Riley, exhausted from battling nonstop, followed Sandra back to her gym, where she asked the man behind the desk who had let Riley enter for a small favour. He handed her something, which she then handed to her victor.
"Riley, this is a Chinockan Flight Pass. With it, Pokemon Trainers can make flights from Vancine City to Chinocko's other airports. Chinocko has two airports, Vancine City and Eclisse City." Sandra ran a hand through her hair, smoothing it out. "It's yours now. You and Lilly should fly out to Eclisse City together, where you'll find Derrek's Gym." She smiled and waved them off.
"So, Riley, want to go to Eclisse City?" asked Lilly. "Let's go together. I'll go ahead. Meet me at the airport." With that, she hopped on the back of her Lapras and sailed off down Route 4 to Vancine City.
Riley followed behind, enjoying the salty air as it tickled his nostrils. Darwing glided alongside Lapras, skimming the water with its large chest. But he encountered a Pokemon! It was an intriguing Pokemon that resembled a fish with a mask of thick scales over its facial region. Riley knew he wanted on on his team! He aimed his PokeDex at it, and it told him, "Maskalmon. Water-type. The Salmon Pokemon. This Pokemon has scales on its face to protect it from being injured if the rapid waters that it lives in thrash it into rocks or other things that could hurt it. Their population has decreased drastically in the past handful of decades because of human overconsumption."
He had Darwing use Talon Claw on it, bringing it to low health, and then threw one of the PokeBalls that Maple gave to him at it!
But...
The PokeBall just bounced off of it! It didn't catch the Pokemon, but the Pokemon escaped. It just bounced off without even trying to catch the Maskalmon. He tried again, but again, the PokeBall just bounced off of the Pokemon. Riley's PokeDex spoke, "It is illegal to catch a Maskalmon if you do not have a Maskalmon Tags."
Riley sighed, depressed. He had Darwing use Peck, and Maskalmon fainted. He continued riding on Lapras' back until he made it to the harbour at Vancine City.
He hopped off Lapras and onto the boardwalk of Vancine City's harbour. He saw a familiar trench coat-wearing figure walk into the main part of town, and decided to follow him. He followed him to the entrance of the famous Vancine Fishery, which he followed the researcher inside of.
He climbed up a bunch of steal stairs that lead him up to a steel grating that overlooked a bunch of pools of water that had a variety of Pokemon in them, but namely Maskalmon, an interesting but endangered Pokemon with a ring-shaped hole in its tail.
"Oh, hello there!" Eric was standing over a man-made river that was carved out of cement. It was made to simulate the white-water habitat of the Maskalmon swimming around in it. He turned around to face Riley. "I don't think I got your name when we met in Tempura Woods. Would you mind giving it to me?"
The trainer gave Eric his name, which, of course, was Riley.
"Riley, huh? That's a nice name. I wonder if it has a bigger meaning." Eric looked down to his tablet before looking back up at Riley. "I was just here studying Maskalmon. It thrived hundreds of years ago, feeding Chinocko's indigenous people for generations. But when Chinocko was invaded by greedy settlers, their populations decreased greatly from poaching," the Pokemon Conservationist sighed. "I want to research their habitats and whatnot so I can create a place where they can thrive, safe from overconsumption by humans."
Riley was beginning to like Eric. He was such an honourable man, and used his technology to help Pokemon, similar to Professor Maple's work, who Riley was working under.
"Since you're here," Eric began. "Do you have a Tag Package for Maskalmon?"
Riley shook his head.
"Well well." Eric took a box that contained a bunch of blue and white tags that each had a computer chip in them out of his trench coat pocket. "I've got way more Maskalmon tags than I know what to do with. Why don't you have some?" He handed the package to Riley, who opened it and looked inside.
"It's illegal, in Chinocko, to catch or breed a Maskalmon if you don't have a tag for it. With these, you'll be able to catch and breed Maskalmon. I think that should be enough tags to last you a while. Ten should be more than enough," Eric smiled, "but if you need more you can buy them from the staff member in that room there." Eric pointed to a room that had a big screen inside it, as well as a window. Also inside the room was an old man in a uniform who was carefully examining the screen.
"The chip in the Maskalmon Tags is connected to the database here in Vancine Fishery, and helps the workers here to keep track of the Maskalmon population. Nifty, isn't it?" Eric smiled. "Well, I think I'm done my research here. Have a good day!"
He'd never been in here. It was so huge and loud. Everyone was talking to each other, but he was happy to see people being social.
He walked up to the receptionist at the desk, who wore a blue blouse and a black skirt. Her hair was similar in colour to Lilly's, and she wore it in a bun. "How may I help you today? Looking for a flight?"
Riley nodded and showed her his Flight Pass.
"Where will you be flying today?" Riley told her he'd fly to Eclisse City, and she scanned his flight pass. "Right this way, please," smiled the receptionist, pointing to a sliding glass door.
Riley proceeded into the room, where he met Lilly. "Riley! You made it just in time. The next flight is just coming in now!" Riley smiled at Lilly, relieved at this good timing. He watched the airplane land on the runway and followed the lineup of other trainers through the terminal and into the vehicle.
