Rory looked up and down at the vending machine selection in front of him. He turned back to see the girl sitting on a bench slumped over, her eyes looking around restlessly. Flora was sitting next to her, trying to cheer her up with the brightest smile she could.

After getting the guys off her trail, Rory kinda ended up leading her to this small park in the city. It was really the only nature in the entire town. Despite that, no one really came here that often, at least that's how it was 2 years ago; everyone was too used to the city miasma, Rory figured. After seeing the people that were after this girl, he didn't feel right leaving her, so he led her here.

"She said she would be good with anything," Rory thought to himself as he went back to examining the drinks. "That doesn't really give me anything to go off of though…"

Deciding that lemonade was probably the most universally loved of all the options, he grabbed three cans of it before walking back over to the bench.

"Here," he said to get her attention as he held the can over the girl's head.

"Oh…thanks…" She looked up and grabbed the can from him. Rory took a place on the bench next to her and passed the other one to Flora, who accepted it with pleasure.

"Sorry for the scare earlier," Rory said while he cracked open his own lemonade and took a sip. "But you know what they say: To trick your enemies, you first have to trick your allies."

"Um, really, it's okay," she said affirmingly. "If anything–being scared when you said you'd tell them where I went–that was my fault for not trusting you."

"It's not like you know me at all. Being skeptical was probably the right call," Rory reasoned.

"I guess…" the girl replied vaguely, looking over to Rory with questioning eyes. "But in that case, why didn't you sell me out? You didn't have any reason to trust me either."

"Hmm…" Rory paused to think. "I just didn't like those guys. Past experience has told me that guys who dress up like that and chase girls around usually aren't my friends." Rory took another sip. "That, and they pushed me up against a wall. People who do that definitely aren't my friends."

The girl couldn't help but let out a small laugh, but she must have thought it rude, as she stopped pretty quickly. It felt good to make her laugh, though, and Rory felt like he had lightened the mood a little bit, even if unintended.

Rory took a glance at the girl next to him. She hadn't opened her own lemonade yet, instead just deciding to stare at it. Just like that man had described, she was wearing a large blue hoodie that covered her entire head like a cloak. She had on black leggings that reached most of the way up her thighs. Rory assumed she was wearing some form of short shorts, but he couldn't tell because her hoodie reached far down enough to cover them up. In fact, the hoodie was clearly too large for her and was very baggy. The only part that wasn't baggy was near her chest, which was the only area that looked somewhat strained.

"Um, I'm sorry, you helped me out, and I didn't even introduce myself," the girl said, which snapped Rory back to reality and simultaneously made him realize where he had been staring.

"Oh, uh, don't worry about it," Rory said, quickly looking away. "I'm Rory."

"My name's Kiki."

"So, Kiki, got any idea why those guys were after you?" Rory said, quickly shifting the conversation.

Kiki was silent, her eyes deciding that her lemonade was both more interesting than Rory and also better left unopened.

"You can't say, huh?" Rory deduced by her silence.

"I'm really sorry," Kiki apologized again. "Even after you saved me…"

"Nah, don't sweat it," Rory reassured. "Lots of people have things they can't share. It doesn't matter much to me." Rory finished up his can of lemonade and looked back at Kiki. "You gonna drink that, or…"

"Oh! Right, sorry…" Kiki finally flipped open the tab and took a sip.

"So, what's your plan now?" Rory asked after giving her time to drink a little. "I don't think those guys are gonna give up anytime soon, and they might find this park eventually."

"Well…I have a ticket for a boat that leaves for Kalos soon; to be honest, I'm just buying time until then."

"Oh, really?" Rory said. What a coincidence.

He got up and stretched his back a bit. "Well, I guess the best plan would be to stick together until then."

"Oh no, I couldn't ask that of you," Kiki said.

"I'm going on that ship too, so it's not that much trouble."

Kiki perked up at this. "Really?"

"Yeah…for better or worse" Rory said with a tired voice.

"Better or worse?" Kiki repeated.

"Nevermind," Rory waved her off. "Come on, if we want to hide, I know of a few spots that we can do it in."

