Disclaimer: Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

Chapter 9: A Normal Life

The streets were empty, abandoned, dim but not dark. Sunrise felt close, hints of rosy light in the sky. Not a sound could be heard as Max walked roads he knew, past houses he had seen before.

He found himself up high, looking into the distance, before long. It was deathly quiet; the only sounds ones that Max made himself. Breathing, shuffling, tapping. Not even Pokémon were there in his high place. Sleeping, maybe. It made everything unnaturally peaceful, but that wasn't bad. Peace was good; Max had had too little of it anyway.

In the far distance, a familiar mountain rose. A mountain he had climbed; reluctance the foremost memory. A Pokémon had been caught there for him. Sweet, prim, calculatedly aloof, loyal: vulpix was all of those and more.

As Max looked, a sharp flash atop Mt. Pyre blinded him. Spots remained, rapid blinking not enough to remove them, but between the black and dark, something else appeared.

Fire. A red-orange-yellow inferno rolled down the mountain. Water did not stop it; and suddenly, Route 121 was ablaze. Route 123 followed, but it did not stop the flames. The sea burned with orange and blue as they expanded lightning-fast.

He couldn't move. His legs were stuck in place; a look down not revealing anything. He tried for his Pokémon, but there were no balls on his belt; no way to do anything as fire surged forward, reaching Lilycove's suburbs and halting.

And forming a familiar silhouette before launching itself at Max.

He screamed.

Max gasped for fresh air; his throat raw and sore, his legs tangled in something. A moment later, Pokémon opened the tent flap: dusclops holding flame nearby, causing him to flinch, recoil, stagger, fall back into cloth. An inferno played out in his mind; flames licking at his body…

"It's okay, it's okay," he heard Danny say. There was a hand near his left knee, on the sleeping bag. "It wasn't real. I'm here. You're safe."

The hand moved, reaching out, and Max took it blindly. It was real; calming, grounding, and he opened his eyes. Danny was there; a torch lying on cloth somewhere, providing unnatural light to see by. He couldn't see details; not without glasses, but he could guess the expression as realisation flooded in. "Hate my mind," he muttered. He flailed around for water, and a leafy hand gave a bottle. "Thanks, sceptile."

The water was almost icy, painfully cold in his throat, waking him up further. He shook his head, focusing on Danny after that. "Same dream?"

"Close enough," Max returned; words a lot less painful to get out. "Lilycove now. Saw fire start this time. Mt. Pyre." He shook his head, reaching down to his sleeping bag and unzipping the lower half. "I need air."

"It's half past four," Danny replied, patting the ground where Max suspected the boy's watch to be. "You sure you want to?"

It had happened before, and that time, Max hadn't been able to fall back asleep. "Where's the Center? Six miles or so?"

A shrug. "Something like that." The older teenager sighed. "A nap after lunch it is."

"You don't…"

"I do," Danny interrupted, suddenly grabbing Max by his wrist. "This is the third time in six weeks, Max, and the other two times, you once passed out while we were training and the other time, you nearly fell asleep in Pokémon poop." Max blushed as he remembered that. "'sides, you think I can sleep after that scream you did?"

Oh, right. Something had woken Danny up, and Max remembered screaming as the fire engulfed him. He fought another round of blushing; somewhat successfully. "How bad was it?"

"Might be a couple of people back in Ecruteak who didn't hear you."

The temptation for Max to throw a pillow at Danny was only barely quashed, but even as he did so, Max realised that had been Danny's goal. To make him laugh or annoyed or anything that wasn't thinking about the dream.

He wasn't sure how well it worked, but it made him feel all the better that they were travelling together.

~~§~~§~~

A great Protect by gulpin blocked the zangoose's Slash, not even causing a shimmer in the shield. Zangoose cried out in annoyance, and it waved the paw that had struck the shield in pain.

That was a mistake, Max knew, and Danny immediately pressed the advantage. A heave produced a wave of spewed acid; Gastro Acid, to be precise, and far too much of it got into the mouth of the white Pokémon. Zangoose tried to spit it out, but it was already too late; Gastro Acid worked fast and while it wouldn't seep into fur effectively, ingesting it was a certain way to overwhelm the natural immunity to poisons that zangoose had.

The acid worked by tricking the immune system and forcing that to spend all of its time dealing with the liquid's effects. The result was that most Abilities based around an immunity of some kind, like zangoose's, or like vulpix's Flash Fire, were temporarily disabled.

