Thump…

Thump…

Thump…

The guards lining the hallway snapped to attention as Matori passed. She smirked. At least someone had the wisdom to respect her authority.

Perhaps if this project was a success she would finally be done managing buffoons.

One of the guards in front of the door moved over to let her scan her keycard, as the other turned and scanned his own. The door opened.

"Room, attention!" Someone yelled. There was a cacophony of boots. She strode into the lab.

"At ease.

"Progress report, Professor?"

The man in the lab coat turned to look at her in shock.

"Admin Matori! Giovanni did not say you would be coming."

"And yet, I am here. What is the status of the project?"

"See for yourself," the professor pointed at the tank in the center of the room. "Your soldiers have successfully recovered the asset."

Matori snarled at him with disdain.

"I see an immobile, comatose pokémon. That is of no use to Team Rocket."

"We need more time," the man stammered. "The fragments of the device you recovered from Lumiose have been insightful, but reverse-engineering it is borderline impossible with only the pieces we have. At best it's pointed us in the right direction. Mega Evolution energy is indeed the key."

"How much more time?" Her patience was growing thin, and she was certain Giovanni's would be even thinner once she returned with this news.

"I don't know. Giovanni of all people should know just how disastrous it could be if we test it without being absolutely certain it'll work. For now, sedation is the only way of keeping him contained. To remove it at this phase would be borderline suicidal."

"Disappointing Giovanni would be more than 'borderline suicidal.' You would do best to remember that. You have two months, make them count."

She strode back out of the lab and into the airship.

~ ⁂ ~

Serena broke into a sprint as she left the doors of the restaurant, or at least she tried to, before she remembered she had heels on. Stupid contest costume. She kicked them off, shoved them in her purse, and ran before Ash could catch up to her. She could still see those eyes in her head, begging her for an answer she couldn't give.

"Serena, hold on!" She could hear Ash yelling behind her.

She kept running. Suddenly she let out a yelp as she felt Ash's arms wrap around her and suddenly her feet were no longer on the ground.

Ash twisted under her to keep her from hitting the ground, and she landed on top of him. They skidded to a stop.

"Ouch!" Ash cringed in pain.

"Ash! Are you insane? Let go of me!" Serena yelled at him, pounding his chest with her fists. Was his first idea of a solution to any problem really to jump at it and use his body as a shield? Emotional issues didn't work like that!

She froze as Ash leaned up and gave her a brief kiss. She was torn between doting and furious.

"Serena, what's wrong?" She looked into those wide amber eyes and her heart crumbled. Doting it was.

"That… woman! She was trying to use me to hurt you!" There were tears in her eyes.

Ash looked at her confused.

"How would she do that?" Serena gaped at him for a moment. Was he really this dense? Had she read too much into his expression of curiosity at the end of the conversation?

"She's using me as an example to say you're a bad trainer, when really you're so much better than me!" It was a concern, if not the one which had made her run off—and that one she wasn't touching with a ten-foot pole even if he prodded at it. She'd literally bailed on dinner to avoid addressing it.

Ash laughed.

"If what she said is true, and you're a better trainer than me, that wouldn't hurt me, it'd make me happy for you. You're an amazing trainer and coordinator, Serena."

Serena's cheeks felt warm at the compliment, but it was mixed with a feeling of frustration. Even if Fantina's comments had been misaimed, couldn't he see what she'd been trying to do? She struggled to figure out how to put to words the disquieting malicious vibe she'd read from the conversation. With Ash as dense as he was, unless she could put it to words she wasn't going to be able to get it across to him.

And then of course there was the last question, the one which had made her run off. The one which she didn't want to bring up, since Ash seemed to have overlooked it.

Fantina was right, she hadn't liked what she'd seen in Ash during training. There was no denying he'd gotten better, but there was something missing now. When commanding his pokémon he'd carried himself like a general, rather than a trainer. Before even when the situation was especially dire he'd always given off a feeling of fun—of joy in battling for the sake of battling. Now it was like he was purposefully suppressing it. When combined with the power of his pokémon, it felt almost like watching a tsunami, ready to demolish everything in its path with no force on Earth able to stop it.

"Earth to Serena," Ash interrupted her thoughts. "Can I get up now?"

Serena glanced down, and to her horror realized that after the initial landing her position had naturally adjusted into a straddle as she sat up.

"Eep!" She felt a hot flash over her whole body. How long had they been like this?

