The morning after Moira had cooked her "Volcano Bakemeat," as they had taken to calling it, the gang had all laughed it off and resumed their trek through the forest. During this time, Oliver and Moira let their Pokémon loose to enjoy the forest atmosphere.

"Ralts, use Confusion!"

"Get 'er with Sucker Punch, Sobble!"

...Okay, and to do a bit of sparring. As they walked, Oliver and Moira's Pokémon were lightly attacking each other, Cassandra walking beside Scarlet and watching it unfold.

Sucker Punch interrupted Ralts in the middle of charging the energy needed for the attack, making her flinch.

"Now go fer a Water Pulse!"

"Karrablast, cut him off with X-Scissor!"

The blue Bug-type had mellowed out after a night of containment, but was still very aggressive, slashing Sobble right as he was about to shoot off the ring of water, knocking Sobble back, buying Ralts enough time to use Confusion.

"That's enough, Sobble. Good work, laddie!"

Sobble smiled sheepishly at the praise. Wooloo had taken her fair share of hits and had been more or less recalled, walking next to Moira at a leisurely pace watching the action unfold.

"That wasn't really what I'd call a real battle," Moira said as she picked up Sobble and held him as she walked, "But seems like ye won."

"Eh, maybe," Oliver said, scratching the back of his head, "We were all holding back except Karrablast. Still haven't gotten a handle on him yet."

Just then, Cassandra perked up. Scarlet noted this and looked ahead. "Looks like the end of the road. We're finally there, guys."

Oliver stretched his arms. "About time. I can't wait to take a freaking shower!"

And thus Moira laid her eyes on Neoshine City for the first time.

Route 2 passed directly through the center of town, with tall, rectangular, different-colored buildings built on either side of it. No two buildings looked like the same people designed them. It almost looked like some experiment to see what would happen if you took a building from like 40 different cities and crammed them together. Heck, Moira swore she saw a miniature version of Lumiose Tower somewhere in there.

On the ground level there were signs, both neon and otherwise, advertising all sorts of establishments, some legitimate and some not even Scarlet would've been allowed in. The skyline was clear of signs, but the air quality was anything but clear. There wasn't necessarily a cloud of smog hovering over the city, but once you looked above the 20-story mark the color was definitely more muted than ground level.

The traffic was fairly light as they entered the city, owing to the closed road. There was still a fair amount of hustle and bustle from the pedestrians though. Many of them were just going about their normal day, but the opening ceremony tomorrow meant there was more activity than usual from people from elsewhere in Allanza.

Moira stuck by Scarlet's side, looking around at the city in awe. Oliver couldn't help but smile at Moira's wonder at seeing the city for the first time. Scarlet and Cassandra were really the only ones paying attention to where they were walking.

Suddenly, Cassandra began growling. Scarlet looked where she was looking and spotted a man wearing a ragged trenchcoat holding an empty bottle with an uncomfortable look in his eyes, seeming to eye the three for some unknown reason. Oliver and Moira noticed this too.

"I'm thinking we should probably cross the street here," she said. They did so, which luckily wasn't a hassle due to the relatively light traffic.

Moira was beginning to understand why Pine had insisted Scarlet come along. As cool as the city was, two children walking through it unsupervised would not end well.

Now, the Allanza region wasn't the wretched hive of scum and villainy that Orre was. Orre had been ruled by organized crime for as long as any of them could remember, but in Allanza, the crime was… well, unorganized. It's just that when put right next to Orre, the region seemed nearly harmless.

They wound up having to cross the street twice more to avoid drunks before they reached their destination: the hotel and casino Emperor's Palace. It wasn't hard to miss- even if the giant name of the hotel didn't tip one off, the marble statues of Falinks in front were a clear tipoff. This hotel was where the registration for the Gym Challenge was being held.

They entered into an elegant lobby with an ancient Roman theme, the icons of Falinks prominent in artwork throughout. There was a large table with a banner over it reading "GYM CHALLENGE REGISTRATION" and a few trainers had congregated around it to sign up.

Not a whole lot of them were that noteworthy. This one had black hair, that one had an afro, that one was wearing a wait is that a Gallade?!

