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 46: What Should Be
Lake Verity was strange, Keith decided in the early morning, after one night of camping out at its shores. It was probably the whole supposed-to-be-home-to-a-Legendary thing, but he wasn't Max or even Danny. His experience with Legendaries was limited to Kalos. Compared to that, the lake was a world of difference. It was incredibly tranquil, like nothing could disturb it. There were Pokémon living in there, Keith knew: he'd seen a goldeen jump up in the morning sunlight not five minutes ago.
But somehow, even that sign of life didn't take the feeling of being alone and at peace away.
It felt good. Very good. If he had to be honest, it had been the best night's sleep since… Probably in over a year. Jane was still dozing in their tent: she had reacted to him getting up with indistinct mumbling, and Keith knew what that meant. She needed a bit more sleep.
It had been before dawn, but Keith didn't mind seeing one for probably the last time while out on the road. They'd make it to Twinleaf that day, and after that… Winter was going to arrive soon. Rime had been on the grass for a few days, though there wasn't as much today. Their tent was good, and they had good sleeping bags, but it was just getting too cold.
Time to get rid of the tent and start moving from Center to Center again. He should probably ask Jane about storing it. Lugging it around just seemed like a waste, and it was a perfectly good tent.
He stretched hard enough that he wasn't sure he didn't make some kind of weird sound, and then he turned around on a whim. It was just in time to see Jane crawl out of the tent. He waited for her to join him before speaking up. "Thought you wanted to sleep."
"Yeah, but… Dunno," his girlfriend replied before letting out a small yawn. "Special lake, early morning. Should at least see it." She wriggled her hand into his. It was a bit warmer than normal. "See anythin'?"
"No Legendary Pokémon," Keith said with a smile. "Goldeen, maybe a finneon. Couldn't tell. Looked like one."
"Just us, huh," Jane said before suddenly moving, slinging her arms around him. "Well, okay."
Two minutes later, they cleaned the rime off their clothes. The cold hadn't bothered them at all, though. Good clothing did that, and their hands hadn't touched the grass. "Definitely awake now, are you."
"Oh yeah," the black-haired tease replied, winking at him. "And there's going to be more of that."
Oh? He hoped so. "Why's that?" he asked, trying, and probably failing, to hide his eagerness.
"Pokémon Centers are a lot more comfortable than tents or grass, you know. And since it's all Centers until the Sinnoh League..." she trailed off meaningfully before getting up. He followed suit, adjusting his clothing a bit. "I'm sure we'll have lots of fun, you and I. Can you imagine? Just us and a nice roaring fire at Yule?"
"You don't want to go back to Hoenn for Yule?" Keith asked. "Or is your family coming up again?"
"Probably? But… I heard they were going for cabins this year. Probably for four persons each – that means you can invite your Mum, yes." Jane's eyes were almost twinkling with happiness. "But it's probably going to be us and Justin in one cabin."
He remembered last Yule, when Jane's brother had taken Keith aside for a moment, telling him that if he made Jane happy, the older teenager was going to shut his eyes to what they got up to. Jane had later helped him understand that strange message a bit: Justin apparently felt he couldn't really be threatening to someone who'd been involved in the entire yveltal saga, and had told Jane that while a bit more than slightly tipsy on Yule spirits.
"So," he said, leaving the memory in the past. "Your parents are going to be okay with that? And my Mum too?"
"They were last year. Why not? And they're always saying we make a cute couple. Makes it sound like we're twelve, though."
"Well, I think you're cute."
"Even when I do… this?" Jane said, suddenly sneaking a hand into his neck. A cold and wet hand, too, and he jumped up, getting away from her. "Told you."
"I'll get you back for that."
"Counting on it, oh ticklish boyfriend of mine." And with that remark, she went back to the tent. Keith hurried after her as his stomach gurgled.
Groudon, how did he ever get so lucky to get her as his girlfriend.
