Tearing the Heavens

by Cepel

A young soldier from a once great family is thrust into the future and ends up in an unfamiliar and bizarre world, where his presence can cause complications both ancient and modern. He inadvertently becomes a trainer through mere misunderstanding and sets off in a journey to discover his own self and where he stands in a world that isn't his own.

74. The Spice of Life is Surprises

No one is watching you. No one is watching you… just keep walking, be calm and everything will pan out. Positive thoughts, positive thoughts…

At least that's what he thought to make himself feel better. There was a good chance some dipstick was watching him right now, most likely by virtue of being a gym leader or everything else he was dragged into. Which was a lot at this point.

He slapped himself with his palms, rubbing his cheeks vigorously to get some blood flowing.

So this is why gym leader's looked perpetually tired. Well, then again, insomnia had been a constant in his life and seemed to come at the worst of times, so there was that. Insomnia, however, didn't ever stress him out quite like this.

A mercenary had just broken into his house and manhandled him into the floor, fully knowing he couldn't do anything to her without his pokemon because he'd break himself trying. At death's door and at the complete mercy of his enemy. This had now happened twice. Once was bad enough, but two times? He was getting downright rusty.

Sure, he could have used his dark abilities but then what he did to Kai's house would probably be the end result again, except this time it'd be his house. And he liked his house. A lot. Made it feel like he fit in this world more than he did, and being a wandering vagrant was harsh on the body. Owning property was oddly satisfying, assuming that it was a result of growing older.

Riven could just imagine the news report. Newly shoehorned in gym leader destroys house in high class neighborhood? It'd be a public reputation nightmare, as if his standing with the general trainer community wasn't strained enough; partially because he wasn't Elesa and partially because he was generally merciless when it came to battling trainers on top of being foreign. And foreign was putting it lightly- very lightly- since he was essentially a different species.

Assuming he did use them, his dark type attacks were all physical based except for dark pulse, which meant he could damage Aliac, albeit slightly. Again, assuming she would even let him do that in such a confined space, where she had the upper hand. She could significantly damage him, though. If her bones were reinforced with metal, then that meant her muscles were used to carrying more weight than normal, so it'd be like fighting a man with roughly forty percent more mass than he'd like and judging from her strength, blocking a punch would result in his bones becoming oatmeal. A metal reinforced skeleton also meant his usual methods of disabling attackers would do absolutely nothing to her except make him look like an idiot.

She also had an Origin's strength backing her, so she was physically stronger than him from the start, female or not. He could have a chance if he went Nightmare, but that wasn't going to happen unless absolutely needed given the risks involved. There was also no telling what a steel Origin's awakening was either, in case they did have one, which in all likelihood, they did.

In essence… his whole fighting style was rendered almost entirely useless. No bones to break, no weak points able to stab or slash and he didn't exactly carry a warhammer around to use blunt force trauma.

Steel types would now be on the receiving end of many flamethrowers and close combats as he could order Aine and Baron to dish out. Steel types and electric types. And dragons. The list could go on. Psychics too, why not.

As he continued down the street, eyes wandered and narrowed at the edges of houses and buildings, in alleyways and down roadways in case someone else was peeping, or seemingly peeping anyway. Nerves were a terrible thing, honestly.

Behind him, his pokemon were constantly vigilant, on high alert and ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. He'd left Aine in his house in case Aliac decided to pay him another visit—a visit she'd hopefully regret because burns hurt like hell, and he wasn't particularly weak to fire.

As for protection from his team, well… Maybe he was using more than he needed given the outraged stares from some of the neighbors as they saw a Gallade with extended blades and a prowling Absol with quite the menacing glowing horn strutting about. Haona growling at everything didn't help this.

He tapped her head subtly, giving two terrified teenagers a nervous, yet friendly grin, then tapped Haona again when she continued to ignore him. With another wave at an old couple, he flicked her ear, to which she hissed, "hey, White Queen, you're scaring people. Did you know that?"

"So?" She replied airily, "I'm blowing off steam. And you told me to keep watch, so I am." Primly, she flipped her fur bang and almost bit him out of spite. "Why aren't you complaining about Baron? He has swords attached to his elbows and you don't see me bitching."

"Maybe because he isn't growling at people and he isn't an Absol? They might think you're feral."

She gave him an absolutely frigid glare, lips curled in disgust, clearly astonished.

"I don't believe it."

Riven froze and realized that Haona might not have been able to understand what he was getting at.

"Wait, I didn't mean it that-"

"Sure. You. Did."

"Look, that's not- " Riven stopped himself as the energy sickle became longer. "-What I meant. Haona can you not, wait! Come back here!"

She sped up past them, still wary but clearly angry. Riven sighed as Baron chuckled, as if acknowledging his trainer had screwed up. Boagrius found the matter hilarious(he was wild and had no semblance of what humans perceived as bad, nor cared to) and set off several car alarms, even shattering a nearby window.

Riven's palm met his face when he heard the shop keeper come out with a freaking Druddigon of all things, screaming obscenities as Riven turned a corner and got out of dodge before dragonbreaths started raining down on him. Or worse, repair bills. Apologizing for city disturbances was starting to be somewhat of a regularity, and since the raid and his tenure as gym leader, certain incident reports had gone up. Most notably for collateral damage to streets and buildings, obviously through no fault of his own.

Clearly the correlation was just a coincidence…

Good thing I'm the city eccentric, I guess? I've been getting complacent. Better start using my oddity to my advantage… and my paranoia. If I wasn't the gym leader I'd probably be arrested by now. Back on topic, anyway…

She was Aliac, Christa Leikos, Celine Hastings, Andrea Gallow, or as some would later call her, Ivy. There were most likely other names thrown in there too, but those had stuck out when he did some digging. Like Riven, mercs had a habit of using different aliases, and those were her known and most distinguished aliases in the past.

The only reason he'd known who some of the members of Charaph were came directly as a result of what they were known for. Beautiful women seducing crime lords who happened to turn up dead after a series of unfortunate events regarding their respective organizations didn't go unnoticed, and while they hadn't exactly seen Aliac, all they knew was a name. Or several. Of course by that time it was too late.

And she'd given it to him first thing. Her mercenary name—which might as well have been her real name if she decided to leave the past behind.

In his experience, something like that wasn't so simply brushed off. She wanted to push his buttons-hence his food and sleeping in his bed- and when she mentioned Gale, there was an underlying threat.

I know who you care about, listen to me or they get hurt.

Or there wasn't, based on her initial impulsive behavior and general unpredictability. Spontaneous people were always the most difficult to deal with, and while that exact trait had worked to his favor in the past, he was currently rooted and had to resort to backup plans and contingencies instead—which meant spontaneity in the enemy was a major pain in the ass. In that case is it was best to err on the side of caution and assume that it was a threat.

Yeah, a threat. Had to be.

One he'd blown off purposely because really… there wasn't much else he could have done at the time. Going to sleep around the enemy was a fairly stupid thing to do but with Tesla overseeing her, he doubted she'd do anything drastic—to him at least. She'd get bored and leave eventually. Mercenaries like her and Tesla, they were certainly deceitful, but not cutthroat, as contradictory as that seemed. A stupid mercenary didn't make mistakes like killing off potential allies. A live ally you could even half decently confide in was better than a dead one.

Dead allies couldn't do you favors now could they?

Riven stalked on toward the gym, absorbed in his holo caster, staring at a particular number. He tapped the screen, opening up the text message screen. A call was better for communication, but he didn't want Gale to worry too much. She was in a UFO headquarters, and not even an Origin was stupid enough to take on that many operatives with full teams of elite level pokemon.

Hey, Gale… I don't want to worry you but… If you see a tall woman with grey eyes, long black hair, and she puts you off in any way, run. Don't engage her. If you have no choice, have Vizi use fire on her. Actually, stay close to Will at all times. He's probably the best protection for now. They don't know who he is or what he can do. Message me back later when you have the time. Be safe, crazy girl.

He sent the message, breathing in deeply to calm his frayed nerves, then shook his head and swallowed to wet his dry throat. Riven stared at the other number-Tesla's number- in his holo caster, the letter B as the contact name, and decided not to touch it, closing the device instead.

A subordinate acting out on her own. It seemed Tesla had his own issues to deal with too and he didn't really feel like confirming something he already knew. Talking to him about it would be like beating a dead Ponyta, and if Aliac defied Tesla that easily, then it was safe to assume that she could do whatever she wanted, regardless of what he said. Or maybe that's what he expected Riven to do. Satisfaction denied, in that case.

So he called Allen instead. Seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Maybe it was because Allen acted more like a doting mother than anything. Maybe it was reassurance he wanted. Maybe he just needed someone to complain to that wasn't Gale, Will, Seab, or Amy. Strangely, he thought of Irene.

"A call from you this early in the morning? Must be something bad," Allen correctly assumed, sounding entirely unsurprised. "So, who'd you fistfight this time? Didn't see a report come in."

"She broke into my house."

A chuckle.

"Look, if you have a stalker fangirl you should really take that to the police. Gym leaders tend to get a lot of those. Especially the 'kill you' kind of favoritism, as demonstrated by our friendly neighborhood Sayre maniacs."

"I meant the one from Castelia that bullets wouldn't scratch, idiot," Riven replied, grumbling, "I battled her before in my gym, her name was Aveena Leewald. She's Aliac, Allen. Known in circles as, "Ivy or Andrea or Christa". Any one of those and a few more. A steel Origin. Might know her? She's quite the infamous girl. That's probably how she was able to walk through hailstorms of gunfire without a scratch. Mobsters and poachers love to carry guns around."

The Jessiks, Patriarchs, and Howling Stingers.

Once feared crime networks now completely dismantled. Three major pokemon smuggling operations across the regions brought down systemically by a single woman—whose resources and networks were consolidated and presumably handed off to someone seemingly overnight without disrupting the process in the slightest. Probably the one behind Singularity. Or maybe Singularity was behind him. What Riven had done with Cyrille in Kalos was baby steps in comparison, and he practically owned the city until Riven had figuratively driven a pipe through his eye and killed off every middleman he'd been able to get his hands on.

Which took almost three years of painstaking information gathering and countless broken mook fingers.

Even lost in thought, he could feel the operative's mood shift from across the phone. The man gathered his thoughts for a moment and stuttered. Allen must have read her file too, coming to the same conclusions if not worse given his authority. She was more enigmatic than Antoine Pollock—all of Charaph were. But not her deeds. Ivy was just a name for her method of operation coined by some detectives that eventually stuck. From the results she got though… Nightshade would be more suited.

"Ivy? I definitely know that name from somewhere… the Howling Stingers in northern Unova were taken out by someone like that, I recall. I wasn't assigned to that mission but I heard of it. And she was the Origin in Castelia? This Antoine Pollock business goes a lot deeper than we initially thought. Much deeper."

"He came up at the Castelia fiasco a few months back, right? Big shoot out and brawl on the streets?"

"Yeah. Although I don't remember most of it considering I got shot pretty early on. Heard from a friend that the so called diplomatic visit went sour in about a few seconds flat. Honestly doesn't give much hope for the future." Allen's tone went grim. "But those resources at their disposal… The Howling Stingers' operation was practically the antithesis of small. Are you completely sure about this?"

"Just about."

"H-how do you know?" Allen stuttered, correcting the statement before Riven did, "scratch that, what did you do first? Before anything?"

If Allen could see his face, Riven would have leisurely grinned at him, chipper as can be. If only Unovans weren't backward and used holo casters. Celsius would be nice too.

So he shrugged instead, trying not to laugh mirthfully while a snicker escaped him. "I charged at her with a knife. She did break into my house late at night. What else was I supposed to do? Scream?"

"Call the poli- Wait, nevermind," Allen whispered, recognizing that he almost walked into that one. "Should've known… Then what happened?"

The gym leader grunted, "she shoved her palm into it and it snapped like a twig, then I was on my ass with a very heavy woman on top of me. She took my belt so I couldn't use Aine or Baron on her, which was immensely awkward, by the way."

Definitely wasn't going to mention she was in her underwear while she did it. Manliness and dignity minus a thousand? Nope, that was a loss he was not willing to take, nor was he willing to let Allen know that of all things.

"Fire and fighting? I'd imagine a metal Origin wouldn't like saying hello to either of them. I don't suppose you tried punching her?"

"Sure, punch a steel door, see how that goes for your wrist. That's why Aine will give her a toasty reception if she tries that again. Very toasty. Very warm. I wonder if steel Origins melt? Guess we'll see. Would be quite the mess to clean up though…"

"Wait, wait, wait, hold up… don't you have some kind of really evil dark powers or something? Ever thought of using those or do they conveniently save your ass when the need arises?"

Riven scoffed.

"Side effects, Allen."

"Like what?"

"You know what being depressed is like right? Kind of sucks?"

"Err… yeah?"

