Editor is starting out as a YouTuber. She completely understands Iono. She uses that as an excuse for why she didn't do much with her: "You see, we're very busy women and we haven't got all day..." (she says as she's window shopping online and writing fanfiction while putting off editing videos)
Juliana brought a Oinkologne, Jigglypuff, Naclstack, Daschbun, Numel and Tinkatuff to Levincia. Though she trained along the way, she found herself once again lost, wandering among the billboards. She was distracted by a cute Sprigatito advertising soda, which made her miss Flavor Pulse. She found another one for an art exhibition starring Brassius, and she wondered if she'd ever be good enough to have her own billboard.
She wondered what her billboard would say. She wondered what color background it would be, and wondered if Koraidon would pose for a sketch if he ever returned to his other form.
And she didn't process that she was walking until she literally bumped into Nemona.
"Looks like you're following my advice after all!" Nemona cheered, even before Juliana could fully form a hello. "And since Iono is crazy tough, why not have a practice battle with me?"
"Ok."
Nemona made a happy noise and flapped her arms a bit. This caught Juliana's elusive attention - Nemona stims? The question of what was different with her brain was kicked from Juliana's mind as her friend grabbed her wrist and led her to one side of the battlefield.
"I hope you're ready, Juliana!" Nemona held out a ball. "I'm introducing you to a new Pokémon today!"
Juliana sent out Minecraft, hoping that it would be enough.
Florian wandered the path from Artazon to Levincia, thinking of Professor Turo. He'd opened a can of worms no one should have bothered with, but he hoped it could give Arven a halfway decent relationship with one parent.
He saw something move from the corner of his eye. He recognized it as a Cyclizar and turned to face it.
Then he realized that it was paler than usual, with blue circles on its face instead of red.
He didn't think twice. "Let's go, Mudbray!"
The shiny Cyclizar enthusiastically agreed to battle, and hit first with Rapid Spin. Florian wasn't having it.
"Double Kick!"
The attack hit, connecting with Cyclizar twice. Cyclizar still stood, but immediately regretted her decision. She turned to flee.
"Oh, no you don't!" Florian jumped onto the wild dragon, catching it by the tail. Upon processing his weight, Cyclizar ran off in whatever direction she was facing. Florian did not let go, and Mudbray followed his trainer, making a noise that dimly registered as a laugh. Florian didn't acknowledge it, instead hanging on even more tightly.
"If I can catch Edelgard," he said, even as his uniform got grass stains and his mouth filled with dirt, "then I can catch you!"
Cyclizar was almost impressed, but kept on running, trying to make him let go.
The single Naclstack took out every Pokémon Nemona sent out against him. This surprised even Juliana, who had expected him to fall to Pawmo as soon as the battle began.
"Did you just sweep her entire team with a Naclstack?" asked Florian, who had not been there when the battle began. He was covered in grass stains, dirt, mud, and soaking wet as if he'd been dragged through a river.
Juliana yelped in surprise. "Florian!" she hissed, yanking off her hat to smack him with it. "You can't just insert yourself into the story like that!"
"Yeah, well, I did." He held out a ball of his own. "I came to ask you if you wanted to borrow my Mudbray, but it looks like you're good."
"I'm good," Juliana promised. "I've got Ground-types."
Nemona did the arm-flap again, this time humming like there was something she wasn't allowed to say. "Good luck, Juliana!" she cheered as she left to heal her Pokémon.
Juliana lifted a hand weakly. "Bye, then," she said quietly, then shook her head and turned to Florian. "Is that how I come off to people?"
"All the time," he answered immediately. "But I think it's time we go see the Gym Leader instead of worrying about it."
Juliana moved to release Koraidon, but Florian beat her to it. He released a shiny Cyclizar, who chirped and switched to its ride mode. "Race you to the Gym?"
Juliana laughed out loud. "Rotom," she ordered as she released her own rideable dragon, "set Levincia Gym as the location!"
Florian won. Juliana and Koraidon got distracted by a baby.
Koraidon was the first to notice it. He stopped running immediately, nearly throwing his rider off, and approached the stroller. He crouched low to the ground and slowly lifted his head to look inside.
The baby whimpered. Its mother turned to Juliana. Juliana fumbled for Koraidon's ball.
Then Koraidon made a face and shook his head, making the baby laugh.
"So...your dragon isn't going to eat my son," said the mother.
"I think we're both surprised by this," Juliana admitted. "I'm still trying to teach him what is and isn't food."
Koraidon made a different face. Juliana and the mother both watched in peaceful amusement, and then Juliana had a revelation.
"You were with Professor Sada when Arven was a baby, weren't you?" Koraidon turned to her with his cheeks puffed out. Juliana smiled and reached for him. "You were baby Arven's big brother, weren't you?"
The face-petting made Koraidon lose his held breath, and Juliana got a face full of dinosaur breath. She made a face of her own, and both the baby and his mom laughed at that.
"Looks like one thing you haven't been eating is toothpaste," said Juliana, and Koraidon merely chirped and returned to playing with the baby.
Juliana, to the surprise of no one, was late for her own Gym Test. Luckily, Iono herself was there to give her the test.
