TRAINER ID
Name: Daniel Ingram
Age: 16
Badges: 1
Account: 3,644 credits

POKÉMON
Ralts (Apollo) - Male
Corphish (Duran) - Male
Eevee - Male

After my shower the next morning, I told my team that Apollo and I would meditate in the recreation room for fifteen minutes while Duran and Eevee stayed in the room and ate their breakfast.

My hope was that Eevee would handle my absence better this time, considering the time was half as long and he'd have food as a temporary distraction. I wanted Duran to bear witness to him conquering his fear, to hopefully mend any sort of bitterness he may hold for last night's incident.

I could tell Eevee was nervous about it, but he reluctantly agreed when I asked him to be brave.

Meditation went without incident; there was nobody else in the recreation room, and I decided we would just do a basic mindfulness session where we focused on being in the present, ignoring all lingering thoughts and worries.

It was the perfect exercise for the day, since I found myself increasingly worried about Samantha's upcoming performance. Apollo wouldn't admit it, but I think he was nervous on Stella's behalf too; it was that or the thought of facing her afterward, I couldn't be sure.

After returning to the room and having Eevee jump into my arms once again, I sighed in relief after surveying the room and finding everything to be in order. I couldn't help but notice that Duran seemed a bit grumpy though, so I tasked Apollo with figuring out if something had happened or upset him as I gave Eevee a good brushing; something he enjoyed so much I realized I would probably have to make part of our morning routine.

"Want more battles. Never gets. Desire strong foes, even if lose," Apollo sent me after a few minutes of having a hushed conversation with Duran as I brushed an extremely happy Eevee.

I frowned as I realized Duran wasn't exactly wrong. We didn't battle much in general, but Duran specifically hadn't had a proper battle since his crushing loss against Leader Georgia. He'd technically battled the Joltik swarm and the Geodude, but those didn't really count.

I'd tried to get him a battle against a member of Samantha's team, but she had refused. I could always have him battle Apollo, but I didn't have high hopes he would have a fair chance. He'd probably never even land a hit unless he knew something like Taunt, and if he used that I was pretty sure Apollo wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight.

Eevee was out of the question; there was just no way he had any chance against Duran. That left wild Pokémon or finding a trainer to battle.

Unlike most bigger cities, Verdanturf didn't have a battle court. I didn't have any idea how we could get more battles apart from a chance encounter with a willing trainer, or going around challenging everyone with a Pokémon or Pokéball. That would make me seem incredibly annoying and cocky, and it would take considerable effort for me to overcome my natural introversion, but perhaps that's what it would take. Clearly waiting for battles to fall into my lap wasn't working.

"I completely agree Duran; we need to do more battling. Everyone does, Eevee included. Training is great, but there's nothing that compares to a proper one-on-one. I've been keeping my eye out for battles, but they've been hard to come by. I promise I'll be more proactive, and I'll find you a worthy opponent soon."

That seemed to mollify him as he nodded and relaxed a bit, apparently content with my answer. I'd always been well aware of Duran's desire to get stronger, but I'd incorrectly assumed that training was enough to appease him so long as he was progressing. It seemed he was more of a battle junkie than I had realized; I'd need to do a better job of finding opponents to keep him happy.

"Let's get in a morning training session before I need to go watch Sammy's performance. She's debuting as a coordinator today, you know," I informed my team, prompting looks of confusion from Eevee and Apollo. Duran however looked completely unconcerned and indifferent, which didn't surprise me.

"If I can, I'll let you guys watch so you can see what it's all about. No promises though; worst case I can show you a recording of it afterward. For now though, let's get in a good morning workout."

I decided to train in the Pokécenter's recreation room. Samantha and I hadn't discussed it yet, but there was a decent chance we resumed our journey today, so it might be my last chance to make use of the exercise equipment.

The room was empty, likely because most people staying in the Pokécenter were preparing to participate in the contest. I decided to start the day out by having Duran and Apollo practice Protect as I taught Eevee our non-verbal commands; both the hand and whistle variants.

He was a quick learner, and once I felt confident he had memorized each command I had him join the rest of the team to practice Protect. I hadn't been paying very close attention to their progress with the move up until now, but it seemed that both Duran and Apollo had developed it to a point where it would be usable in battle, while Eevee's was much more iffy.

