Sinnoh Arc II: A Vision of the Future

"There is this town in Sinnoh..." Mari recalled. "Floaroma. It is counted as one of the most beautiful towns in the world. That's because of its floodplains, they house various kinds of flowers. I'm sure it's beautiful there."
Jacky nodded. "I'm sure! There must be lots of grass-type Pokémon there. Did you know there's a Pokémon that carries a flower necklace with it?",
"No, I don't think I know that one.",
"Uh... what was it called again? Comfi... Confa... Um..." She pondered. "Got it. Comfey. It's from the Alola Region.",
"Alola, huh...?" Mari crossed her legs. "Alola is one of the most beautiful regions in the world... It's in the tropical climate zone.",
"Would be a great vacation destination, don't you think?",
"It sure would.",
"We deserve a little vacation, though.",
"We're talking about vacation again", Mari noticed.
"Yeah, that's horrible, right?" Jacky laughed and leaned back. "But let's face it... Who fights legendary gods to save the world these days?",
"And who willingly chases a child-abducting psychic-type Pokémon that can put you to sleep and cage you inside nightmares with ease?",
"My point.",
"Nobody but us.",
"Exactly." Jacky rubbed her forehead. "Mh...",
"Do you have a headache?",
"A little, yeah...",
"Here." Mari handed her a water bottle. "Have a drink.",
"Thanks." Jacky opened the bottle and took a few sips.

"Better?",
"Not really yet, but I'm sure it'll subside... Some sleep might help.",
"Yeah, maybe. It's not like we had a lot of that the last day or two. I'll wake you up when we're there.",
"Thanks." Jacky smiled, closed her eyes, and fell asleep a few minutes later.

Soon, Mari woke her up. "Hey. We're landing."
Jacky blinked. "Uh? Oh...",
"How's your head?",
"Better now." She smiled and buckled her seat belt.
"We're landing in Jubilife City!" Skyla announced through the loudspeaker. "It has a bigger and busier airport than the Fight Area, which also means that it's hard to find a time slot for unplanned landings there. But I called ahead this time, so I've received permission to do this."

They landed at a huge airport west of Jubilife City and Mari and Jacky left the plane. "Whoa. I'm stiff as a stick!" Mari groaned. Jacky laughed. "Yeah... me too... My neck hurts, too... I think I had an awkward position while sleeping... Ow...",
"Well... we'll have to deal with it for now. Let's get off the airport, we can't fly from here because of all the planes.",
"Makes sense..." Jacky nodded and they made their way through the airport terminal to the exit. As soon as they reached the exit though, Jacky was almost knocked over by a young man who stormed past her. "Whoa, what the-!" She stumbled back in time and almost bumped into Mari. A distraught girl hurried after the man. "My Pokémon! Give it back!",
"Seems like the girl got robbed..." Jacky said before taking up the chase. "Come on, after her!",
"I'll stop that one", Mari announced. "Without all the running, I need to save my breath. Skyla, you can go ahead... we'll catch up to you later.",
"Okay." The gym leader nodded and send out her Braviary before flying off.
"Gardevoir, get in his way!" Mari threw the Pokéball and Gardevoir disappeared not two seconds later after being released. It reappeared right in front of the thief and pressed him down to the ground using its psychic powers.

"Aaargh! Let go! Now!" the thief roared, holding a Pokéball in his hand. "That's what you get, you rotten, evil... dude!" The girl caught up to him and snatched the Pokéball out of his hand. Then, she turned to the Unovan girls, who arrived at the site. "Th-thank you for your help." Light blonde hair fell over her shoulders. "If it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't know how... how to... Waaah!" She burst into tears and slapped her hands over her face. "Not an issue", Mari said. "It's alright. Now you have your Pokémon back.",
"I can't tell you how...", she sniffled, "...I should thank you. You saved my Pokémon...", she sniffled again, "...saved it!",
"Jeez, Mari. You're really one for quick work." Jacky smiled at her.
"Well, you were the one who ran off without a warning." The black-haired girl shrugged. "Of course I chose the easy way."

"Grrr..." The thief scrambled back to his feet angrily. He wanted to run off, but Mari looked at Gardevoir who made him kiss the floor again. "You stay right here. Jacky? Would you be so lovely?"
Jacky nodded and moved away from them. She called the police and they led the thief away afterwards.

