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 45: What Is Important
Walking up to the Oak Laboratory felt strange to Alice. She'd never been inside one of the big important places like one of them before. She'd dealt with Professor Birch a few times, but to be inside… It made her kind of nervous, but she knew that she'd be welcome. Gary Oak had said as much, and one of the assistants had been clear as well when she'd called earlier that week.
Linda wasn't there, though. Alice had wanted her to be, but the Unovan had just smiled one of those smiles that made the Hoennite feel like she was missing something. "You go to yer brother," she'd said. "Family is important."
The door opened without her needing to knock, and an assistant opened the door. "Ah," the man said, stepping outside. "Earlier. Should have known. He's working."
"What kind of work's he doin'?" Alice asked as she followed. The man walked fast, but she could keep up. "Somethin' went wrong?"
"No. Unless one of the new Pokémon did something. That happens."
"New Pokémon?" Alice echoed, wondering.
"Your brother is checking some newborns. Grass and Bug-types. You're not allergic?" the assistant asked, putting a hand in a coat pocket regardless. "Lum Berry extract," he told her as he put it in her hand. "Not as specialised, but will stave the worst if you breathe in spores."
She put it in her own pocket. "Tha' happen often?"
"All the time. Newborns don't have potent spores, so you should be fine." They walked through a fence, the gate moving far quieter than any on her parent's farm did. "See that copse?" her companion said after about two minutes of walking in silence.
Alice didn't know what a copse was, but the only thing nearby were some trees, and she saw something moving in there. "Tha's where he is?"
"Sure is." The assistant stopped, and Alice did so too. "Go on. He knows you're coming, but doesn't expect you until later." A wink. "A little lie to make things better."
With that in mind, Alice prepared herself to sneak up on her brother, like she'd done when they were younger and on their family's farm. It was easy, too: there was a path that looked like it'd take her around to the other side easily, so she could just surprise him from behind.
And then he walked out of the trees, and even from that distance, Alice saw him react to her, and then to the pollen released by the Pokémon in his arms.
By the time she reached him, he'd recovered from the coughing fit, and she saw a bottle like hers in his coat pocket. "Look at ya, takin' care of oddish 'n all," she said as she gave him a good look.
He looked a lot better than last time, and that was only… A week and a half ago?
"Little guy got a fever. Needs helpin'," Paul said, moving up to her. He was a lot taller, but it felt different than the last time he'd done that. "Rest is all healthy." They started walking again, and before long, a rapidash trotted up, saddlebags and all, and Paul transferred the oddish to one. Another puff of pollen erupted, but a quick step back and a very controlled burst of flame, and all of that went up in smoke, while the oddish was unharmed. "Just a fever. No need to hurry."
The horse snorted agreement, bowing its head to him, and then to Alice, before walking off, breaking into a slow trot after a bit.
"Rapidash, huh."
Paul sat down on the ground, and Alice followed her brother. "All kinds of Pokémon, sis. It's faster 'n easier to have 'em help you out, and most of them like it too." He shook his head. "It's real strange, y'know."
"Wha' is?"
"I..." Paul started, but he couldn't get the right words out or something. Alice patiently waited as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say. "It's just..." he continued, softly, "they don't blame me for..." He couldn't say it, but both of them knew. "Most of 'em, anyway. But even those who do… I'm jus' a regular helpin' hand."
"Why'd ya do it?" Alice blurted out, and she put her hands over her mouth as soon as she realised what she'd said, face heating up. "Sorry!" she squeaked. "Don't have ta answer if ya don't wanna."
Paul just fell silent, averting his head from her and placing it between his knees as a couple of Flying-types flew overhead with loud caws. He stayed that way, but Alice had no idea what to do after she'd put her foot in her mouth like that.
Just when she decided she was going to get up and leave him, he raised his head. "I was afraid, Alice," he said, barely loud enough that she could hear. "Attacks everywhere, scarin' people. Went to a few protests nearby in the weekends. It was… It was somethin'. Lotsa people just… Angry. Wantin' somethin' done." He turned towards her, and the look on his face startled her. "I… I'm sorry fer sayin' all that to ya. In Saffron. 'n after."
She just hugged him, and after a moment, her twin returned the gesture, for the first time in years. "Don't do it again," she warned him, throat a bit blocked. "I..."
"I won't. Promise."