She glanced around. Judging by the crowd beginning to gather, too long.

"Is that that new coordinator?"

"Yeah, I think her name's Serena Delpech. She's from Kalos or something."

"Who's the lucky guy?"

"Wasn't he in the Wallace Cup a few years ago? I think he made the quarter-finals or something."

"Mom, what are that boy and girl doing?"

"Don't look at that, sweetheart! Come on, we're gonna miss the performances."

She flew to her feet, beating the dust off her dress.

Ash clambered to his feet, and Pikachu jumped on his shoulder from the ground where he'd been waiting for their conversation to play out.

He dusted himself off, and then got a bit sheepish for a moment.

"Speaking of missing the performances… Obviously, I'm rooting for you Serena, but… I do wanna go see and cheer on May and Dawn's performances. They're good friends, y'know?"

Serena wasn't quite sure how to respond. Truth be told, she wanted to see the Top Coordinators too. Aside from gauging the competition, she'd only ever seen a Top Coordinator perform on TV before. It was pretty rare for them to participate in local contests after all. In fact, barring special circumstances, it could be seen as a bit of a faux pas, since it all but denied up-and-coming coordinators a chance at the ribbons they needed to make the Grand Festival. Instead, Top Coordinators tended to tour the world, hitting up big name competitions like Grand Festivals.

At the same time…

"I don't really wanna see Fantina right now…" She trailed off. True, there was a seating section cordoned off for coordinators who weren't performing at the moment, but that'd mean she and Ash had to watch separately.

Ash seemed to think for a moment, before brightening up.

"I think I have an idea." He pulled out his DexNav and dialed someone up.

"Hey, Elesa, can I ask you a favor?"

~ ⁂ ~

You have to be fucking kidding me.

When Ash had said he had an idea, Serena never in a million years would've thought that idea was to ask a literal supermodel to join her at her table. Of course, finding out she was a gym leader in Unova explained everything. For better or worse, Ash seemed to have hit it off with every gym leader he'd ever battled.

It didn't make it any easier. Quite frankly, the absolutely stunning woman seated across the table from them made Serena feel hopelessly inadequate.

"So, Fantina giving you trouble? I've been on the receiving end of that a couple times, believe me. I still can't get it through her head that just because I'm a trainer, a fashion model, and like watching contests doesn't mean I'm interested in being a coordinator." A puzzled look came over her face. "Though, I have to admit, I'm a bit curious at what put you in her sights. She usually dotes on coordinators. 'Superior artform' and all that. I get an absolute kick out of reminding her she's a gym leader when she says that though."

Serena squirmed. "I don't really wanna talk about it."

Elesa waved it off. "Oh, of course! I didn't mean to pry. That was more me thinking out loud than a question. Silly me, so sorry about that."

She paused.

"Speaking of coordinators, you were absolutely shining out there. Do you make all your costumes yourself?"

"Yeah!" Serena beamed with pride. "The Gyrados costume for that transformation act took me almost two months to put together."

Elesa put her hand in front of her face as she giggled.

"I was asking more about your gowns. I love pokémon styling as much as the next girl; I am a gym leader after all, but well—" She struck a pose which may as well have been on a magazine cover. "—y'know?"

"Oh, yeah, I make all these too. I don't really have the funds to commission them, and the stuff I can afford would look almost exactly the same as half the coordinators here."

Elesa took a moment to pull something out of her bag, and extended it to Serena. When she took it, she saw it was a business card.

"Well, win or lose, your outfits are amazing. I've been thinking about opening a pokémon styling division of my label, and you'd be surprised how hard finding designers who can make good clothes for both humans and pokémon is.

"I assume you're probably not interested in a job, considering how coordinating seems to be going for you, but I'd really appreciate it if you'd think about doing a guest collection with us. Kinda test out the waters on the idea, y'know? There's good money in it too—you'd get a royalty. And if you do win, well, I'd love to talk about a sponsorship."

Serena thought about it for a moment. A sponsorship would almost certainly mean wearing Elesa's brand's clothing on stage. Truth be told, even though she said it was a money thing, she liked doing her own costuming.

"Thanks for the offer, but honestly, I really like designing my own stuff. I'm not sure if I'm in the market for a sponsorship either way."

Elesa shrugged. "Well, if that's how you feel, a win is a perfect chance to open your own label. And what better way to kick it off than with a collaboration. Think about it. Neither offer has a time limit."

