"After being released by their trainers, many younger Pokemon congregated to the ranch where they were taken care of by its owners. One of Cipher's first acts upon coming to Unova was to attack the ranch and snap up many of the Pokemon. Now the ranch is badly rundown, but the owners stubbornly refuse to leave in order to take care of the few Pokemon that remain."
-Unovan Crisis Gazetteer entry on Floccesy Ranch
"Former Champion Alder protects the town, though not without setbacks. Early on, Cipher discovered that they were able to bait Alder into investigating disturbances outside of town, allowing them to perform raids on the otherwise undefended town. Alder has become more vigilant to their tricks and there have been no major incidents for months."
-Unovan Crisis Gazetteer entry on Floccesy Town
Eleanor stared down at her Xtransciever for several seconds, trying to process the conversation she'd just had. With Michael's reputation, she had somewhat expected him and Hugh to run into members of either Cipher or Plasma, but not nearly this soon. More than anything else, Eleanor was shocked by Michael's completely relaxed attitude at his situation.
"We're… going to help them, right?" Rosa hesitantly asked, forcing Eleanor out of her own head, though she wasn't immediately sure how to answer. While she wanted to help stop both of the teams attacking Unova, she had specifically been told to stay away from them. Rosa's safety was supposed to be her first priority and running off to fight some Plasma grunts wasn't exactly the safest call.
Then again, Eleanor thought that she also had a responsibility to keep Hugh safe, especially if his mentor was going off into dangerous situations. Rosa was her priority of course, but looking after Hugh was a close second in her mind. Eleanor was well aware that she was making excuses, but given that she was looking for one, she wasn't going to argue against it.
"Yes. We'll go." Eleanor finally responded and was a bit surprised by Rosa's reaction. Eleanor had been expecting her mentee to be glad or maybe a bit scared at the idea, but instead Rosa's expression turned completely serious for the first time Eleanor met her. Matching Rosa's look, Eleanor continued. "We're going to head straight to the ranch. I don't want anyone in town trying to stop us."
While Eleanor sent out Devo, a hint of the nervousness that she'd been expecting crept into Rosa's voice. "We're going off-route?"
"Only for a bit," Eleanor promised. Getting lost was normally one of the main concerns with traveling through wilderness, but given that they were going to head straight for the large plume of smoke, Eleanor wasn't worried about that. She didn't think they would be off-route long enough to attract any aggressive Pokemon, which was the other thing you had to look out for. To be extra safe, she called, "Honor, you lead the way. Use Cut if you need to. Devo, speed us up with Tailwind."
Honor immediately charged toward the thick treeline on the northern end of the route and began to clear a path for them. Eleanor began to jog after him, with Rosa following her in turn with a bit of hesitation. After a second, gusts of wind courtesy of Devo hit them in the back, helping to propel them forward.
They had barely been moving for a minute when Eleanor and Rosa caught back up with Honor, who was standing at the bottom of a large ledge. Eleanor frowned, but didn't hesitate at the unexpected obstacle. "Rosa, get on Honor's back," she said while signaling Devo to land. The trainers climbed on the backs of the two Pokemon, who didn't need any further instruction. As soon as they had both made sure that their passengers were secure, Honor began ascending the ledge with Rock Climb while Devo simply flew over it.
From her new vantage point, Eleanor was able to get a better idea of how far away the smoke was and swore when she saw that they had further to go than she'd thought. She'd assumed that Floccesy Ranch would be near the town, but it turned out that wasn't the case. Leaning over Devo's side, Eleanor called down to Rosa who was tightly holding onto Honor as he climbed the ledge. "Are you alright staying on Honor?"
When Honor had once again reached flat ground, Rosa lifted an arm to give Eleanor a thumbs up. "We'll keep going like this then," Eleanor decided, and Rosa quickly grabbed Honor so they could start moving again. Honor wasn't used to having a passenger, so Eleanor expected that he would be fairly tired when they finally got to the ranch. Given the distance, she was sure that it would take Rosa and her way too long if they had to do the entire trip on foot so it would be worth it.
Even though Eleanor had a straight shot to the ranch from Devo's back, she had him stay directly above Honor as they made frustratingly slow progress through the wilderness. Even with Honor there to protect Rosa, Eleanor wasn't willing to leave the pair behind when there could be more Plasma members nearby. The four of them stayed completely silent, other than when Eleanor called occasional course corrections down to Honor, who couldn't see their destination due to being completely surrounded by trees.