It wasn't until the ground shook that they stopped embracing each other, but the rhydon didn't pay them any attention, and Alice wiped her eyes and found them pretty wet. Paul's were too, and she took out some tissue to help both of them. "Here."
"Thanks." They wiped their eyes in silence. "Guess I should tell ya how..."
"How ya ended up attackin'," Alice finished for him.
"Right." Paul took a deep breath, probably to calm himself. "Met someone, one day. Feelin' annoyed at somethin', forget what. He invites me to a meetin' with friends." Spit hit the ground. "Cult, 'swhat it was. Or so the shrink says. Can't say it's not. They tell me things, feed me lies, and 'fore you know it..."
"You got caught." She took a few fingers in her hand – she'd never been able to take his full hand in hers. "And I'm glad you did."
~~§~~§~~
It had been over a week since Max had gone to the Aso Mountain facility, and what he had seen there still made bile and rage vie for dominance.
Two guards, easily detected by gardevoir. Not because they stood out like Max himself did, but because they were muted, wearing clothes made from Dark-type fur that they both remembered. Nothing else was near, except for a small Pokémon a couple hundred feet behind them.
No headache intruded, but the coats meant that plan A of using meowstic to confuse them was out. Plan B it was then.
Manectric came out, nuzzling his hand for a moment before licking it, calming him and making him feel a bit ashamed at the same time. More when the Mega Stone in her collar reflected the morning sunlight. "Thanks girl," he said softly, sitting down against the side of the cliff, next to the entrance to the cave he'd spent the night in. "You've always been there for me."
Max was certain that the guards outside hadn't been able to get something through to the inside. Manectric's Thunder Wave would've fried any communications devices even if she hadn't outright sent them into convulsions for a minute, a minute during which the Pokémon – houndoom, onix, tangela, crawdaunt – were taken care of by manectric, gardevoir, and sceptile. Gardevoir sent them both into unconsciousness, Max returned sceptile, and in they went.
He scratched the only wound he'd gotten from his trip there: a scratch on his arm from a bit of rock that had jutted out. It was healed, except for being slightly raw and red. It'd fade: he'd had plenty like it before, and he'd avoided everything else.
Not for lack of trying on the side of the others, though.
A Flamethrower shot down the narrow pathway as an alarm blared, and though gardevoir stopped and snuffed the flames, the heat remained as manectric sent a low bolt of electricity that hit something, judging by the crackle. A quick motion released meowstic, who threw a Light Screen forward with force, blocking the next jet of flame by the arcanine. Gardevoir shot forward under the Light Screen's cover, and threw both human and Fire-type into the wall before the Snarl could weaken the psionic energy.
He'd never felt in danger. He had realised that a couple of days back, but thinking back really made it clear, and him slightly tired.
He didn't want to be so used to Pokémon attacks coming his way that a Flamethrower by a decently powerful arcanine in a narrow passage didn't even cause him to flinch. It was better than freezing, but it just… Felt wrong to not even feel the tiniest bit afraid. And it wasn't like he'd been respecting it either: he remembered dismissing the attacks as 'not good enough'.
Which was true, but beside the point.
Bile rose again as Max remembered what he'd seen about a minute into the main chamber.
Gardevoir went right, and dazzling pink light filled half of Max's peripheral vision on that side. Manectric stuck left, and sceptile stayed close to him, making sure there were no crobat about to dive down and get him.
Then he saw it. A tank, straight ahead. No, not one tank. Two tanks. Both full, one clearly working: a Ghost-type floating inside. Misdreavus, he thought as sceptile deflected the Shadow Ball that came straight for Max right back at sender. He glanced a look, seeing the culprit: a glaceon on the left. "Manectric, get it."
Sceptile took up the fight on the left, and meowstic came out again to protect him as vicious glee seeped through the Mega Evolution bond. Max didn't even need to see to know that gardevoir had just broken a limb on some Pokémon. Good. No mercy.
Then he saw the contents of the second tank, which was behind the first.
Time froze. Memories surged.
Reality convulsed.
Max shook his head, and when that didn't dispel the echo of rage, he stood up, taking a deep breath of fresh hilly air. It still didn't get rid of it fully, but it was good enough to turn it down to dying embers. Still, he couldn't reminisce more, unless he wanted to be lost in the sensations for most of the day.
