Rosa: Ivy (Servine), Silk (Sewaddle)

Eleanor: Devo (Honchkrow), Inno (Umbreon), Honor (Drapion), Patty (Sneasel), Krokorok

Eleanor had spent Rosa's entire gym battle leaning against a wall, wishing that she could give Rosa the pointers that would have let her win the match. Her loss had been unfortunately expected, though Eleanor appreciated that Roxie had made an extra effort to cheer her opponent up afterward. When the lights went out, Eleanor hesitated for a second before fumbling in the dark for Inno's Pokeball, hoping that the shriek she'd heard from Rosa had simply been her mentee being surprised by the sudden blackout. Before she got the chance to send her Pokemon out, the gym lit back up, courtesy of the glowing petals on Roxie's Venusaur's back.

"Are you both alright?" The gym leader asked, quickly looking from Rosa to Eleanor.

"I'm fine," Eleanor answered, stepping away from the wall to check on Rosa. Thankfully, Rosa echoed her a second later, though she sounded a little spooked. As Eleanor reached Rosa's side, the gym's floodlights flickered on and Venusaur dimmed the light that it was putting out.

"What was that noise?" Rosa asked while looking around the room as if the answer would suddenly appear in front of them.

Eleanor didn't have the slightest idea what could have caused it, but before anyone could hazard a guess, Roxie's Xtransciever rang. The gym leader tapped the device to answer and the otherwise silent room was filled with sounds on the other end of the call. There was a significant amount of static coming through and the speaker was clearly struggling to be heard over the sounds of battle in the background. "Cipher is attacking the docks! Ice is — with a massive Pokemon that I've ne— I think it's Th—" The call ended abruptly and all that came through the Xtransceiver's speakers was a flat tone.

"Billy? Billy! Shit! I'm on my way!" Roxie barked into the device before giving up on any further communication. Without even looking at the other two trainers, Roxie rushed into the room that she'd emerged from earlier. There were the sounds of her rustling through things for a bit before she shouted back at them, "You two need to get out of town!"

"We want to help!" Rosa protested and Eleanor hesitantly agreed. There was a big difference in safety between fighting off a few grunts and repelling a major attack, but she didn't want to run away and abandon the city either.

Roxie emerged from the room a few seconds later, still in the process of strapping a Snag Machine onto her left arm. She halted mid-stride and stared directly at Rosa for a long second. "Fine. You can help. But stay behind me, and if I tell you to leave, you leave. Got it?" When Rosa gave her a determined nod, Roxie returned it. The gym leader then promptly returned Venusaur and started heading for the staircase out of the gym.

Rosa was barely a step behind Roxie so Eleanor hurried to catch up and softly ask, "Are you sure? None of your Pokemon can fight after that gym battle." Eleanor normally wouldn't be so direct about it, but it wasn't exactly the time to be worried about hurting Rosa's feelings.

"I can still help!" Rosa insisted. "Hugh and I didn't fight back at the ranch and we still helped there!" Eleanor had to concede the point and fell silent as she followed the other two up the stairs.

When they stepped outside, Eleanor saw that it had grown significantly darker out due to the black clouds that were covering the city. Roxie didn't even hesitate at the sight and immediately started heading south. After only a few steps, she called back to Eleanor, "You've used a Snag Machine before, right? Got any tips for me?"

Eleanor knew she was far from an expert on the topic but did her best to answer anyway. "It needs to charge for a few seconds on a Pokeball and then there's a feeling when it's ready." While Roxie nodded seriously despite the lackluster response, Eleanor wished that the actual expert was with them. Coming to a sudden realization as a result of that thought, she swore. "Shit! I bet Michael is already there."

That comment got Roxie's full attention and her head whipped around to give Eleanor a sharp look. "Call him and make sure he isn't over his head."

Having had the same thought, Eleanor was already using her Xtransciever to call Michael. As the device rang, she got increasingly nervous until the call connected after a few seconds. Eleanor immediately sighed in relief when she saw the blue sky above Michael, making it clear he and Hugh weren't in Virbank. "Hey, what's up?" he asked casually.

