"So a couple things to point out," Sierra began explaining as she, along with Alex and Eli, continued strolling towards the middle of the pokemon camp they had arrived at earlier that afternoon, "you may have noticed some groups of tents have smaller fire pits and a handful of cooking tents scattered around, and if you haven't, well... there they are," she said, gesturing to one of the many groups of campers, lounging and socializing next to a smaller inactive fire pit, "that's cuz there's not really much of a structure here. It's not a summer camp where there's programs, classes, schedules, whatever. It's a more of a community. We all kinda just do our own thing. It's just that one of those things we do is help and support one another."

Eli leaned in close to Alex. "Is it just me or does she feel like a different person when she's playing a leader position?" he mumbled in a teasing tone.

Alex let out an amused snort. "Oh hush, I'm enjoying it," he shot back in an equally low volume.

"Mm," Eli turned to face Sierra head on. "Well I have to admit, this is a pretty cool setup you've got going on here. But if it's not a structured organization, then what's with the giant cover that looks like a mess hall?" Eli asked.

"Huh?" Alex began scanning the area ahead of him, but only spotted a marginally large tent in the distance. "Where did you see that?" Alex asked, turning to Eli after giving up his search.

Eli pointed behind them with his thumb, still facing forwards. "A fair ways back there. It was off to our right when we first came in. Giant wood overhang with lots of cooking stations near it, and even more chairs and tables under the overhang, itself."

Sierra nodded. "It's just as you said. That's the mess hall. Most of the people and pokemon get their food there. Like I said though, there's no set schedule for anything. Including eating. It's completely open for you to grab what you want and go, and there's even some personal cooking stations for you to use if you want.

"The cool thing is though," Sierra continued with a widening smile, "a few volunteers took it upon themselves to do a lot of the cooking for everyone here. They get together to have food ready for everyone at ten in the morning and seven at night, and all you have to do is just show up. Still, you don't have to eat what they make. Especially if you're allergic or just not a fan of something. And again, no real set schedule or anything. If you wanna grab something else at a different time, you can totally do that. In the end, everything is completely up to you."

Alex shared and impressed look with Eli and shook his head disbelievingly. "Damn, unstructured eating times too? And with some people doing all of the work themselves anyway? I'm liking the sound of this more and more," he said with a chuckle.

Sierra flashed Alex a smirk. "Well keep in mind, you're still liable for your own trash and any dishes that you use."

Alex let out an exaggerated groan. "Aaand there's the deal breaker," Alex snarked, "I changed my mind. That system blows."

Sierra raised an eyebrow at Alex, giving him a testy look. "Oh yes, the terrible system of... looking after your own stuff! Oohh the horror. Having to clean your own dishes, pick up your own trash, set up your own tent!" she gasped in an overly exaggerated fashion.

Eli forced a disgusted face. "Eugh, you have to set up and take down your own stuff too? Fuck that. Alex, let's get out of here," he griped in a feux-offended manner, making an abrupt movement towards the edge of camp.

Alex let out an amused snort and turned along with Eli towards the edge of camp, but stopped himself after Sierra let out an exasperated sigh. Alex couldn't help but let out a snicker at the girl's expense.

Sierra rolled her eyes. "Alright, jokers, you've made your point. But really, you're not gonna get kicked out if you don't do that stuff. Well... not unless it's super bad. Like bordering on neglect levels of bad. Really they just want everyone to be responsible and considerate and shit."

Alex faced Sierra again and nodded in genuine understanding. "No, yea. That's totally fair. I wouldn't really expect otherwise."

Sierra gave a nod in response and finally turned to face forwards and instantly had to sidestep an empty two person tent that was in her walking path. She glanced back at Alex and Eli's amused looks. "So anyway!" she continued in a blatant attempt to save face, "We're at the main camping area now if you wanna take another look."

Alex looked past Sierra, towards the main camp ground. Even though Alex had already seen it when they arrived, it made it no less impressive seeing so many people and pokemon mingling and relaxing together in such a wide open and inviting space. Alex spotted a couple of pokemon that Alex recognized as a pikachu and a clauncher casually chatting with themselves. As the trio passed by them, they took note of Alex and Eli, and they both gave them a friendly wave, which Alex happily returned, and Eli responded with a simple smile and a head nod. Alex glanced back to Eli after the trio passed the two pokemon and shared elated grins with each other. "Dude, it just gets more impressive the more I look at it," Alex marveled.

Eli shook his head almost disbelievingly and in a similar manner of awe. "No kidding," Eli responded as they continued to pass by more even pokemon, still receiving friendly waves and smiles from the multiple different creatures that passed by as they made their way around camp. Eli's eyes locked onto a group of pokemon, as well as a couple of people with them, playing what looked to be like a makeshift game of soccer in one of the wider areas of the campground, which he couldn't help but smile at. "This is something like a pokemon fan's dream," he whispered under his breath.

