Grass Will Be Greener

It had been so late when they got into town that the nurse who worked at the tiny Pokémon Centre wasn't even on duty. Instead, a Pokémon took their room booking, though it wasn't a Chansey. It was still pink but it had long feet, rabbit-like ears and a curly tuft of fur on its head. Hilary's Pokédex duly informed them that it was "Wigglytuff" before reciting the information that everyone was too tired to remember anyway.

After the excitement in the tunnel they feared that they might have been too high-strung to sleep at all that night but when they finally got to put their heads down on a pillow they slipped easily into deep sleep.

Mari stirred in the brightening light. Sunlight poured in through the window since nobody had had any mind to close the blinds the night before. Her eyelids were still heavy but after years of travelling she was accustomed to waking with the sun so even if she tried to close them to get a few more minutes they just sprang open again, demanding that her body needed to rise as well. She yawned, pushing the sheet off and swinging her legs over the side of her bed. The room she shared with Hilary was small enough that the sunlight could brighten all of it from the window to the door. Mari pulled her knees up to her chest as she admired the room with the little pictures and patterns carved into the mouldings and a sliding door that stretched from the floor to the ranma. That had fascinated her when she first came through here—the artisanal way this Pokémon Centre was built. It was utterly Hoennese.

She put her feet on the floor and stretched. There would be no going back to sleep right now so she went to the window and opened it, leaning out into the fresh air with a strong, prevailing easterly that the town was famous for. From just the second storey of this tiny Pokémon Centre she could see almost the whole town taking up the last little corner of grassland before the mountain ranges and the wooded south. She smiled nostalgically. Verdanturf Town was still small and unmoving, just as she remembered it.

Sheets rustling quietly made her turn back to the room and the bed opposite hers where Hilary had just sat up. She rubbed her face, not noticing Mari was already up and by the window.

"Morning, Hilary," Mari greeted brightly. "Did you sleep well?"

Hilary dropped her hands into her lap. Her head turned and the look on her face was sick and exhausted, making Mari gulp down her cheery attitude.

"You okay?" she asked tentatively, clambering over her bed on a direct route to Hilary's side of the room. The bed dipped as Mari sat on the edge of it and Hilary let her body listlessly fall into Mari's side. "Want to talk?"

"I'm okay," Hilary mumbled, pushing herself away with her head still bowed low. "I just had a scary dream, that's all."

"Mom used to always say that telling people about your bad dreams ensures they won't happen," Mari said, trying to lighten the mood with a playful wink.

Hilary pulled the sheet up to her neck and over her shoulders like a security blanket. They sat in stagnant silence until she finally whispered: "I dreamed that everybody died last night."

A lump swelled in Mari's throat but she urged Hilary to continue.

"In the dream, the Zubats were on Team Aqua and Magma's side. They used a move that froze everyone completely still—we were all just completely petrified. So we couldn't escape when the boulders fell. They fell one by one and killed everyone while all I could do was stand there and watch."

She buried her face into the sheets, her body shaking with heaves and sobs. "Mari, I want to go home. What if something like this happens again? What if we all die and never get to see our parents or our friends ever again?"

"You'll get home," Mari assured her, rubbing and patting her back comfortingly. "In the meantime, just gotta be as brave as you can. No journey is without its risks and rewards. Just remember what your ultimate reward is and think about it all the time. Give yourself all the strength and determination you need to pull through and without a doubt you'll make it. For how important your goal is, Team Aqua and Magma are nothing, right?"

Hilary looked up from her sheets. Mari tried to keep smiling even though Hilary's tear-blotched face and the wet marks on the sheets pinched her heart tightly and painfully. Hilary sniffed and managed a small smile.

"I… I guess. Between all of us, we have already defeated them, like, twice apiece."

"Right?" Mari encouraged. "All we have to do is keep that winning streak, which shouldn't be all that hard. Every day forward makes you stronger. Couldn't beat us yesterday, think of how they'll fare tomorrow or the day after that?"

The girls stared at each other, then they both burst into giggles.

"Yeah…" Hilary sighed, taking a deep shuddery breath. Her heart had felt like it was weighted down with little stones in its pit but the burden of it got a little lighter.

"All things considering, maybe we should just spend all day relaxing," Mari suggested. "What better way to start than with a bath. Didn't exactly bother to get cleaned up last night."

"Yeah, we didn't, did we?" Hilary said, looking down at her arms. Her skin was darker than it normally was from the fine layer of dust caked onto it with sweat. She wrinkled her nose. "Gross. How did we get to sleep like this?"

"Used to it," Mari shrugged, standing up and stretching. "Spending long bouts camping in the wild gets you super dirty but you still have to sleep. Dunno about you guys, though."

Hilary just nodded and pushed the sheets aside to slide out of bed. They were all well aware that they'd been exhausted last night and it wasn't just their bodies, their clothes were filthy too. With that in mind, the girls took their day clothes downstairs to the laundromat that was typically located next to the bathroom in the Pokémon Centres so their clothes could wash while they bathed to get all of the grime out of their skin and hair. Once they were clean and dry and decked in a fresh set of underwear they returned to the laundromat to switch their clothes to the dryer and cleaned their shoes while they waited.

"It's really quiet here," Hilary commented offhandedly, concentrating hard on picking the dust out of her shoe buckle with a nylon brush from the laundromat's store cupboard. "Even though we were up before the boys, it's not actually that early but there doesn't seem to be anybody around."

"Yeah," Mari said nonchalantly, picking little stones out of the soles of her shoes. She frowned as she scrutinised them. The grip had worn down considerably. Maybe she should have opted for new shoes too back when they'd taken up Mr Stone's offer, even if these ones were comfortable and still in good condition. "Verdanturf's Pokémon Centre is almost always quiet. Not many travellers come through here since there's no Gym."

"But isn't there a Contest Hall?"

"Sure. But unless there's a big ultra or master rank on people don't really flock here. Most visitors are like us – just passing through on their way to Mauville or Rustboro."

"We're just passing through?" Hilary asked with eyebrows raised as this was the first time she had even considered that. She stopped cleaning her shoe and held it and the brush in her lap, staring at them deep in thought. Noticing how she'd suddenly gone quiet, Mari tilted her head trying to gauge Hilary's expression.

"Did you want to go to a Contest?"

Hilary wordlessly considered that but before she could give an answer she yawned widely.

"Maybe you should consider a nap first?" Mari chuckled. "Haven't had much sleep."

"Yeah…" Hilary agreed, tiredly going back to brushing her shoes. "Once everything's clean again."