"Cipher is attacking Virbank and we wanted to make sure that you two weren't still here," Eleanor rushed to explain.

Michael's easy expression shifted to a scowl. "I wish I was there then, but we're on the ferry to Castelia." He paused for a second, clearly frustrated at the news, and then his expression softened slightly. "You two be careful. I haven't seen much about this new Cipher yet, but the old one was incredibly dangerous. I'm sure they haven't gotten to be less of a threat since then."

"We will," Eleanor promised and then hung up. As much as she wasn't thrilled by the idea of continuing to head into danger, standing around on the phone wouldn't accomplish anything. Roxie had returned her full attention to the situation at hand after hearing that Michael and Hugh were out of the picture and had sped back up. When Eleanor looked up from her Xtransciever, she was just in time to see Roxie turn a corner and go out of sight. Without the direct protection of a gym leader at their side, Eleanor was even less sure about charging into a combat zone and slowed down again. "We're going to have to be careful about this. No rushing in," Eleanor told Rosa as she sent out Honor.

"Right!" Rosa replied with a serious nod and they resumed heading toward the docks. Despite her words, Eleanor found that it was hard not to go back to their previous quick pace. Finding out what was ahead of them was simultaneously the last thing she wanted to do and also all she could think about.

They had barely gone another block before there was another loud boom from ahead at the same time that the entire sky lit up for a second. The previous noise had been plenty loud and that had been when they were in the basement of a building. Out in the day, the deafening noise made Eleanor and Rosa stop in their tracks, and this time Eleanor joined her mentee in loudly crying out in surprise. When the two had recovered their nerves, they shakily looked at each other before cautiously continuing to head toward the port. Eleanor was internally screaming at herself for not running away, but for some reason, she couldn't help but continue forward.

When they finally reached the last corner that would allow them to see the docks, both trainers carefully crept to the side of the building and peered around it to see the carnage. Roxie and several other trainers stood amidst rubble, facing off against a group of people wearing the white armor of Team Cipher. Eleanor's aura reader whirred to life, confirming that all of the Cipher members were using Shadow Pokemon. Standing behind the battling Plasma members was another man wearing Cipher armor who was holding a megaphone and had a large Shadow Beartic next to him. Unlike the others, his armor was blue and he wasn't wearing a helmet, revealing a man with blue hair who looked to be a couple of years older than Eleanor. There were a few more Cipher members busy with loading boxes of various sizes onto the only ship in the harbor that wasn't aflame.

However, all of those things fell away from Eleanor's attention when movement above the port caught her attention. Slowly descending from the dark gray clouds was a large Pokemon with a humanoid body, though its body was dark purple and there was a large black cloud where its legs should have been. Large bursts of electricity sparked across the cloud and along the length of the long spike-covered tail that came out of the cloud. It seemed completely unconcerned with the battle beneath it as it silently floated in place with its arms crossed across its chest. Concerningly, the Aura Reader in front of Eleanor's left eye showed a completely black haze around the Pokemon instead of the usual purple.

"Thundurus," Rosa whispered so quietly that Eleanor could barely hear her over the sounds of battle ahead of them.

Eleanor managed to tear her gaze away from the scene ahead of them to look at Rosa. "You know what that Pokemon is?" The name sounded familiar, but given the situation, Eleanor wasn't surprised that she couldn't remember all of the Pokemon she'd memorized before coming to Unova.

"It's the legendary Pokemon Thundurus," Rosa tonelessly answered, sounding completely shell-shocked. A bit of confusion then entered her voice as she slowly added, "It looks different from the pictures I've seen though."

Eleanor's eyes snapped back to the harbor, but she couldn't bring herself to move a single inch, completely frozen in place by the idea of facing a legendary Pokemon. In contrast to her own fear, Roxie and her fellow trainers seemed to be holding their own against Cipher, giving Eleanor a tiny bit of hope. That hope was quickly dashed when the man in blue raised his megaphone to his mouth and in an almost bored tone called, "I'm done playing with these noobs. Smoke their Pokemon XD003."

