It's late at night, which doesn't mean much to me as usually my only change between night and day is whether I need a light on or off to see my paperwork. We have taken up a brief residence at an all night cafe, having quit the hotel in the wake of Team Rocket's attack. Agreeable that the Girafig plush wouldn't be practical to carry and would stand out, I left it with the hotel's evening receptionist with instructions for it to be shipped back to Medali City in Paldea. I also left a decent tip to ensure this would be followed through. Ellie gave it a brief hug and patted it on the head with a smile before we bid it farewell. I'm curious as to whether something in her knew it was for her.

The cafe we occupy the outskirts of is called Hoothoot's All Nighter, a name I don't have an opinion on one way or the other. We sit at a round table outside- Morty, Looker, Ellie and I- taking in cheap but fresh coffee and some slightly less fresh pastries. Steven is inside using their phone, having the assumption that Team Rocket might have bugged the phones at the hotel.

"How did they spread like this?!"

I glance through the floor to ceiling windows and the ajar glass door of the cafe as Steven's voice carries out. There are only a couple of patrons sitting inside, one middle aged male at the counter who makes a point of studying a newspaper and one youthful female by the door who watches Steven with wide eyes until the Snubbull at her feet gives a complaining grunt and nudges her.

"You might have two regions Lance but it's only one problem, one team!" I see Steven's hand go up to grasp at his silvered hair tightly. "I've had two teams to deal with, three with them!"

"So," Morty remarks calmly, "Mr Larry, why don't you tell us about Paldea then? Can't say I've ever been there."

I glance across the table to the blond and he gives me a small smile as he leans back in his chair. My gaze darts to Ellie and I see her turning round from the cafe to look up to me, worry shifting across her face to give way to curiosity.

"It's just Larry." Are they calling me Mr out of respect or because they think I'm old? I don't like it either way.

"Some things are dearer in Paldea, the coffee is a lot dearer but there are more options."

Morty snorts and I see Looker shaking his head while he pokes and prods at a custard filled pastry with a knife. It's hard to tell if Looker is scorning me or the pastry.

"I guess being a Gym Leader and an Elite Four member you probably need the coffee to keep up with the work," Morty murmurs mockingly.

"Do you want to join the Elite, Morty?" Ellie pipes up.

Morty's left hand snaps up and only then do I notice the plump, jam oozing pastry that has escaped a plate and become half-devoured on the table beside Morty's mug. I watch in surprise as a Haunter's disembodied hand materialises about the pastry.

"You've had enough," Morty scolds. He has his eyes closed and retains a grip on his mug with his right hand. "Well maybe you can't put on weight but it's still greedy. Bad manners if nothing else." His violet stare flashes open and he smiles at Ellie. "Maybe Ellie wanted it or maybe Larry likes the vanilla ones."

Ellie gives a soft giggle. I'm not sure I feel the same amusement for how Morty communicates with this Pokemon. It's eerie hearing only one side of the conversation but it would probably be eerier to hear the Haunter give its answers aloud.

Morty lowers his hand as the ghostly hand vanishes leaving the half-eaten pastry where it is. It's a little unnerving. I've never spent much time with Ghost Pokemon, that's Ryme's territory and I don't like to get near graveyards or anything connected with death. I've had enough of that.

"I want to find Ho-oh," Morty says calmly. "In Ecruteak it's said that a rainbow-hued Pokemon will come down to appearbefore a truly powerful trainer. I see a shadow of a person who's going to make that happen and I'm determined that it will be me. Ho-oh's wings leave rainbows in their wake when it flies and it's the Legendary Pokemon of the Bell Tower, it makes sense that it's the Pokemon of Ecruteak's legend."

"Legendary Pokemon can be very dangerous," Ellie murmurs. Her tone is quiet and I glimpse woe pooling into her grey eyes before she dips her head to the table. "They caused a lot of destruction in Hoenn."

I wonder at her comment, has she seen a Legendary Pokemon?

"Yes," Morty agrees, his blasé tone suggests he doesn't really, "but they're special too. Ho-oh can bring back the dead with its flames, it raised three Pokemon burned in the Brass Tower."

"Burned..." I see Ellie's hands take a tight grip upon the edges of the table. "The fire can spread so quickly, you mustn't play with it!"

For a moment I'm stunned. Those words aren't hers, they're mine from ten years ago when I found her setting fire to her curtains.

"Ellie come back." Morty's tone has a firmness underlining it now. I glance over and see he has released his mug and is looking to Ellie out of the corner of his eye. "It's okay Ellie, no one's playing with fire now."

The sugar dispenser falls on it side in the centre of the table and I tense. Ellie releases a heavy breath and for a couple of seconds the cutlery quivers faintly.

"Mister Larry," Looker remarks cheerfully, "weren't you about to regale us with tales of Paldea?" Was I?

The policeman gives me a beaming smile when I look his way and I wonder if he really is in the International Police. He has no Pokemon and he seems eccentric yet his intel has proved solid so far.

"Something other than the price of coffee," Morty remarks sarcastically. I can't decide if I like him or not, I would be indifferent to him as I am with most people but he has given up his home and his job to follow Ellie into danger to keep her safe and that matters.

