TRAINER ID
Name: Daniel Ingram
Badges: 3
Account: 32,115 credits
Location: Lavaridge Town

DANIEL'S TEAM
Ralts (Apollo) - Male
Corphish (Duran) - Male
Eevee (Orion) - Male
Trapinch - Female

OWEN'S TEAM
Makuhita (Bronson) - Male
Graveler (Roxy) - Female
Shroomish (Misha) - Female
Slakoth (Omar) - Male
Machop (Bruno) - Male

I was pleased to find that Owen was in high spirits the next morning.

I'd like to think that it was in large part thanks to our morning meditation session, which he seemed to be getting the hang of. Whatever the reason, he was back to his normally cheerful and optimistic self.

Not that I thought he had taken his loss particularly badly. In fact, I was sure that if I was in his position I'd likely have a much harder time rebounding. Apart from some minor yet perfectly understandable gloomy undertones while discussing what our future travel plans might hold, the only truly negative response to his loss was when he had lashed out at Preston and Ana. I suspected that if he had won, that entire incident likely would have never blown up, but given the circumstances I couldn't find it in myself to fault him for losing his patience.

There was also the fact that he didn't have the same apprehension about pissing off Preston as I did, since he was none the wiser that Preston held the secret to Sammy's true identity. But even with what had happened, I found myself more discontent with Ana being caught in the middle than I was concerned with how Preston might react. I felt reasonably certain that Preston would do anything so long as he had his business and Ana to keep him occupied and we didn't continue to cross paths, since it wouldn't make sense for him to risk drawing the Stone family's ire for something Owen or myself had done.

I'd done my best not to dwell on the situation and focused on my team for the remainder of the evening. I'd decided to skip evening training – between our morning session, workout, gym battle, and everything else I was far too tired to consider venturing outside of town for more training, both mentally and physically. The way I saw it, a gym battle was more than an adequate substitute for evening training, and my team deserved the chance to rest and relish in their achievement.

As tempted as I was to release everybody at once to announce our victory, I knew I'd need some time alone with Apollo at a minimum so I started with him. Unsurprisingly, he took some effort to console – he was disappointed he hadn't helped much, but more than that he was deeply embarrassed at the whole ordeal surrounding Attract. It took considerable effort, promising not to tell anybody what had happened, and convincing him that he couldn't be blamed for what his mind wandered under the influences of Attract, but soon enough he sensed the sincere pride that I felt for him and brightened up.

Duran was next, but he was much easier. He was similarly disappointed in his performance, and I reminded him that gyms were supposed to be hard, contrary to previous experiences, and that all he could hope to do was his best, trusting the rest of our family to make up for any shortcomings.

That surely helped, but I could tell he was still somewhat down about not playing a bigger role in a gym that he'd had a type advantage for and every expectation to carry us to victory. But it was enough, so I decided to release the rest of my team, feeling absolute confidence that the two group announcements I had would put him in an exceedingly good mood. I hadn't informed Apollo or Duran that we'd actually won yet, having danced around the topic and purposely kept my mind off it since I wanted to use it as an opportunity to highlight Orion's accomplishments.

That, and I had the ultimate ace up my sleeve – news of Duran's impending evolution.

After releasing everyone and giving them the news that we had earned our third badge, spirits were high and Orion was the man of the hour, earning attention, praise, and even more respect from both Duran and Apollo as Trapinch quietly observed the proceedings.

Unsurprisingly, Orion was over the moon not only with his performance but also from how my eldest team members reacted to learning of his success. I was exceedingly pleased to find that it essentially negated all worries about his fur being sullied, and he was able to stand proudly while I began to trim out the burnt patches of fur that littered his body.

I gave Orion time to bask in his glory and finished working on his fur, but after I finished and noticed that everybody was about to break off and settle in for the evening, I grabbed their attention for the final announcement.

Needless to say, after revealing Nurse Joy had informed me Duran was going to molt soon and showed signs that he would likely evolve, he was the happiest I'd ever seen him and didn't even mind being the center of attention by the rest of the team as they shared in his excitement, something he normally was very adverse to since he preferred his solitude. I was tempted to remind him that he would have to take it easy on battling when he started feeling itchy and uncomfortable in his shell, but I didn't have the heart.

Even Trapinch saw fit to approach and say something, and while Duran wasn't quite as receptive of her as he had been before the unfortunate incident of her trying to Bite me, he acknowledged her and they had a brief exchange before she once again separated herself from the group.

But it was progress, and more monumental than it might initially seem. Though I refrained from pointing it out or making a big deal of it, it was somewhat monumental that Trapinch was present for all of this and able to relax with us in the Pokécenter room for the evening. After seeing how awestruck she was witnessing our battle, it only felt right that she join us.

As put off as I was by Flannery's rebuke of Owen's unintentional slight, I still found myself deeply grateful to her for allowing Trapinch to watch, as it seemed to make quite the impression on her. Although she wasn't particularly social and largely kept to herself, even more than Duran, I could tell by the way she watched us in contemplation that she held a higher level of respect and was reflecting on what she'd seen, seemingly trying to imagine herself battling so fiercely.

