Cassie followed Kaitlyn, Astrid, and the Chansey nurse back through the halls of the Pokemon Center in silence, glad that her Pokemon were going to be okay even despite the injuries they’d suffered. Paulos had gotten off with relatively minor injuries, only having a cracked wing bone from the Rock-type attacks that had hit him as well as a mild concussion from slamming into the stone pillar and the various cuts and scrapes that always happened during a battle. Orion, meanwhile, had a nasty bruise on his foreleg from the Rock Tomb that Cranidos had hit him with, but the worse injury was the broken rib and heavy bruising he’d been given by Cranidos in their collision.
The young trainer felt horrible about it, since it was her panicked command that had caused it to happen in the first place, but Kaitlyn had told her in no uncertain terms not to beat herself up over it. Everyone made mistakes in battle, and Orion knew that just as well as anyone else. Kaitlyn knew that Cassie’s starter wasn’t going to blame her for the error. Paulos was going to be released later in the evening, but they were going to keep Orion for at least a day just to make sure everything was healing well before they released him. Already, Cassie felt like she had a hole inside of her with the absence of both her starter and first catch despite Kaitlyn’s presence. The only comfort she truly had was the reassuring weight of the Pokemon egg she carried, back in its usual place at her chest.
They stopped in front of the door to Skarmory’s room, Chansey giving them a short wave and enthusiastic ‘Chan!’ before it toddled off again towards another wing of the Center. Kaitlyn and Astrid shared a look for a moment before the older trainer opened the door and stepped inside, holding it for a moment to let Astrid and Cassie enter behind her. Inside was a much more reassuring sight than the last time they had entered. Skarmory’s wing, which had been covered in bandages before, now hung freely at its side with no restrictions at all, and the Flying-type flexed both of his wings as the trio entered as if stretching before settling back down into his nest-like bed.
“My aspiring trainer returns,” Skarmory crooned to Astrid. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” Astrid didn’t respond, instead simply looking up to Kaitlyn and gesturing towards Skarmory.
“It’s good to see you again, Skarmory,” Kaitlyn said, looking over at the wing which had been injured before. “It looks like your wing is healing up nicely...I’m glad to see that. I would’ve hated to see you unable to fly because of it.”
Skarmory kept his gaze focused on Kaitlyn, giving her a curious look before nodding slowly, knowing the human had no way to understand him right now.
“I wanted to let you know that the doctors told me a few minutes ago that you’re healed up enough to leave,” Kaitlyn continued. “And I thought that I would ask again if you would like to travel with me before you left. If the answer’s no, that’s fine...I just wanted to offer.”
‘As expected,’ Skarmory thought, having expected the question from the moment she had entered the room. He had thought over the situation long and hard while he rested, yet he still felt conflicted as to his answer. His honor demanded that he stay and repay his debt, but something deep within his soul bristled at the idea of giving up his freedom, even to help one that had helped him. Something about the young woman had made him more receptive to the idea of becoming a trained Pokemon, though. She certainly seemed to place more importance on his health rather than her desire for him to join her, but that could all be an act, a ruse meant to trick him into servitude.
He studied her carefully, seconds passing with nothing but the gentle beeping of the medical machines and the faint sounds of voices from outside to disturb the silence as he tried to discern her true intent. Kaitlyn’s face never wavered, her expression remaining still and calm as the Steel-type watched her intently. The Steel-type’s eyes finally shifted to Astrid, looking down at the smaller Pokemon with the same focused expression he had given her trainer.
“You. Mawile.”
“It’s Astrid,” Kaitlyn’s starter replied, hands going to her hips as she looked up at the larger avian with mild annoyance.
“Astrid, then,” Skarmory parroted, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “No Psychic stands here to share your thoughts and words with the humans. Tell me truly...in what regard do you hold this human?”
“‘In what regard’?” Astrid said, the words leaving her lips as if she couldn’t believe that Skarmory had even bothered to ask the question. “Kaitlyn is my friend, not just my trainer. We’ve been together for years, we’ve done almost everything together...I can’t imagine even being away from her now. She pushes me hard to improve - pushes all of us, really - but she’s never cruel about it. She just wants to see us be the best we can be, wants to see us be able to stand up to champions and win. But more than that, she wants us to be happy.”
She pointed up with one tiny finger at Skarmory, looking just as stern as he did as she met his gaze. “Just like she wants you to be happy no matter what you decide, even if you’re too busy trying to put on the ‘aloof tough guy’ act to bother acknowledging it.”
