Chương 84: Act 3: Chapter 2

"I can't believe it's going to take a week to get into the Gym!" Brendan groans during the walk to their Petalburg hotel. Lee flips the little receipt with his registered time at the Petalburg Gym in his fingers. Glancing down, the time 2: 30PM stares back.

"There are a record number of trainers aiming for Ever Grande this year. Makes sense that the midseason is busy," he mumbles. Brendan still grumbles under his breath.

"I was kind of hoping Mr. Maple would let us in right away with that big entrance we made…"

"I'm just glad you boys finally found your taste for proper dramatics," Zinnia chimes in, eyeballing a BBQ restaurant that they pass.

"If you got it, flaunt it, and we got it." Lee nods along as Brendan and Zinnia continue to chatter, but his mind is solidly on the bed awaiting him at the hotel they decided on. Flush with cash after having free room and board for almost two months, they decided as a group to splurge on a higher class hotel this time, managing to nab a pricey 4-bedroom suite. Sleeping on a proper bed after living with the thin, straw mattress back in the crater sounds divine to Lee.'

Did the Dragon TE in the air really give me so much energy? I feel like I'm made of lead,' Lee wonders sluggishly.

'I'll be sawing logs if I so much as sit down.' At his side, Ninetales looks up at him and raises an eyebrow.

'You slept perhaps two hours the night prior, Lee. I think that is your culprit more than fresh air.' As she speaks, the fox pushes some of her own stamina across their connection and into Lee as easily as she would turn a valve, and he stands a little straighter.

'Just a bit longer, and we'll be there. We'll have a restful nap with no ponderings on fate, gods, or existential questions, and when we awaken, we'll enjoy some room service and relaxation.'' I was kind of hoping to scrounge up a battle for Shinx or Sylvy after a nap…'' We can do that later,' Nine says firmly.

'We've a whole week to spend in Petalburg, after all.' The walk to the hotel is thankfully not much longer. The building in question is a highrise located in the downtown, and the group is greeted with a ritzy lobby upon entering. To the hotel's credit, the well-dressed woman at the counter neither sneers at their ragged appearances nor stares at Ninetales. In short order, keycards are dispensed, and after a ride to the upper floors in the elevator, they arrive at their floor.' How big is the suite we rented?'

Lee groggily wonders, guessing pretty big from how far the rooms are from one another. After finding the right room, Zinnia takes the lead and pushes the heavy door open, taking in the suite with a wide grin. Brendan follows in next, and Lee's sleepiness is forgotten for a moment as he lets out an impressed whistle. Their home for the next week certainly fits its price tag.

The door opens into a tastefully-decorated living area with plenty of cushy looking seating, a large TV on the wall, a kitchenette in one corner, and a minibar that looks to be stocked in another. Off to one side of the room is a short hallway flanked with doors, where the actual bedrooms must be. Lee puts off admiring the suite further as his feet carry him to what he assumes are the bedrooms. Pushing one of the doors open, he smiles at the sight of a large, queen-sized bed.

"I'm conking out for a bit," he calls over his shoulder. At the same time, he takes his pokeballs from his belt, and without any words said to Ninetales, the capsules levitate over to the living room coffee table, where they come to a rest.

"Let me know if you need anything." Brendan and Zinnia say something, but Lee's focus is on the bed. Once he drops face-first onto it, he's out like a light. It doesn't take too long before Brendan's phone and the myriad of TV channels begin to lose his interest, but despite that, the boy can't muster the willpower to get up off of the comfy couch.

After a long overdue phone call with his dad, one filled with exasperation, promises to be careful with Latias, and an assurance that the lab PR team is going to be watching the internet and news like Staraptors, Professor Birch ended the call with "I'm so proud of you, Brendan." It felt a little misplaced since Latias came to him, but the young trainer still grinned so wide that his face hurt. His father's pride isn't something that needs to be fought for, but it still feels amazing when he receives it.

