Elera stalks through the tall, thick grass toward her target, facing away from her in a small clearing beneath a giant Oran Berry tree. It hasn't detected her yet, thanks to the thick coating of pollen she smeared over her skin. Every step releases a cloud of yellow which enters her nose and nearly makes her sneeze. She manages to hold it in by narrowing her focus on the tall, flower-like creature before her. She has seen similar beasts before, but this one is much larger than the others she has come across. It is nearly six feet in height, standing well above her own frame.

She glances over her right shoulder at Zorry, a small white and red creature with a plush coat and a sadness about her. Their eyes meet, Elera's full of determination while Zorry's bearing her trademark mixture of sadness and anger. Elera nods. Zorry moves further into the brush, flanking around to their target's right side. Elera holds up her hand, halting her other companions who have hidden themselves in the thickest sections of the brush. With her other palm resting on the handle of her trusted battle-ax, Elera holds her breath in anticipation.

The creature, called Lilligant by the farmer who hired her, bends down and begins digging at the ground with one of its long, powerful legs. Elera takes a step forward to get a better look.

Crack!

Lilligant's head snaps around as a twig snaps beneath Elera's boot. It's a mistake she shouldn't have made. She's been had enough encounters with these monsters known as pokémon to know better. "Everyone, stay hidden," she hisses.

With a single bound of its long legs, Lilligant lands before Elera, still kneeling in her position in the grass. The creature uses its leafy arm to lift Elera off the ground and toss her into the clearing. Something digs into her back as she lands on the ground. It's too smooth to be a rock. Noticing the beast's hesitance to approach, she takes a moment to check the ground beneath her. A red device is buried in the ground, with only one corner sticking up. She rips the hard plastic from the ground and holds it up to get a closer look. It doesn't look like anything special and it has no power, like most of the old technology left in the world. Still, people will pay a premium for quality plastic and old electric parts they may be able to repurpose. She shoves the device into her pack and turns back to Lilligant, who is approaching her slowly.

Elera glances to her left and sees Zorry hiding in the grass. She nods quickly. Zorry returns the gesture and focuses its attention on the approaching Lilligant. She bares her teeth as her anger as her resentment grows. Her fur stands up on end and takes on a green tint. Elera watches as Zorry morphs and changes before her eyes, taking on the form of the Lilligant.

The wild Lilligant stops and notices Zorry, its eyes wide with shock. It makes a sharp, high-pitched hissing sound and steps toward Zorry. Zorry emerges from the grass and stands face to face with the Lilligant, matching the hiss as she moves closer. The anger burns in Zorry's eyes, becoming more intense with each passing moment. Lilligant steps back as Zorry begins morphing its borrowed face, melting and twisting its visage into an evil, contorted version of the enemy. The Lilligant retreats further, unable to look away from Zorry, until it knocks against the tree and freezes in place.

"Now, Blopblop!" Elera calls.

A small pokémon, no bigger than a foot in height, leaps from the tall grass and stomps on the ground with one of its six legs. It calls out, but the water bubble surrounding its head blocks most of the sound, resulting in only a short burst similar to a popping bubble.

A crack appears in the ground beneath the Lilligant. Hundreds of tiny bugs stream from the hole and up Lilligant's legs, leaving a rash of bite marks as they go. Lilligant cries out, swiping at the ground and its own body. Its sharp arms knock off a mass of bugs with each swipe, but it's not enough. They keep coming as it covers itself with shallow cuts.

"Axey!"

Another pokémon charges from the tall grass. Axey stands just above Elera's hip. He has a hard green shell covering his head and back. Two long tusks, gray with blue tips, jut out of the sides of his mouth.

Axey charges toward Lilligant. "Frax!" he bellows as he leaps toward the Lilligant.

The flowery creature looks up and raises its arms to defend itself, but it's too late. Axey swipes his head to the side. One of his tusks slices right through the Lilligant's arm, severing it from its body. Screams of pain escape Lilligant's mouth. Seeing her opportunity, Elera springs forward with her battle-ax raised high above her head. She swings down hard and impales the Lilligant through the chest. Blood pours from the wound as the Lilligant falls to the ground, lifeless.

#

"That sure is a big one," the old farmer says. "Don't know that I've ever seen a Lilligant quite this big before. How did you manage to take it down all by yourself?"