"Well imagine you feel that all the time but with that depression comes anger, hatred, envy, lust, and every other word for negative that you can classify as an emotion. Including thoughts of harm and murderous intent. And those feelings aren't even yours, they're everyone elses'. So basically you're on a menstrual cycle while pregnant and with a serious bipolar disorder, all in one. Fun stuff. Now you're in a city, what happens? Somewhere out there, someone is having a bad day or wants to kill someone else. Now it's your bad day too. Multiply that by about a good ten thousand or more and there you go. It blows. Negative emotions make me stronger, but I have to feel them. It's why I wear the Diance beads. Blocks it out, makes it bearable. Otherwise I'd be moodier than usual. And crazier."

"Heaven forbid that happens. Things already tend to explode when they're around you. I'm surprised Nimbasa is still intact, but all those reports of property damage we keep forgetting about in a very convenient manner say otherwise."

Riven's eyelid twitched.

"I have absolutely nothing to do with that. Truly a coincidence."

"So it's a coincidence that several muggers were sent to the hospital a few days ago after a Castform of all things used hyper voice to rupture their eyedrums, shattered several windows in a hundred foot radius, and woke up the entire neighborhood? "

Riven twitched again. And coughed.

"Total coincidence. Anyway, while my Origin abilities are incredibly useful, I only use them selectively or out of desperation when the other me decides that dying kind of blows. I tend to forget I'm not immortal."

"I certainly see that. Hospitals are starting to recognize you and your uh, signature ways of smashing someone's face into the nearest surface. Namely tables. They've resorted to calling you the 'end table destroyer'. If you dare deny that, I'm having a Conkeldurr backhand you with a concrete pillar. I swear I can make that happen."

Riven didn't even attempt to respond. Guy was completely right about that one.

Thinking about it now though, maybe Aliac hadn't hurt him because she knew about his awakening condition? She certainly avoided doing any lasting damage, though that was more as a result of Riven realizing that struggling was pointless and being alive was better than the alternative, therefore, no further aggression was needed.

"Gargh…" Riven scratched his head, squinting blearily up at the brightness of the cloudy sky. "Besides, if I did, I wouldn't have a house and there'd be lots of questions I'm not really in the mood for answering considering we're getting dignitaries arriving soon and I really need to not look like a jackass. People have an issue with the whole foreigner thing as is. If I used them every time I was in a pinch imagine how many incidents we'd have. Imagine the bloody paperwork!"

Oh, Allen certainly could. Mountains upon mountains of deadly pages and legal verbatim that were like razors to a person's sanity. To say fieldwork was infinitely more exciting than a desk job was an enormous, huge, massive, stupendous, and gigantic understatement—desk jobs were like suicide and thinking about it made him want to die a little inside already.

"While I don't think covering your ass should be higher on the list of priorities before your life, you do have a point there." Allen shuddered, feeling a chill as he thought of it again. "Did she want anything from you?"

"Apart from the contents of my refrigerator? Information about the raid. What we found, what we did. Anything a gym leader would know if they were part of it. She didn't ask what we were looking for, I guess it was self explanatory."

"What about Grimsley? If she's working with Charaph and they're working for Singularity, she'd know exactly what we found."

"Or not," Riven mused, drawing Allen's interest. "It isn't wise to fully trust mercenaries. You've dealt with a lot, I'm sure. I guess that's why she broke in and tried to get the information out of me. I can't expose them without exposing myself, so it's a safer option than going to an employer you can't contact or trust reliably. Clever, really. Even if Charaph did know, going after Grimsley would be a stupid move—one thing mercs definitely aren't. The good ones anyway. No one sane tries to take on the full might of the Elite Four and the Champion on their own territory. Even by themselves a head on fight is practically a death wish. Everyone's aware of what a champion level pokemon is capable of. Nicholas Sayre saw to that. "

"Agreed, however… They can always isolate and pounce him," Allen put in. "Just like Sabine. They took her out in a 'police' escort. The news said it was officers, but it was actually an operative escort."

"Figures you'd want to leave that bit out. What kind of pokemon?"

"Strong, guessing from the damages and the bodies. They were hit too fast to react. Fire and ice types for obscuring and area denial, psychics for retaliation and fighters to suppress close range targets. Lastly, firearms to kill the human targets without having to deal with pokemon. They didn't intend to leave anyone alive. I don't think a bunch of teenagers could manage that. The Sayres were organized better than most teenagers could manage but they had no knowledge of tactics meant to take down people that quick. Too imprecise and amateurish for this level of a hit. They can get the jump on leaders, but not operatives. We train for that. These guys were good. Too good. Military training good. Ring a bell?"

"Yeah, it does," Riven concluded grimly.

The part Allen hadn't been able to decipher was that each of the victims were shot in the head by a high caliber weapon from various distances apart while Sabine was shot mid flight—judging by the damage caused to the body upon impact with the ground. In a situation like that, and with all the firearm restrictions the regions had slammed on since the Sinnoh incident, few possessed the marksmanship to do that, and even the best shots had trouble. To be able to hit every mark in the head like that under combat conditions? What kind of person had that accuracy? And reflexes? Definitely not some punk kid who'd never touched a firearm in their life, that was certain.

Even the best shots he knew concluded the same, "what, how?" was the shared consensus.

On the other hand, Riven had already assumed that Sabine's days were numbered. She was just the puppet used to reinvigorate the civilian population and seal off Prime's ability to overtly screw with their plans. A small pawn in the large scheme of things.

The Plasmas were also gaining record numbers of recruits, and Sabine Fullon was the most recognizable figure in the organization so far. She was the face of the newly invigorated team, her murder would have figuratively cut off the head of the snake, or so they thought. All it did was make the Plasmas double pissed. They wanted to spur action, not start a sweeping movement. The Sayres were just cogs in a machine that worked only as well as directly supervised. The Plasmas, on the other hand, had beliefs. And you can't sway beliefs with money and threats, and you couldn't shoot ideas with bullets.

Riven let out a large sigh.

"We can't do anything about that now, unfortunately." Allen and the rest of the UFO pretty much agreed. Still, it made the gym leader feel like someone had attached a sack of lead to his shoulders and told him to run with it. "Being an official is hard."

"Just now realizing that?" Allen remarked reproachfully. "Wow, responsibility must be foreign to you at this point."

"Look at this guy- I gave you some credit and you throw it back? Dick," Riven spat reproachfully. He went silent for a moment. "The lockdown lift… was that because of this? The League finally caved into public pressure after weeks of protesting and financial decline? Fairly sudden, to be honest. Sabine's assassination isn't that much of an issue. I think. So then why?"

"Wasn't the string that broke the Camerupt's back, I know that for sure." Allen paused, unsure of it himself. "Hmmm… Don't really know. We haven't kept up to date with affairs outside Unova much, but I heard something fairly disturbing happened in Johto a few days ago and they thought it might've had something to do with Unova's issues. So far every region is in the dark here and the only solution was to lift the lockdown and talk it out for once."

"You say that like you're a little skeptical."

"Aren't you thinking the same thing?"

Riven chuckled darkly as Allen made himself breathe, exhaling slowly.

"I'd be all for things getting resolved peacefully, but with the way things are going around here, violence seems to be the language most people are talking these days. I'm hopeful, just not raising my expectations too high in case something happens. Also, since we're already talking, look sharp tomorrow. We're taking you to Castelia to meet your assigned leaders."

Riven scrunched his face, confused. "You'll pick me up? Castelia is more than a day's flight out and I can't teleport. I don't follow. Unless you plan on strapping rockets to my feet."

"Sounds tempting, but no. That's taken care of, don't worry. We got airships for high profile escorts like gym leaders and more importantly, champions, which there will be three of tomorrow. In the same place."

Allen wasn't playing around, this was fairly serious.

"Since you can't teleport anyway, it's a good excuse not to use a psychic and it's much faster than a Braviary flight. It's got built in light screen technology to protect from any goons that get any ideas too. We'll get to Castelia in a few hours with it easy."

The gym leader whistled, slightly impressed.

"Ops have toys I see. I've only ever seen one airship in Kalos, and that one was fairly far away. Figured only rich people and the League had access to them."

"Scientists too, when they need to fly out to remote locations. Otherwise you'd be right."

"Hmmm… airships for every leader in Unova?" Riven counted off with his fingers. "That's like… ten or more cities. That's… a lot of protection. How many operatives will be there? Not counting the local police forces or the military. Shit, if those guys get involved…"

"Then that means the situation is beyond saving," Allen laughed morbidly. "There's a reason we don't tell those Mankeys anything, all they want to do is shoot things. As for the ops? Well, there'll be enough that I dare anyone to try anything without getting absolutely trashed. With the airships nothing should happen that can't be immediately dealt with. The snows will make it harder for anyone to attack us as well."

"And what about protestors? One comment can set off the Sinnohan leaders. Sure you can shut them up in time? They have to land in the Castelia airport. Lot of people and trainers coming back down south to avoid the winter. Could be a prime mixture for an explosion that spells out, 'screwed'."

Allen hadn't rooted out that possibility yet either, though there was little he could do to alleviate it. Sometimes all you could do with that powder keg was try to keep it away from any sparks and hope nothing went wrong. Clearly that philosophy worked out for no one in law enforcement, but they could hope, right?

"I figure they'll control themselves better this time around with so much authority around them. All of Unova's gym leaders will be there, including the Elite Four and the Champion. Have a little faith once in a while. They're not terribly bad kids, they've just been through some stuff I'm sure you can relate with. Makes people jumpy, eh?"

Allen coughed suggestively. Riven rolled his eyes.

"Fine, should I dress up fancy? Bring a dress?"

"Please don't scare the children. I think that getup Elesa designed for you is enough-well, more like excessive, but I wouldn't advise against a bulletproof vest?" Allen suggested dryly. "And please try not to piss them off first thing in the morning. From what I've heard, Sela Schaffer is not one to be messed with, more so if she takes shit from a man. That woman is scary. And stupidly strong."

"Uh, I'll keep that in mind… I'll try to maneuver around her. Though I'm not entirely sure why my sex matters." Riven wrinkled his nose in confusion. "You know this is a mess, right? And a bad idea? I'm… not the only one that's feeling that?"

Allen laughed loudly.

"You think everything is a bad idea. Because you're a manic paranoid. I hate to say it but manic paranoids tend to be right more often than not," Allen nodded to himself. "I'm well aware of the sinking ship we're getting handed to us, and guess who's stuck trying to hold said SS Titanic together by their fingertips and pray some idiot doesn't muck it up?"

"Uh… you poor bastard?"

"Don't poor bastard me just yet. Don't forget you're basically one of us now. So is Will and your girlfriend," Allen reminded far too happily. If he were standing beside Riven, he probably would have clapped him on the back too, all cheery and mock happy. "We're screwed together."

Looking up at the sky again, Riven noticed thick clouds forming over the Nimbasan sky—signs of snowfall and with it, more cold.

Even the weather agreed.

"They're going to try something, you know. They'd be stupid not to."

"And stupid enough to even consider it," Allen grinned. "Desperation really is the fool's worst enemy."

"Yes, it is. Got something for them?"

"I have an idea, and you're not going to like it."

Riven frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I'm going to need those emotional senses of yours."

"Allen, really? Didn't I just tell you why that's a terrible idea?"

"Yup, but it's a lot more accurate than psychics. You can hide your thoughts, but you can't hide your feelings."

"I'm going to hate you."

"If that means no diplomatic crises or dead gym leaders, I can live with that."

"Trade off then. I'll play along, but I've been playing around with an idea in my head and I want to test it. At least to compensate for the migraine I'll get afterward."

"Deal. What do you need?"

Allen fully expected a request for half a crate of knives or assorted sharp objects for "general usage".

"I need a trigger mechanism that you can attach to a belt. And two spares fitted for wrist mounting. And also… do you know if potions can be used instantaneously ? Like an adrenaline shot? Does Unovan Field Operations have something like that?"

After a beat, Allen sighed.

"Yeah, we do. I cant even imagine what you'll use those things for, and I'm not going to ask, either. Don't take them too much or you'll get kidney failure and die. But since you're a damn pokemon hybrid genetic superhuman I'm sure you'll be fine. I'll have them in a few days. That okay?"

"Yeah. Isn't it hard to get those, by the way?"

"Not when Prime wants them," Allen snorted. "Ever since you told the big shots what you are, experienced what Loberia did, and saw Aliac laugh at getting shot, they've stopped underestimating Origins. Having one at our side, any one, is a huge benefit that we can't possibly afford to pass up on. Wouldn't want our best employees running off due to bad management."

"They're taking this seriously, huh? Good to know. Never underestimate anyone."

"Quoting Sun Tzu?"

"It's only proper. That guy was a genius and an excellent read. The future has so many interesting things. Like intravenous potions and paperwork. Luckily I don't have to deal with the second one."

"Yeah, because no one wants to force you to do paperwork. Their balls are quivering and you're not even that scary. Just about as nuts though."

"Reputations and first impressions make a hell of a lot of a difference. They only think I can level buildings."

"Can you?"

"Probably not without splitting my head open but they don't know that. I guess the rumors did the trick."

"Wait, you spread those?"

"Nope, I paid some other kids to do it. Never know when that rep might come in handy. Plus, they're untraceable so they'll never know it was me. Just in case. For reasons."

