Thanks to Mofumo for beta'ing this chapter!

Ivy stared out of the train window as fields, then forests, then hills went by in a blur. It had been a long time since she'd taken the train somewhere, and it was the first time she'd taken it alone. It was kind of relaxing in a way. She could just sit there and disconnect from reality for a short while. For a few sweet minutes, she didn't have to do anything. No one was relying on her to get anything done. Chaos seemed to be erupting at the other end of the carriage, but Ivy felt more at peace than she had in a long time.

"Hello? Ivy! We're here! Are you there?"

Emily was waving her hand in front of her. Ivy snapped back to reality, trying to remember what was going on.

"Wait, we're at the Wild Area already?" Ivy asked, still slightly disoriented.

"Yes! Now come on, we need to get out before the train leaves!" Emily said, half pulling Ivy out of her seat. Luckily, there was a huge queue coming out of another carriage, so they had plenty of time to get out.

"Did you fall asleep or something?" Emily asked once they made it out of the station. "And here I was thinking I was air-headed."

"Uhh… Yeah, maybe," Ivy was going to explain more when she caught a glimpse of the view in front of her. "Woah..."

The wild area stood intimidatingly below her. Even on a cloudy day that would inevitably turn rainy, it looked stunning. There was a light breeze, causing the tall grass to rustle enticingly. The trees of Dappled Grove were full of delicious looking apples, and the watchtower ruins stood ominously over everything. In certain places, beams of energy shot up from the max raid dens, illuminating the nearby areas. In the distance, Ivy could just about make out the steps up to Motostoke. It would be a bit of a trek, but easily doable in an afternoon. Ivy took her map out of her bag, planning her route. It took her a second to realize Emily was still standing next to her. She seemed to be attempting to do something on her Poryphone. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to be working.

"Oh no! I really should have bought a portable hotspot with me. This signal is terrible!"

"You okay?" Ivy looked over at Emily.

"I'm trying to get directions across the wild area, but I can't connect to the internet!"

"Do you need to look at my map?"

"Thank you for the offer, but knowing me I'll forget the route immediately."

"Ah. Well, I'm pretty sure it won't be too hard to just head towards the Motostoke entrance. It's a pretty big landmark."

"I guess so, I just want to make sure I avoid the watchtower ruins at all costs."

"Hmm… In that case you should probably go this way," Ivy gestured at her map. "You just go down the hill and you'll get to East Lake Axewell. By that point you shouldn't be able to miss the Motostoke entrance."

"That makes sense," Emily nodded. "Hopefully even I won't be able to mess that up. Thanks for the help, Ivy!"

Emily sped off into the distance. Ivy checked her map again.

"Come to think of it, that's probably the fastest route," Ivy shrugged, and started walking slowly down the same path Emily had gone down.

An hour or so and a few too-close-for-comfort encounters with some wild Pokémon later, Ivy made it down to East Lake Axewell. Or at least, she thought she had. The entrance to Motostoke didn't seem to be anywhere in sight. She was on a peninsula surrounded by a lake, save for a single bridge. Of course. She had taken a wrong turn and was at South Lake Miloch. Of course she would do that. How stupid of her to think she could navigate.

Are you okay? Marcus interrupted. Ivy had forgotten he was sitting on her head.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Ivy sighed, turning back towards the hill. However, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Emily was sitting on the ground with her Ponyta and Yamper. Ivy had never actually seen the Yamper outside of its Poké Ball until now. She wasn't sure what she had expected it to look like, but it looked like a perfectly normal Yamper, running circles around its trainer. Emily looked up at Ivy and smiled.

"Oh, hello! I guess you took a wrong turn too."

"Yeah, I did…"

"Me and my Pokémon decided to take a quick break. Care to join us?"

"Sure," Ivy said, sitting on the grass next to Emily. A faint grumbling could be heard.

"Huh? I must be hungry," Emily mused.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure that was me," Ivy mentioned.

"Wait… I just remembered!" Emily exclaimed suddenly, making Ivy jump. "My parents gave me some brand new cooking tools! We could make some curry out here!"

"Are you sure? Well, I have no idea how to make curry, so…"

"Neither do I! But there's no time like the present to learn!"

