It wasn't too often Delaney was in touch with nature. Actually, Delaney usually could care less. She loved to travel, and see everything that the world had to offer her, but when it came to, say, camping, or hiking through forests looking for Team Plasma members with a rude boy who made it all too clear that he actively disliked her, Delaney was not too keen. Grasses and weeds grew rampant all around her, going way over the tops of the high-top shoes, some of them even reaching her knees. It made for hard walking through Pinwheel Forest and Delaney, usually a quick walker, was struggling to keep up with Cheren, who was quite a bit taller than Delaney (and with longer legs, the lucky jerk) and not having nearly as hard of a time.

It was ridiculously obvious that Cheren was irate. The boy had probably imagined fighting side by side with Burgh, revered gym leader of Castelia, against a pack of Plasma members, and instead, Burgh was at the back of the forest near the exit on the other side, waiting for anybody trying to escape, while Cheren was stalking through the thick grass with Christa White. His palpable irritation only made this even harder for Delaney, who was wondering why she hadn't found some excuse to use on the gym leaders. With Cheren and Burgh on the case, why did they even need her?

After about ten minutes of no speaking, the duo finally ran into a grunt who was chattering eagerly on a Crosstransceiver. Upon noticing the two trainers (who couldn't exactly creep up on him), he hung up from his conversation and sneered at them, a few bits of blonde hair sticking out from the hood of the Team Plasma uniform. "You two must be the trainers the boss warned us about," he said with a smirk.

"Yeah, more than likely," Delaney said with a roll of her eyes. "Can we just get this over with?" Both the Plasma member and Cheren looked at her disbelievingly. Delaney shrugged. "What? If memory serves me well, this is about the time when Cheren says something cliché to let you know we're about to kick your ass, and then we do exactly that and the smirk is wiped off your face. Let's just get to that part, okay?"

Cheren stifled a laugh- the first time Delaney had seen him in any state that was not super serious. With that, Delaney grabbed Charlie's pokeball and tossed it into the grass. When the puppy pokemon materialized, he found that the grass was taller than he was, and looked up at Delaney like she was making some sort of joke. The brunette shrugged. There was nothing she could really do about it, short of cutting the grass herself.

With a smug look replacing his held in laughter, Cheren released a pokemon as well- a purrloin. The Plasma grunt let out a patrat, and right there, Delaney knew the battle was won.

After a few quick, calculated moves from the two of them, the patrat was ruthlessly dominated and tossed aside… And that smirk had been wiped off, just like Delaney said. He handed each of them a little prize money, muttered something about how you aren't going to find my leader! (which was highly unlikely with Burgh around as well) as they recalled their pokemon and Delaney rolled her eyes at him again. "Ugh, they lack originality," she muttered under her breath.

They continued to walk in silence through the grass, which was beginning to get a little shorter the farther into the forest they walked- a good thing, seeing as how it meant that they could walk faster than they had been.

The two reached a small log bridge and after climbing it to the other side, Delaney saw her first glimpse of the next Plasma member they needed to fight, his back facing them. It was his uniform Delaney saw first. It was dark hair and pale skin that she saw second. She stopped dead in her tracks. No fucking way

Cheren looked at her quizzically, and instantly she could feel the atmosphere between them change, the clouds rolling in before the storm. Cheren shouted out towards the grunt, who whirled around. Delaney expected to see high cheekbones, blue eyes and a mouth shaped like an O in surprise- just like the last time, down to a tee.

This guy, though, didn't have any of that. His eyes were a darker brown, almost black, and light facial hair covered the bottom half of his face. He was a bit chubbier than Delaney had originally noticed and his face was much round, a second chin protruding out slightly. His hair wasn't even the same color- this grunt's was a dirty dishwasher brown, greasy and matted.

It wasn't him.

Delaney let out an audible sigh of relief, which earned her another confused look from Cheren. She wasn't even going to try to explain. It was just too complicated.

It was this instance that reminded her exactly how fucking ridiculous this all was. She was no longer Delaney Caldwell, defeater of criminal organizations. Her father had made that clear when he had shipped her off to Unova- it was time to get back to normal, as in pre-Galactic normal. Despite her strong belief that there was no 'normal' for her anymore, the fact remained that she was now Christa White, ordinary as can be. Team Plasma was not her problem. In fact, if her father knew what she was doing, he would be livid.