An hour later, after drying the tent with the help of Jane's blaziken and generally putting everything away, they started to walk around the lake. It wasn't even five minutes until they met someone. Painfully, as something smacked right into Keith's side from the brush to their left. "Ow!"
The answer, however, was a loud wail that immediately caught his attention. As did the sound coming from the brush.
"Onix!" Keith called, and the Rock-type appeared with a thud. So did Jane's quilladin, with less noise, and after a moment, a pair of marowak burst out of the brush. The Ground-types looked pretty angry, but stopped when they saw the Pokémon and the Trainers. One of them stepped forward, posturing in some way, before pointing at Keith and saying something.
Or not pointing at him, but at the… Boy next to him. Who made getting up pretty hard, but he managed. "Keith?"
He gestured vaguely, focused more on taking a closer look at the Pokémon. They didn't look like they were going to attack. One of them eyed quilladin pretty obviously. The other stayed back a bit, and… That looked familiar.
"Why are you chasing this boy?"
The marowak that had stayed back stepped forward, turning its head to show a… blood-shot eye. The other one followed it up by reversing the bone it held and jabbing. "Wak. Ma-ro."
Keith untangled the boy from his leg, prying the hands loose. He looked about six or seven, and pretty scared with wide eyes and all. Probably pretty close to tears.
The teenager knelt, putting him mostly at eye level. "I don't know your name, but… Did you poke that marowak's eye? With a stick or something?"
The answer was clear immediately. The guilt was clear as day, and a lip trembled. He put his hand on the boy's cheek, gently, but forcing their eyes to meet. "Keith?"
"Wait," he told his girlfriend without breaking eye contact. "Look," he continued, softer. "You shouldn't poke anyone in the eye. You know that, right?"
"I..." the boy started, voice thick and eyes watering. "I wa-waas jus-just play-hing."
Keith let the boy cry for a second, instead glancing over at the marowak. They looked a lot less angry now, but the one with the red eye was still trying to dab at it without too much success; the skull getting in the way.
What was the treatment for that again?
It came to him after a moment. "Hey," he said gently, getting the boy's attention. "We sometimes do things that are kind of stupid and hurt others. But you know what you should do if that happens?" He waited a moment for a sniffle before leaning in. "We help fix it and we apologise."
"H-how?"
"Well. If you have something in your eye, the best thing to do is to clean it with water. Gently, so you don't irritate it more." He turned his head towards the onlooking Pokémon. "Is it okay if we do that?"
It didn't take as long as he thought it would. "Wak," the uninjured one said, before putting its club down on the ground. The other followed a moment later. "Rowak."
Jane had been listening, and handed Keith one of the smaller plastic cups from her pack. It wasn't filled with water yet, but the lake wasn't even seventy feet away, and he took the boy by the hand. "C'mon."
Together, they knelt by the water, with Keith reaching into the lake as a small hand on his elbow 'helped'. But when they reached the Ground-types, the teenager handed the cup to the boy and took a half step back.
It took a moment, but then, slowly, and ever so carefully, small hands tipped the cup so some water dropped into the eye. It wasn't a lot, and the marowak turned away for a moment, but then it let out a content sound.
Exaggerated, if Keith was any judge, and Jane's smirk told him she thought the same, but that wasn't really important. "Gentle," he said, but he didn't really need to warn. The cup was only tipped slightly, and then the boy, with trembling hands, held it out to the teenager. "Remember, you needed to do two things."
It took about thirty seconds, and at least three times that some words were swallowed, but eventually, the "I'm sorry," was said. Softly, but it was there anyway, and it sounded sincere.
In response, the injured marowak walked up. It was about three quarters the boy's height, even as he was kind of huddled in on himself. After a moment, it let out a satisfied "Ma," before extending a hand.
There was a look at him, but Keith nodded, and so the hand was accepted, gently.
A rumbling sound of approval reminded everyone that onix was still there, but she and quilladin were hanging back as much as they really could. Which wasn't much for a twenty-five foot long rock snake.