Sierra, herself, also waved to a couple of passing pokemon that Alex guessed recognized her as they reached the end of the tent area and entered into more open ground. She slowed her pace so she could turn to her two companions once again. "So yea, main camping area. This is where everyone does their socializing, relaxing, sportsball stuff, campfire get together at night, et cetera, et cetera, it's a campground. Go figure. No real curfew, but for those staying overnight- which there are a lot of, keep in mind- we do kinda make it a point to stay quiet after about ten at night so everyone can get their beauty rest. Not that we're a particularly loud bunch anyway. One thing is you might've noticed is the one tent we passed when we came in that was super far away from the others. Well there are a few of them all around, and they sorta serve as the camp's... boundary. For lack of a better word. Basically, they're the guys who keep watch of everything outside of camp and report back if anything suspicious comes up. And those guys in particular usually only stay in human form."

Eli raised an eyebrow and glanced backwards on reflex in the direction of the boundary tent even though it was well out of Eli's view. "Is that even necessary? I thought you said this campsite was out of view and out of the way?"

"And it is," Sierra confirmed, "but we still get the occasional hiker who stumbles across this place accidentally. In that case, if they're not a pokemon or don't have a pokemon with them, we just let em know that it's private grounds and they go on their way. Simple as that."

"Even if that doesn't work," Alex chimed in, "trying to pull some shady shit with a camp full of pokemon would be an incredibly stupid thing to do."

Sierra bobbed her head back and forth as if to consider Alex's point. "Well... I mean, you're not wrong, but we really try to avoid that if at all possible. This place was made to get away from that kind of thing, after all."

Alex looked down and then nodded, conceding to Sierra's point. "Alright, that's fair. I guess after the past several weeks, anyone on the pokemon side would be sick of the fighting."

"Ironically enough," Eli added, much to the amusement of Alex and Sierra, who both let out a chuckle at Eli's comment. "Still, pretty sweet deal you've got going on here," Eli continued, looking around fondly at the camp, "I just wish there was an actual training or sparring space or whatever. The open field helps, but I feel like you'd end up getting in people's way doing that," he lamented, gesturing to the soccer game that was currently ongoing to make his point.

Sierra smirked and began walking with purpose again. "Funny you should mention that. Follow me. If you're super into pokemon, this is gonna absolutely blow you away."

Alex and Eli shared another excited look as they followed Sierra closely behind, both able to reasonably guess what they were being led to after a comment like that. The trio eventually arrived on the far side of the camping ground with very few tents around. It appeared to be very nondescript compared to the rest of the territory, save for one large tent that could be seen in the distance that Alex took note of right away.

Alex squinted at the tent as they drew closer to their location. "Are we going to that big tent over there? That one looks kinda big to be a camper's home."

Sierra glanced over to where Alex was referring to. "Oh that? No, that's camp ops. They do all the boring shit to keep this place running. That's not where we're going, though."

Eli raised an eyebrow at Sierra. "Seems a bit too important to just gloss over a major detail like that."

"Hey, I said it was boring, not pointless," she defended, searching the relatively empty area for something, "I really do have a ton of respect for what those guys do. But it could never be me in there. If I did what they do all day, I'd go stir crazy."

Alex chuckled. "Which would be bad news for everyone, right?"

Sierra flashed a smirk back at Alex in the midst of her searching. "You catch on quick." Sierra continued looking through the nondescript scenery as she spoke. "But seriously, unless you're helping run the camp or there's a huge problem, no one ever really goes in there. No huge reason to anyway. So everyone else kinda just... ignores it... ah!" Sierra's attention finally locked onto something in the near distance, and she made a quick motion to beckon her companions over. "There it is. Come on, the important bit is over here."

Alex followed Sierra without hesitation, with Eli following close behind, but to his confusion, he couldn't see what Sierra was referring to. "...over where?"

Sierra suddenly stopped and held her arms out to the side, halting the other two with her. She pointed ahead towards a pokemon in the near distance. "There. See where that marshtomp is headed?"

Alex quickly spotted the pokemon as well, but he was unable to see anything that stood out around it or around the direction it was walking. "...I mean, they're on a hike, I guess? But I don't see where they're-" Alex cut himself off as the marshtomp stopped and he finally spotted something unusual that the mud fish pokemon happened to be standing on. "Wait a sec, what is that? Is that a... wooden grate just on the ground right there?"

Eli's eyes widened. "Are they using some sort of sentry grate system like in the explorers series of mystery dungeon?"

Sierra gave an impressed not towards Eli. "Got it in one! Nice guess, dude!"

The marshtomp soon began walking again, stepping into an area of thick brush and foliage that was only a few yards away from the grate. Enough time had passed that Alex was sure all trace of the pokemon disappeared, causing him to do a delayed double take out of sheer confusion. "What- where did-?! Is that pile of brush bigger inside than out or something? Where the hell did they go?"

