Shadows and Darkness

by Spiderc

A year after the battle of truth and ideals, a new threat crept into Unova. The remnants of Cipher began to capture and corrupt Pokemon released by trainers who were fooled by the words of Plasma. The recovering region couldn't spare the resources to defeat Cipher, so Eleanor answered when a plea for help was put out. After all, who knows Shadows better than a Dark specialist?

2. Night Flight

Eleanor was rudely brought back to wakefulness by a golden light shining directly on her face. "Innooo," Eleanor tiredly complained. "You're glowing again."

Instead of the light fading as she'd hoped, there was only soft snoring in response, making Eleanor grumble under her breath. She continued to lay there for a few seconds before finally opening her eyes and confirming that Inno's rings were glowing. Even though it had been almost a full year since she'd evolved into Umbreon, the Pokemon still had a habit of glowing in her sleep and giving Eleanor an unwanted nightlight as a result.

With a groan, Eleanor reached over Inno to grab her Poketch off the nightstand. She lightly tapped the screen and when her eyes finally focused on the display, she saw that it was five fifty-two. In her tired state, it took Eleanor several more seconds to do the mental math before she finally came to the conclusion that she'd gotten just under four hours of sleep.

Even though that wasn't nearly long enough, she knew that she shouldn't go back to sleep or else getting used to Unova time would be even more awful than it already was going to be. Despite her decision, Eleanor almost dozed back to sleep several more times before she dragged herself out of bed. When she'd finally managed to extract herself from the sheets, she saw that Inno had somehow remained asleep the entire time. For one brief and spiteful moment, Eleanor considered waking her Pokemon up in retaliation but restrained herself.

She slowly stumbled over to the room's attached bathroom, immensely glad that that was another similarity to most of the Pokemon Center rooms back home. Some of the smaller Centers had shared bathrooms and she was glad she didn't have to deal with that at the moment. Upon reaching the bathroom, she quickly got out of her pajamas and stepped into the shower, allowing the blissfully warm water to wake her back up.

After an inordinately long time in the shower, Eleanor turned off the water, finally feeling awake and refreshed. As she was drying off, she had an unfortunate thought and hoped that the town didn't have a water shortage that no one had told her about. If that was the case, then she would have just taken a chunk out of the reserves.

After getting dressed in clean clothes, Eleanor returned to the main room and saw that Inno had woken up at some point so she turned on the room's lights. She retrieved her other three Pokeballs from where they'd been left on the floor and sent out the rest of her team to see how they were doing.

Honor immediately skittered forward and Eleanor smiled as she rubbed the top of the Drapion's armored head. Inno perked up at that and jumped off the bed so that she could start rubbing against Eleanor's leg, forcing her to split her attention between the two. While petting her two more openly affectionate Pokemon, Eleanor looked over at Devo next. The Honchkrow met Eleanor's eyes and gave her a serious nod, which she returned with an equal amount of gravity, though she was barely able to keep herself from smiling and ruining it. Eleanor's most recent catch was standing a bit aloof with her arms crossed, but the Sneasel still looked like she was doing well.

"I'm going to get us some breakfast. Well, dinner, I guess," Eleanor told her Pokemon as she stopped petting Honor and Inno with a yawn. Her Pokemon all nodded, with Devo drawing himself up to his full height and ruffling his feathers slightly in anticipation. Eleanor moved to the door but paused before putting her hand on the door handle. Given the current state of Unova, it probably wasn't a good idea for her to go anywhere without at least one of her Pokemon. Especially considering that judging from Joy's reaction when she'd entered the building, even Pokemon Centers weren't fully safe. "Inno, want to come with?" She asked, and the Umbreon answered by happily padding over to her side. With a quick look back at her Pokemon, Eleanor opened the door and stepped back into the hallway.

As she made her way to the front desk with Inno at her side, Eleanor spotted the Pokemart that was in the building and noted that she'd need to get a few supplies before they set out on their travels. She'd brought enough items from Sinnoh that she wasn't worried about running out, but traveling through routes was a much larger drain on a trainer's resources than staying in town was.

There was no line at the front desk, so Joy behind the counter immediately turned to greet Eleanor as she approached. "Good evening! You look refreshed!"

"Yeah," Eleanor replied with a relaxed smile and a nod. "It was good to finally get some sleep."