Thundurus, or XD003 as it was called now, uncrossed its arms and raised them to the clouds above it. Almost instantly, a swarm of black bolts of electricity shot out of the sky, hitting all of the non-Cipher Pokemon. Eleanor and Rosa had gasped when the Cipher leader had said Thundurus' new name, but that shock was nothing compared to what they felt when they watched five Pokemon fall to the ground, knocked out by a single attack.

Somehow Roxie was able to keep her cool, returning her Venusaur immediately and sending out a Scolipede and a Crobat. When XD003 tried to hit the new arrivals with new bolts of black lightning, both Pokemon darted out of the way with Scolipede charging the Shadow Pokemon on the ground and Crobat heading directly for XD003. One of the trainers at Roxie's side barely took the time to return his knocked-out Pokemon before fleeing, but the rest of them managed to hold their ground and send out new Pokemon to continue the fight.

The battle had barely been rejoined when Eleanor felt a slight tug on her bag. Thinking that they had been caught, her heart felt like it had stopped until she whipped her head around to find Honor staring at her with a concerned look on his face. Eleanor took a shaky breath before nodding at him and lightly shaking Rosa's shoulder. "We have to go. There's nothing we can do against that."

Thankfully, Rosa didn't protest and numbly allowed Eleanor to pull her back, out of sight of the port and the battle. The two of them began to run north, slowly at first, and then increasing speed as they started working off their shock and fear began to take control. "What… do we… do?" Rosa fearfully asked as they ran, her wide eyes constantly shifting between Eleanor and the road in front of them.

Eleanor was barely able to keep her own panic in, but she tried to get a hold of herself for Rosa's sake. She swallowed down the bile that was threatening to come up, then answered, "We have to get out of Virbank right now. If Cipher has a legendary Pokemon, there's no telling what they're going to do."

Rosa nodded, and Eleanor's mind raced as she thought of where they could go. The only ways out of Virbank were route twenty and the docks, with the latter obviously being out of the question. Eleanor opened her mouth to say that they were going to head back to Floccesy but snapped it back shut when she realized that might not be safe either. With a Shadow legendary Pokemon on their side, it was possible, or even likely, that Cipher didn't have their ambitions limited to a single town. Floccesy might be safe with a former Champion like Alder personally watching over it, but there was no guarantee that they wouldn't be overtaken by Cipher on the road there. Another boom of thunder from behind them made both trainers jump mid-step and reminded Eleanor that she had to make a decision immediately. With south, west, and east out of the question, the only path remaining to them was north.

"We need to go to Driftveil," Eleanor gasped out, hating the words even as they left her mouth.

Rosa's eyes somehow got even wider. "We're going off-route again?"

With a pained grimace, Eleanor said, "And it won't be a quick stint like last time. It might take us a while to get to Driftveil, but it's still our best option." Rosa shakily nodded and Eleanor felt awful that she was making them take this route. It had barely been an hour since Rosa had been excited about her second gym battle, and now they were going to travel through uncharted and dangerous wilderness.

With a clear direction in mind, they started heading due north through Virbank instead of the earlier panic-driven flight from the harbor. The streets were deathly quiet which further unnerved Eleanor since at the very least she would have expected sirens. She hoped that the city's populace had some other way to alert them to the danger and that they were safe either way.

Rosa must have been thinking along the same lines since she suddenly gasped and slowed. "What about everyone at Pokestar? Will they be alright?"

Answering with confidence that she didn't feel, Eleanor said, "They don't have any Pokemon, remember? Cipher will leave them alone." Rosa reluctantly agreed and they resumed their previous pace until they finally reached the northern edge of Virbank.

While most towns and cities had nothing except a small fence to separate humans and wilderness, Eleanor was dismayed to find a several stories tall graffiti-covered cement wall. They hadn't been able to see the structure from a distance because of the buildings in front of it, and it was too sheer for Honor to be able to get over with Rock Climb. With their only options to break through it or go over it, Eleanor sent out Devo, wishing that she had previously had the idea to give Rosa flying lessons.