The Poison Gas went out, and from there, it was only a matter of time until gulpin won. Max had been surprised when Danny had sent the round Pokémon out at a disadvantage, but between Rollout, zangoose already a bit beaten up by diggersby, and now this trick, it was working out.

And it didn't matter anyway, because Danny was going to end up second in his group regardless of the result.

They were in a small town on the northern slopes of Mount Mortar, participating in a seasonal tournament to celebrate a first harvest or something. Sali Town was definitely off the beaten path, but after they'd checked in Ecruteak, Max and Danny had decided to go here for the tournament. They weren't the only outsiders, but it was definitely a minority they belonged to.

Danny won, making sure that he at least got that going, but only the four that had won a group would continue to compete for prizes. Max had finished second as well; falling afoul of a rule that said that, in the case of a tie, head to head results would make the difference. He had lost only to a ruthless nidoking, whose old Trainer had then proceeded to talk strategy with Max until their next match an hour later.

Losing out because of that was annoying, but it was fine. The result was good, the tournament was fun, and the training was useful. He couldn't want for more.

"That was almost Ash-like," Max told Danny when the taller teenager walked over, sweat on his brow from the heavy sun: surprisingly so for an afternoon in the second week of May. "You know only a few Pokémon are immune to poison, right? If they aren't Poison-type to start with."

The look he got spelled out that yes, Danny knew. "It didn't matter anyway," he said, shrugging. "'sides, it's not often I get to use Gastro Acid outside of doubles training. It's fun to remove strengths like that."

That, Max had to agree with wholeheartedly. "You rooting for the one that beat you?"

"Nobody beat me," Danny returned, and the two exchanged stuck-out-tongues; Danny's playful, Max's exasperated. It was technically true: Danny had drawn twice thanks to Destiny Bond; one his, one not, but the winner in the group had only tied with Danny. "He's good, but your opponent's got a good chance as well. Don't think the other two have it in them to defeat either."

Max hadn't seen as many matches as Danny had, but what he had seen agreed with that. "You think we could've beat one of them?" he asked as he picked at a scab on his arm; the result of gravel shifting and Max scraping the arm against rock.

Danny delved into deep thought for a moment, remembering what he had seen, probably. "One of them for sure. The other might be easier for you than for me." Danny smiled wryly. "You're probably better at beating that ditto."

Probably true, Max had to admit. Training and using a ditto in combat was one of the most difficult challenges for a Trainer to master, and anyone using one would have a ton of Pokémon knowledge to draw on; something Max was usually better at than Danny. Not by much, and both of them were just way better than nearly everyone else out there, but Max was also faster, which was important in battles. "The other Pokémon of hers I saw weren't that good. She's relying on the ditto, a lot."

"If it works, don't knock it."

Truth, Max admitted, but it still wasn't a surprise when the old man beat the ditto handily, coming out strong and then sending out a tangrowth that managed to poison the ditto first. He also won the finals, but that could have gone either way.

The Pokémon Center was fairly busy, but Nurse Joy had thought ahead, telling everyone who had participated in the tournament to grab a tray, write down their name on a piece of taped-on paper, and then just leave the full trays at the desk, where they were picked up to let the Pokémon be healed. "Good idea," Danny opined as they headed back to their room, mostly to go and have a shower before dinner. "Why don't they do this every time there's a tournament?"

"Beats me," Max replied honestly. "Maybe if one of the Pokémon needs special help? Like a broken wing or something."

"Could still just tell Nurse Joy."

Max fumbled with the pocket containing the key to their room. The cloth had wrapped around the metal. Somehow. "That's true." He opened the door, and immediately regretted the decision to not open a window that morning. "How did it get so warm in here? There's an entire mountain to the south!"

Danny just laughed, heading left to their beds while Max went over to the window. "There's a letter here for you," he said as Max reached over the desk to open the window. "Three guesses who it's from, first two don't count." He threw it over. "I'll take the shower first. I smell more than you anyway."

A few minutes later, Max had abandoned their room for a spot in the cafeteria. He opened the letter, and put it down beside his fizzy drink, smoothing the folded paper and making sure it stayed flat and put.

Hey Max!

Guess what! Vulpix made Confuse Ray work. It took a lot of practice to get it to work on other Pokémon at first. Every time he used it on me, everything went weird for a minute or two, but I guess Pokémon really are better against stuff like that. Thanks for the tip! It actually helped me, too: there was this sneaky Ghost Pokémon trying to sneak up on me, but because I've been confused so often I knew to call for help. Lucky, right?

