The Grand Augur knelt and lowered his head. To most, they would see him kneeling in an empty and dark room.
"Augur of Light. Speak thy mind."
The voice and presence were overwhelming, even if it was distant. The Augur spoke his account to his lord.
"Curious. I shall trusteth thy judgment on this matter. Mine own attention is did needed elsewhere."
With that, the powerful presence left the room. The Augur of Light rose from where he stood before leaving the chamber.
"Has Guil made his way towards the tear?" The Augur asked to what seemed like an empty space.
Yet empty spaces do not speak back. "He has, my Lord. We armed him with communication devices, but we do not know if they will work."
"He is a resourceful scout; I'm sure he'll find a way to create a link. In the meantime, take me to our captives. I have a question in mind to ask of them."
+Unity Knights+
"Do you think we need 2% milk," Juice put down one carton and then raised his other hand. "Or 1% milk?"
"1% is lower in fat, thus a healthier option." Caliburn floated to Jucentius' right.
"What? No way! Those taste weird! Go for the 2%!" Boreas shouted from the young man's left.
Juice and his Pokemon were currently in a supermarket buying groceries. With their new guest, and one of them having a large appetite, the young heir decided to stock up on supplies.
That was the plan. However, seeing as Gwen's Gible, Gomez, had devoured all of the contents of the fridge that morning, Juice decided to plan differently on stocks.
Gwen was behind the three, watching the cart and glaring at Gomez for overstepping the hospitality of their hosts. As Juice came back, she opened her mouth. "I am sorry for Gomez."
"There was no harm this time; thank you for telling me that." Jucentius accepted her apology, even if it was the 12th time that morning.
"I should have had more sense to stop Gomez from clearing out the fridge." Gwen sighed aloud.
Juice was patient with her as he nodded his head. Since Gwen seemed bothered by it, the heir decided to change the topic. "So, we found Nyx. How are we going to find the other Unity Pokemon?"
Boreas floated in. "I said Nyx because she was the one who would likely cause a mess first."
"If she could fit here, I think she'd smack you." Gwen raised her brow at the Raichu's comment.
Boreas pushed his paw out as if that wasn't new. "Anyway, I don't know where to begin looking for the others. It could take us days, maybe even weeks before we find any of the others!"
Juice looked behind him and saw a Blaziken staring right at the Alolan Raichu. The heir poked his Pokemon's head, causing the Riachu to turn and look at his trainer before spotting the Blaziken.
"Zelus?"
"Boreas?"
"Well, that was much easier than with Nyx," Jucentius went back to the two cartons of milk.
"Zelus! It is you!" Boreas cried out as he flew to hug his brother.
"It's good to see you as well, Boreas." The fighting and fire type returned the hug. "I overheard Nyx's name as well."
"Yeah, she with Gwen over there." The black-haired girl gave a small nod at being recognized. Boreas pointed over to Juice. "And that over there is Jucentius! He's my Unity Knight!"
"Unity Knights? You found them?" The Blaziken asked with interest.
"Zelus?" A voice behind the Blaziken made everyone see a tall man wearing a green overcoat. Underneath his coat, he wore a black collared shirt with a green tie. He had green eyes and shaggy green hair. And had a kind but messy aura to him. "Oh, there you are." He turned towards Juice and Gwen. "And who are they?"
Juice and Gwen introduced themselves.
"Well, my name is Lysander Alinsky. A pleasure to meet you both."
Gwen turned to the newcomer. "So are you Zelus' Unity Knight?"
Lysander gave a blank stare towards Gwen. "What's a Unity Knight?"
As the question left his lips, everyone else looked surprised.
"What? Didn't Zelus tell you about the Unity Knights!?" Boreas asked.
"Oh! Hey, an Alolan Raichu! I've never seen a Regional Variant before." Lysander turned to Boreas and reached his hand out to pat the guy on the head.
Jucentius realized that Lysander did not understand what Boreas said. He stepped forward to the newcomer. "Excuse me, do you have this?" The blue-themed young man asked as he revealed his Unity Brace to Lysander.
"Huh? Is that like a toy from that one show? Poke-Rangers Wind Ninjas? It looks cool and all, but I never got too into that series." Lysander responded.
Boreas turned to Zelus. "He doesn't have a Unity Brace!?"
The Blaziken looked at the Raichu in shock. "I thought you had them?"
Juice sighed as he realized what was going on. "Of course it wasn't going to be that easy."
...
"By the way, do you prefer 1 percent milk or 2 percent milk?"