"Something is seriously wrong with you."

Riven snickered.

---

After ending his call with Allen, Riven arrived at the gym, pushing open the gym doors as he was inserting the key. Instantly, he drew a knife and ordered Baron and Haona to get ready in case there was someone waiting inside—or worse, them and their team. Ever so slowly, Baron and Riven took opposite ends of the door, cracking it open to peek inside as Haona stood watch behind them.

Clear. No one in sight. Not even behind the doors, or behind the pillars that held the gym's insignia.

The gym wasn't completely dark, however, with the brighter platform lights being the only lights left off. For a potential ambush it didn't look very convincing. Maybe they sucked. A regular person could still see just fine if they squinted. He needed a better view, subconsciously reaching for Aine's empty pokeball on his belt.

Damn it, that's right.

He didn't have Aine to get him up his obstacle course in one leap. Instead, he ordered Baron to teleport to the rafters and see who was up there while he reached for the first handhold. Good old fashioned way. Haona(still angry) and Boagrius stayed behind to watch his back while Spoopy and Omy took a nearby wall to scale.

Baron disappeared in a pink flash, reappearing on the rafters, staying low to the ground to reduce his profile. He stopped for a moment, stood up, and retracted his blades, waving at Riven to come up.

Coast was clear? Huh?

So then why was the gym open? Didn't I specifically instruct Page, Bridget, and Cassie not to open the doors to anyone? Must've been Rolan… Wait, he was off today. Then what the hell?

Upon climbing the last handhold, Riven slowly emerged from below, just about peeking his head out with eyebrows locked in a fierce glare. They shifted to utter confusion as he saw a UFO trainee standing in front of the three girls. Average height, fairly pretty with brown hair tied in a ponytatail and a rather friendly face. She was too young for the standard trainee, which meant she was most likely an accomplished trainer who defeated the gym cycle early and somehow… choose to be an operative? That didn't make sense. Who willingly wanted to do that?

She tensed up and began fidgeting as she saw him peek his head out above the platform, then hoist himself up to full height. Was she afraid of him? Her face turned pink.

He hadn't even worn his coat either. He'd come in nothing more than casual wear too, so he looked about as imposing as any other guy in his early twenties wearing a t-shirt looked. Clearly he wasn't that intimidating, was he?

Walking over while still trying to wrap his head around the sudden visit, he gave the three girls a disapproving stare, sharpening his voice to get that nice authoritative tone going, "Cassie, Page, Bridget. What did I say about letting people into the gym before opening time?"

"Always carry your pepper spray!" Cassie exclaimed, to which Riven nodded, still scowling yet semi pleased she remembered.

"Very good, but that doesn't answer the question."

Cassie frowned, putting the pepper spray down in slow disillusionment.

"B-but she's a UFO! We have to let them in!" Page then pointed out crossly, aiming a finger at the girl. "Aren't they above gym leaders?"

"Normal ops are, yes. But she's a trainee, Page," Riven corrected, "see the uniform? And trainees usually don't visit gyms. Anyone could easily swipe a uniform and try to kill you."

"Only if smiles kill you," Cassie deadpanned, crossing her arms. "She seems nice. Besides, have you seen the inside of a UFO hq? Who's gonna wanna sneak in there for a uniform anyway? It's locked up tighter than a Cloyster's shell!"

"And how would you know that if you've never been in one?" Riven returned, cocking an eyebrow. Cassie frowned again, grumbling. "It's amazing how far you can get just by acting like you know what you're doing."

There was never a more true statement than that, Riven realized. Lifeskill 101: Bullshit fucking mastery.

"Maybe you're just paranoid," Bridget suggested instead, which was partly- okay, mostly true.

"I know. You should be more careful regardless. All of you. And Rolan. Especially Rolan." The girls made a collective scoff. "He's a dick but he's our dick. Do not take that the wrong way."

The girls giggled as he frowned.

"Got it?"

He gestured to them all with his fingers. Bridget was pretending to be distracted by her phone and got brought back to reality by a (very gentle) blow of air from Boagrius that blew her hair in her face and the phone out of her hands.

"Okay, dad, I got it," Bridget replied angrily, picking it up. "Now my hair is messed up again, thanks. Let's go back downstairs now that grumpykins is here and we can actually do our job!"

"Good, and stop texting your boyfriend during battles, it's disrespectful! I've gotten five complaints already!"

"Shut up, dad! As if you don't get fifty a day!"

"That's different! Keep texting during battles and I'll call your real father!"

Riven scowled, then sighed softly as they descended. Least they remembered about the spray. Apparently carrying pepper spray and knives wasn't something gym trainers should do. While he personally found that way of thinking blasphemous and horrendously idiotic, Riven allowed them to forgo the knives but insisted on the spray(he subtly left sprays around them everywhere to annoy them into carrying it). Page was downright appalled he had even tried to get them to use lethal weapons. Rolan had been the only one not to object to the knife, but he got outnumbered fairly easily by the trio of girls.

His ire faded quickly. It wasn't their fault he had a stressful meeting last night. His patience as a gym leader really was improving. Besides, the trainee girl looked nervous just being in his vicinity. Her face had gone from slightly Unovan born pale to Cheri berry. He turned to her and held out a hand, the sudden motion causing her to jump and let out a girly squeak.

"Uh, sorry—Did I startle you? Err… sorry about that, my trainers are a tiny bit rebellious, you see. Nathan Ethne. And you are?"

The girl shook his hand, quivering slightly. "Um, h-hello. I-I'm Maya. Maya Majors. UFO in training, b-but I think you might've guessed that already…"

Riven nodded curiously, a slight smile forming on his otherwise frozen scowl. "I did. But hello anyway, Maya. I can't help but notice that you look a little nervous, though. Is it my face, by any chance? I'm trying to amend it but I've been told I come across as kind of unapproachable. Is that true?"

He leaned in closer, to which she responded by stepping back, face flaring.

"Yes," she admitted instantly as regret rushed in like a mallet and further hammered her foot into her mouth. "I mean no! No it's not it's just you're, oh my gosh, I-"

Maya shut her mouth before she could finish the sentence, muttering quietly to herself while leaving the gym leader fairly perplexed. Operatives were either smartasses, hardasses, or jackasses, of which this girl was none. That was weird. Well, she was green still. Give it a few years and several terrible sights and it'd be right on the money.

Clearly this girl was a little jittery, so he made sure to give her a warmer smile than usual, which actually made the trainee look like she wanted to jump off the training platform. Strange, that tended to work in reverse.

"Errr… do you need a moment, Maya?"

"I-no, I mean… yeah."

"Okay then… take your time." Riven left her to herself and took the time to let his gym trainers set up for the day meanwhile Maya gathered herself in a far off corner with a Maractus that was apparently having a lively conversation with her. She then began consulting with a Lilligant.

Even after a good half hour of set up, she half stumbled back and stammered for a moment before attempting to straighten herself. Riven couldn't suppress his laugh, crossing his arms as he grinned.

"Better now?"

Maya nodded dimly. "J-just a bit."

"Alright, well I'll take your word for it. Onto business then, Ms. Majors. To the throne." He clapped his hands together and motioned for her to follow him to the simplest, most average looking metal chair Maya had ever seen on the far end of the leader's side of the battle arena. Regally sitting in it and looking utterly ridiculous, he cocked an eyebrow, expectant. "What cruel sod assigned you to me and my magnificence? Trainers love me so much they send me hate mail daily. Warms my soul, truly. Speak, subject."

Rather than an answer, Riven got a giggle, which then turned into full-fledged laughter. Maya flustered and tried to stop herself when she remembered she had to make a good impression. Laughing at gym leaders was hardly the way to do that. Be professional!

"S-sorry! I just think-well, not think but you kind of remind me of someone a little. Not that that's bad! Oh gosh I'm sorry."

Riven blinked. "Who do I remind you of?"

"My sister," she answered honestly. "Her name's Ree, you probably don't know her. She battled Elesa before you took over a few months ago… I don't think Elesa likes her too much, though."

She saw him twitch.

"Wait… Majors… What did you say your name was?" He asked, suddenly very concerned. He sat up, which caused the girl to move back. "Your full name."

"Maya Blair Majors."

His brows rose slightly, then furrowed.

"And your sister?"

"Ree Adelaide Majors."

Riven let out a breath he'd been holding in, deflating like a balloon and wondering how carefully he should tread so as not to step on a mine. This was the sister of the crazy girl Allen had told him about. The one that got Kev his job in Castelia and seemed to be profoundly infatuated with baseball bats and causing ruckuses inside gyms. While pregnant. He knew who he was not letting inside his gym, ever.

The most pressing issue, however, was who he was currently talking to. That photograph in Pollock's file. It didn't click until now.

The younger sister of Ree, an accomplished trainer who had been the Unovan envoy to Sinnoh during the latter half of the crisis. Now she was here, a trainee for the UFO, and not because of what happened over there. On her belt, less than six pokeballs rested at her hip. Seasoned trainers never left without their entire team. For a duo of otherwise regular trainers, they were quite involved with authorities and diplomatic crises.

"You're here about Antoine Pollock, aren't you?" Riven asked, trying to soften his tone as much as possible. "I'm sorry about your Serperior."

"That information was supposed to be- "Maya's eyes widened, shifting her gaze towards the Maractus. It gave her a pained look and seemed to wilt in on itself. "You're just a gym leader… How would you know that? Why do you know that?!"

Anger blossomed in her eyes as she balled her fists, almost seething.

"Answer me," she spat through grit teeth. Bo's death wasn't some social media photo to be thrown about like a picture of breakfast. That was her starter, her companion, her best friend. And some random gym leader they barely promoted suddenly knew all about it?

The gym leader held up both hands, trying to settle her down.

"Maya, please calm down. It was confidential information, yes, but they didn't show it to me for just any reason, okay? I don't want to hurt you."

"What? You hurt me-"

Suddenly, he showed her a knife he produced from his pocket. He simply demonstrated it to emphasize his point.

"Trainers who've lost their pokemon have been rather prone to violence lately. Just being cautious. Hands off your pokeballs."

To her credit, she simply stared him down, a chilling glare frozen on her face. She'd faced enough muggers to build up a tolerance towards knives being pointed at her. She'd been in more precarious situations.

"A gym leader can face serious consequences if he hurts an operative, a trainee included," she recited flatly. "So that knife is useless, I'm not emotionally unstable enough to attack a gym leader, and you haven't answered my question, Nathan. How did you see his picture?"

Her expression was set and she wasn't taking any shit for an answer. Riven put the knife down and frowned, nodding.

"They don't let just any foreigner worth their salt get an official title in this region. Even with a leader's recommendation," Riven explained slowly, trying not to get her even more worked up. "I'm not just anyone. Why else would they send you here? And why else would you become a trainee? I know who you are. Ambassador to active combatant peacekeeper isn't a smooth transition anywhere. Yes, I saw your Serperior's photo in Pollock's file, but that's because I'm helping the UFOs with a case, one that's a bit above your clearance and directly involves the poacher that killed your starter. He's involved in something a lot bigger than you think, huge even—possibly region level important. The file—your name was written there. Pollock mainly operates in Unova's central area around Nimbasa, Castelia, and Driftveil—my jurisdiction being Nimbasa and its surrounding areas. You being here is far from coincidence. Volunteered not ordered, right?"

He shook his head as she glanced away, jaw clenched. Riven paused for a moment, letting her meet his eye again. Joining the operatives was no random whim, either. Whether it was vengeance or justice, Maya wanted it for her starter. But she wasn't a killer. She wasn't a Sayre. That alone put her above the others. It was a good choice, but there was always uncertainty with what could happen in the dark—without watchful eyes.

"Sorry, I'm not patronizing you, nor am I saying that what you're doing is wrong. Well, I should say… what you'll decide to do. When we find the despicable shit stain, and we will find him."

Her eyes widened again, bewildered. "You… approve?"

"I just understand," Riven replied morosely. "More than most gym leaders. I should warn you though. Should you find him, and should you have him at your mercy—sparing the bastard might be the hardest thing you'll ever do if you find him. Should you decide to do it, I won't try to convince you out of it. Kill him and live with the guilt, or spare him and hope he lives miserably for the rest of his cockswab life. It's your choice entirely, I'm not your father."

"You're not my fath- What happened to you?" She asked with an almost insulted scoff, completely sidelined by his impassive tone. Sharing pain was hardly ever an easy thing to do, and he talked about it like it was another Tuesday.

"I don't think you need to worry about that. Past is the past and I'd rather let it go. You have enough on your plate as it is." He gave her another reassuring smile, which drove her to stupors again. She was still pretty peeved about it, though.

Returning to business, he explained, "On another note… I'm very familiar with pokemon smuggling rings and poachers. In Kalos I could say I even helped bring some of them down. Pollock had interests there, and a lot of the criminals I ran into had ties with him that ran deep. I know his kind and partly how he operates. Since Nimbasa is in his stomping ground, that's my jurisdiction, like I said before. So it falls on me whenever he commits a crime within or close to the city. I also happen to have extensive experience in combat scenarios when people are actually trying to kill you with everything they got. I was kind of an insider, once."