"There you go." Mari clapped her hands and turned to the girl. "All is well again!",
"Th-thank you..." She clutched the Pokéball as if she couldn't survive without it.
"What's that Pokémon you have there?" the black-haired girl asked out of interest, withdrawing Gardevoir.
"Do you want me to show it to you? You guys helped me out, after all, and..." She pressed the white button on the Pokeball and a Chubchoo appeared in front of them.
"You don't have to thank us, we just happened to be there." Mari put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "We need to get to Celestic though, we're in a hurry.",
"Celestic?" She wiped her eyes. "My grandma lives there... I was going to visit her again anyway... Would you mind if I... I mean, just if that's okay...",
"Actually... we do mind." Mari shook her head. "It's too dangerous there right now. Some evil guys are targetting the ruins there, so it's better you stay as far away from them as possible.",
"The ruins? Oh, that doesn't sound good..." She looked at her shoes. "So you're some sort of heroes then? Like... the kind in movies that always goes to face the villains head-on?",
"Heroes, huh..." Jacky shook her head. "Eh... If you want to see it that way, then... I guess, yeah... But we're actually just here to help out the people that are on the case.",
"That's super cool! But, uh somehow I do have to thank you guys for this... What do you think, Cubchoo?" The girl looked at her Pokémon which gestured at her bag and tried to tell her something.
"Really? That's a great idea!" She rummaged around in her bag in delight until she seemed to have found what she was looking for and pulled out a gold pendant. "Here you go, this is for you!",
"What is this?" Mari carefully took it in her hand and looked at it closely. "...huh... That pendant looks like Arceus' ring... Hey, isn't that just that kind of amulet the nuns and monks at the monastery were wearing?",
"Now that you mention it..." Jacky eyed it curiously. "It is. How did you get that? This is some sort of religious symbol that people from the church wear.",
"Well, uhm... A nice person gave this to me the other day after he helped me! My Cubchoo was sick and he made it get better! And now, I'm giving it to you! He said it protects whoever has it, but since you guys are gonna go do some dangerous hero stuff, I thought it might be better off in your hands!",
"Aww, that's cute of you." Jacky smiled.
"You got this from someone of the church?" Mari pondered. "Didn't know they'd part with their religious symbol just like that.",
"Oh, he wasn't actually a real member of the church, I think!" the Sinnohan girl remembered. "He was just visiting the region with some people from a Unovan monastery! Some red-haired, handsome, nice guy with green eyes! Uh... he even told me his name! Jayden, I think it was.",
"Jayden?" Mari repeated. "...",
"Mh! A great guy! My Cubchoo would be lost without him, you know.",

"He was here the other day before they left for Unova again! It was a relatively short visit... He mostly was hanging around the neighborhood candy stores...",
"Sounds a lot like Jayden as we know him", Jacky commented.
"You know him too?" The girl looked at them.
"...Yeah." Mari admitted through her teeth. "We do. We met him not too long ago.",
"Ah! That's cool! I never meet people who have the same acquaintances as I do!",
"I don't know why the heck he was in Sinnoh in the first place..." Mari muttered. "Didn't he say Nate wouldn't let him go anywhere?",
"Maybe he had permission to go on a trip with the nuns?" Jacky shrugged. "He wasn't travelling alone, after all.",
"They stayed in Canalave!" the girl said. "I think they wanted to exchange stuff with the monastery there!",
"Ah, so a business trip, hm...",
"Yeah, but he wasn't all to interested in it, that's why he roamed the areas around! My luck, because if I hadn't run into him by chance, my Cubchoo wouldn't be looking too good today!"
"And this... is his?" Mari glanced at the pendant again and was deciding for herself whether she'd keep it or throw it into the next trash can.
"Yep!",
"Mari, we have to go now", Jacky reminded her.

"Right." She nodded and closed her hand around the pendant before putting it into her bag with a deep sigh. Then, she called out Skarmory.
"I'm Koko, by the way!" the girl introduced herself. "Give my regards to Jayden when you see him!",
"Will do", Mari said, not too excitedly, as she climbed on top of Skarmory. She hoped to never run into this guy again. His flirtatious behavior had rubbed her the wrong way. Jacky released Noivern from its Pokéball and swung onto its back before the two took off and headed for Celestic.

