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 36: A Fearful Reunion
A daycare. It was such a simple target: high impact, low risk of being caught, high traffic around, way too many of them in the country. After the spate of indiscriminate attacks plaguing Hoenn, deliberate targeting was likely to occur. They had gone for the teenagers and young adults in Slateport; the heart of government in Mauville; and now the young in Fallarbor.
He had time until the meeting. The outcome was inevitable regardless; a result of who his friends were. Similar conversations took place elsewhere. Types of Pokémon, now illegal. Quarantined except for those deemed worthy. He would not have problems; but it would take time. Others would not be so lucky; Trainer careers, crippled or snuffed out in a flash.
It was staggering without the information he had. It was terrifying after the revelation that he had been granted earlier that year. Tales straight out of university literature reading. Fear and uncertainty permeating the land; long-time friends looking at each other with distrust. And for what? For fleeting power?
Power was nothing if not backed by force. Moving as such meant that movers suspected they had the force. But what was it? Few supported them. One was a colleague, and four were a tier down; one recently installed as a replacement. History was riddled with the tales of those who moved too soon and paid the price. What made them so certain that they could stand up when the disenfranchised elite rose up?
Sidney knew not what, nor did he hope to find out.
~~§~~§~~
The Pokénav call ended, and Keith… Just sat there. In the small tent, out south of Canalave, early in the wet morning.
"You okay?" Jane asked, nudging him with her foot. She looked shaken, too, though, but she tried to hide it.
Keith had figured out this tell months ago. "No, and neither are you." His eyes stung, and he reached for his pack, looking for the toilet paper.
She accepted a wad gratefully, and both of them blew their noses. "It's not fair. Can't they just have half a year of peace and quiet?" Then, softer. "Danny's got to be feeling terrible. Way worse than he sounded."
"He sounded pretty down," Keith replied, which got him a roll of his girlfriend's eyes. "It's true."
"You'd be worse if I was kidnapped tomorrow. Or in hospital. And don't try to be tough. I've seen you hover when I'm ill or when cramps are terrible," Jane shot back, somehow managing to make it sound like a strange mix of scolding and love. "Those two basically share a brain at this point. Danny should be a wreck."
"Why wasn't he?"
"I don't know. Really don't. Just hope he's not going to do something stupid."
Keith didn't have it in him to reply with something she'd said before: that all teenage boys were pretty stupid by nature.
~~§~~§~~
With a muttered apology, Ash got on charizard's back again, and the draconic Pokémon rose into the air. They quickly ascended to a good distance above the sea, but there weren't any boats to be seen nearby. "South-east," he said, and one of his oldest Pokémon veered in that direction instantly as Ash adjusted the five other pokéballs on his belt.
He knew that it wasn't going to do much. Lance had told him that. Gary had rubbed it in too. If there was even a small chance of finding Max, though… Ash was going to search and try to find one of his friends. It was the least he could do.
And if Lance's suspicion was right, that the Hoenn government was responsible… He was of half a mind to head over there and start thrashing places to find the teenager himself. Danny would help, as would probably half the Gym Leaders and most of the Elite Four. Maybe it'd even get May to pull her head from the sand or however that saying went.
Ash spotted something in the distance. "A bit left," he said over the sound of the rushing wind, and charizard adjusted course for the speck that could be a boat; that could be some place Max was hidden. It would be the fourth boat of the morning, and the fifth speck.
He still wasn't certain what that mystery thing had been. It had looked like an island, but it wasn't there or something? It wasn't even that hot: there shouldn't be any heat mirages or anything out on the open sea...
This speck did turn out to be a boat. One with a woman bathing topless. A good-looking woman bathing topless, and scared after a charizard landed ten feet away.
After apologising and leaving with the heaviest blush he could remember, Ash reflected that, thankfully, pikachu wasn't here to make fun of him.
His starter would have been laughing for weeks.
~~§~~§~~
It had been eighty-six hours since Max had been abducted, and to Danny's slight disgust, he was coping with it. He'd mostly fixed his sleep after the first night, found a pastime in demolishing any Trainers willing to take a challenge – in fair fights: he wasn't that cruel – and he'd talked things over with Professor Oak as well. What had happened still wasn't to his liking, but as Gary had said: it was understandable.