Once the dryer cycle finished Hilary did go back to her room and sleep for a few more hours. When she woke up again the sun was high in the sky and the temperature had risen by several degrees. She put on her clean clothes, savouring the smell from the detergent left on her shirt. Smelling clean fabric after nearly a week of wearing the same thing every day was a like a perfume heaven and wearing them felt just as nice.

Dressed for the day, she walked out of the room, beginning to think about where the rest of the party was. However, by the time she got to the stairs she was already absentmindedly daydreaming about what they should do for the rest of the day. Mari's suggestion to relax sounded sensible but Hilary wasn't sure what there was to do in Verdanturf Town to kill time for at least half a day. As she reached the bottom of the staircase her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of familiar voices. She turned to her right. At the end of the room, just before the kitchens, was the poky hallway that led to the bathroom and laundry. It was a bit dark because there weren't any lights in the corridor until she got to the room at the end of it – a changing room. The frosted glass sliding door on the left entered the bathroom while to the right was the laundry room with the door left slightly ajar. Mari was leaning on the wall next to the laundry room but didn't notice Hilary right away. She had turned away to speak through the gap.

"In any case, we can't actually track Porygon Z's movements in real time—even if we can see where it is we can't predict where it'll go."

"Would you stop peeping on us already?! Geez!"

That sounded like Tyson. Hilary let out a low laugh at the eye roll Mari gave to his reaction. That caught Mari's attention.

"Awake again," she said with a smile. "Feeling energetic now?"

"Yep! I'm all refreshed," Hilary replied, stretching her arms up and then flexing to show her perkiness. "When did everyone else get up?"

"Not long ago. Been trying to convince the boys that we should take it easy today," Mari answered, jerking her thumb at the door, "but I think they must've had a bad sleep and woke up cranky. They're being super weird about me seeing them in their underwear."

"Excuse me!" Tyson snapped though the door. "I'm soooorry you don't have modesty and decency where you come from."

"We might as well take the day off," Hilary interjected, bringing the real subject back around. "We all got up late and there isn't much daylight left to burn. There's no need to rush to the next city." Not to mention all of the possibilities Hilary had been daydreaming about and she knew that at least two of them were sure to be possible even in a town this small.

"That's what I said," Max replied. "But you know how anxious Tyson gets about that dumb Porygon Z."

"Hey!" Tyson grumbled. "That isn't fair!"

"You guys are all forgetting the most important thing," Daichi piped up. The whole washing area went quiet save for the rumbling of the washing machine. Hilary and Mari exchanged glances, wondering what was happening in there. "If we wanna find Porygon Z we need our PokéNav. Ray has it but he's in hospital."

"Yeah," Max said with the slow tone of dawning realisation. "He still hasn't come back; maybe he hasn't been discharged yet. Let's take it easy for his sake at least. He was bleeding pretty badly yesterday."

"You guys are just looking for any excuse to take the day off," Tyson grumbled.

"Usually you are," Max remarked cheekily.

"I can go get Ray," Hilary declared, startling everyone with how forcefully she made the suggestion. Mari raised her eyebrows. "We don't necessarily need everyone to go to the hospital, so I'll go and bring him back."

"Hang on, Hilary!" Max called, pushing the laundry door open and leaning out but she had already turned on her heel and run out.

Mari stepped away from the wall but faltered awkwardly. "Should… should I go after her?" she wondered aloud.

"Why? Did something bad happen?" Daichi asked, jumping on Max's back to poke his head out of the door too as if he'd still be able to see Hilary.

"Not sure…"

"Daichi, please get off my back," Max wheezed.

The breeze from earlier in the day still hadn't subsided but it was a nice gentle breeze that made the air taste new. Hilary breathed it in and sighed contentedly as she stepped out of the Pokémon Centre. The town was almost as small as Littleroot and just as quiet and peaceful. There was hardly any paving, allowing the fresh green grass to spring up and dance in the breeze unhindered. How could Tyson want to leave so soon?

All of the major town facilities were concentrated around a grassy town square. Although, by Hilary's experience, concentrated was a term used loosely since the buildings were all so broadly spaced and she was used to the density of the city. The wide open square like a meadow in miniature was nearly featureless except for the single street pole standing in the centre like an axis. It had several signs on it, pointing to all of Verdanturf's locations: Pokémon Centre, shop, hospital, house numbers 1-92 and all the others. The signage wasn't really necessary. Hilary could see most of those places from the middle of the square and anything she couldn't see she would pretty easily find. Nonetheless, she looked up at the street sign pointing to the hospital and duly followed its direction.

It was such a short walk to the hospital that by the time she got there Hilary was mentally floored by the knowledge that she'd already crossed half the town and then floored again at the sight of the building. It was the smallest hospital she had ever seen. She wouldn't have believed it was the hospital if not for the lovely letters above the main entrance that said: 'Verdanturf General Hospital'. It was just one building three storeys high with a stepped roof profile so that only a third of the building actually stood at the full height. There were crawling vines creeping all over the walls and peeking over the edge on each of the rooves were little tufts of greenery. When she stepped inside the place was quiet and had a surprisingly relaxed atmosphere despite the kind of place it was. Hilary looked around this main foyer area that only had room for the pharmacy on the left, a gift shop on the right, and an information desk in the middle. Even though it was such a small space she had no idea how to find Ray here. Information was always a good place to start, so Hilary began making her way towards the desk, only to stop at a familiar call:

"Hilary!"

She looked up and turned to the sound of her name. Ray waved to her, walking from a stairwell tucked within the wall of the hall to the left. She smiled and jogged to meet him halfway. She looked him over, trying to find the tell-tale signs of his injuries but there were none. Not even a bandage. She furrowed her brow at that.

"Is something wrong?"

Ray's question broke her concentration and she looked up at him. "No, nothing. I just came to see how you were and if the hospital was ready to discharge you. How's your arm?"

Hilary leaned to look at his right arm. He lifted it a bit, examining the arm himself. "Perfect. Feels like it's never been better," he answered, flexing his fingers and then making broad movements with the whole arm to prove it. "It turns out I wasn't poisoned, so all they did was use a Pokémon to heal the damage."

"Whaaaat?! Pokémon can do that too?"

"As it turns out, yes," Ray grinned. "They only kept me here overnight to make sure that no infections had set in. I kind of want to stay longer, though. The roof garden on my floor was amazing."

"Glad to hear you enjoyed your stay," Hilary replied in a cheery voice, then grumbled under her breath: "too bad everyone wants to leave."

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing!" She waved her hand as if she was waving the concern away, a cheerful expression suddenly beaming out of her face. "Let's just go; everyone's waiting for us back at the Pokémon Centre."

She ignored the perplexed look on Ray's face when she grabbed his arm and started to drag him back to the hospital's doors. He stared at the back of her head in concern but waited until they'd stepped out of the hospital, where her gait slowed and her grip loosened, to say anything.

