Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Victoria stands on Apophyll Beach with Kiki and her Togekiss.

This is a big moment. Victoria is about to register for the Reborn League, and start a journey through the region. She’s going to see new places, meet new people, and grow stronger with and closer to her Pokémon.

…and yet…

“Are you sure this is okay?” she asks Kiki. “Lately, you’ve been…”

“It will be fine. It’s the Trainer who needs to be able to use Fly, not the passenger,” Kiki says.

Well, Victoria knows that, obviously. She’s been flown between the main part of the city and the academy by others’ Pokémon more than once before. That’s not her concern at all— Kiki is.

She’s been… off, for a while. She seems less energized, getting winded more easily, and Victoria swears she almost passed out for no clear reason a while back. She said it was nothing, even after seeing a doctor, but still…

“Ame should be back not too long after you make it across the lake,” Kiki continues. “Go on.”

“Oh, uh… I guess I’m off, then,” Victoria says. “I’m nervous to leave, but… I’m also excited.”

This is the start of her journey, after all. Not everyone goes on one— in fact, she’d guess that there are probably more people in the region who haven’t than who have— but it’s something everyone dreams of at least a little bit, she thinks.

“I know that you will do well,” Kiki says, giving Victoria a small, soft smile and lightly touching her arm for a moment. “I have heard that the train that Ame is arriving on is also bringing in several other challengers. I would like for you to grow alongside them, and even try to befriend them.”

Victoria nods. “Of course! And if you need something, you can just call me, okay?”

Kiki nods. “Of course. Good luck, Victoria.”

Victoria climbs onto Togekiss, and the Pokémon flies her across the lake.

Once they’ve reached the other side, Victoria dismounts, then takes a moment to pet Togekiss’ head. “Thanks for the ride. Take good care of Kiki, okay?”

Togekiss coos, nuzzling against Victoria’s hand for a moment. Then she gets into position and takes flight back across the lake. Victoria watches for a moment with a smile, then heads inside the Grand Hall.

As expected, Ame isn’t back yet, and as the League’s manager, she’s the one in charge of getting new challengers registered. Victoria takes a seat that she can see the front doors from, and waits.

She can hardly contain her excitement. Aside from whatever’s going on with Kiki, the current conditions honestly seem perfect for a journey.

The League was restarted over two years ago, now, and yet nobody has been able to take the Champion title yet. She’s even heard rumors that nobody’s gotten all eighteen Badges! From what she’s heard, it’s pretty universal that, the longer a League goes on without a new Champion, the more enticing taking that spot becomes. That not a single person has properly taken the title since the League reopened tempts lots of people from even other regions to try.

Speaking of! It’s exciting to know that she’ll be starting her challenge alongside Trainers from out of region. She hopes that she can learn a lot from them, and maybe even—

booooooooooom!!!

Her thoughts are cut short by a sound, muffled but still obviously an explosion, and the eruption of panic it causes. She jumps to her feet as both the building’s staff and the few others milling around begin to move and shout, multiple people running to the exit even as they’re instructed not to.

Victoria is tempted to do the same, honestly, a part of her brain telling her to rush outside and find out what happened. She pushes the instinct down, though, staying as calm as she can and letting a worker guide her and several others down a set of stairs in the back.

Everyone stands around in an office area, visitors whispering and workers trying to calm people down while seeming like they’re trying to appear more composed than they actually are, which is… worrying, to say the very least.

“H-hey,” Victoria speaks up, trying not to stutter too much. “Why don’t we all try to stay calm and—”

“Can it!” someone yells, making her flinch and shut up.

Right. She’s not Kiki’s apprentice here, someone who can be looked to when people are unsure and trusted to lead things like breathing exercises. She’s just… some stranger who just told a bunch of people to calm down after some sort of explosion happened somewhere nearby. So she stops talking. She gets a text from her dad asking if she’s okay, and sends one back assuring that she is, but otherwise she just waits and listens to what everyone else is saying.

“I’m telling you, man, it was Team Meteor!” someone says.

“That’s just a stupid conspiracy theory,” someone else says.

“Well, who else could’ve done it?!” the first person asks.

“Julia,” the second person says.

“Anyone with access to bombs?” a third person suggests.

“I second Julia,” a forth person adds.

Victoria thinks. Julia, the Electric Type Leader and Victoria’s former upperclassman. Could she really be responsible for… whatever it is that happened outside? It’s not like Victoria ever knew Julia personally, and what she does know suggests the other girl is still fond of causing explosions, but from what little she can tell from what’s been said… well, the sound from earlier wasn’t from too close by, but it could still be heard all the way here. Could anyone, even someone like Julia, cause an explosion like that all alone and just for the heck of it?

As for the other option… that’s a lot to think about.

It’s not Victoria’s first time hearing about Team Meteor. No, she’s heard the name more than once, and the concept even more than that, under a variety of different names until “Team Meteor” became the go-to more recently. The idea of an evil organization haunting Reborn isn’t new, but very few people take it seriously. Obviously, though, some do, and will eagerly blame any number of things on the group.

Victoria’s always been in the former camp. It’s not like she doesn’t think that kind of thing could never happen in Reborn— these groups form in regions that are doing much better, after all. But Team Meteor just seems… kind of outlandish? It seems like they’re supposedly responsible for more and more every time she hears about them.

But then, who else would cause a thing like this? Try as she might, she can’t come up with an answer, though that might be more because she’s distracted by both the fear caused by a bombing happening nearby and the sounds of the other people frantically whispering.

Soon, some sort of word must come in from outside, because everyone is allowed to leave… except for Victoria, who’s stopped by a worker.

“Sorry, but I was asked to ask you for a favor,” the man says.

“What is it?” Victoria asks, surprised.

“The blast hit Grandview Station just as the train was coming in. Someone who was on it— Carly, her name is— is on her way here now, but… as you can probably guess, she’s not doing too well,” the man explains. “Would you be willing to go meet her outside?”

“Of course!” Victoria says, sympathy welling up in her. Hearing the blast from a good distance away was terrifying enough, she can’t imagine actually being caught in it. “Where should I go?”

“Just right outside. She’s already on her way here,” the man says. “Oh, and sorry, but unfortunately, the two of you won’t be getting registered tonight. As I’m sure you can imagine, Ame will be pretty busy, so you’ll have to wait until morning.”

“That’s fine,” Victoria says.

Really, it doesn’t make much of a difference. It’s already late enough that her plan was to go to bed immediately after registering. Part of her suspects the only reason Kiki insisted on leaving now instead of waiting until tomorrow is because she’s hiding something and wanted Victoria gone as soon as possible… but she shelves the thought. There are more important things to focus on right now.

“Thank you. You can both use any of the overnight rooms; they’re all empty,” the man says. “That’s all I was told to tell you.”

“Right, thanks,” Victoria says before making her way back upstairs and outside to wait.

She looks around for Carly only to quickly realize that she never even got a description of who she’s looking for. She wonders if she should head back inside and ask for one, but the problem solves itself almost immediately— when Carly comes into view, there’s little doubt in Victoria’s mind of who she’s looking at.

Carly stumbles slightly as she walks up the stairs, then pauses and walks slower. There’s dirt and ash in her long, dark brown hair, and all over her torn clothes and skin, the latter of which is littered with injuries. Her bright green eyes dart left and right, as if she thinks that something or someone might jump out at her. As she reaches the top of the stairs, Victoria hurries over to her.

“Hey, are you Carly?” Victoria asks just to make sure, keeping her voice soft.

“Uh, yeah, that’s me,” Carly says. “Are you, uh, the other Trainer…?”

Victoria nods. “I’m Victoria. It’s a pleasure to meet you, but is everything okay? I heard what happened at the station…”

Carly glances away, the frown already on her face deepening a bit. “…I’ll be okay. There’s a doctor coming to look me over.”

She doesn’t seem okay, for obvious reasons. And… then there’s the “I’ll” and “me.” The fact that there were multiple people coming from out of region to take on the League, but Carly is the only one who’s made her way here. It’s obvious that she’s gotten lucky in one of the worst possible ways…

“Let’s go inside,” Victoria says for lack of much better to say, and Carly nods, letting Victoria help her into the building and over to a chair.

“Thanks…” Carly mutters once she’s sat down.

“It’s no problem, but… are you sure you’re all right?” Victoria asks. “Is there anything I can do?”

Now that she’s looking at Carly with more light, she looks even worse off. She’s trembling, and part of her left sleeve is darkened by what’s obviously blood.

“I-I don’t know. I’m not woozy, or anything, and I’d rather not do anything that the doctor would probably do better…” she says.

“All right…” Victoria says. It makes sense, but surely there’s something… “Do you want some water?”

Carly nods, but before Victoria can get a bottle from her bag, a man with spiky, dark purple hair approaches.

“My name is Dr. Corey Molinar. I assume that you are Carly?” the man asks.

“Y-yeah, that’s right,” Carly says. “So you’re, uh…?”

“I was sent here to check over and assist with your injuries,” Corey says.

“Right, th-thank you!” Carly says. She starts to stand, and Victoria helps her up. “Um, what do I need to do…?”

“You will need to disrobe so that I may better examine your body,” Corey says, shocking Victoria somewhat.

It makes perfect sense, really. Carly clearly has injuries under her clothes. It’s almost definitely completely innocent.

But Victoria can’t help but feel some worry despite that. Carly’s first experience in Reborn was surviving an explosion, and now her second is going to be stripping down for an older stranger? In front of all these people?

Before Victoria can voice her worries, though, Corey continues. “We can find a more private room for this, and your friend may come as well, if that would make you more comfortable.”

The words calm Victoria down somewhat. She’s still worried about how Carly will feel, but that’s a much better scenario.

“Uh, well, I guess we shouldn’t make everyone here see that,” Carly says.

“I’ll come, too,” Victoria offers.

The three of them head to one of the bedrooms, and once the door is closed, Carly strips down to just a sports bra, boxers, and her pendant, a pale green and yellow feather. Corey begins to look her over, and Victoria stands to the side, worrying in silence.

Thankfully, Carly is apparently doing better than Victoria feared. Her injuries aren’t too bad, so she doesn’t need much more than to have them cleaned and have the biggest two, the one on her arm and one on her back, bandaged. She also says that the wounds don’t hurt too much, and visibly gets more comfortable and calmer as time passes.

“You have been very lucky today,” Corey says once he’s done.

“I know. I’m very grateful that Ame was able to get me out in time,” Carly says, then she smiles. “Oh, and for both of you guys’ help, of course!”

“Really, it was no problem!” Victoria says.

“I was only doing my job,” Corey says.

“Still, I’m thankful!” Carly says.

“Unless there is anything else that you need help with, I will be going, now,” Corey says.

“That’s all, have a nice night!” Carly says.

Corey nods. “And you as well.”

“Thanks again!” Carly says as he leaves. Then she turns to Victoria. “And thanks again to you, too.”

“It really isn’t a big deal. I was asked to help you… not that I would’ve just ignored you if I hadn’t been,” Victoria says.

“I know that you were asked. I’m still grateful,” Carly says. “Also, uh… can I have that water now?”

“Right, of course,” Victoria says as she takes a bottle from her bag and hands it over. When Carly takes it, she speaks again. “Is there anything else that you need? If there’s anything you need to replace, I’m sure that we can find it somewhere in the city.”

“I don’t think so, actually. I checked inside my bag on the way here, and it actually seems like all my stuff is completely fine,” Carly says. “I’ll give everything a more thorough look, but I should at least be fine for tonight.”

“All right. You can take this room for the night, I’ll take the one right across the hall,” Victoria says. “If there’s anything you need, don’t be afraid to knock, okay?”

Maybe she’s worrying a bit much. Carly really does seem fine by now, despite the injuries. But it’s hard not to worry, given the situation.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine, but thanks,” Carly says. “Good night, Victoria.”

“Good night, Carly,” Victoria says before leaving and heading straight to the room across the hall.

She thinks she’ll settle down for bed immediately. Sleep might be hard after what happened, but she’ll need the rest for tomorrow. It’s going to be a big day, after all.

— — —

The next morning, Victoria wakes up early and makes her way to the main desk as soon as she’s gotten ready. To her surprise, Carly is already standing there.

“Ready to get registered?” she asks with a large grin.

“Of course, but I’m surprised you seem so excited,” Victoria says, eyeing the way that Carly subtly rocks on her feet. “I would’ve thought you’d at least had had trouble sleeping.”

Carly shrugs. “That’s never stopped me before!”

Before Victoria can ask what she means, Ame walks up to the desk from the other side, putting a laptop down onto it. “Good morning, you two. There’s no sign of any suspect yet, but I’ve got several officers out searching the area.”

“For what happened last night?” Carly asks.

“That’s right. If anyone responsible for the incident is in the area, we’ll find them. But until then, we’ll probably have to restrict travel between the wards,” Ame says before waving her hand dismissively. “Anyway, new Trainers don’t need to worry about all that; it’ll be taken care of.”

Victoria isn’t actually a new Trainer, but more importantly, she’s not sure if she can just not worry about what’s happening. The idea that a full night has passed without anyone responsible being found seems… not promising. What if the culprits have completely gotten away by now?

She doesn’t voice the thought, though.

“Let’s finish your registrations,” Ame continues. “Obviously the main event is picking a starter.”

“Carly can go ahead of me; I don’t mind,” Victoria says.

“You’re sure?” Carly asks. When Victoria nods, she grins. “All right, then!”

“Right this way, then,” Ame says, stepping over to a gate to the back and opening it. Carly heads through, and the two of them go upstairs.

Victoria waits for a bit, thinking about something that was said, until the other two come back down. Carly’s grinning ear to ear and holding a very happy looking Popplio in her arms.

“This is Percy!” she says as she walks over to Victoria. “We’re gonna be best friends!”

Percy barks happily, and Victoria smiles. “Hi, Percy.”

“…hey,” Carly starts. “You’re not gonna choose a starter just to have a type advantage over me, are you?”

“Of course not!” Victoria says, shaking her head. “That’s silly. I wouldn’t do that.”

She knows she wouldn’t be the first person in the world to pick a Pokémon for her team just for the sake of beating someone else, but she’s not that sort of person.

“Yeah, sorry, I don’t know where that thought came from. It just kinda popped into my head,” Carly says, looking sheepish. “That was really rude of me.”

“It’s all right,” Victoria says. “But I already know which one I want. You’re actually the one who’s going to have the type advantage.”

“Well then, shall we?” Ame asks.

“Okay. Wait here for me, Carly?” Victoria asks.

Carly nods, moving out of the way, and Victoria follows Ame upstairs.

At the top, there’s a room with a trio of colored tables with Poké Balls on them. Ame explains how they’re arranged, but Victoria hesitates.

“Um… you do know that I already have Pokémon, right?” Victoria asks, gesturing to Ralts and Pancham’s Poké Balls on her belt. “If these starters are only for people who don’t have any, I shouldn’t take one…”

She was excited when she was told she’d be able to choose a starter Pokémon when signing up for the League, but if that was due to a misunderstanding that she didn’t have any Pokémon, or that she’d be leaving her old ones behind, she wouldn’t feel right taking one…

“Oh, don’t worry about that. Anyone who signs up for the League is free to take a starter, if they want to,” Ame assures. “Lots of people who already have Pokémon have taken one. It’s not obligatory, though; we can just go back downstairs if you don’t want to.”

“No, I want to. I was just making sure,” Victoria says.

“Well then, go ahead,” Ame says.

Victoria nods, and walks between the green and orange tables until she’s standing right in front of the Poké Ball at the very end of the latter. She takes it in hand, clicking the button and releasing the Pokémon inside, a Litten, onto the surface.

“Hey there,” Victoria says, holding out a hand out to Litten. “I’m Victoria. Would you be okay with being my partner?”

Litten sniffs her hand for a moment, then presses its face against the palm, purring.

Victoria grins. “Thank you! I promise you won’t regret it!”

She recalls Litten, heading back over to Ame and putting the ball onto her belt as she does.

“That was sweet,” Ame says with a smile.

“Well, I wasn’t just going to take Litten without permission,” Victoria says. “Pokémon should get to choose their Trainers, just like how Trainers get to choose their Pokémon.”

Ame hums. “Y’know, Carly did and said something pretty similar. Did you get that idea from her, or vice versa?”

“It’s a coincidence, actually. We didn’t talk about it at all,” Victoria says. “I don’t know about her, but I learned it from Kiki.”

“Ah, I see. Yeah, that makes sense,” Ame says. “All right, let’s not keep Carly waiting.”

Victoria nods, and they both head back downstairs… only to not see Carly waiting there.

“Where’d she go?” Victoria wonders, confused. She and Ame couldn’t have been gone for more than a couple minutes…

Before she can wonder for too long, though, a nearby worker speaks up. “Your friend is over by the PokéCenter.”

That’s odd, but instead of questioning it, Victoria just thanks the worker and heads over to said location with Ame. There, they find Carly and a boy with purple hair in what must be the biggest fringe Victoria’s ever seen.

“There you are!” Victoria says.

“Oops, sorry to disappear on you, Victoria,” Carly says.

“Yeah, sorry~ I kinda stole Carly,” the boy says, smiling as he steps out from behind her.

“Oh, Cain… right, I forgot you were coming by,” Ame says.

Is Cain another new League challenger, then? Another rival would be nice.

“It’s okayyyy, when you were gone, I met Carly and had some fun~” Cain says.

“‘Had some fun?’” Victoria repeats, surprised. “I didn’t think you were like that, Carly…”

Carly didn’t strike her as the type to do that kind of stuff with a stranger in public, especially after what she said yesterday about not making people watch her strip down… well, Victoria guesses they couldn’t have gone farther than kissing in the time she was gone, but even then…

“D-do you wanna find out?” Carly asks, holding a hand to her cheek and glancing away.