Sierra flashed a sly smirk at Alex. "You'll see. Cuz that's exactly where we're going too!" Sierra led a perplexed Alex and an intrigued Eli over to the grate, but suddenly stopped right in front of it, turning to Eli with an apologetic posture. "Something I forgot to mention, this place is a little more exclusive than the rest of the camp. You can get in camp just fine if you're a human who a hundred percent supports pokemon kind, but to get into this place, you absolutely need to either be a pokemon or have a pokemon with you if you want in. And only one per, so... uh... you're gonna want to drop your illusion for a moment, Eli."

Eli leaned his head back lightly and let out a quiet groan. "Ugh... I really don't want the attention of being- wait," Eli cut himself off and put on a thoughtful expression. "Actually... I don't have to do that at all."

Sierra gave Eli a confused stare. "Oookay? Why?"

Rather than answer her question directly, Eli closed his eyes for a brief moment before his body flashed a lavender color, shrinking down to vulpine size, only to emerge as a different dark type entirely. One that was purely canine in nature. The newly formed canine pokemon looked down and did a quick inspection of his body and flashed a toothy grin. "Nice! Got it first try."

Alex blinked in surprise at the poochyena standing before him. "Gonna be honest, man. I completely forgot that you could do that," Alex admitted, feeling rather silly.

The poochyena's grin turned into one that was more sheepish as he faced Alex. "Don't worry, I did too."

Sierra narrowed her eyes and went slack jawed at Eli's comment. "You- What? Okay, no offense, but how in the world did you forget about something like that when disguises are literally your m.o.?"

Alex chuckled and gave a quick pat on Sierra's back. "Girl, chill. It's probably less that he forgot about it and more that it was never in his mind in the first place."

Eli awkwardly nodded, confirming Alex's statement. "Yea, I mean, as far as everyone around me cares, a pokemon is a pokemon, so... I never really had a reason to disguise as anything other than my human self. So I just never really tried going as another pokemon"

Sierra's mouth continued to hang open as if wanting to offer a rebuttal, but eventually made a conceding hand gesture and faced the grate again. "Alright, I can't argue with that. C'mon, let's just get on the grate so we can go in already," she said, right before she began transforming herself.

Alex's heart began beating faster as he stepped onto the grate alongside Eli. Something about being admitted to what was sounding like an exclusive battle club for training and sparring was incredibly exciting to him. His mind continued to run wild even as the trio stood onto the grate, silently waiting for what seemed to Alex like an eternity. Just as Alex began to wonder if anyone was even there, a faint, but gruff voice could sounded from below them.

"Duskull, Poochyena, and one guest. Clear to enter."

Alex let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and glanced over to Sierra, who excitedly waved them over to the thick brush. He happily stepped off and began to move over to the hideout entrance with Eli and Sierra, until another voice rung out loudly from the grate.

"And Sierra!"

All three of them stopped and looked back at the grate on reflex. Alex and Eli gave a questioning glance at the duskull, who just rolled her eye and let out an otherworldly sounding sigh. The ghost pokemon floated back over the grate and peered down it to see what she was called back for.

"Try not to break anything this time," the irritated sounding voice said.

Alex and Eli both let out an abrupt snort of laughter as the ghost pokemon let out an even louder groan, floating back over to the duo, muttering under her breath.

Alex gently prodded the ghost pokemon with his elbow as they made their way to the brush. "So. Sounds like there's a story behind that little comment we just heard."

The duskull made an irritated noise, causing Eli to snicker again.

Alex gave an expectant look to Eli. "What did she say?"

Eli shot an amused glance to Alex. "She just said 'don't ask.'"

Alex just smirked. 'Oh, I'm going to find out what happened at some point.'

The trio reached the large brush, but even up close, Alex can't see any obvious openings. He narrowed his eyes in confusion and started to wonder how they were supposed to enter, when Sierra floated towards it. She turned back halfway and muttered something else Alex didn't catch, then turned invisible and floated straight through the thickest part of the bushes.

Eli took his turn next, stepping forwards towards the hidden entrance. He turned his head back to face Alex. "She said to watch your step coming in. It's a steep drop at first." Eli then faced the bushes and carefully stepped through, rustling some of the loose branches as he entered.

Alex puffed his cheeks out and let out a stiff breath. "Whelp, guess it's my turn now." Alex walked right in front of the bushes that supposedly hid the entrance to the underground base. After a moment of inspecting, his eyes lit up as he finally spotted a gap in what should've been the ground. He then looked for the biggest gap between the branches that he could find and carefully tiptoed through it. He lowered his foot to step on what he assumed was the first step downwards, but true to Sierra's warnings, the first step was even lower down than that. Alex's heart did a flip as his foot fell an extra half a foot downwards, causing him to stumble forwards, smacking his face onto multiple different branches in the process. Luckily for Alex, he did manage to keep himself from falling entirely. Alex let out a couple of sharp huffs, blowing away loose branches and leaves that were in his face, and carefully tiptoed down the stairs until his head was entirely out of the foliage so he could see it was a steep spiral staircase downwards, dimly lit only by torches that were placed in dug out openings in the wall. Deciding to pick up the pace now that he could see where he was going, Alex rushed down to meet up with Eli and Sierra, who were both leisurely making their way down as well. Alex let out another stiff breath, announcing his presence. "That opening is bigger than I thought it'd be."