"Hilary, are you okay? You guys didn't have an argument, did you?"

Hilary sighed. "No, it's nothing like that." She paused in the middle of the road and let go of him to hold both of her elbows. She stared at the ground while Ray patiently waited for her to continue. "Hey, did you hear anything about Ryan and Angelo?"

Ray blinked at the sudden change in topic. "Yeah… I think they're both fine. Angelo even left before me. He just had broken bones that a healing Pokémon easily fixed – that sounds like such a weird thing to say, doesn't it? Being able to make light of two broken legs, it's bizarre. But Ryan is still being treated. We haven't gone far; we could go back and check on him." Ray pointed to the hospital. They hadn't even gotten twenty metres away.

"C-can't you just tell me?" Hilary insisted.

"I suppose. The nurses were telling me earlier that they wouldn't let anybody see him yet because they wanted him to rest. His major injuries are all healed up now but it seems that there was some lingering damage. He had to be operated on but I've been assured that he'll be fine."

"Phew, that's a relief," Hilary muttered, putting a hand on her chest.

Ray raised an eyebrow and folded his arms. "Somehow I get the feeling that that's not the biggest of your worries right now. Do you need to talk about it?"

Hilary couldn't bring her eyes back to him. She stared at the grass with her lips pressed together. "I just… with everything that happened… I… I don't think… I don't know if I can…"

She squeezed her eyes shut as tears began to well up. Ray put a firm hand on her shoulder, squeezing reassuringly. She finally looked up at him and his face was set in a serious expression as he nodded for her to continue. Yet she felt like she had to turn away again.

"I'm really scared to go on," she admitted. "I know that chasing Porygon Z and going home is so important but… but last night we could have died." She sniffed, bowing her head low and scrubbing the tears away with both hands. "Gee, look at me being all pathetic like this, even after Mari tried so hard to cheer me up."

"I understand."

"Huh?" Hilary paused and looked up at Ray again. He was smiling gently at her.

"Yesterday you were really strong and brave to take on Mightyena even though your Pokémon are much smaller but it's hard to be brave all the time, especially when you're not wrong." He stopped for a moment to take a deep breath before continuing: "This world we've ended up in and this situation—so far they both seem really dangerous. We'll probably run into Team Aqua or Team Magma again and they may be stronger, they may not be. However, it's important that we make sure that we'll be ready to face whatever we might run into on the road ahead. So, while we're here in a peaceful town like this, let's use this time to collect ourselves. Every time we rush we exacerbate the perils we fall into."

"Tell that to Tyson," Hilary muttered tiredly.

"I figured this might have something to do with him," Ray chuckled. "How about this then: let's forget about Tyson and the others for the rest of the day. We'll waste all the daylight hours until sunset doing whatever we want then meet up with everyone and pretend that I was under treatment for poison for the whole day."

Hilary giggled, wiping her face with one hand while she hit him playfully on the arm with the other. "Ray! That's sly."

He just smirked and shrugged. "The only question now is: what's there to do around here?"

"Well, there's the shop. We can go there and look around for some potions for your Pokémon. You caught that Zubat, which means that it had to fight one of your Pokémon, right?"

Ray nodded. "They're fine. The hospital has a regenerator just like the Pokémon Centre. Obviously it stands to reason that if the trainer isn't okay then their Pokémon may not be either."

"Then your Zubat can come out now, can't it? Let's see it," Hilary urged, clutching her hands in front of her.

"Er, that's actually not so good of an idea," Ray muttered with a grimace.

"Why not?" Hilary pouted.

"They don't like light, you know," Ray reminded her, "which I kind of forgot earlier today when I let him out on the roof garden."

Hilary sighed disappointedly and dropped her hands by her side. She'd really wanted to see it first. "Yeah, okay, fair enough."

"Don't look so down. There's always this evening. Besides, a nocturnal guy like Zubat would probably prefer to sleep right now. So…" Ray pondered, and then he clicked his fingers. "Hey, why don't we see if we can find those siblings?"

"You mean Shido and her brothers?"

"Yeah! Hm… but where would they have gone? You didn't see them at the Pokémon Centre before you left, did you?"

"No but there's one more place we can try," Hilary replied.

She grabbed Ray by the wrist and dragged him away before he could ask where.

In all honesty, Ray should not have been surprised that Hilary brought them to the place that she did. Even with its odd design, he could see the building from a long way afar. Yet it made a lot of sense. After all, the first place they saw Shido was at a Contest.

The Contest Hall was similar the one in Rustboro – garishly pink with gilded arches and the tasteless big, red bow over the doors – but it had a domed roof stretched over the entire building like a blanket and carpeted with grass as if the designer had suddenly been overcome by shame and tried to hide it under Verdanturf's lush meadows. As Hilary and Ray approached they noticed other people crossing the square from the direction of the residential district on their way to the Hall. They entered through the glass double doors with golden, ribbon-shaped handles and gawked in surprise at how crowded it was in the lobby.

"It looks like there's something on," Ray remarked as they made their way inside. "Do you think they're in this crowd somewhere?"

He craned his neck upwards trying to spot the yellow and purple highlights that marked Angelo and Devlin's bangs respectively. However, Hilary turned her gaze downwards in search of a little purple scorpion that was bound to be out of place among all these people. After a couple of minutes of searching turned up nothing they both continued down the middle of the lobby to the reception desk. There weren't enough people for a queue to form so as soon as they got to the desk the young brunette receptionist perked up, eager to do her job.

"Welcome to Verdanturf Contest Hall! How can I help you?"

"Well, we were just looking for some people, that's all," Hilary explained. "Could you help us?"

"Um…" the receptionist murmured, looking over all the people in the lobby generally. "Can't help you search for an audience member but if you're looking for a contestant we could definitely help. Today's normal rank Contest is about to start and we have five contestants—"

"Six," the second receptionist suddenly piped up. She was an older woman with flaxen navy blue hairy and she didn't even look up from the registrations she was sorting when she interrupted. "There was a last minute entry this morning."

"Great! Always better to have a bigger Contest than a smaller one."

Hilary stared at them in disbelief. "This morning? That couldn't have been Shido." She and Ray exchanged glances. "Could it?"

"Yes," the flaxen-haired woman replied bluntly. "Shido Sanders is contestant Number 6."

"No way! Entering a Contest so soon after… is she even prepared?"

"Why don't you enter as well?" Ray suggested. He was about to add more but before he could speak the receptionist snapped:

"Registrations for today's normal rank are already closed." She finally looked up from her work and glared at them. "Contest is in twenty minutes, course you can't enter."

"But," her cheerier co-worker interjected with an embarrassed smile, "you can still totally register for this evening's super rank with a qualified Pokémon. Unfortunately, due to other events, the next normal rank Contest is three days away. Can register you now if you want."