Victoria stares in shock as Cain laughs. She’s never— she wouldn’t— another girl has never—

“No, but really we were just battling,” Carly says, cutting off Victoria’s thoughts.

“Oh! That does sound fun!” Victoria says, taking Litten’s Poké Ball in hand. “I wanna try out my new Pokémon, too. Are you up for one more?”

“Hell yeah, let’s do this!” Carly says, sending Percy out.

Victoria sends out Litten, and Ame leaves with Cain to get registered… after he flirts with her. Victoria ignores it.

“Then let’s begin,” she says. “My sensei said that learning to work and train together with Pokémon would be an invaluable step on my journey of personal growth.”

“I agree! It’s important to have close bonds with our Pokémon. It will help us become better,” Carly says.

“Exactly. Carly, let’s take these first steps together!” Victoria says.

A battle starts… though it doesn’t really last long. Litten tries hard, but goes down to just a few Water Guns.

“Oh, it’s over already?” Victoria asks, surprised.

“Looks like it! Good job, Percy, let’s get you healed up!” Carly says before she and Victoria both recall their Pokémon.

Victoria watches as Carly hands Percy’s ball over to the nearby nurse, then speaks. “You’re no ordinary Trainer, are you…”

“Pfft, what?” Carly asks, amused. “Of course I am! Percy just had a bit more experience and a type advantage over Litten, that’s all.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Victoria says, handing Litten’s Poké Ball over to the nurse.

Maybe she’s trying too hard to get some kind of special reading on Carly. She’s used to looking for small, subtle things in people, but it’s silly to assume anything huge just based on the fact that one brand new starter beat another.

After they both get their Pokémon back, Cain walks back over. “Heyy, Ame is waiting for you guys when you’re done!”

“All right. After that, though, do either of you two know somewhere to grab breakfast?” Carly asks. “I just got to the region last night, so I kinda have no clue where to look.”

“I know a place nearby,” Cain says. “Great pancakes, cute waitstaff. We could call it a date~”

Carly snorts. “You’re too young for me, but I am interested in the pancakes. And either or both of you guys’ platonic company.”

Cain’s too young for her? It’s kind of hard to tell, since he’s wearing makeup and he’s walking around… not shirtless, but the fact that he’s wearing an open flannel shirt over a shirt made of mesh means he might as well be.

Looking at him more closely, though, he actually does look younger than Victoria first assumed. She feels kind of bad for so easily believing that Carly was doing something inappropriate with him before…

She shakes off the thought, instead focusing on the offer with a smile. “That sounds really nice, actually! We’ll be right back, then you can lead the way?”

Cain nods, and Victoria and Carly head back to the main desk.

It doesn’t take long. Ame has already finished registering them for the League, so she just hands them each a Pokédex and a Badge case, then sends them on their way. That done, the two of them return to Cain, who leads the group to a diner in Peridot Ward. Victoria finds out pretty quickly that he was right… about the pancakes, of course.

As they eat, they talk about a few different things, eventually landing on the subject of where they’re all from. Victoria talks about Apophyll, Cain says he isn’t quite from Reborn City, but somewhere nearby, and Carly shares that she’s from Sinnoh.

That last part definitely catches Victoria’s attention. Partly because Sinnoh’s so far away from Reborn, but also because she knows that Kiki has been there. She’d like to go to that area of the world herself, some day— she knows she has a grandparent on both her dad and mom’s sides from nearby regions.

“Why’d you come to Reborn, Carly?” Cain asks, also seeming curious, before taking a bite of pancake, finishing off his second one.

“I wanted to see somewhere new,” Carly explains, cutting into her fifth pancake. “I already saw most of Sinnoh when I was younger, so…”

“That’s pretty impressive, for you to come from so far on your own,” Victoria says. She can’t even remember the last time she left the city, though to be fair, it’s not exactly easy since the Grand Gates don’t open.

“Yeah, must be pretty hard,” Cain agrees.

“It was, but worry not!” Carly says, holding up the hand that isn’t holding her fork. “Because so is… this dick.”

Cain laughs. “Nice.”

“Anyway…” Victoria starts as Carly chuckles. “Why not just go to one of the neighboring regions?”

“Oh, I’ve seen a lot of those, too. My mom, uh… has a job that requires her to travel a lot. She’d often take me with her,” Carly explains before taking a quick sip of her drink. “Why’d you decide to take on the League? I remember you saying something about bonds with Pokémon…”

“That’s right. My sensei recommended it, actually,” Victoria says. “Kiki says that the bonds that we have with our Pokémon are important, and one of the best ways to strengthen them, as well as ourselves, is to travel and battle together.”

“Yeah, I agree!” Carly says.

Victoria looks over to Cain. “What about you? Why’d you decide to challenge the League?”

“Ah, well… I guess I just wanted to do something new!” Cain says. “I felt like I was stuck in a rut.”

Victoria understands that. She’s the same, in a way, since this journey is meant to be a new way of learning.

The conversation continues until everyone is done with their meals, at which point Carly takes a Pokégear from her skirt pocket. “Hey, before we go, do you think I could get a picture of us all together? I wanna let my mom know I’ve made some friends.”

She already thinks of Victoria and Cain as friends? Well… maybe it’s a bit quick, but Victoria doesn’t mind. She’s getting along well with both of them, after all.

Victoria and Cain both agree to a picture, and another patron is kind enough to take it for them. Carly sends it to her mom with a smile.

Once the bill for the food is paid, the trio exchanges numbers and promises to hang out again soon. Then, they all split up to do separate training.

— — —

The next day, as Victoria wanders around the city training her Pokémon, she finds Carly walking around with a Swablu on her head.

“Carly?” Victoria calls out.

“Hey, Victoria!” Carly says, walking over with a smile, the Swablu staying more or less still and undisturbed.

Victoria can’t help but stare at it. “Uh… there’s…”

“Hm? Oh!” Carly says before bringing her hands up and gently grabbing Swablu’s small blue body. She brings it down and holds it out, showing it off. “This is Rain! I just caught her, and now we’re taking a walk together.”

Rain chirps happily, and Victoria reaches out. When Rain doesn’t respond negatively at all, Victoria rubs her head with a finger for a moment. “Where in the world did you get a Swablu?”

It’s not like Pokémon outside the “normal” ones popping up in Reborn City is unheard of, but they’re usually immediately caught by someone. Rain especially seems like she’d be found and snapped up quickly with the way her soft, white, cloud-like wings stand out against the dirty, cracked concrete just a few feet below.

“I can show you, if you want!” Carly says. “There were some other Pokémon there, too, so maybe you can find a new addition for your own team.”

Somewhere in the city where multiple Pokémon are gathering? That would probably pique anyone’s interest. So Victoria nods, and Carly places Rain back onto her head and leads the way.

They head to an apartment building in Peridot Ward, and Carly leads Victoria towards a back exit. Before they can reach it, though, an older man, bald but with a long, white beard, blocks the way.

“Carly, who is this?” he asks, eyeing Victoria suspiciously. “I gave you permission to enter my garden, but I never said you could bring another person.”

“Oh, uh… sorry. I guess I wasn’t thinking,” Carly says with a small frown. “Victoria’s my friend, though, and I trust her, if that means anything?”

The man stares at Victoria for another moment before taking a Poké Ball from his pocket. “She can enter if she can prove herself like you did.”

Victoria nods, understanding his meaning. “Of course!”

The man sends out a Caterpie, and so she sends out Litten. A battle starts.

It doesn’t take too long. The man’s Pokémon are all similar to Caterpie, so Litten makes short work of them. When all three have fainted, Victoria is given permission to enter the garden, and Carly leads her inside.

“Oh, wow…” Victoria says as she looks the space over. It’s not huge by any means, and it’s not like it’s the only green space in the city, but it’s still a surprise to see so many flowers growing. She knows there are a few rooftop gardens in the city, but the only one she has access to is the one on top of her dad’s apartment building, and… she’d prefer to avoid that one for a couple reasons.

“Pretty, right?” Carly asks, and Victoria nods. Rain chirps, flying off of Carly’s head to go perch in a nearby tree, next to another Swablu. “There are a few different Pokémon here that I haven’t seen elsewhere, so… just look around, I guess!”

“Actually…” Victoria starts as she digs around in her bag for a moment. She grabs a packet of PokéSnax. “Maybe some of them will like these?”

“Oooh, good idea!” Carly says.

Victoria opens up the packet, shaking it a bit to make noise, and she hears some rustling from the nearby grass and flowers almost immediately. After a moment, a small, mostly yellow head pokes out— a Pichu.

Victoria kneels down, pouring a bit of food into her palm and holding it out. The Pichu scampers over, sniffing at the food for a moment before starting to eat it.

“Awww,” Carly coos as she kneels down next to Victoria with a grin on her face. “I didn’t see anything like that, last time I was here. Lucky you, it’s so cute!”

“It is,” Victoria agrees. Pichu finishes the food in her hand and starts sniffing at the bag, and she chuckles. “Still hungry? Well… I guess you can have some more.”

She pours out more food, and Pichu squeaks happily before it continues to eat.

“So, hey…” she says, looking over to Carly. “Other than Rain and Percy, what Pokémon do you have?”

“I got a Budew and a Kricketot that’s already evolved yesterday!” Carly says.

“That’s nice. What else did you have, before you came to Reborn?” Victoria asks.

“Oh, uh… Percy’s actually my first,” Carly admits.

“Really?” Victoria asks, surprised.

“Yeah. I mean, I’ve battled before, but always with Pokémon that were lent to me,” Carly explains. “I only just became a Trainer yesterday.”

“Huh. I kind of assumed you’d already been on a journey before. Don’t people usually go on them around age ten in Sinnoh?” Victoria asks.

“A lot of people wait until they’re a bit older… but it’s also true that someone starting at even Cain’s age would probably be considered a late bloomer,” Carly says. “But… it just didn’t happen, for me. For a few reasons.”

“Oh… uh…” Victoria stammers awkwardly.

“Nothing awful,” Carly assures. “I tried a few things, and I think I could’ve done well if I stuck with them, but… none of them seemed right. Traveling with my mom during those years and going on a journey later was more appealing.”

“But then, why come to Reborn, specifically?” Victoria asks. “I remember what you said yesterday, but the Reborn League seems like a difficult choice to start out with…”

From what she knows, most people who come from out of region to challenge the League have some experience. She’s talked with some of the people who came to challenge Kiki back when she was still a Leader, and some of them showed off a case full of Badges from some other region. A lot of those people also said that Reborn’s League was exactly what they needed, the challenge and other novelties making battling fun again. It’s not supposed to be impossible for a newbie, but still…

“That’s kinda the point,” Carly says. “It’s a long story, but… I wanted to get out there and do something really hard. If I could start my career as a Trainer by getting a bunch of Badges in the Reborn League, or even becoming Champion… that would be really impressive, right?”

“It would,” Victoria agrees, smiling. “And you know what? I think you’ll do well. You really do seem like a good Trainer, from what I’ve seen. Especially for a new one.”

“Thanks! I think you’ll do a good job, too!” Carly says with a smile of her own. “Being a Trainer is… different. It’s not like I came to Reborn with zero experience. Like I said, I’ve battled before, and I’ve even been able to watch really high level, professional Trainers battle. But having my own Pokémon is already a lot more exciting.”

“It is, isn’t it? I still remember how excited I was, when I first got Ralts,” Victoria says fondly.

“Have you been a Trainer for a long time?” Carly asks. When Victoria nods, she continues. “What made you only decide to take on the League now, then?”

“Well… I guess it’s similar to your reasons, actually,” Victoria realizes. “Staying at the academy just felt like the right option, especially when Kiki started to consider making me her apprentice. I felt like staying there did more for me than leaving would’ve.

“Recently, though, that changed. I started wanting to train my Pokémon in the traditional way, but I struggled with just battling the other Trainers at the academy over and over. Kiki noticed, and recommended that I try to take on the League. She also told me that some things are best learned by traveling, and that it would be a good way to both meet new Pokémon and build my bonds with the ones I already had.”

“She sounds really smart!” Carly says.

“She is,” Victoria says, feeling proud. “Even before the League restarted, people would occasionally come from out of region to visit Apophyll Academy and learn from her.”

“Actually, I have a friend back home whose mom has heard of it,” Carly says.

“Really?” Victoria asks, surprised.

Carly nods. “Yeah. She was kinda vague about how much she knows, but she’s really into places like that, since she’s an Aura Guardian.”

Victoria’s eyes widen at that. “Seriously?!”

She knows what Aura Guardians are, of course, at least to some degree— powerful aura wielders that use said abilities to solve problems and keep humans, Pokémon, and nature safe.

“Yep!” Carly says.

“Wow…” Victoria says, stunned. “Kiki’s mentor was one of those, but I know they’re pretty rare.”

“Are there none here?” Carly asks.

“I’ve never even heard of any aura wielders in Reborn, much less anyone skilled enough to be an Aura Guardian,” Victoria says. “Kiki can physically manifest her aura, but she swears up and down she’s not a wielder.”

“That’s really impressive!” Carly says, looking surprised. “Is she a Leader? Or is someone else at the academy one?”

“No, not anymore. Kiki used to be the Fighting Type Leader, but she stepped down a while ago,” Victoria says. “To focus on the academy.”

Officially, she thinks but doesn’t add aloud.

In truth, it’s another point of worry for her, that maybe Kiki stepped down because something is wrong. But she always says she did it to focus on the academy when asked, and Victoria never feels comfortable pushing.

“Well, maybe I can still go out there at some point anyway,” Carly says.

“You want to visit the academy?” Victoria asks.

“Yeah! Like I said yesterday, part of the point of this journey is to see new places. I don’t want my travels to be entirely based on ‘There’s a Gym here,’” Carly explains.

“I could take you. Show you around,” Victoria offers.

“Sounds great!” Carly says with a grin. “I think I’ll focus on exploring the rest of the city for now, but maybe we can talk about it another time soon?”

Victoria nods, but before she can say anything else, she’s distracted by a tiny snore. She looks down and realizes that Pichu has fallen asleep curled up in her lap.

“Awwww,” Carly coos softly. “You’re stuck until it wakes up!”

“Ha, I guess so,” Victoria says as she scritches behind Pichu’s ear. “I think I’ve found the newest member of my team, but I’ll wait until it wakes up. So…”

She and Carly chat for a while longer until Pichu wakes up from its little nap, at which point it happily agrees to join Victoria’s team. Once Pichu is caught, both girls stand up, getting ready to leave.

“So, hey,” Carly says as she gets Rain situated on her head again. “What are you gonna do now?”

“I’ll train Pichu for a while, then I think I’ll try for Julia’s Badge,” Victoria says. “How about you?”

“I think I’ll look around the city for a while,” Carly says. “But, hey, do you think we could meet up again later, with Cain?”

“Sure! If he wants to, of course,” Victoria says.

Carly pulls out her Pokégear to contact Cain, who agrees to meet up. The three of them decide on a time and place, and Victoria and Carly go their separate ways until then.

— — —

A few hours later, after Victoria has lunch, she heads to Julia’s Gym. As she approaches, a Trainer around her age exits, stomping off in obvious frustration. The look on their face reminds her of academy students who have broken focus during meditation multiple times in a row.

It’s definitely a daunting thing to be greeted with during her first attempt to challenge a Gym. She’s reminded of how difficult it’s supposed to be, but this time the thought is more negative. She’s heard that most challengers quit before they get half of the Badges, and that the majority of those people specifically quit while still in the lowest few ranks.

But she reminds herself that it’s not impossible. A lot of the people who quit early on likely aren’t serious about the challenge in the first place— pretty much anyone in the region is allowed to sign up, after all.

Besides, she’s sure that a lot of people quit because of reasons unrelated to the difficulty, like realizing that the League challenge isn’t for them. Some of them probably just have something else that they need to take care of pop up— life happens, so to speak.

And even if it’s hard, it’s not like Victoria’s starting from nothing. She’s learned from a former Leader, and has been training her team for most of today and yesterday. Even if she fails, she can try again. So she takes a deep breath to calm her nerves, and heads inside.

Obviously, she doesn’t immediately battle Julia. There’s a puzzle— if blowing up gates with Voltorb can really be called that— to do and Gym Trainers to fight, and of course she uses the monitor by the entrance to get some advice from Ame.

She also looks over the notes for the Electric Terrain on the Field Notes app she downloaded. She doesn’t have much experience with any fields outside of the ones that can be found around Apophyll, so it’s definitely useful.

The notes do seem a bit… rigid, she guesses, about what the field can and can’t do. She’s seen the fields around Apophyll used in more creative ways than anything she sees listed in these notes. Maybe that’s just how this field is? Or maybe it’s just because this app is apparently pretty new?

She guesses it doesn’t matter, since the notes give her a good enough idea of what to expect. After checking over them one last time, she heads into the arena, where she finds Julia waving some pompoms.

“Hihi, challenger!” she says as Victoria approaches. “Welcome to— Hey, wait a sec… do I know you?”

“Uh… no?” Victoria says, surprised, as Julia squints at her.

It’s not a lie. They may have interacted a few times when she was still at Onyx Trainers’ School, but they couldn’t be said to have known each other.

That actually makes the idea that Julia recognizes her kinda daunting. She knows that the thing she’s most known for among her former schoolmates is transferring to the academy pretty early into her time at the Trainers’ school.

It’s not a decision she’s ever regretted, even for a moment— the academy’s learning style suits her best, and it’s become her home over the years. But she’s aware of how the decision looks to most others. Onyx Trainers’ School is widely considered the best school in the region, and a lot of people believe that the academy is a school where people can just coast by without any work due to the differences from standard schools. That couldn’t be further from the truth, and she’s ready to defend the academy from anyone who looks down on it, but the idea of being thought of as someone who quit the moment things got tough is embarrassing.