Something Serena was learning about these plutocrats was that they were really good at being pushy without feeling overbearing. Well, Fantina was overbearing, but it was pretty clear that was intentional.

Their conversation came to a natural end as the Top Coordinator section of the appeals round began. She saw Ash perk up, having seemingly gotten bored to death by the fashion talk.

"Wow, Solidad's Pigeot has gotten a lot bigger," Ash remarked.

"Ash, please tell me you just happen to recognize her from a contest you watched."

"Huh?" He looked at her confused. "I mean, I guess? She beat May for the Hoenn Grand Festival three years ago. I don't know her too well, but we share a couple mutual friends."

Yep, that about confirmed it. Ash was personally acquainted with every celebrity in the world, and Serena couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be a strong gender bias.

"Who else do you know here?" She asked him.

"I'll tell you as soon as Solidad's done, I wanna watch this." Serena conceded the point. She wanted to see what she was up against too.

"Aerial ace!" Solidad's Pigeot straight up turned invisible as it took off. It wasn't until it let loose a cry far above the battlefield and spotlights were trained on it that anyone could see it again. Suddenly it was using a double team, and the twin bird pokémon dove towards the ground in a helical pattern, nearly invisible if not for the tell-tale glowing feathers Pigeot's feather dance left in their wake.

Serena gasped as it got within inches of the ground before flaring straight into a tight corkscrew.

The crowd cheered as it pivoted even tighter to thread straight back down the middle of the corkscrew, seeming to almost switch directions instantaneously.

Finally, after a few more minutes of acrobatics, the Pigeot dove from one last high dive and used the momentum to fly in a ring and form a twister which sucked in the feathery mess it had left all over the battlefield and whipped it up into a beautiful display.

The crowd gave a solid applause.

"Leave it to an experienced coordinator to show that even in today's day and age sometimes conventional and spectacular still go hand in hand. But let's hear it from our judges…"

"Alright, so," Ash began, and Serena tuned out the judges' opinions. "There's May, Dawn, Solidad, Zoey—"

And the pattern continues.

"—Robert, Drew, and I think that's that. Well, and Harley, if you want to count people from the preliminaries. He's not a Top Coordinator yet, and judging by the way his appeals round went, he's gonna have to wait until at least next year to become one."

"How do you know all these people…?" Serena asked, a bit overwhelmed.

"Well, I mean, I did travel the contest circuit for two whole seasons, even if I wasn't the one competing," Ash replied. "A lot of them are Top Coordinators now, so it makes sense they'd be here."

"That… actually makes a lot of sense…"

A few more performances passed, before Ash and Serena had the debatable pleasure of listening to Elesa's ear-piercing reaction as one of the Top Coordinators whom Ash somehow didn't know put on a doubles performance with her Plusle and Minun.

"The darlings! They're just so precious and they shine like diamonds!" The Electric-type gym leader looked as jittery as a pinball, and Serena was half-preparing herself to hold her back if she tried to vault the banister.

"I'll have to see if I can find her after and get a closer look at them."

"I'll come with you, if you don't mind. I'd like to talk to her," Ash chimed in, drawing Serena's ire.

"And why's that?" She asked her boyfriend. Elesa, for her part, seemed to decide this was something she didn't want to get mixed up with, and fixed her attention back on the field.

"That's Marina Kessho. She won the Silver Conference a couple years ago, though she never challenged the Champion's League," Ash explained. "Honestly, some of the stuff Fantina's been saying makes a lot of sense, and I'd love a chance to pick the brain of someone who's been so successful in both contests and conventional battling."

"Wait, Ash Ketchum, are you interested in contests?" Serena squeaked out.

"I wouldn't go that far," he laughed with his trademark head-scratch. "Though the couple times I entered contests were pretty fun. Fantina isn't the first person to say I'd make a good coordinator. I remember when Wallace pressured me into joining the Wallace Cup, he and Dawn practically wouldn't take no for an answer."

Serena's annoyance at the blunette's mention was only surpassed by her utter disbelief at the other name in the sentence.

"Wallace, as in the Wallace?"

"Yeah! We just kinda ran into him."

Serena stared in disbelief. Just kinda ran into him?! Once more she was astounded at how blasé Ash could be about these things.

"Anyway, long story short, I ended up entering the Wallace Cup."

"And making top 8."

Ash blushed. "Yeah… and making top 8."

