We hit Hearthome mid-Tuesday. For no obvious reason, it went significantly better than the journey to Solaceon. Promise got ice punch and ice fang down well enough to use in battle, and Trust got brick break down well enough to teach Prom.

Hearthome's Pokemon Center is sort of towards the back of the city, so we spent the rest of the day getting there. My team and I stopped by the Poffin House after lunch and attempted to cook poffins (only 3 survived, so I bought some real ones on the way out). We explored the Foreign Cultures Building briefly. Hope and I walked around Amity Square together, came out the entrance on the other side of the park, and headed to the Hearthome Contest Hall to look around. Nothing was taking place there today, but I wanted them to be familiar with it in case we ever competed there in a tournament.

In the evening, we headed to the Center. I hurried past the building next to it, trying not to look up.

I had an email waiting for me – Professor Rowan was asking for our contact information, now that poketch messaging and calling were finally coming out. I sent him my info and vidcalled Megan. Hope was out because she was in a high-energy mood from burning energy all day. I don't understand how togepis work.

"Where are you now?"

"Just arrived in Hearthome," I said. Hope was squirming, so I put her on the table next to the computer.

"Nice. Any plans on fighting the gym?"

"It won't be for a few days at least. Fantina's a lot harder to beat than Maylene."

"You've got type advantages, right?"

"I mean, yeah, Faith has some attacking advantages, and Trust is immune to ghost moves. But Fantina gets around fighting-type immunity with flying and psychic moves, and Faith has weaknesses to ghost, psychic, dark…" I caught Hope as she fell, squealing, off the table.

"Sounds like you know her team pretty well, though."

I made a face. "Only because I've had to fight her three times before."

"Three?"

"Yeah. Last time. I got overconfid– Hope, chill." Hope was cliff jumping from the table now. I shifted my chair and the computer screen so that I could catch her easily. "I fought her on my second day here, and then I was still overconfident and fought her two days later, and then I flew to Twinleaf and trained there for a bit. By the time I finally got back and beat the gym, it had been a week since I first tried."

"You flew to Twinleaf?"

"I– Yeah, I flew to Twinleaf," I said, surprised by my own words.

"Do you remember what for?"

"I'm not…" I snapped my fingers when it came to me. "Research. Professor Rowan sent me to Lake Verity to do some preliminary Lake Trio research, so I was in Twinleaf for a while."

"So you'll be in town for your birthday?" Megan sounded excited; I hated to disappoint her.

"I'm… not sure."

"Oh."

"We were assigned the Lakes based on who could get where. I had a staravia by then."

"How's your togepi doing?"

The togepi in question let out a "Prrrii~" I caught her again and held her up to the screen. Megan smiled.

"She hasn't evolved yet. And even then, I don't think she'll be large enough to fly with until she's a togekiss, and I don't own any shiny stones."

"We'll figure something out," Megan concluded.

I nodded thoughtfully. We both were quiet for a bit, which was odd because there should have been a lot to say? But it felt like nothing needed to be said. We were good just sitting there at opposite screens. Even Hope let it happen, sitting silently for a bit. And then she resumed her game, jumping off the table with a squealy giggle.

"So what are you doing for the next few days?"

"Probably just training a bunch. I… yeah." I finished awkwardly.

Megan made a face. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

Her face said "are you for real you clearly just stopped talking before telling me something."

"I, uh… I might… I told you about the espeon I had last time?"

"I heard about an eevee."

"Yeah. Her name was Emmy, she…" I smiled a little thinking of her. "She was the sweetest pokemon on my old team. I don't think she ever got mad, and she could talk even Jirra and Liana down from a fight."

"She sounds really nice."

"That's not even the half of it. She…" I shook my head in wonder. "She was a natural at making people happy." Hope stopped jumping off the table to listen. "During the… In the period of time after Lucas died, she was the only one who could bring me anywhere near happy."

Damn, now I was getting sad. "Anyways. I might go find her again. She's one of Bebe's eevees – Bebe, like the pokemon storage system manager – so she's pretty close to here."

"Nice! So you'll get one of your old pokemon back."

"Yeah." I ended the subject at that.

Red eyes returned to my dreams that night. I woke up at 5, tried to sleep until 5:30, and got out of bed.

I went out to route 208. The sky just before sunrise was lovely: worn-through patchy rainclouds passing through, gray as a mild winter. As day broke, you could see through them the gold glow that they failed to block completely.

Since it was an unreasonable hour to wake my pokemon, I went on a run and did some personal training before starting with them. Prom and Trust were quickly becoming training buddies, sparring and learning moves together. I let Hope wander a little (only a little) and worked with Faith. I hoped she'd be able to focus more, now that she was away from Solaceon. This hope was misplaced (unlike my togepi AMIRITE).

"Okay. Come on. It's just shadow punch."

She was just starting to spin ghost energy out of the air (I swear things always happen when we're finally getting somewhere) when there was a rustle in the grass.

