Deciding that the rest of the city wasn't worth exploring, Manny ventured east onto Route 209. He acquired a Good Rod from a fisherman on a wharf, but as his Pokémon team was already complete, he had no use for it. He had Vaporeon battle every trainer he came across, including a young child named Danielle, who couldn't have been more than six years old. She was wearing a Pikachu costume, complete with perky ears and lightning-bolt tail.

"I don't want to be a Trainer. I want to be a Pokémon!" she proclaimed in a squeaky voice.

"I see that the furry community trains children from a young age," Manny sighed.

Danielle blinked. "What's a furry?"

She summoned her Pichu who received a sound beating from Vaporeon.

"A word of advice, kid: dress up as anime characters, like Integra Hellsing, or Vash the Stampede. Heck, you can even dress up as Sailor Moon! It's less creepy than cosplaying as Pokémon and other animals."

"B… but I want to be a Pokémon," Danielle sniffled, big tears welling up in her eyes.

"Just stay away from Pokémon furries at all costs!"

"What's a 'furry'? I'll have to look it up on Google!"

Manny threw up his hands in defeat and moved on, having successfully corrupted his first youth. "Egad! I just cursed someone to a life of shame and loneliness. This is what the Blizzard team must have felt like when they released World of Warcraft."

888

Solaceon Town was the quietest, most laid-back community Manny had yet encountered. Not even Floaroma was this relaxed. Ranchers and farmers of all ages drifted here and there, like Drifloon on the wind, not raising their voices, content to let the world go by while the sun sunk towards the horizon.

Manny caught the attention of a cowgirl. "Hi, good evening. Where's Hannah's home?"

She pointed, saying, "East of town, in the woods before the ruins, third house on the left."

Hannah's house was like every other private dwelling in Sinnoh; identical to every other residence within its community. To describe it would be pointless, as nobody would be interested in (or remember) her white two-storey home with a green-tiled roof that sat among three exact copies of itself. There was, however, a warm, scrumptious aroma wafting through an open window.

"Your home is a black hole of creativity and originality," Manny greeted her upon entering.

"From what I've seen on Google Earth, your home isn't exactly the ninth wonder of the world."

She was having a dinner of chicken and biscuits in the kitchen. She didn't offer him any. He was surprised to see her barefoot, wearing home clothes.

"I'm fed up of traveling, Manny. I'm a millionaire now, darn it, I don't have to go anywhere or do anything."

"The money's gonna run out sooner than you think," Manny said.

He sat at the table, stealing a hot, buttery biscuit from her plate. He eyed the pot on the stove from which the delectable odor was steaming.

"You're not gonna change my mind. I happen to like going to school, ya know; it's boring as hell, but it's less complicated than babysitting a pair of twits and dealing with clinically insane adults on a daily basis."

"We look out for each other," he spoke through a mouthful of biscuit. He nabbed a bowl from the cupboard, helping himself to a generous ladle of vegetable and chicken stew. "We've shared experiences and learned things no school could ever teach."

"Think you're a little bit closer to changing me? You're never winning me over; you're wasting time."

"Win you over? I smelt stew and came in here to have some," he chuckled through a full, very happy mouth. He stood from the table, walking to the door, still chewing. "Look, if you like school, thinking about how the world should work, that's awesome; the world needs critical thinkers. Meanwhile, me and the other twit will be running around, understanding how the world does work. We'll visit next week to take more stew; it's delicious!"

Before his head went out the door, a Pokéball cracked against the back of it.

"You're not better than me, Manny."

"I never said I was."

"I challenge you to a Pokémon battle, three on three, with the three Pokémon we have in common."

"Okay," Manny agreed equitably, stepping outside. They summoned their respective Grotle. Grass-type moves were pointless so they bit each other. Manny's Grotle defeated Orric in the biting competition, but Zeke's Flame Wheel cut victory short, so Manny summoned his flaming mare. After stomping each other, Zeke triumphed over the weaker female, as Hanny had used him more than any of her other Pokémon. Manny's Luxio took down the injured Zeke with Spark, only to be crunched in Kipp's strong jaws.

"That proves it; even though you spout about understanding the world, you're the weaker trainer," Hanny scoffed.