There was a pause, a moment where Skarmory did nothing but sit there with eyes faintly widened from Astrid’s outburst before he broke out into laughter, throaty squawking with an undertone of grating metal that echoed throughout the room.
“You...I like you,” he said, still chuckling as he looked down at Astrid with considerably less standoffishness in the gaze. “Very well, then. Since you seem to hold your trainer in such esteemed standing, I shall volunteer my services for now. I have a debt to repay, and I will see it done. After that...we shall see.”
Astrid’s face broke into a rare smirk, almost as if she’d expected no other outcome than this, and she turned back to Kaitlyn with no small amount of satisfaction as she relayed Skarmory’s acceptance.
“I’m glad to hear you’re willing to join me, Skarmory,” Kaitlyn said, unable to keep a smile from crossing her face at the news, “but I want to say this one more time. Even if you come with me, if you ever feel like leaving the team and going back home, all you have to do is say the word. I won’t hold it against you.”
“Oh, believe me, I shall.”
The words lacked understanding for any save Astrid in the room, but the nod of Skarmory’s head that accompanied them got the point across well enough for Kaitlyn. “Glad to hear it. I...didn’t always consider how Pokemon felt about being captured,” she said, directing a look at Cassie. “I’m trying to be better about it.” The implication that she was somehow helping Kaitlyn with that wasn’t lost on Cassie, and the younger blond couldn’t keep the embarrassed flush completely off her face.
Skarmory couldn’t help but be a little surprised at the admission. Most trainers were exactly as Kaitlyn had just described, thinking little about the feelings and lives of those they ripped from the wilds. The fact that she considered it even remotely put her a step above them in his estimation, and he found himself wondering if this would somehow turn out to not be a waste of time after all.
The moment Cassie stepped into the room at the Pokemon Center where her team had been admitted, her heart clenched at the sight. With her Pokemon still unevolved and relatively small in size, both were occupying the same room with little difficulty. Paulos was closest to the door, his wing bandaged up and a smaller bandage stretching around his chest to cover the small puncture wounds and bruising from the jaws of the Rockruff he’d faced. He perked up as Cassie entered, chirping some sort of hello that Cassie could only recognize as the greeting it was, but it was the sight of Orion on the other side of the room that nearly brought her to tears again. Her starter lay resting on what could’ve passed for a suitably-sized dog bed, a swathe of bandages wrapping around his midsection to cover his injured rib along with a smaller padded one that covered the bruise on his foreleg.
His head slowly rose as eyes blinked open, looking around the room to see Cassie standing near Paulos with a look of utter sorrow on her face. He let out a low bark in greeting, but couldn’t keep the wince that it caused off his face.
“Oh, Orion...”
Just the brief look at her starter caused the tears to well up, and she brushed them away as she reached down to Paulos to gently run a hand along the bird’s uninjured wing. Paulos shot her a look and a shift of the head that clearly said ‘go on,’ and she straightened again to walk over towards Orion slowly, who now seemed awake and properly alert. She leaned over the edge of the elevated bed to gently rub a hand across the top of his head, mentally reminding herself that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Compared to normal animals, Pokemon were incredibly durable creatures at the worst of times, and she’d learned that well-trained ones could make it through some harrowing things. Some of the stories she’d run across and videos she’d watched online had made her stomach twist uncomfortably, only to find out that the ones involved had come out with nothing but some scars for their trouble that they wore proudly. Compared to that, a simple broken rib and bruises was nothing.
“...How are you feeling?” she quietly asked the canine, earning a mix of growls and what sounded like annoyed whining in response. He was definitely on edge from being bedridden; Cassie knew just how much he liked being out and able to run, which was a big reason besides being her starter as to why he stayed outside of his ball so much. She grimaced, eyes tracking down towards the edge of the bed. “This is my fault -”
She didn’t see Orion slide his head out from under her hand, only felt it, right before she felt a sharp sting in the side of her hand that caused her to yank it back instinctively and snap her eyes back up from their downward cast angle. Orion was sitting upright in the bed now instead of lying down, the look on his face positively offended, and only after looking at her hand and Orion’s faintly-bared teeth did she realize that Orion had bitten her. Not hard enough to draw blood or even leave any kind of a mark, just hard enough to get her attention, but a bite all the same. Orion had never bitten her before, for any reason, but the look on his face was also something she’d never once seen on her starter’s face. The series of barks and growls he let out at her was unintelligible to her ears, but she had a pretty good idea of what he was saying even without words.