He'd already lost half a day to that earlier in the week, and it had taken sceptile sitting him down to knock him out of it.
He took out his map, and the piece of paper that held all the information he'd gotten in the facility. It wasn't much. They'd only reactivated it recently, and they didn't know anything about how the Pokémon had been acquired, but at least they'd given him some details on how the whole process worked. He hadn't been interested in the details, but just knowing it was radio signals generated by tapping into the energy that Dark, Ghost, and Psychic-types emitted, stimulating parts of the brain that were responsible for fear and pain and anger, was something. He'd dropped Lance a coded letter with that information.
The other information was that the Trainer he'd captured alongside the scientist had been a Gym Trainer under Roxanne before. It had explained the amount of Rock-types that gardevoir had gone up against. The Sawk whose arm he had broken had been the only one that wasn't a Rock-type on that side, and looking back, it was really impressive that Max hadn't even noticed there had been rocks being launched and disintegrated everywhere on that side.
That was why he was in the hills between Verdanturf and Rustboro. He had half a mind to ask Roxanne what the hell was up, and half a mind that remembered that Gym Leaders were powerful and he didn't fancy his chances.
But there were others nearby. A name that had come up before, and again now.
Cavendish. The one who had funded the first facility, and who had a mansion north of Rustboro. The one who… Max knew next to nothing about, he realised suddenly.
An almost automatic tap sent xatu out, causing manectric to look at him strangely. "You need to stay here," Max told her, and she frowned in return. "I know, but I need to look something up, and there isn't a Trainer in miles."
She relented, but she wasn't happy about it, he could tell. Still, he'd deal with that later – bribery with her favourite treats sounded like a good idea. Now, though, he had to figure out where to go.
That wasn't a hard decision. The Petalburg North library was right near a park with very tall trees.
The Teleport was smooth, and he got down without being seen, which left him in his home town for the first time in nearly a year. He made it to the library without being seen, and after being asked what he was doing there – Max told a half-truth and said he wanted to know about the Centrists, which got him a strange look because he probably passed for thirteen, but he was shown the right place to go.
An hour later, he knew what he had to, and he returned to find that manectric and sceptile had taken up guarding as a pair. Overhead, clouds swirled ominously with static. "Tile-Sce?"
"Yeah, got what I wanted," Max answered as he took the treat package from his pocket and threw it onto the ground, or tried to anyway. The Electric-type snatched it out of the air and started munching on it immediately. Edible packaging was useful. "Nothing happened here?"
"Tiiile."
The yawning motion was enough, let alone the word. "Thanks for guarding anyway. Better to have it," he said as they walked in.
Cavendish came from serious money. Ultra Balls for the kids type rich. Hadn't been a very successful Trainer, went into politics as soon as he hit eighteen… Had always been a bit sceptical about Psychic-types, too.
Money meant guards, but he could work around those. He'd done it before, and he'd do it again. Either by guile or by force.
He put things away, but something else caught his eye.
His favourite shirt. The one with manectric, baltoy, grovyle, and ralts.
The misdreavus in the tank gave a soft croak of thanks before visibly letting go and vanishing, and Max bit back the urge to tell gardevoir to jostle the broken arm on the scientist. Barely. Shelgon picked up on his annoyance regardless and loomed over the two with what smelled like Dragonbreath close to the surface. No less than the arseholes deserved.
That left the other tank, and after his Pokémon got rid of the glass and the cords – mostly – Max carefully lifted the ralts out of the tank. She whimpered at the touch, semi-conscious at best, and at once, gardevoir broke the Mega Evolution, projecting fake-feeling soothing emotions as Max tried to bury the hatred he felt behind several layers of forced calm.
It helped, a bit, and she didn't really protest as Max peeled the patches off of her skin. That alone told him that she needed more help than he could give her: it should have been very painful. "I'm going to capture you now, okay?" he said, softly, trying to keep the anger he felt bubbling out of his voice and locked in his mind. She didn't need that. "It'll send you to a place you can get better. You… You're free to go after that," he finished the talk he'd thought of after having to rescue spoink.
No response, except soft whimpering. He shifted her a bit, catching a glimpse of her half-closed eyes. They were… They were a bit captivating, and Max smiled as he resisted it. "No need for that," he said, hoping to sound soothing as he shifted her into one arm so the other was free to grab a pokéball. That posed no problems. "You'll be better soon."
