I have been away a very long time, believe me I am aware of my absence. I pretty much only have one reason and it's this: I've been sick. I don't really want to discuss what's been happening to me these past few months over the internet, I'm just telling you this to explain myself and also to let you know that at this point you don't have to worry about me. I'm not going to die but it was disruptive enough that I didn't get much writing done, if any. So, I hope this chapter is long enough to appease you and Happy New Year.

Battle Au Naturel

The entrance to Rusturf Tunnel hadn't been blocked completely but there were two bright orange safety cones on either side of it and a temporary sign in front declaring: "ROAD CLOSED". Hilary and the bladers had gone straight there to wait for Mari. It didn't take her long to return to them but they already looked bored and unimpressed. None more so than Tyson.

"Alright, let's get this stupid tunnel excursion over and done with," he grumbled. "Then we never have to do it again."

"Lighten up, you'll love it," Mari beamed, gesturing for everyone to follow her as she skipped past the safety cones, completely disregarding their warning message.

Rusturf Tunnel had been thrown into pitch darkness. The guide lights that hung above were disabled for the time being so the group had to use their torches to let the temporary reflector poles show them the path. Tyson spent almost the whole time griping – about the point of guides when the road was damaged, about the darkness, and about them being there in the first place – until Hilary smacked him and snapped at him to shut up. Sure enough, they didn't get far before they came across a safety sign and a temporary fence that barred their passage completely.

"Wow, whaddya know?" Tyson gasped sarcastically. He turned around with an expression of mock surprise. "It's a dead end. It's almost as if this tunnel caved in and the police won't let anybody through anymore. So can we go now, Mari?"

He swung the torch beam back and forth. It flickered across Ray, Max, Daichi and Hilary but Mari and Kai were nowhere in sight. Max – as the holder of the second torch – looked behind them and tried to spot their missing members. The tunnel behind them was empty.

"When did we lose them?" Ray wondered worriedly.

"Those jerks! They have our other torch!" Daichi exclaimed, stamping his foot petulantly. A Whismur's cry bounced off the walls of the tunnel, making everyone freeze. Fortunately, the crying died down on its own and the group let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Cool down, Daichi," Max hissed. "We don't know that they left us on purpose." He panned the torch beam back and forth, looking for a clue. Then all of a sudden Ray grabbed his wrist.

"There!" he whispered.

His tight grip on Max's arm kept the torchlight steady over a couple of reflector poles by the wall. Hilary put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow, unsure what Ray was seeing there that she didn't. Tyson turned a disappointed glare his way.

"Yeah, Ray. That's a pole," he deadpanned. "They're all over this tunnel now."

"Obviously," Ray retorted. "But look at the placement of those two. It's wrong."

"How can it be wrong?" Daichi asked.

Suddenly Max made a quiet exclamation as realisation struck him. "They're so close together. All of the other poles have been spaced out more or less evenly so there's no reason why those particular reflectors should be right next to each other."

"Or is there?" Hilary wondered aloud. Now that she noticed the pattern too it got her thinking. She sidled along the wall to the erroneous pair of reflector poles, feeling her way along the rock and shuffling her feet over the ground to search for any inconsistency. At the two poles she suddenly felt a dip in the wall. She stopped but kept sliding her palm over it, wondering where it was leading but she never found an end to the wall. Her arm just ended up hooked around a corner. "I think there's another tunnel here."

Max glanced at the others anxiously. "Do you think someone could have kidnapped them down that way?"

"Is that a joke?" Tyson snapped humourlessly. "That better be a joke."

"I highly doubt it," Ray said sensibly. Tyson and Max both stared at him. "About them being kidnapped," he clarified. "But we might as well be prepared just in case."

He put his hand in his pocket to grasp Grovyle's Pokéball. Tyson marched right out into the lead again, leaving Max to bring up the rear. The secondary tunnel was so narrow that they had to enter it one-by-one. It was a rough trail with solid stones making rudimentary stairs but there was a bright light at the end of the tunnel, promising that this path would be short.

The tunnel ended in a natural cave opening with no fanfare that brought them to a green meadow. The rugged range enclosed it on three sides while the forest gradually edged away to the south almost shyly. Hilary and the bladers abruptly halted at the exit of the tunnel. They couldn't help it; their jaws dropped at the sight of a large, blue and red, domed building grandly taking up much of the space in the meadow. Its logo sign of three coloured orbs – red, green and blue – behind a Pokéball stylised in blue and white perched aloft over the glass doors where their two friends were already waiting for them.

"Hey! There you are!" Tyson yelled to them, wasting no time in running straight up to them but when he got there he was still enraptured by the building and stared up at it in amazement. "What is this place?"

"Took you long enough," Mari chuckled. "This place is called a Battle Tent."

"It doesn't look much like a tent," Hilary remarked as the rest of the group caught up at a more sober pace.

"Name's a bit of a legacy," Mari shrugged. "Used to be literal tents and they'd move around but now they're permanent features in some cities and towns that don't have a Gym."

"So this is the place you were trying to lure us to this morning," Ray guessed. "Why couldn't you just tell us about it instead of being so vague?"

Mari winked. "Well, that would make it easy, wouldn't it? Come on in and have a look inside."

Kai was already a couple of steps ahead of her, pushing the door open to enter the building. Mari jumped in after him and held the door open for the others to welcome them in. Daichi, however, paused briefly at the entrance, having spied something black in the grass beside the doors. He crouched down to pick up and examine the pair of dark sunglasses lying there and then hopped back up to hurry into the Battle Tent before Mari shut the door on him.

"Find something interesting?" she asked, glancing at the sunglasses he still had in his hands.

"They were just on the ground," Daichi replied. "They're pretty cool. Finders keepers!"