Duran was clearly the resident expert on the move, likely because it was something he was capable of learning naturally. His Protect was noticeably denser than Apollo's, and he could hold it for roughly five seconds without too much strain. Apollo could hold it for about three seconds, but I could tell it was a bit more difficult for him and not nearly as sturdy.

Eevee seemed to be struggling with the move. His Protect would only flicker into existence for a brief moment before quickly fading, and I wasn't convinced it would be able to stop any reasonably strong attack. It also left him panting whenever he managed to accomplish it, so I just chalked it up to his overall lack of stamina compared to the rest of my team. I still made sure to praise his efforts and reassured him that as long as he kept practicing, he'd have it mastered in no time.

After our Protect session, I finished training with some physical exercise, something I'd been severely neglecting up until arriving in Verdanturf. I got a little creative with it and made use of the various weights, having Duran not only lift the weights with his claw but also squeeze them to help improve his grip strength. He took to the exercise with gusto and seemed to enjoy it as he kept pushing himself to increase the weight without my intervention.

For Apollo, I had him practice Teleport while holding weights. He couldn't lift much weight at all, but I set various weights on the ground for him to practice Teleporting with, which he was able to do simply by touching. It took considerable effort for him to even Teleport a ten-pound weight, but I took that as a good sign that it was worth practicing and left him to it.

I found a five-pound weight vest that roughly fit Eevee and had him run on the treadmill, which he really struggled with. He didn't even weigh fifteen pounds, so the vest was adding over a third to his body weight, but it was the smallest and lightest available so I had no choice but to make do.

I decided that I would join him as encouragement, and because I thought that I should try to start working out myself if I was asking my team to put in so much effort. I was only comfortably able to run on a treadmill with a fifteen-pound vest, but seeing me and the rest of my team working so hard clearly inspired Eevee to give it his best effort, and he even used Quick Attack a few times with the added weight.

After about fifteen minutes with the weights we were all exhausted, so I called an end to our session. I'd never seen my team so tired and knew that it had been extremely good exercise for all of us, making me hope that there were weights like this in more Pokécenters we could make use of.

Now drenched in sweat, I returned to my Pokécenter room, washed my clothes, and took another shower before making my way to the Contest Hall.

It was nearly noon, and I had a promise to keep as well as a friend to support.

I decided to do something I definitely shouldn't have, but I was reasonably certain I wouldn't be caught.

I was going to sneak Eevee in so both he and Apollo could watch.

It took a fair bit of convincing for Apollo to buy into it since he was such a stickler for rules, but I was eventually able to sway him by insisting that Sammy needed all the support we could give. I would have to pray that Eevee kept his promise to stay silent and not poke his head out of my hoodie pocket until we were seated and relatively safe from being caught, but I was confident he would go unnoticed by staff as we entered so long as I kept my hands in my pocket.

Duran was simply going to rest in his Net Ball. He had no interest in the contest, and I had no way of hiding him anyway.

The Contest Hall was shockingly lively. It seemed like nearly every single person in the town had come to attend; either that or the hotel was much more crowded than I had expected and many had come into town this morning. It got me wondering if there was a 'contest season' we were in, or if contests were just far more popular than I had thought and it was always like this.

If contests were held year-round, that would mean that 52 coordinators would be able to get this particular ribbon in a year. I had only ever seen short clips of performances on television when I was younger, so I wasn't even sure what the format was or how the circuit worked.

After standing in a long line of people and slowly making my way to the entrance, I was a bit surprised and nervous when I realized there was an entrance fee. It ended up being 100 credits, and I was told that Apollo could accompany me so long as he didn't occupy an additional seat, otherwise I'd have to pay for him too.

I kept one hand in my hoodie pocket as I tapped my Pokédex for payment, and they never even suspected that I was smuggling an Eevee in. Too easy.

The ticket I got was simply for general admission, and I was relieved to learn there was no assigned seating. After buying a giant caramel apple and wading through groups of excited spectators, I finally made my way into the massive stadium and found a relatively secluded spot high in the stands. There were massive television screens hanging from the ceiling, so despite being so far away I felt confident that I would still have a good view.

I kicked back and relaxed as I waited for things to kick off, enjoying my snack as I gently nudged Eevee's head out of my pocket, letting him take in the view. Both he and Apollo were looking around curiously and taking in the sights, although Eevee was clearly the most enraptured with the scene as he'd never seen anything like this.