Sierra looked back and nodded, muttering something else for Eli to translate. "She said that it trips a lot of people up, even with a warning. Also, the place we're going is pretty far down, so we're taking it slow."

Alex nodded and placed his hand on the guard rail as they slowly made their way down the long, winding staircase. After enough time of walking through the stuffy torch-lit staircase, Alex began hearing lots of animalistic cries and shouts, dull thuds, and what sounded to Alex like plenty of chatter, echoing up the stairwell. Alex's heart pumped an extra beat out of growing excitement the moment he heard it, and he let out a surprised hum. "Sounds like we're getting close," he remarked.

"Yup, just another short minute of walking, and we're there," Eli translated for Sierra.

Just as Sierra said, Alex stepped off the final step of the staircase, and saw that he was in a short cave-like hallway with a large dark skinned man that was sitting cross legged in a foldable chair, with what Alex recognized as a whismur playing on a 3DS. The man looked up from his book to greet Alex, Sierra, and Eli with a nod and a friendly smile as the three passed through the hallway. "Welcome," he greeted warmly. The whismur looked up from its game and also gave a welcoming nod alongside a more shy smile.

Alex nodded back and gave the man and pokemon a smile of his own. "Thank you." Sierra also mumbled what Alex could guess was a 'thank you' of her own, and Eli simply gave a nod and a smile.

"Seems pretty far down and out of the way," Alex remarked as the trio passed the man and the whismur, walking through the torch-lit hallway.

Very briefly, a white light flooded the hallway. Alex squinted as the duration of the transformation took place, with Sierra emerging very shortly after the glow began. "It kinda had to be," Sierra explained, "This place was entirely pokemon made. Thank the ground and rock types for carving it out."

Alex's eyes widened. "The entire thing? Through all of that stone? Jesus, that's quite a feat."

Sierra just let out a chuckle. "Wait til you see the main arena. And they have a knack for sensing what's stable and what's not, so this place should last for decades before it ever becomes even a slight issue."

Eli excitedly hopped in place, then began speed walking towards the end of the hallway. "Alright, enough talk! I wanna see what it's like for myself!"

Alex laughed and matched Eli's pace towards the end of the hallway. "Well someone's more chipper all of the sudden!"

"I can't help it!" Eli exclaimed, "Listening to all those battle noises for the past couple minutes has me pumped up! I wanna see what a real life honest-to-God pokemon battle is like!"

Sierra, not wanting to be left behind, rushed ahead of the pack. "Well then, good thing we're already there." Sierra stopped at the hallway exit and faced Alex and Eli, standing proudly, as Alex and Eli reached the end of the hallway a few seconds later. As Alex and Eli passed through to the other side, met with a blinding light compared to the dimly lit tunnel, Sierra followed shortly after, gazing fondly at the main underground area. "Welcome to the underground battle league."

As his eyes grew used to the harsh glow of bright white light, Alex finally got his first look of the battle arena... and his breath was taken away from him instantaneously. "Holy..."

The area was massive. Greater than Alex could've imagined. The entire room was the size of multiple football fields combined together to make a singular massive arena. Alex, Eli, and Sierra were all standing on a balcony pathway, that wrapped all the way around the arena, below which held multiple pokemon battle fields, every single one of which each had various pokemon of different shapes and sizes sparring or organizing full scale battles. Even from the distance they were at, Alex was able to identify several pokemon from each and every region; some of them limiting their battles to one half of the arena they were in so they could accommodate another pair of battlers in that same battle field. In total, Alex counted nine different battle fields; eight of which were seperated into groups of four, arranged in a square pattern on both sides of the room, separated with stone fences and thin walkways, with the last arena being in the very center of the room, complete with stone bleachers and a makeshift press box on the side opposite to where they were. It was no question to Alex that that field was to be considered the main battle field.

After Alex snapped himself out of his trance of marveling at the battle fields, he began looking around at the level they were at. The attention to detail stunned him all over again. The area that they were in was less of a balcony, and more of an upstairs walkway. The side they were on especially was incredibly wide, and thus had ample walking and resting room. It even appeared to be a proper walkway in that the pathway itself was made of cobblestone, with grass, flowers, and small bushes planted on all sides nearest to the wall. The walkway itself also neatly seperated itself from the battlefield area using stone guard rails that had large stone pillars reaching all the way to the ceiling every few paces away. And the upstairs pathway didn't appear to be just for spectating. Alex spotted numerous rooms with wooden doors evenly distributed on three sides of the facility. On the side that they were on, there was a tunnel in one of the corners of the pathway that Alex guessed could've been the exit to the surface, but he had no idea what the staircase about thirty paces to their right was for.