He paused for a moment. "But yeah, I guess, once I'm champion I might consider it. There's more to becoming a Pokémon Master than just being Champion."

"How do you become a Master?"

"I'm not actually sure…"

Elesa chimed in, having apparently taken interest in the conversation.

"I don't think anyone knows. The Champion's Council awards the title of Master for 'exceptionally meritorious contribution to the sport of pokémon battling or other exceptional merit on the part of a pokémon trainer,'" she made air quotes as she recited the words. "You don't actually have to be champion either, technically, but as far as I know no one's ever been awarded the title without first being Champion. Though, Wallace was actually awarded it after Steven defeated him, so he never actually had the more usual title of Champion Master."

She paused for a moment as if thinking about something.

"I'm probably not supposed to say this, so don't go around telling people, especially Lance or Fantina, but there were rumors circling the league after the Lumiose Incident that they were considering awarding you the title, Ash."

"What?!" Serena sputtered. Ash looked just as shocked.

"Yeah, supposedly someone overheard an argument between Diantha and Lance over the issue, and quite frankly, gossip tends to spread through the League faster than my grandma's knitting club. I don't really know any more details though, those discussions are normally kept really hush hush."

They turned their attention back to the field as Dawn came on.

"Please welcome back the scion of Sinnoh, Dawn Hikari!" The crowd went crazy. Dawn was quite popular it seemed. To be fair, with that hourglass figure who wouldn't be. Serena huffed.

She couldn't say she was insecure about her looks, but 14 years of Rhyhorn racing had given her an athletic build which while lithe, wasn't exactly modeling material. Her height hid it well enough, but she'd never have that thin a waist. You could trim down fat, but there was no way to trim down muscle without outright starving yourself.

Which made it all the more annoying that the girl seemed just about ready to throw herself at her boyfriend. At least when Miette was doing it they weren't together yet… She glanced at Ash, which only served to annoy her further when she saw his eyes were fixed on the girl.

Calm down Serena, he's here to watch her performance after all. They're just friends, no matter what she wants. She composed herself and turned her attention to the field. It was what she was here for too. She watched as Dawn let out a Buneary. Her Piplup also stepped forward to compete.

"Bubble beam with a twirl! Buneary, you know what to do." Buneary flung Piplup into the air and the penguin pokémon fired off a cloud of bubbles into the air in all directions which was promptly flash-frozen by an ice beam from Buneary. The elegance of the combination was only matched by the brutality with which the now-frozen bubbles slammed into the ground with.

Serena didn't have much time to focus on that, as Buneary was already on the move. She borderline teleported into the air with agility, where she met up with Piplup for an assist. Piplup was thrown back towards the ground, giving Buneary even more height, as she repeated the agility to soar to an incredible height, striking a pose to applause from the crowd as Piplup surrounded her with even more bubbles.

As she plummeted back towards the ground from a height which seemed potentially deadly, Piplup let loose a controlled hydro pump to catch her and break her fall.

Right before impact, Buneary let loose an imposing flame punch, instantly turning the water into an explosion of steam, and Piplup instead created a cushion of bubbles with bubble beam.

Buneary landed right next to Piplup and in a blink of an eye they had traded positions, Buneary throwing Piplup into the air even higher this time with assistance from agility.

Piplup let loose a hydro pump with full force this time, using it as a jet to propel himself further into the air, before cartwheeling to let loose a pinwheel of water.

Buneary carefully froze the water into the shape of a half pipe with a finely controlled ice beam, and Piplup touched down on it perfectly into a smooth and insanely fast belly slide.

As he hit the bottom of of the pipe, Buneary used agility to catch a ride on his back. They grabbed air time again, before both landed back on the slide in sync, fin in arm like a pair of figure skaters.

The next time they caught air Piplup killed a bit of speed right before, letting Buneary arc over him in a split to make any ballerina jealous, before catching her right before they touched down again.

Having bled off enough speed that they weren't catching air anymore, they continued the ice ballet with a couple of spins, before finishing with a dramatic final spin where Piplup held Buneary as she let herself get flung outward into the air by the centrifugal force.

They came to a stop and posed, to the crowd's raucous applause.

"In a phenomenal aerial doubles performance Dawn Hikari's Piplup and Buneary prove that maybe Piplups can fly after all! What do our judges have to say?"

Mr. Contesta was first to speak as always. "A phenomenal display of power and grace! Dawn Hikari wows as always, showing that cute and fierce are far from opposites when contests are involved."