"Welp, let's give it a shot, I guess…"

After a few minutes of rummaging through her bag, Emily pulled out an unexpectedly large cooking pot with a stand to put it on, along with a pack of sausages. After filling the pot with curry ingredients, she dumped the sausages in. A few seconds later she fished it back out to remove the packaging from them, and then put them back in. She went and grabbed some twigs from a nearby tree and piled them up underneath the pot.

"Erm… How are we going to start this fire?" Emily turned to Ivy.

Ivy shrugged.

"Did you pack some matches or something?"

"I did, but they got soaked in the lake…" Emily sighed, "Do any of your Pokémon know fire type moves?"

Ivy looked up at Marcus and shook her head. Marcus clung on to her hair for dear life, yelping in surprise.

"Nope. Marcus can only use struggle bug and he's my only Pokémon."

"I know! I'll grab a stick and find a fire type to light it!" Emily said triumphantly, grabbing a stick and running for the nearest patch of grass. She returned a few minutes later, slightly singed and carrying a flaming twig. She carefully placed it on top of the pile of sticks and leaves. It took a few minutes, but the rest of the pile eventually caught fire. Pulling out a fan, she was able to grow the flames to a decent size before she held her fan too close and it burst into flames. Emily stared at her handiwork in excitement, with a slightly insane looking grin on her face. Unfortunately she was quickly driven away by the thick clouds of smoke the fire began to emit.

"Oh dear… How am I going to stir the curry when I can't get close?" Emily sighed, and pulled a large spoon out of her bag, "Eh, I'm sure it'll be fine."

Her attempts to stir the pot from the side the smoke wasn't coming from weren't particularly fruitful. The constant repositioning meant she could hardly get any stirring done. Well, aside from the circles she was walking around the pot.

A few minutes later, she heard some footsteps in the distance. She turned around to see another trainer running straight towards her. He had short, flaming orange hair that seemed to puff out at the sides. She could also make out a dark turquoise jacket and a bright green scarf. He was heading straight towards where Ivy was sitting, but seemed so focused on the curry pot he hadn't noticed her.

"Look out!" Emily yelled.

Ivy looked up and raised her hand towards the approaching trainer, who was now only a few metres away. He yelped as he seemed to fly into the air when he took his next step. Unable to stop himself, he flew over the girls' heads and landed unceremoniously in a bush. Ivy ran over to where he had landed.

"I'm so sorry!" Ivy panicked, "Are you alright?"

"That… Was… Epic!"

Ivy jumped backwards as the trainer suddenly sprung out of the bush. He pulled some foliage out of his hair as a concerned looking Milcery approached the group.

"Chantilly! There you are! I knew you'd be able to catch up!" he said, running over to the Milcery, "Anyway, who are you and how did you do that? Are you one of them psychic people?"

"Erm, kinda…"

"I didn't realise you were able to lift a person up like that." Emily said, impressed.

"I didn't either. I did it once or twice when I was younger, but I thought I'd lost the ability to do that."

"Anyway, I'm Mike. What can I call you two ladies?"

"I'm Ivy."

"My name is Emily."

"Pleased to meet you!" Mike went to inspect the cooking pot, "Hmm… What's cooking in here? Calyrex's crown, this is one fancy pot! How much did you pay for this thing?!"

"I have no idea. My parents bought it for me," Emily commented.

"Well what's the point of having such expensive tools if you can't cook a basic curry?!"

Emily was taken aback. Sure, she had never cooked a curry before, but that still hurt. Ivy stood there, wondering who this guy thought he was to come and harass some random people. She didn't want to start a fight, so she stayed put, just to be on the safe side. Emily meanwhile, was far less restrained.

"Hey! I've never cooked a curry before, it was never going to be a culinary masterpiece! There's no need to be so rude."

"And here I was about to offer you some help. I'd originally just come down to investigate that impressive tower of smoke," Mike gestured to the increasingly smoky fire under the pot, "But then I caught a whiff of your culinary disaster and decided I have to at least try and save it."

"Well then why didn't you say that first? It would have gone down much better than telling me I can't cook."