He put them on his face and grinned at his imaginary image of how awesome he must have looked wearing them. Hilary turned around to glare at him, annoyed.

"Daichi, someone might have lost them," she admonished. "You should at least see if they belong to anybody before you decide to take them."

"You're not my mom!"

"That doesn't mean I can't tell you what's right!"

Hilary lunged to snatch the glasses but Daichi dodged her easily.

"Hey! Back off, hag!"

"Hag?!" Hilary screeched. Daichi's eyes widened and he took off with Hilary hot on his heels.

"Hey now, calm down and take a look at this place," Max conciliated. "It's pretty cool."

Design wise, the building was very much like a tent. Rather than having a proper floor there was still grass inside the building. The material between the red structural ribs had been blue on the outside but from the inside it was clear, providing a window to the outdoors. Breezes blew in through the gaps under the windows and funnelled up to the oculus at the very top of the dome. The single room that the Battle Tent held was divided into four areas separated by low barriers so that everyone could see everything going on. Three of them were Pokémon battle arenas and the area they were currently standing in was the lobby with a service counter cutting them off from entering the arenas. Anybody who wasn't currently battling was milling around the lobby, using the computers or chatting or just lounging around on the wicker furniture.

"People are battling here," Ray observed, rather redundantly since it was obvious to anyone who could see. Trainers faced each other in the arenas, each with one Pokémon in front of them engaged in battle. "This could be exactly what we need."

"Yeah," Max agreed. "We can practise here against all sorts of people with different Pokémon." He turned to Mari and Kai. "How do we qualify?"

"You don't qualify per se," Mari answered, "you just have to follow the rules. Each Battle Tent has a unique battle condition that trainers have to abide by."

"Cool. So, what are the rules here?"

Before Mari could answer, Daichi and Hilary came screaming past again. She was still chasing him around and while her longer legs gave her an edge in speed Daichi was too agile for her to grab, even if she got within reach. Max, Ray, Tyson and Mari all groaned in embarrassment as people in the lobby stared at the bizarre spectacle. Kai averted his gaze and went straight up to the service counter, trying to ignore his friends' behaviour.

There was a blonde woman sitting on one of the wicker lounges out of the way with both elbows propped up on the back. She watched Hilary and Daichi tearing around the lobby with a devilishly amused smirk. An eyebrow quirked as she noticed the pair racing along the wall, so close that they would brush past her. She bided her time until the right moment and then subtly stuck a leg out. Daichi tripped on her ankle and ended up flat on the floor. Hilary took the opportunity to pounce. She straddled his thighs and grabbed his legs to bend him into a submission hold that had him screaming for mercy.

"APOLOGISE FOR WHAT YOU SAID!" Hilary demanded.

"YOU'RE STILL A HAG!" Daichi shouted, prompting her to pin him harder.

"Hey, found my sunglasses," an unfamiliar female voice spoke down to them and a pair of nice, black leather boots obtruded his field of vision. Hilary's grip slackened in her curiosity as she looked up at the speaker. She was a woman of average height with dirty blonde hair brushed smooth and straight. She wore a dark grey suit with purple hems, a clean, white shirt and a colourful scarf tied around her neck stylishly. Her green eyes stared wickedly at Daichi as she towered over him with her hands in her pockets. One pale hand reached out to him expectantly. "Thanks."

"Uh… you're welcome?" Daichi muttered, bewildered and a bit embarrassed that he'd now been caught by the apparent owner. He took them off and handed them to her.

She took them and folded the arms down, then walked away with the pair in her hands. Hilary and Daichi stared at her back awed by her intimidating entrance. Hilary recovered first and immediately put the pressure back on Daichi.

"See? I told you they would belong to someone!"

Mari and the rest of the bladers awkwardly approached the counter, trying to pretend they didn't know those two. The counter consisted of two curved desks and between them stood a blonde woman in a white sundress with green frills, blocking the only entry and exit to the arena.

"Welcome to Verdanturf Battle Tent," she smiled at them. "Do you need any help?"

"How do we sign up to battle?" Tyson quickly asked, slamming a hand down on the desk to her right, which startled her quite a bit.

"C-can sign you up, no problem," she replied, "but we're unusually busy this afternoon so there's a waitlist."

"Wow, look who's excited to get stuck into it," Ray teased. His grin turned catlike as Tyson blushed.

"W-we might as well," Tyson stammered an excuse, "since you and Hilary aren't letting us go find Torygom V!"

"Porygon Z!" Mari growled. "Swear you're doing this on purpose."

"Tyson, you don't have to make an excuse," Max chaffed, grinning just as impishly as Ray. "We know that whenever there's a battle you'll be in it to win it no matter what."

"It's not like that!" Tyson paused. "Okay, maybe it's a little like that but I am way more mature than some little kid who just gets excited about competitions."

"Of course," Ray tittered.

The receptionist picked up a tablet computer that lay on the desk to her left and swiped and tapped it a couple of times. "Just let me know your names and what order you'd like to be in on the waitlist. When it's your turn to battle, one of the referees will come and take you to your arena."

She gestured to one of the arenas behind her. There was a jolly old man standing on the sidelines of the battlefield wearing an official-looking blue and white vest to denote his position while a black fox-like creature went head-to-head with a lavender catlike Pokémon. Each arena had a holographic screen projected above it showing the profile pictures of the combatants and general battle stats.

"Hey, that's the girl we met at lunchtime," Max said, pointing to the right-hand side profile picture over the arena their attention was drawn to. "She's staying at the Pokémon Centre too."

"That so?" Mari said, looking over the barriers with much more interest. "That Espeon is really agile."

"Yeah, well wait 'til she gets a load of what my Combusken can do," Tyson grinned. He flipped open his Pokédex and thrust it at the receptionist displaying his ID page. "Sign me up first, lady!"