"I must concur," added Mr. Sukizo. "Dawn has proven time and time again in the battle phase that despite her somewhat unconventional focus almost exclusively on 'cute' pokémon, they're capable of dishing out formidable damage. Indeed, she boasts an impressive amount of battle-outs unmatched by many so-called 'power' coordinators. Here we see that on full display in a spectacular appeals round performance. She's not resting on her laurels either, the level of coordination Piplup and Buneary have shown here is well beyond what we would've expected to see from her last year."

"Hear hear," Mr. Contesta agreed. "In fact, this year's crop of Top Coordinators might just be one of the most impressive I've seen in my lifetime. It's often we see Top Coordinators drop out of the circuit after a year or two as the sport continues to evolve and they're unable to keep up, but the last few years have seen a growing cadre of veteran coordinators who continuously improve. In fact, I don't think we've seen a ribbon cup won by a newcomer this year, have we?"

"No, we haven't," one of the Nurse Joys responded.

"As the crown jewel of the Grand Festival circuit and the last of the season, the Hoenn Grand Festival rarely sees a win from a new coordinator. This could very well be the first year in the history of the PAC without any new inductions to Top Coordinator status, and that's despite quite a few impressive challengers. We're not even in the battle round yet though, and we've seen more than one rookie with the potential for an upset win. Without further ado, let's reveal our scores."

10, 10, 10, 10, 10.

The crowd broke into applause yet again as Dawn made her way off the stage.

"A perfect score! Clearly Miss Hikari has impressed the judges just as much as the audience. We may have a new favorite to win the Festival. Of course, we still have one more appeal to go. It's funny that Mr. Sukizo mentioned power coordinators, because our next contestant is royalty in that category. Give it up for Hoenn's very own princess, May Haruka!"

After Dawn's showing, Serena hadn't thought it was possible for the crowd to cheer louder. Boy was she proven wrong. May's informal title was apt. The crowd might've adored her less if she actually was royalty.

Many coordinators wore clothing which matched the pokémon they were going to have perform in the appeals round, and May was no exception. From the moment she came out in a cream top and fiery red and yellow culottes any doubts Serena may have had as to which pokémon she'd be putting on show today would have been dispelled. That is, if she hadn't opted for the somewhat unconventional power move of marching in with her signature pokémon already by her side.

May and Blaziken waved to the crowd in sync, and when the announcer gave the cue to start, Blaziken catapulted into the air, performing an effortless triple double before landing.

With a well-placed mega kick he kicked a boulder up out of the packed earth on the field, before vaporizing it with a blaze kick. The cloud of sand sparkled, in the air, having been turned to glass by the hit.

May hadn't given one command throughout the whole sequence. Serena knew from experience that there was often a balance to be struck between the showmanship of elaborate commands and letting a sequence of moves play out without a cue to prove it had been rehearsed to a T.

May seemed to lean heavily in the latter direction, and Serena could see why. That sort of power could more or less stand for itself, regardless of whether or not the crowd knew exactly what was happening, and May and Blaziken had been in the game long enough that the judges probably knew their move roster by heart. Her strategy seemed to be shock and awe, and from the looks on the judges' faces, it was working.

Was this what Ash looked like when competing in contests? She found herself wondering. There was no denying that the style of the coordinator she was watching bore a distinct resemblance to her boyfriend's battling style, though it was far more visually polished compared to Ash's more rough and ready combat, a testament to the difference between the sports.

If she was going to win this, there were solid odds she was going to have to go through May, and Serena found herself wondering if any of her pokémon would last more than a couple exchanges of blows with the one in front of her.

"Fire spin!" May gave the first command of the entire performance, and Serena immediately knew why. Blaziken rocketed into the air in a burst of flame that anyone watching would've mistaken for a flare blitz, and which was made all the more impressive by the fact that it wasn't.

Perhaps the best word to describe Blaziken was "awesome" in the truest sense of the word. It was hard not to gape at the sheer power the pokémon put effortlessly on display.

Blaziken finally finished the performance, posing by May to a massive applause from the crowd.

"Miss Haruka gives the judges and the crowd another stunning rendition of the absolute spectacles she's known for!"