"Criminal to gym leader. That's not an easy transition either," Maya pointed out instantly, echoing his earlier statement sharply. "How many warrants do you have and how many crimes have you committed, poacher?"

"Poacher? Now that's insulting." Riven crossed a leg and leaned back on his chair. "Nothing like that. I despise poachers, and I've seen first hand what they do to pokemon. And people. As far as you're allowed to know, though, I'm a model citizen. I guess we have something in common when it comes to making sudden life changes, huh?"

The trainee stared at him, as if trying to figure out the trick to a puzzle.

The image the tabloids showed of the leader and the man reclining in his "supposed" throne didn't add up. On camera, he looked imposing, strong, confident. But away from the spotlight he was stranger, and oddly cryptic, contradicting his image then bouncing back to confuse you. No, it was something else, like he was only one part of many—a slice of the pie, not the whole thing. Who was he supposed to be exactly? She couldn't really get a reading on him, he was all over the place.

"I-I… thought you were just a trainer. Are you ex-military? Wait, how? You're so young…"

Riven shrugged, letting out a cough.

"Somewhat? Kalos doesn't have an active military branch like Unova does, but there are special units still in use when it comes to dealing with threats. I wasn't one of them though, so no record would show up anyhow. I was mostly a solo act. Learned a lot of things out on my own, parents were killed when I was seven. That's when the down spiral started. Life was… difficult. Made a stupid decision, but not one I regret. It was the only decision, really."

Maya gasped, inhaling sharply.

"They killed your parents. And you got back at them," she concluded darkly. "You hunted them down."

"I guess… if you could call it that," he said idly, paying little mind to it. "Seems like forever ago now. Though it appears a lot of trainers take that route too, and not necessarily against those who deserve it."

Maya's eyes went still. Thoughtful, but dark. Strange, she didn't feel the least bit intimidated by the fact that the man before her had actually murdered someone. Losing her pokemon had changed her, dulled her to that. Everyone was a killer these days, just not always for the same reason. Perspectives change when a kid barely out of his teens orders a Magcargo to burn a Persian and its trainer to death on live television.

Leader's recommendation… so Elesa recommended him? Or was it someone else?

Elesa and Nathan felt like opposites, why would she choose him?

"Does it feel good?"

"What does?"

"Vengeance, I guess."

"Justice does. Which is which depends on you. Only for a moment, though. Then you realize that person's gone and life goes on. It's just a means to an end, killing. No matter how twisted that thought may seem, the end result is the same. A satisfaction that doesn't stop, like a drug high. I assume that's what the Sayres get whenever they do whatever it is they do. They believe they're dealing out justice when they're not. I don't suggest it, if that's what's running through your head. Don't look the type honestly. Ask any operative you know who's had to pull the trigger or give the kill order. It'll mess you up somehow. Worse anyway. You'll start to think you're sane when you're not, trust me."

"I know, it's just-"

She frowned deeply, knowing that her sister probably would have reacted on impulse. She almost killed a man after her Minccino died. Any other trainer swore they'd murder anyone who came after their team, and they'd be right—only they never thought about what it felt like afterward.

"I just want Edgar back right now. He's my Reuinclus." She stared at her feet, eyes watering slightly. "Bo is gone and I can't change that. But there's still a chance for Edgar, even if it's been months. Someone told me you can help me. They also said you requested someone to look after your gym trainers… Two Rufflets with one stone, right? I heard you're, uh… more involved with things than other leaders. Didn't think it'd be this much."

"Well, we did raid them. And I did request protection for my gym trainers after the raid," the gym leader nodded. "Looks like I got more than what I asked for. Heard you were pretty impressive, even that you're a monotype. Grass too, lot of weaknesses there. Your skill must be exceptional to pull that off. How long are you assigned for?"

"As long as you're leader," she said. "'Experience is best earned on the field' is the excuse they used. And after… I'm not sure. Elesa is coming back after the Challenger Rush, right?"

"I don't know. She lost her pokemon too. She could be back a few weeks after, or a few months, I don't know for sure. She's a strong woman, but then again… so was Cynthia."

Maya winced.

Riven stood up to stretch, motioning behind him to direct Maya's attention to the milkshake machine Bridget had turned on. "Milkshake?"

Maya blinked several times, and being the teenager she was, accepted the offer readily. The one thing the tabloids were right about was that Nathan Ethne was… different. How else could she describe a guy whose scowl could kill sipping on a pecha milkshake with the gusto of a child? Seriously, what the hell?

"So… about earlier. Are we on good or agreeable terms?" He asked uncomfortably. "That got a little tense. Pointing a knife at you probably wasn't the best idea and I'd rather there not be any hostility between us if we're working together. Toxic colleagues are terrible, trust me."

Especially when they tried to blackmail and kill you first.

"I'm not bothered by it too much. I've been threatened a lot of times before so it's nothing new, and someone did warn me you were kind of… testy."

"Who?"

Squirming slightly, she chuckled nervously. "Erm… actually several people. And other recruits. Your reputation gets around. Paparazzi apparently hate that you disappear so quickly."

Riven laughed, recalling their futile attempts to follow him home. Losing them in the alleyways and crowds was always a fun thing to do. He'd already memorized the city layout and mapped out the best escape routes in case of a quick getaway. Those amateurs didn't stand a chance.

"I see. They're not wrong. Can never be too prepared and I hate getting blindsided. Doesn't feel good."

"Yeah…" she whispered.

They fell into short silence, eating their shakes.

"Going to get pretty packed in this gym," Riven began again, licking some cream off the straw. "Four other gym leaders, four gym trainers, the greeter at the front and challengers along with their pokemon. It's a good thing this place is so big."

Maya neglected to comment, especially about the utterly devilish parkour circus ring he had set up to get to the actual leader battle platform. Crazy Kalos kids didn't just go jumping around on rooftops, they skated everywhere too. Just looking at the amalgamation of physical devilry got her winded, and she teleported up there. The other three girls had climbed it like a gang of Mankeys in the jungle, scaling it in a manner of minutes without even breaking a sweat. They even managed to make it look fun.

Then the gym leader hit her with a question that made Maya feel immensely sorry for him.

"By the way, Maya, I've been wondering about this but—what is Sela Schaffer like? She's been assigned to me and I like to know what I'm in for. A… colleague tried to warn me. Something about her not liking men giving her crap? I assume you'd know since you were ambassador."

She took one look at him, face blank, and laughed.

---

Okay, so having the Unovan ambassador to Sinnoh laugh at him with a mixture of pity and hilarity was very concerning. In fact, he was honestly nervous after she'd told him just how abrasive Sela's personality actually was. Like sandpaper.

A feminist, they called it.

The ride there was reasonably less concerning, and amusing, mostly because of how Haona stared at the ground below from the airship's viewing window with her mouth gaping open and her eyes wider than a Skitty's. This had been the first time she'd seen the ground from the sky, and while it wasn't anywhere near as liberating(or terrifying) as flying on a bird's back, the experience was completely new to her. Omy, Spoopy, and Tai(though Riven made sure the Liepard and the Absol stood far enough away from each other) reveled in it equally, gawking at how beautiful the clouds looked from high up. Omy in particular decided to start prancing around in circles from the excitement and accidentally sparked, destroying one of the lights inside.

Beside him, Maya held in a giggle. She'd loosened up slightly, still going nearly catatonic whenever Riven talked to her, but for the most part seemed to grow more resistant to his presence. Riven still didn't know if it was because she found him intimidating.

Sure enough, they saw the towering skyscrapers of Castelia City in a few hours time, the magnificent structures of glass and metal growing larger as they descended from the sky. He saw a spare few other airships land at the same time, likely from cities closer to Nimbasa. The rest would arrive later, and the dignitaries soon after.

Riven fidgeted uncomfortably, mainly because not only did he not meet the other gym leaders of his region yet, but also because he didn't know what to expect from the dignitaries.

Allen had been right, though. There were UFOs and guard pokemon literally everywhere, watching and waiting for anyone to test them. Upon wandering into the area of onlookers, the large group of spectators whistled at him with cheer. He swiveled, caught like a Sawsbuck in the headlights. Suddenly, a torrent of camera flashes pelted his eyes with light.

As soon as they caught sight of Maya shadowing him, the press advanced like an angry mob, demanding questions and trying to shove microphones down his throat.

"Oh, god they're like vampires. Let's go before they start asking relevant questions. If they recognize you too, we're screwed."

Just as destiny would have it, a reporter paused amid the uproar and called for Maya. Then the pack of hounds shifted away from Riven and on to Maya, most likely recognizing her as the ambassador to Sinnoh. Rather than feed her to the bloodsuckers, Riven grabbed Maya and turned to his gym trainers.

"Hey girls… and Rolan. Mind distracting them a bit?"

"You owe us," the three of them responded instantly. Rolan shrugged. They rubbed their fingers together, smiling wryly and very villainously too.

Riven grimaced, conceding quickly. "I'll give you a raise when we get back, even Rolan, now go, work magic!"

His gym trainers(along with a scowling Rolan), grinned and walked up to the reporters, backed by a few of the airport security and several operatives. Sawks and Throhs held back the crowd, giving Riven a chance to dart around the packed airport transit hub, leading into the resting area, where people were awaiting flights out of Unova. The lockdown lift had spurred what amount to an exodus, and people were anxious to leave the region, meanwhile battlers and trainers came flooding in aboard planes from across the globe for the event, despite it all. No doubt Castelia's port would be flooded soon with so many celebrities in one place, drawing even more attention.

As a result, the press was literally everywhere too. The place was infested with them.

"Why is it the media is vicious in every damn region?" Riven asked breathlessly, asking if Maya was alright. Her face was flaring red and looked very nervous.

And she was alright, apart from wanting to die of shame because he'd escorted her out instead and acted like a god damn white knight, complete with the hand grab and rescue. She tried her best to compose herself, just managing to force down her blush and subtly wiggle her hand out of his.

"S-sinnoh's is worse, I think. They sabotaged the gym race, I think. Well, the followers actually infiltrated it so I guess it doesn't count? I'm not defending them though! Being so snoopy and irritating and ugh! Can't they ever report honestly without destroying peoples' reputations? They're impossible."

"That's one word for it. Avoiding the media too, I assume?" A voice cut in to the side of them. It was a slender man dressed in a suit and tie, face obscured by a book about battling strategies named The Art of Battle: Knowledge, Power, Tactics. They couldn't see his face, just an awkward part of his hair sticking out of his head like a spike. At his feet, a large Stoutland huffed at them. He glanced up, blinking twice. "Well, this is a surprise. I didn't think I'd meet the new fourth so soon. That outfit of yours is very… Elesa-like. Couldn't mistake it anywhere. Too much and yet… just enough to be appealing."

Riven straightened, recognizing the gym leader lapel on his tie. "Ah, you're Cheren! From the Aspertia City gym. You're co-hosting the Challenger Rush with me! First in the circuit?"

"That's right, and you're Nathan, correct? You came in so suddenly the rest of us didn't even get to meet you. I only saw your introduction. Quite intense, Elesa's idea?"

"Burgh's actually."

"Oh? That's a first. Didn't take him for the dramatic entrance type. Anyway, I heard your gym is a bit brutal on our trainers. Enough to make them want to skip Nimbasa! Brycen didn't brainwash you, did he?"

"I've never even met the guy, to be honest," Riven admitted bashfully. Or the rest of them… "They compare me to him all the time though. Usually with the word hardass attached."

Cheren chuckled, standing up fully and adjusting his tie. "You'll meet him soon enough, and Drayden and Iris, too. And Clay and Marlon… This will be a first for you, meeting the rest of us?"

"Yeah. I've only ever met Burgh and Elesa, along with Lenora. The rest of the foreign leaders though? Hardly."

"We're all in the same boat there, the last time the Sinnoh leaders and their champion came to Unova, they didn't stay very long," Cheren said regretfully. "They don't visit Aspertia much anyway. Castelia and Nimbasa are where the action is. Hopefully I can battle some of them in the Challenger Rush to test their strength."

"I thought the Rush was about the trainers battling against the leaders?"

"They're thinking of changing the Challenger Rush into something bigger, since all of the gym leaders will be here in the region."

"Changing? Into what?"

Cheren smiled happily, excitement dancing in his eyes. "Something like the Pokemon World Tournament. A special Challenger Rush with different rules and matchups. Doesn't that get your blood flowing?"

Oh, no-no-no-no. The fourth's mouth dropped and a look of mortification came over him. Cheren had thought he'd be excited too, instead receiving a depressingly haunted expression instead. That made him immediately try to reassure Riven, since he assumed he was a newbie to the whole aspect of being in the limelight.

"I know hosting it can be a little scary but I'll help you through it, no sweat. Being Elesa's replacement means you have to put on a big show, and the World Tournament is the biggest show in all of the regions! This'll top all of them! Exciting right?"