Complete with dragging her into a livestream, of course.
"'Ello, 'ello, hola! Ciao and bonjour!" The now-familiar greeting caught Juliana off guard, but she returned it. Iono laughed. "You're a natural, kid! Smile - you're live!"
"Live?"
"Broadcast to over a million viewers!" Iono cheered. "Anywho! Thanks for coming out to the Levincia Gym to see me!"
"Is this my Gym Test?"
"Yes, ma'am!" Iono giggled like a child. "But since you're late, I'll just skip right over the introduction. Your objective: Find Mr. Walksabout!"
"Mr. who?" Juliana asked, only to be struck silent once more as Director Clavell stepped out from behind a building.
"Miss Juliana!" he said, mildly surprised himself. "What a coincidence! Though I suppose I should have known when I was waiting for half an hour."
"Hi, Director."
Iono gasped in excitement. "You already know each other? Fantastic! So, um...Juliana, was it? Your job is to find Mr. Walksabout here three times - I call it, 'Where in Levincia is Mr. Walksabout?'" There was a mutter that Juliana couldn't quite make out, but she picked up the word 'copyright.' "If you can do it, you get to battle me and bring in those sweet, sweet viewer numbers...I mean, get a shot at a Gym Badge!"
Juliana liked the thought of using Iono to get her artwork on display. She didn't process when Clavell left, but Iono blowing a whistle and a Rotom tablet zipping up to her distracted her from her thoughts.
Unfortunately, those thoughts returned quickly.
"How long has she been like this?" Iono asked no one, but of course her viewers immediately commented about it all. Iono didn't pay attention to them, focusing on her challenger, who had been staring at the screen for the past five minutes.
"Juliana?" Florian called, and she jumped at the sound of her name, looking around wildly before her eyes focused on him. "Did you forget your meds this morning?"
Juliana nodded sheepishly.
"That explains...some," said Iono, before returning to her cheerful streamer persona. "Challenger! You still haven't found Mr. Walksabout!"
"I haven't?" Juliana pointed at the screen. "He's right there. I thought I did point him out when I found him."
Once more, Iono was stunned speechless. Then she sighed in defeat before once again returning to her streaming.
"You found Mr. Walksabout!" she squeaked in false cheerfulness. "Great game, Juliana! Now it's time for our battle!"
"I thought you said she would need to find me three times," Clavell pointed out.
"Yeah, but viewer numbers are dropping." Iono shrugged. "So rather than sit and watch things fall, let's get them excited!"
Juliana made a mental note to let her condition get her out of more Gym Tests.
The battle with Iono went almost too well.
Juliana sent out Minecraft, who took out Iono's Wattrel and Luxio before losing to Bellibolt. Juliana sent out Oinkologne after that, and let him take out Bellibolt and half of the Mismagius's health even without Terastallizing.
"Maybe I'm a bit overleveled," Juliana said to herself as the pig fainted. She tossed out Tinkatuff's ball, and this time she bothered to Terastallize.
She was surprised when Tinkatuff turned out to be a Steel-Tera. The lack of Tera boost did not stop her from ordering Draining Kiss.
Eventually, Mismagius fell, the light bulb above its head shattering and spilling Tera shards across the field. Iono's janitors quickly swept them up. Iono herself was almost as concerned with her viewer numbers as she was with her Mismagius.
"There we go!" she cheered, real excitement exposing her pointy teeth. "We went from falling viewers to breaking a personal record!" She held out her phone so Juliana could see. She didn't get to find the numbers before Iono took the phone back. "A whole ten viewers higher!"
"Does this mean I did a good job?" Juliana asked, and Iono's face fell slightly.
"Let's just say you were adequate," she decided, which was good enough for Juliana.
Juliana was sitting with Florian on the ground floor of the Gym, discussing the pros and cons of starting their own YouTube channels, when a female voice interrupted the conversation.
"Pardon me, miss."
Juliana turned her head. She had no idea who this woman was. "Yes?"
"I watched you defeat the Gym Leader. You have a remarkable talent for one so young." The woman smiled. "I'm Geeta, chairwoman of the Pokémon League."
"I'm Juliana," the girl responded, "aspiring artist."
"Artist?" Geeta repeated. "Not Champion?"
"That, too, I guess," Juliana agreed. "I have been doing a lot more training than art lately. It's almost as fun."
"Then I hope you're finding inspiration as well." Juliana nodded. Geeta continued. "We should be meeting again, Juliana. I'm looking forward to it."
And she left. Juliana turned to Florian, her confusion written all over her face.
He had a similar expression. "What would La Primera want with you?"
"She's the Top Champion," Juliana said with a shrug. "Maybe she's got Leon and Victor's job and battles all the trainers who get the badges."
Florian suspected something else - Geeta sounded like she was anticipating much more than a battle from a girl who was barely fourteen. But what could Juliana do that Nemona hadn't done last year?
Did Geeta know about Koraidon? Or was he reading too much into things?
It was a mystery he'd have to solve later. Juliana was rearranging her team to face another Team Star base, so he might as well challenge her to a battle just for the experience.
He lost. He didn't expect otherwise.