"I really don't want to drag you into my problems, though," Kiki was still hesitant.

"Me neither, trust me," Rory said. "But with any luck we won't have to see them again. In that case, we both win."

Kiki gave Rory a very odd stare, which caused him to give one back.

"What? Did I say something weird?"

"N-no, not at all…it's just…" Kiki decided not to finish that thought. "O-okay, you saved me, so I'll trust you."

"Cool, let's get to it then."

"I know I said I was good at tracking, but it's still pretty hard with this many people around."

Celeste looked down into the crowded streets from the rooftop she was currently crouched on. She didn't think she had ever seen so many people packed into such narrow streets.

Rory had missed their meeting time, and after more than 10 minutes had gone by, Celeste had started to worry. She and Robin were starting to search for him, but hadn't had much success yet.

"Man, I feel like I've looked everywhere," Celeste muttered to herself, scanning the street one more time before hopping off it and landing gracefully in a nearby alley despite the large drop. "Where the heck did that rascal get to?"

Taking another look at a clock outside of a small café, she let out a huff. "Aw man, we might miss the boat at this rate."

Just then, through a small crowd, Celeste spotted Robin weakly pushing her way through all the people. When the Braixen spotted her, there was clear relief flush on her face.

"There you are," Celeste spoke up as Robin ran over to her. "Any luck?"

Robin took a look around at all the people passing her before shaking her head. "Nope, nothing," she stated in the Pokemon language. Even so, her voice was still a little hushed.

"Hmmm, I wonder where he could have gone," Celeste replied likewise. "Virbank is a big city, so he could be anywhere."

"Hey, you there," a mystery voice came from behind Celeste. She turned to see two rough looking men approach her. "We've got a question for you."

"Me?" Celeste said back in human.

"Yes, you," one of the men replied rather curtly. "I saw you up on that roof. Have you seen a girl in a large blue hoodie pass by here?"

"A girl in a hoodie?" Celeste repeated in reflection. Not many of those people in the middle of summer. "No, I don't think so. You?" she asked the Pokemon next to her.

Robin shook her head.

"Nope, sorry boutcha," Celeste confirmed.

"Tch," one of the men showed his frustration with a click of his tongue .

"It looks like that stupid, messy haired guy with the maractus led us off," the other guy said.

"Yeah, looks like it." The man cursed under his breath. "I've got an idea how we can find him again though. Follow me," He said before running off, the other man following close behind him.

"Messy hair?" Celeste repeated.

"Maractus?" Robin joined in.

"Well, I dunno what they're on about, but it sounds like they might have known where Rory is," Celeste thought out loud. "We should go after them so we can see what they're up to."

"They're already gone, can we really find them in this packed city?" Robin asked

"Leave it to me," Celeste said proudly, pointing a thumb at herself. "Tracking is my specialty…or at least it usually is," Celeste pouted. "Whatever, let's just go after them!"

Rory peered out of the alleyway and looked into the empty streets around him. Once he was sure no one else was around, he motioned for Kiki, who was a few paces back, to follow him. This was what the two had been doing for a while now.

Rory knew the back passageways and urban crevices that this city had, so he was leading Kiki around through them. He had put Flora back into her ball for this stretch; there's no way she could keep up with their pace. Thankfully, it seemed Flora understood that, because she consented to going in this time.

"Do you need to catch your breath?" Rory asked as they ducked behind another building. He realized they had been doing this for a bit without any stop.

"No, I'm fine," Kiki replied modestly. Rory could tell she meant it, too. She didn't seem too tired.

"You're more athletic than you look," Rory commented, also remembering her previous agile stunt to hide in the dumpsters.

"I get it from my father," Kiki said with a shy smile, not expecting this sudden praise. "He's really athletic too."

Taking a look around the next building, Rory made sure it was clear before running to the next alley, with Kiki in close tandem.

"Um…sorry again that you had to do this," Kiki said meekly after they had stopped again. "There's no way I could traverse this place on my own."

