Chapter Text
“So rogue mega evolved pokemon are wild pokemon who mega evolve. Currently we don’t know the reasons for–” Vinnie was cut off by sounds of shouting coming from outside.
“Mage.. Mage don’t you dare– leave. the. Dedenne. ALONE. Now. ..Thank you. Ack. That goes for you too Leo, put it down. Good.”
The door opened to reveal a frazzled looking gal in a black hoodie, shorts and walking boots holding an eevee with an umbreon at her side looking behind her for, presumably, the source of the trouble. A mismagius floated in with a jolteon trotting behind it.
Harmony and Urbain watched as the girl (woman?) walked towards the front desk, all the while repeatedly looking between the jolteon and mismagius. The mismagius started to float towards them but the stranger called it back, “No. No bothering strangers, we’ve discussed this. And I’m in the middle of something, we can socialise later.” The mismagius floated back to its trainer’s side, seemingly annoyed at the restriction.
Meanwhile, the Jolteon had wondered over to the people sitting at the table beside Harmony and Urbain and was barking softly. For food or pets, Harmony had no idea. The umbreon left its trainer’s side to join the jolteon and was mewing at it softly. They seemed to converse for a little before the umbreon hissed and the jolteon conceded and they returned to their trainer.
“Now that’s all sorted,” the girl looked at her team surrounding her, placid for the minute, as she spoke to the woman at reception, “My name’s Avi Syska and I’m here to see Mable.”
The reception was silent as everyone processed the whirlwind of activity that had just come in so Harmony could hear the conversation perfectly.
“Mable?” the receptionist replied, confused.
“Yes.”
“Of the research lab?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah.. You’re in the wrong place.”
“..I’m sorry?”
“This is Quasartico headquarters in the Magenta District. You want The Research Lab in the Jaune District.”
“I see.” Avi turned away.
“Do you want a map,” the receptionist offered, “Or directions?”
“I’ll find my own way. Thanks.” Avi started walking to the door, team trailing behind her.
“Hey, Vinnie? Is it possible to arrange another meeting where you explain the rogue megas?” Urbain was already out of his seat as he asked the question and barely waited for an answer as Vinnie nodded in response. He looked towards Harmony.
“You’d better follow him before you lose him.”
Harmony nodded thanks and did just that, following Urbain out and looking for his iconic jacket among the people around. She saw him whipping down a side street in the rapidly fading light and ran after him.
She caught up and found her teammate talking to the trainer they’d just seen leaving. “You wanna be careful wondering around at night else you might get caught in a battle zone. They’re great if you wanna be in there but not so much if you get trapped.” Urbain said, talking more at the other trainer than to her.
“Thanks. Dude. But I’ll make my own way to the lab. Tomorrow though. It’s getting late and I want to pitch so I can find somewhere for food.” Avi said, still walking.
“‘Pitch’?” Urbain, winded and confused, asked as his mind caught up. Avi turned and looked at him like he’d never heard of camping before.
“Pitching my tent? So I have somewhere to sleep?”
“Oh. Right. You could–”
Avi interrupted, “Sure, dude. Now, do you know of any good patches of grass I can use? Or even a patch of dirt?”
“Well yeah. There’s grass everywhere. But you probably don’t want to sleep in a wild zone.”
“A what?” Avi had continued walking but stopped again to focus on Urbain as he told her about the wilds of Lumiose.
“A wild zone. They’re blocked off areas where wild pokemon can live. They use holotech to keep people and pokemon separate and it’s pretty cool.”
“Oh. Yeah that’ll do.”
“What? No- there’s a bunch of angry wild pokemon in them. And besides, people don’t really go in there unless they’re catching something.”
“So? It’s not like I haven’t spent the last three years basically living in Galar’s wild area. And that has a lot more angry wild pokemon than the parks here. Besides, more conditions, more pokemon, more experience not angering them.” Avi shrugged, “What’s difficult about that?” Urbain tried to answer but Avi kept talking, “So can you direct me to the nearest wild area or not?”
“Wild zone. And no, there’s alpha pokemon.”
“I’ll go find one myself then. Thanks.”
Urbain was irritated now, both by the lack of respect and the fact he could be loosing a possible customer. “Wait! Wait, I promise if you hear me out you might like what I have to say.” Avi raised an eyebrow in response, “You could stay at Hotel Z! We’ve been looking for customers. Right Harmony?”
“Uhh y-yeah. Right!”
Avi continued walking, “I’ll pass. See you around.”
Swoosh “Sun setting. Battle zones activated.”
Harmony barely had time to react as hers and Urbain’s rotom phones flew out to warn of the impending sunset and battle zone activation before the familiar red light surrounded them.
Avi paused and looked around warily before releasing her Jolteon from its ball.
“Hey so, we’re in a battle zone,” Urbain started, whispering, “We want to talk quietly and get out of here quick-”
“Flamethrower!”
“Ack- Discharge!”
Avi’s Jolteon let out a wave of electricity that managed to paralyse the simisear that had crept up on them.
“Good boy, Leo. Thunder fang.”
The Jolteon, Leo, zipped around for a bit before hitting with a surprise attack to the monkey’s back as it was turning around. This successfully knocked out the simisear and the trainer looked towards Avi.
“You’re good, lady. Here.” He threw some prize medals at Avi and ran out the battle zone.
“Uhh, thanks? What do I do with these?”
Harmony had pulled out her Bayleef and was keeping watch for any other late night trainers so Urbain answered. “Well, if you have the Za royale app, it counts them up and you get a total amount that gets transferred to you in the morning. You can get them from defeating trainers or by doing tasks on cards like that.” He pointed to a blue card floating nearby.
“Let’s just get out of here.”
Urbain pulled out his Pignite and they kept a tight formation until they reached the last street they needed to pass to get out.
“Shit. Dis- No. Thunder wave! Then pin missile." Avi called out as she took in her opponent, a lady with a Spritzee. A few more attacks took out the remainder of her pokemon and the three trainers exited the battle zone.
“You did good Lee. Take a rest.” The Jolteon yipped before it was sucked back into its ball, “I’m tired so I’m going to pitch, eat something and sleep. See you around.” Avi didn’t leave any room for discussion as she walked off.
Urbain tried to follow but Harmony stopped him. “There’s plenty of Magikarp in the sea. You’ll get a customer someday.”