"Wa," came a sound from near Keith's midriff, and he saw the other marowak standing near him. He sat down without thinking about it. "Maro. Wak. Mar."
It was easy to guess what was meant. "If you're hurt, helping is the right thing to do. Or trying to, at least. Not every Pokémon would've stopped like you did."
The Ground-type shrugged. "Ro." It pointed the bone at quilladin, before miming a shudder. "Ma, ma."
"You… You understand?"
Keith looked left to see the boy with wider eyes than ever before. Surprise. Massive surprise, even. "No," Jane said before he could. "But we're experienced Trainers. We're used to this." She sat down next to Keith, giving his hand a squeeze for a second. "After a while, you just get an idea of what Pokémon are trying to say."
"Wow… Will… Can I learn that?"
"Why not? Most people we know can."
"We don't have a normal group of friends, Jane," Keith remarked drily, which confused the heck out of the boy. "It's a long story. We..."
He was interrupted by a cubone heading out of the bushes. A younger one, by the looks of it, and one that didn't care about the onix and quilladin nearby. It headed straight for the marowak, chattering happily about something or other, and the looks the marowak gave were familiar somewhere…
Before he, or Jane, could decipher it, the younger Ground-type noticed the younger human, and walked up to him. "Bone!" it said, and the raised arm made it clear what was meant.
The boy, however, froze, and Keith suspected the only reason he hadn't fled to behind the two of them was because cubone was in the middle. "Uh..."
"It just said hello." The teenager got up, swiping his trousers to get the worst dirt off. He'd had an idea. "C'mon, let's teach you to listen to Pokémon."
~~§~~§~~
He had made a mistake. An honest one, because there had been a sudden thunderstorm and then a bunch of Pokémon who got stuck in mud, and more of this and that, and suddenly, Max had just up and fallen asleep in the most uncomfortable position ever – according to his back and left arm.
And now he'd left gardevoir in stasis – angry as shit – for the better part of a day.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and put his glasses back on afterwards. This was not going to end well. There was a reason every other Pokémon he had on him was out: sceptile, manectric, piloswine, poliwhirl, and his new ralts. Hopefully, that would be enough.
Hope. Max scoffed. Do not leave to chance what you could control. He'd royally screwed the poochyena on th…
A soft cry and a softer touch on his leg broke him out of his thoughts. "Alts?"
Max shook his head, meeting the curious small Pokémon's eyes afterwards. "Annoyed with myself. I don't like making errors, and this is a big one." A calming breath, and a moment of closing his eyes. "Are you going to be okay?"
The reply was uncertain, but that was okay. She was going to do her best, and if she felt like she was going to get overwhelmed, she could return herself. They'd worked on that for a few minutes before. He could ask no more. Even compared to ralts – his ralts – she was young. And when you were, you met things that were just unfamiliar and scary. Like this, and like so many things he'd seen while with Ash and Brock.
Jirachi, he could do with their help right about now. But he didn't have them here, so he would have to deal with it himself.
One last deep breath, and he sent gardevoir out.
Anger and rage: welcoming, burning, soothing, energetic, enticing… No! He was not going to give in. He was better. They were better. There was a time and a place, and this. Was. Not. It. "Gardevoir!" he spat, and he stood his ground as rage whirled. "Read me!"
Images flashed. Darkness mud worry thunder lightning compassion resolve. Brittle resolve, close to breaking. Should he have? Should he still? Could he? Was it right?
Then, all of a sudden, the pressure vanished, leaving behind a killer headache and a butt-ache. Wait. He had fallen? Sat down? His fucking head…
A slight soothing touch, but it hovered at his temple, not going in. "Ralts!" the young Pokémon said, but it wasn't at him, clearly. Max opened his eyes, and he saw – vaguely, because she was nearly in a spot he couldn't see – ralts pointing at something in front of the two of them.