"Well, the only reason I can do it is cuz I'm used to it," Rory said. "I used to do this all the time when I lived here."

"You had to hide from people too?"

"Something like that. More like dodging street gangs than the kind of guys who are after you. Although maybe there's not much difference in the end."

"You were in a street gang?" Kiki asked.

"No, but I got mixed up in them a lot."

"That sounds…scary."

"Eh, not when you get used to it."

After another glance across the street, Rory and Kiki dived through the street and made it behind another building.

"Okay, we're pretty close to the dock, and they should have trouble finding us here," Rory swiftly took out his phone and checked the time. "We've only got half an hour more to burn. Let's just hope that the other two know to meet me there."
After saying this, Rory slid back against the brick wall and sat on the cold ground. All this running had actually taken a toll on him.

"Are you tired? I'm sorry you had to do this for me," Kiki reiterated.

"You sure do apologize a lot," Rory commented, brushing some of his messy hair out of his face. "I told you, it's fine. It's just been a bit since I've had to do anything like this."

Rory would be lying if he said this whole ordeal wasn't a little bit annoying, but he wasn't going to just leave Kiki for the wolves.

Feeling hungry after that jaunt, Rory took a stick of jerky out of his bag that he had gotten from the store and started to munch on it. It wasn't the good stuff, but it would do for now.

After taking a few bites, Rory looked over to Kiki, who, with wide eyes, was looking at the food in Rory's hands.

"Uhh, do you want one?" Rory asked.

"Oh, no, I couldn't…" Kiki said. "I've just never seen something like that, so I was…curious."

"You've…never seen beef jerky?" Rory asked, a bit surprised. Kiki confirmed it with a shake of her head. Rory took out another stick and tossed it to her, which she caught aptly. "Go ahead, I bought a lot."

"O-okay. I'm sorry for this," Kiki apologized again as she unwrapped the packaging and took a nip.

"It's kinda cheap, but still, it will fill you up–"

"It's good. Really good!" Kiki said after swallowing.

"No, like I said, it's really not. It was like,150 ."

"But it is! I've never eaten anything like this before," Kiki said, her voice suddenly perking up. "Sure, it's a bit greasy, but it's still really tasty."

"If you say so."

Kiki didn't bring anything else up as she chomped down on her newfound love. Since she had to deny Rory of an explanation earlier, maybe she didn't feel it right to ask anything of him. Although if she really was a quiet, reserved person, that just made him wonder all the more about what she could have possibly done to get those undesirables after her.

After some more time passed, Rory thought of something to break the silence.

"Hey, I have a strange question to ask you, but…do you believe in Genies?"

The question that he asked her was out of the blue, but he couldn't really think of anything else to talk about. Kiki's odd reaction was understandable.

"Genies?" she confirmed. Despite the weird question, she seemed to actually give it some thought and took it seriously, looking up to the sky as she contemplated. "Well, I've never met nor seen one, but I think that this world is full of mysterious things, so I'm not willing to rule out the possibility."

That's some conviction. I'd call her gullible if she wasn't right, Rory thought.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if they were really real, though?" Kiki continued.
"Someone being able to grant your wishes: your greatest aspirations. Being able to think that there was a way to obtain that, isn't that worth believing in?"

"You got wishes you want granted?"

"O-of course I do," the girl said with a little pout. "Doesn't everyone?"

"So I'm told." Rory let out a sigh. "But I don't think Geinies are all they're cracked up to be, to be honest."

"What makes you think that?"

"Forget it, it doesn't matter."

There was silence between them for a bit, and Rory tried to think of another topic to talk about.
"Found you!" A loud voice came from across the road, interrupting Rory's thoughts.

It didn't take Rory long to realize the voice came from one of the ruffians from earlier, pointing down the alley while also running towards them. The man's sneer was a clear indicator of his current mood.

"Dammit, how'd they find us?" Rory cursed as he jumped to his feet, dragging the unready Kiki with him by her hand, who let out a startled gasp at the sudden action and dropped the food that was in her hands.