+Unity Knights+
It took a while for everyone to get caught up to speed. But after Lysander told his story of how he met Zelus and learned his name, Juice had to prove their side of the story by transforming into the Unity Knight.
As Juice and Boreas separated, Lysander pointed to both of them with wide eyes. "It's you! You're those knights everyone's been talking about!"
"I do not enjoy the notoriety." Juice explained. "But, the real problem for this is the fact you don't have a Unity Brace despite having one of the Unity Pokemon."
"When I caught Zelus, I didn't see anything like that nearby!" Lysander put a hand on his chin. "Then again, I didn't really care to check since Zelus did almost hit me with a Fire Punch."
When Lysander first met with Zelus, the Blaziken attacked his other Pokemon, a male Meowstic named Houdini. But then Zelus stepped in to save his friend, sparking admiration in the Unity Pokemon.
"That," Lysander continued. "And he also seemed smarter than usual. He wrote his name on the ground when I tried to address him. I was wondering if he belonged to a Trainer before I found him."
"Rai-Rai Raaaiiichu." Without his translator, Lysander seemed to be the only one not able to understand the conversation.
Jucentius had enough sense to remember Lysander's circumstances. "Boreas is saying that they were trained to fight and such, but not in the same way trainers work here. But as interesting as this all is, we do need to find that Unity Brace." Juice stood up from where he sat down. "If Boreas and Nyx had their braces nearby them where they landed, perhaps it was the same for Zelus. Where did you two first meet?"
Lysander perked up. "It was in a clearing in an abandoned dig site. If the device you have looks like the ones you two have, I'm sure it'll be easy to find."
+Unity Knights+
"WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO THE LEAP-YEARLY RHYHORN RACES!" An MC shouted across the grand arena.
The only thing louder than his voice was the passionate cheers people screamed in response to the hype man.
The Unity Knights looked to Jucentius as he held a flier. The flier in question talked about the racing track's grand opening. "It appears that Ferrum Region construction workers are efficient in their jobs and scheduling."
"I swear, none of this was here last week." Lysander wiped his moppy green hair with a hand.
Gwen had a thought. "Hey, if the Unity Braces can sense other Burst Users, can they track other Unity Braces?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Boreas folded his arms while sitting on his tail. "I never figured something like that out."
Gwen and Juice looked at their devices. "Until either of us find such a function, perhaps we can look around?" Juice suggested.
"How can we find something that small in this area? And how do we know someone hasn't picked it up by now when they made all of this?"
Since they were out in the open, Nyx was allowed out. One of her heads caught the attention of everyone before she pointed to the large screen overhead.
The mega screen showed what looked to be the main trophy of the event. It was an elaborate bronze-gold item. Yet, etched at the bottom was a device similar to the devices around the wrists of both Juice and Gwen.
The group stared at the trophy for a few more seconds before Lysander spoke first. "I don't know if this is better than never finding it at all."
"I mean... it's right there." Gwen put a hand on her hip before looking over at Juice. "No offense or anything, but can't you talk to the guys and ask for it back?"
Lysander tapped his chin. "I don't see why can't ask for it. But would they let random people walk up and take a piece?"
The three thought that was a fair point.
Boreas looked around. "So, how are we getting it?"
"Well, I'll be! If it ain't Cobalt Stride!"
Everyone looked behind them. The first word that came to their minds was: cowboy. As they tried to process the cowboy in front of them, they noticed how portly the man was and how garish his clothes actually were.
Juice's reaction was different; the stoic young man blinked thrice. "Mr. Jakobs?"
"My eyeballs ain't broken yet! Haraharahara!" The others watching didn't know if the cowboy with a cane was laughing or not. "What are ya doing here?"
Juice politely explained that he needed the groove of the trophy and not the whole item.
Mr. Jakobs hummed as he stroked his chin. "Tell ya what. I want you in the contest, and if ya make it to the 3 round of the round robin. I'll let ya have it."
"You want him to enter?" Lysander raised his brow.
"Ya should have seen this kid back when I was teaching a jockey class! The kid could ride circles around flying types with a Wailmer!" The man gave a hearty laugh before looking over to the other two. "Now, hold there? Why not you two join in on the fun? This is a newcomer tourney, after all. Any friend of Juicy here is a friend of mine!"
Lysander and Gwendolwn shared a look. They both politely said no.
So why, later on, were they meeting up with Juice wearing jockey gear?
"Mr. Jakobs has a bad habit of not taking no for an answer." Juice petted the Rhyorn he would ride. "He and father have that in common." He whispered that last part as he fastened the saddle.