Gardevoir.
Who was… Nothing. Max felt absolutely nothing.
"Gardevoir." Had he meant to say that? Maybe? "I…"
"What?"
The word was cold, repressed, but not at him. Max didn't know how he knew, but he just did. He took a deep breath, but when he opened his mouth, he didn't have the words. He knew what he felt, but… He didn't know how to say it. Frustration welled up, but instantly, the answer came to him. "Read me."
Not even a hint of any emotion. For a moment, Max thought gardevoir wouldn't, but then, a small shiver near his other temple. Repressed, but powerful. An image flashed through his mind, of a boy aged five or so, standing on a doorstep, torn if he should ring the bell or not.
Then, he had done so. A nod gave gardevoir permission, and more images appeared in his mind, but gently, almost faded in intensity.
Somehow, he knew he could now say what he meant to say, but he wouldn't. Not while gardevoir was in his mind. He tried to focus on those thoughts, but the Psychic-type seemed to almost ignore them, instead going for memories of the day before, of caring for the ralts so affected, of helping the Pokémon that got stuck, and of the realisation – while dozing off to sleep – that something had been forgotten.
Then, the pressure, light as it was, faded, leaving a slightly worse headache behind, but it was somehow more bearable. "Gardevoir," Max spoke a third time, and this time, they met eyes. Emotions were tightly controlled, and he did the same almost automatically. "I know I can't understand, and that trying to is futile. You… No." He held up the Friend Ball and manipulated it. "If you want to, you can go. Do what you want. Do what you promised. Wreak bloody vengeance. Torture. Maim. Kill." The very words squeezed at Max's heart, even more than the offer he was putting up. "I will not stop you. I… If it's the right thing for you, then it's the right thing for you."
A dreadful silence fell. Nothing moved. Max tried to not even blink, but he found that he couldn't, and when he did, he felt moisture in his eyes. His gaze remained on the impassive gardevoir.
A miniscule shift, unnoticed by anyone not an expert observer, and a slight tendril of energy, invisible but palpable. It went for the capsule, and…
Minimised the ball. After doing something else to it.
"Max… I..."
"No," the teenager said, standing up and crossing the distance. "You did nothing wrong."
"But..."
Max embraced the Embrace Pokémon, and he felt… Everything. Anger, despair, hatred, shame, duty, wonder, and so much more. A shift, and he saw himself, out cold, next to a lake.
Danny, at night, in a Johto f…. The Silver Conf… Blackthorn… Ecru… Flashes, faster and faster, until…
Steel walls. Anguish. Death. Hatred. Familiarity. Evolution. A promise.
An ardent desideratum.
He didn't know what the word meant, but Max understood regardless. Why gardevoir had sought him out. What he needed. What he wanted.
What they wanted.
But this wasn't the way to do it.
Doubt filtered through, but then gardevoir met Max's reasoning, thoughts half-formed, yet fully understood by both of them.
Anger made them vulnerable. It brought the Mega Evolution, but it was a crutch. It aided them, like Max had been taught how to ride a bike with training wheels. It was time those came off.
"And become even stronger."
"Yes," Max simply said, releasing the hug. "Because we're better off together."
"Tric-man. Ec!"
He made to reply, but then, sceptile stood by the Electric-type, placing an arm on her back. In support? "Tile. Sceeep," the Grass-type said, free arm making an encompassing gesture, before tapping a finger on the collar. "Sce."
Poliwhirl and piloswine also agreed when Max looked in their direction: the Water-type nodding for both of them – if the hand on brown fur was any sign - and the Ice-type letting loose something that sounded like a snort of approval on top of that.
Agree, resolve.
He couldn't help it. The chuckle just escaped, faster than anything. "You barely know anything, ralts," Max said, getting another reminder of her age when she didn't even look indignant. He sobered when he turned a step, only to find manectric sat halfway between where she had been and where Max was. It caused the Mega Stone to glint. "We'll have to figure it out again, won't we, girl?"