"I got lucky, I suppose." Elera takes her payment of fifty coins and an enormous bag of Sitrus Berries. "Thank you for this, Porter."

"Thank you," Porter insists. "You got that damned thing out of my orchard."

Elera turns to leave with her haul when a thought occurs to her. "Say, quick question."

"Go ahead."

"How did you know that thing was called a Lilligant?"

"Well, my ancestors from before the war were all pokémon breeders by trade," he says. "The ones who survived made sure to pass down all kinds of information about pokémon. They always said that, one day, things would change and the people of this world would come to appreciate and cooperate with those magnificent beings once again, and they wanted us to be ready. I don't see how that could ever happen as long as those Team Victory people control things."

"I hope it happens." Elera manages to keep from balking at the optimism of the man's family. "We can only hold out belief that those with power will come to realize that they could use that power for good, rather than for beating us down."

After a shared look of feigned confidence, Elera and the old man go their separate ways. Elera adjusts her backpack, throws the fifty-pound bag of berries over her shoulder, and marches away from the farmstead. She waits until she's sure she's made it out of the farmer's sight before ducking off the beaten road and into the thick weeds of the untamed countryside, where her pokémon companions await her. Axey hefts the bag from Elera's shoulder and grunts in a show of both strength and cockiness. Zorry and Blopblop fall in line behind them as the four friends turn toward the location of the fallen Lilligant in hopes of gathering some of the Oran Berries it had been picking.

It has been hundreds of years—or thousands by some professors' theories—since the Last War, but only a few decades since people were able to emerge from their caves and return to the surface. What those first explorers found was a world, though once ravaged by the effects of the War, thriving without the influence of humans. Plant life flourished as forests and plains of tall, wild grass grew to cover many of the former metropolises throughout every region of the world. Even where the physical structures of the past remained, nature had run its course. Vines and moss covered even the largest of buildings, from Rose Tower in what was once Galar to the lighthouse belonging to the famous Bill of the former Kanto Region.

Pokémon populations rebounded quickly following the destruction of the War. Ghost- and Bug-types proliferated in the early days, but nearly every species adapted and learned to survive—thrive, even—in this new world. Many grew larger than ever before, while others reverted to their ancient biology, before human influence had altered their evolutionary paths. The governments of the world had systematically eliminated the most powerful of the pokémon during the War, the Legends and the Myths. In their place, different species rose to the top of the pokémon hierarchy.

Some tried to keep the knowledge and appreciation for pokémon alive through the generations of people forced into hiding, but much of the information was eventually lost. Elera's ancestors had been following orders to report to the nearest shelter when the attacks started. They didn't live near a town with a Gym, so they were traveling through Victory Road on their way to the Pokémon League of the Kalos Region. They were deep within one of the caves, lost, when the first bombs hit.

Some of those caught in the depths decided to continue on, only to be exposed to the destructive elements outside of the protection of the caves. Those who remained were forced to live out their days deep underground, with only their own intelligence and grit to keep them alive. Even those who had loved pokémon their whole lives soon had to face a harsh reality: there wasn't enough food to survive. The survivors were forced to hunt down and consume the hordes of Zubat, Diglett, and other monsters who lived in the cave. Eventually, even those pokémon who came with the humans succumbed to the difficulties of this new life.

Though stories were told through the years, very little information on pokémon actually survived among this group. When they were teenagers, Elera's parents were among the first to venture out into the altered landscape of the Kalos Region. Having witnessed the destructive power of the pokémon who roamed the lands, they grew to fear the creatures, retreating into a nomadic lifestyle that kept them constantly moving from settlement to settlement as they hid from the most powerful pokémon.

Elera was just eleven years old when she met Axey. She was out with the other kids gathering wood for the cooking pit in their temporary village. She had wandered down near the river to check for bark and logs that may have washed up onto the bank when she noticed a group of pokémon picking on one of their own kind. Its skin was a duller shade of green and it had purple around its neck where the others had green. It looked different, if only slightly, and it was being bullied for it.