I'd briefly considered capitalizing on the mood to cement things with Trapinch by popping the question, asking her if she had chosen to stick around or wanted to return to the desert, but decided it wasn't appropriate. I was planning on spending at least another day in Lavaridge anyway, and I felt like making the night about her wasn't exactly tasteful. My team was too elated and exhausted to show any animosity toward her, and I took the fact that she was simply able to hang out in our general area without things being tense a success. Sure, I'd recalled her before we all went to sleep since she wanted to rest in her Luxury Ball, but it was still progress, however subtle.

All in all, it had been an exceptionally good night, and the morning was shaping up to be much the same. Meditation, a group workout, and a modest yet productive training session had all gone smoothly, and even if we hadn't done anything revolutionary, progress continued to be made.

Trapinch was getting rather adept at digging in solid ground and was getting closer to what I would consider a respectable Protect, though it still needed some work. While I wanted to get her started on something more interesting soon, I felt like having a solid grasp of those two things was important, and I honestly didn't feel up to getting too creative given the circumstances.

Orion was producing more noticeable miasma when using Bite, and Duran's precision shooting both water and mud was becoming a thing of wonder. He was able to consistently snipe pinecones that I lobbed into the air, and he was able to scoop mud into his claws to use as ammunition faster than ever before.

Apollo even had a breakthrough of sorts that allowed him to finally start to make some meaningful progress on his telekinesis, however slight. Though he couldn't properly 'levitate' the leaf, there was no longer any disputing that he was able to affect it. That took the form of the leaf wobbling, flipping over, and occasionally hopping into the air, but Apollo still lacked the control needed to keep it steady or hold it airborne.

Apart from an obvious lack of finesse and familiarity, Apollo noted that the tricky part was that he was used to sending psychic energy out in pulses or waves, and that telekinesis seemed to demand a steady stream of psychic energy to achieve our desired outcome. But he was determined to figure it out and seemed as pleased with his progress as I was, so I decided that he was on the right track and would likely figure it out himself with enough practice.

I felt bad that I wasn't able to help him by providing any more guidance, but he assured me that my tip about visualization was doing wonders and that he would figure the rest out on his own.

While not the most groundbreaking training session, it was surprisingly productive. I knew I'd need to spend some time in the near future to come up with what moves I wanted each to work on next, particularly for Trapinch and Duran, but I was of the opinion that having a strong understanding of the moves at your disposal was more important than having a large variety to pull from, so as long as progress was still being made I wasn't overly concerned.

"So, have you given any thought about what you're going to do?" I asked Owen after we had regrouped and begun working our way back to town with Orion resting in my hoodie pouch and Bruno walking alongside Owen.

"I think I'm going to stay here," he said with a sigh followed by a resolute look. "It'll be a bit embarrassing to face Flannery again in a week, but I may as well get it out of the way. After the battle when we shook hands, she asked if I understood why she'd taken offense, then said she was looking forward to my next challenge. I don't get the sense she's going to hold a grudge, so I don't think it's fitting to put it off any longer than I need to."

I nodded silently, not surprised that Owen had decided to stick around Lavaridge, although feeling a bit crestfallen.

"We got fairly close as things were," Owen continued. "It was basically a two versus three with Bruno knocked out so quickly, and even though she wasn't quite as vicious the rest of the battle, she was almost surely going harder than she normally would. We'll win next time, I just know it."

"You'll do great," I agreed firmly, not sure what else to say as we made our way back to town.

We fell into silence for a moment, both of us seemingly thinking about the fact that we would soon be splitting up. I regretted not being able to spend more time getting to know Owen, as I felt like we hadn't gotten to know each other all that well, and I had just started to truly embrace our morning exercises. I decided then that I'd keep doing them on my own accord, although I doubted I'd push myself nearly as hard without him there to help motivate me.

"You know, I really would have liked to be the one to show you around Dewford," Owen said with a regretful sigh after a few seconds.

"Would have been nice," I agreed, "I'll be sure to check out that cave you mentioned. Anything else you can recommend?"

Owen hummed in thought. "Nothing much that I'd be able to explain how to find too easily. A lot of Dewford's charms are just kind of… spots of nature. There's a really nice patch of beach on the far end of the western side of the island. Great place to catch some waves and rays, hidden away from the tourists. The locals keep it on the down-low though, so you might get some nasty looks if you show up without me. If you do, just say you stumbled upon it. Other than that, there's Paulo Pokes, the best poke bowls you'll ever have. Trainers need to visit Granite Cave, it's massive and filled with unique Pokémon, and the deeper you go the tougher they get. It's a great place to train, and relatively safe so long as you don't go into the designated danger zone."

"Danger zone?" I asked with a raised brow.

"Yup. There are lots of caverns to explore, but there's only one 'correct' path to get to the lower chambers. There isn't a marked trail or anything like that, and for good reason. If you ever end up wandering deep enough, you'll stumble upon a marker that cautions you about dangerous Pokémon if you proceed. Everything up to that point is relatively safe, but the chances of having a potentially fatal encounter drastically increase in those lower chambers. That's where you'll find the particularly strong and territorial residents – think Onix, Lairon, Graveler, Kadabra, and if you're really unlucky you might stumble upon a Pokémon that's battle-hardened and old enough to be fully evolved. It can get seriously dangerous; I've never personally gone past the marker, and even now I wouldn't try to go much deeper. It's on my bucket list to try reaching the bottom cavern, though. It's one of the best places in the region to train for elite trainers, Steven Stone himself has even trained down there on a couple of occasions."