Cheren was unamused. He didn't even speak as he released his pokemon- this time the grass pokemon that she had always seen him with before, the grass pokemon that Delaney now knew was a snivy. The Plasma member released a purrloin, though one could hardly compare the yowling, ragged creature to the slick, polished feline on Cheren's team that had an air about it that was as utterly pretentious as its owner.

The black-haired boy began fighting with much aplomb, and it was obvious from the first move who was going to win the match. He had probably given up on trying to make sense of Delaney and figured she would join in when she had composed herself.

But she wasn't planning on it. Why should she? Cheren had this under control. The brunette trainer stood on the sidelines, her arms crossed in front of her and her lips pressed together in a thin line. She rolled her eyes as the snivy hit the Plasma grunt's purrloin on its backside with a vine. The cat yowled unhappily, but it didn't get back up. The grunt recalled it with a glare at Cheren and after some annoying chatter and the exchange of prize money, Delaney and Cheren were back on their way on the path.

It was a quiet couple of minutes before Cheren spoke up. "Why didn't you battle with me?"

"I'm sorry, did you need me to?" Delaney asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, no but-"

"There's your answer," Delaney interrupted. "You didn't need help to fight some mangy purrloin."

Cheren didn't respond as they continued down the path, but Delaney didn't miss his flushed face or jutting chin. He was still pissed, probably because he knew she was right. Delaney smirked to herself. It felt nice to finally have one over on the snide trainer.

"It's them!" Delaney looked towards the direction of the yelling voices to find two grunts stumbling down the path. They stopped in front of Delaney and Cheren, one with his arms crossed in front of him confidently and the other with his hands on his hips. "These are the trainers that Joshua warned us about."

"Your tirade against Team Plasma comes to an end now!" the grunt with his hands on his hips said confidently.

"Big words," Delaney noted sarcastically.

"What?" Cheren's voice was full of annoyance.

"Ugh, nothing." Delaney scowled in response, an exasperated sigh escaping her mouth. So much for their shared irritation. "Come on. The sooner we beat these morons, the sooner I can get out of this damn forest and get on with my life."

"Sorry to inconvenience your clearly busy schedule with doing the right thing for once," Cheren snarked as he grabbed Snivy's pokeball and released the lizard-like creature.

"You're so self-righteous," Delaney rebutted as she released Dibs. "It must be easy for you, little small-town boy who's never had to face any sort of hardship in your easy little life."

The Plasma grunts were clearly perplexed as they released a patrat and a rounded marron insect with narrowed yellow eyes that Delaney now knew was a venipede. It was reasonable, after all, to expect that these "heroic" trainers were supposed to be fighting with them, the bad guys, and not each other.

"Dibs, rapid spin." Delaney's fists clenched near her side as she curtly delivered the attack order.

"Vine whip on the patrat." Cheren's commands were equally short.

"Bite that green thing, Patrat!" called one grunt hopefully.

"Use poison sting on the green thing!" called the other. "It has to be part grass at least, right?"

"It's a snivy, you uncultured swine," Cheren sneered.

"Don't be an asshole," Delaney said indignantly.

"Are you telling me not to be an asshole to Team Plasma? Really, what are your priorities here?"

"My priority is getting out of here. I just said that."

"Bur!" Despite the heated conversation, a yell from Dibs grabbed the attention of both the trainers. He gestured wildly to the Snivy with his claws. It was obvious that the poison attack had taken a lot out of the small lizard, who looked like he was an immense amount of pain.

"Snivy!" Cheren cried out. "You can't fight like this." He grabbed Snivy's pokéball quickly and returned the lizard to rest.

"Dibs, use dig on the venipede," Delaney ordered curtly. As Dibs broke ground with his sharp claws and began to tunnel under, Delaney couldn't help but notice that Cheren stood fuming on the sidelines, his hands balled into fists at his sides. He wasn't reaching for another pokéball. "Hello? Send out your next pokemon?" Had the trainer extraordinare suddenly forgotten how double battles worked?

"I'm sorry, do you need me to?" Cheren asked mockingly.

Before Delaney could reply, Dibs burst out from underneath the ground and hit the venipede hard. The small burgundy bug was knocked onto its back and though it attempted to get itself rightside up for a few short seconds, it acknowledged defeat and stopped moving.

"Bite that drilbur, patrat!" the remaining grunt called out as his partner returned the venipede to its pokéball, glowering at Delaney and Dibs.