To her relief, Julia soon shrugs. “All righty, then! Anyways, are you ready for a super awesome, uber-fun, electro-tastic battle?!”

“Of course!” Victoria says, trying to focus on her excitement for her very first Gym Battle instead of her nerves.

Julia cheers, waving her pompoms again before dropping one to the floor to grab a Poké Ball. “All right, leeeet’s goooo!!!”

The battle is definitely the hardest that Victoria’s had so far, even compared to the ones she’s lost. Julia’s got a full team, and she knows both how to direct them and use the field really well.

But Victoria refuses to give up even when the battle gets tough. She and her Pokémon keep going strong until the end, and…

“We did it!” Victoria cheers as the last of Julia’s Pokémon goes down. Her recently evolved Torracat looks back at her and purrs, looking happy to have won.

“Congrats!!!” Julia says, shaking the pompom she’s still holding before dropping that, too, to look through her bag. “Now, where’s… here we go! Here!”

Victoria is given what she’s won, and puts it all away before checking the time. She’s surprised by what she sees— this took longer than she thought! She’s gonna be late to meet up with Carly and Cain!

“I have to get going!” she says before turning around and starting to leave. “Thank you for the battle!”

“No prob, see you around!” Julia calls as Victoria hurries off.

She heals her team at the nearby Pokémon Center, then quickly makes her way to a small ice cream shop up in Beryl Ward. Entering, she finds Cain and Carly, who smile over at her. Otherwise, the only person inside is a single employee.

“Sorry, I’m not late, am I?” Victoria asks as she walks over to her friends.

“Nah, I just got here,” Cain says. “What’ve you been up to?”

Victoria grins, pulling her new Volt Badge from her pocket and showing it to the others. “I just got my first Badge!”

“Nice!” Cain says. “I’ve been thinking I might challenge Julia after this, too.”

“Congrats! I got mine yesterday!” Carly says.

“…the day that you started?” Victoria asks, surprised and wondering why she didn’t mention it before. “Impressive!”

“Ah, it’s not that big of a deal,” Carly says, glancing away sheepishly. “I had some, uh… extra training beforehand. Oh, but let’s get our ice cream first before we keep talking.”

The other two agree, and they all buy some ice cream before sitting down together.

“So, you said there was something you wanted to tell us?” Cain asks.

That piques Victoria’s interest, and she looks over to Carly, curious.

Carly doesn’t answer immediately, instead looking over to the employee. He’s not even looking at the group, and he’s even wearing headphones that Victoria swears she can just barely hear music from.

Carly clearly and fairly judges that she won’t be overheard, but still leans in a bit, speaking in a whisper. “Team Meteor.”

Both Victoria and Cain stiffen up at that.

Team Meteor’s definitely a subject that’s been on Victoria’s mind. For all her previous doubts, the idea that they’re the ones behind what happened to Grandview Station seems more and more likely every time she thinks about it. Who other than a terrorist group would do a thing like that?

“What about them?” she asks in a whisper. “Did you find something?”

“You could say that,” Carly says. “I raided one of their bases.”

“What?!” Victoria and Cain ask in unison.

Carly frantically shushes them both and looks over to the employee, who hasn’t even glanced in the group’s direction. “Okay, so here’s what happened…”

She then proceeds to tell Victoria and Cain the story about how she, Julia, the Grass Type Leader, Florinia, and Florinia’s brother, Fern, found and cleared out a Meteor base in Peridot Ward.

“…so we all got out just before the entrance was blocked,” Carly eventually says. “The others— or at least Julia and Fern— seemed to think it was some big victory, but… well, it’s good that Team Meteor’s lost a base, of course, but it also sounds like they probably have a lot more. So I wanted to warn you both.”

“That’s insane. Why didn’t you invite us? I would’ve helped,” Victoria says, and Cain nods in agreement.

“Well… I thought about it, but the whole thing was, you know… not completely legal?” Carly admits. “I wasn’t sure if you guys would be down to break the law with me.”

“But… you said that you went and asked for Julia’s help,” Victoria says, confused.

“It’s Julia,” Cain says, as if that’s all the explanation he needs… and it honestly kinda is.

“…good point,” Victoria says. “But if anything like this happens again, you can definitely ask me for help.”

She’s far from a delinquent, but if bending the rules or even breaking the law is what it takes to keep people safe from a terrorist group, then obviously she’s going to do just that.

“Same here,” Cain says.

Carly smiles. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

The conversation moves to lighter topics.

Still, though… wow. It’s crazy to think that not only is something like this happening, but it’s happening so close to Victoria. She’s unknowingly walked past a terrorist base multiple times. She’s friends with someone whose entrance to Reborn was marked by a terrorist attack, who then went and fought the group responsible the very next day. She realizes that there’s a very big difference in acknowledging that this was a thing that could happen and actually having it happen.

She’s serious about helping, though! If there’s another attack, or she somehow finds a Meteor base, she has every intention of doing whatever she can to help.

For now, though, she focuses on the people she’s with and the ice cream.

Carly and Cain are both a lot of fun to talk to. They occasionally make dirty jokes, and Cain even hits on both Victoria and Carly a bit, but it’s all just jokes. Victoria sighs a few times, but it’s never serious.

She’s glad that she’s befriended the two of them. She didn’t really have any human friends outside of the academy before— she spent most of her time before her transfer studying, and while there were a few people she talked to sometimes, she lost touch with them after moving to the academy. So if she hadn’t made friends with these two, she wouldn’t have anyone to hang out with like this.

Eventually, they all finish up their ice cream and get ready to leave.

“Good luck with your Gym Battle, Cain,” Carly says. “I’ll text you both if something happens, okay?”

“Right, and thanks!” Cain says. “See you both later!”

“Good luck!” Victoria calls as he leaves.

Once he’s gone, Carly turns to her with a smile. “What are you gonna do?”

“I don’t actually have any plans,” Victoria says.

“Wanna have a battle?” Carly asks. “Now that we both have multiple Pokémon and a Badge, I’m sure it’ll be a lot more interesting than last time!”

“That sounds like fun!” Victoria says, smiling. “Come on, let’s go.”

Carly nods, and the two of them leave the shop and find somewhere with enough open space to battle.

“Don’t hold back, okay?” Victoria asks, grabbing Ralts’ Poké Ball. “Kiki always said you can’t train the mind without the body. Let’s put both in to the fullest!”

“Right!” Carly says, as she grabs a Poké Ball of her own. Victoria sends out Ralts, Carly sends out Rain, and the battle starts.

It’s a lot more action packed than their first battle, that’s for sure, with the Pokémon able to move around more and use more moves. Both sides’ Pokémon go down one by one, and soon they both only have one left, Victoria’s Pichu and Carly’s Budew, Rosie.

“I’m not capitulating yet! One last push!” Victoria says. “Fake Out!”

Pichu tries her best, but it’s her that faints first.

Carly cheers with a grin. “Good job, to everyone!”

“And to you, too!” Victoria says with a bright smile as they both recall their Pokémon. The fight was much closer this time than their first battle, but that just means both sides fought harder. “That was good! A solid session!”

“Yeah! It was a lot of fun,” Carly says. “I’m glad that I met you and Cain. It’s cool to have… uh, are we rivals? That’s the assumption I’ve been going with, but maybe you haven’t been…”

“I have, actually! And I agree,” Victoria says. “I hope that the three of us will be able to challenge each other and grow together.”

“Me too!” Carly says. “Oh, but we should get our teams healed up.”

Victoria agrees, and the two of them head to the Pokémon Center, chatting as they go.

— — —

The next day, Victoria and Cain sit on a bench in Obsidia Park, taking a break after doing some training together.

“So, think you’ll challenge Florinia soon?” Cain asks.

“I’m not sure. I’ve been thinking I might skip her for now,” Victoria admits.

“Why?” Cain asks.

“Uh… no real reason…” Victoria lies, glancing away.

In truth, it’s because Florinia runs her Gym out of Onyx Trainers’ School, and the idea of going back there is even more daunting than nearly being recognized by Julia.

Having to interact with Julia and a few of her friends is one thing— that group is entirely made up of people who were a few grades above Victoria, people she didn’t really know personally. Actually going back to the school is another thing entirely. There are people she actually took classes with still going there! What if they recognize her?

Even if they don’t, going to the school doesn’t really sound too pleasant, either. Her memories of it are all negative. It’s not like anything horrible ever happened there, but… she can’t help but associate the place with her mom. She’s the whole reason that Victoria ever enrolled there, after all.

She knows she’ll have to go there eventually, she just… thinks she needs some time to prepare herself.

Cain shrugs. “Guess you don't really need one!”

“What about you, then?” Victoria asks. “Are you going to challenge her soon?”

“Hmm, maybe. I think I want to catch at least one more Pokémon first,” Cain says. “I’m not exactly in a rush, though. It doesn’t seem like they’re gonna kick us out of the Grand Hall anytime soon.”

Right. The two of them and Carly have been sleeping in the bedrooms at the Grand Hall for the past few days. They’re apparently mainly supposed to be for people who have arrived from outside of the city to sign up for the League, but it looks like there aren’t going to be many of those anytime soon, so the three of them have been told it’s fine if they use the rooms.

It’s been great for Victoria, since it means she has a warm bed each night without needing to pay for a motel or asking her dad to stay with him.

…that thought probably sounds worse than it is.

She loves her dad, and likes occasionally spending some time with him. She’ll probably arrange to visit him within the next few days, even. But there’s always been… some distance, she guesses. Even before she started living at the academy, things often got awkward between them, especially whenever they were around each other for extended periods of time.

Aside from that, she’d like to be more or less independent while on her journey. Staying at the Grand Hall for free is one thing, but living in her dad’s apartment is a bit much…

…she shakes the thoughts off. Tries to focus on something else. “…are you excited to see more of the region?”

If Cain is surprised by the sudden topic change, he doesn’t show it beyond a blink and a slight shift of his mouth. His expression then shifts to something else, and he’s quiet for a short moment, as if it’s a question he hasn’t thought about before, but then he nods. “Yeah, actually. I can’t even remember the last time I left Reborn City.”

“I thought you were from outside of the city, though,” Victoria says, wondering if she’s misremembering.

“Well… yeah, but…” Cain says, looking like he’s considering something. “…I’m from the wasteland.”

“Really?” Victoria asks, surprised, causing him to nod. “Huh. I didn’t realize that anyone lives out there.”

“Apparently my mom’s family has been for, like, forever,” Cain says. “Obviously, we have just as much trouble getting out of the city as anyone else.”

“So then, you, me, and Carly will all be seeing the rest of the region for the first time together,” Victoria says. “If we keep a similar enough pace collecting Badges, I mean.”

It’s actually a really nice thought.

“Sightseeing with a pair of pretty girls? Count me in~” Cain jokes.

“Pfft, cut it out,” Victoria chides unseriously, making him grin.

The idea really does sound better the more that she thinks about it, though. A trio of friends/rivals traveling through the region more or less together, seeing the sights and collecting Badges. Maybe they can even all be Champion at different points, keeping each other on their toes with the occasion dethroning.

Yeah. That sounds incredible.

— — —

A couple days later, as Victoria trains, she hears panicked screams and other loud sounds from Obsidia Ward.

Obviously, she rushes to help with whatever’s going on, sending Carly and Cain a text as she does. But there’s already a police officer stationed at the entrance to the ward by the time that she gets there, and he refuses to let her through!

“Victoria?” she soon hears, and she turns to see that Carly has showed up. “What’s going on?”

“Well, I’m trying to get into Obsidia Ward so that I can figure that out, but this guy won’t even let me in!” Victoria says.

“Ma’am, I’m under strict orders not to let civilians into this area, even well-intentioned ones,” the officer claims. “‘Road to hell’ and all that.”

“But we can hear people screaming!” Carly says, sounding worried. “Who’s helping them?”

“A Gym Leader is on the scene, and another will be joining her soon,” the officer says.

“That’s it?!” Victoria asks, incredulous. “Just two people?”

She doesn’t mean to downplay the strength of whoever the Leaders are. She knows that those in the Reborn League are a step above the rest, even in the lower ranks. But this is the biggest ward in the city! If something big enough to warrant blocking off the entirety of it is happening, they’re going to need all the help they can get!

The officer frowns, looking a bit uncomfortable. “Well, yes, but… other officers are being dispatched…”

“By your own admission, there are people trapped in there struggling, with only one person actively helping them, and you’re keeping the other ones who want to help locked out?” Victoria asks, hoping she sounds stern.

“The desire to better a given circumstance remains entirely uncorrelated with the ability to do so,” a new voice says, causing Victoria to turn and see someone who she quickly recognizes as Florinia approaching. “Confounding variables in any situation contribute to unpredictability and decreased control. The principle holds doubly valid for the situation within Obsidia, wherein far too many unknowns yet exist to even begin to have just a rudimentary understanding of the scenario.”

“We know that it’s a risk,” Carly says. “But you already know that I’m capable, right?”

“It is true that you have already demonstrated veritable competence in assisting in the takedown of a criminally organized facility,” Florinia says.

“And I’ll vouch for Victoria,” Carly says with no hesitation. “She’s strong, and she wants to help. I’m certain she’s just as capable of helping with this as I am!”

Florinia stares at Carly for a moment before her gaze shifts to Victoria. “The act of ‘vouching’ fails to suffice as evidence to suggest that the benefit from allowing access to an additional party outweighs the associated risk. The risk itself is indisputable in demonstrated appearance, to say nothing of unforeseen factors. Upon what merit do you base the claim that you deserve access to a highly volatile, still restricted area?”

“I know you can’t just let in every schmuck who wants to go through, but there are still people living there,” Victoria says, listening to the chaos behind her. It’s not as loud as when it started, that first burst of panic having settled at least somewhat, but it’s still clear that something awful is happening. “Right now, while we’re sitting here arguing about it, those people need help more than ever. I’m not gonna get in your way or mess anything up, but I think if there’s even just one person who can use a helping hand right now, it’s worth offering it.”

Florinia turns away for a long moment, and for a second, Victoria worries her plea is about to be rejected— she’s heard rumors of how stoic, even emotionless, Florinia has become in recent years, and this short encounter has been enough for Victoria to feel they’re confirmed. She fears that Florinia might find her reasoning “too emotion based,” or something.

But then Florinia turns back to the rest of them. “Answer accepted. Full credit. On the authority of this speaker, these two will be permitted passage to the Obsidia Ward. Objections?”

“No, ma’am,” the officer says, a bit surprised. “Go right on ahead. Good luck in there.”

“Oh, but hey, we also have another friend who might come by to help,” Carly says as the officer moves. “His name is Cain. Purple hair, eyes, and probably clothes, too.”

“I sent him the same text as Carly. I’m not sure why he hasn’t shown up yet…” Victoria says, fishing her Pokégear from her pocket for a moment and seeing no text from Cain… though there is one from her dad, sent a couple minutes ago and asking if she’s all right. She sends him a text to let him know she’s fine.

“On the authority of this speaker, Cain will also be permitted passage to the Obsidia Ward, should he seek it,” Florinia says, to Victoria’s surprise.

The officer nods.

“All right, let’s go!” Carly says before rushing in, and Victoria follows her… only for them to both stop pretty quickly, looking around in shock as Florinia catches up to them.

The concrete in Reborn City has been full of cracks for a long time, some even big enough that they have to be walked over or around. It’s nothing that catches the eye of anyone who’s been in the city for longer than a week or two.

But now, Victoria looks around and sees cracks that definitely weren’t there before, some so large it’s ridiculous, and with lashing vines coming out of them. Some people stand paralyzed in fear, while others try to get away from the chaos, one person darting past the group to get to Opal Ward.

That seems to snap Carly out of her shock. “We have to evacuate everyone!”

She’s right, of course, so after the group sorts out who will go where, Victoria begins running through the streets, helping everyone she can find.

It’s not easy. The vines grab at anything that comes too close to them, and new ones occasionally emerge from new cracks. Some people resist being relocated, too, paralyzed or agitated by the situation.

But Torracat is able to ward away or burn through the vines with her fire, and Victoria is able to convince each person she finds to let her help them move elsewhere, first to Opal Ward but eventually inside the nearby buildings, when it’s discovered that the vines aren’t breaking through any of them. The staff in a few of the buildings, like the candy store and salon, even offer to take people in, so she focuses on getting people to those, specifically.

It’s an incredibly dangerous situation, but she keeps calm. Doesn’t panic when a crack starts to open up right next to her, or a girl initially responds to her attempts to help by screaming at her. She remembers her training, keeps herself grounded, and keeps going.

Eventually, everyone in the areas that she, Carly, and Florinia can get to has been brought to safety, and they reconvene in front of Obsidia Park, which is… uh…

“What the fuck?” Carly asks.

Victoria thinks something similar enough as she stares at the park, or rather, the barrier to looking at it. She didn’t get a good look before, since Florinia handled this section of the ward while helping civilians, but there’s a dome of leafy vines that’s formed over the park, seeming to almost completely block it off from the rest of the world. There’s an opening at the park’s entrance, but even that’s blocked up by more plant life, just coming from below instead of above.

“Obsidia Park is one of the single largest isolated collections of flora within official city limits. However, it is merely that— a park,” Florinia says, voice somehow still monotone even as she stares up at the vines. “Under normal circumstances it is nothing like the malignant tangle here displayed.”

“How did this happen…?” Victoria asks.

“Witnesses reported several suspicious individuals hauling a large machine to the center of the area prior to the incident,” Florinia says. “Current hypothesis: aforementioned subjects deliberately perpetrated spontaneous erratic growth of the target area with said device. Specific method of action unknown.”

“But it’s definitely Team Meteor causing this, right?” Carly asks.