"I don't plan on going that deep, at least not anytime soon," I admitted honestly. "It might be interesting to explore the deeper parts of Fiery Path, Granite Cave, and Meteor Falls someday, but I've still got quite a bit of the region's surface to explore before I get the urge to explore what lies beneath. Even then, I'd probably need a reason. I'm not too keen on the idea of going so deep in a cave that I have to camp overnight."

"Fair enough I guess. So when are you planning on heading out? Did you talk to Trapinch yet?"

"Not yet, I think I'll just ask when we get near the desert. I thought about asking last night, but it didn't quite seem right to do that. I haven't taught her as much as I'd like either – she's barely started to get the hang of using Protect, and I've just been letting her practice Dig on solid ground. I think after seeing our gym battle there's a decent chance she might want to stick around, but I'd feel better about it if I could teach her something more impressive. She's also not integrated with the team, so I'd like to at least get her on Duran's good side again, and maybe even find her a tough yet fair battle to win. It's probably overly ambitious, but maybe I can accomplish a couple of those things before we reach the desert."

"Not that you asked, but I think you're overthinking things a bit," Owen noted. "I know things were a bit rough at times with Trapinch, but there's no way a Pokémon with draconic blood would rather go back to living in the desert after seeing what you can offer. You're a good trainer with a lot to offer. Even if she isn't getting along the best with you or your team, what matters is being able to work together. Everything else will fall into place over time."

I shrugged, deciding I didn't want to dive into the topic too much as some of the buildings making up Lavaridge began to come into view. But after a few seconds, Owen spoke up again and pressed for an answer to his earlier question.

"So, what's the plan? Heading out today?"

"Nah. I have a few things I want to do before I go, but I'll head out in a day or two. Since somebody insists that we don't eat before exercising, I'm dying for breakfast and coffee. But first I want to shower, feed my team, and see if there's any work in town I can do today. Last night I put up a job post, and I responded to a couple of requests I think Apollo and I can do, so I just need to check if any got back to me. I want to visit the Pokémart at some point too, but I can always do that tomorrow."

"I'll join you for breakfast, then I think I'll spend some time with my team while you do your thing," Owen said after a moment of consideration, glancing down at Bruno as he took in the sights. "They haven't shown it much since our exercise and training gave them something to focus on, but they haven't exactly gotten over our loss. I soothed the worst of it last night, but I want to do some follow-up and spend quality time with them today."

"Makes sense. My team gets disappointed in their individual losses, but it's easy enough to brush off as long as we succeed collectively. I could see it being a lot harder to stomach when that isn't the case."

"True, but it's a necessary thing to experience. Ana was right – nobody should expect to win every gym challenge. You got pretty close to losing yourself, and gyms are only going to keep getting harder. Don't be too surprised when you find yourself in my shoes."

I nodded in silent agreement as we reached the Pokécenter. I took note that a few of the locals seemed to be giving Bruno a strange look, but I didn't think much of it at the time and chalked it up to general interest in us being traveling trainers.

Deciding we'd soon meet in the lobby and find somewhere to have breakfast, we split up and went to our rooms to shower and feed our teams. Owen beat me back, so he waited while I logged into a terminal to check if I'd gotten any job responses. I was pleased to be able to secure two jobs, quickly confirming their proposed times and memorizing the addresses, which was a simple enough task for a small town like Lavaridge.

I found Owen sitting in one of the lobby chairs next to Bruno, who was looking around in fascination at all the foreign, human things that were still quite new to him. Owen himself was transfixed on one of the wall-mounted televisions, and as I got close enough to hear I realized what had his attention.

"...increased reports across the region of a new sickness affecting Pokémon, colloquially referred to as 'Pokérus'. While information is still limited, League health officials have confirmed that although humans are not at risk of infection, all species of Pokémon seem to be vulnerable. The League strongly urges increased awareness of any Pokémon that display abnormal aggression or inexplicable confusion. Officials recommend limiting travel and battling where possible, and advise that Pokémon remain recalled in populated areas. As of this morning, Pokécenters have been advised on proper screening procedures, so if you suspect your Pokémon may be affected please report to the nearest Pokécenter as soon as possible. Any sightings of potentially infected Pokémon may be reported using the League hotline or website. We'll continue to monitor the situation, and –"

"Crazy stuff, right?" Owen said, snapping my attention from the television as it transitioned into a commercial break.

"Yeah," I nodded in agreement, "I didn't realize it was such a big deal."

"This one is unique," Owen grimaced. "Usually when you hear about something adversely affecting Pokémon, it comes down to dietary or environmental factors. More serious sicknesses are relatively rare and tend to only affect select species, but are usually cured easily enough with modern medicine. They don't have a cure for this yet – the only thing they can do is keep the Pokémon isolated from others until it's no longer infectious and the symptoms recede. It's also species-wide as far as they can tell, which is extremely notable in itself, but the fact that it makes Pokémon more aggressive is alarming. I searched it up a little on my phone last night after you passed along Sammy's warning, just to take my mind off things, and there are even rumors that it makes Pokémon stronger."

I raised a brow, "How would that work? They're sick, and it mentioned confusion. Surely that would make them worse off in a battle."