"No, sign me up first!" Daichi interrupted, zipping under Tyson's arm and pushing his Pokédex away.

"I was here first!"

"First the worst, second the best."

"That is not a thing!"

"You don't even like Pokémon!"

"That has nothing to do with it!"

"Daichi! Tyson!" Hilary chastised, stomping up to them with tense shoulders. "Do I have to beat some manners into you two?!"

While Tyson and Daichi were cowering under Hilary's glower, Max chimed in with his Pokédex at the ready: "I'll go first."

"I'll go next," Ray added, offering the information on his Pokédex.

"Then me," Mari piped up.

"Hey!" Tyson and Daichi both exclaimed in indignation.

The blonde woman entered their details on her tablet, starting with Max and ending with Daichi. "Done!" she declared. "Anything else?"

"We still don't know what the rules are at this Battle Tent," Ray reminded them.

"Happy to explain," the blonde replied. "At Verdanturf Battle Tent you can enter up to three Pokémon to an Anything Goes battle but there's a twist: you cannot give any instructions to your Pokémon."

"What?" Max exclaimed. "Then how do we fight?"

"Pokémon fight on their own in a test of trust. Only allowable intervention is switching out."

"This is gonna be hard," Max complained, running a hand down his face at the thought of Mudkip crying on the battlefield without any direction.

"Winning enough consecutive battles earns prizes," the blonde tried to cheer him up.

"Don't worry about winning," Mari placated him. "At this stage it's just about practise. More you learn about battling and about your Pokémon the better you'll get."

"Says the girl who, according to that leader board, has been number one in consecutive battles for five months," Hilary pointed out, gesturing to something behind them. They all turned around to look at it.

Hovering above the doors, out of sight to those just entering, were three more holographic screens showing the top ten in ranks for various achievements at the Battle Tent. The left-hand screen had rankings for the fastest battle times, the centre screen listed the most consecutive wins and the other screen showed the number of battles attempted. The listings provided names, profile pictures and update dates for the whole room to see. Each board had a unique set of trainers recorded but a few stood out. Unsurprisingly, Wally had a rank on all three boards, as did Emerald, but so did an unfamiliar guy with navy blue hair, grey eyes and a tanned, freckled face called 'Robin' according to the boards. Robin also had the fastest battle time, almost thirty whole seconds ahead of the second listed person. Right next to his rank, on the consecutive battle board was Mari's profile picture, with 102 consecutive wins. Just under her was a much more recent entry: Derryn had logged 100 consecutive wins. Mari cackled smugly upon seeing that.

"Suck it, Derryn," she murmured to herself. "Can't beat my high score."

"That's impressive," Max whistled. "How long did it take to win that many times in a row?"

Mari and the bladers gradually moved out of the way as Mari regaled them about the time when she was last in Verdanturf Town. However, Hilary remained by the counter, looking at the blonde receptionist. The receptionist turned to watch the arenas for a moment before bringing her gaze back to Hilary.

"Would you like to go on the waitlist too?"

"Eh? Oh, no, that's not it," Hilary faltered, waving her hands defensively. "I just, er, thought I recognised you."

The blonde gave her a confused look. "Have we met? Forgive me, don't quite recall…"

"Not exactly. I saw you from afar at a Contest. You're Frieda Shipp, aren't you?"

Her brow furrowed, making her expression more confused than before. "True but I'm not a coordinator."

"I didn't see you on stage. You were a judge at a normal rank Contest yesterday. That's where I saw you."

"Oh!" Frieda's eyes widened in realisation. "Of course."

"So, I take it you work here normally?"

"On and off. Really like looking at all of the Pokémon and trainers here but I like watching Contest Pokémon and coordinators too."

Hilary twisted her lip in contemplation. Going to events to look at animals sounded like such a boring pastime. It was so simple that she wasn't sure how what an appropriate response was. "I see… then you really like watching Pokémon, huh?"

"Pokémon and trainers," Frieda clarified, going back to observing battles behind her. "Most people love watching battles for the fights or Contests for the performances but it's different for me because I've always had a special ability. Want to know what it is?"

She winked at Hilary. Hilary leaned closer to listen, expecting some kind of secret.

"I can see the bonds of friendship between Pokémon and person," Frieda giggled.

Hilary stared at her nonplussed. Did Frieda expect her to take that seriously? Being psychic was one thing but this particular ability was weirdly specific. "What do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what I said. When I see a Pokémon and a human together I can tell how strong their friendship is, whether they love or hate each other or even if their feelings for each other are one-sided. Comes out strongest when Pokémon and people work together, that's why I love to see them battle and compete. Take those two…" Frieda turned around and pointed to the lavender cat that was now clearly on the losing side of the battle. "He and his trainer have a very strong bond. Even though Umbreon's dark-type is his weakness he stands strong and believes he can win because his trainer is doing exactly the same thing. Such synchronisation is only possible when partners become the best of friends."

The fox-like Pokémon let out a pulse of dark energy that proved to be the final straw that the lavender cat could take. The screen above the battlefield shifted, shading out Violet's stats and shrinking them to make room for her opponent's victory screen. Violet sighed in defeat as she returned her Pokémon. She and her pink-haired opponent convened on either side of the referee to shake hands in a formal gesture of sportsmanship before the referee invited Violet to place her Pokéballs in a smaller version of the regenerator at the Pokémon Centre.

"Of course, being best friends doesn't ensure victory," Frieda said wisely. "Still, wonderful to watch partners that are that close."

Hilary made a small noise of agreement. She glanced at the other battles that were still ongoing but she couldn't see anything special between the people and the Pokémon. It only made her wonder about her own Pokémon.