Glancing away from the Battlenet page on his cellphone, which still has no news about him, Brendan takes in Zinnia, who is on the other side of the couch, snoozing away. After claiming one of the bedrooms for herself, the dragon tamer ditched her jacket, put on some sweatpants, and declared her dedication to lazing around for the rest of the day.

With the size of the suite, there is plenty of room for large pokemon, so both he and Zinnia let their pokemon out to relax, and when noon rolled around, Brendan took the liberty of feeding Lee's pokemon since he was still napping. With the dizzying amount of nutrition info Brendan has soaked up from Lee, the boy could prepare pokemon food for Lee's team with his eyes closed by now.

Not long after lunch, Zinnia practically passed out on the couch with Goomy on her chest and Salamence's huge head on her lap, covering most of her legs. Brendan looks over to where his pokemon are lounging. Latias and Mawile are both huddled close on the carpeted floor and talking quietly, giggles passing between them. How a fairy and a dragon became such good friends is anyone's guess, but the Birch heir is glad for it. Everything is so much simpler when everyone gets along.

Electrike is busy playing with Shinx, both with their jaws clamped around a pull-rope. The Electric-types are both keeping their growls and whatnot low-volume, so as to not disturb Zinnia. Even with Shinx having grown to a healthy size, Electrike is still twice the pokemon she is and then some. If he wanted, he could probably whip his head and send Shinx flying, but he plays gently.' Not that he'd ever do that,' Brendan thinks to himself with a small smile.

'Shinx is still the leader of the baby crew, and Electrike knows better than to make his boss mad.' Breloom is sitting and looking forlornly at the TV, where a bombastic ad for an All You Can Eat buffet plays. A clawed hand idly wipes some saliva from his mouth, despite Breloom having eaten less than an hour ago.' He really is all stomach.' Brendan fondly shakes his head.

'Breloom should have been born as a Swalot.' Finally… Brendan's smile falls a little when he sees Marshtomp in an open space in the kitchenette, doing pushups with an amused Corviknight sitting on his back. The mudfish pokemon is utterly focused on his task, not letting the bruises still dotting his arms bother him, nor does he seem to notice Corviknight's talons digging into him for grip. With how huge Lee's crow is, he barely has enough room to sit on Marshtomp's back, making for a ridiculous sight.

Slimy sweat runs down Marshtomp's arms and face, and Brendan knows he's going to have to wipe up the sweaty spot on the floor so no one slips. No one was more disappointed by Marshtomp's failure to evolve during the Megastone trial than Marshtomp himself. Witnessing the joy of Zinnia and Lee when Salamence and Sceptile evolved ignited a twinge of envy in Brendan's chest, but he banished it shortly after, knowing how blessed he already is. A starved Breloom-turned-pro fighter. A Mawile that frightened an Aggron.

A giant Electrike, given to him by circumstance and Lee's faith. A freaking Latias, who came to him because of the purity of his heart. And a Marshtomp, the biggest, most aggressive of his clutchmates, and Brendan's best friend. No, Brendan can't be envious. Not when he has such wonderful pokemon. Marshtomp, however, was not pleased with himself, and still isn't. His evolution has been creeping up slowly but surely, bit by bit.

Marshtomp's head fin has a pronounced split, his skin is deepening in color to a deep-sea blue, his gills are growing new points, and he's grown several inches in the last two months. It's not enough, however. For the longest time, Ninetales has stood as the mountain peak that Marshtomp eagerly climbs towards with raw, bleeding fingers. His place as the second-most powerful pokemon of the group was contested by Shelgon and Grovyle, but the divide between them was never large. Then after the harrowing events of Mt.

Chimney, Corvisquire evolved and definitively took the number two spot. The mountain got larger, but Marshtomp was undaunted. Once Latias came into the picture, Brendan finally saw some doubt within his first pokemon. And then Sceptile and Salamence rocketed past him, and now Marshtomp's competitive spirit is tinged with frustration. That won't do. His lethargy be damned. Brendan stands up and stretches. He pats his pockets and takes stock of his belongings, then turns to the gaggle of pokemon around the room.