Florinia turns around. “Likelihood: very high. Other possible causes cannot be ruled out, but known data suggests that the aforementioned group and the previously mentioned subjects are likely the same.”

Well, of course. Even back when she first said that this situation was “criminally organized,” and even before that, really, Victoria was sure that Team Meteor caused this. Who else would attack an entire ward like this?

“Should we try and ask people if they know what’s going on?” Carly asks. “If anyone heard or saw something that wasn’t reported, it could be helpful!”

Florinia thinks it over— at least, Victoria assumes that she is— for a few moments before answering. “Action approved. Procedure: assisting parties will attempt to acquire information from civilians while this speaker stays in place to monitor the situation in case of any additional sudden changes.

“Following this, an exploratory party will traverse the growth and attempt to reach the device at the center. Obstacles: this speaker’s primary colleague remains absent. Additionally, mutated flora poses significant difficulty for traversal. This may be remedied through use of TMX Cut. Said Machine currently resides in the possession of aforementioned colleague. Directive: assisting parties should seek the above-mentioned colleague and obtain Cut.”

Victoria looks around, half to see if there’s any sign of this colleague, and half to hide her semi-confused expression. “So after we ask around, we need to look for the person who has Cut? Where are they?”

She’s a bit nervous that Florinia is about to tell her that she’s entirely wrong about what she was just asked to do. Those instructions… she’s pretty sure she understood them all, but the wordiness leaves her worried that maybe she misunderstood something.

Thankfully, Florinia’s response indicates otherwise. “Colleague was last known to be investigating rumors of other suspicious individuals in this area. This speaker believes she had most recently been searching the area south of the given premises. Subject name: Amaria.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of her!” Victoria says, remembering both the officer from earlier’s words and other things she knows. “She’s a Leader too, right? Long bright teal hair?”

Of the group of her former upperclassmen that became Leaders, Amaria is actually the one that Victoria is most familiar with, having been tutored by her a few times. Not that that’s anything special, though— she tutored a lot of people, at least while Victoria was around.

“Correct,” Florinia says.

“All right, then!” Carly says. “Victoria, how about you and I divide up the places we can get to, ask around for any information, and then we can head south and look for Amaria?”

It sounds like a good idea to Victoria, so she agrees, and they do just that, deciding to meet up at the ward’s Pokémon Center once they’re done asking around.

Victoria enters multiple buildings, asking anyone inside if they heard or saw anything that could be related to what’s happening, but unfortunately she doesn’t learn much more than what Florinia said. There were people in black hoods with a strange machine in the park, but anyone who tried to get too close was warded off by police officers, or more likely, people dressed like them.

Eventually, Victoria makes her way to the Pokémon Center, hoping that Carly got more information than her. As she walks down the street, though, a pair of people suddenly round the corner and sprint past her so fast she barely registers it.

As she looks the way she came and they went, confused, she hears Carly’s voice. “Hey, come back!”

Victoria turns around. “Carly?”

“Victoria!” Carly says, looking frantic as she runs up. “Did two people run past just now?”

“Yeah, but I’m not sure which way they went,” Victoria says. “Who were they? Did something happen?”

“Those were Meteors!” Carly says. “They kidnapped the couple who runs the daycare and have been posing as them to steal people’s Pokémon for weeks!”

“What?!” Victoria asks, eyes widening. “That’s—”

She’s beginning to panic, she realizes, the sudden delivery of multiple pieces of worrying information during a crisis making her want to freak out. She stops herself, taking a moment to calm down.

“Do you have any idea where anyone who they kidnapped is?” she asks after.

Carly shakes her head, frowning. “Not really. All they said was that the daycare couple are locked up far away, and they hid the key somewhere else. They didn’t even say anything about where the Pokémon are… unless you count ‘Everyone must be eliminated.’”

Victoria freezes up. “You don’t think they…”

“…I’m choosing to hope not,” Carly says, looking unsure. “Team Meteor’s causing a lot of problems, but right now, I think we have to focus on this plant attack.”

“We could at least search the daycare for clues,” Victoria suggests. “Everyone else in the ward should be safe by now.”

“We don’t know that,” Carly counters. “There could be people in parts of the ward we can’t reach trapped behind cracks and plant life. Plus, if whatever’s causing this tears the whole ward apart, I don’t think anyone in it will be safe.”

“…right,” Victoria says. She doesn’t love the idea of calling multiple kidnappings a problem for later, but she has to look at the bigger picture, here. “Did you learn anything about the situation?”

“Just that Team Meteor apparently used fake cops to keep people away as they were setting up their machine,” Carly says. “How about you?”

“I didn’t learn anything more than you did,” Victoria says.

Carly sighs. “Well, that was a bust, then. Maybe it’s best if we just focus on finding Amaria.”

“If she went to the south, and neither of us have seen her, she’s probably either in the slums, or Coral Ward,” Victoria says. “We can get to the latter through the former.”

“All right, just let me heal my Pokémon first,” Carly says. “And we should probably go let Florinia know we didn’t learn anything.”

Victoria nods, and follows Carly to the Pokémon Center. Once they’re done there, they head back to Florinia and tell her about what little they’ve learned, as well as about the Meteors who kidnapped and impersonated the daycare couple.

“Were either of those two the agent that Amaria was looking for?” Carly asks after describing the Meteors.

“Negative. Neither given description matches the known details of the subject of Amaria’s search,” Florinia says. “Additionally, subject is believed to be a high ranking member who engages primarily in single person missions, only directly partnering with fellow members of Team Meteor for short-term operations when circumstances necessitate it. Chances that the subject would participate in the previously described operation: very low.”

So then, whoever this person is, they’re still at large. There’s a chance that Victoria and Carly could run into them without warning, since their next goal is to chase after the person chasing after the agent. The idea is unsettling… but Victoria thinks the two of them can handle it, as long as they stick together.

For now, they split off from Florinia again, heading to the slums together.

As they approach the area from the north, Carly suddenly stops in place, and Victoria does as well. “Carly?”

“Sorry, this sign just made me do a double take,” Carly says, looking up at a street sign. “I didn’t know there was a road named after Jubilife City here!”

“Is that a place in Sinnoh?” Victoria guesses. She knows some streets in Reborn City are named after places in other regions.

“Yep!” Carly says, looking to Victoria with a smile. “It’s one of the oldest cities in the region, founded as a village around a century and a half ago!”

“Wow,” Victoria says. She can’t help but notice the way that Carly’s expression has lit up. “Do you know a lot about Sinnoh’s history?”

“I like to think so! I think history in general is pretty neat! I’d like to learn about Reborn’s, too… but that can wait for later,” Carly says. “C’mon, let’s get back on track.”

Victoria nods, and the two of them keep walking.

The words make her think, though. Reborn City is only… around three decades old, if she’s remembering right. If so, it’s been around for a fifth of how long Jubilife City has. And before that…

…actually, she’s not sure. Now that she thinks of it, most, if not all, of her history knowledge is of things that happened since this city’s founding, or of things in other regions. She can’t remember ever learning anything about Reborn from before Reborn City was around, though that’s just from off the top of her head. She’s sure she’s heard something.

She doesn’t get much time to think about it, though, because soon she and Carly are running into Trainers that won’t let them by without a battle. These guys demand all of Victoria’s attention… and not in a good way.

“You’s got a pretty face,” a black haired man says, blocking the top of some stairs that Victoria and Carly need to climb, leering not at the latter’s face, but at the skin of her thighs just below her skirt.

Victoria is prepared to jump in and defend her friend, but before she can, Carly speaks, with a clear and firm “Move.”

Victoria’s actually surprised at that, and at the way Carly’s face has turned stony. The tone and expression are completely unlike anything Victoria’s heard or seen from her.

“‘S’a compliment,” the man says defensively.

“Was it?” Carly asks. “You’re still not looking at my face.”

The man’s expression sours a bit, and he grabs a pair of Poké Balls with a “Tch.”

He’s not any match for Victoria and Carly, though, his Mime Jr. and Pansear quickly going down to Torracat and Percy. The duo is able to get by without any trouble from the man after that.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no trouble at all.

It’s not like everyone they pass by acts creepy. Some people completely ignore the two of them, and some just eye them nervously— completely understandable, since they’re a pair of strangers walking past or even through these people’s homes. Some are even pleasant, and Victoria and Carly are able to talk with them for a few moments before continuing.

But multiple men and boys make comments even worse than what the first man said, leering and even hollering or wolf whistling. Nobody tries anything further, and Victoria and Carly are able to get through with only a few Pokémon battles and some light telling off, but it still feels disgusting every time…

Eventually, after rounding a corner, Victoria sees something in a partially fenced off area that catches her attention. From next to her, Carly asks a question. “What in the world is that?”

“It’s a Light Shard,” Victoria says.

A dark haired man standing nearby the shard looks up at them and beckons the two of them to come closer, so they do just that.

“You ever seen one o’ these before?” the man asks.

“No, never,” Carly says, and it’s clear she’s telling the truth from how she stares at the Light Shard with obvious awe on her face as little specks of light rise up from it and disappear. It makes sense, since they apparently aren’t a thing outside of Reborn. “It’s called a Light Shard?”

“That’s right. They can appear anywhere in Reborn, at random,” Victoria explains. “Touching one will both refresh you and heal your Pokémon!”

The man nods. “I’d take it if it were valuable, but unfortunately it’ll disappear the moment anyone touches it. The healin’s nice, but I’m a-okay. You want it?”

Carly looks interested, but she looks to Victoria. “Do you want it?”

“No, you can have it,” Victoria says, smiling. “I’ve used one before, so you should get to try it.”

“All right, thanks!” Carly says with a smile of her own. She walks over to the shard, kneels down, and touches it. With a couple flashes of light and a soft sound, it disappears. She stands back up and turns to Victoria and the man, looking surprised. “Oh, wow.”

“Doesn’t it feel good?” Victoria asks. “And I bet your Pokémon feel a lot better, too!”

Carly looks down to the Poké Balls on her belt. “Yeah. They’re all healed, and I feel great! Thanks for letting me use that!”

“No problem,” the man says.

“Before we go, have you seen a girl with long, bright teal hair?” Victoria asks. “Around our ages?”

“Sure have. She went that-a-way a while ago,” the man says, pointing down the path to the north. “Was lookin’ for someone, too. I hadn’t seen ‘em, though.”

Victoria and Carly thank the man and continue on their way, asking the people they see if they’ve seen Amaria… except for a blond guy who’s doing something over a trash can that Victoria tries not to look too closely at. She and Carly both seem to silently agree to avoid him, and the path forward is blocked by a gate, so they walk down a nearby escalator to get to the floor below.

They look around, but don’t find much. A room they find behind the broken escalators leads to a locked door and so a dead end, and most of the rest of the floor is blocked off by cracks in the floor that are too large to get past.

“I don’t understand. If every way is blocked, where could Amaria have gone?” Carly asks.

“I don’t know. And these guys are awful…” Victoria says with a frown, still upset over the leering and comments. “Training or not, I can’t help but feel out of my depth here.”

Aside from the gross comments, it’s actually required more effort than expected, maneuvering around all the debris and small cracks littering the floor, not to mention all the running around she did before they came here. She feels somewhat worn out both physically and mentally.

She thinks that, if things were a bit calmer outside, she’d challenge Carly to a match— as in, a Pokémon battle. To help ground and strengthen them both.

“Maybe we should go back to Florinia, and see if there’s another way to Coral,” Carly suggests.

“Awww, leaving so soon?”

Victoria’s head snaps up to see the blond guy from before, leaning against the railing up above, between the escalators, with a smug look on his face.

“That’s not really any of your business,” Carly says.

“Could be, if you want,” the boy says. “You both look great. Love to see gals who can… how should I put it? Move their bodies around hard environments, maybe? Ao-ao-aoooow~”

Victoria’s face heats up with both embarrassment and anger. She barely thinks, just marching back up the escalator, Carly following. The boy, to his credit, is at least smart enough to back away as Victoria draws close.

“Do you really wanna push your luck right now?” she asks, fists clenched and anger clear in her voice.

“Ah… hah. About that…” the boy says awkwardly, cockiness completely gone the moment he’s been challenged. He frantically looks around, eyes lighting up as they settle on the nearby gate. “L-look, I can help you guys out! Your friend said that you two are trying to head through to Coral, right? Well, how about this?”

He walks over to a nearby fridge and presses what must be some kind of hidden switch, because the gate instantly goes up into the roof.

“The switch was hidden back here— now you can go on!” The boy says.

“…right,” Victoria says, looking back to the boy with a glare that makes him shrink back. “That would be convenient, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately for you, one instance of being vaguely helpful doesn’t absolve you of all responsibility.”

He clearly only did it to save his own skin, after all. If neither Victoria or Carly had been willing to stand up to him, how much further would he have gone? How much further would any of these awful men have gone, if they hadn’t instantly been shut down?

So Victoria looks over her shoulder, to Carly. “Carly, why don’t you go on ahead? I’m going to have a few more words with this guy.”

But the frown on Carly’s face deepens. “I don’t think that’s a great idea. We really need to deal with the situation, and I’d prefer not to do it without you…”

Victoria pauses, at that. “…right. Sorry.”

“It’s okay, trust me, I agree he deserves it,” Carly says, shooting a glare past Victoria at the boy. “We just have other priorities to focus on.”

Victoria nods, then looks back to the boy with one last glare of her own. “Count yourself lucky, and make sure you really understand exactly what you’ve been saying before you try saying it to someone else.”

The boy frantically nods, and Victoria and Carly leave.

“Sorry again. I shouldn’t have tried to leave you like that,” Victoria says as they walk. “Harassment like that… it just gets me too angry to think straight.”

She’s unused to it, thankfully. It’s not like it never, ever happens at the academy, but it’s always stamped out quickly, the few people who have been unwilling to stop and examine their ways getting expelled. She hopes this isn’t one of the things she’ll have to get used to, during her journey…

“Yeah, it sucks, and he’s an ass for saying that shit,” Carly agrees. “Most guys I’ve met like these are all bark and no bite, at least, even if they really shouldn’t be barking in the first place… but, hey, did it upset you when I did it?”

“Did what?” Victoria asks, confused.

“When we first met Cain, and I joked like I was asking you to do something sexual with me,” Carly clarifies. “Did that upset you?”

“No, of course not!” Victoria says, shaking her head. “I was flustered by it before I realized you weren’t serious, but I don’t mind the jokes you and Cain make.”

“That’s good, but if I ever do say anything that upsets you, you can tell me and I’ll stop,” Carly says.

Before Victoria can answer, she hears an “Excuse me?” and looks to the voice to see a scientist walking over, a pen and clipboard in hand.

“Something we can help you with?” Carly asks.

The man nods. “I’m studying Pokémon gang activity. Have you seen any suspicious behavior?”

“Huh?” Victoria asks.

“Like, a gang using Pokémon, or Pokémon forming a gang?” Carly asks.

“The latter. The urban connection of Pokémon themselves…” the man says. “It’s quite fascinating!”

“I’ve seen wild Pokémon working together before, but I don’t know if it’s in the way you’re looking for,” Carly says. “I’d be willing to talk about it, but we’re kinda in a rush. Have you seen a girl around our ages with long, bright teal hair?”

The man thinks for a moment, then nods. “Yes, someone like that came through here a while ago, asking about someone. She hasn’t come back, though, so she probably either went another way back to the front, or is heading for the other exit, near the entrance to the Coral Ward.”

Every way to where Victoria and Carly just came from that they passed on the way here was barricaded in some way, and nobody mentioned Amaria coming back, so this all but confirms that she’s heading to or in Coral Ward. Thanking the man for his help, the duo continues on, occasionally battling wild Pokémon as they do.

On the next floor, they find a split in the path, and split up so they can figure out the way forward quicker.

As Victoria starts to make her way to the roof, she’s soon caught off guard by a box moving. Not falling over, or anything normal like that— it runs away from her! Obviously she hurries after it, baffled, but it leaves her sight, in no small part because of a drunk man who forces her into a battle. By the time she gets to the roof, it’s completely gone.

There is something else there that catches her attention, though: a Light Shard.

The sight is actually enough of a shock that she wonders if her eyes are playing tricks on her for a short moment. While she’s seen her fair share of them, Light Shards are supposed to be rare— sure, she’s heard that they’ve been becoming more common recently, but she never would’ve expected to see two so close to each other and in such a short time frame. Maybe one or both of them have been here for a while, and nobody bothered to use them?

Whatever the case, Victoria happily touches it herself, instantly feeling any tiredness from the workout she’s been getting fade away. Her Poké Balls also revert to standard color, meaning her Pokémon are all healed up, too.

With the shard gone, the only other thing of note on the roof is another entrance back into the building, so Victoria heads back the way she came to meet back up with Carly, soon seeing said girl coming her way with a Premier Ball in hand.

“Hey, I caught a Pancham!” Carly says with a grin, showing off the ball. “Instead of a leaf, she had a clover in her mouth.”

“Where’d she get that?” Victoria asks, surprised.

“No clue! But I named her Clover because of it,” Carly says.

“Congrats! We have a Pokémon in common, now,” Victoria says, smiling. Maybe she’ll even be able to help Carly’s evolve eventually, since a Pancham has to fight alongside a Dark Type in some way to do it.

“Yeah, we’re Pancham buddies!” Carly says, eyes lighting up more than they already are. “Aside from that, I heard that the way forward is this way.”

“Yeah, I just came back to wait for you,” Victoria says. “I have a weird question, though. While we were split up, did you see a moving box? As in, a box that ran away?”

“Uh… should I have?” Carly asks, baffled. “Did you?”

“I did. My guess is that there must’ve been a Pokémon inside. I don’t understand why it would’ve been doing that, though. Maybe it’s hurt…” Victoria says, frowning at the thought.