"In that case, I've changed my mind," she decided. "Can you put me on the waitlist too? And afterwards, would you mind telling me what my relationship with my Pokémon is like?"

"Can do, but I don't necessarily need to see you in battle to tell," Frieda told her.

"Well, I still want to try it. It'll be interesting to see what my Pokémon do if I don't give them instructions."

Frieda acquiesced to that and registered Hilary on the waitlist. At that time, Violet entered the lobby with a tired sigh, ushered by the referee. Hilary gave her a bright smile, putting on an extra friendly air to make up for the awkwardness earlier.

"Hi Violet! You and your Pokémon looked really good out there."

Violet looked at her but quickly turned away and walked off. She wondered if Hilary had seen the embarrassed flush on her face. Hilary hadn't. She shivered in mockery of Violet's cold behaviour.

In the meantime, Frieda called up the person the top of her waitlist: "Kaiya!"

Hilary looked around the lobby marginally curious about who this person was. The blonde woman from before got up with the dark sunglasses in hand. She walked up to the desk like she had a stately purpose but then suddenly spun around and moonwalked into the arena, shooting finger guns at the two girls and the referee. Hilary cringed and walked away to find something that would get her mind off of how weird that was.

As usual, the only people who stood out more than the strange blonde were her own group of friends. Mari and Daichi were both standing on a couch, looking out over the arenas (Mari even had one foot up and her hand over her eyes like she was searching for land off a boat). Even Ray and Max were leaning on the armrest and back respectively. Kai and Tyson (surprisingly) were using the seats properly but Tyson was the only one who wasn't looking in the direction that Mari was indicating. In fact, it looked like he was trying his hardest to resist in a battle he was losing against his own will.

"What are you doing?!" Hilary snapped, startling Daichi enough that he fell off the couch and to the floor. She huffed with her arms akimbo.

"Just watching one of the matches," Mari answered, unperturbed by Hilary's huffy face. She turned back to the arena she had been watching with a determined expression. "Girl who's fighting is someone I've met before, even fought before. Wanna see how this goes."

Hilary kept pouting, angry that nobody had taken the hint that they weren't behaving properly on the furniture. Yet she was curious about that one person who Mari had convinced everyone to hold their attention on and also looked that way. They were all staring at the backmost arena, the one Violet had just left and Kaiya was just entering, taking up her position opposite a pale girl with teal eyes and long pink hair that was up in a half ponytail. She was wearing a strapless black and pink top with black shorts and a black scarf wrapped around her neck. Her sneakers were ordinary black and white but what struck most of the bladers as unusual was that she was carrying her dark pink bag around with her, unlike everyone else who had just left their things wherever they were staying.

"You know Kaiya?" Hilary asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Who's Kaiya?" Mari replied with a quizzical glance at Hilary. "Talking about Valeriya."

The holo-screen reconfigured above the arena, showing portraits for the blonde Kaiya and the pinkette Valeriya. They stood opposite each other, attempting to intimidate the other with a confident glare as the referee raised his flags and declared the rules of the fight. Valeriya broke her gaze for just a moment to glance at the lobby area. She easily spotted the redhead standing out from the crowd and smirked but when she turned back to Kaiya her smile faltered. Kaiya hadn't moved a muscle. It didn't seem like she'd even blinked.

Valeriya clicked her tongue in annoyance but as the referee announced the beginning of the battle her hand automatically went to the first Pokémon on her belt. "Go, Garchomp!"

Kaiya's smirk widened fractionally and she threw her Pokémon onto the field. A Garchomp and a Bibarel appeared to face each other down. The Garchomp snorted but the Bibarel just sat staring like it wasn't really aware what was going on.

"Here, Justice!" Kaiya called out to her Bibarel, flicking the arms of the glasses open and throwing them out onto the field where they landed somehow perfectly on Bibarel's face.

Valeriya cocked an eyebrow at that move. "What are you doing? Bibarels don't need black sunglasses."

"Justice is blind, y'know," Kaiya replied cryptically, with a silly wink.

"Whatever. Go for it, Garchomp!"

Garchomp began with a broad sweep of its tail, flicking dirt off the sandy arena onto Bibarel. Bibarel rubbed its eyes where the sand had gotten underneath its glasses but was otherwise barely perturbed. It retaliated by spewing up a large wall of water that swept over Garchomp's side of the field in a huge tidal wave. Garchomp roared in offence, doing its best to whip up a sandstorm but the wet sand made it difficult to muster its power, giving Bibarel the time to charge energetically. Despite Kaiya's claim that it was blind it landed a decent hit. The sandstorm finally kicked up and whirled around the arena, making it difficult to see the two Pokémon inside. They only appeared to be blurry silhouettes charging at each other.

"Aw, sucks," Mari pouted. "Can hardly see through that sandstorm."

"Like you even need to see," Daichi scoffed. "It's obvious the shark-dragon is going to win."

"How is that obvious?"

Daichi looked at Mari like she was an idiot. "It's a dragon."

"I thought that at first too," Ray admitted, "but those opening plays weren't as one-sided as I imagined they'd be."

"Yeah, that dragon looked fierce," Max added. "Why didn't it just run straight up and lay the beat down on that beaver?"

"Wouldn't say one-sided just yet," Mari advised, squinting as though it might help her peer through the veil of sand a bit better. "With rules like these it's a little difficult to predict how battles play out since a lot of it comes down to personality and training."

"Training?" Max mused. "So, you think the dragon is fighting how it was trained to?"

"You said you knew its trainer so does that mean you know how it was trained?" Ray asked.

"Kind of?" Mari replied, although a bit unsurely. "Garchomp's moves remind me of how Valeriya likes to fight. Sets up with an obscure strategy that usually works to trick opponents into revealing their entire arsenal early on so she can figure out how to throw a wrench in it. Doubt that Garchomp has an actual strategy—just used to holding back."