"Are there many beaches in Paldea?" Ellie asks. "I like to explore beaches." She gives me a warm smile. "There are a few in Hoenn, Steven and I used to go looking for the perfect one but I could never find it. I thought maybe we'd do it again." She clenches the edges of the table again. "Sounds silly, mum's in intensive care and we're running all the time because of me, I just thought maybe in the chaos-"

"Hey," Morty interrupts gently, "we got to the beach here didn't we? And maybe you'll get a better look at the one in Olivine City now that we're all with you. No harm you having some enjoyment while we travel Ellie, you do deserve it."
Hearing footsteps, I glance up to see Steven emerging from the cafe at last. For one so young he holds a lot of stress in his eyes, I find it relatable but I wish I didn't.
"We need to go now," Steven murmurs to us in a low voice. "Lance is going to help but it's not something he can manage tonight."

He gives Looker and I an unfavourable glance and folds his arms displaying the steel rings about his fingers and the heavy steel cuffs on his jacket. I haven't worked out if they're a deliberate fashion choice or not, considering some of the tastes in Paldea I'm of the opinion that in my ordinariness of a simple suit maybe it's me that doesn't have any fashion sense.
"You said they killed your wife," Steven addresses me darkly, "so I guess you've nothing to lose by joining us then, except you have quite a lustrous career you've abandoned to come here."

"You said you were a former Champion," I point out as I meet his gaze with my own sombre stare. "Why did you give it up?"

Steven frowns and uneasiness clouds his face. He unfolds his arms, pushes his hands up into his hair and shakes his head. "I just need to know if you two really understand what you're getting into before we go any further."

"Certainly we understand but further to where?" Looker answers a little too quickly and happily. Seeing his smile I don't think it's an act, which is even more disturbing.

"South," Morty says as he finishes sipping his coffee and lowers his mug in both hands. He cocks his head up to Steven and says firmly, "I know you want to bolt out of Johto but they found you here from Hoenn, they'll find you if you go back to Hoenn and they're only going to expect you to go for Olivine City. They won't expect us heading south." He gives a grin that holds a tinge of mischief to it. "Besides, I'm seeing the cop here shaking Weedle out of his boots so I'm thinking that's Ilex Forest."

"Weedle?" Looker gawks across the table at Morty. "What is the nature of your psychic senses hmm? You must inform us of more useful things than Bug Pokemon although.." He pauses to rub at his dark spiked hair. "I am grateful for the warning of Weedle, I would prefer to avoid poison stings on my toes."

"As opposed to elsewhere on your person," Morty mocks him. "You're an odd cop, if you didn't have this overwhelming aura of justice I'd quite believe you were one of them in disguise."

"What?" Looker gives a look of indignant anger but then confusion clouds his expression. "Wait, is that a compliment? I...I'm not sure."

Ellie laughs, startling me with her cheer. "You're very sincere in your beliefs," she praises Looker as she offers him a smile from across the table. "I knew we could trust you."

Looker places his arm across the table and upsets the napkin holder in the process. He points at Ellie as if trying to ask a question. "Knew or knew? Did you read it in my mind? I quite confess the psychic phenomena of both Pokemon and people is very perplexing to me."

"You should be a poet with that gift for alliteration," Morty murmurs, a lilt of sarcasm still hanging on his preference for a calm tone.

"So you two are coming then?" Steven draws us back to the predicament at hand with his irate tone. "Because we need to go now. They're still here remember and I want to go while it's night, less chance of being followed."

"Shall we get some provisions first?" Looker suggests as he stands up. "Bug spray I think and perhaps slippers, they would keep out the Weedle wouldn't they?"

Morty stands up too, a good few inches over both Looker and Steven. He pushes his hands into his pockets and regards Looker with a stare I cannot work out before a smile breaks out across his face. "I suppose it makes sense you're crazy, only a crazy person would pursue Team Rocket without even a single Pokemon to hand. Can we fix that for you? I have some spare Great Balls, perhaps we'll get you one en route."

I fix my attention on Looker as curious about his absent Pokemon as everyone else. Surely there are policies against being in the police without a Pokemon partner. I recognise the grief pooling into his brown stare because I've felt it. I realise he's had a Pokemon before and lost them, fatally but whether from natural causes or something more sinister I can't tell.

"I..."

"We don't have time to be worrying about you too," Steven ends whatever protest Looker might have given. "Morty's right, you need to get yourself a Pokemon. We'll help you catch one, one that evolves with a stone would be good, quicker evolved then and I have a few stones to spare. Anyway, let's go."

We slip out of Goldenrod under the cover of darkness, it's a kind of espionage that is not for me. For a brief moment I think about what I'd normally be doing, all the paperwork I'd be processing to keep back sleep. I should be anxious about it all piling up in my absence but I don't care. What we're doing is risky, heading out to the wilds of Johto is a danger in itself but doing it at night is verging on suicidal.

We stopped for supplies in the Department Store before we left, it's twenty-four seven and stocked with everything one would need for venturing out to danger. Of course there is only so much we can carry and Steven wants us to opt for haste so practical things like sleeping bags were out of the question. Since camping is a foreign notion to me I don't mind that but I can't imagine where or how we're going to sleep tonight if at all.