As soon as the capsule disappeared, he whirled around, stalking towards the two captives as a flash of pink lit up the room.
"Gardevoir? They're all yours."
Ralts. Of all the Pokémon it could have been, it had been a ralts. A ralts he knew. She had Teleported onto his knee, that day two years and a month ago, when he had been offered a ralts Egg and he had refused. They had played, sharing laughter as the adult gardevoir discussed something.
It was a simpler time, and Max missed it.
He'd get her the next time he was at a Center. For now, he had other things to solve.
Like why he couldn't Mega Evolve manectric any longer.
~~§~~§~~
There was a protest. May wasn't sure how she ha… Okay, she was sure how she had missed it: she'd been busy on a trip with Drew for some special plants he wanted for his greenhouse, and then ivysaur had evolved into venusaur and, well, she'd been practising a lot.
Having more than two vines, a new move in Petal Blizzard, and just a lot of other changes like size and weight meant she had to change a couple of routines for Doubles and venusaur also had to get used to being that big in the first place. Drew and roserade had helped a lot for the first few days, but then they had gone back home, and May had stayed to practice out of the eyes of any rivals – she knew at least two of them would probably head to Slateport early.
And now she was back there as well, right on the edge of what looked like a pretty big protest.
At first, she thought it was like all the other she'd seen in Hoenn, which were all about asking for more restrictions on the usual Pokémon types, but then she saw a sign that said, in bright purple paint: 'Free The Psychics.'
"Here they go again," an older man said from behind her, and May turned around to see him. "They don't get it. Bunch of idiots."
Before she could ask what he meant, he stalked off into a nearby house, slamming the door loud enough that it could be heard over the sound of people moving by in the street.
"Don't take it personally," another voice said from behind her, and this time, May jumped a bit. The speaker was a woman around her mother's age, wearing a… Knitted hat? "Cancer, dear," she said, smiling gently. "Just as I'm battling that demon, so is he battling his."
"Huh?"
"His granddaughter was one of the kids injured in Fallarbor, and from what he's told me, her parents refuse to see things the same way he does, and they don't want to see him because of that." The woman shrugged, and a few bangles appeared on her wrist as the shirt rode up. "It's a pity how this has caused families to break apart. It's all so trivial."
Trivial? Weekly attacks?
"Yes, trivial." May blushed slightly. She'd spoken out loud again when she hadn't meant to. "Anyone who knows anything about the history of Pokémon knows that we exist alongside each other. Pokémon help humans – you'd know about that – and humans help Pokémon by cultivating areas for food, protecting endangered ones and more. For that balance to be upset… Something terrible must have happened. Our troubles are trivial compared to that."
May thought about it for a bit. "And what about the ones who were injured or killed?"
"Terrible. Wrong. A tragedy. Pick whatever you want. Nothing will get them or their innocence back. But we can find out what is causing it and move to stop that. And no, it's not just the Types, dear."
"What makes you say that?"
"Why isn't it happening elsewhere?" was the retort. "It is only here in Hoenn. There is something else that we have yet to discover. And until we do, I agree with those who are taking a stand right there."
~~§~~§~~
Hoenn was… Far warmer than Serena had anticipated, first and foremost. She'd only been here several hours, and already, she'd changed to something resembling her summer clothing, except a bit warmer. And it was over halfway through October!
Now she really understood why Danny had barely seen any snow before coming to Kalos. It was probably rare as hell here.
It was also perfect weather to travel in, and without even dropping by the Center, Serena moved onto the road that would take her to Petalburg. It would be a few days from Rustboro, where she'd arrived, but that was fine. She had time to get to Slateport from there, too, and… "Hey!"
She looked up to see a girl her age run up, her skin tanned from spending the summer here, and her running pretty easy despite the pack on her back. It was kind of impressive: she was pretty sure she couldn't do that. "Yeah?"
"You going to Petalburg too?" the blonde asked, stopping, and not even sounding out of breath. She did wipe some sweat from her eyes – with a sweatband, Serena noticed. "Wanna travel together?"
That was unexpected, but… "Sure," she replied, holding out a hand. "I'm Serena."
Eyes widened, and she braced herself for the inevitable reaction. "Serena? That Serena?" the girl said, nearly bouncing up and down. It was a bit like bunnelby around his favourite food, back early in her journey. She still nodded when she saw the look on her companion's face. "Really? Oh, kyogre… Wow! What are you doing in Hoenn?"