But as curious as he was about the staircase, Alex was more concerned with wanting to understand how the entire room, particularly the main arena area, looked like it was above ground, despite the fact that they were far underneath the surface. But then Alex took a few steps forward to get a closer look at the ceiling. The area above the upstairs walkway looked like a normal stone ceiling, but what Alex thought was a bright blue sky with multiple clouds above the main battle area was in actuality a mural that had been carved out a few feet higher than the upstairs walkways, and painted to look like the daylight sky. Alex let out an impressed whistle the moment he figured it out. And just to complete the scene, Alex spotted numerous sources of light emitting from the ceiling and walls that he couldn't figure out the source of, but when he got a closer look at one of the sources closest to him, he realized it was a floodlight that was partially covered up in the stone wall to mask some of the harsh glare. Alex reasoned that it was the case with every other source of light in the room.

The entirety of the scene was breathtaking. Alex was at a loss for words. As he was awestruck by the grandness of the room, Eli whispered what Alex couldn't put into words. "This is... unbelievable doesn't even begin to describe it. Forget being a pokemon fan's dream, this is literal pokemon heaven."

Sierra stood at the edge of the pathway, resting her arms against the stone wall, watching the various groups of pokemon battling with one another in the various arenas, as well as chatting amongst themselves in groups off of the fields and in the bleachers of the center field. "Pretty incredible, isn't it? I've been here for a couple weeks now and I still get the chills whenever I step foot this place."

Alex let out an open mouthed scoff and walked next to Sierra, similarly watching all of the different pokemon, with Eli sitting next to him right by the stairs so his view wasn't obstructed by anything. "Yea, I can imagine," Alex muttered. He shook his head in disbelief and let out a sigh. "Really makes me jealous to be quite honest with you," he added with a chuckle.

Sierra glanced over to Alex with a curious look. "How come?"

Alex shot a stare at Sierra. "I'm not a pokemon," he said flatly, though still with a wry smile, "I can't make use of this place."

Sierra thought about it briefly, then gave a single shoulder shrug. "You could still bring Eli to train. Nothing says non pokemon can't come down here at all. They just wanna limit it to one per, just so the pokemon have more space that they can use for training and sparring."

Alex glanced over to his friend, who was still excitedly staring at the different fields, unconsciously inching closer down the stairs in the process. Alex mouth curved upwards into an amused smile as he faced Sierra again. "You know what, after seeing how excited this one is," Alex gestured to Eli with an open palm, "I might end up getting roped into it either way."

Sierra glanced over to Eli at Alex's motion and let out a laugh. "Well you look a lot more comfortable than you were, don't you?" she teased, addressing Eli.

Eli snapped out of his own trance and fixed a blank look at Alex and Sierra after realizing that he was being spoken to. "Huh? Sorry, what was that?"

Alex snickered and Sierra let out a full on belly laugh at Eli's reaction, prompting him to stomp one of his paws onto the ground, shooting them both an indignant look. "Oh come on, you can hardly blame me for getting distracted! This place is amazing!" he whined.

Sierra took a couple of breaths to try and control her giggling. "Haha... sorry, Eli. It's nothing against you. It's just never not funny seeing reactions like yours when people come in here for the first time."

Eli turned his nose up with a huff and just went back to watching the multiple different pokemon battles happening in the arena.

Alex let out another chuckle at his friend's reaction. He was about to make another teasing jab at his friend, but after seeing the level of excitement in his eyes as he once again lost himself in the pokemon battles, Alex decided against saying anything. If anything, it brought a smile to Alex's face as well, seeing just how much more comfortable Eli was compared to how he had been when they first arrived at camp. Alex similarly began watching as multiple pokemon let loose their powers to the best of their abilities in the series of serious, but friendly sparring matches, and began to muse how fantastic of a find they made that just so happened to provide Alex with the perfect outlet to start training on his own once he found a way to believably get his own pokemon form to the campsite. In the meantime, Alex reasoned that it would be much easier to train and coach Eli in what seemed like a proper battle facility instead of training out in the open woods where they were liable to be caught if luck just happened to turn sour for one singular day.