Maël and I talked last week, and Geosenge is mostly normal again. They're saying there's going to be some kind of statue to remember the dead near the edge of town. Near where you beat yveltal. It's probably not going to be done for a while, but promise you'll come back and check it out when it is?

Max paused, spotting the letter continuing with a different colour ink below. A chuckle escaped him, and he took a moment to drink. Hugo often did that, being distracted by something and then picking it up later that day.

So something just happened. There is this girl in the Pokémon Center I'm staying in, and she suddenly just fell forward out of nowhere. She just went limp and she nearly hit her head on a chair, but kirlia was out. She was so fast, stopping the girl from falling forward. It was some kind of epilepsy, and the girl said she hadn't had an attack like that in years. She thanked me for helping her, we got to talking, and now we're going to her home town together so she can get checked in the hospital. It's the next city with a Gym, so it's not a problem, but I've never travelled together with anyone. And she's a girl, too. That's kind of weird.

Going to stop now, we're leaving tomorrow, and I'm yawning like crazy. Kirlia's already asleep on her pillow, too. Hope everything's going okay in Johto!

Hugo

The chuckle turned into a full smile and a bit of wonder at how Hugo had managed to find himself a travelling partner while saving someone from hurting herself. It was a bit more normal than how Ash had started travelling with Misty and May, but that wasn't saying much. The letter was about a week old now, so they'd probably reached that city, and for a moment, he wanted to start writing a response.

Then he caught a whiff of his armpits and that went out the window. It'd have to wait.

~~§~~§~~

Hiking around the foothills of Mount Mortar was tiring, but so much easier to do with Pokémon to help out after the day's walking was done. Last time they'd been out camping in areas this rocky, the most help they had were some of Ash's Pokémon at best, and they weren't as useful for this. Now, Danny realised as he watched gardevoir haul suitable rocks over to secure their tent with, it was a lot easier. The Psychic-type was also holding the tent in place as well, just because he could.

Fairly strong winds – gales up to forty miles an hour – were predicted overnight, and while two teenagers and two packs inside would probably hold the tent down just fine, they weren't going to take the risk. The ground was way hard to sink pegs into, so they were just going to use overlarge stones to make sure the wind wouldn't send them flying overnight.

Perhaps it was a mistake, being this high up, but it was beautiful up here too, with lots of great pictures to take. Danny had already shot at least a dozen that day, though it was getting pretty dark now, so it'd probably stay that way.

He looked off to the side, seeing Max wrangle with a petulant shelgon while dinner was stewing. The dragon didn't like it when someone touched the ridges on his shell, and today was worse than usual: the desire to not have that obviously at odds with the respect and love he felt towards Max.

If Danny knew Max, there were soothing words being whispered, but being upwind and a fair distance away, he wasn't able to hear it through the wind hitting the mountain. He turned back to look at the tent, finding that the last stone had been placed down. "Looks good, gardevoir," Danny told the humanoid Pokémon, walking around their cover and testing if one stone wasn't easily dislodged before stopping his tests. They looked like each weighed half as much as he did; a casual tug wouldn't move them. "Was it easier to hold both tent and stone this time?"

The Psychic-type didn't reply telepathically, to Danny's minor relief. He'd gotten a lot better at it, being able to easily communicate in full sentences, but volume control was an ongoing problem. Instead, a not-quite solemn nod was the answer, and it told Danny more than enough.

They went and joined Max, Danny walking, the gardevoir practising short-range Teleports, and the older teenager noticed a radio softly playing something twice as old as they were nearby. "Found the old people's station?" he teased as shelgon complained. "I think shelgon's objecting."

"It's the only thing that's not static. Mountain's not helping," Max replied, concentrating on using the hard and thin brush to scrub the dragon skin. "Just one more, shelgon. You can do it."

He could, but there was obvious relief when the mid-stage Pokémon waddled away, a minute or so later. "Fussy, isn't he?"

"The two on the side grow into the wings," Max said as he put the brush back in the grooming kit. "They're pretty sensitive to small things like this."

"Not usable in battle, then?" Danny said, checking the food. It needed a few minutes more, and from the taste of it, maybe some seasoning.

Max shook his head. "You don't break out in laughter when there's water flowing down your sides in the shower, but tickling would do that."

Danny hadn't thought of it that way, but the analogy made a lot of sense now that it had been pointed out.

They busied themselves with fixing dinner; Danny taking over cooking duties and Max making sure their Pokémon got food as well. Out here, they could send out every Pokémon they could ever want to, and they were taking every opportunity to do that.