While Oliver did a double-take at one trainer who had a Gallade walking around outside his Pokéball, Moira noticed one trainer in particular, and lightly elbowed him. Looking where Moira was pointing, he saw one trainer finish registering and turn to leave, but their eyes locked and Oliver paled a bit.

"A-Amber?"

Amber huffed and crossed her arms. "Well well well, look who decided to press his luck. The Hand-Me-Down Kid and his team of rejects."

"Oi b***," Moira cut in before Oliver could respond. "Ye wanna f***in' go?"

"Ah, I see you brought your girlfriend, Lady Swears-a-Lot."

"I'll do a lot more than swear, ye c***," Moira continued, "If ye don' mind yer f***in' business."

"Ohohoho," Amber chuckled, sincerely amused. "I see how it is. Oliver can't speak up for himself so he hides behind his girlfriend and lets her do it for him."

"W-well, I mean, we're not…" Oliver weakly said, but found himself ignored.

Amber walked towards Moira and lowered her voice. "So, what was your name again?"

"Moira," the Galarian responded through gritted teeth.

"Gotcha. Well Mary," she said, poking her in the chest, "One girl to another, lemme give you some free advice. You shouldn't stick around Oliver. Guy's a loser. You want to make it through the Gym Challenge? You don't want him dragging you down with him. Dump him. You'll thank me later."

Moira was about to say something cutting to the rich girl when someone passing by accidentally bumped into Amber's shoulder.

"H-hey! Watch where you're going!"

"Oh, sorry!" The trainer responded with a sheepish grin. "Didn't mean to bump into you!" Oliver silently thanked Arceus for cutting the confrontation short before it could come to blows.

This trainer was a girl, a couple years older than Oliver but younger than Scarlet. Her hair was somewhat long and unkempt, the light-green bangs covering her eyes. She was wearing a light brown trilby hat with a white band around it, and a light indigo poncho with white zigzag patterns on it, only white boots visible beneath it.

Amber huffed again. "You had all this room to walk around us," she said, gesturing around them. Indeed there was quite a bit of room for her to avoid them. "What are you, blind or something?"

The girl simply continued to give off that innocent smile. "As a matter of fact…" She wiped the hair out of her eyes, revealing them to be white, milky and glazed over.

Amber went white as a sheet, which was honestly pretty cathartic for Moira to see. "Oh… Oh my… I'm so sorry, I-"

The blind girl waved her hand. "No, it's all right, happens all the time, this isn't the first time this has happened. I just sometimes have a hard time with… well, let me explain." She turned her head slightly. "Hey Gallade, come over here a sec!"

Wait, SHE was the one with the Gallade? Oliver thought.

Indeed, the tall white-and-green Psychic/Fighting Pokémon with the blade for an arm walked over to the mystery girl's side.

"My name's Lennoa, and this is… well, it's Gallade, you already knew that."

"I'm Oliver."

"Scarlet. Nice to meet you."

"Name's Moira. And this here's named Amber."

"I can introduce myself just FINE, thank you very much," the still flustered blonde cut in.

Lennoa's smile didn't quit. It was actually getting kinda creepy now. "I'm taking the Gym Challenge too, so I might as well introduce us properly."

Scarlet raised an eyebrow. "How's that work with you being… it has something to do with Gallade, doesn't it?"

Lennoa nodded. "Eeeyup! The two of us grew up together since I was a kid. He's my seeing-eye Pokémon. Literally. We've gotten so close, in fact, that we've actually developed a psychic link."

Oliver's jaw dropped. "No way." I've heard of this happening with trainers of Psychic Pokémon, but's incredibly rare!

"Because of that," she continued, "I see through his eyes. Which means I tend to see myself in the third person, and it's really weird walking like that. I tend to bump into stuff, as you saw earlier," she said, scratching the back of her head again. "But hey, I can see."

That's when Moira realized something. "Oi Oliver, Gallade's an evolved form of Ralts, right?"

Oliver blinked. "Yeah, it totally is! Only males can reach that form though. If my Ralts evolved she'd be a Gardevoir. A-and a Kirlia first," he added.

Lennoa was intrigued. "You've got a Ralts?" Oliver responded by turning around and letting Ralts peek out of his backpack. "Those are really rare in Allanza. You're the only other person I've met with one. Where'd you get her?"