The nurse smiled sympathetically and Eleanor suspected that she'd had plenty of experience with long and sleepless nights. "Do you want some dinner?"

"That would be great," Eleanor said and Inno clearly agreed as she lightly headbutted Eleanor's leg in anticipation.

Joy nodded absently and spoke while she checked something on her computer. "I'll get some food sent over to your room. Your Pokemon are Honchkrow, Umbreon, Drapion, and Sneasel, correct?" Once Eleanor had confirmed, the nurse looked back up at her. "And what about you? Does pizza sound good?"

"That sounds great. I've never had Unovan-style pizza before."

"Well, then you're in for a treat. It'll all be there in a bit." Before Eleanor could thank her, Joy reached beneath her desk and when she sat back up, set a small cardboard box on the counter. "And this is what Skyla sent over."

"Thanks," Eleanor said as she picked up the box, finding it to be surprisingly light. Joy simply hummed in response so Eleanor headed back to her room with her new possession in hand. When she entered, she saw that Honor and Patty were relaxing, but Devo was still standing at attention. The Honchkrow visibly relaxed as Eleanor and Inno walked back into the room and she smiled fondly at her starter.

"Food will be here in a bit," Eleanor told her team, and the three that had stayed behind perked up slightly at the news. While they were waiting, Eleanor figured that she should check out what Skyla had sent over and sat down at the small desk that was in the room. She paused when she noticed that it had been taped shut and called across the room, "Honor, would you mind helping me out?" He immediately scuttled to her side and carefully used one of his claws to slice through the tape.

After thanking her Pokemon, Eleanor opened the box's flaps and the first thing she saw inside was a device that looked like a slightly larger version of her Poketch. When she tapped on the screen, it lit up in full color stating 'Xtransciever' in blocky letters. Already familiar with the model, she took her Poketch off of her wrist and picked up the new device. It was a bit heavier than the Poketch but not uncomfortably so. Eleanor felt a bit bad about replacing the Poketch that her parents had bought a few years ago when she'd started her journey, but she wasn't about to turn down a better model. Besides, she didn't think that her parents would have a problem with it considering that she could make calls with the Xtransciever, which would make keeping in touch much easier.

After Eleanor finished strapping her shiny new Xtransceiver to her left wrist, she connected the device to the Pokemon Center's network. While she didn't know who was paying for its data, she didn't want to incur unnecessary costs on them. With that taken care of, she turned her attention to the rest of the box's contents, which turned out to be a Town Map and a small booklet. She'd studied the geography of Unova before traveling to the region, but the handy reference was more than welcome.

The booklet was titled 'Unovan Crisis Gazetteer' with the date from three days ago listed underneath. Curious, Eleanor opened it to the first page and read the introduction on the back of the front cover.

The following entries are intended to be strictly informative and as such, we have made the attempt to stay as impartial as possible. In light of the threat facing Unova, accurate information takes precedence over everything else. With that being said, we acknowledge that some individuals might take offense to entries that mention them and we apologize for that. If you wish to contribute to the gazetteer, contact any league official and they will make the necessary arrangements.

The above apology is not extended to one individual in particular. In the unlikely event that she is reading this, the full offense is intended.

Eleanor sighed after reading the slightly smaller text at the bottom of the page that she could almost feel scorn radiating off of. She knew full well who had earned the ire of the Unovan league, but there was nothing that she, or anyone else, could do about it. Before she could dig into the Gazetteer's actual contents, Eleanor was interrupted by a knock on her door.

When she answered it, a Joy who she was pretty sure was different from the one she'd talked to was in the hallway with a small cart. "Here's your dinner dear," the woman said, and Eleanor moved out of the doorway so that it could be pushed inside. "Let us know if you need anything else."

"Thank you," Eleanor absently replied, already hungrily eyeing the three slices of pizza that sat on a plate atop the cart. With another smile, Joy closed the door behind her, leaving Eleanor and her Pokemon alone with their dinner. Even though her stomach growled in protest, Eleanor first checked the four bowls of food on the cart to make sure that they were correct. Thankfully the task went quickly since her Pokemon's food looked more or less the same as what they were fed back home, including the fact that Honor's bowl was quite a bit larger than the other three. Eleanor waited a few more seconds as they took their first bites, and when it looked like there weren't any issues, brought her plate of pizza back to her desk to eat while she read.