That realisation had caused him to apologise for being so angry, or attempt to anyway, but the Professor had silenced him with a single gesture. "You are fourteen. That alone is enough to occasionally be irrationally angry," the Kantonian had stated, as if he was discussing something like the day's weather. "But as my grandson quite vociferously stressed this morning, your anger is as rational as can be. And I must admit to having forgotten your age for a moment."
"What?" Danny had replied, dumbfounded.
"I am certain you've heard it before, but you are uncommonly mature for your age. Add your knowledge of Pokémon and science, and the chaos that was yesterday, and I completely forgot that I was dealing with someone in the middle of adolescence, with the moods to match." A thoughtful look had passed over the Professor's face. "Though I doubt I would've reacted the same had the situation been reversed between you and Max."
"Why's that?"
"Physically, you could pass for a year or two older, with few tells to your actual age. It is somewhat the opposite for Max, and my memories of him being here for the first time with the same style of hair certainly don't help. But that is enough reminiscence for today."
Lance had come by soon after, confirming what everyone had expected: nothing had been found, which meant that all they had to go on was whatever they could get out of the captured six mercenaries. That hadn't had any results yet, but the Grand Champion had said he was optimistic that one or two of them could shed a light on who had been there along with them.
If it was up to Danny, he'd ask gardevoir to take the information by force, but there were laws against that. Gary had told them that back in June.
Speaking of Gary… For someone who flat out told Danny they'd be having these chats nightly, for reasons that smelled of being made up on the spot, he was running late.
It was another five-ish minutes until the cocky teenager appeared in the same spot he'd sat in previously. "Sorry. Debriefing ran long, and had to pick something up."
Debriefing? Could it… "One of them talked?"
"No," Gary said bluntly, taking something from the small bag he was carrying. "But whatever Reginald is, he's an arceus-sent genius at connecting information. He's got an idea of who could be behind it. You're leaving at noon."
Danny nodded, remembering an apologetic Gym Leader who had taken the anger out of tired sails by promising that they'd go to Hoenn together as soon as possible. He'd been packed for that for a day now. "I should probably head to bed soon, then."
"You might want to wait. This came in for you with the evening post," Gary said, extending his hand to hold out an envelope. A letter.
A lampent – Gary's own, Danny knew from two nights ago – provided the light to read by. He recognised Alice's script easily, but when he got into the letter itself, he felt his eyebrows go higher and higher in astonishment. Along with his temper. "She… She managed to get Paul to talk and now she's asking if… If we'd be okay with not trying him as an adult." She'd spelled out the differences pretty clearly. "And asking me if I could convince Max."
"Give me that before you crumple it," Gary commanded, and Danny obliged, noticing only then that he'd gripped it pretty harshly. Lampent went over as well, allowing its Trainer to skim the letter. "I don't know," was said, eventually. "He sounds repentant enough, and he was least into it."
"How d'you know that?"
"Simple. He broke. Easily. Means there's either doubt or awareness of consequences."
"You threatened him with the wrath of gardevoir."
"An empty threat. I know the laws. I told Max about them a few minutes before," Gary reminded him needlessly. "It wouldn't work on the others because they would call my bluff. Your former friend wouldn't do that." He leaned forward as lampent added some more fire to the pit, allowing Danny to see actual features of the area around him. "You probably don't want to think about this now, huh. And you're not feeling forgiving at all at the moment."
"Oak observations at their best," Danny snarked back, fighting down a blush a moment later, but refraining from apologising. The younger Oak had made it clear that he wouldn't accept any apologies because they weren't needed. "I want Max back. Anything else is a distant second."
"More like distant fifth," Gary corrected. "So here's an idea. I go and talk to the dude, see if he's as apologetic as his sister makes it sound. I know what's up and Gramps can probably lean enough to make it work without you two."
That sounded okay enough. "Sure. Fine. If you think that he's sincere, then I'll believe you. But you have to convince Max, not me."
"Sure." The other teenager hesitated, and Danny thought he wanted to say something, but then decided better of it. Or not. "Oh. Fuck it," Gary swore. "Look. I'm not good with friends. Told you that. But ya know, you and Max are two of them. So get him back. By any means necessary."
At that, the teenager suddenly lobbed a pouch. It crashed against Danny's rib cage, and there was something hard in there. Opening it revealed a round object – a Mega Stone that he didn't immediately recognise. It looked familiar, though. "What's this?"
"Gardevoirite. Your uncle found it and passed it on to me. Use it to rescue Max. It should break through the disruptor."
That was still theoretical, but the science and logic behind it was sound enough. Still… "And if Max..."