Owen shrugged, "Dunno, information and rumors were all over the place. Usually, something like this wouldn't look too different from a cold or flu, but that's not the case here. The general consensus seems to be that it's like they become more primal, and they fight any perceived threat with no holds barred like it's life or death. There's a surprising lack of information about it despite how big of a deal it's started to become, supposedly it hasn't even been a week since the first sighting, and it's only really gained traction the past couple of days. The good news is that the earliest reported cases have started to return to normal and are no longer infectious, so at least there's that silver lining. We should probably take their advice and keep our Pokémon recalled in town though," he said as he gave Bruno a regretful smile and returned him, causing me to do the same as I recalled the lounging Eevee in my pouch.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing we're in a small, remote town like Lavaridge while this is all happening. It makes me kind of nervous to go back to Mauville though," I mused.

"Might be worth scheduling a Teleport if you still plan on going. They're fairly expensive, probably even more so now with demand spiking, but they did recommend against traveling. If you needed to take Trapinch back to the desert though, you'd probably be alright as long as you were careful about it. It sounds like the League is on top of it, so hopefully this will all blow over soon."

I nodded absently, and we went out searching for a place to have breakfast – not that Lavaridge held a slew of options. We ended up choosing a diner, since I was very much in the mood for breakfast and coffee while Owen wanted a sandwich, pointing out that it was closer to lunch than anything. We settled in, ordered our food, and relaxed as we began to chat and enjoy what was likely to be one of the last meals we'd share for a while.

Or, that was the plan. After ordering our food, I was stopped dead in my tracks just as I was about to take my first sip of coffee when I saw a familiar face step into the diner.

Anastasia Stern.

Owen's back was at the door, so the only thing he noticed was me abandoning my attempt at taking a sip in favor of flipping my hood up and tucking my head down slightly, hoping to avoid yet another weird conversation. He took note of my change in demeanor and lifted himself up to peer over the back of the booth seat, and as soon as he saw Ana he promptly sat back down.

"Oh…"

Though Anastasia hadn't noticed our initial gawking, luck was not on our side. The waitress greeted her and escorted her to a booth, which naturally was in our direction. There was no chance she didn't notice us, so I decided to take it on the chin. We made eye contact, I gave a forced, faint smile and a short wave, and felt incredibly awkward as I saw the look of hesitation cross her face and she stopped dead in her tracks just a few feet away from our table.

"Oh, Daniel. Hi…" she forced a smile of her own as the waitress that was escorting her stopped and turned around, watching in mild interest as Owen realized that hiding was no longer an option, sliding into view and facing her as he gave a cheeky, mildly guilty grin and a wave.

"Owen," she acknowledged with a subtle nod and a strained smile, doing her best not to show the discomfort I knew she must be feeling.

"Friends of yours? Would you like to be seated together?" the waitress suggested, completely oblivious to the underlying tension.

"Oh no, I don't want to impose," Ana said hurriedly, waving her hands in dismissal.

Owen and I exchanged glances and seemed to come to the same decision, albeit wordlessly, before turning to Ana.

"Unless you're expecting Preston, you're welcome to join us," Owen offered.

She hesitated, but seemed to consider the offer. "No, he left town a little earlier, but…"

Having heard enough, Owen pushed his glass of water over to my side to the table and slid in beside me as I scooted over to make room. He held a hand out in a welcome gesture at the seat, and after a moment she nodded slightly and took a seat. Owen and I stayed quiet, sipping on our drinks as she ordered a tea and was handed a menu by the waitress, and soon the three of us were left in an awkward silence.

In the seconds that followed as each of us thought how to break the ice, I found myself regretting that we'd come to this diner. True, there were very few places in Lavaridge to choose from so the odds weren't exactly unlikely that we would bump into each other, but you could slice the tension in the air with a knife and I was not adept at easing those types of situations.

"I should apologize," Ana blurted out after a moment, looking earnestly at Owen. "I didn't think about how inappropriate it would be to seek you out after a loss. You didn't seem to be bothered by it, and I just thought –"

"It's fine," Owen cut in as he waved it off. "I'm the one who should be sorry – to you at least, I don't exactly regret what I said to Preston. You just sort of got caught in the middle of it, but it's Preston we don't like, not you."

"I gather that now. I just thought you must be friends, or at least acquaintances. Preston had nothing but nice things to say about you two when we talked about going to watch your battles. And you did mention having a 'friendly' conversation with him when we first met. I guess I'm not great at reading between the lines sometimes," she sighed regretfully.

"We were trying to be polite and not cause issues, but I guess I lost my patience. Sorry about what I said to you, I know you didn't mean any harm," Owen apologized with a regretful grin.

"Can I ask why you feel that way? Preston has been weirdly withdrawn about the whole thing. We actually got into a bit of an argument about it, and that's partially why he left a little early…" she admitted, looking embarrassed to be airing out dirty laundry.

Owen gave me a questioning look, likely being considerate of the fact that it was my story to tell. But I really didn't want to get into it, and I was already kicking myself that I'd inadvertently become a point of contention between Preston and Ana. Sure, there was a big part of me that wanted to just lay all the cards out on the table, but I was trying out a newer, less confrontational approach to these sorts of things.

It wasn't too late to keep my head low and let this all blow over. I hadn't personally done anything, and I didn't think Owen getting snippy was enough to cause Preston to do anything drastic. Or that was my hope, at least.