Doing her best to try not to further fray Rosa's nerves, Eleanor helped her mentee onto Devo's back. Once she was sure that Rosa was completely situated, Eleanor returned Honor and firmly placed his Pokeball into one of Rosa's hands. "Honor will keep you safe while Devo comes back for me. If anything happens when you get to the other side, just shout and I'll have Krokorok knock it down." When Rosa gave a shaky nod, Eleanor patted her on the back. "Alright Devo, you're good to go." The Honchkrow started flapping his wings and Eleanor held her ground against the buffeting wind so that she would be in a position to catch Rosa if she fell off. Thankfully that didn't happen, and the pair crested the wall a few seconds later.

While Eleanor waited for Devo to come back for her, she turned around to make sure that no one had followed them. Thankfully, the streets looked just as empty as they had been a minute prior. A sudden, loud ringing noise almost made Eleanor's heart stop again, only to calm down when she realized that the noise was her Xtransciever. She was unsurprised to see Skyla's name on the device but took the time to quickly look down the street again before answering the call.

For a moment the gym leader looked even more concerned than she had the last time that they had talked, though she relaxed slightly as soon as she saw that the call had connected. Speaking quickly, Eleanor preempted any Skyla, saying, "We're fine and are getting out of Virbank right now."

"That's good," Skyla said with clear relief as Devo landed at Eleanor's side with a loud flap of his wings.

"Give me a minute," Eleanor said, already moving to get on Devo's back. "I need to get over this wall and catch up with Rosa."

"Okay," Skyla replied automatically, then paused. "Wait, what wall?"

"The wall on the north end of Virbank," Eleanor quickly answered before moving both of her hands to hold onto Devo's side, making it so that she temporarily couldn't see or easily hear Skyla. When Devo flew over the wall a few moments later, Eleanor was relieved to see Rosa standing next to the wall with Honor at her side. From Rosa's expression, she shared the feeling.

Eleanor hopped off of Devo's back before he had even touched the ground and looked back at her Xtransciever. The moment that she could see Skyla's face again, the gym leader asked, "Why are you leaving to the north?"

Before Eleanor could explain her reasoning, Rosa spoke up in a shaky tone. "Cipher has a Shadow Thundurus."

All of the color drained from Skyla's face. "I'd been alerted about an attack but I haven't been able to get any details from Roxie or anyone else. Please, tell me everything."

To spare Rosa, Eleanor answered more quickly this time. "We were at the gym when the lights suddenly went out. Roxie got a call about Cipher at the docks so we went with her to find out what was going on."

Eleanor paused in her explanation, half expecting Skyla to chastise her for looking for trouble, but the gym leader just nodded for her to continue. "And what was there?"

"Roxie went ahead of us so she was already fighting when we got there. She and the others looked like they were holding their own until one of the Cipher members told Thundurus to join the fight. They were still fighting when we ran away." Eleanor finished, unable to keep the shame out of her voice. Logically, she knew that there was nothing that they could have done, but running away made her feel awful.

Once again, Skyla didn't comment and instead pressed, "The Cipher member who commanded Thundurus. What did he look like?"

"His uniform was blue, like his hair, and he had a Shadow Beartic." Eleanor furrowed her brows, trying to think of anything else that could possibly be useful. After another second of hesitation, she added, "He called Roxie and the other trainers 'noobs'."

Skyla's frown deepened. "That sounds like it could be Ice. That would confirm the rumors that the Sinis Trio joined Cipher."

Eleanor thought that the name sounded familiar but had to think for a moment before she could place it. "You mean the people that wrecked Almia?"

"Yes. We've had reported sightings of Lavana and Heath in mid-Unova but no one had seen Ice yet. Looks like this officially confirms it." Skyla made a pained sigh and turned her eyes down away from the camera. Eleanor got the impression that the gym leader felt almost as helpless as she did, which was far from a good feeling. Looking back up, Skyla asked, "Is there anything else you can think of?"

"He called Thundurus XD003," Rosa answered, even quieter than before.