Without saying anything else, Rory started running away, holding tightly onto Kiki. He partly wished the man simply wouldn't chase them, but he wasn't foolish enough to think he wouldn't. A quick turn around proved his fear correct, as the man was now running after the two of them.

God, looks like this might not have been worth the trouble after all.

Now that the chase was on, Rory kept his eyes forward and thought of a plan. Right now, they were deep in a series of back alleys behind a myriad of factories. If a fight broke out here, there would be very little chance for anyone to come help them.

"Of all the times for Celeste not to be here," Rory thought to himself. Although he was the one who went off by himself, so he couldn't blame her for it.

Thinking about Celeste gave him an idea, however. If they were already waiting at the dock, then all he would need to do is get there in order to get help from her.

"Let's hope she's as strong as she claimed she is."

Rory also hoped that he would remember the way as he ran. Turn after turn, corner after corner, he refused to look behind him, just focusing on what was ahead. The only reason he knew Kiki was still with him was her hand in his.

"You can just leave me here," Kiki said, her voice both frightened and ragged. "I'll figure something out, you don't have to have yourself involved anymore."

"Yeah, a bit late for that," Rory said. "These aren't the kind of guys who will just let me go after the stunt I pulled on them. But we're almost to the dock, we should be fine."

Of course, Rory cursed himself for jinxing his luck when they turned a corner and a brick wall met his face. Given their momentum, Rory had to quickly put a hand up to stop himself from slamming straight into the wall, and then release his other arm to catch Kiki so she didn't do the same thing.

"Dammit, this was not here two years ago." Rory said as he looked up and down the wall, which reached all the way to the roofs. There was no other way to go, as the way they came was–

"Finally stopped running, huh?" a voice echoed down the alley.

–yeah, it was blocked as well.

Looking behind the thug, Rory saw a side street and the Virbank canal beyond it. If they could just get past this guy, that road would lead them to the dock. Breathing a sigh, Rory left Kiki behind him and approached the thug that was now walking down the alleyway towards them.

"You sure are annoying, you know that?" Rory said. He really hoped he wouldn't have to fight this guy, but the odds of that were quickly growing slim, if the guy cracking his knuckles was any indication.

Although now that Rory wasn't running, he noticed that there was only one guy here. He had no clue where the other one was.

"Oh you're one to talk. First you lead us off, then you hide with the girl, huh?"

"What's your problem with her anyway?" Rory retorted.

The guy simply let out a little laugh at this question.

"You're protecting her, and you don't even know that? Do you even know who she is?"

God, Rory hated this guy. He was acting so high and mighty.

"No, and frankly, I don't care," Rory stated blatantly. "But what I do care about is that you're in my way."

"That's some attitude. I'd like to see you keep it after this." the man said.

And like that, without warning, the man stepped up and threw a punch at Rory. Instinct kicked in and Rory shot his head back just in time to dodge it. Rory tried to grab the outstretched fist, but the punk threw a kick towards Rory's leg, which he just barely managed to jump back in time to avoid.

"Ohho, what's this now? Looks like you're not just some regular Joe, huh?" The man looked Rory up and down. His expression suddenly changed from one of mild jolly to one of high excitement. "Wait a second, I know you. You're Rory, aren't cha?"

Rory didn't reply, which only spurred the man on more.

"The way I hear it, you're the one who would beat up anyone he wanted to and got away with it. The 'Red King of Virbank'-you're that Rory, right?"

"What's your point?" Rory finally spoke back up. Even though this guy apparently knew who he was, Rory had no clue who he was.

"My point is that you disappeared from the streets about four years back. Why show back up now?"

Not leaving Rory any chance to respond, the punk threw another punch at Rory, which he successfully deflected before launching a punch of his own. It was a fake, however, as Rory used his other hand to throw his real punch into the man's gut. It worked, and sent the man reeling.

"I don't have to explain myself to you," Rory replied.

"You had power, you had fame. These streets were yours," the man said as he slowly got up off the ground. "Why would you throw that all away? Scared? Maybe you weren't all that everyone cracked you up to be."