"If he's not able to, then you will."
The certainty took Danny aback. "What..."
"Makes me say that? Simple. Whatever part of the required bond you lack, empathy can bridge. Whatever thoughts you need; telepathy will reveal. It won't be as effective probably – and that's guesswork – but it should get the job done. And probably cause us to rewrite the literature on Mega Evolution again. As you keep doing."
Funny. Gary sounded like he didn't mind that at all.
~~§~~§~~
The boat was pretty battered and old, and it looked like there barely was enough room below deck for three people at the same time, let alone the four that they now were. The way Reginald greeted the old man and his son told Danny enough of a reason why, though.
The Hoennites went below deck, and though there was somehow more room than he'd anticipated, it still didn't look like it was enough if the weather went bad and they'd have to spend the night here. A bit of light filtered in through a small window. They dropped their packs in a corner, and the Gym Leader patted a mat, telling Danny to sit. "You are owed an explanation. How much did Oak tell you about the government?"
"The basics, and that's still insane," Danny replied, biting back on swearing. He'd been doing a lot of that, but Reginald was a bit more stuck up than Professor Oak. "They're responsible for the attacks? How's nobody noticing!?"
"The same reason Team Flare and Team Rocket went unnoticed in Kalos and Kanto for so long. Hiding things is easy if you control the investigation, and they've been cautious in setting everything up." Reginald looked at Danny. "This is something that's been planned for a long time. Longer than you've been a Trainer. The complexity alone tells me that."
"Complexity?"
"We still don't know the owner of that 'private facility'. Or how what is essentially Team Rocket technology ended up in the hands of Hoenn politicians. The tracks run cold, almost too perfectly. Those we capture either do not talk or know little of importance. It is vexing."
"How do you know where to go, then?" Danny asked in return. Gary had said Reginald had figured that out.
"Knowing is not correct. A shrewd guess is the best I have," the older man admitted. "One politician in Hoenn conveniently went away for a medical check-up in Johto, where his brother is a surgeon. This politician used to work in Hoenn's intelligence agency – a spy – and he has just returned again after some unspecified complications with his check-up. He is also a very vocal proponent of what was enacted after the Fallarbor attack on Wednesday morning."
Danny thought it over. "That's… You think he's responsible?"
"He's the best lead I have," Reginald replied gravely. "It is perhaps too convenient and it could be mere coincidence. Yet time is of importance. The longer we wait for the trail to grow cold, the more chance there is that your friend is suddenly 'found', the charges against him are conveniently reinstated, and he spends the rest of his adolescence in juvenile detention or worse." The boat rocked a bit, and the forty-something year old gave Danny a serious look. "We have maybe three days once we arrive."
"So we go find this guy's house and… Hope Max is there?"
"That was the original, ill-thought-out, idea, but earlier today, one comment from Frontier Brain Anabel provided me with alternate inspiration. It will require some amount of practice, but do you think that you and gardevoir can practice so that his Teleport to a person – to Maple – leaves him at a small distance? Say two hundred feet or so."
It took him only a moment to figure out what the purpose was. "He'll move heaven and earth for that," Danny said confidently. "Don't think it'll take long. He kept distance naturally when he first learned to do it. Only thirty feet or so, but the principle of Teleporting in closer and staying further away should be similar enough." He looked at the pack, knowing exactly where Max's pokéballs were. As well as the gardevoirite.
"That'll be what you do tomorrow while I reconnoitre the area and contact people. Then, if he's there, we strike on Monday."
"Where are we going anyway?"
"The safest place to be if you're an unwanted guest in a country is a place that nobody ever goes to," Reginald replied cryptically. "Luckily, the Hoenn government has provided us with such a place by virtue of their policies."
It wasn't hard to follow. It also wasn't what Danny had really meant. "Mt. Pyre, but I meant the place we'd have to go. It's not like, near Petalburg or something?"
"No, it's not. Raphael Paulson has an apartment in Mauville, as most in parliament do. His other home is near Purika Town, on Izabe Island."
"As if Max needed more reasons to hate the place. If he's there."
"Indeed."
~~§~~§~~
Max stretched in the small cell, feeling his clothes stick to him from wearing them four days in a row. At least, he thought it was four days. Was it?
One day of boat, then… A meal he'd had to wait for a long time. Then two per day. He thought? Probably?
