A/N: And here's the latest chapter. Thanks to OrangeFox for betaing this chapter.

It was a beautiful day. The sun was staring down at her and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The crowds cheered as Ivy strode across the nondescript ground into the stadium. The former champion stood in the middle of the pitch, holding a giant crown that somewhat resembled a gold plated Dottler.

"Congratulations to our new champion!" someone exclaimed.

"Now you've beaten the champion, it is time for your coronation!"

The crowd cheered. Ivy kneeled. The crown hovered above her head.

"Wait a second!" Someone from the audience called out. "Isn't that Ivy?"

The crowd murmured. Ivy could feel them staring at her.

"Yeah, that's her…"

"She could never do anything right…"

"Should we really be crowning her?"

People were starting to get up. Were they leaving? No, they were walking towards her. Their eyes were everywhere. Everyone was judging her. Some were laughing, some were yelling angrily. She looked up at the former champion but they were gone. The mob advanced towards her from all directions. An angry sea of eyes, all focused on her. There was no escape. Ivy tried to cry for help but no noise came out.

"You don't deserve to be champion! You probably cheated!"

"Go home and learn some telekinesis!"

"You could save yourself if you could use it properly!"

"You'll never be good enough."

"Why can't you be more like your cousin?"

The crowd surrounded her. No one was touching her, but Ivy couldn't move. She was trapped in a small ring of people screaming at her. She couldn't make out what half of them were screaming about. She noticed Emily in the front row of people.

"I didn't realise you were such a failure, Ivy! How much did you pay the champion to get that crown?" Emily laughed.

"I don't know, but it's a good thing somebody caught her!" Laurel jeered from across the circle. "She's even worse than Avery. At least he can do telekinesis. Hey, did I mention I'm one of his gym trainers?"

Ivy started to cry. She tried desperately to stop it, but was helpless against herself.

"See, look at this immature display."

"What a weak person."

"Sticks and stones Ivy. Words can't hurt you."

"Why are you crying, Ivy? You should be grateful."

"Of course. Now you cry."

"We wouldn't be here if you could actually do it!"

There was no escape. The walls of staring faces were too high. Everyone knew. She had failed. The world around her started to fade. She felt herself sinking. She sank lower and lower. There was no point struggling. The murky black sea consumed her.

Ivy opened her eyes. She was back at the Pokémon Center. Emily was sitting on the top bunk of another bed, playing on her phone.

"Oh, you're back. Did you get dinner?" Ivy murmured sleepily.

Emily looked over.

"Good morning Ivy! Did you sleep well?"

"Sleeping? Nah, I was just doing some meditating."

"Maybe you were last night when everything was floating, but you were out like a light until just now."

"Wait… What? Last night? Everything floating?"

Ivy looked over to the window. It was light outside. Emily was right. She must have slept through the night.

"Indeed. It was quite peculiar. I'd found a nice looking chippy and picked up some dinner. When I returned to the Pokémon Center it was as if gravity turned off or something. I was able to get up the stairs in a single jump!"

"That's weird. I definitely can't do something like that. Maybe there's another psychic staying here."

"Everything went back to normal just as I arrived back here. I found you slumped over on your bed. You looked exhausted so I decided to leave you be. You didn't even respond when I put a blanket on you."

"...Oh."

Ivy sat up. Her neck was aching from her awkward sleeping position and her stomach growled like an angry Pyroar.

"Are there any leftovers from yesterday?"

"Yes, I left your portion on the table. It's probably gone cold by now though."

Emily gestured towards the table. Sure enough there was an unopened box of Basculin and chips.

"Eh, nothing wrong with a bit of cold food."

Ivy was halfway through the box when her phone rang. It was her mum. She considered leaving it ringing, but that would just mean more trouble later. She reluctantly held the phone up to her ear.

"Hi sweetie!"

"Hi mum."

"How are you doing? Where are you?"

"I'm fine. I'm in Motostoke."

"You're not coming home?"

"No, Postwick is too far away."

"Can't you- Oh, I forgot. You can't teleport. Such a shame. You should really learn to do that sometime. Well, good morning! Don't forget we're always here if you can't handle the challenge!"

"Thanks, mum…" Ivy replied unenthusiastically. The phone went dead and Ivy finished the rest of her chips.