Kai sighed imperceptibly through his nose. Now that a sandstorm was raging there wasn't much to see and despite his demeanour he had actually been keen to observe this battle. The others were still trying in vain to discern what was happening but Kai gave up, looking around at the other two battles going on. One of them had two trainers in matching red outfits who were neck and neck: one Pokémon down each and their second Pokémon were going at it. In the other battle a female trainer had three Pokémon available while her opponent was down to his last and both creatures on the field were tired and weak. He stood up and walked towards the service counter, ignoring Tyson asking where he was going. That battle was decisively on the wind-up and if he was counting correctly he should be next on the waitlist. However, as he approached the desks another person almost stepped in his way. Violet and Kai stared at the place where they almost crossed paths and then looked at each other.

Violet backed away first. "Sorry. Go ahead."

"Why?"

Her eyes widened fractionally at the unexpected question. "Just wanted to reregister on the waitlist. Nothing important."

Kai regarded her with his customary hard stare just long enough that it started to make Violet quite uncomfortable. Then all of a sudden he stepped back and made a subtle gesture with one hand that Togepi helpfully added to with a more obvious gesture. "Go ahead."

She started at the offer and opened her mouth to refuse but Kai cut her off before she could utter a word with: "Do not make this one of those awkward 'no you' sequences."

And just like that she shut her mouth so quickly her teeth clicked. She turned away stiffly, trying to keep her eyes on him as she took the offer. For a second there she had thought that he might have just shown a warm side but it shut down so quickly. The temptation to probe his mind grew but she quickly tamped it down by reminding herself that that would be terribly rude and turning her attention back to her goal. Frieda was turned to one of the ongoing battles with a dreamy expression. Before Violet could even try to get her attention a referee scuttled up, wailing:

"Frieda!"

She turned to the girl with long, black hair, putting her back to Violet completely. "Yes?"

The girl's round face was on the verge of tears. She clutched her flags in front of her anxiously. "Could you help me with… an altercation?"

"Altercation?" Frieda questioned, following the referee to her arena. "A fight?"

Even before the two of them got to the arena's gate the shouting could already be heard in competition with the sounds of battle filling the tent: "—t you're a cheater! Didn't even give me a fair battle!"

"Not true!" argued a black-haired little girl in a lilac dress with straight cut bangs and the rest of her hair bundled up in two high buns. Her cheeks flushed like she was either going to scream or cry. "You're just mad that you lost."

"Nuh-uh!" shouted the brown-haired boy in an orange vest and short, blue school shorts.

"Please, calm down!" Frieda interrupted, making the two children look at her. Neither of them could have been older than ten or eleven. She sighed. "Could you please explain what this is all about?"

"She cheated the rules!" the boy blurted out, pointing hard at the girl. "Gave her Pokémon orders with telepathy!"

"No I didn't!"

"Stop!" Frieda exclaimed before the boy could bite back. She turned to him to ask: "why are you so sure that she cheated that way?"

"Because she's psychic!"

"How do you know that?"

"Threw one of her Pokéballs up in the air and it just stayed there!" the boy explained. "She's psychic and I bet she used her powers to give her Pokémon orders in battle 'cuz people probably wouldn't notice!"

"Can't prove that!" the girl defended.

"Can't not prove it!" the boy countered. "Look at the result! Suspicious, right?"

"It is not! Battles with similar outcomes happen without cheating. Check the Battle Tent's battle records—there are videos."

"Those trainers weren't obviously psychic! Maybe they were, maybe they were cheating too!"

"Didn't cheat!"

Frieda exchanged several conflicted glances between the two trainers. There wasn't any obvious solution that would placate the both of them and no way to prove either of them right or wrong beyond doubt. The referee wasn't any help; she just pressed her lips together and hunched her shoulders like she didn't want anything to do with it.

"This is tricky…" Frieda murmured. "Problem is how busy it is today. Going to have to ask the two of you to retire while we deliberate."

"What?!" the boy cried out. "But I didn't even get to win!"

"If I have to retire I won't get enough wins for a macho brace," the girl complained.

"Sorry, but we need to keep things moving so other trainers get a turn in the arena," Frieda insisted. She tapped a few commands into her tablet and asked the referee to call up the next two people on the waitlist. Then she gestured for the kids to follow her into the reception area.

Violet watched the entire situation with a small frown of pity. Vaguely aware that Kai was still nearby, she began to talk: "Shouldn't force those kids to retire over this. Maybe if there was a better referee or if they asked for help-"

However, Kai breezed past her following his name being called and giving no indication that he heard or cared about what she said. She gaped at him in shock even as Max (the blond boy from the Pokémon Centre, she recalled) trudged past moaning about how unlucky he was to have to go up against Kai on his first round. The referee carried on as normal and although Max glanced at the dispute Frieda was trying to settle he let her shepherd him into the arena. No help from that direction. Since that was the case, Violet took a deep, calming breath and strode into the reception area.

"There a problem?" she asked.

"Oh, just a little fight, that's all," Frieda replied.

"Seemed to be having trouble, that's all," Violet said and even without reading her mind she could tell Frieda was relieved that someone else noticed. "Can I help?"

"Perhaps…"

Frieda began to summarise the situation up until now but having observed it before Violet didn't feel the need to listen. She kept her eyes on Frieda but reached out to the allegedly psychic little girl. Even if she felt sorry for her, a real psychic could still be a real cheater. To her surprise, her first push broke through. The girl stumbled as if she had been physically pushed. She and Violet looked at each other with the same surprised look on their face.

"She is psychic," Violet surmised. Yet there was nothing in return. "Perhaps not very sensitive?"