Almost ten minutes after Michael's call, they finally arrived at the clearing that marked the beginnings of the ranch. The first thing that drew Eleanor's attention was the several hay barrels scattered around that were on fire. Hugh and his Dewott were attempting to put one of them out and Eleanor breathed a quick sigh of relief when she saw that he was safe. Her eyes darted toward the center of the ranch, where she saw Michael standing against three people in dark clothes.
"Dive toward them!" Eleanor quickly told Devo, amazed that Michael was still fighting. She reached for Inno's Pokeball on her belt and prepared to toss it as soon as she was close enough. Eleanor leaned back toward Rosa and Honor with the wind whipping through her hair and called, "Help Hugh with the fires!" Rosa's team wouldn't be terribly effective at putting out the fires, but Eleanor wanted Rosa in a safe spot since she knew that she'd have to put all of her attention into the battle she was about to join.
On that note, Eleanor was able to make out all of the combatants once Devo had dove half of the way down to the ground. There were a Swalot and Dusclops on Michael's side of the field while the three Plasma grunts were commanding a Rufflet, a Simipour, and a Gurdurr. All three of the grunts looked up at Eleanor and one of them pointed at her as she finished her descent, but unfortunately for them, Michael was more than willing to take advantage of their distraction. A pink aura surrounded Gurdurr, making the Pokemon fall to ground, while at the same time Swalot spit up a large purple mass that knocked Simipour off of its feet.
Suddenly not sure if she was actually needed after all, Eleanor tossed Inno's Pokeball while she hopped off of Devo's back the moment he touched the ground. Devo took back to the air and Eleanor wasted no time in running up to Michael's side, catching Inno's Pokeball when it bounced back to her. As she ran, there was an odd whirring noise by Eleanor's left ear and something that looked like a single sunglasses shade slid in front of her eye. It took a split second before she remembered that she was wearing the Aura Reader and what it meant. She turned to look at the remaining Plasma Pokemon and saw that the Rufflet was surrounded by a sickly-purple aura as it streaked across the field toward Michael's Swalot.
Oddly, the grunts seemed completely unconcerned as they returned their defeated Pokemon. The one who returned his Gurdurr sneered at Eleanor while Simipour's owner taunted, "Aww. You had to call your little girlfriend for help?"
Eleanor and Michael both pointedly ignored the remark, with Eleanor telling Inno to use Confuse Ray on Rufflet while Michael told Swalot to use Stockpile. With their Pokemon working to take care of the remaining Plasma Pokemon, Eleanor lowered her voice. "Are you alright?"
Michael flashed her a tight smile. "Yeah, but these guys are a lot tougher than I expected. Half of my team is out of the fight and it looks like they're finally bringing out the big guns." As Michael spoke, the grunts sent out their replacements for their fainted Pokemon, which turned out to be a Krokorok and a Crustle, both of which had the same shadowy aura as Rufflet. The grunts immediately told their Pokemon to attack but didn't call out any specific moves.
Since she wasn't completely sure what Shadow Pokemon were capable of, Eleanor called, "Double Team!" Inno firmly planted her feet into the ground and after a moment five more Umbreon appeared around her, making it impossible to tell which was the real one. With her Pokemon taken care of, Eleanor hissed, "I thought that Cipher was the one with Shadow Pokemon."
"Usually, yeah. But it looks like Cipher is back to their old schemes." Instead of elaborating, Michael raised his voice to call, "Bones, use Trick Room!" His Dusclops raised its arms at the command, forming a small purple box between its hands that quickly grew so that all six Pokemon were contained within it. The effect of the move was instantaneous as Bones and Crustle became much more animated while Rufflet slowed slightly and Krokorok's advance was slowed to almost nothing.
Eleanor noticed that Inno appeared to have been marginally slowed by Trick Room as well, but figured that it was worth it. Instead of worrying about that, she apprehensively eyed the three Pokemon they were fighting. Thankful that she had the person who was almost certainly the world's top expert on fighting Shadow Pokemon at her side, she asked, "What's our plan? What do you need me to do?"
"You had the right idea with Confuse Ray. Status moves are key. We need to disable them before they can hurt us or themselves," Michael quickly replied. Putting his own words into action, he raised his voice to call, "Feather, Toxic the Rufflet! Bones, Will-o-Wisp Crustle!" The purple sludge that Michael's Swalot spewed from its mouth easily hit Rufflet as it shakily flew in for another pass. Michael's other command wasn't as effective though since Crustle suddenly darted forward, avoiding the ghostly balls of fire and slamming into the Dusclops that tried to attack it.