But as Alex continued to watch the multiple battles rage on, he realized that it wasn't as simple as he was making it out to be. There weren't many safe spots that a human observer could stand without the danger of incidental fire from other areas. Perhaps the environment was more controlled than it appeared at a glance, but given that there were multiple pairs of pokemon on each battlefield at the same time, he wasn't sure to what extent that would be the case. 'That and I'm not really sure how much I'll be able to train either,' Alex lamented to himself, 'I don't know if I'd be able to use more than one or two different pokemon forms without tipping everyone off that there's a sudden influx of new pokemon... if I wanted to keep my mew form a total secret, anyway. Still need to figure out if it's worth coming back at some point as 'Mew' instead of 'Alex...' The more Alex thought about the subject, the more his optimistic smile shifted into a concerned frown with pursed lips. "Still not sure how I can help Eli train," Alex muttered sadly, addressing Sierra's point about training Eli, "Looks kinda dangerous for a human like me to be strolling around down there, don't you think?"

Sierra made a gesture towards one of the doors on the upstairs walkway. "Well that's what those rooms over there are for," she explained simply with a smile, "Those are private training rooms for those who want to hone their skills either by themselves or with a partner before battling down there."

Alex paused for a moment, blinking his surprise at Sierra after having the entirety of his worries addressed with two simple sentences. Alex faced the doors on the upper level to see for himself, and sure enough, he noticed a few pokemon, as well as a couple of humans, walking in and out of the rooms that they led to. "Huh," Alex finally let out, "Well that's handy."

"No kidding," Sierra agreed, "Makes it so you can just focus on getting stronger without having to worry about getting hit by stray attacks. Still," she continued, standing up straight again and moving backwards a couple steps, "nothing says we can't at least get a closer look. If you're up for it, we can go down in a little bit and watch some battles once it calms down some."

Eli's attention instantly snapped back to Sierra after overhearing the suggestion of them seeing the arenas up close. "Ooohh, can we?" he chimed in excitedly.

Sierra grinned at Eli's enthusiasm. "We will in a bit. Seems kinda busy right now, so it's a small bit more dangerous to be around than normal. Besides, there's something else in here I wanna show you guys that I think you'll appreciate," she said as she began walking towards the exit tunnel, waving Alex and a restless Eli to follow her.

Alex hesitantly began following Sierra, holding a confused frown towards her as he watched her continue towards the tunnel. Alex expected her to change directions at the last moment, but she never did. "Uh... you just said it was inside this place, right? Isn't that just the exit?"

Sierra turned her head to halfway face Alex as she continued walking. "Well you're half right. Yea, this is the exit up here, but there's also a fork in the road that leads to our private vegetable patch. Which is what I wanted to show you."

Alex's eyes lit up with slight intrigue. "Oh neat. So it's like a secondary food supply that you have on site?"

"Actually, it's our main one," Sierra corrected, smiling at the surprised looks on Alex and Eli's faces as she continued, "The cliffside the rock pokemon hollowed out is actually gigantic, so there's plenty of space for lots of growing. And with how fast the grass types can grow em, we have a steady stream of lots of different foods."

Eli's surprised faded quickly as Sierra explained the garden, and began eyeing her with skepticism. "Well... no offense, cuz that does sound kinda neat, but how is that more interesting than anything that's, well... in here?" Eli asked awkwardly, gesturing to the entire room with one of his paws.

Sierra stopped by the tunnel entrance and nonchalantly shrugged. "Oh I don't know, I just thought you guys might be interested to see how big it is and all the different stuff that we grow, like fruits, spices, herbs, and even berries," she hinted, putting a notable amount of emphasis the word 'berries.'

Eli's eyes widened, instantly getting the message. "Wait, you mean like Oran, Cheri, Pecha, those types of berries? You actually have those?"

Sierra flashed a prideful grin. "We sure do! Home grown and in plentiful amounts! The garden is up that way, and it's walled off so the only way to access it is through this room. We've got all of the basic berries growing, plus a couple others. I mean, if you don't think that's exciting enough though, we can skip it. I just thought y'all would like to see what it's like to taste a real life pokemon berry," Sierra teased.

"Hell no, I don't wanna skip that!" Alex almost shouted enthusiastically. But very quickly, his enthusiasm turned into concern as another thought occurred to him. "But uh... is it safe for human consumption? As much as I'd like to try a real pokemon berry, I'm also not a huge fan of getting sick."

Sierra gave Alex a head nod. "Don't worry, my dude, they are a hundred percent safe to snack on. Some of em might taste a little funny, but they're otherwise completely harmless. So! You guys wanna-"

"Hey! Hey YOU!" an outraged voice suddenly shouted, interrupting Sierra and startling all three of them.

Alex whipped his head around towards the source of the voice to see a blonde, skinny male that was slightly taller than Alex storming up to him. Alex flinched when the male got uncomfortable close to him. "What in the-?!"

"Did I hear you right? Did you say you're not a pokemon?" the blonde haired man accused in a dangerously low tone.