It’s a worrying idea. Normally Pokémon are much better at healing than humans, but if something’s wrong enough that one feels a need to hide like that, it could need some sort of medical attention.

“Well then, let’s try to find it as we keep going. If we do, we can make sure it’s okay,” Carly suggests.

“Right. Let’s go, then,” Victoria says.

Carly nods, and the two of them head to the roof… only to immediately pause when they get there. Once again, Victoria wonders if her eyes are playing tricks on her.

“Oh, hey, a Light Shard! Do you want it?” Carly asks.

“…I already used it,” Victoria says, staring at the Light Shard sitting in the exact same spot as before.

“Huh? I thought they were one use only?” Carly says, sounding confused.

“They are,” Victoria says, just as confused. “I used it, and it disappeared… but now there’s another one in the exact same spot.”

“Huh…” Carly says. “How do they form, exactly?”

“Nobody knows,” Victoria says. “After all, it’s not like they can really be studied.”

“Oh. Well… maybe it’s like, some kind of energy thing? Or something?” Carly suggests, looking thoughtful. “Like, when enough of some sort of energy builds up in one spot, a Light Shard appears. Only one can appear at a time, but energy can keep building up even then, so by the time you came along and used the first one, enough energy had gathered for another one to form… or something, I dunno.”

“It’s as good a theory as any,” Victoria says. “I guess it doesn’t really matter right now, though.”

Carly nods, then walks over to the Light Shard. “Doesn’t matter why it’s here, as long as it’s helpful!”

Once she’s used the shard, the two of them keep going. Back into the building and down a hallway, where they find an elevator occupied by a Mankey playing with the buttons. It runs off once it notices them, though, allowing them to take the elevator down to the bottom floor.

There’s only one way forward that isn’t blocked up by trash, a large, open entrance with an old sign above it, the first and last letter only identifiable by the indents of where they once were.

“‘Yureyu?’” Carly reads as she eyes the one present Y, which has half fallen down and looks like it could finish the process any second. “That’s an old company, right?”

“That’s right. It shut down around a decade ago, though,” Victoria says. “It was a big part of what led to the city ending up as it is now.”

So many people lost their jobs all at once. Some of them managed to get new ones, but even then, a lot of those jobs weren’t as good as their old ones…

Victoria would rather not think about that, though, so she just heads on with Carly. And through the entrance, they see a box that runs away from them.

“…huh! That… was definitely a running box!” Carly says, surprised. Then she looks to Victoria, frowning. “If there’s a Pokémon that needs help inside, we’re gonna have to approach it in a way that doesn’t make it run off…”

“Let’s keep an eye out and be cautious,” Victoria suggests. “If we can approach it slowly, it’ll be less likely to run off.”

Carly nods. “Right.”

The two of them keep going, easily defeating a man who tries to stop them at one point in a battle.

Soon after walking up some stairs, they see a Scraggy in the distance, facing away from them. It looks back and makes a gesture for them to follow, then jumps over a crack in the floor and walks off to and through a doorway on the other side of the room.

“…do you think that Scraggy was the Pokémon in the box?” Victoria asks. She’s not sure why it would suddenly act so differently if it is, but finding a Pokémon that wants them to follow it around the area the one in the box ran off to seems like too much of a coincidence to not be connected.

“Maybe. Or maybe Scraggy is friends with the box Pokémon, and wants us to help it,” Carly says. “There’s only one way to find out!”

She’s right, so the two of them start walking again. Their path forward isn’t as clear as Scraggy’s, though, as they’re forced to navigate around debris and cracks in not so great lighting— not that that’s any different than what they’ve been doing so far.

When they manage to get to the next room, they find the Scraggy, who walks to a gate on the other side of the room before turning to look at them.

“Hey…” Carly calls softly. “Are you okay? Does a friend of yours need help?”

“Scr… agg… Scr-aggy!” Scraggy calls out… except, it doesn’t seem to be addressing Victoria and Carly.

There’s a still, silent moment. Then another Scraggy bursts out of a box to the right with a cry. Then a third does the same to the left.

“What—!” Victoria starts, only to be cut off by a Scrafty dropping down from above with a cry of its own before taking a step towards her and Carly.

“Victoria?” Carly says. “I think we found one of those Pokémon gangs!”

The Pokémon clearly want a fight. Victoria gets the feeling that running might just cause them to chase after her and Carly, and even if it didn’t, the two of them need to get through this room to get through the building.

Obviously, that means there’s only one thing to do. Victoria sends out Ralts, Carly sends out Clover, and a battle begins.

To Victoria’s surprise, the wild Pokémon follow a standard Double Battle format; instead of attacking all at once, only two Scraggy fight at first. When one goes down, it scampers off and the third Scraggy takes its place, and the Scrafty doesn’t join until the second Scraggy is gone.

They doesn’t make the battle easy. These Pokémon are strong and work well together— even though Ralts evolves into Kirlia mid-battle, he and Clover both faint eventually. In the end, though, Victoria and Carly win.

Scrafty doesn’t leave immediately like the Scraggy did, though. Instead, it stares at the two of them for a long moment, then it turns and walks over to the gate. It does something that Victoria can’t really see, movement mostly blocked by its body, then the gate goes up, disappearing. It looks back at them for a moment, then leaves.

Victoria and Carly recall their Pokémon, and the former speaks. “Of all the things that could’ve happened here, I think I expected getting jumped by a bunch of Pokémon like that least.”

“I’ll say. At least none of them were hurt, though,” Carly says. “What do you think they wanted, anyway?”

“I’m not sure, but with the way they lured us here, it almost feels like they were trying to mug us,” Victoria says. She frowns. “Maybe they wanted food. It’s probably hard for anyone here to get it sometimes, human or Pokémon…”

“Yeah…” Carly says, frowning as well. “It’s sad that anyone has to live in a place like this and go hungry…”

“It’s one of the ways the city has declined,” Victoria says. “I wish I could help, but it’s not like there’s much I can do…”

The academy has some students with backgrounds like the people here, but it’s not like anyone can be forced to enroll, and even if they could, there’s no way the academy would be able to take in every single person in poverty in the city, or even just everyone in this building— though she’s sure Kiki would try. There aren’t any charity organizations in the region anymore, either, any that once existed no longer being around.

“Maybe if one of us becomes Champion, we can do something?” Carly suggests.

“Huh? Like what?” Victoria asks.

“Uh, I’m not sure. I’m just spitballing,” Carly admits. “I don’t really know how it works here. Who even is the current Champion?”

“It’s Ame,” Victoria says, causing Carly to look shocked.

“Seriously!?” she asks. “I had no idea!”

“She’s pretty quiet about it. I only know because Kiki mentioned it,” Victoria says. “I’m not sure of all the details, but apparently it’s more of a ‘by default’ thing, so there’s not the same buzz around her as there would be for someone who became Champion by beating the League.”

“Huh. So she manages the city and League, and she’s the Champion?” Carly asks. Before Victoria can say anything in response, though, Carly grins. “Then it’ll be a win-win! If one of us becomes Champion, Ame will have less on her plate, and we’ll have the money and influence to help both humans and Pokémon! I mean… I know it’ll probably be a lot more complicated than I’m making it sound, but we can figure it out, I’m sure.”

Victoria thinks for a few moments.

She’s sure it will be a long road. One of them becoming Champion, as difficult as it would be, would just be step one. But if one of them manages to do it, they’d be in a prime position to do a lot of good for the city, and even the whole region. So she smiles and nods. “Yeah. I like the sound of that!”

“So then, let’s make a promise! One of us will become Champion, and we’ll use the position to do as much good as possible. Whoever isn’t Champion will still help right alongside whoever is,” Carly says, and then she holds her hand out.

Victoria nods, and takes Carly’s hand. She expects a handshake, but instead Carly gives her hand a soft squeeze. After a moment of surprise, Victoria returns the gesture.

“Great!” Carly says, withdrawing her hand. “Let’s keep going, then!”

Right. After all, the best way to help people right now is to find Amaria. So the two of them continue making their way through the building, battling off any wild Pokémon.

Eventually, they walk up an old escalator back to the ground floor and through a door to the north, where they find a Spoink that oinks at them several times before hopping off.

“Huh. That’s the first Spoink we’ve seen here, wasn’t it?” Carly asks.

“It was,” Victoria says. “It seemed really freaked out, too.”

Carly frowns, then walks to the room’s exit. Victoria follows, and they find themselves outside just in time to see Spoink bounce off into the stairs to Coral Ward.

“Looks like it’ll be safe, at least,” Carly says. “Seems like Amaria should be that way, too. C’mon!”

As the duo enters the stairway, Victoria checks her Pokégear, only to see nothing.

She wonders if Cain’s even seen her text. His help would be pretty valuable, since his Nidorino knows Cut, but aside from that…

“Is something wrong?” Carly asks, pausing just as they both enter the ward.

“I’m a bit worried about Cain,” Victoria admits. “If he was in the wrong place when all the chaos started…”

Carly frowns. “Oh. I…”

It’s silent for a long moment. Victoria regrets bringing the idea up— it’s not like there’s anything they can do at the moment but worry about it, after all.

“…he’s probably fine,” Carly says, still seeming uneasy. “We should just keep looking for Amaria right now.”

“Right, but… can we maybe take a few deep breaths first?” Victoria asks.

“Huh?” Carly asks, confused.

“I think it will help us feel better,” Victoria says. She’s anxious, the feeling much more wound up in her than she realized before now that she’s actually taken a moment to stop and think about such a terrifying possibility, and she thinks Carly feels the same.

Carly thinks for a moment, then nods. “You’re probably right. Let’s do it.”

Victoria takes some deep breaths, and Carly copies her. She has a thought in the back of her mind that the polluted air of the city isn’t great for this, and the mist in the ward from Azurine Lake probably makes it worse, but it’s not like they can just not breathe it.

“…I feel better now,” Carly says once they’re done, giving Victoria a smile. “Thanks.”

“It’s no problem,” Victoria says. She should at least be able to help her friend with this kind of thing, after all. “Now that we feel better, let’s keep looking for Amaria.”

Carly nods, and they do just that.

The area is quiet, with few people out and about, but they find the one person they’re looking for almost immediately, standing near the end of a pier and staring at something to the north. It must be important, for her to stand so close to the lake.

“Excuse me! Are you Amaria?” Carly calls as Victoria and her walk over, catching Amaria’s attention.

“Yes, that’s me,” she says. “Can I help you?”

“Yeah, we were actually looking for you,” Carly says. “My name is Carly.”

“I’m Victoria,” Victoria says.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’d love to help with whatever it is you need. But, sorry, could you hold on just a moment?” Amaria asks. She points to where she was looking before, and Victoria and Carly both look over to see a Popplio in front of a lighthouse some ways away. “That Popplio has been stranded over there somehow, and I need to get it to safety.”

“Aww, poor thing!” Carly says.

“There’s no way it’ll be able to swim all the way over here without getting seriously hurt,” Victoria says, staring at the lake with a frown.

The pollution of Azurine Lake could be called a symbol of the city’s current state, even though it didn’t start until years after the decline did. The murky, pungent water is visible from multiple places in the city, causes people to get sick regularly, and is a big part of why so many Pokémon have disappeared from the area.

She’s so used to it that sometimes she forgets it’s not natural— after all, the water that laps against the shores of Apophyll Beach isn’t much different than the water she’s staring at right now. This Popplio’s situation is another reminder that in some ways, this city’s become actively harmful to its inhabitants.

“Well, nothing for it,” Amaria says before gesturing towards a nearby warehouse. “I’ve got a boat moored just in that warehouse. Running through the acidic water has been doing a number on it, but right now it can’t be helped.”

Before any of the three can say or do anything else, though, Cain’s voice calls out. “Heyyy guys!”

He walks down the pier to join the group, and once he reaches them, Victoria can’t help but let out a small huff. “There you are, Cain! Did you not get my text?”

She’s relieved that he’s okay, but he really should’ve answered!

“I did! I was just… really distracted when you sent it,” Cain says, glancing away sheepishly as he rubs the back of his neck. “I didn’t see it until a little while ago.”

“Well, it’s fine, you’re here now,” Carly says.

“And you two are already making friends in high places, huh~?” Cain asks, eyes flitting over to Amaria.

Carly also looks over to her. “Huh?”

Amaria looks away, scratching her neck as her face goes a bit pink. “Aha, I wouldn’t necessarily say ‘high places.’”

“Carly, don’t tell me you didn’t know…” Cain starts, somewhere between surprised and mischievous. “Amaria is one of the highest ranking Gym Leaders in Reborn!”

“Really? That’s incredible!” Carly says, impressed.

Amaria looks back to the group, shaking her head. “Really, it’s no big deal.”

Isn’t it, though? If Victoria remembers correctly— and Cain’s words suggest she does— Amaria is one of the League’s top five Leaders. Possibly even one of the top three. That means her Gym Battles are more difficult than Champion Title Battles in a lot of places in the world.

It’s odd to think about, that the League has a lot of people not much older than Victoria, and even people younger than her, even in its highest ranks.

That’s not important right now, though. What is is that Cain lets out his Alolan Grimer, who’s able to save Popplio.

“That was amazing!” Amaria says with a grin once both Pokémon are on the pier.

“Yeahhh, I get that a lot,” Cain says with a small smirk. “Usually from boys, though.”

Victoria rolls her eyes as Carly chuckles and Popplio barks, but she can’t help a small smile.

“Great work, Grimer! You can return now,” Cain says, recalling Grimer.

“I guess that’s to be expected from Reborn’s Poison Type Leader,” Amaria says.

“Wait, what?” Carly asks, seeming just as surprised as Victoria.

She had no idea that Cain was a Leader! She didn’t realize that Leaders could challenge the League, either. It does explain why Florinia was so willing to let him into Obsidia Ward, though.

“…ah,” Cain says, looking away. “Actually… I just stepped down recently.”

“…oh? Didn’t the previous Leader before you just retire too?” Amaria asks, tilting her head a bit. “Is the position cursed or something?”

“No, it just—” Cain starts before hesitating. He looks back to the group. “Among other things, constraining myself to one type just wasn’t for me.”

It’s quiet for a moment, and Victoria shares a look with Carly. It’s clear that Cain’s holding something back, here, that these “other things” are more serious than his now casual expression lets on. Pointing that out and trying to press would be a stupid idea, though— that would probably make him less likely to tell. On the other hand, Victoria’s seen many different people open up to Kiki over the years, and a big part of why is because she doesn’t push.

“Well, um…” Victoria starts, feeling a bit awkward. “We should probably get back to dealing with the situation in Obsidia, right?”

Amaria’s eyes widen. “I totally got distracted and left Rini hanging! I was chasing some reports of a Team Meteor agent in the area… his name is Borealis. I don’t suppose you’ve seen anyone like that?”

“No, nobody,” Victoria says, because as unpleasant as some of the men in the slums were, she has no reason to think any of them were terrorists. She looks to Carly. “Did you see anyone while we were split up?”

“A few people, but I have serious doubts any of them fit the bill,” Carly says.

“All I saw were people screaming, and not for the fun reasons,” Cain says.

Amaria sighs. “…that would’ve been too lucky. I think the trail’s gone cold by now anyway. Florinia sent you after me for this, right?”

She takes out what must be the Cut Machine from her bag, then hands it to Carly.

“Yeah, thanks! Now, let’s all get going!” Carly says.

“Actually… is it cool if I sit this one out?” Cain asks sheepishly. “There’s a couple things back in the wasteland that I gotta take care of, or they’re gonna come back to bite me, so…”

Carly nods pretty much instantly. “I get it, go do what you’ve gotta do! Hopefully we’ll have everything wrapped up by the time you’re back.”

Victoria nods in agreement. It would be better to have Cain along to help, but she’s sure he wouldn’t be asking this if he didn’t seriously need to go do something.

“Thanks. See you later~” Cain says, turning and beginning to leave. But Popplio follows him, barking, causing him to stop in his tracks.

“Awwh, he seems to have taken a liking to you,” Amaria says with a smile.

“Huh?” Cain asks, turning back around and looking down at Popplio. “Well, he is a cutie.”

Carly gasps, eyes lighting up. “We can be Popplio buddies! I mean, Percy is a Brionne, but you get what I mean.”

And of course, Victoria having Torracat means that, if Cain catches Popplio, their whole trio will have an Alolan starter. It’s a little lopsided, maybe, but it’s still a cool little connection between the three of them.

Cain smiles. “Heyyy, Popplio, do you maybe wanna come with me?”

Popplio barks happily, quickly moving closer to him.

“I think that’s a ‘Yes, please,’” Amaria says.

“Aha, so forward,” Cain says, looking through his bag for a moment and taking out a Poké Ball. “All right, I’ll keep you safe from now on, little buddy.”

But Popplio shakes its head, letting out a bark in disagreement.

“Heyy, what’s the matter?” Cain asks, looking worried.

“If I had to take a guess, I’d say it doesn’t want to be protected anymore,” Amaria suggests. “I think it wants to return the favor.”

Popplio barks in agreement… but is it really just that?

“Or maybe it just doesn’t want it to be one-sided,” Carly suggests. “You can both protect each other instead of just one of you relying on the other.”

Victoria nods. “Pokémon are a lot more like humans than some people give them credit for. We’re often thought of as their caretakers, but they take just as much care of us.”

It’s one of the biggest lessons she’s learned at the academy. Not just from Kiki— though it is a lesson she makes sure to teach all of her students— but also from Victoria’s own Pokémon. Whenever she felt down or unsure about something, her Pokémon were there for her.

That’s why one of the most important parts of this journey is that Kirlia and Pancham are a part of it. As excited as she is to see the region and learn new things, she can’t imagine doing it without those two. Traveling with them around the region and helping them get stronger feels like the least she can do after they’ve stuck with her for so long.

Popplio barks in agreement again.