Ten minutes later, Eleanor had finished reading the Gazetteer, though its contents had soured the taste of the otherwise delicious pizza. She'd seen plenty of news reports about the Unovan crisis over the last year and had of course done her own research before coming, but seeing all of the damage and losses listed in a single location was particularly sobering. She stared at the small booklet sitting on her desk for several long seconds. The more Eleanor thought about it, the more she felt that she couldn't just sit in a Pokemon Center doing absolutely nothing.

Mind made up, she pressed the buttons on her new Xtransciever before she finally found the contacts menu. As she'd hoped, Skyla was already listed as one of her two contacts. The contact she already had was Cheren, which she was slightly surprised to see. She certainly wasn't complaining though since he would be a good backup. Eleanor pressed the call button and it only took a few seconds before the call connected and Skyla's face appeared on the screen. The gym leader looked largely the same as when Eleanor had seen her and from the background, it looked like she was still in her office.

"Hi Eleanor," Skyla greeted with a hint of confusion and concern. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, everything is fine," Eleanor quickly answered, not wanting to cause any undue worry. "You said that Rosa lived in Aspertia City, right?"

Skyla gave a relieved sigh before slowly answering, "Yes… why?"

"I'm going to head there now."

Skyla sat up at Eleanor's sudden declaration. "Wait, let me coordinate to send a gym trainer with you."

Eleanor decisively shook her head and reached out with her right hand to pick up the Gazetteer so she could wave it in front of the camera. "According to this, southwest Unova is the safest section of the region and I'll mostly be flying over wilderness anyway. Your gym trainers are much more needed here. Besides, you all are trusting me to escort Rosa around the region. If a dark specialist can't handle a wilderness flyover at night, then they shouldn't be put in charge of a new trainer."

There were several long seconds of silence as the two stared at each other, which was how long it took Eleanor to realize that she had lectured a gym leader about a situation that Skyla knew way more about. She was about to start stammering an apology when Skyla softly spoke. "Thank you. I'll let Cheren know that you're on the way. Good luck and stay safe," she finished right before ending the call.

Eleanor stared at her reflection in the Xtransciever's black screen for a second before sighing in relief. When she finally regained her nerves, Eleanor leaned back in her chair to look at Devo. "You up for a trip?" The Honchkrow's head snapped up from his mostly empty bowl and gave her a sharp nod. "Alright, finish up and then we'll get going." Devo nodded again before returning his attention to his bowl, though he resumed his usual slow eating speed despite their new plans.

While Devo finished the rest of his food, Eleanor placed her plate and the rest of her Pokemon's bowls on the cart and then returned her other Pokemon, taking a moment to adjust her belt to make sure they were secure. She turned her attention to her luggage next and started transferring everything from her suitcase to her satchel. She'd brought the suitcase since she thought that she'd be staying in one place, but it was too unwieldy to carry around now that she knew otherwise. Thankfully, all of her things fit fine into her bag because of its extra space. She just normally preferred not to store her clothes in there since they tended to get really wrinkly. The last things to go into the bag were her Poketch, the Town Map, and the Gazetteer.

When Devo finally finished eating, Eleanor put his bowl on the cart with the others. She gave the room one quick look over to make sure that she hadn't missed anything, then pushed the cart out of the room with Devo following behind her. Since he couldn't fly inside the Center, he was forced to awkwardly waddle through the hallway, but still managed to maintain a dignified expression while doing so.

One of the wheels on the cart was particularly squeaky so they were quickly noticed by the nurse as they approached. "Did you have a nice dinner?"

"Yeah, it was really good," Eleanor answered honestly, though she didn't feel like returning Joy's smile.

"That's good to hear," Joy said as she stood up to pull the cart behind the counter. The nurse's smile faded and her eyes narrowed when she noticed Eleanor's bag hanging off of her shoulder. Her eyes then darted down to the cart and spotted the key that Eleanor had left next to the plate. "You shouldn't even think about leaving right now," Joy said, suddenly turning stern.

Eleanor did her best to channel the same surety that she'd had a few minutes before and returned Joy's gaze. "Skyla already cleared me. I left my suitcase in the room in case anyone needs it. If not, you can just throw it out."

Joy maintained a level gaze with Eleanor for several seconds as if testing her resolve before finally taking a deep breath. "Fine. Good luck out there."