Don’t you dare blame yourself for what happened in the gym!
“Orion...” she whispered, her gaze moving from her hand back to the Fire-type. “I...”
He kept barking for a few more seconds, ignoring how it obviously pained him to do so before he finally stopped, panting as he lay back down in the bed again. Cassie stayed silent as Orion returned to resting, but she didn’t have to say anything - Orion’s outburst had said enough for the both of them. If she wasn’t going to let Orion blame himself for losing, then neither would he let her do the same.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized with a sigh. “I shouldn’t have said that.” Orion chuffed in response as if to say ‘of course not,’ but the upset look on his face softened. “I need to talk to Kaitlyn,” she continued, standing up fully again in front of the bed so that she could look between Orion and Paulos. “I’m not going to wait around here and sulk. We’ll go to Lake Verity like she wanted once you two are better, and use that time to train. We’ll have to come back this way anyway to get to any other gyms, so I’ll set an appointment for another match on the way back through.”
Her expression shifted as she looked between her two injured Pokemon, knowing how hard they’d fought for her, how much they were willing to do to overcome the obstacles in their way. Determination bloomed across her features, focus making her stand straighter, and she clenched a fist as if imagining herself back in the arena.
“We won’t lose next time.”
Two quiet calls of agreement came from her Pokemon, and she leaned down again to give Orion a gentle hug before stepping over to do the same to Paulos.
“I’ll come back in a little while to see you both - I need to go take care of some things. Try to get some rest for me, okay?”
Both of her Pokemon nodded as she pulled the door open, and the gentle ‘click’ of the door latch echoed through the room as Cassie stepped out again. Paulos looked over at Orion, feathers fluffing and ruffling as he turned in the bed to face his partner.
“A heartfelt speech, Orion. Paulos feels much the same as you.”
“I still wish she could understand me,” Orion griped, ignoring the soreness in his chest.
“Paulos does not believe she needed to know the words to understand the meaning. You spoke from the heart, and that is what truly matters. Mere words cannot impede a bond like yours.”
Orion mulled over the comment for some time, eyes staring at the far wall but not really seeing. He hated that they’d failed in the gym, but hated the idea of Cassie thinking she was responsible even more. Paulos seemed to be correct, though...he had seemed to get his point across regardless of the language barrier. He’d just have to take solace in that.
“So.”
The single word cut through the air, canine eyes coming to rest on Paulos as Orion’s gaze sharpened again.
“We’re grinding those rocks into dust next time, right?”
Paulos chuckled, a low chirping laugh.
“Careful, Orion. You begin to sound like Paulos with your desires.”
Orion just groaned in reply.
Cassie stepped back down the hall and towards the door that would lead back into the Pokemon Center’s lobby with her mind deep in thought, each footfall sounding heavy in her ears. She needed to talk to Kaitlyn about their next destination, yes, but that wasn’t the only thing she intended to talk about.
Kaitlyn needed to know the truth. The truth about who she was, where she really came from, her strange dreams, everything. Her anxiety, restlessness, and distraction had been - at least in her mind - a large part of why she failed at the gym, and she was determined that it wouldn’t happen a second time. To make sure of that...she had to come clean. Was it going to hurt? Yes. Was she afraid it might push Kaitlyn away entirely? Also yes. But no matter what, it had to be done.
The escalator ride down felt like a descent into an execution chamber, but she pushed on anyway before her nerve could leave her. She could feel her heart beating faster in her chest with every footfall, her heartbeat almost sounding like drums in her ears as she moved. A final turn took her to the hallway where their rooms were, and she stepped up to Kaitlyn’s door only to freeze. Her hand rose to knock, then lowered again, repeating again and again as she tried to work up the courage to just knock on the door and set things in motion.
‘Stop beating around the bush and just knock already.’
She took a deep breath and rapped loudly on the door before the urge could vanish again, stepping back and clasping hands behind her back nervously as she waited for Kaitlyn to answer. A momentary scuffling came from inside before footsteps traced their way closer, and Kaitlyn pulled the door open a moment later.
“Hey, Cassie. How are Orion and Paulos?”
“They’re okay, just tired and hurting. Orion got it the worst, but the nurses said he’ll be okay in a day or two with some rest.”
Kaitlyn nodded. “That’s good to hear. You must feel weird without them around, huh?”