"What are you planning to do today?" Emily asked.

"I dunno. Are Pokémon league registrations open yet?"

"Hmm, I'll look it up…" Emily tapped something into her phone. "It seems they opened today!"

"How about we check that out then?"

"Sure, that's a good idea."

The two of them set off into the city. It was a fairly pleasant day, if one ignored the light drizzle. Emily spent the journey rambling assorted trivia about the city to Ivy and enthusing about the elevator. She whooped with joy as they spun up to the top. They stepped off the platform and looked up at the stadium towering in front of them. There was a small group of people standing by the doors, waving signs and angrily shouting something about the national Pokédex. The foyer inside was almost empty, save for a pair of trainers and a Kirlia standing at the sign up desk. One of them was wearing the Steel type uniform, with a Steel type tracksuit top tied around her waist. The other wore a black hoodie and greyish purple shorts with black tights underneath. Ivy and Emily queued up behind them.

"Do you have your endorsement letter?" The lady at the counter asked the pair in front.

Ivy began hurriedly rummaging through her bag to find her own letter.

"Yeah… I've got it… Here." The person in the hoodie handed a letter over to the counter lady.

"This all seems valid..." The counter lady said, typing something into her computer. "So, what do you want your league number to be?"

"Erm… Is 38 taken?"

"It's unlikely since you're one of the first people to register, but I'll check quickly… Nope! If that's the number you want, you're good to go!"

"I'll go with 38 then."

"Alright then!" The counter lady pointed to a room behind her. "You head in there and my colleague will help you find a uniform in your size. Also, don't forget that everyone taking part in the league gets a free room at the Budew Drop Inn the night before the opening ceremony!"

The person in the hoodie headed off through the door. The girl in the Steel uniform left the queue to lean against the wall, leaving Ivy at the front.

"Next please!"

Ivy stepped up to the counter.

"Good morning! Are you here to register for this year's Gym Challenge?"

Ivy nodded.

"Alright then! What's your name?"

"Ivy McKee."

"Have you got an endorsement letter?"

Ivy put her letter on the counter. The lady took and examined it.

"So… You won this from Ultimate Pokémon Trivia Battle?"

Ivy nodded awkwardly. She felt like the 4 or 5 other people in the hall were silently judging her.

"Interesting… Well, an endorsement's an endorsement! What's your league number gonna be?"

"Hmm… I'll just go with something random… Like… 981."

"Alright! I'm assuming you saw where that other young lady went."

Ivy nodded and headed through to the room behind the counter. There were shelves stacked with folded challenger uniforms of various different sizes. An elderly lady stood in the middle of the room with the person wearing a hoodie. The lady handed a shirt and a pair of shorts to them.

"These should fit. Why don't you try them just to be safe before I iron the numbers on?"

"Okay!"

They left the room. The old lady seemed to finally notice Ivy.

"Wow, lots of people want to register early, huh? Okay, what size are you normally?"

Soon enough Ivy too had been sent off to the changing rooms to try on a blank uniform. There was already someone else there, presumably the person who had been wearing a hoodie before. Now she could see their short, messy black hair and purplish eyes. Completely ignoring Ivy, they changed back into their hoodie and carried the uniform out. Meanwhile Ivy finished putting hers on. It was fairly comfortable, but the sleeves were a bit long. Everything else fit though, and she didn't want to make a scene.

Ivy paused to look in the mirror. She almost didn't recognize the person in it. It looked too… She wasn't quite sure what. Was she really up to this? There wasn't any going back now. Not if she wanted any respect from her parents. They'd never let her live this down. With a bug type, maybe she'd be able to make it past the first gym at least. She'd made her decision and she was going to have to live with it. Shaking off the uneasy feeling, she changed back into her normal clothes. She was about to open the changing room door when Emily rammed through it, narrowly avoiding Ivy.

"Goodness! I'm terribly sorry."

"It's fine. Probably my fault anyway." Ivy replied before heading back to the uniform room, where the person in the hoodie was waiting for their shirt to be finished.

"Ah, you're back!" The uniform lady looked up from the shirt she was ironing numbers on the back of. "Does the uniform fit?"

"Yeah."