One of them wasn't used to it yet, though. Danny's new houndour – caught two weeks ago just south of Ecruteak – hadn't yet gotten used to the fact that food was easily available instead of having to be hunted for. They had found her injured in the grass with one immediately apparent reason for it: a piece of antler had pierced one of her paws. Grazes and cuts had covered the Dark-type's body, making both of them guess that she had lost a fight a while before the boys found her.

It had taken some quick talking, half a dozen Protects – some needed, some not – and the promise that she could just be released if she wanted to for the smart canine to let herself be talked into a pokéball. It was the fastest way for her to get medical help after all: a quick call to Pallet Town and someone would make sure it happened. They'd found out it was actually a fairly common occurrence for the lab to get one of those calls, averaging about four a week and getting in about triple that in Pokémon that needed healing sooner rather than later.

It wouldn't have stopped them from helping the houndour if she had refused, and Danny had been more than willing to carry houndour the distance to the nearest Pokémon Center, but this was easier.

Once healed, she'd shown her thanks by licking both of them until they wanted to take another shower, and she'd chosen Danny as her Trainer, even thought it had been one of Max's pokéballs that had done the capturing.

Two weeks on, she was fitting in nicely, except for the food. They were giving it to her in portions for now, and she was trying, but three or four years of habits – as estimated by one of the assistants in Pallet – were hard to break.

Just after dinner was done, the evening news came on the radio, and Danny tuned in to that. There was some domestic news first: some famous actor had died suddenly, but he couldn't put a face to the name; an initiative to introduce Alolan Pokémon to the Safari Zone had started; and the winner of the Johto Grand Festival had been honoured in his home town. "Foreign news. First Minister Santi of Hoenn today announced..."

Danny looked up and saw Max listening intently, his mood visibly worsening as the news was read.

On account of the still-ongoing attacks, Mt. Pyre had been closed to the public for safety's sake. A predictable set of Gym Leaders and Elite Four members were on record as opposing it, but with how much the government had done to restrict Dark, Ghost, and Psychic-types, it would have been more surprising if those five hadn't been on record. The only odd one out was LeeAnn, but she was from around there, so maybe that was something regional?

As usual whenever nearly anything from Hoenn came on the news these days, Max looked like he wanted to find whoever was responsible and throw them in prison single-handedly. Most Pokémon picked up on it, reacting in predictable ways: clefairy and shelgon drew closer to Max, manectric nuzzled her snout into Max's thigh, and sceptile's movements as he ate dinner became terse.

A whine from nearby made Danny look down, and he spotted a confused houndour. "It's a long story, houndour," Danny said, putting his half-empty bowl on his lap and using his now free hand to look for the spot that the Dark-type really liked under her chin. A flare-up of heat under his fingers told him he'd found it a moment later. "I'll tell you after you had your dinner."

The Dark-type suddenly left, moving over to where the Pokémon were eating, and then returning with her own bowl in her mouth, offering it to Danny, tail wagging and eyes attempting to do a puppy impression. She was pretty bad at that, though.

"You want me to tell it?" Max asked suddenly, and when Danny looked up, he noticed Max half-smiling at the Dark-type's antics. A small smile, sure, but still a smile. It widened after houndour went over to him, bowl and wagging tail and all. "I'm going to take that as a yes."

"We'll eat dinner first, then you get your second portion, and then we'll go talk about it," Danny told houndour. Ears drooped, but something told him it was far more playful than anything else. "Patience is a virtue, you know that."

She did, but the derisive snort said loud and clear that she didn't agree with the idea.

~~§~~§~~

"And done," Serena told Danny and Max as she pressed 'Send'. Poliwhirl's pokéball vanished, and a little moving ball in the screen showed that the Water-type was on her way to her Trainer again. "Thanks again for letting me borrow her. And don't give me that answer!"

Max feigned a sheepish look on the other end, but Serena knew better. "What are you going to use Rain Dance for? Most of your team's good with sun in Doubles."

"Actually, can't you do something around weather switching?" Danny chimed in from the side. "Cherrim and ducklett, and change Weather Ball around a bit? Catch everyone off-guard."

"That is… That's brilliant!" Serena exclaimed in response. "I wanted to teach ducklett Rain Dance because it's a good way to get her in her element, but that was only alone or maybe with altaria. How do you come up with all those ideas?"

"You know him," Max said while Danny preened. "It's instinctive." More preening. "Too bad you couldn't convince Morty to make it two on two."