"Metal claw!" Delaney called out to Dibs. The drilbur's claws hardened as the patrat made contact with his torso, sinking his sharp teeth in as far as they would go. Before he could move away from the drilbur, though, Dibs raked his claws across the patrat's upper body. The rodent was instantly knocked out.

Delaney's lips were pursed into a thin line as she recalled Dibs. She didn't even bother with getting prize money from the grunts as she stomped past both them and Cheren.

"Fuck this." Before she could try to rationalize with herself, her feet began to move more and more quickly until she was running along a well-worn path, passing rangers and wild pokemon alike who seemed disturbed by her. "This is so fucking stupid," she said under her breath to herself. Why had she let herself get swept up in this? She didn't owe anything to anyone. This was not her battle, and she was not going to waste her time on Team Plasma.

"Gotta get out of this forest, gotta get the fuck out." The words rolled off of her tongue almost like a song. "Gotta get the fuck out, gotta get the fuck out."

She made a sharp right and almost ran directly into a tree. The main pathway through the forest, the straight route that Burgh had taken to hopefully cut off Team Plasma before they left the forest, was no longer in sight. It had been awhile since Delaney had seen one of the rangers. She had no sense of where she had just come from- trees were everywhere. Really, this was something Delaney should have seen coming. Her poor sense of direction had failed her once again, and now she was stuck in Pinwheel Forest with Team Plasma and a certain know-it-all black-haired trainer who was certainly seething somewhere.

Delaney turned around and made a quick left, though she wasn't quite sure if it was the right way. Had she passed by this log earlier? She had no idea- she had been so irate and indignant that she hadn't exactly been paying attention to her surroundings. Delaney sighed and took a seat on the log. Maybe it would be best for her to just close her eyes and clear her head for a moment.

This part of the forest was quiet and calming, even though Delaney wasn't necessarily calm herself. Still, she allowed her eyelids to close and took a deep breath. "I am doing the right thing here," she told herself. "The right thing for me. I am not a hero. This is none of my business."

Somebody in the vicinity audibly scoffed at her. Delaney opened her eyes to find a young woman with long, straight burgundy hair with her slate gray eyes narrowed at her. A pair of black rimmed goggles with clear lenses sat perched on her head. She was a lot better dressed for a hike through the woods than Delaney was, with a black cropped tank top, black cargo pants and black combat boots. Her arms were crossed over her bare midriff. Somehow Delaney had annoyed her without even speaking directly to her.

"I'm… sorry?" Delaney said hesitantly. "I, uh, didn't know anybody was around here. I'm kind of lost."

"You poor thing," she said dryly. "It's probably too bad a GPS system didn't interrupt your monologue."

"Yeah," Delaney said awkwardly. How was she even supposed to respond to this oddly rude girl? "You don't happen to know how to get back to the main path from here, do you?"

"Head that way," she said, pointing vaguely in one direction. "You'll find it eventually." Then, in stark contrast to what she had just told Delaney, she headed in an opposite direction.

"Wait, where are you going?" Delaney asked, worried.

"I'm not looking for the main road, I'm on a hike. Enjoying nature and shit, or at least I was while it was peaceful," she said pointedly.

Delaney turned crimson. "Right… Well, sorry. I'll leave you alone." She got up from the log and began to head in the direction that the girl had pointed. Her steps were light, quick. "Gotta get the fuck out of here," she repeated to herself again. Hopefully this girl knew what she was talking about.

"Arceus," Delaney groaned, passing what she was certain was the same crooked tree for the third time. The second time it had seemed like it was plausible that she was just passing another one, but now she was certain – the rude burgundy-haired girl either had been misunderstood in where the main path was or she had purposely led Delaney in the wrong direction. Considering how irate she had been, Delaney was betting it was the latter.

"Christa!" she heard someone yelling faintly in the opposite direction. Cheren. Ugh. Which was worse: being stuck with that know-it-all asshole or being lost in the forest?

Delaney didn't have long to contemplate this before one of those nasty little leaf bugs- sewaddle, her pokedex had informed her- popped out of absolutely nowhere, scaring the living daylights out of her. Before she could stop herself, she screamed loudly.

"Christa!" Cheren's voice was coming closer. "Just stay there!"

Delaney sighed and glared at the sewaddle. The small bug apparently didn't like her attitude and it shot a wad of its string shot at her. The gooey substance found itself in the ends of her wavy ponytail. "Are you kidding me?"