Mr. Contesta got up to speak. "Judging a performance like this one is often difficult. It is true that we're known to be hard on performances which are too conventional, too habitual. Yet at the same time, as we saw earlier from Solidad Saori, and now from Miss Haruka, there is still room in contests for more traditional performances. In truth, if we judge more traditional performances more harshly, it is only because in the absence of originality, execution is key. It is fortunate then, that in this regard, Miss Haruka has never once disappointed.

"To say her pokémon perform like well-oiled machines would be an insult, for Blaziken's movements did not once seem mechanical. He's able to perform immense feats of physical prowess far exceeding even most others of his species, and make it all look effortless. This is a compliment not just to the pokémon, but also to the coordinator and trainer who raised him."

Mr. Sukizo cut in. "Indeed. No matter how many times I see him, I can't help but marvel at such a beautiful specimen of a Blaziken. It is only with great love and care that a pokémon is able to achieve such feats and it's clear that Miss Haruka deeply loves all of her pokémon. If contests exist to showcase the bond between coordinator and pokémon, this is perhaps one of the strongest I've seen."

Serena tuned out the rest of the commentary. The way the judges were gushing another perfect score was more or less a foregone conclusion. Coordinators always grumbled that judges went easy on the Top Coordinators, and she could see why. On the other hand, there was no denying that they were Top Coordinators for a reason, and she wasn't sure she could disagree with the judges. From what she could tell, the Top Coordinators did have a tendency to play it safe to an extent, but as Mr. Contesta had said, that didn't matter if their execution was as perfect as it was.

"May's pokémon move a lot like yours, Ash," she commented.

Ash shook his head. "I don't think Infernape could ever do something like that. Maybe Greninja, and I don't even know how long it'd take for us to prepare it. Her style used to be a carbon copy of mine, it's part of why we went our separate ways."

"Huh?" Serena looked at him confused.

"My training style was rubbing off on her too much. It was starting to hurt her in contests. I'd trained her literally from the start of her journey after all."

Had it been a different girl in question, that admission might've annoyed Serena, but May seemed nothing but genuinely happy for her and Ash, and frankly after the group dinner, she and Serena were pretty close to becoming proper girl friends.

"Isn't her dad a gym leader?" she asked. She would've thought a gym leader's kid would've been groomed to join the family business from a young age, though May had indicated that it was looking more like her brother Max was gonna be the one to take on that mantle.

Ash laughed. "May didn't like pokémon until her dad practically forced her to start her journey."

"How can someone not like pokémon?" Even when her mom's obsession with turning her into a Rhyhorn racer had worn her patience thin, Serena had still loved pokémon. She found it crazy that someone could grow up around pokémon and not like them.

"You'd have to ask her that. Though I'm not even sure if she'd be able to answer that question now."

With the Top Coordinator appeals section over, people began to get up to leave, though a not insignificant number stayed at their seats, having ordered drinks or meals. Serena glanced at Fantina and Lance's table, where the two seemed engaged in a heated debate over something.

What is their deal?

"Those two?" Elesa asked, and Serena heated up realizing she'd said it out loud. "No one's quite sure. They've been like two peas in a pod since long before my time. Don't let the fact that Fantina's a 'mere' gym leader fool you. She rubs elbows with every single one of the champions, especially Lance. Her influence far outweighs her nominal station. Honestly, unofficially, I'd say she's probably more powerful than Mr. Goodshow himself. The League's a bit of an old boy's club, and she and the champs go way back."

"What? Lance told me he was avoiding her!" Ash said.

Elesa laughed. "He always is. Their little game of cat and mouse is just that, a game. Fantina toys with everyone, she's just that kind of person. Lance plays into it, but I don't think she's ever genuinely made a move on him that would make him uncomfortable. Actually, to be honest, as far as I know, neither of them have ever been with anyone. And believe me, if they had, I'd know. Grandma's knitting club, remember? Whatever is really up with them is their secret alone, that's for sure, though I'd say Fantina's practically Lance's right hand."

She lowered her voice. "That said, there's a running betting pool on whether they'll hook up or not. I've got a hundred mill riding on yes." Serena blanched at the number but set that aside.

"How do you lose that bet, if there's no time limit or anything?" she asked.

"It's an informal thing, but I guess if one of them dies, or they have some sort of irreparable fight?" Elesa said, thinking about it. "To be honest, with the sort of things Lance gets up to, the former is a bit more likely than you'd think."