"I'd rather not get too into it too much," I admitted to her clear disappointment. "Let's just say that when we first met, our personalities sort of… 'clashed'. I get the sense would rather just leave it in the past, and I sort of feel the same way, just not quite to the extent that I'm willing to totally forget our history and shake hands with the guy, either personally or professionally. That's why I'm not interested in a sponsorship with Flagship – not because of you or your family, but because of Preston. He seems more… tolerable lately, thanks to you if I had to guess, but I don't want to interact with him or anything he's involved with if I can help it. I've always heard you aren't supposed to let your personal feelings get in the way of business, and I know I'm throwing away a huge opportunity. I've been told I'm being an idiot, and it's probably true, but I don't think anything is going to change my mind about it, it's just how I feel."

"Well said, dude," Owen raised his water glass in a faux cheers and nodded in approval before taking a drink. I glanced at Ana and saw that she a had frown and seemed to be deep in thought. Owen set his glass on the table and let out an exaggerated 'ahh' before turning to Ana.

"Say, mind if we just drop all the Preston and Flagship talk? I think Danny summed things up nicely, and I'm not sure there's much more to be said about either topic. We got the heavy stuff out of the way, so if we're going to share a meal, I think we'd all find it a lot more enjoyable if we keep it light, right?"

I nodded in fervent agreement, and Ana gave a slight sigh but nodded as well. "I can't say I'm entirely satisfied with leaving things at that, but I suppose I can accept it. Besides, it would be nice to have a pleasant conversation with you two for once that didn't involve confusion or tension, so I'll take the opportunity gladly. Despite everything, I am endlessly curious to learn more about you two. You're among the more interesting trainers in the circuit this year, you know."

"Yeah, we're pretty great," Owen said with a huge grin, eliciting an elbow to the side from me and a giggle from Ana.

The waitress came over with Ana's tea, took her order, and soon we found ourselves enjoying a casual conversation over food. True to her word, she never tried to steer the conversation back to Preston or Flagship again, apart from a few passing mentions here and there when talking about other things.

As Ana loosened up, I couldn't help but observe that Owen and Ana were naturally social, constantly bouncing off each other and seemingly never running out of topics. Owen held obvious curiosity about Ana, and managed to get her to talk about things like her family, her interest in water-type Pokémon and oceanic conservation, school, and everything else in between.

Not that it was completely one-sided. Ana seemed to hold a deep interest in the life of a journeying trainer, asking us about specific routes, gyms, our experiences, our team members, and everything in between.

I chimed in occasionally, but was largely content to let Owen take the lead. Truth was, he was way better at socializing than I was, and I wasn't sure I'd have done even half as good of a job at getting Ana to relax around us after all that had happened. I also couldn't help but notice that Ana's manner of speaking became more casual than normal, though it still held some level of poise and formality that I suspected was simply in her nature. But it was being more open and casual as the conversation went on, and I attributed that largely to Owen's natural friendliness.

Though I jumped in when I had something meaningful to add, I got the sense that Ana was purposely avoiding asking me the questions she most wanted to. It wasn't hard to understand why either, since most of what she probably wanted to ask about were things that would bring the mood down. Topics like my run-in with the Rocket, being an orphan, the incident at the Rustboro gym, and Preston would have had an undeniable effect on what was otherwise a very friendly and positive chat, and she seemed determined to avoid them. She did see fit to ask me about how I met Apollo though, and I didn't mind telling her the abridged version of that story, though I obviously left out the fact that I was purposely trying to lure a Ralts as opposed to having a random encounter.

What had every right to be an awkward meal ended up being thoroughly enjoyable. Though I wasn't used to group meals like this, it was nice – listening to stories, sharing laughter, and just generally enjoying the company of people you found both interesting and nice.

And Ana was nice, that much became abundantly clear as our meal progressed. I'd been wondering if she was wearing some sort of facade of propriety and pleasantness, as it seemed to me that most of the 'social elite' like Preston and Samantha seemed to have a mask of some sort that they could put on when needed. But I got the sense that Ana was genuine almost all the time, just with altering levels of formality and self-consciousness about how she came across depending on the situation. Largely though, she wasn't much different from the Ana I had first met, just noticeably more relaxed, casual, and expressive.

It was nice to see, and I came to the conclusion that I wholly agreed with Samantha's assessment – Anastasia Stern was indeed one of the 'good ones'.

It made me feel a little guilty about being so firmly against a sponsorship with her company, and even worse thinking of a genuinely good person like her marrying someone like Preston Livingston.

But what did I know – I was about as far from an expert on relationships as somebody could possibly get, particularly of the romantic sort, and as Owen had pointed out when talking about his own parents, opposites did tend to attract. Besides, I'd meant what I said to Ana – Preston was much more tolerable than I'd ever remembered him, even if his underlying tendencies still lingered.

If Ana's presence kept Preston's worst side buried, and there was even a slight chance that there was a happy relationship that I simply couldn't see or understand, I wasn't about to drive any wedges between them. Call it selfish, or call it being complicit in Preston's charade, but even if a small part of me wanted to lay everything on the table and reveal all the scummy things I had witnessed from Preston, I was convinced that my life was better off with Ana occupying Preston's attention.

Still, I couldn't help but feel somewhat bad coming to that realization, since I was almost certain that Ana deserved better than whatever Preston brought to the table. It was obvious that Preston was an attractive guy – he was taller even than me which was saying something since I was taller than most, he had thick yet well-groomed blonde hair, and dressed to impress. That was all on top of him being rich, well-educated, and likely having a slew of social connections few could hope to match.