"Three days…" Hilary murmured in dismay, turning her eyes down to the pink countertop.

"That's a shame," Ray said, sympathising with Hilary's disappointment. "Nonetheless, we did come here to see Shido and her brothers. It would be good to attend her Contest and show some support since we're already here. Can we still get tickets?"

"Course!" the brunette chirped. She handled the transaction professionally but to their surprise she didn't hand them paper tickets like the ones that had been given out in Rustboro. Instead she gave them something that looked like an electric glow stick. "Here are your glowcasters. Present them to the ushers as your ticket and remember to return it afterwards."

"Sorry, what?" Ray said, gawking at the strange new device in his hand. "A glowcaster? What's this for?"

"Voting," the blunette answered tersely.

"How?" Hilary asked.

"At the last Contest we weren't given anything like this," Ray added.

"Ah, glowcasters can't operate in all types of theatres," the brunette explained. "Other Halls give out different tickets for events in theatres that aren't compatible with caster technology but since this Contest Hall only has one theatre we can just use glowcasters for everything. Need instructions for how it works?"

Hilary and Ray nodded.

"When you want to vote for a contestant you just have to set the channel to the number corresponding to the contestant you favour. Look on the bottom. There's a screen that shows the channel and you can change it by twisting the rod. Then you press the button at the top of the handle to cast your vote."

Hilary and Ray both checked the bottom of their glowcasters. At the very bottom was round, black screen set to '00' as a default. They tested the channel changing mechanism, twisting the glow rod right and then left to make the dial go up and down respectively, or loop back around to its maximum value of 99.

"Wow, this is so cool," Ray breathed, rather enraptured by such a minimalist yet advanced piece of technology. "I'm just wondering, if we use this are we only restricted to one vote?"

"Not at all!" the friendly receptionist replied. "Each glowcaster is programed to only be able to cast one vote per contestant but you can vote for as many contestants as you like."

"I see," Hilary nodded, looking at her glowcaster in admiration. She couldn't wait to practice using it.

In a case of excellent timing, an automated announcement rang out over the crowd's chatter: "Welcome to the Verdanturf Theatre and Contest Hall. The normal rank Pokémon Contest will begin in ten minutes. Please make your way into the theatre to take your seats."

"Ray, let's hurry!" Hilary said excitedly, grabbing Ray by the elbow and dragging him to the stairs. She turned back to the receptionists briefly to thank them and then hurried up the steps like she was in a race against the other patrons to get to the balcony.

"Hilary, calm down," Ray chuckled. "We'll be able to get seats."

"Yeah, I know that's true but – oh, I don't know. I'm just really excited to see this."

"I can tell. It's hard to believe that you were crying less than an hour ago."

Hilary blushed. "Don't say that so loud in public!" She paused to turn and bop him on the head with her glowcaster.

"Ouch! That thing's hard," Ray complained.

An usher stood at the top of the staircase with a device in hand for scanning their tickets. He looked bored and didn't say a word or let them get a word in edgewise as he swiped the scanner past each of their glowcasters and gave the screen a cursory glance.

"Row double-A, seats 6 and 7," he said monotonously. He pointed down the hall to his right. "Door right at the end and they'll be to your left."

They followed his directions and entered a theatre that was a far cry from the small, outdoor amphitheatre they'd seen in Rustboro. It had proper seats instead of just benches, upholstered in rainbow colours with red down at the front rows shifting gradually to violet at the back. They were seated at the front of the balcony, looking over the stands and the stage, which had a large red curtain decorated with a golden design of Hoenn's ferns and flowers entwined with ribbons. The house lights were up as the theatre slowly filled and Hilary gazed over the room.

"This theatre is so fancy. And that curtain is like nothing I've ever seen before. No wonder Shido wanted to compete in a place like this. I really hope she does well."

"You sound unconvinced," Ray noted, looking at her. Hilary sighed and clenched her hands over her knees.

"Surely what happened last night would have been awful for her too. She got separated from her brothers and her Pokémon and they were all hurt. Isn't it a bit reckless to go straight into something stressful like this after that?"

"You think this will be stressful for her?"

"It was stressful for me…"

Ray hummed thoughtfully, sitting back in his chair and turning his eyes up to the house lights that were designed to resemble stars dotted in the night sky. "I guess the only way we'll find out is when we see her for ourselves. And afterwards you can ask her about it."

"Yeah?"

Ray just smiled in response. The house lights began to fade and a sudden hush overcame the theatre, prompting Hilary and Ray to turn their attention back to the stage. The only light remaining was a spotlight focused on the seam between the curtains. Then one of those beautiful curtains was gently pushed open to make a small opening for a girl with shiny, voluminous, red hair in a glossy, leaf green dress with capped sleeves to step out. The audience clapped politely and there were some quiet cheers of anticipation as the MC waved and raised her microphone to her red-painted lips.

"Good afternoon, Verdanturf Town! I'm Rose and, as always, I'll be MC-ing this show!" she exclaimed in a bubbly, high-pitched voice that didn't quite match her elegant style of dress. She made a jerky movement with her head that was probably a wink but nobody could really tell because she had so much hair it covered her eyes. Her introductory speech rushed through some housekeeping and Contest format details before she returned to her excited demeanour: "This normal rank Pokémon Contest is about to get under way. Bound to be brilliant but don't take my word for it. Meet the contestants and see what they have in store. But first, meet the judges!"

A spotlight suddenly shone on a small loge at the front and centre of the balcony.

"Verdanturf's very own! Ones who have put our town on the map for years to come! Please welcome: the lovely local lady with the know, Frieda Shipp; the phantom of the Contest Hall, Timmy Grimm; and last but not least, the greatest trainer to hail from this humble town, Wally Chartreuse!"

Hilary leaned forward over the rail to try to get a better look at the judges. It was difficult to distinguish them all from her seat. The woman on the end that she could see most clearly was a blonde with stylish ringlets in her long hair wearing a long, white dress. The man beside her was dressed in a suit but a mask with a red cyclops eye obscured his face. Hilary only got a glimpse of some ordinary-looking kid with green hair before Rose stole her attention again with the next announcement:

"Now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Time to lift the curtain on our contestants and reveal their gorgeous Pokémon for the visual appeal. Let's see some style! Let's appeal!"

Rose threw her arms out to the side and the curtain peeled away so fast the lights behind it stunned the audience before they could adjust to the brightness and the glimmer. Hilary gasped.

