Another one of the shorter chapters, but I think that's okay. The scenes here accomplished what I wanted them to do, and if I had to change/add anything I think I might have tacked on the events of another day. A shame that all that came to mind for doing such a thing would just be training/guiding the Eeveelution trainers. Perhaps one day, if I figure out a scene that would fit in and add to somebody's character I'll do so.
Is flying through the air like swimming through water, he wonders, not for the last time.
Shimmering whites above, tanned sand below, aquatic creatures of all types around. Water flows around him, whirling, twirling, swirling in his wake, eddies of his movement marking his passage. A quick breach for air and he dives back down, shooting forward and leaving a turbulent cyclone behind. Energy renewed, it takes less than a beat of his heart before he becomes one with his surroundings.
Is this what Psychics feel when they lose themselves in a trance?
To have your consciousness spread so far apart,; to lose track of what is you and what is Everything. To have to fight against the urge to let yourself fly to the infinite ends of the oceans, taking every current to its unknown destination until you discover what lies beyond.
He reforms, far, far away from where he once was, travelling through currents left by his neighbors-no-longer-prey, fragments of consciousness held through steel will leaping from whorl to whorl until his Entirety is once again whole.
The deep part of Shoalvile's beach spreads out underneath him. Along the shore, human youths splash and jump about, their companion mon playing alongside them. By the docks, fish and mon, both sapient and lame, swim about baited hooks, ignoring them or risking the chance of a meal or more in equal measures.
Deep within, some ancestral heritage grumbles. To claim this land as his own. To drive off all that would dare infringe upon his territory.
It slumbers as quickly as it was roused.
A primal instinct, nothing more.
Home can be made in the far flung future.
One where his Trainer can no longer travel the world.
One where Strength can no longer be gleaned so quickly.
One where the Ball no longer holds appeal.
/ - /
"Alright, Artemis. One more time, bind 'em!" Spurts of glimmering white globs shot through the air, unfurling as they approached their targets. Three of the webs partially caught their mark, wrapping around the pseudo-illusions briefly before they faded. The other two landed perfectly, signaled by ghostly blue flames burning up both the silk and illusions.
"Nice work." Alex held a finger up to his shoulder, the spinarak perched there meeting the appendage with one of his own. "You're getting faster with those shots," he remarked, holding out his right arm for Umbral's beads to slide onto. Elder Ghost as she was, even she preferred to avoid the light of day when possible. "I know I've said it before, but your webs are going to be a vital thing moving forward. As much as you're wanting to learn other moves, right now your skillset isn't meant for that. A supportive role will compliment everybody more, even in the future."
The spinarak chittered understandingly, though what he was coming to learn as 'sad' undertones were still present. A completely understandable thing, considering the bug type bore witness to the type of fighting Celèste was capable of. To know that your instructor was capable of bringing out that type of skill in their pupils, Artemis' dreams must have been wondrous things.
"Take five before you head into your ball, alright?" Artemis chittered once more, a much longer series that had to be a repetition of what he had been saying the past few days: 'A pokéball may put its occupant into a form of stasis, but time can still flow within. Injuries and recovery are not permanently halted, just extremely slowed.'
Alex took in a deep breath as he stepped away from the umbrella, Caitlyn crooning to the bug type questioningly. While she would never attain a maternal role with the spinarak, being an elder sister was not an impossibility. It was actually a role she shared with Celèste, despite the gardevoir being the newest of his core team.
A loud bark drew his attention down the beach, where a mix of humans and pokémon were playing volleyball. There was a lot of concern at first from everybody around, but it only took a handful of rounds before it was understood that the pokémon were severely holding back. Courtesy of Celèste, of course, wonderful thing she was.
Deus and Emerl had gone off somewhere into the nearby wilds to simply explore, and Morgan was somewhere in the waters. Feeding, fighting, frolicking; it was a toss up what the vaporeon did at any given moment he was alone, and these days it was only himself or his teammates that suffered any grief.