Despite his personality flaws, I wasn't about to claim that Preston was incapable of bringing plenty to the table in a relationship. Still, compared to Ana…

Well, although I had never seriously looked at anybody through a romantic lens before, it was impossible to ignore the fact that she was a catch. She was beautiful, genuinely nice, educated, and interesting far beyond the obvious things like her conservation, family, and business. She was exceedingly humble and did her best not to linger on topics focused on her accomplishments, waving them off in embarrassment before finding a way to redirect the conversation. She held her family in high regard, and not just because of their name or influence, but she seemed to have a genuinely close relationship with them, her father especially.

She was passionate about Pokémon, particularly her love of water-types, and spoke fondly about her Poliwhirl and how she was waiting for them to feel ready to evolve even though she had already procured a water stone. She talked about how she would love to someday go on a journey of her own just for the experience of it, but was currently far too focused on her upcoming marriage and growing her family's new company to give it any serious thought at the moment. While she had no serious aspirations in conquering the gyms other than for fun just to see if she could, she claimed she could battle, but that it was far from a passion of hers and that she mostly did it for her Pokémon's sake.

She was a driven entrepreneur and conservationist, and loved nature so much that she dedicated as much of her time and fortune as she safely could to ensure its conservation. Perhaps most impressive of all was that she was exceedingly wealthy without flaunting it, and she didn't flaunt her family name in a way that made it seem as though she thought she was above anyone, it was more a matter of pride than anything.

All this to say, she was what many would consider the complete package, and the thought of her settling down with the hidden menace that is Preston Livingston, especially if it was unknowingly, made me feel guilty about not at least making her aware of the Preston I knew.

But it didn't, knowing it wasn't my place and would only needlessly complicate things. Yet I had to admit, as I watched how well Owen and Ana were getting along, laughing, smiling, and bouncing off one another with ease, I couldn't help but wonder how that might have turned out. Not that I knew Owen particularly well, but he seemed to be unusually friendly and interested in Ana, and although I was surely biased I couldn't help but think that someone like Owen would be much better suited for Ana.

As lighthearted as things were for most of the meal, it was inevitable that at some point, a more serious topic would come up. It happened when Ana was excitedly asking me questions about Apollo's telepathy, and I remarked that having an empathic telepath sitting on your shoulder was about as useful and illuminating as one might imagine.

"I'd love to properly meet him sometime. He was so impressive during your gym challenge until that unfortunate Attract, and he sounds absolutely precious," Ana swooned before sitting back and frowning, a serious look crossing her delicate features. "But I guess now's not a great time with all that's been going on. I even got a few glares from the locals when I was out walking with Poli, my Poliwhirl, this morning to clear my head. This virus has the potential to quickly get out of hand. Reports of infected Pokémon are exponential, that's what the news says. Supposedly the earliest reports of it aren't even from a week ago, but it's only been the last couple of days that it's been gaining real traction. They've been getting hundreds of reports, and it's likely to be thousands by today or tomorrow. If you consider the infection rate and how many are probably out there not getting reported, it's easy to see this completely sweeping the region if left unchecked."

"You seem to know a lot about it," I remarked. "We first heard about it yesterday, and today we caught the tail end of a news segment about it, but other than that we're pretty out of the loop."

Ana gave a pained smile, "Most people are in the same boat, myself included. Flagship might not exactly be a leader in Pokémon biotech or pharmaceuticals yet, but it's our main focus right now and we're investing heavily. We tend to focus on understanding the properties of natural remedies like berries so we can leverage that in our products, and we've got a good handful of formulas that outperform their base ingredients. We'd love to lean into the technical side of trainer supplies, but there are so many patents we'd have to buy the rights to… It's not like we can just re-invent space-tech or Pokéballs from the ground up, after all. So we're trying to come up with our own, original technology we could offer, but that's still some ways down the road. First, we need to get our existing products on Pokémart shelves and–"

Ana seemed to catch that she was ranting about her company and straying off topic, and stopped herself in her tracks as she quickly gave a flustered apology.

"Sorry! I got off track. Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that we've been watching it closely and have petitioned the League to get a sample so we could try to study Pokérus, but we haven't had any luck. They won't even share the information they have on it, which is just asinine. They did see fit to warn us against attempting to procure an infected Pokémon on our own to study though, claiming unauthorized storage or handling of it is 'grossly irresponsible' and grounds for 'severe punitive action'. It's extremely frustrating, since I can guarantee you that Devon was handed the first sample the League was able to obtain. I just think for something that has so much potential to wreak havoc should be a joint effort, especially since they don't seem to know how to cure it other than to isolate the Pokémon and wait it out."

"Seems nearly impossible to contain if it's already spreading like that, especially in the wild," Owen commented with a slight frown.

"You aren't wrong, something like this is unprecedented. It really makes me wonder where it came from, since it seems to have just popped up out of nowhere. But despite my gripes, I have faith that the League will get it under control soon, especially if they've got Devon helping."

With our meals long finished by this point and my coffee cup once again empty, I glanced at the time and realized that I was getting dangerously close to the time of my first scheduled job. I mentioned this and began to excuse myself, then Ana admitted that she had a Teleport scheduled that she needed to prepare for, so we paid for our meals and made our way for the exit.