The stage was shiny and brightly-coloured but in a tasteful way, not like the gold monstrosity in Rustboro's main hall. Curvy stage steps were arranged around the performance floor in the middle and curved up the sides and back until they were no longer functional and just became an elaborate and elegant 3D backdrop. Each of the six contestants stood on a step, patiently waiting to be called upon as the crowd cheered for them. Hilary easily spotted Shido on the first step at the far left and couldn't help the excitement bubbling up in her.

"Hey! Shido!" she called across the hall, even though she wasn't sure she would be heard above the rest of the noise. "Good luck!"

Shido turned her head, looking up to the balcony. The light from the stage lit the room well enough that she was able to discern Hilary and Ray. She grinned broadly. Her eyes scanned the rest of the audience until they fell upon two boys with dyed bangs in one of the front rows in the stands. She couldn't smile more even if she tried.

"Use your holocaster to vote when a contestant presents their Pokémon," Rose explained. "Make it count! Vote channel one for contestant Number 1: Darcy Knight and Sharka!"

The first contestant stood on the opposite side of the stage from Shido. She was a dark girl who had smooth, short hair with long, asymmetric side bangs, wearing a dark blue dress with yellow halter straps. She picked up the hem of her dress – it was so long and heavy that it dropped to the floor in a crumpled heap – and stepped onto centre stage. Her Pokémon burst onto the stage with a spurt of eerie blue light with a liquid effect from the seals. The light formed into the shape of a dark blue and white shark with a wide mouth of large, sharp teeth and four fins. Each fin was banded with a decorative cuff made of a similar material to its trainer's dress with a sharp angular design and the yellow X-cross had been polished with some kind of cosmetic that made it sparkle like gold glitter. The audience cheered but Hilary and Ray stared slack-jawed.

"Is that meant to be a shark?" Hilary asked.

"It's only half a shark," Ray remarked dumbly.

"How is it alive? Shouldn't it need water?"

"How is it floating? Are flying sharks a thing in this world?"

They exchanged bewildered glances and turned back to the stage as people started to cast their votes.

Several people lifted their glowcasters up. The rods glowed blue and from the tip a little ball floated out and slowly drifted towards the stage like orbs of magic. Hilary and Ray watched in awe at the beautiful scene of these hovering lights all around them. The orbs gathered around the trainer, seeming to be absorbed by her. A hologram appeared above the step where the trainer had originally stood, a white line image of a crescent moon with a circle around it that filled up with light as more orbs were gathered. The circle filled a lot more than halfway and then stopped and the residual glow around the trainer faded. She curtsied politely with her Pokémon before returning to her place to sound of people continuing to applaud for her.

"That was amazing," Hilary breathed, referring to the glowcaster voting system. "Have you ever seen anything like it?"

"It's like fireflies," Ray whispered, looking at the hologram display still hovering above the first trainer.

"Wasn't she elegant?" Rose gushed. "Hard act to follow but don't get too carried away yet. Still haven't seen contestant Number 2: Seth Sale and Maru-maru!"

The second contestant lurched forward awkwardly as if he was nervous and released a Pokémon that looked like a seal pup had swallowed a beach ball. It was cute and its fur was in great condition but it didn't have the flair of the first Pokémon. These visual appeals went by much slower than the Rustboro show had, mostly due to contestants having to stay in place until glowcasters had stopped emitting but they eventually got all the way around the stage to the final contestant. Hilary twisted her rod to channel six, knowing she would vote no matter what.

"Last but not least, contestant Number 6," Rose declared, gesturing with a great flourish to the final entrant, "Shido Sanders and Skorupi!"

Shido skipped out to centre stage. She twirled her parasol and threw Skorupi's Pokéball straight up, letting him out in the same confetti shower she'd had at the previous Contest. Skorupi appeared wearing his mittens again but had the addition of a corsage with adorable trailing ribbons on his tail. He waved the stinger around, proudly showing off the craftsmanship of the ribbons.

"Alright, Shido!" Hilary cheered, thrusting her glowcaster up and pressing the button to send a red orb floating down to the stage. The sight of so many other glowcasters throwing red orbs to the stage only encouraged her further.

"That does it for the visual appeals," Rose announced as Shido returned to her place with Skorupi. "All votes are in. Too early to say if there's a clear winner but sadly there is a clear elimination."

She pointed up to the holograms above the contestants. They each had a personalised symbol surrounded by the ring partially filled with their personalised colour. The yellow arc over the star hologram above Seth and Maru-maru was clearly the smallest. The hologram tilted and dropped like a painting falling from a wall before it faded out of existence. Seth hung his head and a few members of the audience murmured "aww" in sympathy.

"Too bad but keep at it and you'll get that normal rank ribbon yet. Let's not dilly-dally, next up is Round 2: the performance appeal." The crowd got excited as the red curtain fell. "Don't go away, now. Contestants will be back in just a few moments. See ya then!"

She darted behind the curtain as well, leaving the crowd chatting amongst themselves. Hilary folded her arms, looking at the curtain curiously.

"This time they only eliminated one," she muttered. "It was two last time."

"Yeah," Ray added. "Do you think it's just for the final round numbers?"

"Hm? You think that they just do it to make sure there're four in the finals?" Hilary wondered. "But why four?"

Ray shrugged.

It truly was just a moment and Rose trotted back out on stage, this time coming from the side and staying close to the edge. "Still all here? Hope so because this round is always hailed best in show. This time the contestants are going to try to impress the judges with their performance skills. Time to open Round 2 with the current fan favourites, Shido and Skorupi."

The curtain rose again, revealing the pair already in place. Shido waved to the audience with both hands before she and Skorupi exchanged glances.

"Say, Skorupi, how should we do this?" she asked.

Skorupi clicked and turned to the audience with pride. He raised his stinger over his head and shot a decent barrage of Pin Missile onto the floor. It was one of his favourite moves after all. However, the audience didn't seem to be into it, with how many of them pursed their lips and others groaned in disappointment. Skorupi keened and deflated.

"Don't worry, Skorupi," Shido encouraged him. "Let's keep trying with all we've got. Show them Knock Off."

Skorupi nodded, thumping both pincers on the floor. The vibration knocked the pins up into the air and Shido got another quick idea. "Okay! Now let's make it flash with Leer."

Even with the stage lights, the red glare from Skorupi's eyes gave the pins a ruby halo. In the split second that they fell back to the floor Skorupi juggled them back into the air with another Knock Off. They went higher the second time. He started having fun, just Leering and juggling the pins several times until they were flying higher than Shido was tall.

"That's it!" Shido praised. "Now, time to finish it."

Skorupi tilted his head up and spat a Poison Sting barb at each of the pins with incredible accuracy. Each shot flicked a pin a bit higher and they all fell down one after the other with a rhythmic tap on the floor to orchestrate the finale. The audience ended up clapping a bit more than politely.