"Christa! Are you okay?" Cheren had found her. She gestured to her hair and then went to point to the vicious sewaddle but he had ran off. Delaney sighed.

"This is what you were screaming about? Your hair?" Cheren asked exasperatedly. "I thought you were being attacked!"

Delaney just didn't have the energy to argue with him. "Is this over yet?" she asked.

"You're absolutely ridiculous, do you know that?" The anger was returning to Cheren's voice. "You pick a fight with me, get my pokemon poisoned-"

"That wasn't my fault!" Delaney interrupted. "You weren't paying enough attention."

"Because you were picking a fight with me!" he countered. "Then you throw a tantrum like a preschooler and stomp off and I have to come and save you because you got something in your hair."

"I'm sorry. Can we just go?"

"What is it about these Team Plasma idiots?" he asked. "One minute, you're scoffing at them, the next you're looking horrified at their existence. They're a bunch of morons in costumes trying to look cool. The chances of them doing something actually bad are almost none."

"That's what you think!" Delaney snapped, momentarily forgetting where she was and who she was talking to. "One minute they're idiots in costumes. Then they're stealing pokemon and pokedexes and then they're blowing things up and killing pokemon and then they're out of control!"

He looked like he was deep in thought. "Blowing things up? Like in Sinnoh?" he asked with an eyebrow raise.

"Why would you say that?" Delaney asked stiffly, pursing her lips into a thin line.

"Team Galactic blew up a lake, correct?" Cheren asked, adjusting his glasses. "Is that where you're from? Is that what this has been about- Team Galactic? Because if I remember correctly, and I'm pretty sure I do, they were beaten down pretty badly by about six months ago by Delaney Caldwell." Delaney froze, willing Cheren to just shut up (and actually, Cheren, it's been almost a full year, you prick).

"Shouldn't we be chasing Team Plasma?" Delaney interrupted. She was not about to get into this discussion. "Come on, Cheren, they might be getting away!"

"Burgh would never let them," Cheren grumbled, but still, he shut up and continued to look for the idiots in costumes, as he so called them. Delaney had never been quite so grateful for silence.

The trees were becoming less dense as they continued to walk- the path that had gone straight down the center of the forest, the path Burgh had taken to go straight to the exit to wait for Team Plasma, was right in front of them. And as they drew closer to the path, Delaney could see that they were missing all the action. They quickly approached the scene, where Burgh was standing with a smug grin on his face as his large green mantis-like pokemon delivered an intense flurry of leaves to slice at the yellow lizard-like pokemon opposing it. Burgh's opponent was yet another Plasma grunt, this one with red hair and serious blue eyes, the left one almost completely covered by bangs. He looked rather irate at the idea of losing, but Burgh was relentless.

"Joshua!" a voice called out. The battle abruptly stopped as an older man dressed in yellow robes stopped by the Plasma grunt (who Delaney was assuming was Joshua). He gave the scene a onceover, his eyes stopping on Cheren and Delaney for a second, unnerving her a little bit. "How are you holding up, fellow subject of our king?"

Despite the earlier animosity between them, Cheren and Delaney exchanged confused looks. Delaney called thinking that Team Plasma looked like people dressed for a renaissance fair back when she first saw them in Accumula, but this wasn't a fair- it was a battle. King? What were they talking about? Was that code for something?

Joshua didn't speak. He glared at the man, as if to say how do you think I'm holding up? The yellow lizard that had been fighting for him had been knocked to the ground in the midst of the razor leaf attack that had been delivered by Burgh's pokemon. "It's not important," the man said, sensing Joshua's hostility. The look on his face reminded Delaney, though, exactly where she had seen him before- he was one of the grunts in Wellspring Cave that he and Cheren had battled. "We can afford to abandon the dragon skull. This is not the legendary pokemon we are seeking." Legendary pokemon? "However," he said, casting a look first at Burgh and then at the two teenagers who stood on the sideline. "We do not allow anybody to interfere with our plans and get away with it."

"I'm sorry, but you are?" Burgh asked, raising an eyebrow. Delaney stifled a laugh. Burgh certainly got to the point, didn't he?