"Hey, guys," he begins, keeping his voice down for the sleeping Zinnia.

"How about we explore town and maybe find a battle or two?" Latias and Mawile croon in agreement. Breloom nods uncaringly. Electrike opens his mouth to voice his answer, accidentally letting Shinx tumble backwards when he lets go of their pull-rope. Marshtomp grins wildly and croaks up at Corviknight, who shrugs and steps off of Marshtomp's back. A grin on his face, Brendan takes his pokeballs from his belt and holds them out.

"Return!" Five flashes of red later, his pokemon are all secure.

"If Lee or Zinnia wake up before we get back, can one of you guys let them know we went out?" Brendan asks the other pokemon in the room as he walks over to the kitchen area, eyes zeroed on the fridge. Autumn is fast approaching, but in tropical Hoenn, it would still do Brendan to keep a bottle of chilled water hand-! Then he slips in the slimy sweat Marshtomp dripped all over the ground, his feet sliding right out from under him. Hitting the floor with an"Oof!"

, Brendan grimaces as a clammy splotch spreads across his back. One of his pokeballs bursts open, and a fretting Latias materializes, quickly lifting Brendan back to his feet. The red dragon then zooms off to Brendan's room to fetch a clean shirt.

"New clothes first, explore town afterward," he grumbles, ignoring the wheezy, muffled laughs around the room and the awkward shake of Marshtomp's ball. The feeling of toasty fur scented with an unplaceable, yet familiar spice is what Lee awakens to. Drawing in a deeper breath and cracking open an eye, he sees strands of gold. Ah, right. He took a nap as soon as they got to their hotel room. He's wrapped in a cocoon of cozy tails. What a funny discovery, Ninetales' tail-lengthening ability.

Fairy-TE allowing for the manifestation and de-manifestation of solid matter is on-point for the TE most still regard as magic. While Sylveon can extend her ribbons seemingly without end, Ninetales was limited to nine of her own body lengths before she hit her limit and her tails could extend no more. Well, not no more, but progress on the new and interesting ability plateaued hard, and newly broken ground beyond the current limit is measured centimeters at a time.

The time spent overcoming the wall was deemed better spent elsewhere, like on refining Fox Fire.' I wonder why it stopped at nine body lengths, though,' Lee wonders to himself.

'It must be symbolic. Maybe.' The form beside him begins to stir, quieting his thoughts. Peeking out from his furry cocoon, Lee watches Ninetales stretch her body and let out a mighty yawn, putting her pearly teeth on display and making the tails surrounding him shiver. Mentally reaching out, Lee wraps himself around Ninetales in a telepathic hug, one that she gladly returns.' Mmmm… How was your nap?' Ninetales asks, withdrawing her tails from Lee and raising her head.

She blinks the sleep from her eyes and fixes her gaze on him.

'You were asleep in seconds after lying down.' Sitting up, Lee lets out his own yawn and looks down, debating on whether or not he wants to change clothes after sleeping in these.

"Damn good," he says aloud.

"I know my sleep schedule is going to be cocked up after this, though," he grumbles, looking at the bedside clock. 3: 32 PM stares back in harsh red. Ninetales lets out a raspy chortle and stands, giving her fur a full-body shake before she hops down to the floor. Standing, Lee follows her out to the living room, and the pair find the place largely deserted. On the couch, Sylveon and Shinx are both raptly watching a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon movie on the TV, while Corviknight sits behind them on the floor.

With his size, he can easily see over Shinx and Sylveon to watch the movie with a measure of boredom. Octillery and Sceptile are both ignoring the TV, and are instead both focused on a game of chess being played on the coffee table. After rolling his chewing twig between his lips in consideration, Sceptile moves his Nidoqueen piece, positioning it to take one of Octillery's Corviknight pieces. Octillery is quick to push a Pawniard piece in the way.

