EDITOR'S NOTE: "I forgot my ADHD meds 2 days in a row while writing this chapter. It turns out, I write faster without my meds than with them. This is not a trait we're giving to Juliana."

Juliana prepared a full team of Normal-types to get to the next area, a town where the Gym Leader used Ghost-types in double battles. She prepared to use the resistance to Ghost-type moves to cut Farigiraf's weakness, while Zangoose threw people off with her unusual Tera-type and the others were there to help out. Jigglypuff, Staravia, and Oinkologne were all in need of serious training to catch up, but she was expecting to take a while to get to Montenevera.

She wasn't expecting to go to Zapapico instead.

"How did this happen?" she asked, as Rotom zipped out of her pocket to look around.

"You forgot to tell me to mark where our next destination was," Rotom explained.

"I went to the edge of Medali," Juliana said, walking in circles to retrace her steps. "I walked up the mountain. I caught a Snom..."

"And then you chased that Snorunt into the cave," Rotom finished.

"Yeah! Where'd she go, anyway?"

Juliana turned around to go back to Medali. She found herself face-to-face with a Deino.

"Hey, Rotom?"

Rotom switched on the Pokedex scanner. "Deino. Dragon/Dark. This one's female."

"Dragon?" Juliana released her Pokémon and set up a picnic. She turned to Koraidon and Zangoose. "Both of you are Dragon-type. Sort of. Go play with her while I make us some sandwiches."

In the darkness of her dorm room, Penny was deep in thought.

Juliana was strong. Almost too strong. There was something about that girl that was almost scary. She'd all but annihilated three Star boss teams and had then seemed to forget about them. Her mind was a mystery.

Florian had yet to do anything important, and yet, the more that they talked, the more Penny liked him. It didn't hurt that he was a Miss Eevee fan, but his surprise that she remembered him was more interesting.

She'd have to tell them.

A paw tapped her leg. Her Sylveon looked up at her, a flashlight in her teeth.

"You want to play Veevee-ball?" she asked, and Sylveon chirped.

Penny took the flashlight and switched it on. She let Sylveon chase the ball of light, drifting back into her thoughts.

Perhaps she could wait on telling them. It's not as if they were friends.

Nemona was tired of waiting.

She'd made it to Montenevera, but there was no sign of Juliana. She wanted a battle, but she wanted to make sure her friend was ready for Ryme. She was bored, and boredom was not good for her sanity.

One more thing she had in common with her rival.

"What's wrong, Nemona?"

The voice of the Montenevera Gym Leader was a calm, reassuring one, not at all like one would expect from a Ghost-using rap star. It was almost motherly.

Nemona groaned. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just bored."

Juliana had said that she was very dumb when bored. Nemona wasn't. She'd literally been bored to tears before and hadn't liked it.

"Didn't you come here for a battle?"

"I'm waiting for my friend." Nemona turned hopeful. "You haven't seen her, have you? Shorter than me, pale, brown hair..."

Ryme shook her head. "Sorry, Nemona. No sign of your friend."

Nemona thought it over. "She's strong enough that I know nothing bad happened to her," she thought out loud, "so she must have gotten lost. Which means there's only one thing to do - battle against myself!"

Ryme almost asked, but she decided against it. "You do you, baby," she said instead, and headed off to prepare for her next concert.

Battling against herself wasn't as much fun as battling against Juliana, but it wasn't like Nemona had other friends.

Arven was hunting for more Titans. There were five flavors of Herba Mystica, according to the Zero Book, and they'd only found three.

There was nothing. He'd usually go for watching a movie with Mabosstiff when he was this bored, but that had been difficult recently.

He swiped through the recipe blogs on his phone, grumbling to himself about all the happy family stories the bloggers shared. They all spoke about their husbands, their children, their Pokémon. It almost made him want to start his own recipe blog, with stories about his own family.

"That'll make me stand out," he said to himself. "A workaholic mom, a lunatic dad, no siblings or kids...who knows, maybe it can be my Treasure Hunt project." He looked over at his battle team. "What do you guys think? Want to help me with more recipes?"

"I'm always up for sandwiches!" said Greedent. To make his point clearer, he dug through Arven's bag until he found the food, and helpfully offered it to the trainer.

Arven looked at his phone's clock. "I guess it is dinner time. All right, then, let's eat."

"Come on, Edelgard! One Revelation Dance?"

Edelgard looked up at the boy she now loved, ruffling her feathers in irritation. "I've been trying to do Revelation Dance all day," she complained, "and we've chased off all the wild Pokémon. I'm not high enough level yet, I guess."

Florian reached down to pat his angry bird. "I guess we can call it a night," he decided. Edelgard's irritation faded and she chirped happily. "Or we'll work together to train the rest! Mudbray should be close to evolving, too." Unaware that, miles away, one of his friends had the same idea, Florian recalled Edelgard and sent out two more Pokémon. "Gardevoir! Attack us like you're wild! And you, Mudbray - start with High Horsepower and we'll take it from there!"

Gardevoir held back. Florian could tell even without the psychic link. This practice battle was enough to trigger the evolution after all, and that was good enough for him.

"Ok, then! Mudsdale, Gardevoir, you take a break! Scarlet, let's fight Lloyd!"

That one was, in his head, an even match. The Meowscarada had experience, the Charcadet had type advantage. But even with Lloyd holding back and Scarlet incapable of doing so, Lloyd consistently had the upper hand.

Scarlet, exhausted and ready to faint, glared up at her teammate. Lloyd offered a paw in a sign of friendship, only to have it kicked away.

"She's determined," Lloyd said to himself, and didn't put up any defense. He merely dodged, which made Scarlet angrier.

Florian watched, surprised at Scarlet's determination. "You can stop now!" he called, only to get an Ember several inches from his feet in response. "This was a bad idea! You're not gonna beat him! Let him fight Cyclizar instead!"

He shouldn't have expected his Pokémon to listen to him. After all, no one else did.