"I am one of the Seven Sages of Team Plasma," the man said. Delaney couldn't hold it any longer- sages? Kings? These people were ridiculous. Delaney let out a loud laugh, only to receive glares from the man (sorry, the sage) and Joshua (and a smile from Burgh). "Ghetsis, another of the Seven Sages, will liberate pokemon with words alone!" Ghetsis- that was the man with green hair that Delaney had seen in Accumula. He was obviously the face of Team Plasma, hence why he was the one giving speeches and such. "The remainder of the Seven Sages have ordered their compatriots to take pokemon with full force!"

"You're disgusting," Cheren sneered from Delaney's side. "You talk about liberating pokemon, but by stealing them, they're still enslaved, as you would say. It's no different using pokemon that you stole versus pokemon that you caught. You're still a bunch of hypocrites."

Delaney said nothing, choosing instead of keep her eyes to the redheaded boy who was recalling his fallen pokemon. A softer look had crossed his features, though once the pokemon was safely back in his pokeball, his face had gone blank again.

"Don't speak about what you don't understand," the man said. If looks could kill, Cheren would've been long gone. He turned to Burgh then. Apparently Cheren was not worth more than a single sentence. "To you, the bug pokemon user Burgh, I say... Know your enemies, know yourself, and know you need not fear the result of a hundred battles... This time, we shall retreat quietly. But know this- even though you are gym leaders, we will not tolerate any further obstruction from you. In any case, we will settle this someday. I hope you are looking forward to that time as much as I..." And with that, he turned to Joshua. "Come. We have much to discuss." Before leaving, the redheaded boy handed off the dragon skull to Burgh wordlessly. Then they left, leaving the three trainers in their wake, puzzled beyond belief.

"Wow," was all Delaney could say. "That was certainly… different."

"I can't tell if that man was serious or not. Sages? And did he say something about a king?" Cheren asked, confusion knitting his brow.

Burgh was quiet for a moment. "This definitely isn't the last we'll see of them," he said when he finally spoke. "I suppose we should head back to Nacrene and take this back to Lenora?"

"I can take it back," Cheren said quickly. "I need to battle Lenora still, so I need to go back anyways. You two can go ahead."

"If that's okay with you," Burgh said.

"No, I insist," Cheren said. "You've done enough. Thanks for helping us."

"No, you two are the ones that helped me," Burgh said, shooting them both a smile. "You didn't have to get involved in this, but it was kind of you to help. I didn't do anything special. It's my job as a gym leader to make sure people like them don't cause trouble."

At that moment, Delaney seriously felt like giving Burgh a hug. If only the gym leaders of Sinnoh had felt the same way (about making sure people like Team Plasma didn't cause trouble, not giving Burgh a hug). Burgh handed off the dragon skull to Cheren, who put it in his trainer bag and headed off back to Nacrene. Delaney and Burgh stood there for a moment in silence, processing all that had happened that day.

"Are you off to Castelia then?" Burgh asked, a grin playing at his face.

"Is that the next city?" she asked. "I'm not familiar with Unova."

"Just over the bridge," Burgh said, gesturing behind them. "I'm excited to get a chance to battle you myself. You're something, Christa."

"What that something is, I'm not sure," Delaney said with a chuckle. If Burgh knew what had transpired back in the forest, he would probably say that whatever it was, it wasn't good. "I look forward to battling you too, Burgh. If that battle back there was any indication, it's going to be quite a fight."

"I'm going to head back now," Burgh said, walking towards the exit. "Would you like to come with me?"

"I think I'm going to stay here and train a bit," Delaney answered. "You know, I have to battle this gym leader in a couple days and I need to make sure I can win."

"A couple days?" Burgh asked with an eyebrow raise. "Train hard so it can be sooner than that. I'm looking forward to it." And with that, the brown haired boy with the scarf took off, leaving Delaney alone in the forest. There was still a heavy feeling in her stomach that wasn't going away.

Delaney reached inside of her bag and grabbed her Crosstransceiver and dialed the first number that popped into her head. A woman with wide blue eyes and glossy brunette hair answered the phone. "Delaney? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Delaney said, forcing a smile. "I just wanted to see a friendly face."

Author's Note (7/28/2014): Sorry for the updating delay, y'all! This one has been in the hands of my beta for awhile but I guess she's been pretty busy, so I decided to edit to the best of my ability myself and just post. I'll repost with any edits later if need be. Constructive criticism is especially appreciated in this case. :)

I also posted a new two-shot called Without Fail if you wanna check that out. :)

Chapter 10 is already written and again in the hands of my beta... I will post next week no matter what. :)

Thanks for your continued patience! And thanks for reading, as always!

~DAT