The other performances went by with much more dazzle. The half-a-shark followed up Skorupi's performance with one that was utterly overshadowing. Its coordinator's commands were clipped and to the point and every action was meaningfully choreographed, not just the moves it used.

"That girl sort of reminds me of Ruby," Ray said as she finished. Hilary turned to him.

"How so?"

"The way she commands her Pokémon is similar to how Ruby performed in Rustboro. It's the attention to detail, everything counts."

Hilary only hummed thoughtfully in response but she couldn't disagree. The half-a-shark coordinator was definitely skilled but they weren't the only ones to put the leaders to shame. Many of them had move combos that generated astounding visual, audio and even temperature and olfactory effects that Hilary could never experience from watching the Contests on TV. It left her even more in awe of the coordinators and what Contest Pokémon could do.

After the last contestant finished, instead of leaving the stage the curtain closed on them and the hologram scoreboards for the remaining five reappeared. The coloured bars on all of them were smaller now, as if they'd been scaled down.

"Judges have deliberated the scores for this round and the numbers are coming in," Rose informed them, pointing up to the scoreboards. "Starting with Number 6."

Shido's red score began to grow again, in a shade lighter than the original colour. It made its way around the bottom but didn't quite get back to its original level.

"Yikes! Not good for Shido and Skorupi," Rose commented. "Judged them harshly."

The scores increased following the performance order. Half-a-shark's performance rocketed to first place by a mile and the other scores also stretched out considerably but not by as large a margin as half-a-shark. In the end, the two lowest scores were very close – so much so that it was difficult to see the difference – but the computer had the numbers for Rose to report.

"Oh no! Even with the head start from a great visual appeal, Shido and Skorupi didn't quite make it. Fell short by less than a whole point. Sad, but that's Contests."

Shido's scoreboard fell out of the air in the same way Seth's had.

"No way!" Hilary gasped sadly, clutching her glowcaster in her lap.

"That's such a shame after doing so well in the first round," Ray said, "but I think this round is probably her weakness. It was like this in Rustboro too."

"Was it? To be honest I didn't really pay attention to many people's scores other than my own."

"It would have been harder for you to see anyway from backstage but Shido's score dropped by a large margin in the second round in Rustboro as well. At that time the points from the visual appeal did save her but it looks like she wasn't so lucky this time."

Hilary hummed through a sigh, this time tuning out Rose's enthusiastic announcing. "The competition in this Hall was a lot tougher, huh?"

"Even that much is apparent," Ray agreed, watching intently as the curtain closed and opened again on the final four contestants.

If he had been looking at Hilary instead Ray might have been seen her grip tighten and her shoulders tense. Hearing him confirm that hurt in a roundabout way, like a little jab right in her sternum. The competition was tougher here and Shido had failed. So didn't that mean that Hilary had failed worse? Against an easier cohort of coordinators she even trailed behind Shido's undisciplined technique. Ruby had so much faith in her but she couldn't measure up to it.

She lifted her gaze back to the stage as half-a-shark started off the third round. Instead of bubbling happiness she now felt oozing despondency.

At the end of the Contest Hilary and Ray returned their glowcasters. In the end it had been half-a-shark and its coordinator who had taken the ribbon but by the third round the Contest had lost most of its appeal. Not just because of how Hilary felt but because the pair were clearly dominating the competition.

"Excuse me," Hilary blurted out, getting the receptionist's attention back while she was putting the glowcasters away. The friendly brunette was still at the desk but the cold blunette had already left. "Can we go backstage from here?"

"You want to see Shido before she goes, right?" Ray guessed. Hilary nodded.

"Sure," the receptionist answered, "but it'll be pretty busy right now while they're setting up the super rank. If you just wait near the green room all of the contestants will come out through there anyway."

She gave them directions to said room to send them on their way. It was down a hallway on the ground floor, sharing the shiny flooring with the lobby all the way to the end. On their left was one of the far doors leading to the stands and right at the end was an unmarked door.

"This must be it," Hilary said. "So now we just wait for them…"

Ray stepped back to be closer to the wall but Hilary wasn't so mindful. She stood at the very end of the hall close to the doors, so when someone from the other side pushed it open to get through in a hurry they collided.

"Sorry!" Hilary quickly apologised. She stared at the girl who'd just walked out. It was Darcy Knight, half-a-shark's coordinator. She had changed out of her elegant dress and into a shorter and more casual black dress with a turtleneck halter.

"What are you doing?" she scowled. "Standing in the way like that. Move."

However, Darcy didn't wait for Hilary to do or say anything. She pushed the door open wider and brushed past haughtily without a backwards glance. Hilary stared at her retreating back, gobsmacked. Then she huffed.

"That was so rude!"

"I'll say," Ray agreed, eyes wide with disbelief.

"Who the hell does she think she is anyway?"

The click of the door opening again got her attention and she scooted back to stand closer to Ray and be out of the way. She turned around to see who had come through this time, finding a little girl in a red dress standing halfway through the door and staring at them in surprise. Her Skorupi wriggled to squeeze through the gap between her legs and the doorframe.

"Hilary! Ray! Waiting for me?" she grinned.

"Yeah," Hilary replied. "We just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Very fine, thank-you," she said happily.

"Is that so?"

Someone pushed the door wider from behind her. "Shido, other people need to come through too."

The twin with the yellow highlight looked up. He exchanged surprised looks with Ray and Hilary. She thought she had to rub her eyes. Angelo appeared to be completely fine. When Ray had told her that he was simply healed and sent off she thought it meant with crutches at least but he was walking just as well as the day before.

"Ah, your friend," Angelo realised understandingly. "However, you still have to move so other people can get out."

"Right, right~" Shido sang, skipping into the hall. The other twin followed Angelo closely, immediately looking towards Hilary and Ray since they'd caught both of his siblings' attention already.

"Really? These guys again?" he teased. "Following us?"

"O-of course we're not!" Hilary spluttered.

"Came to see me," Shido told him happily.

"Ohh, got some fans now?" Devlin smirked, raising his eyebrows at Hilary and Ray. He fixed Ray in particular with a piercing look. "Hope you don't have any ignoble intentions on my little princess."

Ray nearly choked on his own spit. "I-I-I'm pretty sure I'm way too old for her anyway!"

Shido and Angelo both giggled behind their hands.

"My, my. Devlin's terrible," Angelo chuckled, then muttered under this breath: "although I'm probably worse."

"What was that?" Ray asked, turning to him.

"Hm? Nothing at all. Although I will say, afraid you'll have to speed this up. Need to get our things together so we're ready to leave the hotel early tomorrow morning."

"Aw, didn't get to talk with Hilary very long," Shido pouted. "Will you be leaving tomorrow too?"