The door slammed open. Muscles locked up as the gardevoir – the controlled gardevoir – grabbed him. In a strangely familiar grip, too. There was no resisting it. Not if he wanted to stay strong. He needed to stay strong. "Let's talk about your escape from justice," his captor said in that fake voice. "How did you get to Kanto?"
Max gathered all his mental strength, wanting to resist the mental probe he knew was coming. They could do that. He knew that, and he knew it was possible to resist.
But again, it didn't. For the fourth day running. "Let me go."
That caused his arm to be twisted behind his back. Max resisted the grunt of pain. "No. I think not," the man said, and suddenly, all pressure on the teenager vanished, and he collapsed onto the ground. His nearly slammed into the floor before the gardevoir… Put him in a sitting position? Only that? "Your insistence on demanding freedom serves you poorly. Nobody is coming for you, whelp. It is in the best interest to answer before gardevoir… slips."
Max didn't answer, instead looking at the unmoving, unblinking, unwilling gardevoir to his captor's side. No emotion whatsoever in its – her? – eyes. A slave. A slave to the armband. He missed his own wristband. Manectric… "They'll find me. And you'll be sorry."
"Kid. They don't know where you are. You don't know where you are," the man told him, before leaning in. "You are all alone. No Pokémon. No power. Just you and me. And you know I'll break you. Just a few more days, I think. You're used to luxury, even as a Trainer. Throw a little headwind at you and you crumble. It's pathetic, and you are pathetic."
Max forced himself to reject the words. They weren't true. Gardevoir could find him. He was in Hoenn. His Pokémon would find him. Help him. Help him destroy. "Fuck. You."
The man let out an exaggerated sigh, and Max steeled himself. He knew what would come. It was the same yesterday. What he thought was yesterday. "Still an obstinate whelp. Don't worry. There's a new trick, just for you."
Suddenly, arms and legs collapsed. On themselves. Max's chin went to the ground. Glasses flew off. Kind of him. Arms in. Legs in. Head down.
"Five minutes will do."
Arms met legs met torso met vague burning met pressure met uncomfortable met familiar. Better than stretching first, but as Max's mental count passed seventy, or so, it turned… Burning.
Muscles locked in place in bad position. Unwashed legs sticking to trousers. Trousers pressing into underarms. Under watchful gaze. Hated gaze. Painful gaze. Familiar energy.
Why? Why familiar? Pokémon differed. Burning. Ralts felt different than gardevoir. Different touch. Like fingerprint. Signature. Pain tearing. This energy. Familiar. Why? Felt before? Searing, bone-searing. Where? When? Before-before? Pain. Memory. Sadness. Pain. Izabe. Pain. Mauville. Pain.
Screaming. Time passing. Blessed collapse, unwilling to move. "Disappointing," a curse, but leaving man. Leaving gardevoir.
Hands, arms, wrists. Lift up. Glasses. Where's glasses? Same place as normal? What is normal?
Normal, this isn't. But it is. Until he is rescued, it is. 'Please, Danny. Come. Come without gardevoir,' he adds, thinking the unthinkable.
Sorrowful reunions ended badly. Gardevoir and his mother would be same.
~~§~~§~~
It was something like midnight by the time that Mt. Pyre came into view, rising up in the mist that covered the inlet. Reginald ordered something from ahead, and both salamence and the pack flygon adjusted their path to head for the dock, as they'd discussed on the boat earlier.
Pokémon definitely lived up on the mountain, and landing inside a Pokémon habitat, at midnight, had not sounded like a good idea to either of them. Apart from a fight catching attention in case someone was looking, however unlikely, it was home turf for Ghost-types, and they could easily swarm the two of them. At the same time, though, there was a decent chance that the history of Mt. Pyre as a human memorial place had kept the Ghost-types – and occasional vulpix – from the lower interior levels.
The choice had been easy after they'd walked through the two options verbally.
A minute later, all the dragons landed, and Danny got off of his ride. He was happy to be back on solid ground, though it had been a better flight than the last few times he'd been on one. "Thanks for being gentle," he told the salamence, careful to give it a soft rub on its neck only. Then he turned to the adult, who was returning all his Dragon-types. "Let's go in?"
The Gym Leader agreed, and after strapping their packs to their backs – loosely, because they weren't going to go that far in – they entered the closed-down memorial.