She probed again while Frieda was distracted with asking if the girl was okay. The girl stammered out a messy response, distracted herself by the other presence in her mind.

"Who are you? I'm Violet."

"Karen—eleven years old—Johto—Chikorita, first Pokémon—Riolu, best friend…" and the disordered information continued to spew out like that, including sounds and images of memories. Violet smiled at her kindly. It was quite cute. More importantly, it gave Violet everything she needed to know.

"Okay, okay, too much info." She mentally added the little giggle that she was dying to show on the outside but thought better of. "I'll take it from here."

She shut off that connection and spoke in her real voice: "Surely that's a false accusation."

Frieda stopped fussing over Karen to give Violet a questioning look. The boy's jaw dropped in disbelief.

"What do you mean?" he demanded. "She's psychic!"

"Or just really good," Violet countered. "She's a trainer from overseas. Saw her on TV once battling at the Silver Conference."

"Really?" Karen gasped. "Saw me on TV?"

The boy swung his shocked stare from Violet to Karen and back. His lips flapped open and closed but he couldn't get anything out other than confused noises.

"That true?" Frieda asked, looking at Karen in wonder. "Little girl like you at the Silver Conference? Gosh, that's impressive!"

Karen blushed and looked down at her fidgeting fingers. "Y-yeah…"

"Aha," Frieda nodded. "So, not likely that you were cheating, your Pokémon are just strong."

"My Pokémon are strong too!" the boy protested.

"Have you competed at championship level?" Violet asked him rhetorically. As expected, he shut his mouth and turned away with a pout.

"In that case, I'm recording this battle as Karen's win," Frieda decided, updating the record on her tablet, "but since you both had to retire I'm going to have to ask you to return to the lobby." Both children grumbled about that but went off obediently since there was no chance of appealing at this point. "Thank-you so much, um…"

"Violet."

"Right, Violet. Thank-you. Could have dragged on for much longer without your help."

"Don't mention it," Violet said with a small smile. Then she left to go and catch up with Karen, in case she decided to leave.

Karen was already halfway across the lobby when she felt Violet mentally urging her to wait. She turned around, seeing Violet approaching her at a sedate pace at odds with how excited she seemed through the psychic link. Violet's lips twitched a bit in hesitation before she asked:

"Upset about what happened?"

"A bit," Karen replied and it was just a little bit of a lie. "Really wanted that macho brace."

"Next time," Violet assured her. "But you did win something. Should claim it before you leave."

Karen pouted, not thrilled by the idea of getting a dire hit as a prize. So instead she changed the subject. "You're like me, huh?"

Violet nodded.

"Hard for you too?"

Again, Violet nodded. "Had help along the way, though… eventually. You'd be surprised how much better it is when you have someone to learn from."

Karen blushed. "Am I that bad?"

Violet just smiled in response – a non-answer that still implied a 'yes'.

"So did you really see me on TV?"

Violet shook her head. "Only saw your memories of the competition. Really vivid. Maybe it's a good thing we met."

She held out her hand. Karen stared at it as if she didn't really believe it was real but then she smiled and took it. "Glad to meet you too."

The moment was cut short by a loud crash that grabbed the attention of everyone in the Battle Tent. A huge pillar of water had shot up to the ceiling and collapsed back onto the arena where Garchomp and Bibarel were still battling. It washed out all the sand and the two Pokémon were left standing opposite to each other. Bibarel looked cool and collected with the sunglasses on but Garchomp was leaning forward, using its arms to help support its weight. Valeriya glared at the battle with her teeth clenched and her whole body trembling. Kaiya had her arms folded and still had that smug expression on her face.

"What the hell is with that Bibarel?!" Valeriya exclaimed. "Garchomp, get in there! You can do it!"

Garchomp roared and circled the arena to brew up another sandstorm but it didn't seem to bother Bibarel. It just sat back and yawned widely. Garchomp yawned in return.

"Oh, come on!" Valeriya growled in frustration. She returned Garchomp, biting her lip as she weighed up the pros and cons of the switch out. In the end, she risked it anyway. "Finish it off, Gyarados!"

A great, dragon-like serpent burst onto the field but immediately had to close its eyes as the Sandstorm whirled and buffeted both creatures on the field. Gyarados bowed its head low, facing away from the direction of the storm but it still had Bibarel just enough within its sights to accurately strike with an enormous lightning bolt. Valeriya whooped and clapped her hands.

"Yeah! That's how you do it!"

Kaiya's eye twitched. Valeriya grinned at the sight of her opponent finally showing a crack in her composure. "How dare you," Kaiya muttered ominously. "You can't strike down Justice!"

Sparks flashed over Bibarel's body – the residual from Gyarados' Thunder. It got up and charged, going for the neck but Gyrados was fast enough to slither out of the way. Bibarel still managed to land a solid bite on its tail, fangs digging down so deep that blood began to well over the wound and Gyrados' roar sounded more like a scream. It rounded on Bibarel with a monstrously frightening expression, which Bibarel seemed to feel even if it couldn't see. It let go and rolled away timidly. Gyarados continued to glare it down before lunging. It began its assault with a head-butt and then twisted around violently to land another two hits with its body and tail. Bibarel launched itself recklessly at Gyarados, dealing an audible thwack but Gyarados simply retaliated with the same angry thrashing. Bibarel kept on the attack, trying another vicious clamp with its large teeth. Yet Gyarados threw itself on top of Bibarel with another round of beatings before suddenly flopping to the ground in exhaustion.

Kaiya's Bibarel pulled back as if surprised that the attacks suddenly stopped. It cautiously leaned forward to sniff and then to bite. Gyarados arched its body. Bibarel bit the empty air with a loud crack like two boulders knocking each other. Gyarados waved its tail up high to crash it down like a wave but ended up crashing on its own head. Bibarel's fluffy ears twitched. It turned to the sound of the smack and jumped, arcing high in the air butting its skull against Gyarados' head. Gyarados flopped again, although this time it wasn't evidently conscious.