Serena giggled, having been told the story of the open-minded and laid-back Gym Leader. "So, you're… Near Mahogany now, right?"

Danny nodded. "One day away probably, but Max wanted poliwhirl back, so we're spending the night here."

"I guessed that you would be leaving for your next Contest tomorrow," Max said. "You've been in Saffron for a week now, right? And the Contest was yesterday? How'd it go?"

With a flourish, Serena produced the case she had bought to put her ribbons in. It was a nice cream, with stickers of her five Pokémon on it. "Look for yourself," she said, opening it and revealing the quartet of ribbons inside; only the middle slot left open because it looked better that way. "Braixen's Fire Spin and Psybeam got me fourth place in the Appeals, and I had a bit of luck in the semi-finals. Opponent was using a green wormadam that knew Attract."

That caused both of them to laugh. "Jackpot," Max said, snapping his fingers. "Four already and still two months left. That's pretty good. Told you you'd make a good Coordinator."

"Well, not having to worry about stuff like Team Flare makes things easy. And I don't have to wait for you to do Gym Battles either," Serena retorted. It was always good when they did stuff like this. "I got beat really hard the one before last, but it was fine. The woman who beat me was just better. Her pidgeot was amazing in the air."

"If she had red hair and is from Pewter, you just lost to the Grand Festival winner of nearly three years ago," Max told her. "You already found out about it?"

"Old Grand Festival winners get special introductions, or maybe that was just there," Serena said. "Won't deny I wasn't a bit nervous, but after hanging out with you crazies..." She gave them a smile, and the boys reacted as expected. "Anyway, now that we're talking… Anything you want to recommend near Lavender Town, Max? Apart from the Battle Dome."

"There's supposed to be this haunted building in Lavender," Max said. "I kind of wanted to see it when I was with Ash and Brock, but they weren't too eager to go there and May was scared out of her mind at even thinking of going there. Of course," he added. "And I'm still going to say the Battle Dome because the guy in charge is very showy. Could learn a thing or two if there's someone on the circuit."

Oh, right, that was a question that she had. "How many are invited anyway? I know Ash is one of the last ones to complete it, but I can't find anything else."

Max shrugged, raising his hands. "Dunno either. Maybe thirty people get invited every year, and most of them stop after one or two? I could try to ask Ash if he knows."

Serena waved the offer away. "Nah. Was just wondering." An idea popped into her mind. "You're probably going to be two of them if you do well in the Silver Conference."

That didn't catch Max off-guard, though Danny was a bit surprised. "Yeah," Max said, grinning a bit. "That'd be awesome. I'd be down for that, definitely."

"Of course you are," Serena and Danny said simultaneously, and the three of them burst into laughter at the synchronicity.

~~§~~§~~

There were advantages to arriving a day or two early at scientific conferences. Having time to prepare for whatever was to be presented was one of them, as well as room for transportation to not work for some reason. Personally, Oak also rather liked that he would have an extra day to recover from the flight, but that was mostly related to his taking of medicine against airsickness: it gave him more time to recover from the pills' effects, should there be any.

This time, it seemed he had lucked out, apart from drowsiness while on the plane. That was long past now, and as he briskly walked down the carpeted hallway of the Snowpoint City hotel, Oak fingered a foreign pokéball in his coat. An Ultra Ball, because of course his grandson would spend money on frivolous things like that for all of his Pokémon, but that mattered little.

He found the room he was looking for, and he knocked thrice, firmly.

Maxim Birch opened the door, barely missing a beat as he saw who was at his door at ten at night. He stepped out without a word, locking the door behind him. "Whereto?

Acuity Lakefront was quiescent in the light of the full moon. It was surprisingly cool for a mid-May evening, but they were as northerly as the Home Regions went, and at slight altitude. Oak had come prepared. "This should stop anyone from overhearing us."

Birch laughed mirthlessly. "I wish we didn't need to take these precautions, but that, like other wishes I have, seems to be a dream now." The taller Professor looked over at the borrowed alakazam. "I assume a barrier is well within your capabilities?"

The answer was obvious. "I imagine it is liberating to be out of Hoenn, even for a moment," Oak observed neutrally. "I know you can't say it in calls, but how are you, Maxim?"

If the other Professor was surprised by the sudden use of his first name, he didn't show it. "There is more and more pressure on me and mine every week," he said as he bent down to grab a handful of grass, starting to fiddle with the small blades. "Mostly carrots: promises of grants if we would do research into certain Pokémon types. We've rejected every one so far, the last few unanimously."