Serena thought about the similarities between Ash and Lance, and had to agree with that assessment. From what little she had interacted with Lance, and heard from Ash, it seemed like the man was just as likely to throw himself into danger without any sort of plan in place as her boyfriend. The fact that he was still alive at 33 actually made her feel a slight bit more comfortable about Ash's odds of surviving the crazy things he seemed to have no plan to stop getting himself into.

She sighed quietly. Only slightly though. At the very least, she couldn't see anything happening here at the Grand Festival. The Team Rocket presence seemed to have been confined to the buffoons who acted like they were Ash's personal detail. She found it hilarious that of all the pokémon here at the festival, they'd still gone after Ash's Pikachu.

"They'd make a cute couple though," Elesa continued, apparently too lost in thought to notice Serena's brief zoning out. "You guys remind me a lot of a younger version of them actually."

"What?" Serena practically spit out her wine. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Elesa chuckled. "Well, you don't quite have Fantina's tact yet, but that takes time." Tactful was not the word Serena would've used to describe the woman. Manipulative maybe. Scheming. But tactful? Elesa continued. "I'll be honest with you, because someone should be. You have no clue what world the two of you are about to enter. You think you do. I did too. But I didn't, and neither do you."

"We both have friends who are gym leaders…" Ash interjected.

"Yeah, I know, but there are gym leaders and there are gym leaders. Cilan, Clemont, Brock, Iris, they're good trainers, and they got their positions fair and square. But they're not exactly players in the politics of the League. When you're a gym leader, that's a choice you can make. If you become Champion, you're getting dragged into it whether you like it or not. As for you," she turned to Serena. "You'll get roped into it by your relationship. If you want to avoid that, you need to break it off now. But you're young and in love, and I think we both know you're not gonna do that."

Serena gave her an indignant look. "You're not much older than we are, are you?"

"Girl, believe me, you mature a lot in eight years, especially in the big leagues, which you're both about to be part of. Here's the thing. You already know the League runs a lot of stuff, right? Pokémon centers, hospitals, hell, even the police. Do you even know who the Prime Minister of Kanto is, or the President of Kalos? But if I ask you about any region, you can more or less name the Champion off the top of your head, right?"

"I guess…" Serena couldn't quite see where this was going, but it sounded like a bit of a conspiracy theory. That said, she couldn't deny the woman across the table from her was probably a lot more familiar with the way the world worked than she was. "I mean, politicians aren't really celebrities, and it makes some sense that the League runs so many things, Pokémon are essential to modern life, and the League is the organization in charge of regulating Pokémon ownership."

"And it doesn't strike you as the least bit odd that an international sporting federation is in charge of something so essential? Tell me, if the League runs all of that, what does the government even do?"

"Make laws?"

"Do laws matter if you can't enforce them? Think about it, the League is in a position where it can basically dictate terms to any government it wants to. League politics is world politics."

Serena had to admit Elesa had a point. The woman turned to address Ash.

"If Lance and Fantina have taken an interest in you, it means you're a pawn in one of their games. Now the question to think about is: is the plan to promote you, or to sacrifice you? Because anyone who's ever played chess knows the latter is a lot more common."

Now that, Serena could agree with. It meshed well with the vibe she'd gotten at dinner. She stifled a laugh looking at the blank expression on Ash's face. Clearly the chess metaphor had sailed over his head.

"Lance is a good person… He wouldn't 'sacrifice' me, he's helped me against Team Rocket, as well as Team Aqua and Magma."

Serena tried hard not to facepalm. Here was someone with personal experience with Lance and Fantina telling Ash they were dangerous, and of course, Ash wasn't buying it. She had to admit her boyfriend's inability to see anything but the good in people was endearing, but it could also be infuriating. She was shocked to see Elesa nod.

"Lance is a good person. Of all the Champions, he's probably the most dedicated to 'saving the world' and all that. That's the thing though. If you think he'd hesitate for a moment before using you if he thought the world was at stake, you're deluding yourself. Think about it, did he help you? Or did you help him? Because the way I see it, only one of the two of you has 'saving the world' in your job description, at least until you're Champion yourself."

The woman moved to get up.

"Well, with that out of the way, I should get going. Please do consider my offer, I think we could both profit from it handsomely. And one last word of advice, keep your friends close. And I mean that physically too. Whatever Lance and Fantina are looking to get you wrapped up in, you're gonna want backup, because if I were to bet, it's yet another world-spanning catastrophe in the making. It kinda seems to be the usual thing for both your groups."