"I could show you how to make a curry. It'd be a right shame to see such expensive equipment go to waste."

"Well, fine then."

Emily threw the spoon she had been using to stir the curry aggressively at Mike. It narrowly missed his face, and his Milcery flew up and caught it.

"Okay. First, we'll need some berries," Mike said, as he walked over to a nearby tree. He gave it a hefty kick and a few berries fell out, along with a rather peeved looking Skwovet. He gathered the berries and tossed them into the pot after briefly inspecting them.

"Are you sure those are safe to eat?" Emily asked.

"Don't worry, I checked for anything super bad," Mike said nonchalantly. "If we cook this curry hot enough it'll kill anything else we'd be worried about. Speaking of that…"

He smothered the smoking pile of sticks underneath the curry pot with his boot, extinguishing any flames that were left.

"The sticks you've chosen are far too moist. You'll get nothing but smoke with these. Gimme a hand and we'll find some better ones," Mike said, heading over to some trees nearby.

"Fine," Emily huffed.

After a few minutes of searching, Mike and Emily had amassed a small pile of drier sticks. Mike had also taken some of the leaf litter. He carefully piled them underneath the pot.

"Okay, now I'll just put the leaves on top aaand…" Mike pulled out a lighter. He flicked it on and held the flame to some of the leaves. They caught fire after a few seconds. "Voila! Now we fan the flames!"

Emily pulled out her burnt fan, and Mike pulled one out of his jacket too.

"Hey, c'mon and join us! I've got a spare fan," Mike said to Ivy, who had been staring into space. "Curries always tend to come out better with more people working on them."

Ivy accepted the fan, and the three were able to fan the flames to a reasonable size.

"Okay, now we need to stir it!" Mike said, handing Emily's spoon back to her and handing one of his own to Ivy.

It was far easier to stir the curry now that there was less smoke. It took a few minutes for them to figure out what direction they were all going to stir in, though.

"Come on! Put your hearts into it!" Mike cheered, stirring the curry vigorously. A tiny bit slopped out of the pot onto Ivy's trousers. "Okay, maybe slightly less heart."

Marcus crawled off Ivy's head to sample the curry on her trousers. He took one sip of the sauce, but recoiled after realising how hot it was. He wondered how his trainer didn't seem to mind the burning hot substance on her trousers, but from what he could tell, her mind was still very much elsewhere. After a while, the three trainers could smell the pleasant aroma of curry coming from the pot.

"Looks like it's just about done!" Mike said happily. "So, how about a battle while we wait for it to cool down?"

"Yeah, sure," Ivy said absent-mindedly.

"Nice! I've never battled a psychic before!"

"Good luck Ivy!" Emily cheered. "We'll stay back here and watch the curry."

Ivy and Mike walked over to a more open area. It was only at this point Ivy realised what she'd just volunteered herself for. She was already bracing herself for the inevitable loss.

"Okay Chantilly, let's do this!" Mike's Milcery floated in front of him. Marcus hopped down onto the grass too.

"You can have the first move," Mike said.

"Erm… Okay then. Marcus, Struggle Bug!"

A greenish aura surrounded Marcus, before it split into smaller glowing particles that flew towards Chantilly. The Milcery tried to fly to the side, but moved too late. The swarm of particles hit her from many different angles.

"Come on Chantilly! You've got this! Tackle!" Mike exclaimed.

Chantilly charged into Marcus, knocking him backwards.

"Quick, follow it up!" Mike yelled.

"Heads up!" Ivy exclaimed.

Marcus looked up as Chantilly charged him again, and unleashed another Struggle Bug right in her face.

"This is our chance! Sweet kiss!"

Before Marcus could react, Chantilly aggressively kissed the side of his head. He stumbled backwards as the move began to take effect. His vision blurred and the world seemed to spin. Chantilly giggled as she floated in circles around him.

"Marcus, you okay?" Ivy asked, concerned. Marcus nodded drunkenly. "In that case, Struggle Bug again!"

Marcus tried to aim his attack at his opponent, but the glowing green particles seemed to fly in random directions.

"Tackle!"

Chantilly's creamy body slammed into Marcus head on. He was thrown backwards, and struggled to get back up. If he didn't snap out of this soon, this battle was lost.