The stadium wasn't terribly different from the Rustboro Gym. Although the lighting was much better and the room was adorned with bright ribbons, balloons, and other decorations, the general setup was much the same. The main difference was that instead of the seats fully encircling a battlefield, there was a massive stage at the front and seats were all relatively positioned in front of it in a giant arc. There was also a table just below the end of the stage, presumably where the judges sat, and I could clearly make out a booth where sound and production crews were scrambling to ensure everything was ready for the show.

"Where Sammy?"

I shrugged, "Probably behind the stage getting ready. She won't look like Sammy either, assuming her disguise isn't terrible. Hopefully we only recognize her when we see Stella, otherwise I'll have to give her an earful later."

I discreetly pet Eevee as I held a conversation with Apollo, but thankfully it didn't take long for the event to get underway. There was a call over the speaker system for everybody to take their seats, and a few minutes later a woman wearing a sparkling red dress took to the stage, introduced herself as our host for the evening and began doing crowdwork.

She started by thanking everyone for attending, asking if we were excited, requesting that we remain seated and hold all applause until the end of the performances. She also informed us that we should cheer loudly for the performances we love, as there were noise sensors to gauge the level of crowd enthusiasm for each act. She made a big deal about the fact that although there were judges, the audience's reactions to each were a big factor in the final scores given to contestants.

I'd never heard of this, and I wasn't sure if I was a big fan of the idea. To me, it seemed like that made this more of a popularity contest than anything. It probably wouldn't matter much since everybody here would be competing for their first ribbon and would be relatively unknown, but it made me curious just how much sway the audience actually had and how it factored into higher-level contests.

She introduced three judges who were apparently big names, if their over-the-top introductions and reactions from the crowd were any indicators, but I had no idea who any of them were. Two were middle-aged men; one of which was some famous stylist and another a big-wig in the Pokémon Activities Committee. The last judge was a young woman who had apparently gotten third place at the most recent Grand Festival, and the crowd went ballistic when she was introduced.

She quickly explained how things would go for those unfamiliar with the format, which I was incredibly grateful for. There were essentially three different 'phases'; an introductory phase where each would introduce themselves and their Pokémon and answer a couple of questions, a preliminary phase where each had only fifteen seconds to dazzle the crowd and judges, and a final performance which was a full minute. The hostess informed us that there were twenty contestants, and that only five would make it to the final phase.

After working the crowd up yet again, she began to call out contestants one by one. As expected, they stepped out from behind the curtain, however I hadn't anticipated how much performance they would put into it before even speaking.

It reminded me a lot of a catwalk at a fashion show. Trainer and Pokémon alike were dressed up and adorned in unique, matching ensembles as they strode toward the middle of the stage with over-exaggerated, clearly rehearsed movements.

After the first couple of introductions and set of questions, I honestly began to tune out a bit. Although I found the Pokémon and their choice of outfits fairly interesting, the questions and subsequent answers given were terribly boring. It was variations of the same thing; where are you from, what inspired you to become a coordinator, what sets you apart from the competition… All answered with the most boring, cliche answers I could possibly imagine.

What surprised me most of all is that the crowd was eating it up, and I couldn't help but think in a way, they were in on the 'performance' or simply acting the part for the cameras. One girl wearing a bright yellow dress with red adornments had the audacity to say she was 'representing' Mauville, and that her Plusle would be giving us an 'electrifying performance, courtesy of the electricity capital of Hoenn'.

The crowd absolutely ate that up, clearly loving her bravado and confidence. I, for one, almost vomited in my mouth, and couldn't help but feel a bit bad for a boy with an Electrike who also happened to be from Mauville but didn't base his entire theme around his hometown.

I regained interest when contestant twelve was called up and I saw Marelle with her Marill approach the stage. She was wearing a poofy, elegant blue dress adorned with translucent white spheres that were clearly reminiscent of Bubble, while the Marill had a tiara, flowing blue ribbon on its tail, and the faintest hints of blush and glitter. She approached the center of the stage slowly, waving and blowing kisses to the crowd as they cheered for her.

Her introduction was fairly standard, and she even got a laugh out of the crowd after a line about how she and Marill might have similar names but had very different personalities. The joke itself wasn't really funny, but Marill exaggeratedly rolling her eyes and nodding fervently in agreement apparently was, even though it struck me as extremely rehearsed.

I was realizing more and more that contests just really weren't my thing, or at least all the buildup and grandstanding surrounding them. I was still eager to see the performances, but so much of this seemed superficial and contrived.