It only took Bones a second to recover its footing and it sidestepped Crustle when the Shadow Pokemon charged again. Bones created another group of purple flames and shot them into Crustle as it passed. Completely ignoring the hit, Crustle whipped back around to attack once again, but it finally stilled for a moment when pulsing rays of lights from Inno shone brightly in its eyes.
Inno's handiwork was also apparent elsewhere in the battle, as Rufflet abruptly stopped flapping its wings and fell to the ground in a heap. While it wasted no time in getting back to its feet to resume its attack on Feather, Eleanor breathed a brief sigh of relief at the fact that all three of their opponents were temporarily disabled. She briefly glanced behind her to check on the mentees and saw that Rosa had gotten off of Honor's back so that they could better help Hugh and Dewott with the fires. Honor was using Sand Attack to smother the flames while Dewott used Water Gun. Rosa and Hugh were running water from a nearby well, though it was apparent that they weren't being as effective as possible given that all four of them kept stealing glances at the fight.
When Eleanor returned her attention to the battle, she saw that Krokorok had finally pushed through the effects of Trick Room to reach their side of the battlefield and was bearing down on Inno. "Dodge left!" Eleanor quickly called and Inno broke off her prolonged Confuse Ray to move. Due to her own slowness because of Trick Room, Inno didn't dodge out of the way as fast as she normally would have. Thankfully, the only thing that Krokorok's claws made contact with was a pair of Double Team clones before Inno ran away, once again putting some distance between the two of them.
At the same time, Rufflet regained its bearings and dove into Feather at full speed, making a loud thump resound through the area. The Swalot seemed to deflate at the hit and slid down to the ground. "I'm at the end of my roster," Michael softly warned Eleanor as he returned Feather and tossed another Pokeball. As a Togetic appeared in the air above the badly scarred battlefield, Michael called, "Reflect and Light Screen!" Togetic gave its trainer a cheerful smile and nod, then closed its eyes to concentrate. A moment later shimmering light appeared around Togetic, Bones, and Inno.
Eleanor had almost no experience with double battles so she was mildly unnerved to hear that Michael was almost out of Pokemon since she wasn't confident that she'd be able to pick up the slack. Hoping it wouldn't come to that, she called, "Inno, Swift the Rufflet!" The flying type had already been out when Eleanor had arrived, so she hoped that it was already hurt and could be quickly taken down to get a numbers advantage.
Inno stopped running away from Krokorok in order to create a mass of glowing stars that flew directly at Rufflet. Without waiting to watch them hit their target, she started moving again but was only able to take a few steps before she was slammed into by Crustle, who had managed to disengage from Bones. There was a brief flash of light as a barrier appeared between the two Pokemon, but the Reflect was completely overpowered and Inno was sent flying as the rest of her Double Team clones dissipated. Eleanor gasped at the sight, having never seen Inno, or any of her Pokemon, get hit that hard. Luckily, Inno was given the opportunity to stand back up, since Bones arrived back at Crustle's side a moment later and sunk a Shadow Punch into its side.
"Good job Bones! Shell, Air Cutter the Rufflet!" Michael called and then slowly pulled a Pokeball out of his pocket and held it in his left hand. While his Togetic created blades of wind to further disrupt Rufflet's flight, he quietly asked, "Does your Umbreon know Mean Look?" Eleanor eyed the Pokeball he was holding, which was slowly beginning to glow white, for a second before nodding. "Great. On my singal, use it on Krokorok."
"Got it," Eleanor said tersely. Wanting to make sure that Michael's plan succeeded, she called, "Swift Rufflet again!" Inno slowed long enough to shoot several more glowing stars at the flying Shadow Pokemon, then resumed her efforts of baiting Krokorok around the battlefield.
"Now!" Michael suddenly announced at full volume and tossed the brightly glowing Pokeball at Rufflet. Or Snagball, Eleanor supposed it now was.
"Mean Look Krokorok!" Eleanor told Inno, and she spun around mid-stride to stare at the Shadow Pokemon following her with inky black eyes. While there was no indication that the move had done anything to Krokorok, since the move didn't usually cause much of a physical reaction even on non-Shadow Pokemon. Eleanor noticed that the white in Bones' eye had likewise gone black as it continued to wrestle with Crustle.