Valeriya returned Gyarados, clicking her tongue behind clenched teeth. This didn't make sense; Bibarel was such an average Pokémon. It shouldn't be able to hold a candle to either Gyarados or Garchomp any day of the week and yet…

"It's okay, Gyarados, did your best," she murmured to the Pokéball before putting it away and drawing out the next one. "Fight hard, Umbreon!"

Her Umbreon appeared on the battlefield, rings flashing bright. It lifted its head and wasted no time in letting out a long, wailing snarl. Bibarel reeled as if it had been physically hit. It fluffed its fur and got up to charge at Umbreon but the catlike Pokémon was too swift to take a hit from a blind opponent. It twisted out of Bibarel's path and struck back with another dark move - a pulse of dark energy. At such close range Bibarel couldn't dodge and ended up rolling onto its back. It yawned at Umbreon, prompting a return yawn. Umbreon blinked, realising what had happened and expelled another Dark Pulse indignantly.

That attack proved to be the final straw that saw Bibarel finally go down. Kaiya returned it bitterly, glaring at Valeriya rather than the Umbreon that did it. Valeriya grinned, hands on her hips in triumph.

"Justice has fallen…" Kaiya muttered darkly. "Fine. If you won't bow to Justice, then I'll have to show you Virtue!" She threw in another Pokéball and the so-called 'Virtue' emerged as a statuesque fox-like creature holding a flaming stick like a torch.

"What? Braixen?" Valeriya gaped, unsure what to make of it.

Meanwhile, Umbreon yawned and tried to keep its eyes open. Braixen took advantage of that to make the first move. The flame on its torch flared into an intense blue. It waved it like a wand, shooting a ghostly fireball that set Umbreon's fur alight but it was already too sleepy to be worried about that.

"Oh come on!" Valeriya snapped, returning her sleeping Pokémon. "This is why I hate unguided battles! No rules!"

From an onlooker's point of view, she was already well and truly beaten but Valeriya merely returned Garchomp to the field, head drooping as it snored. Mari covered her mouth with her fingers almost blocking her eyes.

"Oh, Val, no," she moaned. "Already lost, just forfeit."

Even if Valeriya could have heard she wouldn't have heeded the warning. Garchomp slept on while Braixen conjured a second sun just above the battlefield. The air rippled as the heat climbed but a keen eye could see Garchomp already starting to twitch. Safe from opposition, Braixen enshrouded Garchomp in a Fire Spin whirlwind. The dragon's eyes opened like they were being plied. Roaring determinedly, it summoned yet another sandstorm to buffet its opponent. Braixen shielded its eyes against the storm and thrust its wand out to throw flames that barely hurt Garchomp's tough skin. It slammed its feet and claws against the floor, shaking the whole building with a massive earthquake that cracked the arena and battered Braixen to the point that between the attack and the sandstorm, it couldn't stay on its feet. However, from the previous bout with Bibarel, Garchomp couldn't stand the flames any longer and fell to its knees.

Kaiya and Valeriya returned their Pokémon simultaneously. Valeriya swallowed nervously. Kaiya was still glaring at her. "Geez, what's your problem?" she wondered, as she released her last remaining Pokémon, still fast asleep.

Kaiya kept staring, lips pursed into a grim line as she lifted her last Pokéball. "Won't stand for justice, won't stand for virtue… then the only thing left for you is Death!"

A chubby, pink Pokémon landed heavily in front of Umbreon. Valeriya's jaw dropped.

"What is wrong with you?!" she yelled across the arena. "Why would you give an Audino such a horrible name?! Never hurt anybody!"

"That's what he said," Kaiya vollied, waggling her eyebrows as Valeriya blushed at the cheeky implication. "Should know better - DEATH IS THE MEANING OF LIFE!"

Audino batted its eyes at Umbreon, undermining Kaiya's bold statement. With Umbreon's eyes closed, the move had no impact whatsoever. Within seconds, Umbreon stirred. It lifted one eyelid halfway to survey the arena. With opponent in sight it leaped without warning in a Feint Attack. Audino wobbled off balance for a moment. It regained footing and leaned in to scream horribly loud in Umbreon's face. It had to dig in its claws to keep from flying away. Those paws began to glow and Umbreon jumped at Audino, pounding it assuredly. It winced but didn't have an immediate retaliation, leaving Umbreon free to emit another pulse. This time Audino attacked in turn with a devastating charging attack. Umbreon pulled back, trying to heal itself with Moonlight but under the sandstorm there was very little effect. Audino pulled its Baby-Doll Eyes again, surprising Umbreon into a moment of weakness where it charged again, head first. The skull met Umbreon's jaw so hard that bloody spittle flew from its teeth and it flipped head over paws onto its back.

As the sandstorm finally subsided, the referee waved his flags and despite his low, old voice his words were decisive: "Umbreon is unable to battle. Valeriya is out of useable Pokémon, that makes Kaiya the winner."

"Ha!" Kaiya barked, folding her arms smugly. "What say you to that?"

Valeriya clenched her teeth and shot a quick breath through her nose. Only now she realised that her heart was hammering. She hadn't had a battle that intense in a long time. Still, she returned her last Pokémon and held her head high to meet Kaiya in the middle. But Kaiya didn't walk. She just stood there, gloating. Valeriya glowered in frustration but quickened her pace to cross the entire arena and stood almost nose-to-nose with Kaiya.

"Good game," she ground out, feeling her chest constrict now that she had admitted it out loud. It didn't help that she didn't want to mean it. The next part came a bit easier since it was more honest. "Let's battle again sometime, with normal rules and everything."