"Maybe," Hilary replied, "but we haven't really decided what to do from here. I'm honestly worried about you, though. After being trapped in that tunnel with us and your brother going to hospital, you still went ahead with coming to this Contest. How can you still smile like that? Don't you get…"

She trailed off. Shido cocked her head to the side. "Don't I get what?"

"…Scared?"

Shido's smile finally dropped as she considered Hilary's words carefully. "It isn't possible to never be scared. Last night I was scared. Thought I had lost my brothers and my friend forever." Skorupi scuttled up to her and hugged one of her legs comfortingly. "But in the end everyone was fine. We got healed and we're going to keep travelling tomorrow. It's important to let feelings come and go every day otherwise you miss out on all of the beauty of tomorrow. Winning and losing comes and goes too. I think it's more important to do things you love the way you love doing them."

Angelo hummed and nodded. "Reminds me of this Kantonese proverb: 'grass will be greener in spring'."

Hilary stared, unsure how to react. She would have to ponder those soft words for a while.

"Little princess is so mature," Devlin snickered, rubbing Shido's head and messing up her bangs. "Shall we upgrade you to a queen?"

"Princess is cuter!" Shido insisted.

"Well, anyway," Hilary interrupted their banter, "good luck then. For tomorrow and every day after that." She hugged the little girl, who returned it with full force. "Maybe we can meet again in the future. Perhaps at another Contest."

"Hope so!"

"Okay, say goodbye now," Angelo cut in, glancing at the time on his Pokégear. "Have to go. Nice to meet you two again."

"Bye~!" Devlin chimed in.

Shido squeezed Hilary just a little bit tighter before letting go and running to catch up with her brothers, who were already starting to walk away. Skorupi scuttled along with her, staying close by her side. Hilary and Ray let them get ahead and then turned to each other.

"We should follow their lead," Ray suggested, looking at the time on the PokéNav. "The Contest took a while, so it's already too late to leave Verdanturf today. Besides, the others will be getting really worried by now."

"Yeah, that's true," Hilary acquiesced. "I was only supposed to be gone for a little while to bring you back. But before we go back there's just one more thing."

She turned and walked back towards the lobby with a purpose. Ray blinked at her abrupt movement and then smiled, figuring out what was so important.

The sky became saturated with rich orange and pink as they made their way back to the Pokémon Centre. The sun was so close to setting but there were some strong beams casting long shadows across the grass. Verdanturf was still quiet – no roaring nightlife to speak of – so they both had some peace as Hilary walked with an absentminded smile on her face.

"Do you feel better now?" Ray inquired, speaking gently.

"A little bit," she admitted. "There are still some things that I'm worried about but I want to do what Shido said and try to put old feelings behind me."

"You know, I don't think that's what they meant when they said those things. I think they were telling you that it's important to give things the time they need while being mindful that many things are also transient. Your feelings aren't going to go away immediately just because of something that someone said and that's okay. Just keep working at it."

"That makes sense and all," Hilary sighed, looking down at the ground and the bright yellow sunlight shining on the grass, making it look almost gold. "But… I wonder if I'm not actually as strong as I thought I was. Even against Team Magma, I only chose to fight because I knew my Pokémon had type advantages."

"Hilary, that isn't weak, that's smart. It wasn't a sporting situation but even if it was there's no penalty against using the strengths you do have to their maximum."

"But every time you guys blade you're always so cool and powerful," Hilary argued. "And even if there are traps and tricks in the dish you don't use them against each other. You always fight so genuinely."

"Even so, we still have strategy and that doesn't count for nothing. It's impossible to make a beyblade that's perfect in every way so we're always thinking of how we can use our bey's strength to the max and exploit weaknesses in the opponent. Battles are just like that." He shrugged casually, as if that was just an indubitable fact of life.

"Really?" Hilary wondered hopefully, looking up. The Pokémon Centre was right in front of them and they entered through the automatic sliding doors.

They glanced around the small lobby. It was utterly deserted (if only because so few travellers regularly wandered through town) but there should have been at least five others around.

"Everyone's already gone?" Hilary muttered. Her eyes widened in panic. "They didn't leave us behind, did they?"

"Of course they wouldn't," Ray reminded her, brandishing the PokéNav. "I've got the device that helps them find Porygon Z. And besides, we're not the type to abandon our friends so easily."

They could both rationalise that that was true but it was still unsettling to walk into an empty Pokémon Centre. Hilary had just suggested simply going upstairs to see if everybody's stuff was still there when there was a clattering noise coming from an open door behind the reception desk. The Wigglytuff from last night waddled out excitedly to greet them. It was followed almost immediately by a harried male nurse carrying an armful of folders and paperwork.

"Sorry! Been updating the admin systems lately so things are kind of busy. Thought nobody was here at the moment," he explained, putting his things down next to the reception computer and then standing up to smooth his pink, curly hair. He looked like he was about to say something when he fixed his gaze on them but thought of something else. "Um, are you two Hilary and Ray?"

"Yes," Hilary answered. "Is something going on?"

"Your friends went out earlier to look for you. Asked me to make sure you didn't leave if you came back before they did."

"Oh…"

"We didn't really keep them in the loop, so I suppose that's fair but at least we definitely know they're still here," Ray said. He turned to the nurse. "Thanks for letting us know, Nurse… uh, sorry, I just realised we haven't met." And he couldn't find any name tags or duty rosters he could read off.

"Nurse Joy," the man replied jovially.

They stared at him. Hilary narrowed her eyes. "You're not Nurse Joy. Nurse Joy is a woman."

The nurse laughed nervously. "Ah, that's usually true, isn't it? But I'm a man, born that way and everything. And really am Joy. Er, Ray, will you need a bed tonight? Can book one if that's the case."

"Sure, thanks," Ray said, still bemused by the revelation that Nurse Joy in Verdanturf Town was male.

"HEY! THERE YOU ARE!"

Hilary and Ray turned around, unperturbed even though Nurse Joy nearly jumped out of his skin. They both smiled at the sight of the rest of their group coming back, even if the tone of Tyson's voice and the look on his face told them that he was furious.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

"Tyson, stop screaming!" Hilary shouted back at him. "What's your problem?"

"My problem is that we just spent hours looking around this town thrice to find you! Thrice!" he yelled, holding up three fingers. "That's three times!"

"I know what 'thrice' means!"

"Then why weren't you around?!" Daichi added, just as loudly and angrily. "Ray didn't even answer the PokéNav when Mari tried to text him!"

Hilary took a sharp breath. She looked at Ray, who smiled at her reassuringly. "I was still at hospital," he replied and Hilary's eyebrows rose briefly at how easily he lied about it. "I was poisoned so they spent a long time treating me and Hilary just stayed to keep me company until I was discharged."