"Great! I'll get your number on them as soon as I'm done with this one. Why don't you two young ladies get to know each other, seeing as you're both doing the gym challenge?"

The person in the hoodie grimaced.

"So… erm… what's your name?"

"Ivy." She paused for slightly too long. "What's yours?"

"I'm Jess, and this is Robin." Jess gestured towards their Kirlia. "So… Do you have any Pokémon?"

Ivy nodded.

"Yeah, there's Marcus, my Dottler and Evelyn, my Sinistea."

"Oh, cool. I've also got Dia, my Frosmoth and Isis the Nickit recently joined."

"Where'd you get a Frosmoth from?"

"I live in Circhester. You get a lot of Snom around there."

"Ah… Right… Oops."

The two stood awkwardly facing each other for a while.

"So…" Jess broke the silence. "Do you… come from somewhere?"

"Yeah, I'm from… Postwick."

The pause continued, both of them hoping the uniform lady would finish Jess's and break the awkward stalemate they'd come to.

"Isn't that where the champion came from?" Jess asked. "And Professor Sonia's assistant… And the last champion too? Come to think of it, a ton of famous people come from there."

"Yeah… you get quite a lot of tourists around there nowadays. So… Circhester. I've heard that's a pretty nice place."

"Yeah, it's pretty nice," Jess replied. "Bit cold, though."

"Okay, here you go sweetie!" The uniform lady smiled, handing the now finished set of uniform to Jess before turning to face Ivy. "So, what number are you?"

"981."

"Okay, your uniform, please." Ivy handed the challenger uniform over. "This'll only take a few minutes!"

Ivy looked over to where Jess had been standing. They seemed to have left without making a sound.

A few minutes later Ivy's uniform was almost done, and Emily charged into the room, running straight into Ivy.

"Darn it! Not again." Emily turned to the uniform lady. "This uniform fits nicely!"

"Slow down, sweetie. I'm still working on this young lady's uniform. Also, you need to change back out of yours before I can work on it."

Emily laughed awkwardly. "Ahaha, oops. I got a bit over excited there, didn't I?"

Emily quickly backpedaled out of the room. Ivy and the uniform lady stood in silence for a few minutes.

"Aaand that's your uniform done!" She handed the uniform back to Ivy. "I wonder what's taking that blonde girl so long?"

"Thanks."

Ivy left the uniform room just in time to narrowly avoid Emily running into her for the third time.

"Phew! That was close. I'm assuming your uniform is done already?"

Ivy nodded. "So… would you mind if I went off by myself for a bit?"

"Sure! There's no need to ask me that!"

"Right… yeah. I guess I'll see you back at the Pokémon center then?"

"Indeed!"

Ivy continued on outside the stadium. Unsure of what to do, she wandered along the streets for a while. She'd finally joined the gym challenge. Would she even be able to make it far?

A tiny crowd caught her eye. There were 3 people who seemed to be working for some charity or other, judging by the donation buckets they were carrying. One of them was floating their bucket around to the oohs and aahs of a small group of children. Another one of them seemed to notice her as well. She walked over to Ivy, her green hair blowing in the wind.

"Hi there! Have you heard of Calm Minds?"

"No?"

Only realising her mistake after saying something, Ivy braced herself for the sales pitch.

"So, Calm Minds is a charity that helps out young psychics. We give support to people who can't control their powers yet. We also help people who've been ostracized by their families and communities because of their abilities. Those are only a few of the many ways we're improving the lives of young psychics across the region! So?"

She held her donation bucket out and shook it expectantly. Ivy fumbled for her purse and peered inside.

"Sorry, I've not got any cash…" she lied.

The spokeswoman pulled some forms out of her pocket.

"That's fine! You can fill in your credit or debit card details on here, or if you've got a checkbook you can use that, or if you're able to do gift aid you can-"

"I don't have any of that either."

She clearly wasn't buying it. "Really? You don't travel with any money at all?"

Ivy sighed. "Look, I… I only just left home and I can't afford to give anything."

"So, you're one of those people. Fine, go back to enjoying your life in blissful ignorance of everyone who's actually suffering! You could be saving someone's life here, but no. You have better things to do. But that's okay!" She smiled aggressively. "Everyone has the right to be a selfish asshole!"