Exciting… yeah sure. Of course, if three factions weren't actively trying to destabilize Unova he might've considered it quite the riveting venture. Unfortunately, not the case. Riven wanted to sink into the floor, become a Dunsparce and live out the rest of his days in a peaceful cave, with a peaceful Dunsparce family, and a peaceful Dunsparce mentality with zero rush and zero stress.

Of course, that wasn't happening. There was no rest for the temporally displaced.

They shook hands, and Riven introduced Maya to him as well. The others wouldn't arrive until after noon, so the three decided to rest in the waiting area in a hidden corner where any wandering reporters wouldn't dare stick their noses in. Riven had Boagrius posted outside the waiting area as a makeshift warning system, making periodic cries every time he saw one of the vampires approaching and deterring them with vicious screeching.

Luckily, not many came and Riven had resorted to brushing Haona's fur to make her appear more presentable. Strangely enough, the Absol got along very well with Maya's Maractus , and eventually the grass type started grooming Haona instead. The spines on the grass type's arms made a fairly good comb replacement. Riven didn't object and let the two pokemon indulge each other, making the mistake of letting Omy out in an airport full of electrical devices and outlets.

She fried about a dozen phones charging in the corner. He then instantly returned her and told Cheren to shut it.

No way in hell was he letting Spoopy out. Or Tai. The latter would provoke a fight with the nearest pokemon whose buttons he could push, and the former would feed on every outlet he could find. He nearly got into the gym's power supply a few days back and gave electricians a minor heart attack. Wasn't repeating that again.

Just as he was starting to grow bored and sleepy, the airport got far, far noisier.

The two gym leaders stood up, peeking out towards the main transit hub. There was a massive crowd surrounding the exits, awaiting the leaders as they emerged, barraging them with questions.

As leaders, they'd been instructed to hold out a sign for the foreign leaders to see, so they knew who they were assigned to. The sign had a gym circle insignia on it and was color coded to make it easier. Riven's was yellow and Cheren's was navy blue. They both took out their signs and held them above their heads, feeling like they'd waded into the Beedrill's nest considering the ravenous media was just barely contained by several irritated operatives and their pokemon.

"Everyone back! I said no pushing no shoving! Do not approach the leaders suddenly and make sure your hands are completely visible!"

Within a few moments(followed by a synchronized wail of cheer), the other leaders came. Riven spotted Brycen, Clay, Drayden, Lenora, Burgh, Iris, Skyla, Roxie, Marlon, and the three twins from Striaton. Unova had a lot of leaders, that way trainers didn't have to go through all the leaders and still get all of their badges. The region was quite large and winter had a tendency to make most of it inaccessible for a quarter of the year. Made sense in retrospect.

Everyone gave him a mixed reception of curiosity, professionalism, and tight-lipped smiles. He tried to smile back, but a large hand introduced him to them all, courtesy of Alder. No time for pleasantries, so the leaders spread out in a circle, making a space through which the Elite Four strode in, lining up behind the champion.

Heh, Grimsley still looked shaken. Less pale than before, definitely, but still pretty sickly. Or was that normal? Did he ever go outside during the daylight?

"All right, everyone!" Alder called, grinning as he raised his voice. He stomped one of his sandals into the ground and clapped loudly. "Hold out your lapels and your signs! And don't forget to flash those pearly whites! This is very important! We're going to greet our Sinnohan counterparts personally! The others should be coming soon! And there's the airship! Everyone give them enough time to exit and hold up your signs nice and high!"

Everyone held up their signs, smiling uncomfortably for a good minute before everyone realized no one was coming. Riven and the other leaders exchanged puzzled glances, before slowly putting down the signs.

"Uh… are they late?" Iris asked.

"Flight check-in?" Lenora put in. "Maybe one of them got sick?"

"Hah! Weak-gut lil' Lillipup can't take a bumpy ride? Or maybe them foreign folks got caught up in the ruckus from all these reporters buzzin' 'round like Yanma over their heads, eh?" Clay laughed, crossing his arms. "Just like 'em, getting chewed out already! Bunch of strangers, hah!"

Skyla nudged him with an elbow, shushing him before he said anything else that could be considered sensitive. "Don't antagonize them!"

"They ain't even here, girl!"

Alder pursed his lips and tried to squint past the crowd, which had actually began to disperse and head in the opposite direction. His eyebrows furrowed and he let out a stumped humph.

"Where are they? And why are the reporters…"

"Uh, oh," Marlon snickered, "Looks like Clay's right! Look out people, they're coming, uiihaa!"

That's when they heard yelling. Almost immediately. Angry, defensive yelling. Too many people to tell if it was aggressive or not, but it certainly didn't sound good. No growls, snaps, or roars yet, that was good. If pokemon came out then the situation would deteriorate faster than they could save it.

They rushed forward, just in time to see a red headed woman clip a heckler in the face with her fist. Riven would have recognized Flannery anywhere, and this was no Flannery, because with the force she punched the poor guy with he should have lost several teeth. Oh wait, there they were.

Riven swallowed very hard.

"How dare you accuse us of being responsible for anything! We just got here!"

"Sela, calm down, sister!"

"And what's this about Sayre followers again? They're still with that?" A boy bit out, standing behind the other leaders like a Tauros calf. Blue eyed, practically a midget, and had hair as ridiculous as Cheren did. "They aren't even Plasmas! Why are regular people accusing us now?"

It took the taller guy, the short brunette, a woman Riven recognized as Fantina, and a spiky haired blonde to hold her back. Most likely Volkner. He'd seen his face in advertisements before.

"Damn it, Sela! Cool off! We talked about this exact thing!"

Red hair unruly, she nearly swung out of their grip, waving her fist menacingly. "I just stepped off this damn airship and we're already being attacked, Volkner! You tell me who's in the wrong!"

"Because it's your fault! Your region brought this on us! All of you are a bunch of uncivilized, murderous trash!" The man on the floor with the bloody nose snarled, blood trailing down his chin and down his neck. Two men picked him up and hoisted him onto his feet, which led into another tirade of insults that got the demon woman absolutely incensed.

Volkner was hopeless to stop her as she wrestled away from his grip, hissing. Just as she was about ready to lunge at the guy again, Alder emerged from the crowd after the operatives split the sea of bodies with several psychics, roaring, "Stop this, all of you!"

His shout must have been a force of gravity, because every gaze in the room was on him and even then Alder refused to flinch. Riven and the others followed closely behind, hands on pokeballs in case the operatives weren't enough, although it seemed their presence alone was deterring the crowd from trying anything.

Alder straightened, setting his jaw firm, sandals clacking against the floor. "Sela Schaffer, welcome to Unova. Please stand down. And as for you lot," he said, aiming a fiery glance at the crowd. "Antagonize them further and you'll find out what young Zachary's Dusknoir can do to rowdy groups of people. Ending up miles away in the middle of the sea during a Unovan winter would be quite the unpleasant experience, huh? He's not afraid to do it, either. In fact, he's done it before."

He pointed towards the kid's shadow.

Riven focused on the short boy, confused. Upon paying closer attention to the lighting and the lack of a sun because of the overcast, his shadow couldn't be that dark. Not only that, but it seemed to be cast unnaturally behind him, as if the sun was facing toward the boy and particularly intense at that. Lucia had once told Will how to spot hiding ghosts by remembering how shadows were cast regarding the surrounding lighting. The most experienced ghosts were experts at imitating real shadows, observing light patterns and directions to confuse their opponents.

Dusknoir weren't known for hiding in shadows much, nor were they too adept at manipulating shadows since they had no real need. Gengar were absolute masters of it. If he had one, you'd never be able to tell the difference.

A red eye opened in the middle of the shadow, expanding the shadowy mass until a seven foot tall ghost slowly emerged, floating like a hulking beast next to its trainer, who was honestly about a foot and several inches shorter(as if he wasn't short enough compared to everyone else). The crowd predictably flinched and backed up. Thank you ghost factors. Dusknoir were allegedly known to "eat" people, and Unovans had grown up with that in mind. Most had never even seen a Dusknoir before. Granted, Riven had never seen one either. The pokedex sure made them seem a lot smaller than they really were.

Champion level Dusknoir too? Better run.

Riven snorted as they decided to be elsewhere and left with their tails in between their legs. Of course, that allowed the reporters to come to the forefront. He'd never seen gym leaders' all look like they wanted to crawl away and die. If there was one thing every trainer agreed upon, it was that the media was hardly ever a good thing.

"A few questions for the Sinnoh leaders!"

Sela was already growling again as the Sinnohan champion furiously shook his head to say no. With a wave of the hand, Alder directed the nearby operatives to hold the reporters back. Didn't stop the camera flashes though. Headlines would roll, just a matter of time now.

"Sorry about that, haha!" Alder grinned, extending a hand toward the short kid. "Welcome back to Unova, Zach. And both of you as well, Alicia, Vaikuntha. As for the rest of you, I can assure you that this isn't what Unova is like, despite the rumors."

He furiously waved so the operatives could keep the reporters at bay.

"Doesn't seem like it's too far off," Sela growled under her breath. "Attacked right off the ship is just ridiculous. That stint in Castelia is starting to sound believable now."

"Tell me about it," the blonde girl said, crossing her arms. "Like a bad recap of a tv show that you have to sit through."

"Unovans aren't nearly this hostile. A bit prejudice but not enough to start fights," Volkner put in, blonde brows furrowing.

Naturally, Flint, Lucian, and Aaron seemed to agree, having visited the country before. Odd looks sure, but flat out hostility? Usually situations escalated to that point, not start off there.

"You would have loved our last visit here then," Zach deadpanned. "So what's going on and why do things seem worse than before? I got a bad feeling in my gut and I know it wasn't my breakfast."

"As do I, brother."

"Same."

Volkner sighed. "Unfortunately, I agree. Care for an explanation?""

"Best not to talk about that here, sir," an operative advised, whispering to Alder. The Champion nodded.

"I understand your need for an explanation, but I can't divulge that here in the open. It's, uh… a delicate situation. And very… complex."

"Delicate. Define delicate," the doe-eyed blonde girl, Alicia, pressed. "Because we've seen delicate, and this seems real familiar."

"Like baby powder, if baby powder could explode," Burgh mentioned with a sigh, which did nothing to dissuade the Sinnohans from persisting. In fact, it only encouraged them. Clay let out a hollering laugh, joined by Marlon who chuckled far less loudly. Lenora and Skyla kicked both of them, but the damage was done.

Cue torrent of questions.

This time Caitlin saved Alder from getting overwhelmed, impatiently groaning. "So testy, all of you. You'll get answers, Alicia. Stop prodding. Just wait, this is neither the time nor the place. I'd suggest drinking some tea when you arrive in your gyms, that way you'll calm down first. And no, Vaikuntha, no more questions. I'm afraid if we told you now we'd have a catatonic Sinnohan Champion."

Zach's first reaction was to gasp. "Hey, I'm not going to go catatonic! I've been doing just fine thank you very mu-" He was fortunately stopped mid thought by Marshall who imposingly stared down at him.

Weird how he was the champion and yet still had to mentally remind himself that without his pokemon he was just a scrawny looking kid that stood no chance against two hundred pounds of solid muscle… and eyebrows that could level mountains. How did they even extend into his hair like that?

"Are all of you here?" Shauntal asked instead, tip-toeing to see behind the taller male leaders. She counted them all, eight heads, four Elite Four members, and one short champion. "Great! Let's go pick up the others while you all mingle with each other. Please try to keep your pokemon in their balls at all times so we can avoid a public disaster. Okay?"

The Sinnohan gym leaders stared.

As they walked to the other side of the transit hub, Riven approached the group of newer gym leaders, who were huddled together and talking amongst themselves, like a herd of Zebstrika protecting their Blitzle.

Time to go information hunting. They know the most about these followers and how they operate. "Hey, you're from Hoenn, aren't you?"

The taller, darker skinned one turned, quite surprised. "Why yes. How could you tell?"

"Your accent. I recognize it from southern Hoenn, some of the smaller towns talk like that. Your skin is also a bit dark for a Sinnohan. And I know someone that looks like you. Are you and a Kev related? He works in the Castelia City Gym. Little to no accent but I can notice it. Almost imperceptible."

Riven was giving his friendliest smile, which dropped slightly as the other five instantly frowned, exchanging looks as Vai nervously scratched his head trying to think of an acceptable answer.

"Ummm… Kevala is my brother yes. However, our relationship is less than pleasant. He does not wish to see me." Silence stretched on for ages as Riven awkwardly let out a small 'oh'. "But I am glad I see another Hoennite! I do not recognize your accent, brother. Where are you from, Lilycove?"

Riven shook his head. "Ah, I'm not actually from Hoenn. I just spent a lot of time there. Few years when I was first starting out as a trainer. I'm actually from Kalos. Lumiose City."

"Lumiose City? Oh, isn't that the biggest city in Kalos? They say you can see it from miles away in the night!" Alicia beamed. "And Prism Tower! It looks beautiful in the postcards. Is that true?"

"They do call it the City of Light," Riven chuckled. "I could see its lights from the countryside. From up high on a bird it shines like a star. A lot of tourists go to see Prism Tower and check out the food, so I got pretty good at recognizing accents and dialects—Sinnoh, Hoenn, Johto, Kanto, and Unovan. A few others are hard to pinpoint, like Orran."