"This has been one of the most enjoyable meals I've had in recent memory, and it did wonders to brighten my day. I'm so grateful that you invited me to join," she thanked with an appreciative smile. "Despite a rocky start, I'd like to think that we're friends, and hope you'll think of me the same way. I hope we'll get the chance to do this again someday, it was fun."

"We're friends," Owen confirmed with a grin, which I nodded in agreement to. "But maybe don't mention that fact to Preston, and I hope you won't take offense if we don't show up to your wedding."

That last comment made me want to recoil in pain, but Ana took it in stride. "If Preston wants to keep things from me, I see no reason to tell him we talked things out. I'm honestly quite annoyed with him at the moment, had he been more upfront about things I wouldn't have made quite as big of a fool out of myself. He still won't give me a straight answer about why you two dislike him, but if you don't want to talk about it either then I'll just have to let it be. It's a shame his involvement seems to have soured what could have been a wonderful business partnership, but I suppose it can't be helped. I won't trouble you two about it again, but if you ever change your mind please reach out, the offer still stands, and I promise you'd be treated kindly."

"We'll keep that in mind, thanks Ana. Take care," Owen said kindly as we all parted ways and I immediately started searching for the address of the first job I had managed to arrange for the day.

As I searched, I felt my pocket vibrate and pulled out my phone to see I had a text message from Samantha.

#1 Sister: Back home for a while. Meetup will have to be postponed. Sorry.

I read the message a few times to make sure I was understanding correctly. Samantha was back home, in Rustboro? How and why? I called her, not wanting to deal with the burden of text messaging.

No answer.

I quickly typed up a message, trying my best to stifle the growing frustration I felt.

You: What? Why are you home? We promised to meet up.

No response for a few minutes, during which I tried to call her again to no avail. Then eventually, one last message – the last she would send on the matter.

#1 Sister: Big things are happening, can't say much more. We promised to meet up the first chance we can, and we will. It just can't be now, you'll see why soon. Stay safe plz.

I sent multiple messages trying to get some elaboration, asking if this had to do with the virus or if something else was going on, but got nothing. I momentarily considered the possibility that she might be in trouble, but quickly discarded that notion. She'd texted me out of the blue, didn't seem to be in distress, and her messages were perfectly... Samantha.

With my travel plans once again completely in limbo, I dreaded the prospect of telling Apollo that he wouldn't be seeing Stella as soon as planned. But I tried my best to push those thoughts from my mind, as well as the growing concern I felt over Samantha's cryptic warning. I was getting dangerously close to running late for my first scheduled job, and I needed to focus on the tasks at hand before I could fully ponder the possible implications of what my short exchange with Samantha meant for my immediate future. Meeting up with her was apparently out of the question for the foreseeable future, Owen was planning on staying in Lavaridge for a week, and if Trapinch decided she wanted to go home I owed it to her to return her to the desert, despite traveling alone and against League recommendation.

There were so many moving parts and a lot that I needed to try to figure out. There were so many questions and uncertainties, that the only thing I knew for sure was that the situation sucked. I didn't think things could possibly get much worse, though the universe would soon show me just how wrong I was.

The first job took us nearly the full hour I'd allotted, and after I finished it I didn't quite know how to feel.

I was hired by the parents of a girl slightly younger than me who was supposedly going to start her journey soon, and her parents were extremely interested in us teaching her the basics of mental defenses against psychic-type Pokémon.

This session revealed some problems with the new service we were trying to offer. The first was that it ended up partially being a meditation workshop, since that was the best introduction that I knew to getting control of your own mind. I'd thought Owen had difficulties sitting still and calming his mind, but it turned out he had it easy compared to some like the girl I was trying to teach.

Though I only had mild success on that front, I decided that it was enough to move on. She got the general idea and could practice on her own, and meditation wasn't exactly a prerequisite to what I was actually hired to do. That led me to the second issue with my new service, which was that the average person seemed to have a shocking lack of understanding about psychic-types, telepathy, and the different levels of mental connections.

When I had Apollo speak to her telepathically to show that her mind was open, she completely freaked out thinking that Apollo had full access to her deepest secrets and most private memories. After a very awkward period where she momentarily panicked until I could explain things more clearly, we were finally able to get back on track and eventually completed the job to a satisfactory level.

Well, somewhat satisfactory. That revealed the final issue with the service, which was that people mostly wanted to defend their minds against malicious actors, which wasn't quite what we were offering. All I could really do was teach the basics, show that they could keep the average telepath from waltzing into their head, and recommend they get more specialized training and a psychic partner if they wanted to take things any further. All Apollo was willing to do was a light knock at the proverbial mental door, and even with consent neither Apollo nor I wanted to risk potential damage to somebody's head. It took some explaining and resolve, but eventually she understood and thanked us for what we were able to show her.

Even after only teaching the fundamentals, we earned two-thousand credits for our work. It was clumsy and awkward, yet profitable and largely successful. At least, that was more than I could say about the second job we had lined up.

I was a few minutes late to my second job, partially due to having some trouble finding the house nestled on the far outskirts of town but also because the first job ended up taking longer than I'd anticipated. Thankfully, the woman was not only understanding but seemed extremely grateful that I'd shown up at all, so I was determined to do my best to make up for it by doing a good job.