"Skyla already went ahead... She's waiting for us in Celestic", Mari told her friend. "... If we run into Jayden again, I'll give it back to him.",
"Why do you want to give it back to him?" Jacky asked. "Koko gave it to you as a present, so... wouldn't it be disrespectful to just hand it back to him?",
"It's his, right?" Mari looked up.
"Well, it's ours now. Or rather, yours. Since you have it. I thought you wanted to keep it as a memento."
Mari narrowed her eyes in irritation. "What?! Where did you come up with that nonsense?" She tossed the pendant at her and Jacky caught it. "Pfft... haha...! I don't know what you guys were doing that night. I was asleep.",
"What the actual frick? What kinda indication is that? We were just chatting about stupid stuff!",
"Yeah, of course." Jacky snorted and put the pendant away with a smirk. "I don't get why you don't want to keep this, though... after all, it would protect you.",
"I don't need anything to protect me, I'm fine! Especially not when its HIS stuff!"
Jacky burst out into a fit of laughter. "Oh my god... I can't take it! This is too funny!",
"What's funny?",
"You..." She could barely contain herself and brushed away a tear of laughter. "You turned bright red!"
Mari gritted her teeth. "Hmph! I can't stand the guy, alright? Now stop this nonsense or I'll make you a head shorter!",
"Then come on and try!" Jacky flashed her tongue. "I can't save the world without a head.",
"True that..." Mari sighed. "Bummer."

"Hey, I just thought of something..." Jacky suddenly said. "It could be that we'll see old friends or rivals of ours again at the ball, right?",
"That could very well be. Not that I'm too excited to go on a ball, but... well, the battles might be worth a detour.",
"It's not a detour when it's my next destination, right~?" Jacky winked at her.
"Ugh... You're just trying to keep me hostage!",
"Mari... that's a good opportunity to enjoy ourselves! Don't be a partypooper and have fun!",
"... It's no fun to me though-",
"Come ooon... You have to get out of your comfort zone every once in a while!",
"... Jeez, you're annoying... Fine, but I still won't set a single toe onto the dance floor.",
"Hm... Pity. But that's okay."

Suddenly, Jacky dug her hands into Noivern's fur and closed her eyes. "Ngh...!",
"What's wrong?" Mari asked. Jacky held her head. "Nothing... I'm...",
"Jacky...?"
The girl's eyes snapped open in a panic. "MARI, FLY TO THE SIDE! QUICK!",
"What, Wha- Aah!" Skarmory pulled strongly to the side and she almost lost her hold as a Staraptor came rushing down on her from above. Her flier managed to dodge it. "Woah...! What was that...?",
"A wild Staraptor... They like to pick fights with other big birds in the sky to show off their strength." Jacky explained to her. Mari glanced at a Sinnoh map she had downloaded to her Xtranceiver. "We're over Eterna now! It's not far to Celestic from here." Skarmory accelerated a bit and Noivern caught up to it. "...How did you even know that Staraptor was going to attack?",
"I don't know..." Jacky was as perplexed as she was. "I had a tremendous headache. So much so, in fact, that everything went black for a moment. And then, I saw Skarmory being attacked. It would have lost its balance in the air and you would've slipped off...",
"A... daydream...?" Mari asked, confused.
"The pain is gone." Jacky took her hand off her head and looked to her. "This is too weird to be true."
Mari frowned, pondering. 'That... I'm pretty sure that was a vision. Absol are known to be able to sense incoming calamities with their horns from subtle changes in the sky and the land, predicting whenever one is coming. It's almost like a vision from the future...',
'Is that what you think? But Absol can foresee those things long before they happen. Just now, I only saw what happens right after.',
"That's puzzling", Mari now said aloud again. "But catching glimpses of what happens in the future... Just like I'm able to read other people's minds... That sure is cool."
Jacky smiled broadly. "Except for the headache...",
"Being able to predict the future is a power only fortune tellers have. But... can you do the same for the past?",
"I don't know...",
"It is weird that this is happening to us... Do you think it's the dimensional distortions Skyla mentioned that cause this?",
"Well... It could explain my... uh... visions", Jacky said. "Time is apparently getting distorted bit by bit, which could mean some people are affected by it. But it would never explain your mindreading capability.",
"...Right... That's an even bigger mystery..."
Jacky nodded, then pointed down. "That's Celestic down there, right?",
"Correct." Mari nodded. "This is where we should run into Elesa, too." She leaned forward and Skarmory set down. Noivern followed its lead.