"Why don't you have an accent then?" Sela asked, brow raised. "Isn't everyone there a frenchie like Fantina and Cosette? Our little champion here seems to have a thing for French girls." She not so subtly pushed the champion with an elbow, who went beet red and protested.

"I'm from the English speaking side of Kalos, where all the businesses are centered. Most people speak English in Lumiose, so learning French wasn't required. And I spent a lot of time abroad. If I did have an accent, it's probably gone by now."

Solid reasoning. Should do the trick, Riven thought.

"Wait, what's a Kalosian trainer doing in Unova as a gym leader? Either they've gone really progressive or you're some kind of special case."

"I am with Alicia, did they not criticize you for it? When we were last in Unova, I regret to say they did not give us a warm reception."

"They… aren't too happy about it. One trainer tried to challenge me openly outside the gym when I was first inducted. I have a big shoe to fill and being foreign already earned me quite a bit of hate. You should see my mailbox. 'Kill yourself' is starting to get old. Think my reputation is the way it is largely because I am foreign. Hasn't been a smooth ride so far but I think I can handle it."

Vaikuntha nodded sympathetically, foreigner to foreigner. His tenure in Sinnoh wasn't that well received either. Every region had their bigots, Unova just had more of them in general. "I am sorry to hear that, brother. May I ask your name?"

"Nathan. Nathan Ethne."

The two men shook hands, and just like that Riven began to like this Vaikuntha. Like magic, the guy was just… trustworthy. And he didn't say that often at all.

"Wait, another Nathan?" Zach said, mortified. "This is going to be great…"

One of their bodyguards behind them, a tall redheaded man, shoved him. "Be respectful, kid. Give me shit all you want but not him. That's another leader you're talking to, remember?"

"Zach, play nice," Alicia scolded, turning her doe eyes to Riven. "Sorry about him, he just likes to complain about things. He thinks all Nathans are handfuls because his guardian angel is constantly hounding him."

"Well it's true! I can't even pee without him standing guard outside. It's weird."

"Too bad."

"Quit your complaining. We need to be professional here, remember? And you're our champion, so get on it. Stop huddling and go introduce yourself to the other leaders, Roark and the others are already making friends. Go, go!" Sela urged, pushing the younger leaders out. Riven watched them go with a laugh.

"They're an interesting bunch," Riven remarked. "Vai's growing on me."

"He grows on everyone," Sela snorted. "He has no end to the amount of fans trying to get his attention. That's why they put him in Oreburgh. Makes the newbies feel safe so they start off strong. It's working as intended at least, they adore him." She gave Riven a once over, uncomfortably trying to dissect him now that they were alone. "I'm assigned to your gym, aren't I? You're new too. No one has ever met you before, not even the experienced leaders. When were you appointed?"

"After the Nimbasa incident. About a month ago."

"Nimbasa incident…?" Concern bloomed in Sela's eyes, no doubt instantly thinking of the worst. Wasn't wrong. "Elaborate. Now."

Riven grimaced, wondering if he should tell her. Trust was a two way street, however, and starting off on the wrong foot would complicate everything from here on in.

"Elesa had this concert event going on. A trainer… killed her pokemon. With a gun. Almost killed her. And it was televised. If you know what I'm saying," Riven explained, lowering his voice to a whisper. "It's better if Alder tells the rest of you. Delicate isn't quite the term for it. Unova tried to keep it internal but that hasn't worked out well so far."

"Isolationism has always been Unova's go to. Xenophobic and stubborn as can be, these Unovans." She looked down at her feet, nodding to herself, then turned to watch the others laughing alongside Clay and Iris. "So that's what this is about. Just when we thought it'd be over with, this happens."

"I'm sorry, if that means anything."

"It's been nearly a year, we thought it'd be a matter of time. Can't say we're ready for it again. To think they were this strong even after Nick died… that's..." She sighed. "Looks like we have our job cut out for us, again. How did the public take it?"

"Not well. Mostly because they tried to give everyone mass amnesia. Damage control backfired. Hard. "

Sela's eyes went wide and horror spread across her face. "They did what?! That's illegal and wrong on so many- Who approved this?! Alder?"

"Lower your voice," Riven suggested, "welcome to Unova, Sela Schaffer. Extreme decisions aren't out of the norm here, if you hadn't noticed. It was supposed to be a form of damage control, at least until Team Plasma decided to make a sudden return and expose everything. How they got that information is beyond me."

Her palm hit her forehead. "Unovans are stupider than I thought. You're in it up to your knees with no way out but down, aren't you?"

"Officially, we're getting it under control."

"And unofficially?"

"Unofficially…" Riven gave her a wry grin, laughing darkly. "We're a gasoline drum on fire."

Before Sela could demand another question, Riven pointed. "Look, they're gathering everyone to go pick up the others."

"You can't just walk away after telling me this!"

Riven gestured for her to catch up.

Sela put her hands on her hips and huffed, stalking after him.

He's an odd one for sure. I wonder why Kostya was so reluctant to get near him? He doesn't usually do that.

Narrowing her eyes, she observed the way Zach's shadow seemed to trace the leader's steps with wariness.

They met the rest of the foreign gym leaders in the next transit hub(who were swamped by the media), holding out their signs to direct them. Riven suppressed a warm smile upon seeing Watson, remembering that Nathan had never met them before. When he watched a head of blazing hair step off the Hoenn airship and head towards him, Riven barely contained a gulp. Luckily, she didn't seem to recognize him, though he was still very uncomfortable about it.

When Viola stepped off the ship, however, she caught sight of him and hardly seemed to falter in her step. Maybe she hadn't recognized him either? That made Riven breathe a sigh of relief, at least for now. If she didn't notice him now, she would later when they were face to face.

They're gathering up like expected. Should move to a better position, away from the main group.

He parted from the group and reclined on the wall near the bathrooms, away from most of the people. Passengers were still getting off flights and a steady stream of people began to fill the hub, with some branching off to see what the commotion around the gym leaders was about. He pulled out a phone, sending a text.

The receiving phone turned on, secured in one of the operative's hands, Jetsen, who stood watch in the far right corner with a Reuniclus.

Riven spotted Maya returning with his gym trainers in tow and felt bad that the girl was completely in the dark. A more experienced operative would realize the formation he and the other operatives had taken, but Maya was relatively clueless—through no fault of her own. She sent his gym trainers off with the others from Unova's gyms before swiveling her head around looking for her primary charge. She spotted him and walked over.

Jetsen gave him a look and shook his head, to which Riven grunted slightly, trying his best to make it seem like nothing was amiss. Maya, on the other hand, looked around instinctively. She was picking up the senses at least.

"Finally found you! You do disappear like a ghost! Something wrong?" Maya asked, feeling awkward standing outside the men's restroom. "Seem kinda… erm, nervous. Feels tense around here."

"Oh, it's nothing. Don't worry about it, really."

"Is it because of the Sinnoh leaders? I saw you talking to them for a bit. And Sela. How was that?"

"Frightening, if I'm being perfectly honest," Riven admitted. "The others not really just that woman is something else. Felt like she was psychoanalyzing me. Saw her decimate a dickhead's face in. Gave me the chills."

"Told you she was no pushover. What did you think of the champion?"

"He's short."

"That's it? Really?"

"Yeah, he's a midget. I was expecting someone… champion-ly. And that over there is runt who has some serious cynicism to work through. I could sit on him and his bones would break."

"That's Zach for you, I guess. His team is a lot stronger than you'd think. I was locked in a room with several of them last time they came here."

"What happened?"

"Someone got shot, people teleported in and out, Vai's brother attacked him, my sister got chained to a bed, and then we had pizza after getting held up at gunpoint by a turncoat UFO."

Riven blinked.

"That's, uh… quite an interesting order of events there."

"Most people don't believe me."

"I do, mostly because no one believes my crazy stories either. I swear time travel's a thing."

Naturally, Maya chuckled instead. Well, he did try.

Riven tip-toed to see another group of leaders exit an airship—Johto and Kanto's. His final charge was there, Morty of the Ecruteak City gym. "And there's my last guy, Morty. After we pick him up, Alder does whatever a champion is supposed to do, and they get their rest in Castelia, we are gone first thing in the morning. Assuming there are no plans first. That's out of my control. Otherwise it's plan A."

Maya nodded. "Sounds like a safe bet to me. The less time we spend in Castelia the better."

"Why's that?"

"My parents still don't know I enlisted with Unovan Field Operations. Or that I got taught how to use a gun. I don't want them to find out, and please don't ask why."

"I won't, it's not like I'm obligated to find them and tell them their daughter enlisted in a semi-military police force out of spite. If I wasn't a gym leader with lots of spare time and a major aptitude for being a cockswab, then maybe I'd think about it. Otherwise I think your secret is safe with me." He gave her a slight smirk that made Maya flush red. "Well, time to go hold up my sign and smile like an idiot. Keep an eye on the youngsters over there."

Maya nodded, releasing a small, fluffy pokemon that looked like a cottonball with a face. He'd never seen that one before, and with a sinister cackle after Maya whispered something to it, it bounded off to the side.

Just as he was fetching his sign, he caught sight of a caped figure. He emanated strength and his gaze was solid as rock, with hair spiked up like orange thunderbolts—the very image of a champion. That was Lance, champion of not one, but two regions, and the dragon master of Kanto. Riven couldn't help but stare in awe, as did most of the gym leaders. Those hyper beams from his Dragonites could level a city block.

Then he saw Zach again and frowned. And immediately went back to Lance to rid himself of the taste of disappointment.

He was greeting Alder, exchanging pleasantries and introducing the other leaders to each other. Eyes partially paying attention to the exchange, he reached into his shirt and removed the Diancie necklace around his neck. A swath of emotions hit him like a stack of bricks, nearly tumbling him over were it not for the wall he used for support.

Psychics could read minds and thoughts. But dark types like him could read negative emotions. Unlike thoughts and psychic waves that could interfere with one another in a large crowd, the desire to kill was easily separated from the rest—it was either an emotional void, or an eruption of thinly suppressed rage and passion. An overpowering scent in a field of aromas, if you would.

Luckily, fanatics were full of rage and the atmosphere around the hub was more positive than negative, creating a backdrop to easily pinpoint any oddities. Among the variations of worry and fear over menial things coming from some of the people in the crowd, several sources piqued Riven's interest.

Riven jerked his head up, straightening instantly. His heart rate picked up and his eyes began to frantically scan the packed transit hub.

There. Two trainers with bags. Blue hat, black shirt and sweatpants. Beanie, shades, and grey jacket. Several more around the corner I can't see and another off to the side to the left there's one.

Immediately, he gave the descriptions of the two trainers to Jetsen, as well as the others out of his line of sight. The operative nodded, but the trainers had already disappeared into the crowd. Within a few moments, the other UFOs changed positions.

Nothing happened yet, but the most important part of an ambush was the first few seconds. Those few seconds would determine who lived or died, and they couldn't afford to have any dead leaders.

Riven searched again, almost missing the trainers as he traced his sight along a bench placed nearest to the gym leader huddle. At their feet were two large duffle bags, and they seemed like normal, run of the mill trainers. They even had their phones charging next to an outlet, earplugs connected and all. He'd bet a hundred dollars those weren't playing music.

He just began to move toward them when an explosion of fire rocked the building from the outside, followed by a slam against the ceiling, like something had crashed into it from above. Time seemed to slow down as the two trainers sitting on the bench abandoned their harmless façade and opened their bags, donning pokemon masks.

All Riven could see was black. Guns. High powered ones. Not peashooters. Military grade rifles.

There were too many leaders and bystanders between him and the seated trainers. Instead, he began to look around for the third source rapidly approaching from the left, a girl with a pink jacket and a guitar case.

Riven knew from experience that she wasn't carrying a guitar in there.

Clair, Lance's cousin, and Whitney of Goldenrod were standing outside of the leader ring, not too far away from the crowd when the short girl in pink began to approach briskly, unzipping her jacket. Her face was obscured by a hat and shades, with a hood pulled over her head.

Shit! No time!

"Jetsen!" Riven reacted without thinking, yelling, "everybody down! Gun!" White light erupted from beneath his legs, bathing him momentarily in light as quick attack powered through his muscles, giving him a burst of speed. He kicked off the ground so hard the tile cracked.

The two leaders couldn't comprehend what was going on when they were both kicked to the floor, just barely catching a glimpse of one of the Unovan leaders get blown off his feet after a shotgun blast rang in the air, bits of fabric tearing off from the blast as the shells exploded against his chest. Screaming started and within seconds, pokemon were summoned and muffled shots rang outside.

The girl was about to aim her next shot down at Riven when blood ejected from her shoulder. She flinched in pain, hissing at Maya, who was demanding she put the gun down. She didn't.