It was even eerier than the last time they'd been there, not helped by the unnatural colour of dusclops's Will-O-Wisp providing them light to walk by in the interior darkness. Footsteps echoed as they placed them down, and Danny soon adjusted his step to be quieter, lighter. Neither of them said anything as they moved past, onto the first floor…
Where light filtered through from rooms ahead? What the hell? It didn't look – or feel or smell – like fire, which left that there was either a Pokémon gathering up ahead or other humans. Probably the second. Nocturnal Pokémon didn't need that much light.
A mimed conversation quickly took place, ending with both of them taking out a pokéball – froslass for Danny – and advancing carefully, and in silence.
"Stop skulking, and I won't turn your brains into mush."
The voice somehow came from all sides, but it was a familiar one. "Phoebe?" Reginald said, figuring it out a bit faster. "Is that you?"
"Reginald? Is that you?" the former Elite Four member returned, her voice suddenly only coming from up ahead. Lights on the walls flickered on – every fourth torch – and the short woman appeared in view. "The hell are you doi… What the fuck?"
The former Gym Leader waited for her to at least recover a bit, Danny thought. "We've come to Hoenn to find someone." He shot Danny a look, telling him to not say anything. "Given my status as a fugitive, we needed a place to stay out of sight."
"And what better place than an abandoned memorial that the government would sooner blow up than take care of," Phoebe said, clearly angry. She then took a closer look at Danny. "There's supposed to be two of you. Did something happen to your friend?"
"He is the one we need to find," Reginald said after Danny hesitated, unsure of how to respond. The casual revealing of why they were here shocked him. "He was kidnapped. We suspect he's being held somewhere in Hoenn."
"You? Only suspect? Have you lost your touch so much since you 'kidnapped' Danny here? And what for was that anyway? You've been hiding in Kanto, not caring if your home country goes to rot because of some goblins laying the groundwork for Pokémon genocide!"
Wait, what? Genocide?
"What I did was necessary. Someone was feeding information to enemies of Hoenn, and you told others about who I was," Reginald shot back, and Danny was taken aback at the venom in his voice as well. "And I would not see two legitimate heroes in prison, or worse."
"So you saved the two, and left the rest of the country to, to—"
The reason for Phoebe's stuttering was a sudden, and familiar, red glow around her. One surrounded Reginald a moment later as well, and Danny didn't even flinch when a third shuppet appeared in view, tilting its head as if trying to figure out what to do. "I'm sure you could do it," Danny said, reaching out with his free hand carefully, and being allowed to rub fingers in the nape of the Ghost-type's 'neck'. "Not sure it'd be a good meal for you."
"Damn," Phoebe said, sounding mellow and just a bit out of it. "I'm never getting used to that."
"You're the Ghost-type Master," Danny pointed out. "Shouldn't you be used to it?"
"You would think that. Honestly, I didn't use to get angry that badly before last year." She turned away from him again. "Are you okay, Reginald?"
"Do you have any idea how annoying it is to want to be angry, yet be unable to?" the Gym Leader said, almost… Whiningly? Danny put a finger in his ear. Surely he'd heard wrong. "Clarity-inducing, certainly, but it is vexing to be thrown into such a state suddenly." A shake of the head. "I need a minute or two."
"Sure. The criticism stands, by the way," Phoebe shot back before walking up to Danny, who had to look down a bit. "I know it's the shuppet's influence, but… I'm sorry for saying what I did about you and your friend. I shouldn't, you are heroes, and anything that annoys the government is good in my book."
"Uh… Okay."
"Good. Now, you have a kidnapped friend. Can I or my ghosts help?" she asked, and there was no doubt that she was sincere. Even with the shuppet influence, that couldn't be faked to that extent.
From Danny's left, Reginald chuckled. "You'll like this, Phoebe. Our chief suspect is someone you love to hate."
"Who?"
"Raphael Paulson."
The third shuppet got a bit of a snack after all.
~~§~~§~~
There was no answer on Danny's Pokénav, and when Serena had called the Oak Laboratory to ask after him, the assistant on duty had told her he was out of town, with no idea when he'd be back.
The fourteen-year-old wasn't stupid, and she'd heard better excuses from seven year olds who had done something they really shouldn't have while riding a Pokémon. The reason for Danny's Pokénav being off was that he didn't want it on, and the reason he didn't want it on was because he was somewhere that it wouldn't be safe to have it on.
Serena didn't know if the Pokénav could be used like the Holocaster had been. She thought not, but after what had happened in Kalos, all of them were a bit more cautious than normal. It would probably be on Danny's mind. It also probably wasn't the only thing that they'd picked up.