Cain looks thoughtful for a moment, then nods, smiling at Popplio again. “…all right, then! Let’s look out for each other.”

Popplio claps its flippers, and lets Cain catch it. He puts the Poké Ball on his belt.

“We’d better hurry back, now,” Carly says. “Victoria and I should heal our Pokémon, first, but then we’ll get right to the park!”

“I’ll go ahead. How about we walk together up to the gate to the wasteland, Cain?” Amaria offers.

“Sure, sounds romantic~” Cain jokes before looking to Victoria and Carly. “See you both later!”

“See ya!” Carly says.

“We’ll do our best to have things fixed, by then!” Victoria says.

The group splits up, then, and she and Carly head to the nearby Pokémon Center.

“Do you have any Pokémon that can learn Cut?” Carly asks as they walk.

“That’s a good question, actually,” Victoria says, taking her Pokédex out of her bag. “Let’s see…”

She uses it to view who in her party can learn Cut, and sees that Pancham can. So when she and Carly both have their teams healed up, and Carly has taught the move to Rosie, by now a Roselia, Victoria teaches the move to Pancham.

Victoria and Carly then head back up to Obsidia Park, getting Rosie to help cut down some trees blocking the path, and find Amaria and Florinia waiting for them. The two of them are ready, and soon Rosie has cleared the tree blocking the park away with Cut. The group then enters, Carly and Rosie leading the way, followed by Florinia, then Amaria, and finally Victoria.

And the moment she steps inside, she stops in her tracks.

“It looks so much bigger on the inside…” she says, looking around in shock. The vine dome up above didn’t exactly look small on the outside, but she swears it’s much higher up than before…

“Perception is inherently subjective to and thus influenced by those parts to which it is relative and adjacent,” Florinia claims, somehow unfazed even now.

“Yep! Whatever that means, but, yep!” Amaria says.

“I think what she’s getting at is it just seems bigger because we’re inside instead of outside,” Carly says. “Like… we’ve started hunting down the cause, now, so there’s a different feeling to everything.”

Oh, that makes sense. Perception can be warped by things like fear or uncertainty.

The group decides to split up, and Florinia and Amaria leave to the north.

“I guess it’s up to us to start with the edges of this place?” Victoria says.

“Sounds like it!” Carly says.

She’s standing in front of a path to Victoria’s left, so Victoria walks over to the other one. “I’ll take this way, you take the other? With any luck, we’ll all meet up momentarily anyway.”

“Right, but be careful, okay?” Carly requests. “This place is likely crawling with Meteors…”

“Right, of course. I’ll call out if I need help,” Victoria promises. “You stay safe, too.”

“I will,” Carly says.

“Then I’m off!” Victoria says.

Carly nods, and Victoria turns and starts down her path.

She encounters a few Meteors, but she manages to beat each of them quickly enough, and she makes sure to heal up her Pokémon after each battle, just in case. If anything is giving her a challenge here, it’s not the people in the area, but the area itself.

A lot of the trees are too densely packed together to walk between, so she doesn’t have many options for paths to take. But her way is occasionally blocked by large vines that stretch to fill the space between trees, too close to the ground to go under, too large to go over, and too sturdy to clear away with Cut. To get rid of them, she has to find smaller trees that seem to writhe in place and have Pancham cut those down instead, causing the vines to almost completely withdraw.

Sometimes she’s lucky enough that a vine doesn’t stretch out to form a barrier until she’s already passed the space it blocks up, but even that’s unpleasant in its own way. As if whatever’s causing this is attempting to trap her.

Plus, while more light than she would’ve assumed finds its way through the dome up above, her surroundings are still somewhat dark. When she looks up, she could swear that the vines move slowly, weaving a bit tighter together each second. It makes her feel like she’s working on a time limit, though she reminds herself that if it gets too dark, her Pokégear has a flashlight.

Aside from all of that, she swears that the park seems so much larger than it was before. She keeps telling herself that that’s impossible— there’s nothing to suggest she’s gone past the park’s normal limits. But all the steps she’s taken, the amount of trees she’s passed… can all of that really fit into the area the park covers?

She guesses there’s no use wondering about it, her focus better placed on other things. Like the name she swears she just heard on the other side of a nearby cluster of trees— Borealis.

The one Amaria was looking for?

Victoria stops in place and listens in. It’s hard to hear most of the exact words being spoken through the trees, but it sounds like someone is making some kind of report to Borealis.

This could be a golden opportunity, she realizes. She starts to shimmy between the trees, a difficult task with how close together they are, but not completely impossible as long as she’s careful.

She stops before she fully reaches the other side, hiding behind a tree trunk and peeking into a small clearing just in time to watch the talking Meteor wrap up their report.

“Right. Dismissed, then,” what must be Borealis says.

“Yes, sir,” the other Meteor says.

They leave, and Borealis watches them do so, then stares after them for a few short moments before speaking. “You can come out, now.”

Victoria tenses up, at that. Is he…?

“Yes, you. Attempting to hide amongst the trees,” Borealis says before turning to face Victoria fully. “There is clearly something you want. You will not achieve it through staying put.”

…he’s right. So Victoria schools her expression, then steps out into the open. “You’re Borealis.”

“I will not deny it,” Borealis says. “And you are one of the four girls who have entered this park in direct defiance of Team Meteor. Victoria.”

Hearing he knows her name freaks Victoria out a bit, but she tries not to let it show. “That’s right. And we’re going to stop you!”

Borealis seems completely unfazed by the declaration. He takes a Poké Ball from his belt… leisurely? No, that’s not quite the right descriptor, but Victoria isn’t sure what is.

Whatever the right word is, though, he brings his finger to the button in the same way and presses it, letting out a Crobat. “Then prove to me that you can.”

Victoria intends to.

She starts off with Pichu, hoping that she can inflict Crobat with a status effect or two… but to Victoria’s dismay, it takes Pichu down in mere seconds. The rest of her team doesn’t fare much better, each of them knocked out by it in no more than a minute.

All too soon, Victoria has lost.

“Pathetic. Are you truly the best defense this wretched city can muster?” Borealis asks.

Victoria looks away, brow furrowing. “Tch, I can’t believe I lost so quickly— and after I was able to find Borealis, too…”

“To say ‘you lost’ is a flagrant understatement,” Borealis says, tone slightly harsher than it already was. “A more accurate description would be that you barely managed to show up to the fight in the first place. Do not glorify your meager performance here with a result as if there were any competition to begin with.”

Victoria can feel her expression twist into something as sour as she feels. She didn’t think defeating Borealis would be a cakewalk— she heard before that he was high ranking, after all. But she thought she’d be able to pull it off, or at least stall until one of the others showed up.

Before she can say anything, though, she hears Carly’s voice. “Victoria!”

“Carly?” Victoria calls, looking to the trees behind her. “Carly, I need your help!”

If Carly can get to her—

“Crobat. We will take her someplace secure,” Borealis says.

Before Victoria can blink, she’s grabbed, and the things in her pockets fall out. By the time she’s able to process anything more, she’s been flown inside an unfamiliar hallway.

“H-huh? Where are we?” she asks, looking around as best she can. There’s a door nearby, but she can’t see out of it at this angle.

“That is not for you to know,” Borealis says, dismounting from Crobat.

He grabs Victoria’s wrist and makes her dismount, then drags her further in… except, no, it’s more like he’s leading her. He’s being… oddly gentle.

They reach a larger area with a table, and Borealis speaks to a Meteor standing nearby. “You. Get me a blindfold.”

The woman nods, then hurries off to an exit.

Once she’s gone, Borealis lets Victoria go and speaks in a quiet voice. “Hide your Poké Balls.”

“What?” Victoria asks, wondering if she somehow misheard “surrender” or “give me” as “hide.”

“If you want any chance of escape, remove your Poké Balls from your belt, and place them into your pockets,” Borealis says, to Victoria’s bewilderment. “Give me your bag, as well.”

Victoria is hesitant. Obviously escaping wherever this is is her top priority, but why would she trust her kidnapper to help make that happen?

Except she doesn’t have any better ideas than following along with what he’s telling her to do, and she doesn’t exactly have ample time to brainstorm. So she does as he’s told her to— he probably would’ve taken her bag anyway, and at least this way her team isn’t being taken from her.

Not long after she’s done, the other Meteor returns. She hands the blindfold over to Borealis, who then speaks. “Dismissed.”

The woman nods, then leaves.

Borealis nods towards a nearby chair. “Sit down.”

Again, Victoria obeys. Her eyes dart around in search of any escape route, but it seems the only exits are the way she came, and the nearby stairway, and she doubts she’d be able to get to either. Crobat hovers behind her, and Borealis walks around the table to sit across from her, so no matter what she tried, one of them would almost certainly catch her in milliseconds.

“You are out of your depth. For you to come to Obsidia Park was folly most moronic,” Borealis claims. “What did you even think someone like you could accomplish?”

“I thought, with the others…” Victoria starts before trailing off.

“The others, from whom you allowed yourself to be separated,” Borealis says.

The words unfortunately echo Victoria’s own thoughts. She had told herself that she’d be able to face Team Meteor as long as she was with the others, then she split up from them. She still had her Pokémon, but they hadn’t been enough. So she tries a different approach. “To protect the city—”

“This city, which festers like a wound in the earth,” Borealis interrupts.

Victoria… doesn’t have a response that doesn’t at least semi-validate his words. As much as she wants to protect and help the city, those desires are rooted in acknowledging that it’s an incredibly flawed, dirty place.

“In both ends and means, you demonstrate naïveté,” Borealis says. “You play pretend hero for the sake of ideals which have no basis in reality, and upon a foolish pride that insists even a misguided action is better than none. This was the only possible outcome.”

Victoria can’t help but shrink into herself a bit, ashamed. She’s proved Florinia’s earlier objections to her helping right in maybe the worst way possible, and the way that Borealis is delivering that message doesn’t help. He’s like a disappointed parent…

“Yet, what is done is done. Here is what is going to happen,” Borealis says, suddenly quieter than before. “You are going to be a captive of Team Meteor, but I am not going to confiscate your Pokémon. In fact, I will occasionally bring you food for them in secret. You will train them, and when the moment is right, you will strike and escape.”

“…I don’t understand,” Victoria admits, also quiet. “If you want me to escape, why not just let me go?”

“Because if I did that, you would not learn,” Borealis says. “As for your bag, it will be taken to the Grand Hall. If you have a Pokégear, or anything along those lines, hand it over. You will not leave this room until you do.”

“Um, it fell out of my pocket as we left the park…” Victoria says, aware it sounds like a lie.

Borealis sighs and stands up. “Stand up. I will need to give you a pat down to verify this. I will keep it entirely professional.”

Victoria isn’t thrilled about the idea, but she knows she can’t exactly say no. She stands up and lets Borealis pat her down.

Once that’s done, he puts the blindfold on her, and guides her away.

— — —

Captivity is a lot more comfortable than Victoria expected it to be.

The room she’s stuck in has a bed. In fact, it has several. She guesses it must be like the dorms at the academy, with multiple people sharing a room together. Occasionally, she wonders if the room was actively in use before, and if her being here has inconvenienced whoever usually sleeps here.

She’s given regular meals, too. They’re far from the best things she’s ever eaten, but she doesn’t go hungry.

She’s still a captive, though, and she doesn’t forget that for a second. Works to make escape possible by training her Pokémon.

It’s not easy. She has to stay constantly vigilant, hyperaware of any movement outside of the room. If she has a Pokémon out, she keeps its Poké Ball in hand, ready to recall it and stuff the ball into her pocket at the slightest sound from the hallway.

One day, she lets out Pancham and Pichu so that they can battle each other, and she stands by the door, listening closely, but also watching her Pokémon.

That she got herself kidnapped makes her feel like a fool. That she got them all kidnapped alongside her makes her feel like a bad Trainer. The four of them are suffering because of her mistake, cooped up in this strange place and forced to hide.

She tries to keep their spirits up. Talks to them when she can, assuring them that she’s always alert for any potential means of escape. They never seem upset at her, but she can’t help but worry that maybe they’re angrier than they let on, or are losing patience.

Pancham and Pichu battle on their own, without any input from Victoria. That’s how all the battles between her Pokémon have been since her capture. Directing two Pokémon at once in a Double Battle is one thing, but directing them against each other would just be too difficult, and she’d rather not direct only one of them against the other. Besides, she’d probably get into it and start moving around without even realizing, which would risk drawing attention from someone in Team Meteor.

The two Pokémon do just fine on their own, though. They both fight as hard as they can while being careful and quiet, and eventually Pancham faints.

And, to Victoria’s shock, Pichu starts to glow.

It’s obvious what’s happening. Even someone with minimal experience with and knowledge of Pokémon would probably be able to name the reason that this one is glowing, body and ears and tail all changing shape and getting bigger, without much thought. But even as the glow subsides, and Pikachu runs over to Victoria, she’s completely flabbergasted.

She kneels down, putting the Poké Ball in her right hand down so she can reach out and rub Pikachu’s head, causing her to look even happier than she already does.

“You… really like me enough to evolve?” Victoria asks in a whisper. “Even now?”

Pikachu lets out a soft squeak in confirmation.

Relief hits Victoria like a tidal wave. After all, a Pichu needs a close bond to evolve. It’s possible for that bond to be with another Pokémon, of course, but Pikachu has made it clear she evolved because of Victoria. Pancham has also wandered partway up, seeming like she doesn’t want to steal the spotlight but would like some affection just as much, and so Victoria puts down the other ball she holds and beckons Pancham over and feels that relief yet again.

Her Pokémon really aren’t mad at her. They’re still building the bonds they have together, even now, in a situation like this.

It strengthens her resolve to escape like nothing else could. She and her team keep training as days goes by, determined to be ready when the time comes.

Borealis occasionally checks in, too, bringing food and water for her Pokémon as promised.

Her feelings towards him are odd. He’s the reason she’s being held captive… but now that she’s had time to think about it, she understands his logic.

Kiki taught her that failure is an opportunity to grow. When someone fails, the best thing they can do is examine what they did wrong, and work on fixing their shortcomings.

This is just an extreme version of that lesson. If she’s going to keep fighting Team Meteor, they aren’t just going to hand out victories. If she loses again, she’s sure her next opponent will do something worse than kidnapping her, but also giving her encouragement and help to escape. To avoid getting into a worse situation, she needs to reflect and improve.

As for who Borealis is beyond the captor who wants her to escape… she doesn’t really know. He’s a terrorist, obviously, and a high ranking one at that. To say he’s done horrible things is like saying Pokémon use moves. She has no idea of what those things are, though, and any attempts to prod are quickly brushed off.

She wonders who he is when he’s not doing his job. He probably has a civilian identity, right? Based on what she knows, she’s certain that Borealis is a codename, so he must have an actual name.

But she has no clue what it is. He keeps his hood drawn tightly, to the point that his eyes are difficult to see at best and she has no clue of his hair color. Sometimes, she swears he seems familiar, but she can never figure out why.

One day, he shows up with food and water as usual, but he also gives her a Light Ball, for her Pikachu.

“Is something happening?” Victoria asks. This is the first time Borealis has given her something like this.

“Not yet, but it will be tomorrow,” he says. “Your chance to escape will arrive, but only you can identify it.”

Victoria perks up at that. “I will! I won’t let myself get into a situation like this again, either!”

“I should hope not,” Borealis says, before pulling a Machine out from his bag and handing that to Victoria as well. “Use this however you can.”

Victoria reads the move name engraved on the Machine, and frowns a bit. “‘Rock Smash…?’ I don’t have the Badge needed to use this outside of battle…”

“Take it regardless. Use the move in battle, or find another use for it,” Borealis says. “If nothing else, the loss of it will inconvenience Team Meteor.”

It would be an odd statement if Victoria hadn’t already figured out that he’s strangely undevoted to the organization he’s a part of. And Machines for field moves can be hard to come by, so he’s probably right about the loss of this one inconveniencing Team Meteor. So she nods.

Borealis leaves soon, taking the food packets and water bottles that her Pokémon have emptied. She finds a place to hide the Machine, under her shirt— it feels a bit weird to have it press against her skin, but she determines that’ll be the best place for it— and gets started on her own meal, thinking.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow, she’ll be free.

— — —

The next day, Victoria walks towards a crack in the Grand Stairway. She’s not doing this of her own free will, and there are two main reminders of that: the rope binding her wrists together, and the hand on her back, pressed between her shoulder blades and keeping her moving.

She walks past multiple civilians on her way to the stairway. She could speak up and make her situation known to them. Her bindings would make it easy to prove. In a more normal situation, someone probably would’ve noticed them even without her speaking up.

But this isn’t a more normal situation, because the crack in the stairway was just made by an explosive device set up and detonated by Team Meteor. It went off not just in front of a crowd, but as someone was examining the device. The explosion sent him flying into the crowd, and understandably caused a panic. Because of that, Victoria passes through without anyone saying anything, and so does the man with her.

The leader of Team Meteor.

She doesn’t know his name or even his codename, but it’s been made clear to her that that’s who he is. And for some reason, the man who everyone in Team Meteor answers to has decided to take her with him first to the bombing of the Grand Stairway, and now into the crack that resulted from it.

By the time they reach it, a rope ladder has been set up, leading down inside. The leader helps her get started climbing down it, and she continues down.

She’s hesitant with every move she makes. She may be able to hold the ladder’s rungs even with her hands bound, and the ground isn’t so far below that she’d hurt herself too badly if she lost her grip and fell, but she’s somewhat afraid to regardless, especially since it might lead to the things she’s hiding being revealed.

Soon, she feels a pair of hands graze her legs. It makes her jolt, but she keeps her grip, and looks back to see a girl with shoulder length black and blue hair mostly in a black Meteor hood, arms outstretched.

“I’ll, uh… make sure you don’t fall,” the girl says.