"I'm so excited!" squeaked Lilly. "I've never been on a plane before."She pressed her face up to the window and grinned, watching as the plane rose from the ground slowly, hearing its engines pushing the fire out of its jets before it took off at a speed she couldn't even have imagined before witnessing it.
She gasped, as did Riley. It was breathtaking. They could see the whole region below them. They got a quick glimpse of the trails they'd walked, Routes 1, 2, and 3, the towns they'd visited, Torutara Town and Sherrow City, as well as their hometown of New Moon Town.
The plane headed east, and they touched down on a runway constructed into red and brown rock. More oddly, though, was the fact that the city they touched down in was in night, despite being daytime everywhere else in Chinocko.
"This is Eclisse City, Riley!" Lilly began. "It's got a really weird geographical location where it doesn't get a lot of sun. The main attraction of Eclisse City is that there's a giant theme park in the middle of town to celebrate how many prehistoric Pokemon once lived in this area! Cool, right?"
Riley nodded. This was indeed a very cool city. He had to check out the rides! Lilly grabbed Riley's hand and ran right out of the airport and straight into the theme park. "What ride should we go on first, Riley? I wanna check out the Omanyte Twister!"
Riley followed her to the fossilized Pokemon-themed thrill ride. It was a spinning ride that had riders sit inside the tentacles of a giant robotic Omanyte as it spun around. A circular Pokemon that had skin that looked like the texture of a far-off planet and had a golden ring around its body, as well as sparkly clouds that were the colour of the sky in the evening, hovered in the air, dashing out from the opposite side of the ride. "Saturnius, get back here right now! You're just as bad at sitting still as my old partner!"
The Saturnius, as the Pokemon was named, dashed past Lilly, and a girl with blonde hair and a white outfit came running in the Pokemon's path. "Saturni-...!" She paused when she noticed what Saturnius had run into.
The poor Pokemon had run into a tall, cobalt-haired girl who had a cropped dark-grey jacket that showed her stomach, black leggings with lime-green trim, who wore high-fall boots, and had a triangular D-shaped pendant over her heart. One of her eyes was brown, and the other was covered by a cyan holo-screen that made it look navy blue.
"Aren't you a cute little Pokemon?" she said, picking up Saturnius in one hand.
"Put my Saturnius down!" demanded the white-clad stranger.
"And if I don't?" the Team Delta member probed. "What'll you do then?"
"I'll... I'll..." The girl had nothing she could do. It appeared that Saturnius was her only Pokemon.
"Don't worry, miss! We'll help you!" Lilly nodded, putting out her hand. Riley grabbed it, and they turned to the female Team Delta Grunt.
"Haha, you might be able to beat me," the Grunt smiled twistedly, "but can you beat all of the Grunts that came here with me?"
Behind other rides, four other Grunts appeared, each of them juggling a PokeBall in one hand, ready to battle! "Uh-oh! Riley, I don't know if we can take all of them!" Lilly choked.
"Have no fear, for I'm here!" A dark figure standing atop the roof of a haunted house-themed attraction jumped down, landing between Lilly and Riley, and the Team Delta Grunts.
"Riley," Lilly asked, whispering quietly into her best friend's ear. "Who's this weirdo?" Riley could only shrug.
The 'weirdo' sent out his Pokemon. It was a big, tall, furry Pokemon that had a fur pattern that resembled the man's costume. Its eyes were pure white behind a domino mask-shaped fur patch, and it was muscular and nimble-looking.
Three of the four Team Delta Grunts that had appeared sent out Pokemon to combat it. One sent out a Ratatta, one sent out a Machop, and the other sent out a Pupsky.
The one that didn't send out a Pokemon walked seductively over to the girl that looked identical to her, the one that was holding Saturnius. "Concealpillar, you better not let me down."
"Glad to have you working with me, girl!" the Grunt who was holding Saturnius smiled. "Go Darkoon! Prepare for battle!"
Riley sent his Concealpillar onto the battlefield, and Lilly sent out her Hermiflage. Hermiflage used Protect! Riley ordered Concealpillar to use Bug Bite on Darkoon. It was a super effective attack, and Darkoon fainted!
Knowing its attack wouldn't damage Hermiflage, the opponent's Concealpillar used Tackle on RIley's. Then, Hermiflage used Scratch on the Team Delta Grunt's Concealpillar, and it took quite a bit of damage from a critical hit!
RIley's Concealpillar obeyed its trainer's silent command and used Tackle on the weakened Concealpillar on the rivaling team. It fainted!
"Augh! Concealpillar," the Grunt grunted. "I told you not to let me down! Go Maskalmon!"
She sent out the Pokemon that Riley had tried but failed to catch on Route 4. Hermiflage used Grass Knot on it, and it was super effective on the Maskalmon! Concealpillar attacked with Tackle, and the Maskalmon went down!
"Wow," Lilly sighed, relieved. "What a battle!"
The two female Team Delta Grunts fell onto their behinds in shock. The other three Grunts in the male-oriented uniforms also tripped over, having been absolutely obliterated by the mysterious man's Pokemon. "Guys," yelped the Grunt who'd sent out her Darkoon. She dropped the female stranger's Saturnius. "Let's split!" With that, they ran away leaving the innocents with a moment of peace.
"Oh, Saturnius, you fool!" yelped the girl in the white dress. "Thank you. I wish I could repay you. I'm visiting from Alola."