"Tric," she said, agreeing, before looking at gardevoir. "Man, tric."
"Both of us," gardevoir translated, but he sounded just a bit off. "That will take a long—"
"Maybe," Max cut in, ignoring the rest of what the Psychic-type was saying. "And I don't know if we can do it before reaching Rustboro. But we'll try, and if it doesn't work, we adapt."The canine nearby barked sharply. "Like we always do."
A moment of terse silence, before the green-and-white Pokémon relented, and with it, the air around them became slightly less oppressive. It was a sign of how unstable he was: it had been months since Max had felt anything this uncontrolled from the powerful but unrefined Psychic-type. "You… Thank you."
With that, gardevoir returned himself, probably for rest. Poliwhirl and piloswine did the same, but because it was shaping up to be a warm Hoenn day. Ralts also vanished after a short comforting touch, and manectric was suddenly at his side, touching nose to empty wrist. "Ma-ma-nec."
"You want to try now?" Max asked, mostly to confirm. "If it doesn't work… You know we'll be stuck here for most of today, right?"
He hadn't expected what amounted to a shrug, followed by a burst of light electricity dispersing around her. The look up made it clear, though. She was expecting more thunder and lightning, which he wasn't happy walking in because these were the mountains. Too much could go wrong.
"Alright, castform, let's do it," he replied, receiving a happy bark at the tease.
Two minutes later, yet again, he felt the heavy tiredness of a failed Mega Evolution sink in. He'd tried, as before, to recapture the emotions, sensations, everything that had made it work previously, but that hadn't worked since he'd been kidnapped. He had initially thought it to be temporary, but it was over a month and a half since then.
He was going to take it as a sign that things had changed. Irreversibly. "I think we'll need to adjust what we use to trigger it a bit," he told the canine as she came in for pets, putting her head on his thigh, comforting static electricity grounding into his trousers and leg. "I think… I think what happened changed me too much."
Strangely, that felt good to say? Weird, and made weirder by his Pokémon letting out a mournful half-howl, half-whine. "Tric..."
"I know. I guess it's like sceptile's injury." Which was fully healed, but in training, Max had seen him consciously switch to place the injured leg in the safer position while standing and striking. In pitched spars, he still went for muscle memory, though. He hadn't asked, but his starter knew far more about attacking with blades than he did, so trust was warranted. "Maybe not, actually. More Serena's knee. It takes time to heal, and effort to work with it." He stuck two fingers under her chin, pausing a moment to adjust to the current under the tips. "I was just hoping I didn't need to, I guess."
It was time to let go of that hope.
~~§~~§~~
The demonstration had mostly ended. There were a few stragglers around, and some conscientious bunch that were actually busy cleaning up, but the bulk had left for the safety of their homes, where they could say that they did something today.
Pathetic plebeians.
Sadly, people like that had rights to demonstrate. Paulson had impressed on the Prime Minister that this was an ideal target to attack: the high amount of people, great chance for self-inflicted damage as people tried to defend but got in each other's way, and panic making sure that those who tried to flee would at risk of injury made for perfect circumstances to accelerate their plans.
His superior had not seen it that way, placing too much emphasis on the chance that people would be prepared before telling him that Wattson had asked to be allowed to help guard against just such a scenario of an attack, just in case.
If Paulson didn't know better, he would have thought the Gym Leader knew more than he let on. But he had reasoned then, and seen while observing the man from a distance earlier, that it was simply out of a desire to see Mauville remain untouched.
A sentiment that could be exploited. As he was about to. "Gym Leader Wattson."
"No need for titles, Member Paulson," the older man shot back with a smile. "No problems where you were?"
A shrug expressed everything he needed to. "Perhaps a missing trash can lid. It was peaceful."
Predictably, that got the man's trademark booming laugh. "Excellent. Be good that they did so, and we can survive that. An excellent example of peaceful protesting."