Michael's Snagball flew unerringly and struck Rufflet in one of its wings. There was a brief flash of white light and when it faded, the Pokeball stayed suspended in the air where Rufflet had been a moment before. After a second, the Pokeball abruptly flew back into Michael's waiting hand.
"Shit! They've got Snag Machines!" The Plasma grunt that spoke pressed the button on the Pokeball he was holding, but the resulting beam of light fizzled out right before it made contact with Krokorok. "Hurry up and take them down!"
"Hey, give that back!" The grunt who had been commanding Rufflet loudly complained. "I paid good money for that monster!"
Eleanor couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the hypocrisy of a Plasma member complaining about stealing Pokemon, but otherwise ignored him in order to turn her attention back to the battle. Before she could, she noticed that the grunt was starting to step backward and sharply whistled. "Devo! Watch them!" The Honchkrow loudly cawed from where he'd been circling above the battlefield, making the grunt freeze in his tracks. Eleanor wanted to hold Devo back in case they ended up needing to make a quick escape, but he could make sure their opponents didn't run away at the same time.
"Bones, look out!" Michael abruptly called, and Eleanor turned back to the field just in time to see Krokorok bearing down on Michael's Dusclops. While the trainers had all been distracted by Rufflet's snagging, Krokorok had changed targets without their notice. Bones tried to move out of the way of the oncoming Shadow, but it was stuck grappling with Crustle and was completely unable to dodge.
For the first time of the battle, Krokorok landed a hit and slammed into Bones with black wisps of smoke flying out at the point of contact. The bulky ghost went abruptly limp at the blow and toppled to the ground. Showing no mercy for their fallen foe, Crustle and Krokorok both moved to continue attacking, but Michael swiftly returned Bones before they were able to land any blows. As the red light of the Pokeball's beam faded, so too did the purple walls of the Trick Room, making Crustle slow back down while Krokorok conversely became much more energetic.
There was another red light a second later, followed by a grunt of annoyance when one of the Plasma members tried and failed to return Crustle. The one with Krokorok gave his teammate a harsh look. "We just need to finish beating these idiots and then we won't need to worry about our Shadows getting stolen."
"And then you can get mine back!" The third one chimed in, then nervously glanced up at Devo flying above him. The other Two Plasma members gave him a dirty look, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Hey!" Hugh's voice indignantly called from behind Eleanor. "Dirty thieves like you don't get to whine about your Pokemon being taken!"
Eleanor shook her head, ignoring them. With Inno being the only Pokemon on the ground on their side, both Krokorok and Crustle had turned toward her as soon as Bones had been returned. "Toxic Krokorok then run!" Eleanor called as Krokorok sped toward her Pokemon. Inno planted her feet into the ground and her rings briefly flashed purple as she opened her mouth to spew out purple sludge at her opponent.
Krokorok didn't slow down or even try to dodge the spray of Toxic, which meant that it was completely drenched in the poisonous liquid. Not used to her opponents completely disregarding her moves, Inno didn't move fast enough and Krokorok rammed into her at full speed. While it looked like a normal Take Down to the naked eye, through the Aura Reader, Eleanor could see the massive explosion of dark grey smoke where Krokorok hit Inno.
Inno was once again sent flying backward, but this time Eleanor forced herself not to watch and instead grabbed Patty's Pokeball. With a swift toss, Eleanor sent out her Sneasel behind Krokorok and called, "Icy Wind to slow it!" The Shadow had been moving to press the attack on Inno, but turned around when Patty blasted it in the back with a small gale of cold wind. Satisfied that Patty would be able to distract their primary opponent, Eleanor finally checked on Inno and found that she was struggling to get back to her feet. "Stay back and use Moonlight to heal up," Eleanor soothingly said and Inno weakly nodded. The move wouldn't do much since it was the middle of the day, but it would be better than nothing.
Back on the field, Krokorok continued chasing Patty around with single-minded fury, but Patty was able to stay ahead of it between her natural speed and the miniscule amount that Krokorok had slowed down. Patty took full advantage of her speed by pausing just long enough to allow Krokorok to keep pace but not catch up, making sure that she kept its attention. At the same time, Shell flitted above the field, firing Magical Leaf attacks down at Crustle. Eleanor's fear of being focused by the other Pokemon hadn't occurred since Crustle had switched from physical attacks to firing dark purple spikes up at Shell.