"Thanks," Eleanor quickly replied before turning to leave, doing her best to ignore the plain disapproval in Joy's eyes. When she left the Center, she saw that the sun had mostly set, but there was still enough light in the sky that she'd be able to see for the start of their flight. While Devo stretched his wings out, Eleanor took the opportunity to retrieve her jacket from her satchel and put it on. She'd learned from experience that long flights could get chilly even during the day.

Once both of them were ready, Eleanor climbed on Devo's back and positioned herself for the flight. As a Honchkrow, he was a bit smaller than what most trainers used for flying around on, but the two of them managed to make it work. When Devo craned his head back to check on Eleanor, she assured him that she was ready.

Devo spread his wings wide and took off, with Eleanor being sure to hold on extra tight. Takeoff was always the point where she was in the most danger of falling off and she didn't even want to imagine the embarrassment of falling off her Pokemon in the flying gym leader's town. Once they'd reached an altitude of about twice the height of the Pokemon Center, Eleanor relaxed. At this height, she was confident that she wouldn't fall off and that Devo would catch her even if she did.

Eleanor pointed to the rocky outcropping to the south of Mistralton City and said, "We're heading that way first." Devo nodded and gained a bit more height so that he was comfortably above the outcropping before finally starting to fly in the direction Eleanor had pointed.

The evening was quiet and Eleanor used the last bit of daylight to sightsee. From her current height, there was no sign of the conflict wracking Unova and everything they were flying over was pristine wilderness. However, even that was notable to her since back in Sinnoh, almost everything that wasn't mountains or wetlands had been developed in some way. Unova on the other hand had vast swaths of green land that had seemingly never been touched by humans. Eleanor found that she had to squint more as it slowly began to grow darker, until she finally stopped trying to look down and relaxed, simply enjoying the night air.

A bit later, Eleanor noticed a cluster of lights to the east from the corner of her eye and she turned to admire what must be Driftveil City. Though she was currently flying away from the city, she hoped that it wouldn't be too long before she and Rosa made their way to Driftveil. Unlike all of the other cities in Unova, it had actually progressed slightly instead of stagnating or worse. Despite her interest in seeing the city firsthand, the fact that she could see it meant that they weren't quite heading in the right direction so Eleanor nudged Devo westward. The altered course meant that they were navigating by nothing other than watching for the lights of the other cities that they would be passing over. While it was far from the most precise method, Eleanor wasn't worried since even if they did overshoot, it would be easy to figure out their position when they reached the ocean.

Satisfied, Eleanor absently scratched Devo's back while enjoying the flight and thinking about what the next few days would bring. She'd never mentored a trainer before, so she was a bit nervous that she wouldn't be able to help Rosa as well as a different trainer would be able to. Her worries were only increased by the fact that Rosa had presumably attended the Trainer School in Aspertia while Eleanor was entirely self-taught. If watching every video she could find that featured a dark specialist meant she could be considered self-taught. It took a while but eventually she managed to put her worries out of her mind. It sounded like she was really going to be more of a bodyguard than anything else, so she figured people would forgive her if she wasn't the best teacher.

It was at least another couple of hours before they finally cleared the hilly area that they'd been flying over the entire time and spotted another cluster of lights ahead. This one was significantly smaller than Driftveil had been so Eleanor decided it was reasonable to assume that it was Floccesy Town. Glad that they hadn't missed it, she once again nudged Devo westward since she now knew that their destination was directly southwest.

When they finally reached Aspertia City, Devo headed straight for the familiar glowing red roof of the Pokemon Center. While her Pokemon was descending, Eleanor tapped her Xtransciever's screen and softly swore when the bright screen blinded her. While her eyes were clenched shut in pain from the sudden light, she promised herself that she would lower its brightness settings the next chance she got. When her vision finally cleared, Eleanor was able to see that it was a bit after one in the morning. She was fairly pleased with the time that they'd made the flight in and hopped off of Devo's back as soon as he touched the ground, though she did stumble slightly when her sore legs buckled at the sudden weight.

Eleanor was starting to thank Devo for the trip when she was interrupted by someone calling, "Hey!" She spun towards the sound and saw a man standing underneath a streetlight with a Watchog at his side. "Are you Eleanor?" He asked, much more tersely than the other times she'd been asked that question since arriving in the region.

"Yeah," she called back with a hint of question.