Holly, calm down! Someone yelled telepathically.

One of the other charity workers ran over. He had short black hair and wore a blue polo shirt. There was something oddly familiar about him. I'm sure we'll find someone else who can dona- Wait, Ivy?!

"Um… yeah?" Ivy stammered. How did he know her?

It's so great to see you! How long has it been?

Ivy stood there and said nothing.

"Oh, right. You haven't seen me since then…" their spoken voice was far more feminine, and instantly recognizable as Ivy's old childhood friend.

"Wait, Abby?!"

Yeah, it's me. They returned to telepathy. But like, I'm going by Oliver now.

"Wait, what happened? How come you're a guy now?"

Ivy noticed the green haired girl giving her a death glare.

Well… how do I explain this? I've kind of always been one, I guess. It just took about… fourteen and a half years to realize it.

"Okay? So, anything else happen after you went to Kalos?"

It's a long story. I don't have time to tell you everything right now but the short version is I went on a journey, trained a bit with that Inver guy, realised I was a guy, got disowned and somehow made it back here. Ran into the people at Calm Minds and they helped me get back on my feet. So how have things been for you?

Ivy stayed silent, unsure of how to respond. "Nothing as bad as what happened to you, I guess. Just the usual stuff with my parents."

They haven't changed?

"Nope. Still the same 'you're not strong enough' and 'you're disappointing all of us' as ever."

Sheesh.

"Your parents sound like horrible people," the third Calm Minds worker chimed in monotonously.

"No, really, they're not that bad. They're just a bit too focused on trying to make my powers stronger."

"Believe me, I know what that's like. Me and my sister were raised by people like that."

Ivy, this is Kal, Oliver interrupted. Kal, this is my old friend Ivy.

"Nice to meet you, Ivy. I hope you'll be able to get away from your parents."

"I really don't think they're that bad. At least I'm getting a bit of time away to do the gym challenge."

You're taking on the gym challenge this year? Cool! You got a team yet?

"My parents gave me a Blipbug, but it's evolved now. I also caught a Sinistea in a Max Raid den."

Oliver looked dumbfounded.

Wait, they gave you a Blipbug? How are you supposed to get anywhere with that?

"Hey, Marcus is pretty strong! But yeah, I don't think they expect me to get too far. They were apparently going to give me something stronger but didn't since I couldn't lift its Poké Ball over."

Kal nodded knowingly. "That sounds just like the people who used to look after me."

"Coincidentally they just happened to send my cousin a Gothita later that day."

Right! I ran into Laurie earlier and he told me about it.

"Wait, how do you guys know each other?"

I see him around the Hammerlocke gym. We're both gym trainers there.

Ivy struggled to hide her annoyance.

Yeah, I'd forgotten how annoying he was. Oliver laughed out loud.

"Finally, someone else gets it." Ivy smiled.

The green haired girl walked over.

"Sorry to interrupt your reunion, but we should probably get a move on and find some people who are actually going to donate."

Sorry, guess I've got to go. We should meet up sometime to chat!

Ivy nodded. "Yeah, we should. See you!"

The three of them started to walk away. Ivy headed back to her room at the Pokémon center.

Apparently she had a new roommate. She recognized her as the girl wearing Steel uniform she'd seen at the stadium earlier. She seemed to be unpacking her bags into a closet with the help of an Empoleon.

"Ello!" The girl turned around. "This your room then?"

"Yeah…"

"Cool! I'm Violet. Wait, you signed up for the gym challenge earlier, right?"

Ivy nodded.

"Good luck, then!" Violet replied.

"Are you here for the gym challenge?"

Violet shook her head. "Nope! I did that like a year ago. I'm just here to cheer my mate Jess on. Pretty sure you guys met each other already."

"Yeah, I think I remember them. Are they staying here too?"

"Nah, they…" Violet paused. "They're not such a fan of the rooms here. They'll probably set up camp somewhere in the wild area."

"Ok."

"You planning to do anything in the next couple days?"

"No? Why?"

Violet sighed and sat on one of the beds.

"Eh, it's like four days until the opening ceremony and I have no idea what to do around here. I was hoping you might, but I guess not. Shame."

"Sorry…"

"Oh, it's fine! I can always check the internet."