"You need to catch Krokorok." Michael abruptly and firmly said. "With its current state and orders, it'll drop dead before anything else happens." If anyone had told Eleanor before that moment that a trained Pokemon would follow orders to its own death, she wouldn't have believed them. However, the complete lack of self-preservation that she'd seen from Krokorok had completely shaken that belief.
Eleanor gave Michael a tight nod in reply and retrieved one of her new Ultraballs from her bag, clutching it in her left hand. With how damaged Krokorok had to be, she knew that a lesser ball would probably do the job, but she also didn't want to risk it. She carefully watched Krokorok, waiting for the perfect time to throw, barely noticing out of the corner of her eye that Michael was preparing a Greatball as well.
"They're going to use their Snag Machines again!" The grunt who had been helplessly watching the battle warned with a panicked tone, but his fellows didn't seem to know what to do about it.
There had been an odd buzzing feeling in Eleanor's hand while she'd been holding the Ultraball, and when it abruptly stopped, she decided that meant it was ready to be used as a Snagball. Given the ball's power and Michael's warning, Eleanor didn't waste any time and threw it at Krokorok, with Michael tossing his own Snagball a second later at Crustle. The grunts hastily tried to tell their Shadows to dodge, but the Snagballs easily adjusted their course and hit their targets dead on. Krokorok and Crustle disappeared in twin flashes of light, and as had happened with Rufflet, the balls flew back to Eleanor and Michael's hands after a moment.
Eleanor stared at the Ultraball in her hand, unable to believe that she'd actually snagged a Pokemon from another trainer. Michael clearly didn't share any of her shock and immediately barked, "Surrender!" The three Plasma grunts nervously looked at Eleanor and Michael's remaining Pokemon, then each other, before slowly raising their hands.
With Michael dealing with the Plasma members, Eleanor turned to check on their charges and was surprised to find that they had managed to put out all of the fires. She also saw that Hugh was already stomping toward Eleanor and Michael with Dewott at his side. Rosa tried to stop him by putting an arm on his shoulder, but pulled back when the boy shrugged her off. Wearing the most intense scowl that Eleanor had ever seen, Hugh roared, "Where's my sister's Pokemon?!"
Not knowing what that was about, Eleanor looked back at Rosa for help, but her mentee simply had a sad frown on her face as she slowly followed Hugh with Honor at her side. A glance back at the grunts revealed that they were just as confused by Hugh's question as Eleanor was, so she decided it would be best to leave Michael to deal with it.
"Are you alright?" Eleanor quietly asked Rosa when she got close enough.
"I'm fine, but that was awful to watch," Rosa answered with a shudder.
Eleanor only nodded in agreement as she knelt down to check on how Inno was doing. The Umbreon had managed to heal herself enough that she no longer looked too battered, but Eleanor still recalled her after telling her good job so that she could get some rest. When Eleanor stood back up, she saw that Hugh had quieted down and was roughly helping Michael handcuff the Plasma grunts while Devo and Shell watched from above. Michael having handcuffs on-hand made a horrible amount of sense so Eleanor moved past that and asked Rosa, "What was that with Hugh?"
Rosa winced again and gave Hugh a pained look. "I'll explain later."
Even if Eleanor had wanted to press the issue, she didn't get the chance since Michael called over to her. "We should get these guys back to Floccesy!"
Before Eleanor could agree, she noticed two people emerge from a run-down building behind Michael and Hugh. She was about to call a warning, but she got a better look and realized that they were the old couple that the gazetteer had mentioned. With a gesture to Rosa, Eleanor and her charge started toward them, getting into earshot as they finished thanking Michael. The elderly woman turned to Eleanor as she approached and thanked her as well.
"It was no problem," Michael told the couple with a self-assured nod. "Would you mind if we came back after dropping these three off?"
"Of course. You're welcome any time," the elderly man replied with a warm smile.
"Thank you. Now let's get going," Michael said while gesturing to the ranch's southern gate. The Plasma grunts hesitated for a moment before reluctantly following Michael's directions.
Rather than follow them, Eleanor held back. "I'm glad you're both safe," she told the couple with a bow, and this time the gesture was completely intentional. Eleanor couldn't help but smile when Rosa mirrored her a moment later.
The woman started to say something, but was cut off by a loud caw from Devo. When Eleanor looked up at her starter, she saw him hovering in the air, seemingly torn between guarding her and keeping an eye on the grunts. The woman smiled and said, "You'd better get going dearie. Thank you again for helping us."