She still flinched every time she saw Hyper Beam aimed for her Pokémon, thanks to Geosenge.
Route 32, south of Violet City, was mostly sunny, and this particular Pokémon Center came with a nearby lake. After sending out altaria – who loved the weather – and ducklett, the Performer and Coordinator sat down on the wooden pier, letting her feet dangle in the cool water as she thought through what was happening.
Danny had gone to find Max. The long call they'd had on Wednesday had already confirmed that for her. He'd described what Professor Oak had done – and the apology he'd received before he'd called her. He'd talked about a heart-to-heart with Gary Oak, of all people, who'd brought a shuppet to gorge itself on Danny's anger, and that it hadn't been enough. He'd told her outright that he wanted Max back. He hadn't said at what cost, but Serena knew the two of them well enough to fill that in.
Any cost.
Sighing, she took her own Pokénav, wanting to call someone, but then she realised nobody she could call would understand. She had a couple of Coordinator rivals' numbers, but they weren't really friends, and two of them were still thinking one of the boys was her boyfriend, despite Serena repeatedly denying that. And they wouldn't know in the first place.
Evan was out – he probably knew, but wouldn't understand. Max's cousin was way too immature for stuff like this. Her Kalos friends were also not an option: it was about nine o'clock in Johto, which meant that it was like midnight in Prudan, where they were.
Serena was fine with not having that many friends on call normally – everyone did their own thing, and occasionally they had a chat. Right now, though, she needed someone to talk to.
She stared at nothing for a bit, thoughts not going anywhere, body unmoving in indecision of what to do. Ducklett went under the water and back up, covering a blue head with green duckweed. Altaria landed nearby, before waddling up and leaning a head into her back.
It was a wild quagsire and wooper pair that gave her an idea of who she could talk to. It wasn't really fair, Serena realised, to saddle Delia with this, but it was her or her son.
Ash was probably off with Danny anyway, trying to get their friend back from whichever bastards had done the kidnapping.
"Hello Serena," Delia said when she saw who was calling. The teenager still wasn't sure why the Ketchum house had a videophone, but it made things a bit easier. "Needed someone to talk to?"
"Yeah… How did you know?"
"It's written all over your face, and Professor Oak told me what happened." Mimey shuffled into view, waving happily before levitating something that looked like knitting supplies out of a crate in the background. "How are you coping, dear?"
"I… uh… Okay, I guess?" Serena replied, not really certain herself. "It's just…" Deep sigh. "Nobody else knows or understands." She cringed at how whiny it sounded. "Does it make sense that I both want to and don't want to be with Danny right now? To rescue Max?"
Delia smiled kindly. "More than you think. I have often felt similar whenever I knew Ash was up to something. You know up here," she said, tapping her head, "that you'll not help him too much, but the heart wants to anyway." Another smile. "You're not the only one feeling like that, Serena. Even Ash has it right now, if a bit different."
"Ash isn't with Danny?!"
"He wanted to," Delia replied. "But someone convinced him otherwise. Even then, I'm pretty sure he'll go after them with only half a word needed."
Serena thought for a moment, trying to figure out who could have caused Ash to not go with Danny. The list was pretty short, and after another second, she figured it was either Lance or Reginald. But that was stuff she didn't really want to talk about in a Pokémon Center. "You think Danny's going to succeed?"
The brown-haired woman paused in her answer, and it set the teenager on edge. "He will," Delia said, but her conviction sounded… Off. Just a tiny bit. "They'll be back in Kanto before you know it."
Serena thanked Delia, and somehow, she kept it together until she got to her – thankfully one-person – room. There, she collapsed onto her bed, and let the tears that had been threatening to burst through for three minutes and three days both flow.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
May Maple wins Purika Contest
Long-time Coordinator veteran May Maple, 16, won the Sunday Purika Contest, securing her a place in the November Grand Festival. Utilising her well-known penchant for controlled randomness, she caused an early stir after her skitty formed a spiralling ice sculpture with an Assist-turned-Water Gun and Blizzard, and from there, her skitty and vaporeon were dominant in the Battle Rounds, never winning with fewer than thirty points on her side.
When interviewed after the Contest was over, Maple expressed gratitude and happiness for being able to make it to the Grand Festival yet again. Her hope was to improve on the previous year's results of a semi-final, but as she also pointed out: improving on such a good result would be hard, and she called out several other Coordinators as having the skill to challenge her in that spot.