I turned to make sure the pokemon wasn't attacking.

It was a ralts. I grinned ruefully, remembering how much I'd wanted to catch one ages ago, when I started out as a trainer the first time. But the darn raltses always teleported away.

Wait.

"Faith, use mean look."

I didn't even think. But Faith made her move, and the ralts was trapped, and suddenly I was going through with this?

"Okay! Use hypnosis!"

The ralts used double team – the hypnosis missed – and then confusion. "Ow!" Faith said.

"Nightshade – hit as many as you can!"

The dark move plowed down three quarters of the circle before one of the raltses reacted. "That one! Full blast!"

The ralts flinched, instinctively trying to teleport. He didn't dodge Faith's attack in time, as a result.

I threw an empty pokeball. The ralts dematerialized and swooped in – the ball shook once.

Twice.

I had a ralts.

Trust and Promise had noticed what was going on, and now ran over to meet their new teammate. Hope was jumping. Faith grinned. "Nice job, Faith!" I said, patting her on the sort-of-material head.

I took a breath and tossed the pokeball. The ralts reemerged. He was pretty calm, considering.

"Hi. I'm Evelyn. This – this is Faith, Hope, Promise, and Trust."

My pokemon said their own greetings. "Ralts," responded the ralts.

"Yeah. They – we're a team. I'd really like you to join my team as well, if you're willing."

The ralts looked again at the four pokemon in front of me (I mean I presume he did. You can't see anything beneath a ralts's hair). Finally he nodded.

"Welcome aboard," I said to him. "Also… do you have a name?"

I felt something in my head – the mental equivalent of static through a radio. There was an inflection to it, a sort of rhythm.

"Oh." I physically couldn't say that. "…do you mind if I give you a name in human language?"

A shake of the head. I already knew what I wanted to call him, because this was the most certain I'd ever been about a pokemon.

"How's the name Definite?"

A nod, more enthusiastic than I'd have expected. And then there were five.

Midday, as I walked through town looking for a place to eat lunch, I passed someone tall in the street. We simultaneously did a double take as we passed, and wordlessly turned to face each other on the sidewalk.

"Haven't seen you in a while," I remarked.

"I'll say," said Thomas. "How did it go in Celestic Town?"

I laughed a little. He was behind by about three weeks. "Come with me," I said.

I summarized things over sandwiches. He'd missed out on what happened in Celestic – which went well – Veilstone – which went poorly – and I threw in Solaceon for the hell of it.

"Wow. Okay. That's a lot in three weeks."

"The life of a trainer waits for no one," I said sagely.

"Says you."

I looked at him questioningly. "Never mind," he said. "So… I guess you didn't find anyone?"

The last time I'd seen him, I'd spent a whole day looking for Liana. "No."

He nodded and looked down. "Yeah. I figured you'd have mentioned it."

I shrugged slowly. "I'm moving on. Your words helped. I caught a ralts today."

"Nice."

There was a lull as we ate our sandwiches.

"So–" He cleared his throat. "How long have you been a trainer?"

"Since September."

"No, I mean…"

"Oh." I counted in my head. "A little under five months, plus this new run. So, roughly six and a half months."

"Only five months?"

"I still had more badges than you."

"That's why I'm surprised."

"Oh. I mean, I didn't visit home as often."

"That's true."

"How're the Sinnoh gyms treating you?"

"They're all right. I've beaten two so far."

I put down my sandwich, confused. "Two?"

"What?"

"I beat three. What have you been doing?"

"Oh. Exploring Sinnoh."

"Ah." Made sense. I'd lived my whole life here. Everything about this place was new to him.

I spent the rest of the day with him. We scrimmaged a little by the pokemon center towards the end of the day. He wound up sharing the room I'd gotten the night before.

"So how's it going with Lucas?" Thomas eventually asked. We were sitting on opposite bottom bunks.

I grimaced. I knew he'd probably ask at some point, but…

"That bad?"

"I don't know. We sorta got into a fight after I rescued him in Veilstone."

"What happened?"

I shook my head. "I'm not even sure. I said sorry to him about the part I did wrong, but I'm not sure it fixed us."

"That's not fair. You said you rescued him?"

"Yeah, but we were teleporting out, and my natu got knocked out, and when he came back with another natu from Looker I started yelling at him."

"Who?"

"Luc– oh, Looker? The agent you met in Jubilife."

"Oh. Well, you were worried for him."

"Heck yeah I was. And he jumped into the fight when we were trying to leave."

"He– okay, that's not even fair of him anymore."

"I know."

I must have looked pretty upset, because Thomas reached over and gently patted my head. "It's okay," he said. "He'll get over it by the next time you see him."

"Yeah." So I kept hearing. "I'll probably see him next week. Galactic is probably planning something that we need to go stop."

"Probably?"

"They did it last time around."

"Last…" Thomas made a face. "That's so weird to think about."

"Welcome to my world."