Victoria nods. “Right…”

The rest of the climb down is easier. The other girl doesn’t really actively do anything, but just knowing that Victoria won’t fall onto the hard ground below if she messes up makes the descent easier. The girl also keeps her touch light and barely there, meaning she doesn’t feel the things that Victoria is hiding.

“Thanks…” she mutters once she’s reached the bottom.

The girl just shrugs.

Victoria takes a few steps away so that the leader can climb down. Once he’s reached the ground, he talks to his subordinates— aside from him and the girl, there are two more Meteors here, a boy around her and the girl’s ages and a man with one eye. As they talk, Victoria stares at the ground and tries to keep her expression schooled.

She was taken from the room she was kept in a while ago and brought to Rhodochrine Forest just as Team Meteor started an attack on the area. A strange Pokémon that, according to some Meteors, was a Tangrowth, had been stuck into some kind of machine and, like during the Obsidia attack, plant growth had been driven into overdrive. She’s not sure how long she was there, and she spent that whole time in the same place, but by the time the leader left with her in tow, the area looked more like a jungle than a forest.

In the time that she was there, her chance to escape had never presented itself. Even if she’d been able to grab a Poké Ball with the way her wrists are bound, the area she was in was blocked off by those large, sturdy vines. Plus, there were multiple high ranking Meteors nearby, and as time passed, more showed up. There was nothing she could try that wouldn’t make her situation worse.

Now, though? It seems like escape is slowly slipping further and further from her grasp. Even when most of the Meteors leave, the two around her age leaving the cave while the man with one eye heads further in on his own, she’s still left with the leader, and he takes her further in.

It makes her nervous. This cave seems to go down surprisingly deep, and the further she gets from the surface, the harder escape will be.

Even if striking now was a viable choice, though, she doesn’t think she could do it. The leader is an intimidating man— tall and imposing, with a stern expression and eyes locked on the path ahead, as if he knows she wouldn’t dare to try and run. He stays silent, so she does as well. Tries to focus on her surroundings.

There are a lot of crystals around, she notices. In the walls and up above. She’s not sure what exactly they are. She could make a few guesses based off their colors— red, blue, green, and purple— but she doesn’t know enough about this kind of thing to be sure.

Eventually, the scenery changes drastically. Victoria and the leader walk down a clearly deliberately made staircase, entering an area— or maybe it could even be called a room— with strange, shining, changing patterns on the walls. When they reach an obviously manmade gate, he stops to stare at it, so she does, too.

It’s quiet for a moment, and then he asks a question. “Were you aware that any of this was here?”

Victoria shakes her head, because she wasn’t. And… that’s kind of odd, isn’t it? She was born and raised in Reborn City, and yet she had no idea that there was such a large cave or… whatever this room is, underneath it.

“I am not surprised,” the leader says, eyes still fixed on the gate. “Most of the city’s people are ignorant to this place. Unknowing of history, they pass over Reborn’s core each and every day.”

Reborn’s core? Normally, Victoria would probably question what makes this place special enough to be called the entire region’s “core,” but… she would be lying if she said she didn’t feel something. Something emanating, a power she can’t explain, so faint but there. A hum within her veins she can’t identify.

“To build this wretched city, its founders covered up a holy site, and stole its symbols for their own use,” the leader continues. “It is a practice that the League’s Champion and founder has carried on. Remember this, even once you leave this place.”

Victoria is only able to nod.

The leader brings her over to a makeshift holding cell— bars clearly set up quite hastily— and makes her enter.

“Stick your wrists out through the bars,” the leader instructs.

Victoria obeys, and he withdraws something from within his coat. When she sees the object, her eyes widen— is that a dagger?!

He handles it carefully, cutting through her bindings without letting it touch her skin. He puts both the weapon and the ropes away, then turns away from her.

Soon, the younger pair of Meteors from before shows up. The leader talks with them for a moment, instructing them to guard Victoria, then walks out of sight.

Victoria stands still, nervous. She’s actually able to grab her Poké Balls now, but should she? Her guards have a combined total of four Pokémon, the same amount as she has, so she’s not sure she could defeat them in a two on one battle. Even if she could do that, and get her Pokémon to destroy the cell she’s in enough for her to get out, the guards could just grab her. And even if she could get past both of them, the way down here involved jumping down multiple ledges she doesn’t think she could climb back up, so she’d have to find an alternative route to the surface, and she’d surely be caught up with before she could. She might even run into the leader.

Just as she starts to wonder if she’s already let the moment to escape pass her by, she hears a familiar voice. “Victoria!”

Victoria’s head snaps up to see Carly running up.

“Hey, what are you doing here?!” the boy asks.

“Obviously, she followed us…” the girl grumbles.

“Carly, is it really you?!” Victoria asks in slight disbelief.

“Of course! We’ve been looking for you all week!” Carly says before focusing on Victoria’s guards. “Let her go!”

“The boss just walked right past you?!” the boy asks, sounding like he’s in much more disbelief than Victoria just was.

“Told you we shouldn’t count on him for anything,” the girl says, sounding annoyed. “So much for the ‘family…’”

“If you’re talking about the guy with the super long black hair, he said Victoria and I are free to leave,” Carly says.

“Ha, like we’re just gonna believe that!” the boy says, grabbing a Poké Ball from his belt. “We’ll capture you ourselves!”

The girl takes a Poké Ball of her own in hand, and Carly sighs. “Fine. The hard way it is.”

“I’ve got your back, Carly!” Victoria says, taking Torracat’s ball from her pocket.

“You stay quiet, missy,” the girl says, looking over her shoulder at Victoria, only for her eyes to widen at the sight of the Poké Ball.

“Make me!” Victoria counters.

She sends out Torracat, Carly sends out Percy, and the Meteors send out a Solrock and Lunatone. The boy is obviously confused by Torracat’s presence, meaning Victoria and Carly get a bit of an advantage.

Torracat and Percy are able to take down the Lunatone and Solrock without much trouble. They’re taken down in turn by a pair of Lycanroc, but Victoria and Carly’s Pancham are able to beat them together.

“Uh… what just happened?” the boy asks once everyone’s recalled their Pokémon.

“…are you kidding me,” the girl says, not asks, again annoyed as she looks to Victoria again with a scowl. “Seriously, who let her keep her Pokémon?!”

“I didn’t even think about it…” the boy admits, embarrassed.

“I’ve had them the whole time!” Victoria says, not able to help a smirk from spreading across her face. “Borealis never took them from me. He told me to keep them and wait for the right moment. I’ve been training in secret for this moment this whole time!”

“Way to go!” Carly cheers with a grin.

“Ohhh my god,” the girl says, rubbing her temples. “Even after death, the old man is a pain in our necks.”

Carly flinches, and Victoria’s face falls. “…even after what?”

“Forget it, just go,” the girl hisses. “Obviously it’s not like the boss cares either.”

“But don’t expect us to let you go so easily next time!” the boy exclaims.

“We’ll be leaving now. But, hey? Just because you beat us, doesn’t mean you won,” the girl says. “Ta-ta.”

She drops something on the ground, and she and the boy flee.

“I guess that’s that…” Victoria says as Carly picks up the item— a key.

She unlocks the cell door. “Yeah. Are you okay?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not hurt or anything,” Victoria assures, stepping forward. “Both of them— Borealis, and their leader— treated me quite humanely.”

“Well, that’s good, at least,” Carly says, relieved.

“But now Borealis is dead? Wasn’t he on their side?” Victoria asks with a frown as she looks to the ground, confused.

Even if he seemed almost as if he didn’t want to be, Borealis was with Team Meteor. But that one girl talked about him as if she had thought of him as an annoyance even before learning he’d helped Victoria.

“It’s… complicated,” Carly says, causing Victoria to look up and see she’s frowning as well. “Do you remember Corey Molinar, that doctor who treated me when I first got here?”

Victoria nods.

“He turned out to be Borealis. But he wasn’t in Team Meteor because he wanted to be,” Carly explains. “It’s a long story, but… he ended up doing something to upset the others, plus his identity was revealed to the police. He… he chose to take his own life.”

Victoria’s eyes widen, the rest of her body freezing up. “I— that’s—”

She has to stop and take a deep breath.

Borealis, Corey— whichever she should call him— hadn’t exactly struck her as a happy man as either identity. She’s certain that, during every encounter she had with him, he didn’t smile once, expression instead a permanent frown. His voice was always monotonous. But she never considered, even once, that he might kill himself. But then, why would she?

“…as for the leader, all he did was talk to me— about that gate up there. And how, in order to start the Reborn League, Ame plastered all over some kind of holy site…” she says, needing to focus on something else. “It doesn’t sound right, but maybe this is just some kind of propaganda? I don’t get it.”

“He said something similar to me,” Carly says, thankfully not seeming to mind the subject change. “Like you said, though, I don’t have any way to verify if it’s true…”

“Either way, I’m not just going to stand by and let them do whatever they want,” Victoria says. “Before anything, let’s get out of here.”

“Right! I actually kind of wanted to check up on the Gym Leader in Lapis, Shelly,” Carly says. “She’s really young, and she saw Corey’s body… I think she might’ve known him, too, so that’s even worse…”

“That’s… oh, god. Nobody should have to see something like that, especially a child,” Victoria says, frowning.

“We might not be able to see her, since she had a friend with her who seemed pretty protective— Cal, I think his name was. But maybe we can at least ask if she’s feeling okay?” Carly suggests. “Cain and I agreed we’d meet there, too.”

“Right. Let’s go, then,” Victoria says.

Carly nods, and the two of them start to leave.

“Were you really looking for me all week?” Victoria asks.

“Of course! And it wasn’t just me,” Carly says. “Cain helped a lot, and so did others, like Amy.”

“‘Amy?’” Victoria repeats, confused.

“Oh, I mean Amaria,” Carly explains. “Cain and I have talked with her a bit more in the last week, and she said we could start using her nickname.”

Ah, right. Victoria remembers, from back when she was at Onyx Trainers’ School, that Amaria’s friend group uses nicknames for each other.

That aside, the duo continues to talk as they walk back up to the exit. Mostly Carly filling Victoria in on things that happened while she was a captive. Apparently Carly managed to find the daycare couple, picked up the things that Victoria lost in Obsidia Park, and did a whole lot more, especially today.

They also manage to find a few healing items as they walk, to Victoria’s surprise— maybe they fell down from the surface somehow?

“Heads up, when I first came down here, there were a bunch of cops around,” Carly says once they reach the cave’s exit, where a few raindrops fall in from above. “So we might have to answer to them.”

“How’d you get down here in the first place, then?” Victoria asks.

“Cain distracted one of them by flirting so I could slip past,” Carly says, as if it’s completely normal.

“Pfft, of course he did,” Victoria says with a small smile.

Carly heads up the ladder after that, and calls back down that the coast is clear. Victoria climbs up next, and finds that she’s right— it’s just the two of them on the stairway as a light drizzle falls.

They walk down the stairs, so obviously their next step is to head to Lapis Ward… but Victoria pauses, staring into the distance.

Carly pauses as well. “Something wrong?”

“Well… when I face this way, and look out over the lake, I can see the academy from here. That’s my home,” Victoria says.

Carly nods. “I didn’t actually see it the first few times I looked across the lake, but it’s definitely there. After I noticed it for the first time, it became impossible to miss whenever I looked.”

“Yeah. And it’s like nothing’s changed,” Victoria says. Then she turns around. Takes in the large, jagged crack in the stairway. “And then just behind me, a bomb site. Surreal.”

Reborn City started down the path to what it is now when she was pretty young. She hasn’t forgotten what it used to be like entirely, but most of her memories feature a version of the city that was actively declining.

It had all started with a few big, interconnected events— earthquakes, Yureyu’s shutdown, blackouts. But eventually, things happened at a more gradual pace. People’s savings ran dry. The air and lake became polluted. Pokémon left, or went into hiding. Now, though, big events that make the city worse at a fast pace have started up again.

“And what have I done?” she asks. “I teamed up with you to stop Team Meteor before and was immediately captured like some useless damsel.”

“It wasn’t ‘immediately,’” Carly argues. “You helped out a lot, both with the people caught in the attack and in the slums.”

“Maybe. But how much difference did I make, in the end?” Victoria asks. “It doesn’t feel like much.”

How many of the people who she helped would’ve been just fine, helped by Carly or Florinia instead, if Victoria wasn’t there? Did Carly even really need her help to get through the slums?

“I don’t accept that,” Victoria says as she turns to face Carly fully. She doesn’t mean that she doesn’t accept that she hasn’t done much. She knows she can’t just reject reality. But she won’t accept that all she’s done is all she’s capable of. “Carly, you have my heartfelt gratitude for giving me a chance to break free. Once we’ve checked on Shelly, battle me. I need to learn and grow much stronger if I’m ever going to make a real difference here. Are you up for it?”

“Sure!” Carly says with a smile.

“Great! As soon as we’re sure she’s okay, we’ll battle,” Victoria says with a smile of her own. “Let’s go, then.”

“Awww, for a second, I thought I was about to get a show.”

Victoria looks past Carly to see a boy who looks a lot like Florinia walk down the stairs to Lapis Ward, hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face.

“Oh. Hi,” Carly says, unenthused, before she moves to stand side by side with Victoria.

“But then, maybe that would be too much to ask for,” the boy says, ignoring Carly’s greeting entirely. He focuses on Victoria, smirk growing a bit. “Whoever you are, you probably would’ve beat her into the ground. It’s Carly, after all.”

“Actually, she’s beat me every time we’ve battled each other,” Victoria says, growing irritated. “And I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“That’s your loss. Name’s Fern,” the boy says, explaining his resemblance to Florinia. “Cool cat, top dog— you know how it is.”

Victoria and Carly share a look, a silent Is he serious? and Unfortunately, yes.

And then Fern, seemingly unaware of the horrible first impression he’s already made, makes it even worse. “You may be easy in battle, but you’re easier on the eyes.”

“Excuse me?” Victoria asks, offended.

“Oh come on, smile!” Fern says. “It’s a compliment, lady. What do you say we hang out sometime? Just you and me.”

“Did you just neg her?!” Carly asks, pitch rising somewhat towards the end.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Fern says dismissively.

“Well, I’d much rather talk to her than you,” Victoria says.

“Your loss!” Fern says. “Can’t imagine you get too much attention over that giant forehead of yours.”

“If you keep talking, you’re gonna regret it,” Victoria threatens, glaring.

Fern rolls his eyes. “Oh, I’m so scared of some bitch who—“

“Don’t call her that!” Carly snaps.

“Maybe I should just knock your lights out,” Victoria suggests.

“Like you could!” Fern says before grinning, eyes flitting to Carly. “Tell you what, I’m on one hell of a win streak right now! Just got my third Badge, like taking candy from a baby. That twerp Leader was crying like one by the end of it too. What an embarrassment.”

“Excuse me?” Carly asks, angry.

“What, is your hearing as bad as your battling?” Fern asks. “If even people like Shelly can be Gym Leaders, no wonder the Flobot got in.”

The words leave Victoria stunned, wondering if there’s something wrong with her own hearing. Is he seriously bragging about making a child cry?

“Anyway, Carly, what do you say we have a rematch?” he asks. “I think we’re past due, and this girl isn’t worth my time.”

“Didn’t you just ask me out like thirty seconds ago?” Victoria asks.

“Out of pity,” Fern claims.

Victoria’s fists and teeth clench, and she turns away, reminding herself that violence isn’t the answer… and decking a Gym Leader’s brother in the middle of the city would probably get her in some kind of trouble. “Sure, go ahead! Better Carly fights you before I do something you’ll really regret.”

“Yeah. Let’s battle, and I’ll beat you for a third time,” Carly says.

“Here, let me heal your team first,” Victoria says, withdrawing the healing items she found from her pockets. They’re just enough to make sure Carly’s team is at full HP. “Kick his entire ass for me, okay?”

“I plan to,” Carly says.

“As if you can!” Fern says with a scowl.

He sends out a Rhyhorn, Carly sends out Percy, and the battle starts.

Fern’s far from the worst battler Victoria’s ever seen, she begrudgingly admits to herself. His Pokémon are strong, and obey his commands without hesitation, taking down some of Carly’s Pokémon. Maybe he even got those other two Badges he mentioned legitimately.

But Carly and her team are better. She gives quick commands that her Pokémon carry out without a thought, and they take down all four of Fern’s Pokémon before even three of them go down.

“…noob,” he says once he’s beat.

“Yeah, yeah,” Carly says. “Get it all out, as usual.”

Fern scowls— or scowls more, really— and Victoria grins. “Hah! Where’s your big mouth now?!”

“Oh, trust me, it’s still there,” Carly mutters so only Victoria can hear.

“Carly only won because she fights cheap, but go off, I guess,” Fern says, proving Carly right. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“How do I ‘fight cheap?’” Carly asks. “Go on. Explain it to me.”

“If you need it explained to you, you’re more hopeless than I thought,” Fern says. “Paltry tricks and pot-shots are only gonna get you so far in the League. When you zero out and have to spend your time hanging out with bottom feeders like her—”

“Shut up,” Carly harshly interrupts. “Insult me all you want, but leave her alone.”

“Guess losers flock together,” Fern says. “Smell you later, then!”

He starts to walk away, down Opal Bridge, and Victoria takes a step away from Carly’s side to shout after him. “Yeah, I bet you’re just going to turn tail and run after saying all that stuff! You don’t have either the integrity or the spine to stick around after saying it! You’re all hot air and big words anyway!”

Fern doesn’t respond verbally, just throws up a peace sign as he keeps walking.

“What a prick!” Victoria screams before stopping herself. Turning around. “Okay, no; this is unbecoming… simple breathing exercises… in and out…”

As she breathes, Carly speaks up. “As easy as he causes it, he’s not worth the anger.”