Eleanor looked at Rosa for a second before she made the connection. All of the panic that she'd felt inside Virbank came back to her in a second and her eyes darted back to the Xtransceiver's screen. "Do you know what XD002 is?"

Horribly, Skyla looked just as shocked at the news, answering Eleanor's question for her. Skyla answered verbally anyway, "No. I need to report this to the league right away. I'll let Clay know that you're on your way. Please stay safe."

Eleanor barely had a chance to thank Skyla before the call ended. She and Rosa shared a worried look, but before they could relax for a moment, there was another distant crack of lightning. No longer having the emotional capacity to really react to it, Eleanor just sighed wearily. "We should really keep moving." She took a second to return Devo and send out Krokorok, then made an effort to make her tone less neutral and more kind. "I think we can take it a bit slower though."

Rosa nodded but didn't move from where she stood. Instead, she looked around the woods nervously. "Are we really going to be okay out here?"

"We'll be fine. To be honest, I'm much more comfortable going against wild Pokemon than Cipher. Even if they're wilderness Pokemon." Eleanor slowly started moving north again, and Rosa began following a half-step later.

The two walked in silence for a few minutes, trying their best to ignore both the sounds in the forest around them and the occasional crack of thunder from behind. Eventually, Rosa broke the silence and asked, "Have you traveled in the wilderness before, then?"

Glad for the distraction, Eleanor nodded. "Yeah, back home when I was on my journey, I was trying to get up to Snowpoint to challenge the gym. I didn't want to wander around the caves of Mt Coronet and Devo hadn't evolved yet, so he couldn't carry me. I ended up cutting right across from my hometown up to Snowpoint. Honestly, the terrain was a lot rougher than the Pokemon that I came across. They were a bit more aggressive than normal Pokemon, but going through snowy mountains was way more difficult than being on a route."

Rosa's eyes went wide and Eleanor was glad, though slightly embarrassed, to see that it was in amazement instead of fear or shock. "Did you make it?"

"Yeah, I ended up making it all the way up to the route on the other side of the mountains. That's actually where I caught Patty. But after that, I'd had enough of the cold so I called my dad and asked him to pick me up." She paused in the story to smile ruefully. "The ride back to Eterna on his Skarmory was not a fun one. He was not happy with me."

"Did you ever go back?" Rosa asked with a light smile.

With a shake of her head, Eleanor said, "No, I never got around to challenging Candice for my seventh badge. I think I could have gotten it and maybe my eighth too, but I just never went after either."

"Why's that?"

"I knew that there was no way that I'd be able to beat the Elite Four, let alone the champions. Cynthia and Dawn have both faced several legendary Pokemon, and I couldn't stand against that," Eleanor said, the words leaving her mouth before she could think better of it.

The interest on Rosa's face vanished in an instant and was replaced with the same sadness from before. "But that's what we need to do now."

"Yeah. I guess so," Eleanor said with a sad shake of her head. With the conversation succinctly killed, the two trudged on in silence for a while longer. After what had been about ten minutes by her estimation, Eleanor glanced around them and then wearily sighed. "I think we've gone far enough for now. Why don't we take a break and get Ivy and Silk taken care of."

Rosa nodded gratefully and sent out both of her Pokemon, who materialized laying flat on the ground. Eleanor was unsurprised to see that they were still knocked out, though Rosa's discouraged expression deepened. "They'll be completely fine in just a minute," Eleanor promised as she retrieved some of the items that she'd purchased back in Aspertia and knelt next to Rosa's Pokemon. Rosa followed her lead, and Eleanor handed her a Revive. "Have you ever used one of these before? Or a Potion?"

Rosa mutely shook her head and Eleanor desperately wished that she had something to say that would cheer up her mentee. With nothing except the matter at hand, she pressed on. "The Revives will make them conscious again and then we can use Potions to take care of their wounds." Making sure that she wasn't blocking Rosa's sightline, Eleanor leaned over Silk and snapped the Revive in half right above his face. There was no immediate reaction but Eleanor held the pieces in place and after a few seconds the Sewaddle began to stir. Dropping the Revive pieces to the ground, she picked up one of the Potions and began spraying Silk in the spots where small purple needles were still sticking out of his hood. "Revives are like smelling-salts for Pokemon and get them back on their feet in no time."