"Going to watch the Grand Festival."
"And?" the girl said almost instantly. "That's in Slateport. Not here. Not in… Wait, Petalburg. You going to visit their parents, aren't you?"
This girl did not miss a beat, and Serena found herself liking that. "Depends on who's asking me that," she replied, grinning. "You still haven't told me your name." She looked down. "Or shook my hand."
The response was a firm handshake. "I'm Lucy, from Fortree here in Hoenn."
Fortree, Fortree… "That's up north, right? Flying-type Gym?"
They started walking by unspoken agreement. "Yeah. You look it up, or they told you?"
Serena shrugged. "Probably heard it at some point. Travelled with them for nearly a year. Must've come up at some point."
"I bet," Lucy said, grinning.
They walked for what felt like about an hour – and turned out to be about an hour and ten minutes once Serena remembered to check her Pokénav, before grumbling stomachs made them stop. They were still near the main Route, and finding a table to sit at for lunch was easy.
Various Pokémon were sent out. Serena chose braixen with her new necklace and her meowth, who immediately jumped on the wood to bask in the sun's warmth, while Lucy sent out a hitmontop and a pancham. "Hey. You been to Kalos?"
"No. But my cousin from Sinnoh went there. Kind of traded for it last Yule."
That didn't make much sense. "Kind of?"
"We have this tradition in our family," Lucy started as she took some Pokémon food out of her bag. It was a different brand than Serena usually bought. "If you're on your journey, you get a name from one of the others on a journey. Then you give them a Pokémon you think they'll like." Pancham jumped on the table, demanding and getting a scratch on the head. "Isa and I are the only two on a journey."
That made sense. "Which makes it kind of a trade," Serena said as the pancham moved over to her, and after a bit of looking, the small Fighting-type decided it should get a scratch from her as well. She obliged. "You like Fighting-types, then?"
"I love them. I want to become a Gym Trainer under Brawly and maybe even the Gym Leader later, so I'm just getting as many Fighting-types as I can."
"What do you have on you, then?"
"These two, breloom, machoke, pelipper, and onix," Lucy told her. "I also have a toxicroak and a makuhita, but they're not with me. I can make a full Fighting-type team."
"Nice! I don't have any. Never found one I wanted to capture." She'd seen others make the Fighting-type Pokémon work in Contests, but after spending an afternoon trying to think of something, she'd not really come up with anything her other Pokémon couldn't do.
"I had to stop myself from catching one," her companion said, suddenly a bit sad. "It was a meditite, so couldn't because laws."
Serena had read up a bit on what was and wasn't allowed, and she'd also had some help from the Kalos consulate in Goldenrod. "You could just ask for the licence, right? Assuming, y'know…"
"I shouldn't need a licence to train a Pokémon. It's stupid, and Dad says they put you on a list or stuff. I don't want that." She finished up putting food in the bowls, and sent out her other Pokémon, except for the onix. "It's wrong."
"Yeah..." Serena said, leaning over and taking her own bag of food out. It was pretty empty, and she made a note to refill. "I'm leaving zorua out of my team, and I got braixen an Everstone necklace before coming here."
"Do they evolve into a Psychic-type?"
"Yeah. Look up delphox. Even braixen has some talent with it, but she's not a Psychic-type yet." Her starter took that moment to demonstrate by taking a few bowls from her pack, which caused her to smile. "I don't want to, but I don't think they like me too much here in Hoenn. Safer to keep my head down."
"Because of travelling with the Heroes of Hoenn?" Lucy said, and Serena wasn't sure how she said those last three words with what sounded like a straight face. Or the capital letters. "Did they ever tell you if they did do that thing they were accused of?"
"Which?" The Kalosian struggled to recall the entire list of what had been thrown at them. She did remember that some of them weren't even real laws. "Actually… Not gonna answer."
"Ask no questions, get no lies?"
"Something like that."
~~§~~§~~
A flash, an appearing ralts, and then a wave of childish happiness assaulted Max. It was simple, pure, and it didn't fail to lift his spirits as the ralts tried to jump into his arms, but fell a bit short on boosting herself up. He grabbed her out of the air easily before she could hit his thigh. "Hey," he said softly as he lifted her up so she could sit on his shoulder if she wanted to. She did. "You all better now?"