"That's a lie! We went to the hospital and they said you weren't there anymore," Daichi huffed. "Where did you really go?"

"Won't be mad at you for telling the truth," Mari told them. "Well, maybe Tyson and Daichi will be, but I won't."

Hilary sighed. "Alright, fine. We went to the Contest Hall to watch Shido compete."

"AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!" Tyson screamed, clutching his face in both hands and almost bending over backwards. "WHY!? Why are you wasting time on bullshit like that when we really need to be hauling ass back home?!"

"Shido was at a Contest?" Max said, a bit confused by that information. "I wouldn't have thought she'd do that. She cried a lot yesterday because of the cave-in and it seemed like Angelo's legs were broken."

"They were," Ray confirmed. "He was healed."

"What? In less than a day?"

"Yeah," Hilary added. "He didn't even have crutches or anything."

"That sounds impossible."

"It's true!"

"Let's get back to the real issue here," Tyson interrupted, "which is that because you two were off messing around we have literally no time left to travel today. We'll barely get past the town boundary before we have to set up camp. I mean, I get it when it comes to Hilary, but what the fuck, Ray!?"

"Hey!" they both exclaimed indignantly, though for different reasons.

"Well, there's no use just being angry about it," Max said airily, shrugging and folding his hands behind his head. "It's annoying that you guys didn't tell us where you went but we can't do anything about it now except stay another night."

"Four nights," Hilary corrected.

The group gawked at her in puzzlement, except for Kai who was already bored with this conversation and just wanted the verdict already. Tyson still had an angry crease in his brow and a scowl.

"Excuse me?" he snapped.

"I have a Contest to be at. It's three sleeps away and it's in the afternoon so it'll be four nights before we go anywhere."

"Y-you can't just decide that!" Tyson spluttered. "Have you even considered the rest of us?"

"I did," Hilary said decisively with her arms akimbo, "and the thing is: we're not ready to move forward at this stage. None of us are."

"What gives you the gall to say that?!"

"Tyson, think about it," Ray admonished. "Up until now, we've been taking things too lightly. I can't speak for you or anyone else but when we first dropped here I was insouciant about this world. Coming off the back of Brooklyn's rage at the Justice 5 tournament this world seemed peaceful and easy and the first Pokémon we saw were small and cute. But ever since then all of my expectations have been overblown at least tenfold. If we keep acting so casual we could die here. Sorry, but I'm thankful that Hilary is forcing us to remain in this town for just a little bit longer. For the next three days we need to rethink our strategies for travelling this world and get serious about training our Pokémon properly since it seems like they'll be the only ones who can protect us, not just against other Pokémon in the wild but against Team Aqua and Team Magma. We need this time."

"You can't be serious!" Tyson protested. He turned to the rest of the group for backup but everyone else was pensively staring at the floor or into the middle distance. Mari, however, tapped her lip and stared at Ray quizzically, wondering who this 'Brooklyn' could be and the 'Justice 5' tournament she'd never heard of. "Are you all for real?"

"What Ray's saying makes sense," Max argued. "Even if we weren't on the bad guys' radar before, we definitely are now and I'm not sure that in our current state we could beat them if they came back for us."

"Yeah…" Daichi gulped. "And I really don't wanna die, especially if my mom is never going to know what happened to me."

"That goes double—for both my mom and my dad."

"What?! Kai!" Tyson appealed, as if Kai's opinion alone would be enough to veto everyone else's decision.

Kai fixed Tyson with an intense stare. He didn't wind up to it with anything – no sigh, no exclamations, no conciliatory remarks – so it sounded blunt and abrupt when he said:

"Ray is right."

The group stared at him in silence. Tyson's jaw dropped and he kept making a noise in the back of his throat as he tried to say something but nothing came out. Togepi laughed at him as Kai took a deep breath before explaining:

"Yesterday we were saved by coincidence. The wild Pokémon were just as unfavourable to the enemy as they were to us. If they hadn't been involved and Team Aqua and Magma could keep fighting us unimpeded the consequences would have been fatal."

"No way!" Mari objected. "I was there. Wouldn't let you guys die just like that, no matter what!"

"You were the one who wanted to leave them in the cave!" Tyson countered.

"To get help from responsible authorities!"

"But you weren't on our side of the tunnel," Max reminded her. "Maybe if Ryan or at least one of the twins had ended up on our side of the tunnel things would have seemed okay but it was just us inexperienced trainers by ourselves with Shido, who was separated from her Pokémon. If the Zubats hadn't interfered, Julie would have pummelled us with her Slaking and there wouldn't be anything you could do because anyone powerful among us was on the other side. Those guys we fought yesterday are not even the most of our worries. They have other people in charge of them. We haven't seen the full strength of the leader at the flower shop. Or that weird Alex-guy from Team Aqua. We can't say that we know anything about what we're in for. Even if you try your hardest, you can't protect us all the time, Mari. We have to be able to rely on our own strength and our Pokémon's strength if we're really serious about our mission."

He glanced at Tyson, indicating that that last part was specifically aimed at him. Mari folded her hands and lowered her chin, silently conceding to Max's point. Tyson flushed and made a disgruntled noise but no more words came past his lips. It seemed like everyone else was always able to out-argue him regardless of the situation.

"Sorry to hear that your situation is so dire," Nurse Joy piped up. Everyone started and heads turned to him fast enough to give them whiplash. In the intensity of the moment they'd forgotten he was still there. He gripped his white cardigan nervously under their shocked stares. "If you feel unsafe, stay here as long as you like. Not many people come here, so it should be fine. I can let the police know about your situation with Team Aqua and Team Magma too. Been in the news lately, it must be scary to get caught up in the dealings of organised criminals like that."

"Man, you have no idea," Daichi told him.

By then it was settled. They booked four more nights at Verdanturf's Pokémon Centre and returned to their rooms with varying levels of apprehension and reluctance. They had a lot of training to do over the next three days. Until then, the search for Porygon Z was officially on hold.

A/N: Me at myself: "EXCUSE ME! WHAT MONTH IS IT?" I was way busier these past few months than I thought I would be, as well as way more unwell than I thought I would be, which is why this is super late. It did end up being the longest chapter I've written so far, though, and that's because there was just no way to comfortably end this. What happens next is going to be such a hard tone shift that it just wouldn't make sense to split it up into the next chapter with a page break.

Contest was was cut a bit short because Shido got eliminated from then on it wasn't about anybody we care about yet, so who cares, right? I got so tired of writing this chapter that all of the names are really on the nose because I just couldn't be bothered. But there were things in it that may pop up later... so remember them.

(When writing this chapter it was so weird referring to Nurse Joy as 'he/him' in the prose. Why did I think this was a good idea?)