Umbral of course had settled around one of his belt loops, hidden beneath one of his shirt tails. A thin strand of ethereal energy kept her beads tied together, and he knew that if anybody managed to see them, they'd think of it as some trinket rather than the necklace of a misdreavus. A neat trick they'd perfected back in Unova, before his—
A tug of energy interrupted his thoughts. Cold, chilling, surprisingly refreshing given the heat of the beach. But also minorly unwarranted. He tapped his fingers on his thigh in a specific pattern, warning Umbral from taking more. It was an unfortunate method of dealing with undesirable memories, but there was work to be done and he didn't exactly have time to sit down and deal with them. Perhaps in a few more years when he was back in Uno— Kalos, but until then a stop gap measure was more than enough.
"Hey, Alex! Are you ready yet?"
Felicity glared at him, hands on her hips. Clad in a two piece suit that for once wasn't black themed (though the gold rings on flower blue stayed true to her motif), the girl managed to be fairly attractive. Considering her Kalosian heritage, it was doubtless she knew exactly what she was doing, even if she hadn't (visually) reacted to any of the stares and/or leers she'd been receiving.
"I still have…" He turned to look towards the sun. "Twenty minutes. I'll get there when I get there."
The girl scoffed and threw her hands up in the air. When they had met back up at the northern entrance to Route 32 after everyone's successful collection of a Zephyr badge, she had made a promise to him that she would badger him for a battle at every stop they had. He'd intended to ignore it and let her run herself ragged trying to figure out what non-existent button she could press, but when Compton had whispered to him that maybe he could use it as a teaching moment and perhaps allow the crews a chance to gather footage, he knew when to surrender.
Today marked their first official battle. A sandy beach perfect for abuse of Sand-Attack, and with subtle commands said sand could be turned into mud; perfect for reducing movement options. A battle wasn't always on a grassy field, after all. Sometimes it— Alex tapped his fingers once more, focusing on the image of pockmarked sand by water instead of an endless desert ocean. "No more for today," he whispered to no one, knowing that Umbral would catch it all the same.
The beads adjusted slightly.
Felicity fell without any problems;, Celèste's combat stance of all fours rather than her normal two causing the lucario absolutely no problems. Normally she would have chafed at having to participate in such a low level battle, but it had been a while since she had to use those basic level skills. A chance to make sure they were up to snuff, in her primal stance at that, was enticing enough to soothe her draconic pride.
All in all, the day went decidedly perfect. This time next week, he'd probably be back in Ilex Forest, able to check up on the various sensors he'd placed around and even have the chance to let Pinnacle check up on his tribe.
/ - /
A pleasant ache throbbed in her legs and chest as she slowed to a jog. Her shirt was soaked with sweat and beside her, Luna's breaths came out as heavy pants. The decision to run so late at night was an impromptu one, and with the tiniest sliver of the moon looking down on them, they had to be mindful of their footing as they ran through the rural town. "I think we're getting better," she managed. Luna crooned out a response, her rings glowing faintly as she absorbed the whispers of moonlight.
Slowly, her pace lowered to a power walk, and once she stepped onto the beach where she had first started, she was moving no faster than a snail's pace. Only a few other people were still out on the beach. Shoalville wasn't as extensive or beautiful as Goldenrod's shores or even Olivine, but the quiet bays of Route 32 held their own appeal.
"You do know we're leaving at first light, right?"
The sudden voice made her flinch. At her feet, Luna entered a battle stance, pushing past the exhaustion.
"It's just me," the man said, raising his hands partway into the air.
"What are you doing here?" she asked reflexively. His first words replayed again in her mind. "Could say the same to you. Old as you are, don't you need your beauty sleep?"
Alex chuckled, dropping down beside her onto the bench. "Umbral's feeding off residual energy." He gestured towards the horizon, finger pointing out a moving glimmer hovering above the water. "Between the nocturnal creatures and the general subsiding of the day, it's the best time for her to feed." He glanced towards her and quirked a brow, quickly turning away with amusement.
The man was weird like that. Finding hidden secrets in everything but never sharing them. Felicity did her best to ignore him as she poured water out from the bottle she'd hidden earlier, Luna gratefully lapping it up from the attached bowl. "You don't restrict her to pokéfood?" She asked after a while.