"Few things are more annoying than interfering busybodies," Oak had to agree. No self-respecting scientist liked it when politicians ran roughshod over their area of expertise. "Do you expect them to switch to the stick?"

"Not without a catalyst of some kind. These requests are within the purview of the agencies asking for them," Birch told him. It was the same in Kanto, more or less. "And I fear it can't be long before that occurs. Festival season is upon us; even Ever Grande if they can somehow get their equipment there. Myriad targets, and of course, they are never noticed."

How deep did the corruption go, Oak had to wonder as well. "You know my laboratory is always open."

"I was thinking of asking Rowan the same, formally," Birch said, to Oak's surprise. "Image is important, and asking you for help after you helped my nephew and Max would not go over well. Speaking of… They're still doing their thing?"

Oak's answer was to produce a heavy envelope. Tracey had mentioned that he would be going to the conference, and not two hours later, his private email had been filled pictures of with teenagers and Pokémon in a forest Oak recognised very well. "It might not be safe to take these back to Hoenn," he warned as Birch opened the envelope. The light of the moon was enough to view the pictures; the top one showing two teenagers standing side by side with one arm each over the other's shoulder – helped by an off-screen Psychic-type providing Max with an invisible box to stand on, no doubt. "As far as I know, nobody has tried to get them back to Hoenn by force."

"Small blessings. Let's hope they have a normal journey and a normal life now. Or whatever passes for normal for them."

~~§~~§~~

The Mahogany Gym was easy to find, but it looked very different from what the Trainer's Guide showed and what Ash had told them a while back. He certainly hadn't mentioned statues of piloswine and articuno out front. "Articuno, okay, I get, but piloswine? Starter, I guess?"

Max shrugged beside him as they opened the gate. "Probably. You think I can get some tips on raising swinub from him?"

"You sure can," a woman said from the side, and both of them turned to see an older woman, brown, curly hair with hints of grey walking up. "'n I recognise your faces. Here to make an appointment for a battle?"

It was the norm by now: every Gym Leader was following Falkner's example of wanting to gauge their strength first. "Told you we'd need to wait," Danny told Max, who had hoped it wasn't the case, but after four times that it had happened… The fifth seemed likely.

"It's not what you think. The freezing element in the arena was damaged an hour back, so we're out of a battlefield for now," the woman told them. "I should probably put a sign up or something, but we did call the Center to let the trainers know."

"We were out looking at the town first," Max said as they walked in the door, revealing a spacious lobby with parts sectioned off. "Renovations?"

"Uhuh. Spruce the place up a bit," the woman said. She walked to a standing desk and fished out an appointment book. "I don't think we're going to get this fixed today, 'n Pryce doesn't battle on Sundays. You two okay with Monday afternoon? Last battles before closing?"

It was a lot faster than Whitney and Morty had given them battles "Sounds fine, er… ma'am?"

"Call me Sheila," came the reply as she wrote down something in the book. "Actually… There's a school class coming in at two, 'n we don't have anything planned yet for that. Would you mind..."

"No," Danny replied. To his surprise, he'd really enjoyed the presentation back in November, despite the amount of children watching. "We've done that before, back in Hoenn." Max agreed as well. "Dunno about Max, but if they have questions, I'm fine with answering them as well."

He had expected to need to prod Max into agreeing, but a quick "Dito," surprised Danny. "How old is the group that's coming?"

"Ten 'n eleven year olds. They might have some good questions for ya!" Shelia said as she finished her writing with a flourish and a demonstrative putting down of the pen. "I'll send the teacher over to the Center so he knows if there's anything you don't want to talk about." She winked at them. "We might be rural, but I do watch the news."

~~§~~§~~§~~§~~

We agree that closing Mt. Pyre in its entirety is a heavy-handed move, given the importance of the memorials inside. However, Ghost-types are capable of going invisible and moving through solid layers of mountain and concrete. We can detect the latter from afar with sensors, should they ever cross the Lilycove Inlet, but there is no protection for those caught inside. Hence, we opted for this, in the interest of public safety. As soon as the current crisis is resolved, we will immediately rescind these restrictions.

– First Minister Santi, on Hoenn Tonight

Author's Note: Timeskip away, of about three months. Nothing much happened, and the few somewhat important things that did happen, like Danny catching himself a canine of his own, are touched upon either this or next chapter. Cutting out the filler arc, so to speak.