When Lee and Nine step into the living room proper, most of his pokemon turn their way.

"Sorry for the long nap, everyone." Lee smiles a touch sheepishly.

"Didn't sleep too well last night." Sceptile trills in his throat, looking at Lee with a raised eyebrow ridge. Lee doesn't need to be an expert in his pokemon's speech and body language to know just what Sceptile is asking about. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Yeah, it is about the thing Ninetales and I saw when we meditated by the Meteorfall lake." Lee looks away, still unsure how to break what they saw.

"We're still trying to put everything together ourselves, and when we have a good answer, we'll explain." Sceptile nods easily, as do Sylveon and Corviknight. Octillery lets out a gurgling sigh, but doesn't protest the decision. Little Shinx just smiles brightly, absolute trust in her eyes.

"You're all the best." Lee smiles back.

"So, where did Brendan and Zinnia go?"

"Guaw, caw!" Corviknight answers.

"Looking for entertainment and food, respectively," he conveys with just two sounds. Lee nods slowly.

"Entertainment and food, huh? Sounds swell to me. How about we go into town and see what Petalburg has to offer, yeah? Maybe find a live battle for Shinx or Sylv- Oh!" Before he can finish, Shinx bounds off of the couch, scatters Sceptile and Octillery's chess pieces when she lands on the coffee table, then leaps right into Lee's arms, her yellow eyes quite literally sparkling in excitement.

"Excited, huh?" He smiles, then looks over the purring kitten to the chessboard she just jumped off of. Sceptile is gathering up his pieces with a touch of exasperation, but Octillery is visibly fuming over Shinx's stunt. He starts to put his pieces back on the board where they were, but hesitates after the first few, likely forgetting where everything should be.

"Shinx…" Lee looks down at his youngest pokemon, and her purring stops as she stares at his stern face.

"That wasn't very nice of you. Sceptile and Octillery were in the middle of a game that they probably would have finished when we got back, and now they have to restart." He turns Shinx around in his arms so she's facing Octillery and Sceptile.

"What do you have to say?" The kitten sags in Lee's grip and lets out a remorseful mewl, looking at her teammates with large, teary eyes. Sceptile waves the apology off, unbothered. Octillery, however, still glowers at Shinx, even if the apology takes the edge off his anger. The look the octopus pokemon gives her makes Shinx squirm, and she pushes her way out of Lee's arms, leaping down to the floor.

The kitten takes one of the fallen pieces in her teeth and hops up onto the coffee table, putting it back on the board. Then she takes another, putting back on the board in a seemingly random spot. Then another, and another. In just a minute, Shinx has most of the pieces placed back on the board with a few left by the wayside, but as Lee expected, it's just a haphazard arrangement. Little Shinx doesn't know how to set up a chess board.

"Now, you won't do that again, right?" Lee asks Shinx, still doing his best to be stern. His baby shakes her head so fast that her round ears flop all over, and Lee finally allows himself to smile.

"Good. No hard feelings, right, Octillery? Octillery…?" Octillery seemingly doesn't hear him, instead focused intently on the chessboard that Shinx threw into disarray. He burbles at Sceptile, urging him to also inspect the chess set. Leaning closer, Sceptile takes in the randomly placed pieces with care, his brow ridges furrowing in confusion, then disbelief.

"That can't be…" his breathy hiss seems to say. By now, Sylveon and Corviknight are also leaning in, interested.' Wait a moment…' Lee and Nine meet eyes for a moment as both of them begin to catch on.

"Octillery, Sceptile," he questions both his pokemon.

"Is this how the board was set up before she jumped on it?" There is no way that Shinx recreated a chess match she wasn't paying attention to from memory, is there? Octillery hovers a tentacle over a Pawniard piece, then pulls his tentacle back. Turning his attention to Shinx, he babbles something too fast for Lee to catch. The kitten hops back up onto the table, then pushes two of the white pieces into different spots with a paw, then does the same for three of the black pieces.