Everyone is quiet as we walk and the sense of panic is heavy in the air. At Morty's suggestion we're heading south through Route 34 and then on to Azalea Town via the Ilex Forest. I suppose he's right that Team Rocket will assume Steven and Ellie would try and escape Johto but heading to a forest full of wild Pokemon at night doesn't seem like a better choice.

We walk on a makeshift trail of flattened grass trying to avoid the long grass and small groupings of trees and bushes that surrounds us. Out here the air is fresh, a welcome change from the odd mixture of sea salt and city pollution that filled Goldenrod.

Seeing Ellie's nervous glances into the shadows of the night drives me to want to console her somehow. I quicken my pace to walk beside her while Steven flanks her other side.

"You mentioned beaches," I address her quietly. I don't want my voice to betray us to any predator Pokemon lurking in the shade of bushes or trees. "We have some nice ones in Paldea."

"I always picture one with no one around," she says softly. "It has the most beautiful stretch of pale gold sand and the sea is like emeralds and sapphires all at once." I see her head turning up to me but it's hard to make out her expression with only the moonlight to show it. "It sounds crazy but I keep thinking I've been there before. That I did find the perfect beach once, only I haven't been able to find it since."

I can feel a confession bubbling in me again as I think of that day in Paldea when I consented to my wife's wishes and took a day off work to take her and Mia to the beach. Mia called it the perfect day. Why did I never find the time to take them back? All these years and she still remembers it but she doesn't remember me? I try to think what I did that day. Was I absent even while being there, caught up in business? No, I can remember building sandcastles with her and taking her for a paddle in the sea. I committed myself fully to fatherhood that day so why can't Mia remember that?

I am rolling across grass and dirt before I even realise I've been hit. My torso blazes with pain from the impact and my mind floods with confusion. A snarl fills my ears and in a moment I'm yelling in pain as a very sharp set of claws tear down my arm, cutting through the sleeve of my jacket.

A moment of distracted talking with Ellie and I've let my guard down to the dangers of the wild Pokemon out here.

"Ellie!"

"Shit there are a few of them!" I hear Morty cursing. "Gengar Shadow Ball!"

I reach up with both hands to fend off another attack, too occupied with keeping claws back from my flesh to grab a Poke Ball. I look up to the large maw of a vicious Raticate and give a gasp as I quickly become suffocated by its weight.

"Quackles Fury Cutter!"

As I fight with fur, muscle and claws I glimpse a blur of brown feathers as Ellie's Farfetch'd attacks.

The Raticate turns to it with a snarl and is smacked in the face with a large stalk of spring onion for its troubles.

I seize the chance to roll out from under it as it moves to tackle the Bird Pokemon. I see several sets of glowing eyes in the darkness and realise why Steven and Morty aren't helping. They're occupied. The sound of squeaks and snarls lets me know we've been ambushed by a pack of wild Rattata headed by a Raticate.

I push myself up to my knees, ready to grab a Poke ball when I see a giant rotund shape coming from in a blur of snapping teeth.

"Watch out!"

I feel Ellie's body pushing against mine in a moment of madness as she tries to push me from its path. We stagger together but we're not quick enough. The Raticate slams into us both like a bowling ball and in an instant we are flying backwards like felled pins. The problem is we keep flying.

I glimpse the tiny dots of stars before my body flips over, my limbs entangling with hers as we fall. I feel the hard, rocky surface of a clif side tear up my flesh and shirt as I slide down against it and for a moment there is only a flash of red and pain. That's why we keep falling, the Raticate's force has pushed us off a cliffside!

I can feel Ellie's fingers sliding against mine and I grab them tightly. If she's falling I'm falling with her.

I get a mouthful of leaves and the falling slows as thin branches slap against my skin like whips before a sturdier branch stops me. I know, I shouldn't know how whips feel, let's say Geeta gets adventurous in her efforts to try and make me interesting in the bedroom. It's never worked. She suggested once I should be more into it since I seem to enjoy seeking out punishment. I suppose that's true but it all just feels like too much effort.

Ellie's groaning pulls me back from my awkward thoughts of foreplay and back to the present. I have an awful habit of drifting off and I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I passed it on to Ellie, which made her susceptible to psychic Pokemon creating voids in her mind.

I see Ellie on the edge of the branch and feel it beginning to bow beneath our weight. Below is darkness. I suck in a breath, holding her with one hand while I reach with the other into my tattered jacket. I fumble across balls until I feel the worn texture of an old Poke Ball and pull it out. With the press of a button I release Staraptor.

My bird Pokemon squawks at me in alarm as it takes in the situation. The branch is bending and I can feel Mia slipping away. Mia, Ellie, I can't keep up with it in my head.

"Get her up," I order.

Staraptor squawks again.

"Star-star," Ellie murmurs weakly.

I smile but she doesn't see it. I had long forgotten Mia's nickname for my Pokemon. He was a Staravia when she vanished.

Staraptor's talons reach out and grasp Ellie as the branch snaps.

I'm falling but I don't care. She's safe. I failed her before but not this time. Not this time.