Eevee and Apollo seemed to be enthralled with the theatrics though, as well as most of the audience, so it's possible it was just a 'me' problem.

Marelle revealed she was from Petalburg, which I found surprising. I didn't remember ever seeing her or hearing of a 'Summer' family, but Petalburg was a decently sized city and I was by no means the most well-informed or social person. Still, we were roughly the same age so I figured I would have recognized her from school, even if we were in different grades.

The only other thing that stood out to me was that she said she was going to make her family proud and would be tonight's winner, which I personally found to be extremely cocky, but the crowd ate it up.

The introductions continued on, and two of them even had secret stage identities; a boy and a girl both were wearing masks and using clear aliases, which I took as a good sign that Sammy's wouldn't stand out too much.

I began to get a bit nervous that she had overslept or somehow not been able to participate when contestant 19 was called up; a boy with a Machop from Lavaridge. I silently prayed to Arceus that she was contestant 20, and my prayers were answered when contestant 20 began walking onto the stage with an Espeon I instantly recognized as Stella.

The only problem was, I also recognized Stella's trainer.

My heart dropped as Samantha Stone took to the stage wearing a flowing lavender dress with dark blue accents and ruffled sleeves lined with red gems, extremely reminiscent of an Espeon.

Her hair was now somehow pure white, done up in a neat bun, and she had bright red lipstick, black eyeliner, and sparkling eyeshadow that faded from the dark blue into the light purple. She also had some sort of contour lines to help accentuate her features, and although I had to admit she looked very different from what I was used to, this was not a disguise by any reasonable metric.

For Stella's part, I was surprised to find that she wasn't wearing anything like nearly every other Pokémon that would be competing. Usually they had some sort of hat, bow, ribbon, or some other accessory; some even had on full outfits. But Stella just looked like a normal Espeon.

Well, not quite. Even from where I was, I could tell that Stella had been immaculately groomed and her fur had a subtle shimmer to it I normally didn't see. But it seemed that Samantha's plan was to let Stella's natural beauty do the talking, while she simply complimented and accentuated it.

"Contestant 20, you look stunning, my dear," the host said excitedly, eyeing her dress with clear envy. "Please, introduce yourself and your partner to our lovely audience and tell us where you're from."

"I'm Sammy Morgan, and this beauty beside me is my starter Stella," She said with a sweet smile as she gestured to the Espeon.

I resisted the urge to yell in frustration as I felt panic building up. Part of me wanted to believe that this wasn't real; that I was still asleep in the Pokécenter and simply having a nightmare, and that there was no way she was this reckless.

But I knew that was a lie. This was real and happening, and there was no taking it back. She'd been very clear that she planned on using a disguise; what happened?

"We're from Rustboro City, and we're here today to show the world a small sample of what we've got to offer," she said as she gave a polite bow, which Stella mimicked as her gem began to shine brightly, causing some of the crowd to 'ooh' and many others to clap.

"Well Sammy and Stella, we're excited to see what you have in store for us. Tell me, what made you want to be a coordinator?"

"I've always loved watching contests ever since I was young; there's just something magical about them, and I think it's fantastic to showcase Pokémon and their trainers in a way besides battling. A well put-together performance always brightened my day, and I hope to do the same for others. Making a name for myself and being famous wouldn't be so bad either," she ended with a grin and a playful wink, causing the crowd to burst out laughing.

All things considered, I thought it was a much better answer than the variants I'd heard previously, but it could be because I was biased and actually interested in the answer.

I still wanted to shake her by her shoulders and yell at her for being such an idiot, though. Her name and appearance may not immediately lend her to being Samantha Stone, but anyone with a keen eye and working ears wouldn't be too hard-pressed to figure it out. She'd used Stella's name and said she was from Rustboro, for Arceus sake!

"Relax. Worry too much."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I pet an enraptured Eevee, trying desperately not to lash out at Apollo. I know he meant well, but I felt like I was well within my right to feel some type of way about this. She'd just made herself far more vulnerable for seemingly no good reason, and we were still going to be traveling together so that increased the risk to me and my family as well.

The last time we'd spoken she had been scolding me, but the tables were about to turn on that girl. I'd be having words with Samantha Stone after this, that's for sure. I probably wasn't the only one either; I could only imagine what Steven and Roxanne would say when they saw this.