Gardevoir was right there, but the happy cries and completely unguarded waves of emotion were clear enough anyway, and that was before…
Joy happiness elation safe safe love.
"I don't believe she's going to want to go," gardevoir said, voice more tender than normal, and softer too. "It'd break her heart." He moved towards the two of them, and ralts turned away from Max to look at the Pokémon of her congregation. "Do you remember me?"
There was a moment of confusion, and a small flare of psionic energy from both of them, but then, she seemed to recognise him, though there was a soft verbal question after it.
"Not long after I left," gardevoir answered, sounding a tiny bit sad, and Max guessed it was from remembering when the Psychic-type had evolved. "On both counts."
Ralts stood up, and Max delivered her to a rock without her needing to say anything: it was just clear what she wanted. He then sat down, as did gardevoir, so all of them were roughly at the same height. "Do you… Do you remember how you got caught?"
She replied both non-verbally, through a sharp and cold emotion that Max couldn't identify more than 'dislike', and verbally, with a question, aimed at gardevoir. "No. But it would help us. You were not the only one they captured."
For some reason, that only served to send the ralts into an emotional state, but before any tears could fall, Max scooped her up, cradling her gently. "Sssh," he said as the physical contact seemed to cause emotions to mingle: both his attempts at staying calm flowing into her, and her sorrow at something coming right back. He'd felt worse, though. "You know something about..." he started asking, and the skin contact was answer enough. "Was… Were you both captured at the same time?"
Again, he felt the answer before ralts could say anything, but she squirmed in his arms, and…
Darkness chaos void binding.
Max shook his head. Hard. Twice. It didn't stop the feeling that there was something right outside his vision, in some dimension he couldn't see. "Did you try to do something?"
"She tried to share her memory," gardevoir supplied, and the ralts let out a soft, sad, cry. "It is your fault? I… I do not understand."
Ralts squirmed again, but this time, Max let go in time, and he wasn't sucked in, even as gardevoir caught the falling Pokémon effortlessly. "Can you help her with the memory?"
"I can if she lets me."
They appeared in a weird memory. The edges were hazy and distorted, with external venom and internal pain pressing down on them from all sides. At first, they only saw a ceiling, but then there was a hateful voice. "You don't like seeing that," it said, and their vision shifted as ralts's memory shifted so there were a man – white coat – and a gardevoir – wrapped entirely in black – in sight. "You can stop this."
"Voir?" 'How?' the familiar gardevoir said, sounding desperate, not at all like the strong Pokémon that had comforted Max. She glanced at them – at the ralts on the ground – with pain in her eyes, but no soothing emotion came.
The scientist took something; something grey, and a bit indistinct as ralts's vision wavered for a moment and terror overtook her. "Submit willingly, and she will not be harmed."
Desire and need slammed into Max. He wanted, needed, had to… "Don't!" he cried out in a high-pitched voice.
A girl Pokémon's voice.
It was too late.
The memory ended, and Max fell onto his bum as the ralts just cried and cried and…
Rage.
The younger Pokémon whimpered, the teenager recoiled, and gardevoir… was the source. It cut right through Max, right into his heart and soul. Whispers – illusions, he realised instantly, but still – formed, urging him to go to Cavendish. Demand answers. Any answers, by any means. It was worth it. He could get revenge for the injured, the dead, spoink, gardevoir, ralts…
A piteous cry pierced the rage, and in a moment of clarity, Max opened his eyes – when had he closed them? – and saw the other ralts lying on the ground, rubbing, no, writhing on the ground. In pain, in agony, as the rage reached a glorious crescendo, its call clarion.
There was no decision to be made, and quick as a flash, he raised a pokéball.
The green capsule took gardevoir in, and Max quickly put him in stasis, before lifting the ralts into his arms. "I'm here now. It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay."
Jirachi, he hoped it was.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
Keep an eye on the Kalosian girl. It is unlikely she knows where Birch and Maple are, but if anyone does, she is at the top of the list. Do not be noticed: Kalos is protective of her and the higher-ups tell me they don't need more international complications.
Author's Note: Holy schedule slip Batman. Yeah, I f-ed up. December was not a good month at all. I'll be using January to plot out the final arc. We're in the home stretch.
Happy 2020 everyone!