Back up in a fighting stance, the man was starting to swing wildly towards Rory. As Rory started dodging and blocking, however, he soon realized that these weren't the thrusts of someone swinging without a plan. Each punch was calculated, and Rory was having a hard time getting out of the way of all of them in such a small space. A few hits made it past his defenses: a punch here to his cheek, a jab here to his ribs. This man wasn't like the spineless hunter he had fought earlier. This thug knew what he was doing, and he was doing it well.

"Come on, fight back! What's the matter with you?" the man spat the words in Rory's face. Rory tried to ignore him the best he could and continued to keep up his parries.

It wasn't until Rory was practically backed up against the alley wall that he thought to try something. Instead of blocking one of the hits, he moved his head at the last second: normally this was a move that would allow the thug to be able to hit him with his off hand, but this time there was something behind Rory.

The thug's fist crashed into the brick wall behind him, causing him to recoil in pain. Seeing his chance, Rory quickly jabbed his knee into the man's stomach before grabbing his head and throwing him into the alley wall with all of the force he could muster. Already battered, the head-crush against the wall caused the thug to crumple to the ground.

Rory waited for a few seconds until it was obvious that this man wasn't getting up in order to lower his guard and turn back towards Kiki.

"Hehe…you've…gotten soft…Red King," the thug said from the ground, causing Rory to face him again.

"You've got the nerve to say that after all this?"

"If you're having this much trouble in a 1v1…how do you hope to win…when it's 2v1?"
"What are you–?"

Just then, it clicked for Rory. His eyes widened as he looked around the alleyway. It wasn't until the shadow loomed over him that he looked up to see a figure blocking out the sky. Before Rory could react, the figure was on top of him, drilling his knee into Rory's shoulder, forcing him down. Rory wasn't even able to get up again before a boot met his face, kicking him to the ground.

"The other one jumped down from the roof," Rory thought to himself. "These guys are nuts!"

Rory slowly got back up to his knees. He whipped the blood that had come from his busted lip as he lifted his face, seeing the newcomer help pick up the other thug from the ground.

Dammit, this is bad. Rory thought. He hated to admit it, but that guy was right. There was no way he'd be able to beat both of these guys in a fight. Not in an enclosed space, and certainly not when he was trying to protect Kiki.

As the two men stared him down with malicious grimaces, Rory racked his brain for anything to do, but nothing came to mind, and his body was already a little shaky to get up.

Rory's eyes closed as he cursed his luck. Amid the crisis and the pain, a single thought stood out from the rest in Rory's mind.

This never would have happened if I hadn't left my house.

…

"That's enough, you two."

As if at command, a large blast of wind shot through the alleyway, threatening to knock the two thugs off their feet. As dirt, debris, and trash flew past them, even Rory had to brace himself not to be taken up in the gale.

Once the winds subsided, everyone looked out of the alley to see the source of the obviously not natural wind. The silhouette of a girl stood at the entrance, her white hair blowing behind her and her arm outstretched at an angle by her side.

"Eh? What do you want, punk?" the new, less beat up thug said, although both of their attentions were now on her. "Can't you see we're busy here?"

"I'm only at liberty to give you one chance to surrender. Give up now and leave, or else I'll be forced to use violence."

If everything else wasn't an indication, her voice clearly gave away the identity of the figure as Celeste. Her hair was no longer in a pony-tail, but instead hanging freely, glancing slightly in the wind.

"Oh, so we've got a wanna-be hero here, do we?" The thugs exchanged a smirk before slowly making their way down the alley towards her. "And what do you plan on doing exactly, eh, missie?"

"I plan on protecting the person I'm sworn to. And if you get in my way…I'm afraid I can't afford to show you any mercy."

Celeste didn't seem angry or vengeful, but the straight tone she said this with was still a far cry from her normal effervescent voice.

"A real knight in shining armor, huh? Well you're about to see what kind of mistake you just made."

The second thug, who had been doing most of the talking, decided that he had had enough, and threw a punch towards Celeste's face. It never made contact, however, as his fist stopped just inches from it.

"Huh?"

"W-what's wrong?" the first thug asked.