With a final goodbye to the elderly couple, Eleanor and Rosa jogged to catch up with the rest of the group with all three of Eleanor's remaining Pokemon following them. The large group started heading south to escort the captured grunts through route twenty and to Floccesy Town. Patty led the way to make sure that they wouldn't run into anything unexpected while the grunts were at the front of the main group. Michael, Hugh, and Dewott walked behind the grunts, keeping a close eye on them. Eleanor and Rosa walked behind the boys, with Rosa carrying Silk just in case he was needed to wrap someone up. Finally, Honor brought up the rear while Devo and Shell watched from above.
The path to Floccesy was much smoother than it had been for Eleanor and Rosa on their way over, with the exception of the small ledges that they had to help the handcuffed grunts get down. Ultimately, it took them about a half hour to reach the town, though with Eleanor's unease, it felt much longer than that. It turned out that they didn't even need to enter the town since when they arrived at the eastern gate, there was a tall older man with Pokeballs around his neck waiting outside along with an Officer Jenny.
"Good work. I'll handle these three from here." Jenny curtly told the group. Without waiting for a response, Jenny gestured for the grunts to walk through the gate and they reluctantly complied. Jenny and a Herdier that Eleanor assumed was hers followed the group through the gate.
"What's going to happen to them?" Rosa wondered aloud as the rest of them watched the Plasma grunts go through the other side of the gate and out of sight.
Michael ran a hand through his spiky hair with a frown. "If this place is anything like Orre, they'll be back free in a week or two."
"What?!" Rosa loudly exclaimed, spinning to stare incredulously at Michael. Eleanor held back her own outburst, as surprised as her mentee was.
The man who had met them at the gate closed his eyes and pinched his nose. "I hate to admit it, but your friend might not be wrong. Floccesy Town doesn't have anywhere to keep them long-term so the league will either have to arrange transportation to a different city or just let them go. Even if they are brought somewhere else, jailbreaks have happened before." The man let out a weary sigh.
Hugh's expression had only slightly relaxed since they'd left the ranch, but now his scowl returned in full force. "So it doesn't even matter."
The man emphatically shook his head. "You all did a great deed in helping the Smiths. Even though you weren't supposed to." When it looked like Michael was about to protest, the man raised a hand to forestall him. "Now, I won't get on your case about that. After all, now more than ever is the time for young people to do what they think is right. Not listening to old retirees like me."
Eleanor had been fairly sure she knew who they were talking to, but that last statement sealed the deal in her mind. Even as Champion, Alder had been fairly reclusive so she hadn't seen nearly as many videos featuring him as she had other notable trainers. Doing her best not to be nervous in the face of a former league Champion, Eleanor finally spoke up. "Thank you sir. Would you mind showing us where the Pokemon Center is?"
"Ah, of course. And nevermind the sir," Alder said with a friendly, yet dismissive, wave. With that, he walked into the gate and gestured to the others to follow him. Figuring that they were safe in the presence of a former Champion, Eleanor returned the rest of her Pokemon and the other three followed suit before following Alder.
As they walked through town on the way to the Center, Eleanor couldn't help but notice that while it wasn't in nearly as bad of shape as Mistralton had been, it was worse off than Aspertia had been. However, given what she'd read in the Gazetteer, she knew better than to comment on it and thankfully everyone else had the same tact. When they reached the familiar red building, Alder paused outside of the door. "Now, I believe that I have some work to do, but you should all get some rest. And while I know I said that I wouldn't bother you about intervening, you'll probably hear from the league sooner or later about it."
Eleanor winced at that but joined the rest of the group in thanking Alder. The former Champion nodded at them and turned around, giving them a final wave over his shoulder as he walked down the street. Without waiting another second, Michael led the group into the Pokemon Center and marched up to the front desk. He placed eight Pokeballs of various types on the counter looking the startled nurse in the eye. "All of these Pokemon need healing, but these two," he paused while pointing to the Pokeball and Greatball on the end, "are Shadow Pokemon, so they might have hurt themselves more than you're used to."
Joy paled at that and worriedly said, "We've never treated Shadow Pokemon before."
While Eleanor unclipped her own Pokeballs apart from Devo's, Michael reassured the nurse. "It's not any different than treating regular Pokemon. I just wanted to let you know because they might be particularly badly hurt."
