a pokemon from our shipment from Sinnoh!" the crimson-haired grunt exclaimed out and interrupted his partner. "We plan on attacking her now that we know her whereabouts!" he added.

The cyan-haired grunt grumbled loudly to make his irritation known to his partner. "It's just him, sir. I don't have any desire to compromise our team's plans," he said, correcting his partner's words.

"It wouldn't be compromising if we can get away with it, dude!" the crimson-haired man retorted against his partner's protests."

"Let me look…" the admin going by the name Isaiah remarked with a soft frown at the pair and moved between the two to view the screen himself.

He looked up at the screen and witnessed Jade, the newer trainer who had rescued a pokemon from their operations despite nearly losing a battle against them. He studied her for a moment as the drone kept her in view for them. He studied her smile and her expression, watching for any hint of seriousness. And though he saw no serious nature in her face, he recognized that she was someone who agitated the grunts and could potentially be capable of taking on some of their weaker forces.

But despite recognizing this, the navy-blue-haired man furrowed his brow. "She's weak," he lied to them both. "Don't waste your time with someone who can't stand up to us," he told the both of them.

And with that, Isaiah turned around and proceeded to exit the room. He hoped that his lie to the grunts would prevent them from attempting anything that would compromise their team and plans. He knew that their leader needed a great army to accomplish his plans. He didn't need any idiots doing whatever they wanted and getting kicked out of the team because of their poor decisions.

The cyan-haired man sighed in relief to this before turning his head to his partner with a soft frown. "There. You see? We shouldn't hold a grudge against somebody who can't even defend herself," he stated with a sigh.

The crimson-haired grunt meanwhile let off a soft glare towards the screen and narrowed his eyes at the sight of the brunette. "Like I said, I don't give a crap. I'm gonna make sure that she loses everything…" he stated with dark intent in his eyes and heart...

Author's Closing Notes:
Woo boy that was a tough chapter to write in all honesty. I had a lot of consistent writer's block in regards to if I was making this chapter interesting enough to post. In all honesty, this is not an interesting chapter to me either, it just seems like it was a heavy amount of dialogue setting up the next chapters to have more intense action within the series. So this chapter is surely necessary but it's not very high-action paced like the last chapter was.

But don't worry, we'll enter into higher levels of activity within the upcoming chapter after this one. So stay tuned for that. And have a safe and healthy day.