IV. Unova I

DUEL TO THE DEATH: Trainer dies during a live-broadcasted TV Battle

The Daily Watchog is keen to report on the death of actor and battler Michael Marana after an incident during yesterday's broadcast of the hit TV show 'Celebrity Battle Dome'. During the battle, Mr. Marana slowly lost the upper hand to fellow celebrity Miles Nitsuhi until one of his Pokémon fainted and did not get back up. Mr. Marana quickly recalled it and sent out his other Pokémon, which was also knocked out by Mr. Nitsuhi. Afterwards, Mr. Marana fell over and was declared dead on arrival of the hospital, where his death was attributed to the Zuneckol pandemic.

Mr. Manara was 14 at the time of his death. The Daily Watchog has learned through insider information that the Manara family plans on suing the TV studio for allowing him to battle in this condition. Pokéstar Studios was not available for an interview at this time.

Michael Manara first…

Jay flipped the page. Another high-profile casualty and still nothing had been done. Even with the death toll in Unova alone reportedly reaching a thousand during the two weeks she'd been here, the government seemed very unconcerned by it. Surely they had been working on solving this? And with reports of Alder seemingly having left, it was only getting even worse.

She reached her hand to her cup and took a sip, bringing her back to the world around her. The sun was rising on what little of the sky she could see through the ever-expanding mess of buildings stretching out to the horizon. Castelia City certainly hadn't changed in the years it had been since she set out, and neither had its tabloids. She leafed through the remaining pieces of the paper, looking for the two things she always did whenever she ended up back here. Thankfully, this region's news and gossip still had shades of five years ago, and she located it rather quickly. The first was a picture of a kind-looking man with long green hair and a white shirt. She traced her finger along the outline of his hair absently and absorbed herself in the picture, even though she already had it to memory.

After all, she had taken the picture.

She pulled out her own version, which looked considerably better due to not being blown up well past its size as well as being framed to avoid water damage during her travels. He needed to be recognizable in portrait form, or she would have no hope whatsoever finding him again. And, while she'd never admit it, she did consider it the closest thing she had to human contact while she was away from towns, exploring wherever she could to find anything resembling a clue.

There's a reason she hadn't been back in Castelia City for nearly five years.

Perhaps it was dumb of her to leave for so long and let everything change at home, but the chances of him being here, where he was still very wanted, were much smaller than the chances of him escaping to, say, Hoenn or something. And she still hadn't tackled that.

I started with the safest regions and worked my way out to the most lawless, when maybe I should have done the reverse… What if I did the other? Could I have cut out a few years?

She took another sip of her coffee, trying to pull herself out of the train of thought she'd bought so many tickets on. Yes, she could have gone to Hoenn first, or even Sinnoh, but she had very valid reasons to do what she did. But traveling through Kalos and Alola for the past five years had proven very fruitless, and she was running out of options. Maybe she would change out her ferry ticket for one to Sinnoh and get it over with. She'd probably be an adult by the time she got back, too, so she could finish up what she needed to and move on.

Speaking of moving on, it was about time she flipped this page. There was still one more thing she needed to check, although it could very realistically have been gone in five years. How long did it take to shoot a movie, anyways?

It's Finally here! PLASMA, movie based on a true story five years in the making, debuts next week

After a Five-year wait since the events the film is based on, PLASMA, starring Bill McAtke in the role of the hero Jasen opposite Mackenzie Maiyinaki as N, finally makes its debut next thursday, being a theatrical retelling of events five years ago, condensed into a two-hour film showing. The film ran into several snags during the course of filming, such as the disappearance of both Jasen and N leaving no reliable source for some of these events, but, according to Pokéstar Studios owner Stu Deeoh, had progressed at a "Marvelous" pace and is "A Work of art comparable to none".

For those of you who need a refresher on the events of five years ago, The Daily Watchog managed to interview…

Ah. That long. She folded the tabloid and tucked it into her bag, finished off her coffee, and cleared her table, satisfied with the answers she had gotten. Now she knew nobody had found N yet, so she had a reason to leave the region again. If she got to the Boat Terminal across town, she could even possibly exchange her ticket to Johto for one to Sinnoh and get looking in more lawless places. She might even have to fight gyms, if certain areas of the region were restricted to stronger trainers due to this pandemic. That might slow down her search by a few months or even a few years, but it was much better than nothing.

She tipped the bleary-eyed waitress behind the café and headed out into the street. She hadn't quite killed enough time to where there would be too many people in the roads here, but the chances of running afoul a gang were noticeably smaller now than they had been when she got up and walked to the café for breakfast before her boat departed.

Besides, she thought as she navigated through the labyrinth-like city, I am a Pokémon Trainer. I should be safe for such a short journey.

Not five minutes later, like some sort of cosmic joke, her path was roughly blocked by two large, burly men. She spun around to try and walk away only to find two more blocking her from behind. Instinctively, she backed her way against a wall so she could somewhat face all of them and pulled her pink and white hat even lower over her eyes. Her hand trailed to her purse and found a Poké Ball. The man she assumed was the leader - the largest and burliest of the four - spoke up.

"Now, Girly, there's no reason for that, eh? We just want to have a little fun, that's all." This was met with Guffaws and Jay struggled to keep her breathing in check. She fished out her Poké Ball, whoever was in it, and held onto it for support. This didn't go unnoticed by the men.

"Oh, what's that? You want that type of fun, Girly?" The man said condescendingly. "Well, I'd be happy to oblige you, but we shouldn't be around when the workday starts, eh?"

Jay held her Poké Ball close to her chest. She felt some of her confidence coming back as she formulated a plan. "Not a problem, I'll make this quick and painless. In fact…" She took a deep breath. "I'll take on all four of you right now at once."

The gang practically fell over laughing at her request, and took almost a minute to pick themselves back up. Jay used this time to actually check what Pokémon she had fished out, and breathed a sigh of relief. By some miracle, she'd picked her Pokémon that was the most capable of taking out four in one turn. If this gang was as skilled as the average Castelian street gang, this would be over in seconds. She turned back to the leader and began to idly play with her Poké Ball, staring him down through the brim of her hat.

"Well, maybe you'll be more entertainment than I had planned, eh?" The gang leader said. He gestured to his group and they sent out their Pokémon. Jay fought to contain a smile when she saw her opponents. Two brown caiman-like Pokémon with black stripes across their bodies snapped at her, while two yellow lizard-like Pokémon glared at her from the other side. Sandile and Scraggy, both certainly only at the level of being able to fight weak or inexperienced tainers.

"One more thing, though…" Jay said. "None of you have this pandemic that's going around? I wouldn't want anyone to die here" The group exchanged worried looks for a second, but soon went right back to menacing. The fact that they didn't leave was probably a good sign, and Jay simply dropped her Poké Ball to the ground. It opened with a blinding flash, and within seconds all four Pokémon were on the ground, defeated, and she was tucking her Poké Ball back into her bag. The gang had never known what hit them, and were too stunned to move as she picked up her pace and headed for her destination, far away from here.

Notes:

Holy hell, this took way longer to write than an exposition-based chapter should have. I had no idea how I wanted to even present this to start with, especially the points I knew I needed to hit in this chapter. I also decided to re-storyboard the story to make more logical sense, so that delayed this further, but it's actually here and we're finally getting out of exposition hell. Maybe next time we'll go visit a character you guys already know instead.

The early part of this story is probably my least favourite due to basically being a bunch of unrelated short stories, but I do think they were important enough to actually do. Action happens soon, I promise!

Enjoy!