Blood sprayed as one of the Sinnohan gym leaders plucked a feather from his Skarmory, using the pokemon to shield Maya and the girl from each other, before he slipped behind the metal bird and sliced the girl's hand open. He kicked her in the stomach and beat her with the flat of the blade in the temple, dropping her like a rock. The other two boys at the bench began firing, but the hail of bullets stopped mid flight before hitting their targets, levitating uselessly in the air. Their rifles locked up and jammed.

"Suppress them!" Jetsen and two operatives shouted, ordering a Reuniclus and a Musharna to use psychic. The trainer's weapons contorted in their hands as metal screeched inward from the force, and within a second, they dropped to the ground, unconscious.

More followers emerged from the crowd of panicked bystanders to attack one of the Kanto leaders, Sabrina, with a switchblade. She looked entirely unsurprised as the knife stopped inches away from her face, held back by her Alakazam. The knife flew out of his hand and embedded itself into the ceiling. Falkner and Chuck then tackled the trainer to the ground, pummeling him until he was unconscious.

Further away, Koga danced in between a group of four armed with knives, effortlessly disarming them and beating them down with precise strikes to the neck and liver. A Toxicroak moved beside him, using its body to take several handgun shots from another. The follower smashed against a wall hard enough to dent as he received a palm strike to the chest, handgun clattering to the floor.

The last attacker, wearing a striped sweater, attempted to pull out a gun in a last ditch effort, focusing his attention solely on Zach. A gunshot rang and the trainer fell to the floor, holding his knee in pain. Zach's red-headed bodyguard kicked the pistol away to the corner, gun still trained on the kid's head just in case.

"Close, but no dice. Are you all done with your little theatrics? Or is there more? Attack an airport full of ops and gym leaders? What are you, stupid?"

The Follower gave him a baleful glare, giving no input apart from breathing hard to distract himself from the pain.

Outside, a pillar of smoke could be seen and part of the building was frosted over. Bullet impacts lined the reinforced glass of the windows.

Boots were heard running down the hall as a group of operatives and police came barreling in, flanked on all sides by pokemon. At the forefront, Allen and a Beartic led the charge. There was a large concentration of fire and dark pokemon, most likely as a preparation in case Loberia or Aliac decided to show up.

"Is everyone alright?" Allen asked, eyes lighting up as he saw his friend Nathan standing over a disabled follower. His excitement died the moment his weapon came up, seeing Vaikuntha standing over the unconscious girl in pink, bloody feather in hand. She was bleeding profusely from the hand, forming a small puddle on the floor. "Drop it!"

The steel feather clattered to the ground and Vai put up his hands, surrendering. Doing a sweep of the area, the UFOs checked for injured. Luckily, no one except the attackers were hurt, all non fatally. That is until Allen spotted Riven in the corner, grunting and puffing uselessly on the floor. He looked like a Dunsparce trying to sit up. Allen gave Zach's bodyguard a look that promised a stiff drink later, but injured gym leader came first.

"Shit. Are you alright?" Allen asked, fretting over him while examining for entry and exit wounds of any kind. He noticed several holes in the leader's clothes, but no blood. Not a single drop. A finger tapped Riven in the chest. Hard. Body armor. "You crazy bastard, you actually took that seriously?! I was joking!"

"Well… it… sounded… like… a good idea. Thought… why not? He-he," Riven laughed, breath strained. "Plus one for preparation."

"Arceus, your paranoia saved you."

"Not paranoia if you're right. Heh."

"What did you get hit with? Clothes are in tatters." Allen spotted the shotgun lying on the floor and tried not to gawk. Based on the distance and the spread pattern on the vest… you had to be joking. That was an assault shotgun. Not some dusty old 12 gauge. "A military shotgun? You jumped in front of a shotgun? Like, willingly?"

"I did have a vest on. And if I didn't do something, two pretty gym leaders would be dead and you'd have one... hell of a shitfest to clean up. And lot of paperwork. That... would suck."

"You know those bullets spread right? If one hit your jugular or pierced your skull, you'd be dead."

"That's why… point blank was the best option," Riven grinned, groaning. "So that's… kinda what getting shot feels like. That felt worse than a Machoke's punch."

"Wait."

Allen noticed further holes on the arms and legs of his outfit, probing them with his fingers. They were hard too. His jaw dropped. "You have full body armor on?!"

"With riveted chain underneath. Extra extra prepared."

"What the-" Allen pulled a sleeve up and saw the chain links hidden beneath the Kevlar. "When the hell did you buy this and why the hell would you have this?"

"Bought it last week, figured it'd be useful. But it's kind of heavy, and hot. Luckily it's cold out."

"My god. Can you move?"

"Hurts a bit. Argh! Okay, a lot. Are my ribs broken?"

"I'm not a medic but there's an easy way to check."

"Fuck I hope that's not what you're insinuating."

"Based on your breathing, that's likely. Just don't say I didn't warn-"

Allen pressed, and Riven howled.

"STOP SHIT FUCK!"

"Told you. Need help getting up I assume? With all that armor on, it must be a bitch."

"Yeah, just be gentle. Very gentle."

Allen pulled him up, ignoring the long curse as he hoisted him up to his feet and let him lean on his Beartic for support. As soon as the Sinnohan gym leaders got the okay, they rushed over, frantic. Whitney and Clair joined them, wondering if Riven was all right.

"Are you okay, brother?"

"He just ate a shotgun blast," another kid leader, Benjamin of Canalave, reminded. "Okay isn't the word I'd use. Betting on broken ribs. Or at least bruised."

"Wait, did he wear a vest on purpose? And I remember you," Alicia said, pointing to Allen. "You were kind of unconscious last time. You were the one that got shot."

"Yeah, or so I was told. As for the vest, I kind of told him to. Didn't think he'd actually do it. He's actually wearing full body armor, the paranoid bastard."

"Never hurts to be prepared," Benjamin shrugged, to which Riven whispered a raspy 'thank you'.

"That choice saved us," Clair put in. "Well done."

"Thank you," Whitney said, smiling warmly. Her smile fell, looking back at the bleeding girl on the floor."I didn't even think a girl like her would do something… like that."

"Oh, trust us, they would," Zach spat, whirling around to face Alder. "Is that what you were going to explain to us? Because it looks like these guys did it for you. Those were Sayre followers, not just some common thugs, weren't they?"

Alder didn't twitch.

Sela groaned and Alicia joined her. "I knew this was going to end badly. Can we just skip the pleasantries and get the hell out of here to a place that isn't so inconspicuous and prone to terrorist attacks then?"

Volkner and Lance, however, were furious.

"The Unovan Field Operatives around us. They were in formation," Lance pointed out crossly. "My men do the same thing when escorting. And one of your leaders was wearing body armor. Having us huddle like that, were you planning on an attack, Alder? And still you neglected to tell us beforehand?"

"I didn't have to," Alder replied calmly. "Our Sinnohan counterparts wanted to know what was going on, and having wary gym leaders spread out would only make it harder for us to react to. It was immensely risky, but the alternative was much worse and as you can see, it worked. This is what we're dealing with, and I'm afraid it gets a lot worse than that. As young Benjamin pointed out, being prepared is a lot better than getting caught by surprise."

"So you used us as bait?" Falkner concluded angrily. "Someone could have died!"

"Yeah, that's not very nice," Morty chimed in.

"Dude, not cool," Brawly scoffed.

"Tell me about it," Grant huffed. "I didn't travel several thousand miles to get shot at like a Ducklett on a hunt."

"What the hell did we just walk into?"

"Are we going to be safe?"

"You saw what happened in Sinnoh! No one is safe!"

"Haha! I'd like to see them try to take me out, I'll show them something!"

"We should go back."

The gym leaders began to converse among themselves, growing more and more agitated as Sinnoh and trainer killings were being spit out every five seconds. Lance quieted them as he stepped forward, glaring at the older champion.

"Everyone calm down! We do not need another riot! Alder, I intensely dislike the way you handled the situation, but I can understand the need for… desperate measures. Although I insist that next time you make us aware of your plans. Thanks to you and one of your leaders, as well as the intervention of Vaikuntha of Oreburgh, my cousin and Whitney are still alive, and there are no fatalities. Do you have arrangements for us all that promise maximum safety and security until the time our leaders depart for their assigned gyms? I expect a full discussion of the matter tomorrow. With everyone present, Alder."

Alder nodded, informing everyone that he had already booked half the Castelia City Hotel for two days, with security detail at all times. Leaders were allowed to leave the hotel to go into the city but only with a UFO escort and with pokemon out at all times. All gym leaders were required to undergo a psychic lock in case they needed to be found and were expressly forbidden from getting into altercations with the local residents under any circumstance.

While a bit draconian, Lance approved. Zach vehemently disagreed, but after some prodding from Alicia and the others, he conceded, though still completely opposed about the matter.

"I hate psychic locks. Let's just go already."

"Operatives, get your psychics ready for teleportation."

The UFOs understood, taking groups of the leaders up to the roof. As the crowd lessened, the police and paramedics arrived, placing the injured Sayre followers on stretchers. A field medic in full operative gear then ran over to Riven and Allen, completely unfazed by the situation.

"What a day… This the one, Pershing?"

"Yeah. Nathan Ethne. Gym leader of Nimbasa."

"Gym leader jumped in front of a gun?" The medic said, impressed. "Usually guns jump in front of them."

Riven laughed, regretting it instantly when it jarred his ribs.

"Why would you laugh with Reynolds, idiot?" Allen asked, shocked. "He's got a sense of humor as black as night, and you just got shot! How is that hilarious?"

The medic chuckled, concluding that Riven was fine outwardly, for the most part. "Humor turns black when you're a medic for the field ops, Pershing. That or you retire and go sour like that trainer of yours and go work in something boring like pediatrics. I'd rather take the first one. Besides, it's funner that way!"

He giddily pressed on Riven's chest and Riven nearly screamed. The gym leader glowered at him, receiving a despicably irritating grin in return.

"I got some very bad news for you, buddy. Laying down is going to hurt like an absolute bitch."

He pointed to the stretcher and Riven's heart sank.

"Fuck, being a hero sucks. This is going to be another hospital visit, isn't it?"

Allen sighed.

"Another for the tally, then."

---

Riven stared at the white ceiling of yet another edifice of perpetual suffering. Hell probably looked white too, if this was anything to go by. On the plus side, his ribs healed up quickly thanks to the Audino they had in the hospital. While heal pulse was great for aches and pains(did little else for him), wish was a GODSEND. The relief when the light washed over him was one of the best things he'd ever felt, and within several minutes he was able to sit up without groaning.

The doctors weren't even surprised at the speed of the recovery given he'd only had bruised ribs, so they sent him off within a few hours. By that time the sun had just set and the temperature dropped considerably enough to give him a chill as he stepped outside.

Maya was waiting for him outside the hospital, handing him a thick jacket for the cold. Her breath frosted in the air and her cheeks began to turn pink.

"Thanks for waiting. Weren't you cold? It's freezing out here."

"No problem. I was a trainer once—I can handle a little cold. I'm just glad it wasn't anything too serious. Or else I'd be in some deep stuff if I let the gym leader I'm supposed to protect get injured."

"Yeah, that would be bad. Luckily only bruised ribs that were healed easily. How did the whole ordeal blow over? I missed some of it being in a room with no television."

"They're trying their best to keep the panic at bay, but since there was no dead, it was labeled as a 'failed terror attack'. In fact, this gave the UFO and the leaders good press!"

"That's a miracle," Riven said dryly. "Certainly expecting worse to come but I'll take it, for now. Are my gym trainers safe?"

"Yeah, they made it to the hotel safely, don't worry. They weren't worried about you, said you'd be fine."

"I'm pretty hard to kill, I've heard. Which way is it to the Castelia Hotel?"

"That way, towards downtown. I'll lead you over."

Walking along the darkened streets, Maya looked back at him, keeping in mind just how fixated he was on the surroundings. She scratched the itch on her neck and stopped.

"Uh, Nathan?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you keep looking around like that? Like someone is watching you?"

"They just might. Sorry, I tend to think that a lot, even when I shouldn't. I suppose it does put some people off. Past few days have been surprises after surprises, and it doesn't show any signs of stopping. Again, sorry."

"No no- It's fine! People have their quirks, I guess."

"It's not a quirk," he added soberly as his holo caster pinged. "Precaution is a word people hardly understand these days. Much less appreciate. I'm just glad Allen's plan worked."

Maya stared at him in disbelief. "Wait, you knew!?"

Shit. That one slipped.

"I didn't know, I just had a very reasonable hunch something would go down. Put a bunch of golden rings in one place and the Murkrows will be sure to follow. Came prepared you see."

"Then why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I wanted you to protect my gym trainers. I can protect myself, and no one would miss me if I died in the line of duty. But they're just kids. With family. I don't want their lives to end yet. If I had me weighing down on your conscience too, worry might have compromised your judgement."

Maya wanted to disagree, instead feeling bad about not telling her own family about her decisions. She understood the reasoning. Caring for gym trainers was also a gym leader's responsibility. No one liked delivering eulogies about someone you were supposed to protect.

Pursing his lips, the gym leader tilted his head at the message.