Alex's heart did a flip and he began worrying if Sierra was mistaken and he really wasn't allowed in a seemingly pokemon only club. "Wh-what? I mean, no, I'm not, but is it really a problem?" he weakly asked in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

The man looked offended at the question and rolled his eyes in an incredibly exaggerated fashion. "Is it a problem, he asks. Of course it is! This is a pokemon only place, so I'm going to ask you to leave and go back to whatever group you came from-"

Sierra stomped a single step forward, cutting off any further comment. "Vince, for the last fucking time, not every non pokemon you don't know is a godddamn protestor!" she snarled in a far more confrontational manner than the man had been.

The man lost any pretense of authority he had and shot back at Sierra in an equally incensed tone. "And how do you know for sure, huh?! For all you know, he could be one of them just looking for our base of operations so he can rat us out!"

Alex quickly started to get the picture. He was reasonably certain the man didn't hold any position of authority, and was only confronting Alex based on his own prejudices. Which began to irk Alex to no end. Alex clenched his teeth in irritation and tried to maintain a level tone, but couldn't help snapping at him. "I literally came here with my friend, who himself is a pokemon."

"Also," Sierra cut in before the man could respond, "base of operations? This place is a retreat, man. Not a military compound," she commented flatly.

The man shot a sneer at Sierra. "Maybe it should be more like a military base so we can be ready in case people like him," the man pointed accusingly at Alex, "get any more funny ideas. Like that lynching of that defenseless zorua this morning."

Alex clenched his teeth so hard it hurt, very quickly getting sick of being targeted for seemingly no reason. "Why are you so bent on accusing me when I've been here the entire time doing nothing?! I didn't even know about that brawl until this afternoon!"

The man shot a disbelieving outraged look at Alex. "How could you not know about it?! The video was literally everywhere! If you weren't there, then how did you hear about it, huh?"

Alex opened his mouth to respond, but he stopped and glanced over at Eli, who at that point was lightly trembling from nervousness, but still holding his poochyena disguise. Alex had a second-long panic as he realized he didn't have a good answer that avoided outing Eli as a zorua, thus bringing him unnecessary attention he didn't need in that moment.

Luckily, Sierra cut in again, rescuing Alex from a potentially prolonged silence. "I said it once and I'll say it as many times as it takes to get through your thick skull, shut the hell up and fuck off already. There's no grand conspiracy that's happening under our noses. If you really want to know why, it's because they were with me at the time. I invited him and his pokemon friend here, and I told them about the fight. Not that it's any of your fucking business."

Unfortunately for the trio, Sierra's argument only made the man angrier. He threw his hand up in outrage and shot a murderous glare at Sierra. "You invited him here knowing he wasn't a pokemon?! Are you insane?!"

Sierra rolled her eyes and shot a tired look at Alex, waving a hand at the unhinged man. "Dude comes up to me screaming about how all humans that don't immediately side themselves with pokemon are going to kill or enslave us all, and apparently I'm the insane one."

Alex shot disbelieving glances back and forth between Sierra and the crazy man. "Who the hell even IS this guy? Cuz holy fuck, he sounds like an absolute lunatic!"

The man's eyes widened at the comment, prompting him to begin angrily fishing his phone out of his pocket while muttering up a storm.

Sierra opened her mouth to respond, and paused briefly to glance at the unstable man after hearing him muttering insults under his breath. She let out an elongated groan and rolled her eyes again. "Uugh, I really don't wanna deal with this today... This idiot conspiracy theorist here is Vince, and he's supposed to be taking it easy after-"

The man cut Sierra off by shoving a phone in her face. "Does THIS look like a conspiracy theory to you?!" he demanded, forcing it in Alex's face immediately afterwards before Sierra could respond.

Alex recoiled, not enjoying that something was essentially being thrown in his face. He glanced at what was being shown to him, and he quickly recognized Eli as he was being surrounded by people. Alex realized it must've been the morning of the incident that hurt his friend and shot an annoyed look at the crazy person. "Oh for fuck's sakes, do you just have that saved to your phone or something? And would you get that out of my face please?!" Alex snapped, shooing away the lunatic in a failed attempt to get him to get the offending object away from him, "I already told you I knew that this happened. I don't need to see the video..," while the phone was still being forced at him, Alex continued taking occasional glances at it, not wholly paying attention as he already got most of the story from his friend. But then he noticed something that made him stop cold. "Woah, wait a second! Was that-?!" Alex thought he saw a familiar face in the crowd of the video, but the fight was reaching its conclusion, and whomever recorded the video stopped it soon after. Alex made a motion to rewind the video, but the phone was pulled away before Alex had a chance to look at it again.

"So you admit you're friends with someone who was there!" he all but shouted accusingly, "Is it someone you share similar views with? Are you condoning the actions of your friend?!"

Sierra clenched her fists the more the man badgered Alex. "Vince..," she growled in a dangerous tone.

Alex began breathing rapidly. The high pressure of being put on the spot as well as the newfound uncertainty he felt upon recognizing someone as being part of the mob that attacked his friend was beginning to make him panic. "Dude, stop, seriously! I don't even know for sure what I saw! It may just be a random guy who only looked familiar! Just let me look at it again, please! I need to know for sure!" Alex begged, frantically reaching for the phone again.