Elera jumped in swinging the biggest stick she had at the creatures until they ran away. She used a strip of her own clothing to bandage the pokémon's arm and named it Axey after the cry it uttered over and over. Axey returned the favor, using its sharp tusks to slice the biggest sticks into sections small enough for Elera to carry back to her village leaders. She was forced to keep Axey hidden in fear of what her parents might do, but the two of them became fast friends. She snuck food from her rations out of the village to give to Axey, and it supplied her with plenty of wood, fish pokémon, and berries to take back to her village.

She had been out playing with Axey the night her village was attacked by a roving group of bandits. She went running when she smelled the smoke, not wanting to miss the food, only to find it wasn't the cooking fire burning, it was the tents. She watched as a crew of people dressed in flashy uniforms walked away, their enslaved pokémon pulling a wagon piled high with everything they had stolen as other pokémon finished coating the area in flames.

She was only thirteen years old at the time.

Something shifted inside of her in that moment. She was sad, angry, scared, and confused, of course. But she was also frustrated with her parents and everyone else in the village. If they hadn't been so afraid of pokémon, if they had somehow befriended or tamed them, they could have stood a chance against the powerful creatures the bandits utilized. They could have battled back against their attackers.

On that day, she made a vow that she would learn as much as she could about pokémon, befriend them, and work with them to try and make the world a better place. She didn't quite know what that meant at the time, but she knew something had to change. And that would start with her finding those bandits, who she came to know as Team Burn, and ending them.

Along her journey, she met Zorry and Blopblop and welcomed them into her crew. Blopblop sort of forced itself into the team. It followed her for over almost a whole day after seeing her save an injured pokémon from a pack of wild, fire-breathing, black dog pokémon. Zorry had been much harder to break. It had struck out at her every time Elera approached. She seemed to cross paths with Zorry every few days in some situation or another. Eventually, she realized that Zorry wasn't mean, it was just angry, sad, and scared, much like she had been after seeing her home burned. With that common ground, they forged a strong bond that has proven beneficial for both of them.

Elera even managed to find a pokémon egg. She had witnessed an intense fight between a flying orange pokémon with fire on the tip of its tail and a pokémon made entirely of rocks, with two huge horns and a club-like tail. Eventually, the rock pokémon defeated the fiery one and moved on its nest. Elera had managed to sneak in and swipe one egg away without being noticed, before the rest of them were devoured by the rock pokémon and its offspring, gray pokémon that ran on all fours and had a much smaller horn on the ends of their noses.

She's had that egg for over a year now, and she still doesn't know what will hatch from it. Sometimes it almost looks like it's moving, but then it returns to its dormant state. Elera understands enough about pokémon at this point to know it is unlikely a miniature version of the winged pokémon with fire on its tail will hatch from the egg. It will likely be some other pokémon that will, eventually, change into that flying monster. She just hopes that, whatever it is, it will join her and her pokémon friends on their journey to right some of the many, many wrongs of the world.

Elera remains dedicated to her goal, but her confidence has waned through the years. She has seen enough of what is now known as the Seven Domains of Kalos to know that it is going to take more than one nineteen-year-old girl and her three pokémon companions to change things in any significant way. As it stands, the ones with either the most number of pokémon or the most powerful pokémon are able to do as they please, taking control of entire Domains and ruling over the people who reside there without consequence.

They don't befriend their pokémon as Elera does. Rather, they force them into wooden balls powered by steam, leaving them inside until they have use for them, when they finally release them from the tiny prisons long enough to do their bidding, before containing them once again. These balls are marvelous inventions, relics of a time before the War, but they are rare, expensive, and, in Elera's opinion, barbaric.

Axey lets out an excited chirp, snapping Elera from her thoughts as the Oran Berry tree comes into view. "Let's go!" she yells as the four companions race through the tall grass toward the tree and what little remains of the felled Lilligant.

Zorry and Blopblop immediately begin using their abilities to slice berries from the tree while Axey cuts pieces of wood for a fire. Elera gets a spark going using some kindling. She soon has a small bed of coals perfect for cooking. Using an assortment of nearby logs to make a spit, she dangles a pot over the hot flames. Water shoots from the bubbles surrounding Blopblop's head, filling the pot as Axey shovels in armfuls of berries. Elera adds slices of meat from the detached arm of the Lilligant before sitting back to wait while her stew cooks.