For a few unnerving seconds, Kaiya just stared at her nonplussed. Then she did the strangest thing she had done so far. She clapped both of Valeriya's cheeks and then pulled them wide.

"Keep thinking that," she said, letting go. Valeriya growled and grabbed Kaiya's shirt collar.

"Now, now," the referee intervened, "please be sporting, girls."

"Don't tell me! Tell it to her!" Valeriya fumed. She turned her ire back to Kaiya. "Just because you won doesn't mean you get to act so holier-than-thou!"

Kaiya yawned and slipped out of Valeriya's grasp… somehow. Valeriya wasn't even sure what happened; One second she had Kaiya by the clothes and the next, she was three steps away.

"My Pokémon are tired. Retiring," she offered as an excuse.

"Retiring?" the referee echoed. "Only fought one battle. Your Pokémon can be healed here."

He gestured to the mini regenerator next to his station. Kaiya just shook her head. "Need rest. See yas later."

Without a care, she turned around and whistled as she skipped her way past the service counter and right out of the lobby. Valeriya gaped at her, right eye twitching apoplectically.

"That… that… I'LL BEAT HER UP WITH MY BARE KNUCKLES, THAT BITCH!"

She tore out into the lobby, hot on Kaiya's trail until Frieda was suddenly in front of her. "Please! No fighting in here."

"No fighting?" Valeriya repeated in disbelief. "That is literally all that anybody is doing in this Tent!"

"Don't yell at me, please."

"Yeah, Val. Pick on someone at least as tough as you."

Valeriya rounded on the speaker, ready to shout them down but the words got stuck in her throat. Her eyes widened in recognition. Mari stood smiling with her arms folded.

"Mari!" she gasped in surprise. "What're you doing here?"

"Could ask the same of you," Mari replied, moving her hands to her hips.

"Excuse me? Asked first. Anyway, why should I have to answer to you, Miss Top 16?"

That hit a raw nerve and Mari bristled. "Like you can talk? Or have you forgotten that I beat you over in Unova? Decisively."

"Makes me embarrassed," Valeriya shrugged.

Mari pouted. "Fine! Just came over here to lighten you up but I shouldn't have bothered. Why don't you just go back to Unova and attempt to be a champion at something for once? Better yet, go back to Kalos where you're Miss Top 16 and I'm Miss Won-The-Whole-Thing."

"Getting cocky, Mar. Still got three pals who're up for a tussle. You wanna go?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Please don't fight in the lobby," Frieda exclaimed.

"Then let's take it outside," Mari suggested.

"If you do that then you'll have to forfeit your place in the waitlist."

"Her what?" Valeriya asked confusedly.

"Oh, come on, you can't have been in the ring for that long," Mari teased. "Didn't even get onto the leaderboard. There's a line. Even brought a few friends."

"You have friends?"

"More than you."

As if on cue, Tyson suddenly dashed up to her side saying: "Huh, so you do know her. Who are you?"

"Course I know her!" Valeriya retorted. She paused and stared at Tyson as his question finally caught up with her. "What do you mean you don't know who I am?"

"Long, strange story," Mari answered, waving her hand to dismiss it. "Tyson, Valeriya. Val, Tyson. He's a new trainer. One of my actual friends. That I have."

Valeriya glared at Tyson but accepted Mari's explanation, at least for the moment. "Not the guy that used to follow you around."

"There was a guy who used to follow you around?" Tyson said, turning to Mari.

"There were lots of people who used to follow me around," Mari sighed.

"Okay," Tyson muttered, unsure what to make of that answer. "So, how do you two know each other? Did you go to school together?"

Valeriya burst out laughing. "School? We're from completely different regions! Met Mar during the Unova League Gym Challenge."

"Oh…" Tyson looked at each girl in turn. He grinned. "Then you're rivals! Man, that's great!"

"You bet," Valeriya said, folding her arms proudly. "Only the best can knock heads with the best."

"If that's what you think," Mari said slyly, placing a hand to her cheek, "then we're not really rivals at all."

"Yeah," Valeriya said, airily, mimicking Mari's pose. "'Spose you don't really measure up to me in the long run."

"Statistics show that that's nowhere near the truth!"

"Statistics shamistics! Battles are the only real measure of what a trainer is made of!"

Tyson grinned. "Yeah! You two should fight!"

"Please don't fight here," Frieda interrupted but the plea was drowned almost immediately by Mari saying:

"Bring it on!"

"I'll waste you," Valeriya challenged.

This felt familiar again. Though Tyson couldn't really articulate it, he did somewhat know why. Having a rival - a challenge - someone who gave you something more than what you had; he knew that feeling. If he was being honest, sometimes he craved it. He looked across the room to Ray, valiantly holding his own against the much more experienced trainer in red, and then to Kai and Max, where Max and Wingull were getting back at Kai and Seedot for Mudkip's defeat. That's when Daichi interrupted:

"If Mari isn't fighting then that means it's you and me next. You'd better be ready because my Pokémon are winners who only play to win!"

"Oh really?" Tyson retorted. "That's not how it looks from my perspective."

"Please wait until you get into the arena to fight," Frieda reminded them.

Daichi shot Tyson a piercingly determined look. "Just to prove that I'm gonna win, I'm gonna beat you to the arena."

"Not if I beat you!" Tyson yelled back, charging along with Daichi. The two of them ended up bottlenecked at the reception desk, tussling to get through first. And just like that, any deep and profound thoughts that Tyson was having disappeared.

A/N: some of you may have noticed that this was basically an I-didn't-forget-about-your-OC chapter. If you're disappointed with their appearance, though, don't worry at all. They'll recur at some point in the future. Anyway, I'm now feeling more comfortable now that this part is over and my story plan is back on track.