When the nurse weakly smiled, Eleanor likewise pointed to the Ultraball that held Krokorok. "This one is also a Shadow Pokemon. It was completely drenched in Toxic." Joy nodded with sudden seriousness and loaded all of the Pokeballs onto two trays, writing down quick notes next to the three Pokeballs that were pointed out. She then turned around to place the trays in a window behind her where someone in the back room picked them up. When the nurse turned back around, she looked a bit more put-together as she asked, "Were you all planning on staying the night?"
"Yes," Eleanor quickly answered, not willing to give Michael the chance to say no. While he was apparently fine camping outside even when not necessary, Eleanor was not willing to give up the opportunity for a safe and comfortable sleep. With a light smile, the nurse handed each of them a room key and let them know that dinner started at five. After a chorus of thank yous, the group wordlessly moved to an empty section of the Center's lobby and sat down in the comfortable chairs.
They sat there silently for several long contemplative seconds before Rosa asked, "What do we do now?"
While Eleanor was lost in her own thoughts, Michael simply shrugged. "We go back to normal. I'm not sure about you two, but Hugh and I are going to go back to the ranch tomorrow. It might actually be a good idea for you to come with us so I can give Eleanor some tips on taking care of a Shadow Pokemon."
Eleanor had only been half-listening, but abruptly sat up in her seat at that. "Sorry, what? I was going to give it to you." The only reason that Eleanor hadn't handed over Krokorok's Ultraball on the trip to Floccesy was because she hadn't wanted to distract from escorting the Plasma grunts. "I don't know anything about how to handle a Shadow Pokemon."
"I didn't know anything about them when I started, so you'll be in a better spot than I was," Michael pointed out. "Besides, if I remember correctly, Krokorok is a dark type."
"It is…" Eleanor reluctantly confirmed. She'd considered catching one of the Pokemon in the Sandile family while she was in Unova, but hadn't expected that it would happen in the first week. And she definitely hadn't expected it to be a Shadow.
"It won't be as bad as you think. Just come with us to the ranch and you'll see," Michael assured. When Eleanor reluctantly agreed, Michael smiled and turned to Rosa. "There's a Pokemon that can be found at the ranch that I thought would be a good fit for Hugh, which is why we were there in the first place. Maybe we'll find one there for you too."
Rosa returned Michael's smile. "That sounds gr-" Before she could finish, Rosa was cut off by a loud buzzing from Eleanor's Xtransciever.
Eleanor looked down at the device on her wrist and paled slightly when she saw that it was Skyla calling. She glanced back at the others as she stood up. "I'd better take this." She stood up and stepped a few yards away from where they'd been sitting. After a deep breath, she pressed the screen to answer and the picture was immediately replaced by a worried-looking Skyla.
"Are you okay? Was anyone hurt?" Skyla blurted out before Eleanor could say anything.
"We're fine," Eleanor quickly told the gym leader. "Michael's Pokemon were all hurt in the fight, but everyone's alright now."
Skyla's expression relaxed, but a frown replaced worry a moment later. "The league almost expected this from Michael and Hugh, but not you two."
While Skyla's tone thankfully wasn't accusatory, Eleanor still felt like she needed to defend herself and Rosa. "We didn't want to fight them. Michael called and said they were fighting Team Plasma and we couldn't leave them by themselves." Despite her valid excuse, Eleanor couldn't help but feel bad about letting Skyla down.
Skyla sighed softly, but her frown faded. "I'm not going to ask you not to help people that need it. Just please don't go looking for trouble."
"We won't," Eleanor promised. She glanced back over to the others to find that Rosa and Hugh were sitting by themselves. Michael had likewise stepped away and Eleanor guessed he was having a very similar conversation.
"So how is traveling with Rosa going?" Skyla asked in a much more cheerful tone, bringing Eleanor's attention back to the conversation.
Glad for the topic change, Eleanor smiled. "It's been good. She beat Cheren a few days ago now and she caught her second Pokemon the day after that." She hesitated for a second before adding, "It looks like she wants to be a grass specialist."
Skyla laughed softly at that. "It seems like you've already influenced her. But you've also got your work cut out for you then."
Eleanor gave Skyla a wry smile. "Looks like it." Out of grass type's five weaknesses, three of them were represented by the Unovan gym leaders, with one of them being the very trainer Eleanor was talking to.
"Well, I bet you want to get some rest after today's excitement so I'll let you go. Tell Rosa I'm looking forward to both of your challenges. Stay safe." Skyla said warmly.