"Good to have you," he said, though his tone didn't convey any sort of welcome. He then gave a curt nod to the Pokemon Center Eleanor was standing in front of. "Now get inside."

Eleanor hesitated and was going to thank him, but before she could, he abruptly turned around and walked further into town with his Pokemon. After sharing a quick look with Devo, Eleanor shrugged and walked into the Pokemon Center. Unlike the Mistralton nurse, the Aspertia Joy looked completely at ease as Eleanor entered the building and with it being so late, the lobby was completely empty.

"Did you have a nice flight?" Joy asked kindly as Eleanor approached the front desk.

"Yeah, I did. It was very peaceful," Eleanor answered and then thanked the nurse when she was handed another room key.

Joy smiled, though it only lasted a moment before her expression turned stern. "Now get some rest young lady." She punctuated her statement by jerking her head towards the hallway that Eleanor now knew the trainer rooms were in.

Eleanor didn't have the energy, or desire, to argue with a second Joy today so she simply nodded and said, "Good night." With that, Eleanor headed to her second room of the day, fully aware that the nurse was watching her go.

Despite her earlier nap, Eleanor was still on the tired side and the flight had done a good job of almost lulling her to sleep, so she was definitely ready to go back to bed. After changing into her pajamas, Eleanor sent out her full team, feeling guilty that she had neglected to do that earlier as she was fairly sure that they rested better outside of their Pokeballs than in. Inno promptly jumped on Eleanor's bed again while the rest of her Pokemon found comfortable spots on the room's soft floor to sleep for the night.

Eleanor hesitated before getting into bed herself and then picked her t-shirt off of the floor to drape over Inno. She didn't want to be woken up by her glowing again and the Umbreon seemingly had no complaints as she snuggled under the shirt as if it was a blanket. With that taken care of, Eleanor moved into the bed and fell asleep almost as quickly as she had earlier, though her dreams were much darker than before.

---

This time it wasn't Inno's glowing that woke Eleanor up, but instead a loud knock on her door. Still mostly asleep, she was tempted to ignore it and go back to sleep, but that idea was dashed when Devo loudly cawed as if to make sure that she'd heard it. Knowing from experience that he wouldn't stop, Eleanor climbed out of bed and quickly made her way over to the door, muttering a sarcastic thanks to Devo as she passed him. Eleanor peered through the door's peephole and saw that there was a woman with medium-length blonde hair wearing a puffy jacket standing on the other side.

Eleanor opened the door enough so that she could stick her head through the opening but hopefully her barely dressed state wasn't visible. "Yes?" She asked, the grogginess clear in her voice.

"Did I wake you? I'm so sorry," the woman said with a frown. "I told Cheren it was too early."

Eleanor clamped her eyes shut and slowly nodded in response. After a couple of seconds, she managed to say, "Give me ten minutes."

"Oh, okay. I'll just wait in the lobby. No rush," the other woman assured with an apologetic smile. Eleanor gave her another quiet nod in response before closing the door and getting started on the task of being presentable.

A bit more than ten minutes later, Eleanor walked into the Center's lobby with Inno at her side and the rest of her team back in their Pokeballs on her belt. She must have looked as tired as she felt since the woman who had woken her up immediately pointed out where the coffee was. Eleanor muttered her thanks and began pouring herself a large to-go cup, which she hoped would be enough to do the trick. While she was doing that, the woman introduced herself as Bianca.

Eleanor knew that she shouldn't be surprised at this point, but she still barely avoided spilling hot coffee on her hand due to suddenly meeting the Hero of Unova's best friend. Thankfully, Bianca didn't appear to have noticed the near-accident since when Eleanor turned back around, the famous trainer was petting Inno. "It's nice to meet you, and sorry for making you wait," Eleanor said, feeling a bit more awake between the smell of the coffee and the early shock.

Bianca gave Inno one final pat on the head before standing back up. "I don't mind at all. Cheren is the only one that wanted to start this early so really he's the only one that's having to wait." Eleanor's sleep-addled brain wasn't entirely sure that logic made sense, but didn't comment on it. "We should probably head over there now though. Cheren will get grumpy if he has to wait too long."

Eleanor attempted to take a sip of her coffee only to discover that it was too hot. Resigned to fact that she'd have to wait a bit longer, she nodded and said, "Sounds good."