Violet returned to unpacking her bags. Ivy looked at Violet's Empoleon.

"Is that your Empoleon?"

"Yup! This is Nelson!"

Nelson waved at Ivy.

"You don't see that many around here… Is it even legal to own one here?"

"Yeah, if you can get through the mountain of paperwork they make you fill in. Can't use Nelson in anything 'official', though. No gym battles, no battle tower, stuff like that. Some old guys in suits apparently decided that for Galar league stuff we should only be using Pokémon native to the region."

"I wonder why?"

"No idea. I'd be out there with those protesters if I knew it wouldn't tank my chances of becoming a gym leader. I dunno about the league's attitude towards people who don't like their regulations so I'd rather play it safe."

"So you're looking to become a gym leader? I'm assuming Steel type?"

"Yup! If you did the minor division you might end up battling me in Peony's gym. Can't use Nelson, but the rest of my team is a bit more legal."

"What other Pokémon do you use?"

The room suddenly became a lot more cramped as Violet sent out six more Pokémon.

"This is Arrow," Violet pointed to the Corviknight perched on the railings of one of the bunks. "If I ever became a gym leader he'd be the one I Gigantamaxed."

Violet then gestured towards the Bisharp and Duraludon who were standing in the corner wondering what was going on. "Those are Hatchet and Eclair. Hatchet's good at hitting stuff hard but sometimes she gets her head spike stuck in stuff. Eclair's a bit more laid back but he can definitely take a hit, but then again you could say that about most Steel types."

Violet quickly turned to face the Excadrill who was trying to open Ivy's bag. It wasn't going well.

"Mocha, stop! Sorry about her. I'm trying to get her to stop rummaging through other people's stuff, but I guess we'll need to keep working on that." Violet returned Mocha to her Poké Ball. "She'll learn, someday…"

"Anyway, this is Anderson, or Andy for short," Violet pointed to the Metagross who was trying to find a free space in the room. "If you've never tried standing on a Metagross as they float around with Magnet Rise, you should. It's so dang fun. We all love Andy, they're great."

"Finally we have Praline," Violet gestured to the Perrserker who had climbed up to Emily's bunk and fallen asleep. "I bet one of her parents was a Komala, she sleeps all the time. But she's great for finding the best bed in a place like this. This one's not taken, right?"

"Sorry… I'm pretty sure that's Emily's." Ivy replied.

"Oh, oops!" Violet climbed back down the bed's ladder. "Praline, you heard her! We've gotta find a different one."

The Perrserker yawned and jumped down off the top bunk. It ambled sleepily over to the bottom bunk of another bed, climbed on it and went back to sleep.

"Looks like this is the one, then!" Violet grinned and got back to unpacking her bags, navigating around her other Pokémon.

Ivy sighed internally. Who was she kidding? She'd never be able to do this. Everyone else had everything together. They had teams of great Pokémon. They had goals.

Didn't you want to do something or other? It seemed Marcus had let himself out of his Poké Ball.

"I mean I'd like to beat the gym challenge, but I was thinking about realistic goals." Ivy said.

"Huh? Who are you talking to?" Violet looked over.

"Just my Dottler."

"You can talk to Pokémon?!" Violet exclaimed.

"No, it's just his telepathy…"

Violet facepalmed. "Riight. I forgot that was a thing."

What's stopping you from beating the gym challenge? Am I not strong enough? Marcus was looking up at her sadly.

"No, that's not it! It's just… I'm not a good enough trainer."

"Isn't that kinda the whole point of a journey though?" Violet butted in. "You start off losing to 10 Yampers in a row and by the end of it you lose six nil in front of the entire region in your first Pokémon league match. I still have the video saved on my phone somewhere. In retrospect it's kinda funny how badly I messed up."

Ivy shuddered. What if that happened to her? It probably would if she got that far. She imagined the whole region laughing at her. But then she imagined returning to Postwick now. She'd never hear the end of it from her parents. Laurie would be even worse. Maybe there would be some way to impress them, while avoiding an embarrassing loss in a major tournament. But the gym challenge hadn't even started yet. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen later. She knew she shouldn't worry, but there was no way she couldn't. At least she had her Pokémon to help her out.