Manny smiled. "Maybe, but I have more fun than you do." He returned his fallen Luxio. "This battle showed me that you ARE serious about being a Trainer. Had you lost, I wouldn't have said anything, but the very fact that you won means that you care about the journey we've had together. Don't give up on your passion, Hanny. If my Mom didn't give up hers, then you shouldn't give up yours, either."

Hanny shook her head. "Get away from me."

She slammed the door.

"Can you get away from who you are?" Manny wondered quietly, returning to the Solaceon Pokémon Centre for treatment.

888

When his Pokémon were healthy again, he walked past Hannah's home again, but this time heading for Solaceon Ruins. There was a cipher carved into the stone wall facing him. Try as he might, Manny couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"Weird squiggly things," a voice muttered right behind Manny, causing the boy to jump.

"Do you make it a habit of sneaking up on people?"

There was a Ruins Maniac behind him, who was glaring at the stone cipher like it had slapped his mother.

"Each symbol is the exact image of an Unown, the enigma Pokémon which inhabit these ruins," the Ruins Maniac explained, adjusting his spectacles. "However, that doesn't help us decipher it."

"That first symbol looks like a 'T'," Manny squinted sideways at the thing. The Ruins Maniac sputtered in contempt.

"Baseless assumptions! Wishful thinking! Ruins Maniacs like myself have studied this and other Unown ciphers for centuries; millennia, even! We're no closer to figuring it out than you are!"

Another voice cut in.

"It's a good thing I'm here, then."

They turned around. Manny grinned.

"Hanny!"

She was wearing full traveling gear, backpack and all, a fresh determination in her usually skeptical eyes. Manny almost ran to embrace her, but remembered who she was. Cured of his temporary insanity, he cleared his throat. "Please enlighten us."

"There are twenty-eight Unown. Each Unown represents a letter in the Roman alphabet, except for two of them, which represent an exclamation mark and question mark, respectively. Look: the first symbol looks like a 'T', and it is. The whole thing reads, 'Top right, lower left, top right, top left, top left, lower left'."

Manny squinted once more at the symbols.

"Now that you've said it, they really do look like common letters!" he remarked.

"I figured it out when I was five," Hanny said with disdain. "My parents used to take me here for picnics."

The Ruins Maniac cried out like a wounded Stantler.

"It DOES say 'top right, lower left' and so on! But what do they mean? Are they the karmic paths that a soul must travel in order to achieve enlightenment?"

"They're directions for navigating these ruins."

"Oh," the grown man said, crestfallen. "I like my version better."

"Well, you can spend your life thinking about the way things should work, but the reality is different, isn't it, Manny?"

"It sure is, Hanny!"

The Ruins Maniac brightened up a bit, a wicked spark of creativity in his eyes.

"I think I'll write a self-help book. This world is filled with gullible fools who are cowardly and superstitious, seeking guidance rather than thinking for themselves and finding their own path in life. As long as the Internet never learns of your translation, I can be rich off my interpretation of the twenty-eight symbols!"

"Good idea. That way I can loot all the Unown treasure for myself," Hannah said, shaking hands with the corrupt guru.

"We'll both be rich! RICH! I think my first chapter will be the saddest story I know; that'll draw them in! Second chapter I'll put them through a guilt trip to break them, and third chapter I'll make them angry at everyone around them, so they have an outlet for their self-hatred..."

Hannah thought she saw the shadow of Ahriman follow the Ruins Maniac as he scuttled away, rubbing his hands together.

888

At the bottom floor of the ruins, the Trainers found another cipher carved into the wall.

Hannah narrated: "Friendship. All lives touch other lives to create something anew and alive."

"That's nice. Hey, what are these things?"

Manny discovered a nugget of pure gold, the Hidden Machine 'Defog', another one of the elemental Plates that they had dug up in the Underground, and an odd-looking and odd-smelling jar of incense. This elemental plate, however, had writing engraved on it.

Manny translated: "When the universe was created, its shards became this Plate."

"It's yet another Mind Plate, but how come this one has writing on it?"

"Beats me," Manny shrugged, pocketing the gold nugget, "but we got some sweet loot."

They used an Escape Rope to exit the ruins.

"Hanny, I'm so glad you're back that you can have this Good Rod a fisherman on Route 209 gave me."

"Pffffff, I got a Good Rod from that guy and rode all the way back to the southern part of Route 205 to catch a Finneon, along with everything else I ran into. You haven't caught a thing other than your own Pokémon, have you?"

"It saves time," Manny grumbled.