"You've got this Marcus, Struggle Bug!" He heard Ivy shouting. He knew she didn't have as much faith in him as she claimed. He could tell by her thoughts.

"Tackle again!"

Then the idea struck him. He paused and tried to focus on the various different thoughts around him. That could give him some idea of where that Milcery was.

For a split second, he was able to get a hold on her position, and unleashed his attack at that point. It didn't stop Chantilly from ramming into him, but she was hit hard too. Finally, his vision began to clear.

"Struggle Bug!"

Marcus snapped out of his confusion, and managed to land another direct hit. Both combatants looked like they were only a few hits away from fainting.

"Let's finish this. Chantilly, use Tackle!"

"You can do it Marcus, Struggle Bug, one last time!"

Chantilly flew towards Marcus with all the force she could muster, while Marcus sent a flurry of particles flying towards Chantilly. The attacks collided in dramatic fashion.

The two Pokémon stood by each other, exhausted from the fight. Neither could fight on, but both stubbornly refused to keel over.

"I think we should end it here and call it a draw," Mike smiled. "That was a good battle."

Ivy nodded.

"Yeah, I think we should. You were clearly the better trainer though."

Upon hearing that the battle was over, Marcus and Chantilly promptly fainted. Ivy and Mike rushed over to pick up their Pokémon, and Mike took a revival herb out of his pocket.

"You want one? They're home grown from my family's farm in Turffield."

Ivy took the herb and offered it to Marcus. He weakly took a few bites out of the leaf. Mike gave another herb to Chantilly. A few seconds later they both seemed to regain their energy, if only to spit the bitter herb back out as quickly as possible. Ivy remembered the one time she tried to eat a revival herb as a kid, and understood why the Pokémon didn't seem particularly fond of them.

"Wow…" Ivy thought out loud. "That was… Effective."

"I know, right?" Mike turned to his Milcery. "I'm so sorry about that, Chantilly. Let's get you and that Blipbug some proper food."

Ivy and Mike carried Marcus and Chantilly back to where they had been cooking. Emily and her Pokémon seemed to have gotten bored of watching the curry, and Emily was now playing fetch with her Yamper. Fortunately, nothing had happened to the curry. Mike and Emily both took two plates out of their bag and offered one to Ivy. She stood there awkwardly for about half a minute, not wanting to offend either of them.

Hey, I could have one of the plates, Marcus suggested.

"Wait, did your Blipbug just speak?!" Mike yelped. Marcus visibly sighed.

It's telepathy…

"Epic!"

Ivy took both plates and spooned curry onto them. She sat down with Emily's plate, and put Mike's plate down by Marcus. Emily and Mike followed suit, dishing out curry for themselves and their Pokémon. They sat together on the grass and dug into their food.

"This curry… It's… Simply amazing!" Mike exclaimed. "The complicated flavours woven delicately together produce what I can only call the taste of a freshly made friendship. The beginning of a great adventure. Such a beautiful and mysterious flavour. The taste of brewing trouble and adventure! So… What do you two think?"

"It's not too bad, but it's slightly too spicy for my liking," Emily commented.

"Same here," Ivy added.

"I'll keep that in mind for next time!" Mike didn't seem fazed by the criticism.

In spite of the spiciness, everyone finished their curry.

"And now, the most tedious part of cooking. Cleaning everything up afterwards!" Mike took his cooking utensils and headed towards the lake.

"So, you clean them in the lake?" Emily asked.

"Do you see any sinks around here?" Mike replied sarcastically.

Emily hauled the cooking pot over to the lake, and Ivy took some of the remaining things. It took about ten minutes to wash and dry everything. Emily stuffed her cooking supplies back into her bag, and Mike did likewise with his.

"So, are you two doing the gym challenge this year?" Mike asked.

"Yes, both of us are," Emily responded. "We'll be heading to Motostoke once we're done here, as a matter of fact."

"Oh, nice! I'll see you there," Mike said. "Chantilly and I are going to do a bit more training before we head up there."

Ivy and Emily waved goodbye to Mike. They were about to go their separate ways when it started to rain.

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