The preliminary round flew by in the blink of an eye. Even though there were twenty contestants, fifteen seconds was an almost criminally short amount of time to put on a show that others would find not only impressive but memorable.

A task that, in my unprofessional opinion, many of the contestants failed to do.

I was reminded that although this was a contest, for many of these coordinators it was also their first. A few of the routines were fumbled with an obvious mistake or misstep, while some were simply showing off an unusual application of one of their Pokémon's moves.

Some were truly impressive though, usually the ones that actually had the trainer participate in some way other than standing there smiling for the camera or giving exaggerated commands while their partner did all the work. Marelle for example had her Marill wear a blindfold, balance on its tail with it extended to an impressive length, and she would pluck the plastic orbs off her uniform and toss them into the air, which Marill would expertly intercept with the smallest use of Water Gun I'd ever seen that seemed to never miss it's mark.

I say plastic orbs, but they were clearly made of something else I couldn't quite place, because whenever they got hit they would burst into nothingness with a snapping sound. She ended by tossing up five at once, and Marill still managed to ding all five of them before they hit the ground.

Half way through her performance, I wondered if she was somehow cheating and if Marill could see through the blindfold, but upon closer inspection I noticed its ears twitch and repositioning an awful lot, informing me it was using its hearing to target the little plastic balls mid-air.

I had no idea how good a Marill's hearing was, but I knew that even if it had been looking at its targets, that still would have been a very impressive display. The number of hours that must have gone into practicing that… It made me a little nervous on Samantha's behalf.

Soon, it was Samantha's turn. I anxiously watched as the big screen zoomed in on her face, capturing a moment she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Then the buzzer sounded, indicating that her clock had started ticking.

Her eyes snapped open and they didn't waste a moment. Stella shot a singular Swift high up into the air, after which she leapt up onto Samantha's shoulders and laid around her neck. Samantha rested her head against Stella's and both looked content as they closed their eyes, giving the impression both were sleeping.

The Swift reached the peak of its incline and began to descend, picking up momentum before falling right behind Samantha as both continued to pretend to sleep.

For a brief moment I was worried that was it, but Stella's gem began to glow and right as the projectile was about to hit the floor behind Samantha, it suddenly diverted course and leveled out, beginning to orbit around the bottom of her dress.

It slowly began to wind its way up, still circling at incredible speeds from the momentum of its fall, which Stella had managed to preserve even through her telekinetic redirect. The glowing star swirled up Samantha's body, and Samantha made a show of 'waking up' and pretending to look surprised and amazed at the star circling her body while Stella continued her performative slumber.

As it continued to wind up her body, Samantha slowly and elegantly held a hand out, softly smiling as she pointed at the judge's table directly in front of her, who were enraptured with her display. Once the Swift reached her shoulders, it whirled around her as it quickly made its way to the end of her hand.

It stopped progressing and simply spun around the tip of her finger for a few moments before shooting forward, spinning towards the judge's table in a heart-stopping moment that actually caused the crowd to gasp and the judges to flinch. But almost immediately it began to fizzle out, and it faded out of existence before it even got close.

I was still stricken by how dangerous that was. Distance-wise, it still had a fair way to go before it would have threatened to hit any of the judges, but in terms of time another second of life would have easily been enough to reach its target.

She lowered her hand and Stella 'woke up', leaping down from her shoulders as both gave a slight bow, and the crowd erupted into applause.

I stood from my seat and gave the most enthusiastic applause I could as Apollo joined in and Eevee trilled in delight. Some of the other performances had been reasonably neat, but Marelle and Samantha's both just seemed to be on a totally different level from the rest of their competition. The amount of precision, coordination, and practice that must have gone into those brief fifteen-second displays… It was mind-boggling to me.

With a single Swift, incredible telekinetic control, and a little choreography and showmanship, Samantha had easily just made it to the final round. There was simply no way that display wasn't enough to get her through, especially when compared to many of the other acts.

I had been under the impression that Stella was still a novice at using telekinesis, but after what I'd just witnessed I couldn't believe that to be true. She expertly managed to navigate that projectile without even looking, and the amount of precision and control needed to keep a smooth orbit while maintaining momentum was astounding.

There was simply no way she hadn't gotten grazed by countless Swifts practicing that routine. I suddenly had a newfound respect for her; none of my training put me in harm's way, apart from Apollo's early days of practicing Confusion.