"My uncle runs the Daycare on Route 9. Ralts here was abandoned, so I basically took her with me. What about you?"

"Oh, my dad got lucky and caught one in the wild. Gave him to me on my fourth birthday." Gallade nodded silently.

Oliver couldn't see this, as he turned his back to Gallade so Ralts could face him, but Moira noticed her looking up at Gallade with awe, admiration, and… wait, is she blushing?

"Anyway, it's been nice talking to you," Lennoa said. "I'd stick around but I take it you haven't registered yet?"

"These guys haven't. I have," Amber pointed out. "Hey wait, why am I still here? I'm not even part of the conversation anymore. I'm going to my room." She turned to leave, walking towards the elevator to go up to the complimentary hotel room the League provided her, then paused and turned back to Oliver. "Final warning. Don't bother taking the Gym Challenge, or my team will pummel your team so hard, they'll be too afraid to come out of their Pokéballs." She walked off towards the elevator.

Lennoa let out a low whistle. "Such a sweetheart. Anyway, I should probably get going too. I, uh, don't do well in crowds. I'll see you on the road once the challenge starts! C'mon Gallade, let's head up to our room." She and her Pokémon walked off in the same direction, most of the other trainers giving her a wide berth, not wanting to incur the wrath of the tall, intimidating Pokémon beside her.

"That was certainly something," a voice from behind Oliver said. "You've already got an archrival and you haven't even started yet!"

Oliver turned and this trainer was also about Lennoa's age. He was wearing a black vest over a blue long-sleeved shirt and black jeans. His long sideswept hair was brown, to match his eyes. He held out his hand. "Name's Crosly. Oliver, right?"

"Y-yeah. I'm Oliver. These two are Moira and Scarlet."

"Nice to meet you guys!" He said, putting one hand in his pocket and leaning to one side slightly. "So, quick question- who'd you get to endorse you?"

"Professor Pine."

"Oh, really? I've heard of her. She teaches Pokémon Habitat Studies at USCA, right?" Oliver nodded. "That's cool." He smirked. "I got endorsed by the former champion."

Oliver's jaw dropped again. "You got Raleigh to endorse you?"

"Didn't you know? One of the reasons she stepped down was because she wanted to see some fresh blood injected into the Gym Challenge. Couple years into her winning streak, the League Tournament wound up having the same few people show up each year."

Oliver nodded again. "The Elite Four."

"Almost no one thought they could take her down. So almost no one tried."

"How'd ye get on the Champion's radar?" Moira asked.

"It's a long story," said Crosly. "And it's not as interesting as you might think. Anyway, I've gotta get going. I've got somewhere I need to be." He headed out towards the door to the hotel. "See ya on the road, you guys!"

"Nice to see some trainers are friendly at least," Moira said. "Anyway, let's go register already. If we talk with every trainer on their way out we'll be here all day."

"O-oh, yeah, you're totally right." The two of them (and Scarlet) went up to the registration desk, none of them noticing Cassandra looking at the front door where Crosly went out, glaring at nothing in particular.

The registration process went smoothly. They handed their endorsements to the Pokémon League Staff, who were wearing white hats and jackets with a yellow Pokéball logo on the front of both. Scarlet made sure the staff knew she was chaperoning Moira and Oliver (who was registering at the next table over).

"All right," the woman handling Moira's registration said. "You're signed up. Let me just see your Trainer Card real quick." Moira took the card out and handed it to her, and she printed out something and put it on the back. It was a barcode and number. "While the Gym Challenge is in effect, you can use this to get a complimentary room at any participating hotel. Here's your room key for tonight," she added, handing Moira a card key. "That's about it, just show up at the opening ceremony at 9 AM tomorrow."

Moira blinked. "Wait, what's the uniform situation?"

"Oh, the Gym Challenge is a bit more informal here than it is in Galar," Scarlet explained. "Just wear whatever."

"Really? That's weird…"

"Anyway let's head to the hotel room. I really want a shower."


"No, Cassandra, I can carry these boxes by myself."