The two trainers left the Pokemon Center with Inno at their side, and luckily for Cheren, their destination was on the same road so it only took them a few minutes to arrive. While Eleanor admired the building marked as both the Aspertia Trainer School and gym, Bianca walked right through the front doors without hesitation. Eleanor picked up her pace slightly to catch up, and the two of them headed for a conference room with a large table that two other people were already sitting at.

Atop the table were two briefcases, but Eleanor suppressed her curiosity to turn her attention to the room's occupants. One of them was instantly recognizable as Cheren and Bianca marched right up to the gym leader to lightly punch him on the shoulder. "I told you this was too early. Eleanor was still asleep when I got there."

Cheren winced both from the punch and Bianca's words before turning towards Eleanor. "Sorry for that. I suppose Pedro did say that you arrived quite late last night."

"It's not a problem," Eleanor said. "I'm just used to sleeping in a bit longer."

The other man in the room smiled at her, "Are you jet-lagged too? I was hit pretty badly by it yesterday, and I didn't even come nearly as far as you."

"Not really, I'm just a bit of a Noctowl. I think it comes with the territory when you train dark types," Eleanor answered. She thought the room's fourth occupant looked a bit familiar with his spiky red hair, but she wasn't able to place him.

Across the table, Bianca moved to sit next to Cheren so Eleanor went to do the same next to who she assumed was Hugh's mentor. However, when she pulled out the chair to sit, she found that there was a Jolteon curled up on the seat that raised its head to look up at her. "C'mon Voy, get off of there," the man said with a chuckle. The Jolteon gave an exaggerated stretch before jumping off of the chair and padding over towards Inno. "Sorry about him," the man said with a small smile.

The coffee that Eleanor had drunk on the way over must have finally kicked in and because of the extra clue of the Jolteon, she finally recognized her fellow mentor. "You're Michael! I've read your book- well, some of it."

Oddly, Michael's expression became pained not at her loud exclamation of his name, but rather the mention of the book. "Ah. I wouldn't recommend finishing that, actually. It was written by a family friend and while she meant well, it's not totally accurate."

Eleanor didn't think it was possible at this point, but she was still star-struck to meet the person that had routed Cipher and kicked them out of Orre when he was only twelve. Still a bit stunned, Eleanor plopped down in the chair next to him. She spared a quick glance behind her and saw that the two Pokemon in the Eevee family were sniffing each other curiously. Eleanor took another swig of her coffee before turning back to face Cheren and Bianca.

Bianca had a smile on her face while Cheren looked completely unphased by Eleanor's outburst. "Now that introductions are out of the way, let's get down to business. You two will meet Hugh and Rosa shortly, but first I want to cover what exactly the league is expecting from you. Your primary goal will be to protect your wards and make sure that they're as safe as they can be as they perform their gym challenges. As payment, the league will cover one hundred percent of your expenses and you will also be granted the first four badges that your mentees earn. After that, you can challenge the gym leaders for their badges as normal if you want to."

Eleanor hadn't expected to earn any badges along the way, but still asked, "Why only four?" She immediately realized how that sounded and quickly amended, "It's not that I'm not grateful, but I got six back home."

Michael chuckled softly, "That one is probably because of me. I don't actually have any badges so I bet the league went with four as a compromise." Cheren confirmed with a nod and Eleanor suddenly wanted to argue against the policy since there was no way that Michael should be considered a four badge trainer. However, she refrained since the person that she would be arguing on behalf of was apparently fine with it.

Ignorant of Eleanor's annoyance with the previous policy, Cheren continued. "While you're traveling, it's unfortunately almost a certainty that you'll encounter Team Plasma and/or Team Cipher. In those cases, you should prioritize retreating if possible." Before Eleanor could ask the obvious question, Cheren continued, "In the event that you cannot retreat, you are authorized to do whatever is necessary to defend yourself, your ward, and your Pokemon. Which is why you are being given these." As Cheren finished, he slid two of the briefcases across the table.

"Finally," Michael muttered under his breath as he immediately unclasped the briefcase in front of him. Eleanor gave him a curious look before moving to do the same. She opened hers to reveal two devices that she recognized from them being described in the book.

An Aura Reader and a Snag Machine.

"You're giving me a Snag Machine?" Eleanor asked weakly. Any other time, she would have been shocked, but at this point, she was simply too worn out to be surprised.