"What an amazing display! I think I speak for everyone here when I say we look forward to your final performance!" The hostess cheerfully announced as Samantha waved to the crowd one final time before making their way back behind the curtain with Stella by her side.

I fully agreed; if that was her opening act, what did she have in store to wrap up this contest and win her first ribbon?

As expected, Samantha's number was called when announcing who would be performing in the final round.

So was Marelle's, which wasn't a surprise. Her performance wasn't quite as memorable as Samantha's, but it was definitely among the best we'd seen.

There was a short intermission, which I presumed was not only to give the performers a little break and time to prepare but also to give the crowd a chance to spend more money on snacks and souvenirs. I decided to stay in my seat, finishing my caramel apple and trying to calm my buzzing thoughts.

I felt a mixture of emotions. Pride and respect for Samantha, but also a bit of annoyance and anger. I still didn't understand why she hadn't just worn a disguise, and I couldn't help but wonder if she had ever had one to begin with. All it would have taken was a mask that matched her outfit and a stage name, and she would have had an extra layer of protection. Now the entire world had seen her face and had the potential to recognize her, however slim, and they even had a trainer name they could use to track her last seen location on the league website.

She was far too careless. It was almost like she was tempting fate, daring somebody to try something. I couldn't understand where that mindset came from; she knew she was at high risk of being targeted, and she no longer had her parents to help protect her.

It would come down to Stella, Skitty, and my team. As much as I wanted to think we were more than enough to keep her safe, I knew that all it would take is a couple of experienced Rockets to catch us off-guard and we'd have little to no chance. While I had a lot of faith in my team, it was simply foolish to think we'd stand a chance against a trainer who had years of experience, and that's assuming we even got the chance at a 'fair' fight which was unlikely.

Just thinking about the unnecessary risk made my blood boil.

"Calm. Mistakes natural."

"This goes beyond a simple mistake, Apollo. Mistakes are an accident; she knew exactly what she was doing and just didn't care," I growled as I pet Eevee mindlessly, seeking any small comfort I could.

"Talk, listen. Sure good reason."

"Oh, we'll talk alright…" I muttered as I pushed Eevee's head back into my hoodie pocket, noticing a staff member walking up the stairs nearby.

"Excuse me, sir," the burly man said to my right as I looked straight ahead with my hands in my pockets, hiding Eevee as I pretended not to hear him.

"You, with the hoodie and Ralts," he said more firmly and loudly, giving me no choice but to look at him with faux confusion.

"You're done, come with me," he commanded sternly, beckoning for me to follow him.

I grimaced, wondering if I should try to lie my way out before quickly deciding I might be able to salvage it by simply returning Eevee.

"He's not bothering anyone, but I can return him if it's necessary. Please let me say, my best friend is in the finals."

"Return one of them now and follow me," he said flatly, grabbing at a radio on his hip threateningly. "You aren't just breaking Contest Hall rules, but town ordinance. Do I need to get Officer Jenny involved, or are you going to cooperate?"

I groaned, standing up as I unclipped Eevee's Luxury Ball and tapped it against him, returning him as the security guard watched me warily with his radio in his hand.

"Please sir, I promise I won't do it again, just let me stay. It's important."

"So is the law. No second chances, out you go," he said sternly, gesturing for me to follow him once again.

He escorted me out the door of the Contest Hall, warning me not to try coming back for the day, and I found myself standing dumbfounded in the completely empty square of Verdanturf.

Disappointment. "Shouldn't ignore rules, bring trouble."

I clenched my fists tightly, almost certain I could pick up the faintest hint of smugness in Apollo's largely monotone voice.

"Samantha is going to kill me if I don't see her final performance," I muttered as I began quickly making my way back to the Pokécenter, praying to Arceus that they had the contest on a television for me to watch.

A/N: Daniel did an oopsie. Sorry for the somewhat abrupt cut-off for the chapter; it was sort of the best I could really do, otherwise the chapter would have been FAR too long. I'm still flying solo without my beta-reader, so pardon any weirdness in the chapter. I did my best to proof-read it, but I'm only human. I've obviously moved the trainer ID to the start of the chapters, and as a heads up I think I'll probably be changing my pen name soon. I've realized having 'degen' in my name and an M rated story about a Ralts gives a certain impression I already struggle to avoid, so yeah...

Shoutout to Kiri 'FR and GoMagikarp!