With time to rest, she retrieves the red device from her pack and turns it over in her hands. She should have gone to a shop in town to sell it while she was close, but the thought of dinner had been too enticing to pass up. She'll just have to make the trip into Moldour Town to sell it tomorrow.

"Axey, toss me a berry."

Axey pauses mid-bite to launch one of the larger Sitrus Berries toward her using its tusk. Elera's arm shoots up to catch the fruit, cradling it to protect its delicate skin. "Easy," she says with a grin. "You could have squashed it."

Axey grunts and returns to his snack. Elera bites into the yellow berry as big as her head. Juices dribble down her chin as she tosses the device into her lap and looks up to the fading light of the evening sky. She breathes a sigh of relaxation as she takes another bite, causing even more juice to spill over her face and hand. She'll need to find a stream to bathe in tonight anyway, so why bother being clean while she eats? It's just her and her pokémon friends out here, after all.

"Bzzzt—wha—he—o"

Elera startles and swings her head from side to side, searching for the source of the strange voice. "Who's there?" she calls.

"Do—her—ts—me—tom"

"What?"

"Down here. It's—e, Rotom."

"Rotom? What the hell is a Rotom?"

"I'm what the hell is powering this Pokédex. Now, give me some more of that berry before I go back to sleep."

"Berry?" Elera looks down in her lap to see that the screen on the red device has sprung to life, though it is fading quickly. She wipes the remnants of berry juices from the screen and bites off a hunk of fruit to place on the plastic. The berry is consumed as two eyes wink into existence above the screen.

"Thank you."

The voice is coming from the device. "Y—y—you can talk?" Elera stutters, totally freaked out.

"Of course," the device says. "Haven't you ever heard of a RotomDex or a RotomPhone or a Rotom-anything before?"

"No," she says honestly. "I don't know what any of that stuff is."

"What do you mean? Have you been living under a rock?"

"Me? No. But my parents were living underground for a while."

"Hold on." The eyes on the device—the Rotom—close for a moment as the screen brightens. The eyes snap open and Elera can sense a palpable amount of fear coming form the… thing.

"What's wrong?" she says.

"It's all wrong," it replies. "There's no internet for me to access. The satellites have all gone offline. What happened?"

"Nothing?" Elera says hesitantly. "I don't know what you're talking about. Is that Old World stuff?"

"Old World?"

"Yeah, like, before the War?"

"What war are you talking about?" Rotom says.

"The one that ended the Old World, the Last War."

"That must be it." Rotom closes its eyes once again and seems to take a deep breath, even though it's just a piece of plastic with eyes. "The war that broke out in my time must have been cataclysmic, even more than the experts predicted. Everything must have changed. What's your name?"

"Elera."

"Hello, Elera. I'm what is known as a Rotom, the Plasma Pokémon. You do still have pokémon, right?"

"Of course." Elera turns the Rotom to face her companions. "This is Axey, Zorry, and Blopblop. They're all different types of pokémon, and they're my friends."

"Axey, Zorry, and Blopblop? Interesting nickname choices," Rotom says. "Would you like to know their species' names?"

"Okay?"

"Fraxure. The Axe Jaw Pokémon. A Dragon type. The evolved form of Axew." Rotom's screen changes to show a picture of Axey, though the one is displays has red markings in place of Axey's blue ones. "Their tusks can shatter rocks. Territory battles between Fraxure can be intensely violent. A broken tusk will not grow back, so it diligently sharpens its tusks on river rocks after the end of a battle. This one appears to be shiny."

"Fraxure, huh?"

"Zorua, Hisuian Form. The Spiteful Fox Pokémon. A Normal and Ghost type. Derives power from—"

"Okay, I don't need the whole history. Just the species names are fine."

"Very well," Rotom says. "The one you call Zorry is a Zorua, though this form was thought to have existed long ago before growing into the modern Unovan form. I suppose things are different now. Perhaps the Zorua reverted to this ancient form."

"I suppose so," Elera says. "And what about Blopblop?"

"That which you've named Blopblop is what is known as a Dewpider, the Water Bubble Pokémon. A Water and Bug Type."

"That one makes a lot of sense," Elera says. "Hey, when you were talking about Axey, you said it was the evolved form of Axew? I remember the day it changed. There was a flash of light and all of a sudden Axey was so much bigger and it looked so different. What is that? Why does it happen?"