"I've never ridden on Rhyhorn before." Lysander looked at the Rhyorn he was assigned. He did not appreciate how it refused to blink as it stared at him.
"We do not need to win; we just need to participate. I'm the only one who needs to make it to the next rounds."
Juice went on to teach Gwen and Lysander some basics. However, as he did, no one noticed a mysterious figure smiling as he eyed the trophy.
+Unity Knights+
"Salutations! I am Houdini! Partner to the amazing Lysander Alinksy!" The Meowstic bowed in front of the other Pokemon. "To think Zelus has so many siblings!"
"Only the Raichu and the Hydreigon. The rest are new." The Blaziken eyed the Gyarados and the Aegislash. "You two look strong."
"You wouldn't believe how tough Claiburn is!" Boreas pointed over to the Ageislash. "She took on Burst Warriors by herself several times!"
"Really?" Zelus eyed the stoic blade with interest. "That's impressive."
Nyx felt miffed how Boreas was promoting his new trainer's Pokemon. With her competitive spirit ignited, especially by her annoying little brother, she pointed to the Gyarados. "Sashimi here can Mega Evolve," Nyx mentioned. "But I gotta admit, even without that power boost, she's pretty tough. She saved both Boreas and his Knight when they almost kicked the bucket."
"It was two against one!" Boreas stood up from his tail and narrowed his eyes at the main head. "And the only reason they even got the upper hand was that we had to protect some loser! All you did was beat up a weakened Burst Warrior!"
"Weakened!?" All three heads snarled. "Even landing hits on her didn't slow her down! Honestly, your Knight is carrying both of you!"
The two butted heads and growled at each other. Zelus sighed and shook his head. "Quit it, you two."
While they were relaxing on the side, Caliburn eyed the races. Lysander seemed to struggle, but so did other newbies. Gwendolyn adapted afterward but was in the middle of the group. Juicentius was among the top three, and they were already reaching past those lagging behind.
Suddenly, a scream.
Everyone turned ahead to see the Rhyhorn trip over its own legs and fall over. Juice yanked on his Pokemon, barely avoiding the collapse, but the second-place rider bolted forward, taking the lead.
However, Juice looked back to see the former first place in the path of all the other newcomers. Gwen and many others panicked as they saw they might run over someone.
Lysander looked over to their Pokemon. "Zelgus!"
The evolved starter nodded as he sped off, dashing into the ring to yank away the fallen duo before the riders could have stamped on them.
Juice finished second place and quickly ran towards the fallen rider. He wasn't the only one as medics and healing Pokemon rushed in.
"Are you alright?" Juice spared a glance at Zelus before looking back on the contestant.
"What was that!?" The lead rider hissed as he felt pain in his arm. It did not look like it was supposed to bend that way. "Something snagged my Rhydon's foot!"
Everyone looked to the hurt Pokemon. "I don't see anything on him," An official said. "Not only that, we ensured the fields were clean after each use and before."
"Something stopped us! I know what I felt!"
Juice suddenly snapped his head behind him towards the finish line. As he did, he quickly tried to find the jockey that finished first ahead of them.
However, all he saw was Gwen's group reaching the finish line and looking in his direction.
"Master Juicentius!" Caliburn appeared nearby. "Are you unharmed?"
"I am. I turned when I needed to."
The Aegislash turned to both her trainer and Zelus. "I saw it: there was a blip of psychic energy around the legs of the leader."
"What? Someone forced the Rhyorn to trip?" Zelguius asked.
Juice shook his head. "No, they shouldn't. Mr. Jackson hires Psychic and Dark Specialists to prevent any tampering outside of the ring."
"Master, I only noticed because it was paying attention, but the speed of that psychic blur: it was a close-range usage."
"Close range?" Juice raised his brow. "How could a psychic Pokemon get so clo..." Realization slowly dawned on the blunette. "Unless the one using psychic wasn't a Pokemon." His mind went back to how two people, including Juicentius, were able to use psychic powers.
"A Burst Warrior?"
+Author Notes+
I am sorry. I have no excuses, even though I love this story. Even my return is little.
Anyway, welcome Singofffan's Lysander Alinsky!
Lysander: A shame we didn't really get to show off our skills.
Houdini: No matter! A true Showman knows exactly when to catch the crowd's attention!
Zelus: I was hoping more for a fight with strong opponents. But peace comes with its own price.
Sorry, again. I tried, and I thought I'd post this out there to show this isn't dead. I also wanted a much lighter chapter than compared to the last two.
Thanks again to those that submitted; I am sorry it's taking so long. But this story is fun to me, and I want to give it a go.