After that, she takes a white Pawniard and puts it back on the board, right in the spot where a black Corviknight used to stand. Octillery leans back, his eyes almost bugging out of his head in naked shock.' Oh goodness…' Ninetales lets her jaw drop as everything clicks into place.

'I think our little Shinx has perfect recall.' Lee shakes his head.

"Shinx is a smart, observant cookie, but perfect recall? Like photographic memory?" The man pauses.

"Okay, sure. We can test this. Shinx, baby?" The kitten looks up at him eagerly.

"Can you close your eyes?" Lee asks gently.

"We're going to do a few little tests here, and if you do good, we'll get you a special treat while we're in town." The word "treat" has Shinx almost vibrating in excitement, but she closes her eyes.

"Mewl?" she asks, impatiently bouncing on her paws.

"Just a moment, babygirl, and no peeking," Lee then turns to the chessboard.

"Do you guys mind if I borrow this?" he asks his pokemon. Both Octillery and Sceptile are so mystified that both simply shake their heads. Kneeling down and resting on his knees, Lee begins to arrange the chess pieces in a totally random order.' I knew she did great on the memory portion of the cognitive tests I gave her down in the crater, but perfect recall?' Lee wonders with only Ninetales to hear.' We haven't anything solid to go off of, but Octillery's reaction is telling,' Ninetales sends back.

'He asked Shinx to set the board back to three moves prior, and he was shocked by the result.' Lee smiles thinly, setting a spikey Nidoking piece in the middle of the board.

'Photographic memory, though. That was a divisive name for a very misunderstood phenomenon back home. People likened it to a superpower, and even the name is a bit of a misnomer. Memories are never perfect with sharp details like a photograph.'' Shinx is a pokemon, however, not a human.'' That's correct.' Lee mulls over his words.

'I don't know why this seems so unreal. Psychics and fairies and kitsune, oh my, are all quite normal now, but our little Shinx having such a wild ability?' Once the board is set, Lee snaps a picture of the arrangement with his phone, then lifts Shinx into his lap.

"Okay, Shinx. When I say 'go', you'll have ten seconds to look at the board here, then I'll push the pieces off. Your job will be to put them back exactly like they were, okay?"

"Merow!" she says back.

"Go!" Shinx opens her eyes and intently studies the board, her eyes zipping to each piece, then sweeping the board itself. When the ten-second mark hits, Lee sweeps his arm over the board, pushing the pieces off to clatter over the coffee table.

"Put 'em back just like you remember!" Shinx jumps from Lee's lap onto the table and starts her work, with everyone else leaning in to watch. The tiny electric-type works like a machine, taking the chess pieces and plonking them down without any hesitation. Once a piece is down, Shinx never bothers to move it again, so sure is she in her choices. In under a minute, every piece is accounted for, and Shinx sits on the table with her chest proudly puffed up, looking very much like a miniature Corviknight.

Lee takes his phone out and slowly opens up the photo he took, all of his pokemon sans Shinx hovering over his shoulder and brimming with anticipation. Stretching his arm out, Lee holds the photo next to the board. It's a perfect match. Even the pieces with facial details like the nidokings and queens are facing the correct direction.

"Arceus have mercy…" Trying to stump Shinx quickly turns into a game for everyone. Lee gives her a few more random chess boards to memorize, and Shinx aces every single one. He even randomly moves some pieces around after showing her, then tells her to recreate a particular move after wiping the board. His baby never falters. Once they get tired of the chess board, Shinx puts it back like it was before she jumped on it so Sceptile and Octillery can resume their game.

Both are too engrossed for chess right now, though. Sylveon tries next. After procuring some colored pens from Lee's pack, she scribbles some colors down on a sheet that she gives to Shinx, then calls out colors Shinx has to tap with her paw. After each one, she adds another color to the sequence on her own hidden sheet of paper, kind of like an analog game of Simon. Lee can't help but feel like Sylveon has used this game before, likely to teach colors to her own kits.