"Hey, Maya. You must be tired. You did a great job getting my handful of gym trainers safe, and stopping that girl. You go on ahead, I can find my way there. Just need to make a stop first."

The girl raised an eyebrow in the dark, caught off guard by the request. Who made a "stop" at two in the morning right after leaving a hospital?

"It's still dark out. Castelia isn't safe at night despite all the lights, I'd know. This sounds a lot like you don't want me near you. Remember, I'm supposed to protect-"

"And a fine job of that you've done. But it's afterhours, you stood watch for several of those hours, and you need sleep, miss. Your eyes are getting puffy from fatigue and lack of rest. Go hit the bed. I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself just fine, trust me. If your superiors scream at you, tell them the gym leader was an idiot who really should take care of himself more."

She frowned, but Riven insisted she go with a slight smile.

"Oh, and Maya?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for keeping those girls safe again. And Rolan. You'll make a great sidekick to the great king yet. I might even get you a tiny stool in the gym to serve as hand of the king."

He grinned widely.

Maya laughed as the image of his chair popped up in her mind. She nodded with a smile, the flush of pink on her face hidden by the dim lighting. Releasing a Sawsbuck, she mounted and rode away, the clacking of hooves against concrete growing distant as she disappeared into the dark. He waited until he couldn't see her in the darkness, sweeping the area one last time and moving under the cover of a tree.

Looking at his holo caster, he stared at the message on the screen. It was from Steven. They'd hadn't had contact in months, though him messaging Riven so suddenly after an incident wasn't surprising. Everyone was either flooding into or leaving Castelia. He wanted to meet in a regular hotel roughly four blocks away in a quiet part of Castelia. The message didn't say much, so Riven just assumed it was for matters too sensitive to discuss via phone. The meet time was oddly suspicious for someone as proper as Steven, so he needed to excise caution when entering the building. Walking there was calm if eerily silent, the only sounds he could hear being his own footsteps and the soft trots of Haona's claws along the floor.

Several bums and questionable people stared but didn't dare try anything with an Absol at his side.

When he reached the room door, 4503, he breathed in and drew a knife. Turning the knob, he swung the door open and checked behind it in one swift motion. Upon realizing there was no one trying to ambush him, Riven turned to face the middle of the room, where a slightly startled Steven was sitting, holding a piece of bread. They locked eyes for a moment, staring intently until Steven brought the bread up to his mouth and crunched.

Riven coughed and closed the door slowly.

"I-uh…"

"Thought it was a trap? It's alright," Steven said, recomposing himself. "Nothing wrong with being careful, even if you did scare the daylights out of me. Almost spilled my coffee."

Riven nodded sheepishly and pulled up a chair, looking around the room.

"So… it's been a while."

"Indeed it has. And now you've all chosen interesting career paths. I never took you for a gym leader," Steven mentioned idly. "Maybe some good does come out of ignoring whatever I advise. It's a difficult job, more so when your own trainers are trying to kill you. How was getting shot?"

"Not fun," Riven chuckled. "Felt like a train hit me. How did you know it was me?"

"I haven't met anyone insane enough to jump in front of a shotgun barrel, survive, and come see someone at two in the morning for a secretive meeting. When I first saw the news report in the afternoon, I thought, 'this had to be Riven'. My apologies for trying to meet you so late. I figured it'd take a few hours for you to heal up. Bought some groceries in the meanwhile. I'd say it was a productive day."

"Hah. Well, you surmised right. So, what's the news? Any luck on that bit of business Gale and I left you with before disappearing into Unova?"

Steven smiled and set down a file on the table, taking a drink of steaming tea.

"What are those?"

"The files on what you found underneath Mauville. A good number of them were redacted and expunged, but I managed to recover the hard copies."

A black eyebrow arched as Riven eyed Steven suspiciously. "Devon doesn't have the hard copies, does it?"

Steven smiled widely, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "No, but Silph did."

"Silph?!"

Silph Co, the technological giant of the Johto and Kanto regions, currently the biggest technological company in the world, and maker of more than a few inventions widely used by trainers around the globe.

"How did you get this?"

"I took a lesson from you and stormed the place. I didn't expect to find armed guards there protecting it. Nothing a Metagross can't handle."

Riven felt proud seeing Steven admit that. He opened the file, skimming through it as pride was replaced with disgust.

"Team Rocket's old research plans? DNA splicing? Cloning? Illegal experiments? What the hell did they do down there?"

"They tried to beat nature," Steven replied. "What occurred down there was a joint project between Silph and Devon, unbeknownst to my father, who was told that it was just another energy development project. While not quite wrong, it was actually evolution research. You already know the basics of what they were trying to achieve, but you didn't have the redacted parts."

Turning the page on the file, Riven's eyes widened.

"Manectric and Electrike test subjects showed elevated levels of energy output… began to glow and increase in strength…" His finger came to the bottom of the page. "Female Electrike brought in. Unnaturally strong and intelligent… viciously aggressive and agitated when in the presence of humans. Any human. Amiable around other pokemon. Characteristics average, out of norm when in range of observable humans."

The paragraph continued as the observations followed, documenting the fellow Electrike beginning to grow further and further aggressive. A wave of evolutions followed and the Electrike colony had become all Manectric. All of the pokemon that had come into contact with the female Electrike became irregular and their strength nearly tripled naturally.

Steven shifted in his seat, turning the page in the file to one lined with photos of the Manectric, as well as a multitude of computer dna analysis results. He pointed to a single name.

Tenebris.

"An infection?" Riven questioned. "Aberrants are caused by an infection?"

"Like pokerus in nature, but vastly different. Trained pokemon have never once been infected, only those kept isolated and entirely wild in nature. The strain is odd in that it doesn't seem to have an origin and it's… unaffected by antibiotics, antivirals, anti-fungals… nothing works. The way the bacteria looks shifts on a whim and it doesn't do anything apart from supercharge the pokemon it infects and makes them immensely dislike humankind exclusively."

"But these pokemon were around humans all the time."

"They were test subjects, and considering the nature of the experiments… I'm sure the ethical guidelines regarding live subjects were completely ignored. These pokemon must have hated the researchers."

"So this thing doesn't infect pokemon with good relationships with humans?"

"I assume? Only isolated pokemon and those with dislike of humans and zero outside association with them were affected."

"Oddly picky for a bacteria. Doesn't like its vegetables, does it?"

"No it does not. It just doesn't make sense. No other infection on this planet functions like this. It almost seems synthetic. Where did it come from?"

Was it extraterrestrial? Like Deoxys? Or was it from the past? The Future? Extradimensional? What was it?

"So this thing is out of the ordinary. Way out of the ordinary."

"If you look at the photos, they managed to isolate it."

Tenebris was a black mist, so dark that seeing inside the bacteria was impossible. Looking at it made Riven feel uneasy.

"Is it contagious?"

"Highly, within groups."

"So the aberrant can spread among wild pokemon? That… would be bad."

"Yes, which means it's imperative they are taken care of as soon as possible. I've already notified the Hoenn league and am actually here in Unova to do the same to the others."

Riven nodded, remembering just how dangerous the Pangoro had been, and if a Tenebris infected pokemon could be taken care of by run of the mill rangers it would be no problem. Only thing is that it took several of them to do it, and just barely. A psychic aberrant could cause untold amounts of damage if left unchecked, to say the least of the body count afterwards. They'd need champion level pokemon or dozens of trainers to take one down.

"What happened to New Mauville then? Was it because of this?"

"Yes. They succeeded," Steven said, shaking his head. "They managed to evolve one of the aberrant Manectric by overloading its lightning rod ability with enough energy to power a city for a month— which led to a massive containment breach. The Manectric evolved but it couldn't handle the energy in its body properly. The project was shut down immediately after the facility was left in ruin from the aftermath. Several researchers were killed and the casualty count was never fully estimated."

"So it exploded. And let me guess, it turned to crystal afterward?"

Steven nodded. "Not like the human crystals we found, but smaller, resembling the very same stones we use today to mega evolve our pokemon. There's definitely a link between mega evolution and Origins, and somewhere, the Aberrant causing Tenebris is giving wild pokemon unlucky enough to get afflicted with it a power boost through unknown means. At the cost of their sanity."

"Sounds familiar… So what you're saying is, Tenebris can affect Origins?"

"God forbid no, what I'm saying is that all this leads down to one path."

Steven opened the holographic map of Unova, highlighting a location in particular.

"That there is a way for Origins and pokemon to reach a level of evolution previously thought unreachable, and where the energy required for something like that actually comes from. A level of evolution reserved only for the gods of our world. Tenebris, Origin mega evolution, keystones, mega stones and the Origin spheres. It points to one thing."

His finger rested on the red marking of Mistralton Cave in western Unova.

"We need to find out what the Swords of Justice have been protecting in that cave, and why the radioactive readings I took at the site of your appearance, and the readings at Mistralton are identical. Not only that but Mistralton cave may be home to another crystallized Origin. And with that, the answer to Primal Reversion."

"Wait, wait, wait," Riven demanded. "How the hell do you know that, Steven? You just jumped through a thousand hoops to get there. How? You haven't been in Unova for months."

"Because I told him," a voice responded.

Pink light burst into the room, and in the center was a small green pokemon, weary and saddened, nearly wilting in the air as its antennae drooped. A living, breathing legendary pokemon.

What the fuck, a Celebi? Here? What? How? Why?

Riven froze, astonished.

Steven sipped some more tea, eyeing Riven amusedly. "He has something to show you. And take my word for it, it will not disappoint you."

The gym leader was left speechless, only managing awkward sputters. The legendary began to approach him slowly, body glowing a light blue.

"I have come to seek your help, old one. You seek to save this world yet. But first, I will show you what I showed Steven, then you will decide."

"Wait! Stop, don't come-"

He tried to release his pokemon but it was too late. With a tap of its paw on Riven's head, he felt himself falling, abandoning hardwood and rugs until the ground was replaced by dirt and leaves. His head swirled as he came to, jarred from the sudden change of the scenery.

It must have been a teleport of sorts and he was somewhere in a forest. Not Mistralton, because that area was definitely snowed in, and it was… daylight out? What? Were they on the other side of the world?

"What the- where are we?"

"In the past," Celebi responded curtly.

"Past?" Behind him, a ripple in time began to close rapidly, sinking in on itself until it dissipated into the air. "How-how far back?"

The green psychic blinked.

"As humans would know it… twenty thousand years."

As Riven stood to full height, a city of sleek stone and crystal towered over him, shining in the sun like a star. Squinting, he recognized the engravings—the reconstructed remains of what were ruins in the present day. Around him, the unforgiving desert sand he remembered clearly was replaced by the sights and sounds of a forest that should not exist where it was located.

These were the Mauville Desert ruins. The very same ruins he and Will had escaped all those years ago. This was their prime. Foliage, water, and trees surrounded the majestic city gates, traits which were wholly absent in the present.

Beautiful, and yet tragic. A city destined to fall to ruin and left to the mercy of the unforgiving desert.

Celebi floated beside him, surveying the city with a melancholic gaze. "This is Naueilh, the ancient city of crystal. This… is where the end of peace began, and His judgment was passed for the second time."

As the winds rustled the leaves, Riven felt sorrow.

This was where a civilization died.

---

Holy shit nearly five months without an update. Jesus Christ I'm trash.

I've been swamped with work and life stuff, and adding multiple revisions, sudden ideas popping into my mind, trying to get characters right without butchering them, and fixing errors in such a long chapter have led to this.

Not only that but I started going to the gym after work to get fit again(need to get that six pack though), so my time has been destroyed. Also I started playing FFXV and love the shit out of it, so there's that.

I am eternally grateful for the people still following this story and hope this chapter makes up for the long wait. And if it doesn't, tell me! Hopefully next one will make it better.

As for your review Tamapyon, that made me grin like an idiot. Grinning like an idiot after a brutal ab circuit is tough man. Regardless, I recognize that some of the chapters were a bit disjointed and a large part of that was because I didn't want to drag on the chapter with Riven just doing gym leader things now that he's more tied down. He can't move around so quickly anymore so there's more downtime in between events. I'll try to do it less but some things are unavoidable. Hopefully it doesn't ruin the feel of the story.

I'm ecstatic that you liked the story so much to read it in one go and that you like the characters! As for small details like Blake the scientist… well, everything has a purpose. It just hasn't presented itself yet. You've no idea how many times I reread my chapters so I can have everything clear in my head.

The blue sphere was a key because the only one who held it was Riven(which it has no effect on, given his biology), and Steven, who handled it CAREFULLY and didn't directly touch it. The others didn't function like this because the ones who touched them(Grimsley and Will) were exposed to them with their bare hands and were normal humans. Think evolution stones in the games and anime and how pokemon evolve when exposed to them via direct contact, etc.

Cue molecular rearrangement/dna shenanigans.

Anyway, really glad you like the story and thank you for the wonderfully large review!

FYI: The OC Sinnohan leaders and Maya are not my own original characters. They are from two other stories that form the basis of the world this story is set in. Most will have recognized them already but it's a disclaimer regardless.

Will check for errors later, time to play some more FFXV while i curse at being sore everywhere.