"The best, and sometimes only, way to deal with a Shadow Pokemon is to snag it," Michael kindly explained. "They're so unconcerned with their own health that they can literally push themselves to fight to the death," he clarified, which didn't make Eleanor feel any better.

"These Snag Machines have been specially manufactured to only work on Shadow Pokemon," Cheren added while Michael wasted no time strapping his items on with practiced ease.

Eleanor hesitantly followed his lead, and her first impression was that the device's bulky glove would take some getting used to. She was still in the process of putting it on when Michael finished and rolled his shoulders self-satisfactorily. "Glad I can finally start helping out," he said, suddenly sounding more than a bit annoyed.

Cheren immediately picked up Michael's tone and narrowed his eyes before speaking with the same annoyance, "With everything else going on, the league couldn't risk allowing a standard Snag Machine into the region."

"I told you to check my record," Michael answered hotly. "I never once snagged a Pokemon that wasn't a Shadow."

"We did check your record. And found that your Snag Machine was stolen from you at one point."

"We've taken precautions against that since then," Michael insisted.

Before Cheren could respond, Bianca put one of her arms around Cheren's shoulder, and while the gesture looked friendly, Eleanor noticed the gym leader wince under Bianca's grip. "None of that matters now," she said with faux sweetness. "Was there anything else that you needed to tell them?"

"Fine," Cheren conceded as he shrugged off Bianca's arm. "Did both of you get a copy of the Gazetteer?"

"Yes," Eleanor and Michael both answered as Eleanor went back to struggling to get her Snag Machine on. Michael leaned over to help and Eleanor gave him a grateful nod.

"They usually come out weekly and you can always pick up the latest copy at a gym or Pokemon Center. If something more urgent comes up, someone from the league will contact you on your Xtransciever."

Bianca perked back up at the mention of the devices. "Ooh, you should register my number as well." There was a few seconds of quiet as it became clear that Eleanor and Michael didn't know how to do that. Bianca extended her right arm across the table and said, "You just need to tap them together."

The two mentors did likewise and there were two pairs of dings as their Xtransceivers made contact with Bianca's. Before Michael could withdraw his arm, Eleanor tapped her wrist against his, causing another pair of dings to chime. Michael looked a bit surprised for a moment, then shrugged, "I guess we are going to be going in the same direction. Makes sense to keep in contact." Eleanor nodded, glad that he hadn't been upset by her impulsive action.

"Well, that should take care of everything, unless either of you had any questions," Cheren said.

Michael shook his head, but Eleanor slowly spoke up, "Actually, I did have one question about something that was in the Gazetteer. It said that Professor Juniper was working on a new Purification Chamber at her lab. Why not use the one in Orre?" As she finished, Eleanor looked at Michael, which meant that she saw his pained expression. When she looked back across the table at the other two trainers, she saw that they were making the exact same face.

"We tried that," Cheren said, but without the self-assured tone that he'd had throughout the conversation. "I'm still not sure how, but Grimsley managed to get his hands on a Shadow Throh. We sent it over to Krane's Lab for study to see if it was any different from the Shadows they'd encountered previously but…"

"It went berserk," Michael finished with a haunted voice. "I've never seen anything like it. It wouldn't even go back into its Pokeball. It tore up half of the lab before I was forced to put it down."

"Arceus," Eleanor softly swore and her voice was joined by a whine from Voy.

Michael looked back at his Jolteon and nodded. He paused to take a deep breath before continuing, "After that, we decided that we couldn't risk transporting Unovan Shadows out of the region. We'll need a Purification Chamber here before we can save any of the Pokemon that Cipher turned into Shadows."

"And Professor Juniper is making really great progress!" Bianca chimed in with an upbeat voice, though Eleanor couldn't tell if that was accurate or if she was simply trying to raise the mood. "Was there anything else you wanted to know?"

"Um, no. That was it," Eleanor answered haltingly. She didn't have any other questions in mind and after that piece of news, she wasn't sure that she would want to know the answers even if she did.

"Great!" Bianca said, still forcefully cheerful. "Then let's go meet your mentees!"

---

A/N: I don't really have anything to say about this chapter since we're mostly still setting the scene. There'll be a few introductory chapters before we really start getting in the meat of the plot. Hope you enjoyed it all the same.

Thanks to Star for betaing. Next up is Chapter 3: Bright Eyed