Sylveon finally gives in after they hit a whopping hundred-and-ten goes without a single mistake on Shinx's part. Then Octillery decides to throw down the gauntlet. He takes Lee's laptop, and starts up what Lee would tentatively call a game if not for the content. Octillery's 'game' is a program he acquired from who-knows-where, one that is apparently an engineering teaching aide.

Inside are 3D models of countless machines with each bit, screw, and bob accounted for, and after showing the user a fully-animated assembly or disassembly, they have to assemble and/or disassemble the model with misclicks, incorrect steps, and excessive idle time being penalized. Shinx comes out of it knowing how to assemble a propane furnace, a motorcycle, and the fuselage of a jetliner. Her sole error stems from the laptop trackpad not tracking her paw correctly.

"Holy crap…" Lee murmurs as he looks at the room service menu. He balks not at the prices on the laminated paper, but the still lingering shock of Shinx's unexpected gift. Leaning back on the couch, Lee turns the menu to the beaming kitten in his lap.

"Well, it's a little late to go into town," Lee glances out the window where the sun has since gone down, "but I promised you a special treat. How does the juiciest cut of prime rib in the house sound?" Shinx's eyes quite literally light up at the mouth-watering illustration on the menu, and she paws at it with an eager mewl.

"My baby has some expensive taste." Lee grins and reaches for the landline phone on the couch end table.

"Hell, let's treat everyone tonight. Here, pick what you want and pass it around!" Lee exclaims, getting a quiet round of cheers from his pokemon. He hands off the menu behind him where Corviknight and Sceptile loom. Sceptile takes the menu and holds it so both he and Corviknight can see, and once both have decided, it's passed to Octillery. Once the menu makes its rounds and everyone has their choices set, Lee finally dials the front desk and holds the handset to his ear.

"Hello? I'd like to place an order for room service… Yep, room seven-oh-seven. We'd like…" After Lee rattles off the long order, ending with'and the best cut of prime rib you have', he hangs up with an assurance that everything will be up shortly. As soon as the phone is put back down, the doorknob to the suite jiggles.' No way it was that fast.' Lee looks over the back of the couch to the door. The lock clicks, then the heavy door swings open, revealing a smiling and tired looking Brendan.

The boy gives Lee a smile.

"He's finally awake!" Brendan ribs, stepping inside and hopping over the back of the couch to sit between Lee and Ninetales.

"So what have you been up to today?"

"Did you know my cat has photographic memory?" Lee asks. Brendan's eyebrows rise. He gives the kitten in Lee's lap a searching look.

"That's certainly a way to start a conversation. No, I didn't."

"Testing that is what I've—we've been up to all day." Lee gestures to the chessboard on the coffee table.

"Shinx jumped on the table and sent Octillery and Sceptile's chess set flying, then put it back exactly how it was before like nothing even happened. We've spent hours trying to see where her limit is but we've yet to find it." His eyebrows now touching the brim of his hat, Brendan scratches the back of his head.

"Wow. You might want to send a report to Dad on that one. I'm sure he'd want to hear about this."

"I'm planning on it," Lee confirms with a nod.

"So how's your day gone? Get mobbed outside over Latias yet?"

"Not yet," Brendan says. He smiles, but Lee can see a hint of nervousness in the way the younger trainer shifts about on the couch.

"We walked around town to see what there is to see and to get a few battles in. Petalburg is a nice city, but there isn't much to do here…"

"I'm sure we can find something interesting." Lee allows himself a tiny smirk.

"Or something interesting will find us." Brendan laughs and strokes Shinx across the back as she wanders into his lap.

"Never fails!" he says with a grin. His mirthful expression falls a little.