While Eleanor continued to treat Silk, Rosa rushed to do the same to Ivy. Both Pokemon soon staggered to their feet and Rosa closed her eyes in relief for a moment before snapping them back open. "I'm so sorry! I completely messed up that fight and you were the ones that got hurt and-" Rosa's frantic apology trailed off as Ivy wrapped her vines around her trainer in a hug while Silk crawled onto Rosa's leg so that he could settle in her lap.

Eleanor let the three of them be, taking the opportunity to make sure that Honor and Krokorok were fine. It was mostly an act to give Rosa some privacy since she knew that Honor would have no issues traveling much further than they had and there would be no way for her to tell even if Krokorok was tired. After a few minutes, she turned back to Rosa and reluctantly said, "I think we should keep going." Rosa silently nodded, though Eleanor was relieved to see that she looked at least a bit better than she had before the stop. Ivy seemed to still need plenty of rest, so Rosa returned her and left Silk out of his Pokeball, carrying the smaller Pokemon while they walked.

After traveling through the wilderness for several more hours, Eleanor decided to call it and stop for the day. It was only early afternoon, but she decided that they all needed their rest. Without any of her usual gusto, Rosa silently helped Eleanor set up camp. Despite wracking her brain, Eleanor still couldn't think of anything to say that might make her feel better.

When that task was done, Eleanor sent out the rest of her Pokemon. "I'm going to need you all to keep a closer lookout than usual. I don't think anyone from Cipher knows we're out here, but I don't think the Pokemon out here are going to be happy about us being here." She smiled when Devo gave her an affronted look at the implication that he could be any more careful than usual. However, her smile faded when she noticed that Krokorok was rapidly turning her head around. "Krokorok, you only need to be on lookout when Honor is. And you can rest when he does." The Shadow Pokemon turned toward Honor and then immediately started looking around again when she saw him standing there. With a sigh, Eleanor amended, "You can take a break now after walking all day."

The group ended up having a quiet night, even deciding to forego a campfire. Knowing that they hadn't traveled too far, Eleanor didn't want to risk alerting Cipher and she definitely didn't want to do anything to disturb the wild Pokemon unnecessarily. Not long after their cold dinner, Eleanor and Rosa wordlessly agreed to call it for the night, both of them too physically and emotionally drained to stay awake any longer.

When Eleanor woke up, she felt even more tired than usual and not rested in the slightest. The noises that they'd been hearing while walking the previous day had persisted throughout the night, which had made it impossible to sleep soundly. Then again, she was sure that her sleep would have been fitful even if that hadn't been the case. After lying there for a few more seconds, Eleanor sat up, and even though it was unusual, she was unsurprised to see that Rosa was still in the tent. Rosa was staring at one of the walls of the tent and didn't react to the noise Eleanor made as she shifted around. "How are you doing?" Eleanor asked quietly after a second.

Rosa finally turned around with a flat expression on her face. "I'm okay," she answered quietly, though her tone belied her words. Without another word, Eleanor leaned over and pulled Rosa into a hug. Rosa immediately dug her face into Eleanor's shoulder and the two stayed still for some time.

When they were finally ready to face the world again, they slowly separated and then exited the tent. Eleanor was about to greet her Pokemon but stopped short when she saw that Honor, Patty, and Krokorok were sitting on the grass, completely covered in scratches and bruises. She gasped and dove back into the tent to grab her bag. When she was back outside, she saw that Rosa was checking her Pokemon, who thankfully seemed uninjured.

"I'm sorry for making you all stay out here," Eleanor apologized to her Pokemon as she went through several Potions healing up the three Pokemon's wounds. While she was tending to them, she quickly checked Devo and Inno and was glad to see that they didn't appear to be hurt. That relief only lasted a few seconds until she realized that they had probably healed themselves with Roost and Moonlight. Eleanor had already wanted to not spend any more time in the wilderness than necessary, but that feeling had doubled now that she knew just how aggressive the Pokemon were in this part of Unova. The moment that all of her Pokemon were healed, she turned to Rosa. "Are you ready to head out?"