The man was not letting Alex have it. In a swift motion, he locked his phone and slipped it into his pocket, taking a step back away from Alex so he couldn't reach it. "Why? So you can hook up with your little terrorist buddy?" he shot back.

"Terrorist?!" Alex gawked. His eyes rapidly scanned their surroundings the louder their argument was getting. They were beginning to draw a small crowd, nervously observing the scene before them. Alex was stunned into silence. He had no retort. He was entirely unprepared for the level of confrontation he was facing just then. Fortunately for him, Sierra, for the second time, came to his rescue.

"Vince I swear to Arceus if you don't shut the fuck up and leave him the hell alone right now, I will personally go to camp ops this second and get them to ban you from this site entirely!" Sierra scolded, marching up to his face, "And after your past couple of stunts, I'm sure I'd have no problem convincing them! How bout it? Wanna test that theory?!"

The man opened up his mouth to retort, but after seeing how deadly serious Sierra was, he wisely decided not to test her patience, opting to shoot one last murderous glare at Alex, before storming away.

Alex let out a rather large, jittery exhale and glanced over to Eli, who appeared even more shaken up by the encounter than Alex was; then over to the small crowd they had began to attract, which thankfully had begun to disperse after the lunatic stormed off. Alex leaned against the stone wall of the room and rested both of his hands on the back of his head while staring up at the ceiling. "Jesus Christ, that guy... the hell was his deal?" he muttered in shock.

Sierra cursed under her breath and fished her phone out of her pocket. "That... was Vince. He's one of the grass types that takes care of the garden, but he's also a raving psychopath. Absolute tinfoil hat wearer to the highest degree. And this isn't even the first time he's pulled this shit either."

Eli fixed his startled look towards Sierra, who was furiously typing on her phone. "How the hell hasn't he been banned yet?" he asked, anxiously.

Sierra took a deep breath before answering in an attempt to calm herself. "I don't know. He's not usually this bad though, so maybe that's why," she mumbled.

Alex let out a disgusted scoff. "I really fucking doubt that." Alex covered his face with one of his hands and similarly to Sierra, took in a deep breath of his own to calm his nerves. "Though as it is, I really wish he'd have let me look at his phone," he continued, "cuz it's gonna bother the hell out of me wondering just who it was that I thought I saw."

"Trust me, it's better this way," Sierra responded neutrally, "He's going to hard accuse you no matter what you do or don't see in that video." Sierra continued tapping away on her phone for a few more seconds, until she held it up to Alex. "But here, you can watch it on my phone."

Alex pulled his head up from his hands and his heart immediately did a flip as he realized he was being offered another method to watch the incident. Alex nervously accepted the phone and started the video. The fight had already gotten out of hand when the video started, and to his disgust, he could see Eli in his pokemon form being ganged up on as he struggled to get away from the violent crowd that kept punching and kicking at the defenseless pokemon. 'Oh Eli...' Alex could hardly blame his friend's nervousness and paranoia as it was, but to see him being ganged up on put it on a whole new level. But Alex forced himself to look away from the main fight. He thought he had seen a familiar face in the crowd, and he was determined to find out who it was. Unfortunately for Alex, not even a few seconds later, he found exactly who he was looking for. Alex's eyes widened the moment he saw the familiar face again, instantly pausing the video, and studying the face until he figured out who it was. But it didn't take him long at all. And when Alex recognized who it was, his heart plummeted. "Oh- Him?! Why the hell is he there?!" Alex all but shouted in his shock.

Eli's body, even through his pokemon illusion, visibly became more tense. "You recognize one of them?"

Even the normally lax Sierra appeared concerned, wondering what it was he saw that elicited that violent of a reaction from Alex, compared to his composure during what they had just gone through. "Well spill. Who is it?" she demanded.

Alex slowly shook his head disbelievingly. "That uh... i-it looks like it's a guy I used to work with. But-" Alex cut himself off and used his free hand to clutch the back of his head in a distressed manner as he stared at the paused screen, eyeing the man who was yelling and pointing accusingly in Eli's direction. 'I don't understand. Why was he even there in the first place? And what even prompted him to join in on the attack of my friend?

'Preston... what happened to you, man?'

((As promised, the second chapter for the month! And with that, I'm now completely caught up to my self imposed deadlines! ...for now! I wonder how long it'll take before I stray off the course again, haha.

Anyway, as it has become glaringly obvious, Alex has not transformed in some time. Which... I greatly apologize for, but I didn't really see a good way to work it in the past few chapters without making it seem like I was forcing it. Good news though is, without spoiling anything, mew-Alex WILL be back next chapter. And with the pokemon camp now fully introduced, you should see a lot more of it in the future. Thanks again for reading, everyone!))