"The phenomenon of evolution can be triggered by many different events," Rotom says, its tone becoming brighter as it talks. "For the majority of pokémon, including Axew, that process is the result of aging and gaining experience through battling. It is much the same as the growth and maturation of humans, though it occurs rapidly and in large chunks, rather than slowly over time."

"Amazing." Elera falls back against the tree trunk behind her, lost in thought.

"Fraxure can evolve once again, as can Zorua and Dewpider," Rotom says. "Would you like to view their fully evolved forms?"

Elera thinks for a moment before responding. "That's okay. I'd rather be surprised. Besides, I want them to grow at their own rate. I don't want to pressure them just because I think a different, more evolved form would be cooler."

"Very well."

"Say, how do you know all of this anyway? I've never met a pokémon that can speak human language before."

"You see, I am capable of inhabiting a variety of electrical devices," Rotom says. "In this case, I have taken over a Pokédex, a device created by the late Professor Oak which contains a vast amount of information on every pokémon in existence. Or, at least, the known pokémon, for there are likely hundreds of pokémon still undiscovered. I use this knowledge, along with vast troves of additional information, and the speakers which are specially designed to convert my speech to human language in order to communicate with you."

"That's amazing," Elera says. "What else can you do? Can you fight?"

"In my current state, I cannot," Rotom says. "However, that may change as I recover my strength or as I learn more about this new world in which I have awoken. Until then, consider me your source for knowledge on all things related to pokémon, as it is clear you are not familiar with our biology or traits."

Elera cracks her neck and leans forward to check on the stew. Noticing the consistency, she leans back and proceeds to spend the next hour interrogating Rotom, asking every question she's ever thought to ask in regards to pokémon. By the time Axey tugs on her sleeve and points to the boiling pot of stew, she is, for the first time in her life, confident that she can interact with the pokémon around her.

"Everyone, eat up," Elera says as she pours five bowls of stew into clay bowls. "Tomorrow, we finally start training in earnest."

"Ferr?"

Elera jumps to her feet, wooden ladle in hand. "What was that? Rotom?"

"Ferroseed. The Thorn Seed Pokémon. A Grass and Steel type."

"Ferroseed?" Elera says. "Why did it have to be so hard to say? Why couldn't it just be Thorn Seed?"

"The answer to your question is only known by those who named the pokémon many thousands of years ago," Rotom says.

"Whatever." Elera braces herself as she spins to face the rustling grass behind her. "Come on out," she calls.

A group of seven silver pokémon with green spikes protruding from their bodies roll into the clearing beneath the Oran Berry tree. They look in unison toward Elera, then at the only remaining part of the fallen Lilligant, a portion of its claw which would have taken too long to cook. The Ferroseed roll their round bodies toward Elera, who jumps backward and raises her ladle to defend herself. Strangely, Axey and the other pokémon remain still as they watch the Ferroseed.

"Ferr?" the largest Ferroseed says as it glances upward at the tree.

"What is it?" Elera says.

"Ferr." The Ferroseed jumps into the air, but it only flies a few inches before crashing back to the ground, gouging the dirt with its spikes. It looks back to the Lilligant claw. "Ferr."

"It seems the Lilligant you… dispatched of… was helping this group of Ferroseed reach the berries to feed," Rotom says as it floats in the air before Elera's face.

"What? It was helping them? I didn't know different species of pokémon worked together like that."

"Well, of course," Rotom says without hiding its exasperation. "Even in my time, pokémon worked together to accomplish all sorts of tasks. Based on what you've told me of this new reality, I'm not surprised that pokémon have learned to adapt and coexist in order to survive without humans. Perhaps they should have adapted this way before the War, to be able to better defend themselves against the humans who destroyed this world."

"I'm not going to disagree with you on that one," Elera says. "From what I've been taught, we pretty much screwed everything up."

"And yet, you survived. That means you humans have been given a chance to fix things and make up for all that you have caused." Rotom whirs and flies closer to Elera. "What have you done to make amends for your actions?"

"From what I can tell, nothing good," Elera admits. "But I made a vow to work alongside pokémon to improve this world."

"Well, now is a good chance for you to make good on that vow."

Elera nods decisively. "You're right. Come on and grab some stew, Ferroseed. The more the merrier."