"Marshtomp has felt a little crummy since the fight with Sala, and he's so close to evolving, so I think I'm going to let him have the Pyroar's share of our battles until then." Lee shares a meaningful look with Sceptile.' Do as you will, but don't forget to remind Marshtomp that being unnecessarily harsh on oneself only inhibits growth,' Ninetales says with a sniff, projecting her thoughts for everyone to hear.

'He will be formidable, and I await the day we clash on equal footing once more.' On Brendan's belt, Marshtomp's ball frantically shakes, then bursts open, pushing aside the coffee table and sending the chessboard to the floor, much to Octillery's visible frustration. Before the light around him is even fully faded, Marshtomp takes one of Ninetales' paws in a bruised, webbed hand. His eyes wet with intense emotion, Marshtomp croaks a question that sounds overly dramatic to Lee's ears.' Erm…'

Ninetales blink in surprise.

'I have faith in you, yes. Were my words unclear?' Marshtomp releases Nine's paw and opens his arms wide. With a joyous cry, he launches himself at her for a huge hug, only to smash face-first into a spherical, psychic barrier with a dull thunk! The mudfish slides to the floor, his face squeaking against Nine's barrier like glass.' Defeat me, then you may have a hug.' Ninetales holds her nose up. Marshtomp's groan sends Brendan into hysterics. Zinnia feels like cackling as she walks back to the hotel.

Unlocking her phone, she takes a look at her bank account once more. Under the glare of a street-lamp, she sees her checking account is a cool three thousand credits richer.' Norman Maple, thank you for stonewalling so many Dunning-Kruger kids filled with money and too much pride to say no to an ante match.' The dragon tamer grins and puts her hands together as if she were praying to Arceus.

'We're going to be here for a week, too!' After a refreshing post-lunch nap, Zinnia saw that Brendan bailed and Lee was still asleep, so she went off on her own for the day. After weeks spent together in the Meteorfall Crater, she could do with some time apart from her boys. She tracked down a day spa that also catered to pokemon, and they were even willing to pamper a pokemon like Salamence! It was steeply priced, however.

Hoping to earn some of that money back, she wandered down to a set of battlegrounds on the southern side of the city, finding a lot of the trainers there to be standard fare. Well, other than the ones who were living balls of frustration. Petalburg is where amateur trainer careers go to die, as any Hoennite knows. Norman Maple is the man who separates real trainers from the riff-raff, and some of the riff-raff would rather linger than give up. Their stinging pride made them easy prey for someone like Zinnia.

A hundred, five-hundred, one stooge even agreed to a thousand credit ante for a match. That punk's poor Diggersby put up a decent fight, but Zinnia's Noivern still mauled him like a Mightyena would a Rattata. The weeks within the crater showed in all of her pokemon, especially… The Kadabra on the dirt field stumbles back, covered in painful, blistering burns that his psychic barriers failed to stop. His species signature spoon is nowhere to be seen, already reduced to slag by dragon fire.

He overbalances, falling forward to his hands and knees, and hisses when the action cracks the burnt skin of his palms. Across from Kadabra, Goomy is flagging in exhaustion, but is in far better condition. A cut on his side weeps red and one of his antennae is chopped short, both from Kadabra's Magical Leaf attack. Goomy also has a bruise from a Sucker Punch, but the blunt-force attack did little real damage." Finish 'em, Goom!" Zinnia can't keep the manic grin from her face. Goomy is punching up and winning!

"Dragon Pulse!" Goomy steels himself and takes a deep breath. His translucent body inflates and glows blue from within, then he belches a violent, whirling beam of raw dragon TE." Kadabra, Protect!" Kadabra's trainer, a sixteen year old boy that Zinnia has already forgotten the name of, orders, his voice high in panic. Kadabra stands and pushes his hands out with a grimace. A textbook perfect Protect drops around him in the nick of time, and Goomy's Dragon Pulse washes over it like a tidal wave.