Rosa nodded with the same urgency that Eleanor felt. They quickly got food out for their Pokemon and began taking down their camp. When all of the Pokemon had finished eating, Eleanor and Rosa returned all of them except for Honor, Krokorok, and Silk, and started heading north again. Having not taken the time for their own breakfasts, the two trainers ate energy bars while they walked, with Rosa cradling Silk in her free arm.

Thankfully, the wilderness Pokemon didn't seem any more active during the day than they had the previous day, so the group was able to make good progress for several hours. That progress abruptly halted when a Petilil suddenly hopped out of a bush in front of them. The Pokemon didn't immediately make any moves, but Eleanor did not like the way that her eyes were narrowed or the way she shook her leaves. Eleanor was halfway done telling Honor to push the Pokemon away with X-Scissor but was cut off by Rosa.

"String Shot and Bug Bite!" Rosa loudly called, though the volume wasn't necessary given that Silk was still in her arms. He immediately fired a line on the ground in front of Petilil and jumped out of Rosa's arms, pulling himself toward the other Pokemon.

Surprised by Rosa's sudden action, Eleanor looked at Rosa and saw that her mentee looked completely serious. When she noticed that Honor was giving her a similarly surprised look, Eleanor said, "Let Silk handle this, but keep an eye out and make sure it's not an ambush." Honor nodded seriously and started swiveling his head around to watch the treeline, with Krokorok following his lead.

When Eleanor returned her attention to the battle, she saw that Silk had managed to reach Petilil and was Biting the side of her head. The wild Pokemon kept trying to shake Silk off or using Absorb to force him to let go, but neither strategy had much effect. Eventually, Silk let go of Petilil, but he still looked completely healthy while she was staggering on the ground. "Tie her up with String Shot!" Rosa ordered. Silk quickly obeyed and with Petilil being unable to move out of the way of the attack, it only took a few seconds before she was completely wrapped up.

Eleanor stared at the Pokemon for a second with a satisfied look on her face, then turned to Rosa to tell her good job. However, when she saw that Rosa was holding a Pokeball, she paled. "Wait! Stop!"

Eleanor's warning came too late and she cringed as the Pokeball flew through the air, beaning Petilil right in the head. The Pokemon was sucked into the device and as it shook on the ground, For the first time in her life, Eleanor hoped that a capture would be unsuccessful. However, after six shakes, the Pokeball finally dinged.

Rosa cheered at the catch, but her exuberance was drowned out by several angry roars from the forest around them. Turning back to Eleanor with wide eyes, Rosa asked, "What was that?"

"Unlike Pokemon on routes, wilderness Pokemon hate it when you catch other wilderness Pokemon," Eleanor hastily explained. "We'll be fine if you release Petilil right away." With that said, she turned back to Honor to see if he'd spotted trouble yet. While he looked significantly more tense as he glanced around, he didn't seem to be focused on any one thing which made Eleanor think that they still had some time.

When Eleanor returned her attention to Rosa, she'd expected to see her starting the process on her Pokedex to release Petilil, but instead, her mentee was staring at her fearfully. "I can't release her here. They put a region-wide lock on releasing Pokemon outside of Centers because of Plasma forcing people to do it."

"Shit!" Eleanor exclaimed, not having known that was even possible. "We need to get out of here now then!" Rosa shakily nodded and dashed forward to scoop up both Silk and the Pokeball. Eleanor had wanted to give the rest of her team some more rest, but since that clearly was no longer an option, she sent out Devo. At the same time, there was a loud crash in the woods behind them and Eleanor practically screamed, "Tailwind!"

For the second time in barely twenty-four hours, Eleanor and Rosa began to run for their lives.

A/N: Thanks to Star (quarknova on this site) for betaing. Next up is Chapter 11: White Buildings, Black Streets