"Ghost as old as she is? Berry mix doesn't provide what she needs." He gained a wistful look. "Not for what she's aiming for."
Felicity sat back down, taking a few sips for herself. For a moment there, she felt that what he meant when he said 'old' and what she understood it to be were two different things. It wasn't the first time such a thing had happened, and as with each time before, she felt an unnerving chill that perhaps it would be in her best interests not to figure out the difference. "And what's she aiming for?"
Alex tapped the side of his head. "Evolution."
"Misdreavus can't evolve without a Dusk Stone."
"'Don't' and 'can't' are two different things," he immediately responded. "Although extremely rare, arcanine and ninetales can be found in the wild, with no traces of a Fire Stone anywhere near them. Electivire and magmortar exist as well, with speculation as to how they achieved stoneless evolution rampant, if heavily discouraged." The glimmer shot down into the water, disappearing without a trace. "Stoneless or even itemless evolution is an extremely difficult path, but you'll find that those that manage to achieve it can be significantly stronger than their assisted kin."
"This is one of those 'Ace Trainer only' theories, isn't it?" She whispered after a moment.
"Something of the sort. Extreme conditions are necessary for certain pokémon to evolve, conditions that the standard trainer has no reason to be around. It's not even allowed to talk about this kind of thing on online forums because of how dangerous some ideas are."
Felicity shifted. It was a well known fact that online censorship was extremely prevalent (and to a lesser degree, in the real world). Less to control the populace as many conspiracists proposed, and more because training could be dangerous. Methods of how to evolve magikarp were never around for long, and innocent blogs detailing the migratory patterns of pokémon occasionally found themselves shut down for periods of time, only coming back up with missing information from their posts regarding pictures or observations.
"Should I even be seeing this?" she asked, suddenly concerned for her safety in the near future.
"Ghost types are notoriously difficult for their unaided evolutions. Even among Specialists, the requirements for their evolution aren't too well known. There's no real harm in letting you know that misdreavus require more than physical food to evolve." He glanced at her, a smirk tugging at his lips. "That I've been a trainer longer than you are old should let you know exactly how much work it requires."
"I'm not that old," she muttered under her breath.
"I am serious though. You should be asleep by now. The tykes might get you some breaks this early into their journeys, but you're still expected to teach them during the downtime."
"You don't need to tell me what I have to do," she spat, a small amount of heat in her voice.
"Mm." Silence fell upon the two of them, broken only by distant footsteps and the sound of the waves washing ashore. "I can lend an ear, if you need it."
"Muh?" Felicity internally chastised herself for such an undignified response.
"A stickler for the rules," he stated. "You wax poetic about honor to Meaghan and any of the trainees that listen to you. For you to sneak out of the Center when curfew has already been established between you all, something must have happened."
You came back into my life and showed me I have so much more to learn, she didn't say. Instead, she leaned down and rubbed Luna's head, the umbreon ignoring her in favor of following what had to be Umbral's movements through the water.
"You at least have people you can talk to?" he prodded.
"Of course I do." Not really. As her childhood friends, Adelle and Garren were close enough, but Adelle was having her hands busy dealing with Kennith's stress from having to do so many projects for his GO internship alongside helping all the younger kids cope with being on a journey for less than a month, and Garren was slowly becoming more and more brittle as he continued trying to reign in his Dragons and Ice types, let alone being drained from helping teach his student.
"Good. What about you, friend? She have a network?"
Luna mewed ambiguously, setting her heart apace. Elder trainers were expected to be able to understand pokémon. While she could understand some parts of what Luna said, it was mostly body language and things learned over the years. In those short few mews and growls that she only caught a few words from, how much more did Alex learn?
"If you say so. Well, I'll leave you to your thoughts. Umbral's going to need a different source soon." Leaving in the same, but so much more relaxed, lackadaisical manner as the first time she had seen his back, Alex left with his hands thrust loosely into his pockets, looking for all the world as if he was on a stroll without a care in the world.
"We'll be there," she whispered to Luna. "Someday."