Scarlet was carrying a stack of 5 pizza boxes with Cassandra walking beside her, looking concerned. After she finally took a shower she went over to Oliver's room (she was sharing a room with Moira). She decided to get some pizza and they'd all hang out together the night before the opening ceremony. She found a pizza place that was actually pretty cheap and went there.

She walked at a brisk pace, trying to get back to the hotel before the pizza got cold. The hotel was about a 5-minute walk from the pizza place. She was waiting at a crosswalk just before the hotel when Cassandra suddenly turned to look around the corner. Without warning, she bolted.

"Wha- Hey! Cassie!" Scarlet followed as fast as she could without dropping the pizza, bumping into someone. Luckily she didn't drop the pizza.

"Oh! I'm sorry!"

"Oh, no, it's fine," the trainer said, picking up a black briefcase he had accidentally dropped. "I bumped into you trying to run away from an Absol that was running this way."

"That was my Absol. I'm terribly sorry."

The trainer took off, and Scarlet discovered that Cassandra was just sitting there, eyeing the trainer. More specifically, she was eyeing the briefcase.

"Cassandra, what's gotten into- HEY!"

The Absol took off and darted into an alleyway. Scarlet ran after her. The pizza's gonna get cold at this rate…

She followed Cassandra for a minute or so before the two finally stopped at a place where the alleyway made a sharp turn. Cassandra looked at Scarlet, sniffed the air a little, and pointed her horn towards the corner.

Scarlet hesitantly approached the corner and peered around it. What she saw was another trainer, a girl this time, who was in the process of receiving a black briefcase, identical to the one the other trainer had on him. Scarlet noted this tidbit of information and examined the man handing it to her.

The man was dressed in a white labcoat and wearing a surgical mask and goggles with his hands covered in long purple gloves, with slicked back black hair. Next to him was a birdlike Pokémon. It was small, with dark purple feathers covering most of its body, getting darker the lower they were, though it had two long, thin, black legs that ended in talons. The exception was the head, whose feathers were the same shade of black as its long beak. On top of its head were two rather large black feathers that. Most interesting were its limbs. They almost resembled wings, but they ended in fingers which had claws coming out of them.


MASTOX

Plague Pokémon

Poison

Its DNA is rumored to be immune to most diseases. Its needle-like claws can draw them out of humans and Pokémon alike, but can give them to people as well. Before bedside manner was more commonplace, Mastox was the Pokémon of choice for doctors in the Allanza region, but were gradually phased out due to their somewhat creepy appearance.


Scarlet hid herself to make sure none of them saw her, which thankfully none of them did. She focused on trying to hear what they were saying.

"This should be enough to last you until Arryline City," the man spoke. "As long as you don't get into too many battles. Try not to get caught using it though, if you do, I'll stop supplying you."

"I'll do my best. Thank you. How much did you say it was going to be?"

"I'll take 20% of the prize money you've won by the time we get in touch."

"Fair enough. Again, thank you." Scarlet heard the sound of the girl's footsteps leaving, and started hearing the man's footsteps walking towards her.

Scarlet made herself scarce, not wanting any of them to know she'd been eavesdropping. She and Cassandra booked it back to the hotel.

What did I just witness…?


The man in the labcoat scowled at the alleyway. Okay, I KNOW I heard footsteps here. He looked around for anything, any clues as to who was eavesdropping.

Then, he saw something.

Slowly, he knelt down and picked it up. It was a white hair, which looked more like a Pokémon's fur. But what Pokémon was it exactly? A Meowstic? An Absol maybe? Could've been a Hoodlet for all he knew.

He pulled out a cell phone, dialed a number, and let it ring. Someone on the other end picked up.

"Hello, boss? This is the Distributor. I think someone may have listened in on a deal. ...uh-huh. No, the only trace of them was a small amount of Pokémon fur. Want me to send it to Erwin for analysis? ...mhmmm. Okay. Until then I'll just proceed as planned, alright. Got it. Thanks."

He hung up and placed the phone in his pocket, then he took the white fur and stuffed it in a small plastic bag which he also put away before turning to the Pokémon beside him. "Come along, Mastox. We've got three more customers to meet up with."


What's this? The plot? We have one of those?

Just a heads up I'll be updating less frequently next week due to a family trip, I'll still try to post at least once while I'm away though.