"Indeed. But I have a less peaceful thing to speak of." Paulson made a show of looking around, even if he knew nobody else was really within earshot. "You are aware of what happened on Izabe Island, I assume."
"Hard not to be," the Gym Leader remarked neutrally. The manectric next to him snorted in disgust. "Reginald has much to pay for."
Their decision to let that filter into the news was paying off. "Yes. But he is a crafty man, and I fear he might be emboldened by the fact that we haven't been able to capture him." A subtle pause, just long enough to pique interest. "I fear he might come here."
"To finish the job, as it were?"
"Yes."
Wattson didn't miss a beat. Impressive, for a man his age. "And you would like protection."
Paulson affected some relief. "If possible. I was an adequate Trainer, but my Pokémon are long past their glory days or deceased." He made a show of looking around. "Could we discuss this in your Gym, tomorrow?"
"I have no challengers after three," Wattson replied. "Let's come up with something to shock Reginald out of the sky."
~~§~~§~~
The waters around Sootopolis were as clear as they always were, and Misty always enjoyed spending time here. She didn't travel to Hoenn nearly as often as she wanted to, what with being a Gym Leader and travelling with Ash and this and that and maybe saving the world somewhere too, but whenever she did, this was the way she liked to travel: on the back of a Pokémon, in the middle of the warm seas. Even now in October, it was pleasantly warm on the water.
It even brought back other memories. It was a different one, but Misty had spent plenty of time on the back of a lapras before. This wasn't different, and she relished the closeness to her element. Caserin, seadra, and starmie were swimming alongside the large Pokémon, and plenty of other Water-types swum up to the surface to see what was going on, and there were plenty of wingull and pelipper overhead too.
Sootopolis was visible in the distance. Probably an hour or so. She reached into her backpack for something to drink, and after a moment, she reapplied some lotion as well. The clouds overhead had vanished, and it had been a bit since she'd last put some on her skin.
Duty taken care of, she went over what she was going to have to talk about later. First, get an idea of where Juan stood. Hoenn's Gym Leaders weren't allowed to be overtly political, but people always had an opinion. If he was of the opinion that the government could do no wrong, however, she'd have to stick with paying close attention to what he had been doing to prepare. Even in an isolated location like Sootopolis, there were still risks.
If nothing else she could say she was helping Blaine out.
If he was less positive towards the government, though, then Misty had a bunch of things to unload on him. The suspicion of how the attacks were being set up was the least of them, because it was just an extension of what Ash had stopped two years ago. Then there were some very suspicious targets that might be a pattern, followed by Gary's observations from the Tree of Beginning, and then Max's kidnapping as the last one.
Lance and Oak had been fairly positive the last was a step too far, but Misty wasn't certain. She'd met Juan a few times at conferences and of course they had communicated before on Water-type related matters. She'd always come away with the sense that between the sophistication he affected and the collected manner in which he held himself, there was always a possibility that he would at least entertain the idea.
A cry caught her attention, and she looked over at seadra. The grumpy-looking – but really a total sweetheart, if you avoided the poisonous spikes – Pokémon spat out four short spurts of water.
Something was coming their way. "Lapras, stop for a moment."
She stripped down to her swimsuit underneath her regular clothing. That went into her backpack, which she then put into into the waterproof protector. She grabbed the rebreather that had been hanging on her belt earlier, keyed the two other pokéballs on her belt for easy release: gyarados and blastoise within them, and waited for whatever was coming.
Before long, something broke the surface about a hundred yards away, and spectacularly so. It was a kingdra, and a majestic specimen of one. It landed perfectly, and started swimming towards the group, slowly and extremely non-threatening.
It was carrying something around its neck, Misty saw as the part-Dragon came closer.
Three minutes later, she shook her head at the interesting turn things had just taken. The thing around the kingdra's neck had been a tube to hold a message – the idea of using a kingdra as a mail Pokémon was just lunacy, really – and that message had been from Reginald, who was apparently in Sootopolis.