It started relatively similar to some of the jobs we'd done in the past – a household Pokémon was reported as being particularly moody and lacked the means to communicate and get to the bottom of the cause. However, it quickly became apparent that there was something deeper going on.

My first hint should have been when the Raticate hissed upon seeing Apollo, but I wasn't particularly familiar with the species and didn't think too much of it. The woman who had elicited our help held the Raticate in her lap and did her best to soothe the Pokémon, so I chalked it up to overprotectiveness and species temperament. But as the Raticate's owner began asking her companion what's been wrong and Apollo started trying to facilitate communication, it didn't take long for me to realize this was anything but another normal job like we were used to.

"Apollo, what's wrong?" I sent as the Raticate grew increasingly restless and Apollo's wariness began to leak through our link.

"Thoughts are… unclear. Muddled. Angry and confused."

My eyes widened as the pieces suddenly clicked together, and I realized that Apollo was lacking the context that I had.

This was very likely a Pokémon that was infected with Pokérus.

I instantly recalled Apollo, much to the bewilderment of the woman who had hired us and been keeping a watchful eye over the proceedings.

"Miss, have you not been paying attention to the news? You need to take that Pokémon to the Pokécenter. I'm pretty sure it's sick, probably with that new virus that's been going around."

The woman became borderline panicked and started hammering me with incessant questions, many of which I couldn't fully answer, and her increasing anxiety only served to make the Raticate even more upset. It squirmed in her lap and hissed at me, and just when I thought it might get free to take a lunge at me she thankfully recalled it, allowing me to relax and more calmly attempt to explain what I knew.

I didn't get very far though. Almost all at once, we were suddenly bombarded with the sound of various chimes, chirps, buzzes, and ringing. First was the television, which had been nothing more than background noise as it played some sort of soap opera, beeping to signify the onset of an emergency broadcast, with words slowly beginning to slide across the bottom of the screen. My phone vibrated in my pocket and emitted a tone I'd never heard come from it before, and I could even feel my Pokédex letting loose a loud chirp. I wasn't the only one taken aback either – the woman I was talking to pulled out her phone as well, which was making the same sound as mine.

We both voiced our initial confusion about what was happening, but fell silent as we read the message that had apparently just been sent out to every device in Hoenn capable of receiving it.

REGIONAL ADVISORY

By order of the Pokémon League, Hoenn is hereby placed in a state of lockdown, effective immediately and until further notice.

All persons in Hoenn that are in possession of Pokémon are required to immediately report to the nearest Pokécenter for mandatory Pokérus screening, and may be subject to temporary withholding for quarantine if found infected. If you are unable to reach a Pokécenter in a timely manner, activate the non-emergency beacon on your Pokédex or dial 311 and wait patiently for a ranger to arrive for transportation assistance.

Travel is restricted, non-defensive battling is forbidden, Pokémon are required to remain recalled in public spaces, and Pokémon-related services must conform to the new guidelines or cease operation until lockdown has been lifted. For full details, please click here or visit the Pokémon League website's Hoenn advisory board.

Violations of imposed restrictions constitute a risk to public safety and a breach of contract for registered trainers, and may result in fines, trainer license revocation, and possible further punitive action.

Updates will follow as available. Thank you for your compliance and understanding as we work diligently to resolve the ongoing public health crisis and restore normal operations.

I read the message twice, once on my phone and another on my Pokédex, but they were nearly identical. Mostly, I was trying to absorb everything that the message contained, because it contained a lot of information and implications.

"Is… Is this what you were talking about? What you think my Raticate has?" the woman asked eventually to grab my attention, and I couldn't help but notice she looked decidedly pale.

I could only manage a slight nod in response, my mind still trying to process everything.

Though I tried my best to think about the possible implications of what this meant not only for my immediate future but for the region, one thought prevailed and kept making its way to the forefront of my mind.

This was what Samantha had been referring to when she said that big things were happening that I'd see soon, I was sure of it. It suddenly became obvious that she'd somehow known it was coming, and was planning on riding it out in the safety of her home.

Though I was nearly paralyzed in thought as I tried to process everything, I eventually pocketed my Pokédex and phone. There was a lot to think about and consider, but only one thing to do – and that was to take a trip to the Pokécenter.

A/N: Sorry this was posted so late at night, the day was not kind to me.

I changed my name, obviously. It was long overdue, and although I am indeed a degenerate in many ways, it's not in the way most people seem to interpret the term and was causing unnecessary friction and confusion, so it's retired.

Yes, this is a Pokérus arc. I know plenty of people are probably hesitant about the direction this could take the story and might draw some uncomfortable parallels to a certain recent pandemic, but I ask that you give it a fair shot and try to separate the two. It's an important plot point for this fic and I've always wanted to see it done well. It's risky and somewhat unfortunate timing, but I'll be taking some creative liberties and I'm quite confident I can pull it off. I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil anything so you'll just have to wait and see. This fic was never meant to be a crowd pleaser – I'm touching topics many people won't want to read about, but I can only write what I find interesting and hope others do too. It's my first fic after all, so naturally I want to take some risks and have some fun.

Really excited for the next handful of chapters that are coming up, where things get really interesting and more is revealed. See you then!

Shoutout to Trix and Feanix for beta-reading this chapter, and to everyone who commented on the last chapter. I can't even list you all, but I appreciate you immensely!

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