"It's like, I can't move my hand forward…like there's a strong wind blowing against it." Despite saying this, the thug continued to try and force his hand through, to no avail.

Celeste, who hadn't really moved much, let out a sigh. "They always want to choose violence, don't they? Can't say I didn't try." Celeste shrugged and started to move towards the thug. "Well, whatever," she said, a bright smirk appearing on her face. "I've been looking for an excuse to have a nice warm up."

Like a pot that was overflowing, the lid of tension finally exploded. The thug tried to retract his fist from the air current, but wasn't able to before Celeste spun around and sent a high roundhouse kick towards his face. He put up his other hand to block it, but her leg came so fast and with such wind behind it that he still got sent flying into the wall from the attack. The other thug, thinking quickly, tried to run up and hit Celeste while she was off balance, but it only took the reach of her arm to send a blast of air that sent him tumbling down the alleyway.

"Wh-what the hell? Just who are you?" the second punk said, getting up from the ground after being thrown into the wall.

"'A knight in shining armor', wasn't it? I think I like the sound of that!" Celeste said, approaching the man slowly, her hair now blowing behind her as fiercely as a storm. The thug wasn't going to take that lying down, so he ran at her again, determined to land a blow.

Unfortunately for him, Celeste simply ducked below his hit at the last moment with incredible speed before sending a sucker punch straight up on his ribs. Dust blew around her as another gale accompanied her punch. This time, the thug flew straight up in the air, climbing five, then ten, then fifteen meters, back up above the rooftops that he had come from. He barely had time to realize what was happening before Celeste stuck a finger up in the air towards him and then quickly pointed it towards the canal outside the alley. In tandem with her movements, the thug was launched out of the alley and flew, flailing, until he fell into the canal with a large splash.

The alley was silent for a few seconds. The only meager sounds came from the pieces of paper and trash lightly blowing around from the lingering air that was still passing through.

Celeste turned her gaze towards the other thug, who vainly tried to crawl away further back into the alley as the genie walked towards him.

"You-you're a monster!"

"Come on, now. That's not a very nice thing to say to a girl, don't you think?" she said with a bright smile.

Celeste picked the thug up by his collar, which made him writhe around. "Well, your turn!" She said jubilantly before throwing him up in the air much like the other one in order to send him flying to the river in much the same way, falling in with a large splash.

Now the alley was fully silent. Celeste readjusted her sun-visor and looked out towards the river. "Oh good, looks like they can swim. It would have been awkward if I needed to come save them."

After this comment, Celeste practically skipped over to Rory and extended a hand out to him. "You all right?"

Rory was a little stunned. He took a few seconds just looking at Celeste's hand, half expecting another blast of air to come out of it.

"...Yeah, I'm fine," Rory replied while taking the hand that was offered him. "Thanks for that."

"No thanks required," Celeste said with a large, genuine grin. "Just doing my job."

Celeste took a pause to retie her hair before adding, "Although if you plan on getting into trouble, maybe next time don't stray too far from me. It's a bit hard to protect you when I'm not here."

"Yikes, guess you're the real deal after all," Robin's voice came from down the alleyway. She took a few seconds to stare at the small people swimming to shore before heading towards the others. "Remind me to never get on your bad side."

"Oh, I'd never hurt you, Robin. You're nothing like those guys at all."
"Isn't it going to be problematic that they've seen your powers?" Rory asked. Celeste let out a giggle.

"Not really. It's not like I have to keep my identity a secret or anything. It would be problematic if everyone knew I was a genie, but I doubt many people are gonna believe them. More rumors to add to the legends, I guess."

"Speaking of which, what was up with those guys? Why were they after you?" Robin asked, "You got pretty beaten up, huh?"

"Shut it," Rory didn't want to hear it. "Well…" Rory paused to think. Why was he fighting them again?

"Uh…ah…ummm…"

A small, meek voice came from the corner of the alley. The three of them looked over to see Kiki slowly pointed in between Robin and Celeste, not able to get any words out of her mouth.

"Ah…"

It seems…

…Rory had forgotten she was there.