"Thanks, you too," Eleanor said before Skyla ended the call. As Eleanor turned to return to the rest of the group, she realized that she had forgotten to ask Skyla about the Cipher attack on Mistralton she'd heard about back in Aspertia. Since Skyla had seemed fine on the call, Eleanor decided that the attack must not have been too bad.
Michael's call must have been particularly short since he was already back in his seat when Eleanor returned to hers. "How'd yours go?" He asked with a twinged smile.
"It was alright. Skyla was really understanding when I told her that we'd been helping you guys out." Eleanor lightly nudged Rosa next to her and added, "She also said she was looking forward to battling you."
Rosa's eyes went wide with excitement at the same time Michael snorted. Rosa looked slightly offended for a second before Michael quickly clarified. "Sorry, not you. It sounds like Eleanor got a social call while I just got a dressing down from Cheren. He was not happy about us fighting Plasma like that."
Hugh had been sulking ever since they'd sat down, but his head shot up at that. "What?! We're not going to stop going after Plasma and Cipher, right?"
"Nah, of course not." Michael lightly assured him, making Eleanor seriously wonder who had decided it would be a good idea to pair them together. Then again, she wasn't sure that she would have been able to handle Hugh's intensity, so it was probably for the best.
The four trainers spent most of the rest of the day relaxing in the Pokemon Center lobby, staying there to eat dinner together. When the nurses had finished taking care of the injured Pokemon, they kindly offered to feed the rest of their Pokemon as well. Michael ended up going with them, saying that he wanted to make sure that the Shadow Pokemon ate. Eleanor wasn't sure what that meant, but when she offered to join them, Michael told her to just relax and that he would give her the rundown at the ranch.
Left alone with Rosa and Hugh, Eleanor briefly considered asking Hugh about what he had shouted at the Team Plasma members, but she wasn't sure how to broach the clearly sensitive topic. She ended up getting her chance several hours later when Michael said that he was going to head to his room to get an early start and Hugh followed his mentor's lead.
"Goodnight," Eleanor told the pair as they left, hoping that they would be fine heading to the ranch without Rosa and herself. An early start was absolutely not something that she was interested in. Once Eleanor was sure that no one else was in hearing range, she quietly asked Rosa, "What was that with Hugh and the Plasma members?"
Rosa's previously content expression dropped to a sad frown. "A couple years ago, Hugh and his sister were out on route nineteen with the Purrloin their grandpa caught for them. I'm not sure why they were there, but a couple Plasma members heard them and stole Purrloin. I guess they said they were 'liberating' her. Hugh blamed himself both for deciding to go out onto the route and for not being strong enough to fight them off."
Eleanor couldn't even imagine what she would have done if Team Galactic had stolen one of her Pokemon or Duchess, and she shuddered sympathetically at the thought. "So he's been looking for Purrloin ever since?" While she could understand the idea, she wasn't sure about Hugh's approach. "Did he really expect those three to know anything about it though?"
Rosa slowly shook her head. "I think he probably knew that they wouldn't know anything, but he's so desperate for a lead. He's only gotten worse over the last few months."
The pair fell silent as Eleanor dwelled on the new information and she suspected Rosa was doing the same. After a few minutes, Eleanor finally broke the silence with a sigh. "Well, we better head to bed too. It sounds like we've got a big day tomorrow."
"Yeah," Rosa replied without any of her usual cheer. The two of them headed to their respective rooms, pausing only to give each other a final goodnight before entering.
After getting ready for bed, Eleanor lay awake thinking about the day's events. Even without thinking about Hugh's past, she was kept awake thinking about all the ways that their battle against Plasma could have gone badly. If Michael's Pokemon had just taken a bit more damage before she had arrived, she was sure that she wouldn't have been able to fight them off by herself given her complete lack of experience with anything except single battles.
The more she thought about it, the more Eleanor realized that the gap in her knowledge was inexcusable. Almost all dark Pokemon traveled in packs out in the wild, so it was absurd that a dark specialist didn't know how to command more than one Pokemon at a time. It was something that her Pokemon were naturally inclined to so there was no excuse for her not to be proficient in it as well.
As Eleanor finally drifted off to sleep, she decided that while Rosa was working on her burgeoning skills as a trainer, she needed to start doing the same.
A/N: Thanks to Star (quarknova on this site) for betaing. Next up is Chapter 7: Gray Area