“And there’s no point to it, anyway,” Victoria says, remembering Kiki’s lessons. “It only causes one to lose control over themselves…”

She doesn’t get angry very often these days. But aside from harassers, one of the things that gets on her nerves most is sore losers, and Fern was a frustrating mix of both. Calming down takes a few moments.

Once she has, she turns back around and speaks. “I’m sorry about all that.”

“Hey, it was just as much me as you,” Carly says. She huffs, then glances away with a frown. “I can’t fucking stand that guy.”

“…did something happen while I was gone?” Victoria asks. When Carly had talked about Fern before, during her recollection of the raid they’d done together, she seemed, at worst, mildly annoyed a few times. Nothing that would’ve led Victoria to expect such a hostile encounter as what just happened.

“A few things, actually, but there’s no use in standing around and getting riled up about them right now,” Carly says. “It sounds like Shelly needs checking up on even more than we thought.”

“Right. First, though…” Victoria says, removing the Rock Smash Machine from her shirt. She holds it out to Carly. “I wanted to thank you for your time and energy by giving you this.”

Carly takes it, looking confused. Probably because Victoria just pulled a Machine out from her shirt. “Where’d you get this?”

“Borealis gave it to me,” Victoria explains. “I already taught the move to Pancham, though, so I think you’ll make better use of it, now. You’ll need Shelly’s Gym Badge to use it outside of battle though.”

“Ah,” Carly says before putting the Machine away. “I doubt this is the time to get it, but still, let’s go see her.”

Victoria nods, and they head off into Lapis Ward… as she mutters to herself. “My forehead isn’t even that big, geez…”

“Who even cares what your forehead looks like? He was just being a dick,” Carly says.

“…yeah,” Victoria says, a bit embarrassed. “You’re right.”

She’s never really thought much about how other people think she looks, anyway. She’ll just brush this off.

The two of them stop by the Pokémon Center to heal their teams, then walk over to the Gym… only to be blocked from entering by someone exiting.

“NOPE, no fuckin’ way,” the person, a boy that Victoria guesses is Cal, barks angrily as he yanks a Poké Ball from his belt. “After that last shit-weasel? Gym’s fuckin’ closed, get outta here!”

Carly looks as surprised as Victoria feels and holds up her hands. “Wait, we’re not—!”

Cal doesn’t listen, sending out a Torkoal.

“Oh, uh, guess we’re doing this!” Carly says, sending out Percy.

Torkoal’s Drought activates, the sunlight mixing with the rain to create a Rainbow Field. Carly stares at the rainbows with awe for a moment, then focuses on battling.

Victoria decides against joining in, not wanting to anger Cal even more. Carly handles it well without extra help, anyway, especially after Percy beating Torkoal causes him to evolve into Primarina and learn Sparkling Aria, which gets a boost from the field. He takes four Pokémon down on his own, and only faints because he got burned.

As Cal sends out a Charmeleon, he screams. “What’s your FUCKING problem, huh?!”

Victoria and Carly share an incredulous look.

It doesn’t take long for Charmeleon to go down, too, and Cal is yelling even as both sides recall their Pokémon. “Can’t you chumps take a goddamn hint? I said before— the Gym is CLOSED.”

“We’re not here to battle!” Carly says.

“Then what the fuck are you here for?!” Cal demands.

“We just want to check on Shelly!” Carly says.

Cal blinks. “What.”

“We were worried about how she was doing after seeing… that,” Carly says with a grimace.

“And Carly and I saw the last challenger on his way out. He was gloating about his sour win,” Victoria adds. “You mentioned he’s why you’re upset, right? I just about got as steamed as you are at him, but I’m a bit better at keeping calm. And then Carly gave him a walloping. So, in a way, justice is served.”

Carly nods. “Also, our friend Cain was supposed to come by here. Have you seen him?”

Cal is silent, but gets a look on his face like he’s processing things. He visibly relaxes over a few moments, too.

“I see, and yeah, he’s here. Come on in, I guess,” he soon says before turning around and walking inside.

“You were right about him being protective, but at least his heart’s in the right place,” Victoria mutters. Even if she’d be calmer about it, she can’t imagine she’d be too happy in Cal’s shoes, either.

Carly nods, and the two of them walk inside and upstairs while Cal stays downstairs, for now.

Victoria and Carly enter a bedroom, finding Cain and a girl who must be Shelly, the latter curled up on a couch.

“Oh, Victoria, you’re okay!” Cain says, smiling.

Victoria nods, smiling back. “Carly told me how you helped her get down to where I was. So thank you!”

Cain rubs the back of his neck. “Aw, it’s nothing! I just almost got arrested, haha… buuut I gave the cop the puppy dog eyes and charmed my way out of it~”

Carly chuckles, but Victoria is surprised at how casual they’re being about this. She doesn’t really think of nearly getting arrested as “nothing.”

“Anyway, did either of you guys see Heather on your way here?” Cain asks.

Carly mentioned a Heather, but Victoria’s not even sure what the girl looks like. Before she can say that, though, she hears a choked squeaking sound, and looks to the source, Shelly. Her eyes widen, the one not hidden behind her bangs looking like a saucer, and her face pales.

“Oh no,” she says, trembling. “No, nonono—”

“What the fuck did you do?!” Cal, who has just entered the room, demands.

Everyone’s beginning to look freaked out, Victoria included. Is Shelly having a panic attack? Victoria knows how to help with those, she knows she does, but as she tries to remember what to do, she draws a blank.

Cain speaks up, sounding panicked. “I-I just asked if anyone had seen—”

He’s cut off by Shelly hyperventilating. “That man, t-that was— that was Heather’s— I’m— I’m going to—”

She leans over the arm of the couch just in time to vomit onto the floor.

It’s silent for a moment other than Shelly’s labored breathing, everyone staring at the scene in shock.

“…I’ll find a rag,” Cal says.

“Victoria, Cain, do you think one of you can deal with… that?” Carly requests, gesturing towards the mess. “I’ll get Shelly cleaned up.”

“Yeah, I’ll do it…” Victoria volunteers.

Carly takes Shelly down a nearby hallway, and Cain heads downstairs. Cal gets Victoria what she needs to clean, then heads downstairs as well, and she gets to work.

This is something she knows how to do, thankfully. She’s helped clean at the academy on multiple occasions. One specific time, where one of her roommates got sick out of nowhere and woke her up by vomiting onto the floor, comes to mind.

Now that she thinks about it, things she’s learned at the academy have helped her a lot over the last couple weeks. Keeping calm when she panics or gets angry, finding lessons in failure, and now cleaning up vomit— whether it’s something she learned from the academy directly, or just something she learned because she was there, the skills she’s acquired have seen a lot of use.

Each and every one of those skills are something she learned at least partly thanks to Kiki. After all, she’s both the founder and head of the academy, and she taught Victoria multiple skills herself.

Victoria should call her soon. Let her know how valuable her lessons and academy have been. Victoria’s sure she’s said it before, but there’s no harm in saying it again, right?

Not long after she’s finished cleaning, Carly and Shelly return, the latter having changed into a set of purple pajamas, hair undone from the braid it was previously in.

Carly helps her get into her bed, pulling the covers up as Victoria walks over.

“Good night, Shelly,” Carly says.

“Good night, Shelly,” Victoria says. “We’ll come check on you tomorrow, okay?”

“Kay… good night…” Shelly mutters before her eyes flutter closed.

Victoria and Carly go downstairs, where they find Cal waiting.

“Shelly’s asleep. She conked out pretty quickly once she calmed down,” Carly says. “Poor girl… she definitely needs some sort of help, after that…”

“There’s a doctor nearby. Doctor Connor or whatever. Would you two mind asking if he’ll see Shelly tomorrow?” Cal asks. “I’d do it myself, but I’d prefer not to leave her alone.”

“We understand,” Victoria says. “We’ll be back first thing tomorrow, okay?”

Cal nods, and she and Carly leave the building.

Outside, they find Cain, clearly upset with himself.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Carly asks.

“I feel like I should be asking that about Shelly,” Cain says.

“She calmed down and is asleep, now,” Carly says. “So? How about you?”

“I… don’t feel great,” Cain admits, looking down to the ground. “I should’ve known better…”

“You couldn’t have,” Victoria says, and she’s sure of it. Cain acts laidback and jokes around a lot, but he’s not thoughtless. If he could’ve known that mentioning Heather would lead to what it did, Victoria’s sure he wouldn’t have.

“But I knew that she saw what happened to Corey. And I knew that she knew him,” Cain says.

“But you couldn’t have known that she didn’t know it was him,” Carly says, placing a hand on Cain’s shoulder.

He looks up at her. “Yeah, but…”

Victoria decides to stay silent. She knows that the stuff Carly told her on the way back up to the city was far from the most thorough explanation of everything that’s happened— it involved multiple events that took place in at least a week, after all. The other two have much more context for what’s going on than she does. Carly will be able to get through to Cain better, here.

It’s yet another lesson that Victoria’s learned in her time at the academy. Sometimes, the best thing one can do to help is to step back and let someone else handle things instead.

“What happened sucks, and I’m not gonna tell you to get over it. But you didn’t do it on purpose, and I’m sure she knows that. And she’s at least asleep, by now,” Carly says. “As for Heather, if she’s not here by now, she probably wants to be alone. So we should go. Get something to eat.”

Cain hesitates, but nods. “Yeah, you’re right. I had a snack earlier, but it wasn’t much.”

Carly gives him a small smile and a squeeze of his shoulder, then removes her hand and turns to Victoria. “I’m sure it’s been a while since you’ve had a good meal. What are you in the mood for?”

“Oh, good question…” Victoria says, thinking.

She hasn’t forgotten her desire for a battle with Carly, but now that the subject has come up, she realizes she’s pretty hungry. It’ll definitely be nice to actually choose what she wants to eat again.

Once she’s made her choice, the trio heads off.

— — —

Once the group has eaten, they make their way to Opal Ward. Victoria and Carly start their battle, Cain watching from nearby.

Victoria puts her all into it. She really does, and she knows her team does, too. Even if this is a casual battle, in comparison to most of the ones they’ve had lately, they fight to win… but Carly and her team do, too, and only one of her Pokémon has fainted by the time three of Victoria’s have. But she doesn’t quit.

“Did you know? When one’s back is against the wall, that’s when they’re at their strongest!” she says, sending out Kirlia.

“It’s true, but that won’t stop us!” Carly says with a grin. “Percy, Sparkling Aria!”

Soon, Kirlia faints, and so Victoria loses. But then, maybe that was predictable— their backs aren’t currently against the wall, after all.

So as both sides recall their Pokémon, Victoria grins. “Good! Thank you for the lesson!”

“It was a lot of fun!” Carly says with a grin of her own.

“I can’t say I’m not a little disappointed that I don’t measure up better, but then I haven’t exactly been training in ideal circumstances lately,” Victoria says.

To be totally honest, a small part of her is bitter that she did even worse than Fern. But she reminds herself that Carly and him have been able to train regularly over the past week, and like she said, she hasn’t. That she did as well as she did is a good sign, and she can focus on improving on her shortcomings now that she’s free.

“You both did great!” Cain says with a smile.

“We should battle again, too,” Victoria suggests.

“That sounds awesome, but—” Cain says before he’s cut off by a yawn. “Maybe not tonight. I’m getting tired, so I don’t think I’d be a good opponent.”

Carly yawns as well. “Yeah, maybe we should all get ready for bed…”

“That’s probably for the best,” Victoria says. She’s a bit tired, and she imagines they must be even moreso, with all the running around they did today.

That decided, the group heads to the Grand Hall. As they enter, they find Amaria.

“Victoria, you’re okay!” she says with clear relief.

“Yeah, Carly found me while Cain… uh, helped her get where I was,” Victoria says, figuring she shouldn’t share exactly what Cain did.

“Thank goodness you’re safe. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more…” Amaria says, to Victoria’s surprise. Cain and Carly made it sound like Amaria did a lot.

“What? Didn’t you spend, like, all week tracking Meteor?” Cain asks.

“Yeah, but… it’s not like that meant much,” Amaria says, frowning a bit.

“Of course it did! We couldn’t have done it without you!” Carly says. “And we’ll keep fighting Meteor together, right guys?”

Despite what’s happened, Victoria’s desire to fight Team Meteor hasn’t dimmed at all— if anything, it’s brighter than it was before. She’ll do whatever she can to help the people and Pokémon of Reborn City stay safe… and maybe she can even say she’s fighting for Borealis— Corey— too. The help he gave her won’t be in vain. So she nods as Cain does. And after a moment, Amaria nods, too.

Of course, for now, everyone’s focus is on getting rest. Once she’s exchanged good nights with the others, Amaria leaves, and once Victoria and Carly’s teams are healed, the remaining trio starts the walk to the rooms they’re using. When they reach the main desk, though, they’re stopped by Ame.

“Victoria, you’re all right! That’s a relief; I was starting to think you’d never be found!” she says.

“Uh, maybe we should’ve waited to get dinner until after we reported in,” Carly says. “Oops?”

“I’ll say!” Ame says with a small huff. “But speaking of reporting, can you all come downstairs with me? I’d like to talk with each of you about what’s happened.”

That makes sense. The trio is let into the back, and follows Ame downstairs. She wants to speak with each of them separately, and so Victoria enters her office with her first.

Once they’ve both sat down, Ame speaks. “So, what can you tell me about where you were held?”

Victoria thinks. “It was somewhere in the city, and it had an entrance that a Crobat could fly into. It seemed like other people live there, too— I was kept in a room with multiple beds, and I was allowed to shower sometimes.”

Ame frowns a bit. “Is that all you know? Don’t get me wrong, it’s helpful, but something more specific that could help identify it, especially from the outside, would be best…”

“Sorry, but I don’t have much. Crobat was so fast that we were inside before I could see anything, and I was blindfolded any time I left the room I was kept in,” Victoria says. “I can describe what I did see, but I doubt it will help you…”

Ame wants to know anyway, and takes notes as Victoria lists off what little she knows about the building. After that, she describes what happened during and after today’s attack on Jasper and Beryl Ward… but pauses at the point where she and Team Meteor’s leader reached the strange gate.

“Is something wrong?” Ame asks.

Victoria hesitates. If Ame really did do the things that she was accused of, she almost certainly won’t give an honest answer if Victoria asks about them.

But she doesn’t think she can skip over it. If Carly mentions it when it’s her turn, it’ll be obvious Victoria purposely left it out. And it’s best to get Ame’s side of the story instead of just assuming Team Meteor’s leader was being completely honest, right?

“…he said that the city was built on a holy site, and that it and the League stole a bunch of holy symbols?” Victoria says. “Is… is that true? Did you really do that?”

“Uh… no?” Ame says, obviously confused. “If the city or League does anything like that, it’s because they already did before I came along. I didn’t have any involvement with the old League, and I couldn’t possibly have been involved with the city’s founding! You don’t think I’m that old, do you?”

“…oh. I guess I misunderstood him,” Victoria says, because now that she thinks about it, that actually lines up with what Team Meteor’s leader said. He claimed Ame “carried on” the things he was talking about, not that she caused them. “But he did claim that other stuff, about a holy site being covered up. Do you know anything about that?”

Ame hums thoughtfully, drumming her fingers against her desk. “A friend of my family actually was involved in the city’s founding, but he never mentioned anything like that, and I can’t imagine he’d do that. But then, he wasn’t the only one involved, so… maybe I’ll try looking through some old records… if I can even find the damn things… oh, but for now, you should finish your account.”

Right. Victoria does just that, then she stands and leaves the room. Carly goes in next, and once she’s back out, Cain enters the office. Eventually, both he and Ame walk out.

“All right, you’re all free to go,” she says. “Oh, but Victoria, your things were actually dropped off here shortly after your kidnapping, so we’ve been holding onto them. I’ll go grab them for you.”

“Thank you,” Victoria says. Ame nods before leaving. After a moment, Victoria speaks to her friends. “You two can head upstairs, you know. I’ll be right up.”

“Nah, I’ll stay,” Carly says.

“I’m not about to leave the party alone,” Cain says.

Victoria can’t make them leave… and it’s kind of nice that they’re sticking around even for something so small. So she doesn’t argue.

Soon, Ame returns, handing over Victoria’s bag. “The things you lost in the park are in there, too.”

“Thanks again for picking those up, Carly,” Victoria says.

“No problem!” Carly says.

That done with, Victoria, Carly, and Cain go back upstairs, the former pulling out her wallet so she can pay the latter two what she owes them for dinner and the earlier battle, even if they say it’s fine. She insists, and they take the money.

When they reach the rooms they’re using, they all say good night, then each enters their own.

Before anything else, Victoria takes her Pokégear out from her bag and turns it on. There’s a couple of texts from friends at the academy… and also one from her dad.

Victoria bites the inside of her mouth, staring at the screen. The texts aren’t anything serious, all some flavor of “How are you?” But the most recent of them is from a couple days ago. She typically texts people back relatively quickly, so it’s probably pretty conspicuous that she didn’t do so with these…

She sends all three people a text back. And she… not lies. She doesn’t do that. But there’s a glossing over of the full truth that would stand out to anyone who actually knows that truth, her explanations of how she was busy and away from her Pokégear a lot intentionally vague.

There’s no real use in worrying anyone with what’s already done, right? Besides, she probably shouldn’t spread news of her attempts and future plans to fight terrorists all willy nilly, and one of the people who texted is Lettie. If Victoria told her about what happened, the whole academy would know before tomorrow’s breakfast was finished. Better not to.

Once all the texts are sent, Victoria showers and gets ready for bed, then climbs in. The bed here is far from the most luxurious in the world, but she much prefers it to the one she’s been using over the past week.

Exhaustion creeps up on her, and she falls asleep quickly.