Inside Protect, Kadabra grimaces and shakes under the strain. Goomy, meanwhile, begins to run out of steam, his Dragon Pulse wavering." C'mon, Goom! This win is yours!" Zinnia calls at the top of her lungs. Goomy screws his eyes shut, his whole body wavering as he pushes everything he has into this last attack. The beam surges, and Kadabra lets out a cry that's lost to the roar of Dragon Pulse as his shield shatters. Goomy's breath runs out, and with a gasp, the little dragon almost melts into himself.

The dust on the other end of the arena clears, and when it does, everyone sees Kadabra on his back, out cold. Before Zinnia can walk onto the battlefield to give her little booger a hug, a white light overtakes his form, and Zinnia has to squint her eyes at him.' What is going… No way!' Before her eyes, little Goomy's shape begins to change. His round body elongates, rising to form a bulbous head on a thin neck. His antennae extend, curling backward, and a pair of nubby arms extend from his body.

Once the light fades, Goomy is gone, and in his place is a Sliggoo. Zinnia can't help it. She screams in utter delight, making everyone, Sliggoo included, jump. The memory still makes the dragon tamer grin. A Sliggoo! She did have to end her challenges for a while, though. Sliggoo as a species are blind and have trouble controlling the pH of their secretions, so she had to spirit Sliggoo away to help him get used to his body.

Once her poor booger was over his fright at his sudden blindness, Zinnia returned to the battlegrounds. Salamence didn't make an appearance today, and he wasn't upset by the fact. None of the trainers were worth fighting in his opinion. With any luck, someone powerful will—"Oh!"

"Oof!" So lost in thought, Zinnia fails to see someone on the darkened sidewalk until she runs right into them, sending them both to the ground. On the sidewalk is a woman a bit taller than her, who would fit right into one of those old timey novels Ninetales likes reading. Clothed in a soft pink kimono with her indigo hair styled into a pair of side buns, the other woman looks at Zinnia indignantly, her aristocratic features twisted into a small but damning scowl.

"Shit, sorry about that, I wasn't looking where I was going," Zinnia quickly gets to her feet and brushes herself off, looking at who she ran into with a wince. She offers her hand to the noble-looking woman.' Shit. In a get-up like that, she might actually be some Kanto noble or something.' Upon hearing Zinnia's apology, the kimono-clad woman's scowl eases into a well-practiced neutral expression. She refuses Zinnia's hand and stands on her own.

"What had you in such deep thought that you could not see in front of you?" A frown tugs at Zinnia's face at the dismissal, and she shoves her hands into her pockets.

"My youngest pokemon evolved today, and it's been on my mind all evening. Pride, special care for him, stuff like that." The stranger's eyes widen a fraction, then she smiles wistfully.

"Yes, I can see a trainer being distracted by such matters. A fortunate pokemon they must be. I will accept your apology for stumbling into me, if you accept mine for my rudeness." That, Zinnia can get behind, and she smiles in return.

"Sure. No hard feelings from me," she says, scanning the stranger's beltline for pokeballs and finding none.

"What brings a girl like you to Hoenn, if you don't mind me asking?" The woman blinks.

"Is my standing truly so foreign as to be picked out with such ease?"

"Kinda, yeah."

"I see…" The woman murmurs.

"I am here to see a… wayward daughter and her companions. I understand that they are to battle in the Petalburg gym soon." Zinnia's eyebrows rise.

"A daughter? Really?" she asks, looking her unnamed acquaintance up and down.

"I hope I age half as good as you." A giggle bubbles from the woman.

"Ah, not of my own blood, but thank you regardless," she says before she looks up at the moon.

"I should be on my way. It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, miss…"

"Zinnia," Zinnia grins and holds a hand out for a shake. The woman smiles and gently takes the offered hand, one tanned and callused, with her own, one silky and pale.

"I am Lokoko. Perhaps we will meet again." Both women then pass each other and go their own ways, but a gust of wind prompts Zinnia to look over her shoulder. Lokoko is gone.

"Weird…" She murmurs.

"Lokoko… Where have I heard that name before?"