That simplified matters somewhat, but Misty couldn't shake the feeling that something had gotten more difficult as well. She just didn't know what.
~~§~~§~~
They had reached Petalburg without any issue, except for some arrogant boys who wanted to preen or something about a day before they had entered town. Serena and Lucy had teamed up in a full six-on-six Double Battle, and after all was said and done, the boys had been left in the dust where they belonged.
Once again, the tutoring that her friends had given in Kalos had worked out for her. Max, mostly, with occasional translation from Danny. The older boy understood Double Battles far better and far more instinctively, but he was pants at teaching them. That had confused Serena for a bit, but they'd managed to make her understand why that was. She'd told Lucy that after the boys had been left behind, and the athletic girl had shared some of her own Double Battle mishaps in return.
It was weird, being the one with more knowledge. She kinda liked it, though.
Lucy was elsewhere in Petalburg now. Something about needing some new clothes, and wanting to give Serena a chance to meet with Max's parents in private. Maybe it was an excuse, maybe it wasn't, but the Kalosian fourteen-year-old didn't really care. She had a Gym to visit.
There were distractions on the way there, though. First it was a random battle in an arena that caught her eye, mostly because one of the two Trainers was using a Pokémon she'd never seen before. Her Pokédex dutifully informed her it was a cursola, which was the evolved form of corsola from Galar. It was a pure Ghost-type, and while it just didn't seem to care about anything shot at it from a distance, things changed for the worse when a linoone got up close and personal.
Next, there were the random boarded up store fronts, courtesy of – a poster revealed – a gas explosion a few weeks ago. Nobody had been injured, she found out after asking one of the locals, but it made for a weird sight in one of the busier streets in town.
She'd have to ask Max's parents if the bookshop that was to the left of where the explosion had happened was one Max had visited a lot when he was younger.
Some people seemed to recognise her as well, but none of them talked to her. They talked behind her back, though, not really hiding it either as she sat in a nice park, just soaking up some sunlight to pass some time. Half of them wondered what she was doing there, most of them linked her to the local heroes – their words, not hers – and one boy of about seven recognised her from the Grand Festival. The Dad with him didn't miss a beat either, giving her a smile before telling his son that if he worked hard, he could be a great Coordinator as well.
Different from Johto for sure. She'd seen a boy get made fun of for wanting to do contests. One of the veteran Coordinators had stepped in, but Serena was uncertain it would help.
Finally, after getting a ball off a nearby roof with altaria's help, she reached the street that the Gym was on. It was visible in the distance, and a small shiver spread from the base of her neck down, as well as a tiny bit of doubt. She shook her head to get rid of it. She came here to talk to Norman and Caroline, to talk about her friends, and maybe to warn them if she could get away with it.
Strangely, there was nobody in sight. Max had said his Dad usually locked up after dinner and spent most of his time in the Gym or the greenhouse. Neither had anyone visible, and it wasn't close to dinner either. It was barely past four.
So she rang the doorbell.
The moment it opened, an umbreon shot past her legs, darting inside.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
Name: Juan
Age: 56
Type: Water
Location: Sootopolis
Signature Pokémon: milotic, luvdisc
Typical format: 3v3singles
Eighth badge format: 2v2 doubles, followed by 3v3 singles.
Information: Hoenn's Senior Gym Leader combines elegance with strength. An accomplished Coordinator as well as a Master Trainer, Juan fights battles with strategies that are often somewhat unfamiliar to those who have experience with just one of these aspects. However, he is known to be lenient when it comes to draws, and unfailingly helpful when pointing out areas of improvement.
From: Poképedia's Hoenn's Gym Leader Profiles
Author's Note: Er... Is this thing on?
So things kind of conspired to sap my will to write. *gestures vaguely at everything going on*. But we're back, and hopefully, with the next chapter out sooner. I make no promises, though...