“I didn’t think I would, but...yeah, I really do. It’s like I’m missing a part of my body, almost.”
“Yeah, training Pokemon is like that,” Kaitlyn laughed. “You don’t even realize how fast you get used to having them around, and then you can’t imagine anything else.”
“Can I come in? I...think I need to talk,” Cassie said quietly, instantly causing Kaitlyn’s brow to furrow in worry.
“Sure,” she said, stepping back out of the doorway so that Cassie could come in. “...Is this about what happened yesterday?”
“Not just that, but...” Cassie trailed off as she sat down, followed by Kaitlyn taking a seat beside her. “I’ve had some things on my mind for a while now, and I think that’s the reason I lost at the gym.”
Kaitlyn nodded, but didn’t say anything. She’d been able to tell that Cassie seemed distracted and out of sorts for a few days now, and it wasn’t a surprise that it had probably affected her thinking during the gym battle.
“I still don’t really know how to talk about any of this, but...I’m going to try. Just...promise me that you won’t think I’m crazy if any of this sounds weird?”
Kaitlyn blinked in surprise.
‘What does she mean, weird?’ she thought, noticing the way that Cassie almost seemed to be trying to shrink into herself, like she was afraid of something. What in the world could Cassie possibly be about to say that would make her think something like that?
“I promise,” she said, skeptical that there could be anything that unusual in what Cassie had to talk about. Cassie closed her eyes, slowly nodded and took a deep breath, then opened them again to look at Kaitlyn. She didn’t look anything like her normally-cheerful self, instead looking like a scared teenager about to confess that they’d done something wrong to parents. That worried Kaitlyn somehow, but she wasn’t about to go back on her word.
“I guess...I’ll start at the beginning, then.”
What followed in the next thirty minutes was like nothing Kaitlyn could have ever expected to hear from her friend, and challenged her promise to not think Cassie crazy at more than one moment during their talk. Cassie had already told her the story of waking up in Eterna Forest with no memories and everything that had happened during the two weeks before they had met, but it seemed at the time as if she hadn’t been entirely forthcoming about the whole thing. That had turned out to be true, but hearing her say what supposedly really happened out loud now...despite her promise, it seemed a far-fetched tale at best.
Other worlds besides this one? Being plucked from her own and deposited here like cut-pasting a file on a computer? Everything Kaitlyn had ever known being nothing more than a media franchise where Cassie was originally from? It all felt like a wild hallucination, spotty pieces of fiction pulled together by a disoriented mind after a Ghost attack, but...the way that Cassie talked about what little she remembered seemed too real to be feigned, too much emotion and memory and longing to be a contrived mental fabrication.
She’d interjected at points, mind whirling as she asked questions about this ‘Earth’ that Cassie purported to be from. Cassie answered as best she could, but there were some things that she simply couldn’t answer with or without her memories, things Kaitlyn’s curiosity wanted to know that were just out of her span of knowledge. One thing remained painfully clear through it all, though, regardless of whether or not the younger girl was telling the truth.
Cassie loved Pokemon. She’d grown up with the games she’d described, watched the television shows that followed a young trainer on his journey, eagerly absorbed everything there was to know about the cultural phenomenon that her world seemed to treat Pokemon as. It was plain to see that no matter whether all of her story was real or not, her love for Pokemon as a whole was genuine and impossible to fake.
Kaitlyn had grown more interested, however, when Cassie mentioned the odd dreams about lakes that she’d been having recently. She couldn’t be sure just from a description as to what she had seen in her mind, but the sketch that Cassie had shown her in a notebook was a different story and had been unmistakable to Kaitlyn’s eyes. It was Lake Acuity, just outside of Snowpoint City in the far northern reaches of Sinnoh. Why Cassie would have been dreaming about and drawing a lake that she’d never visited was a mystery to Kaitlyn...until she remembered local legends about Lake Acuity.
No one had ever been able to confirm it, but rumors and myths abounded of a supposed Legendary Pokemon that called Lake Acuity home. Supposed eyewitness accounts told that a small, fairy-like Pokemon resided within the cavern within the center of the lake, though countless people had traveled to the small cave and found nothing but the occasional Zubat nesting within the shallow rock formation. Kaitlyn herself had ventured out to the cavern to take a look during her journey last season, though she hadn’t found anything more than anyone else except for a particularly nice piece of what looked like a fossilized plant within the cave. It was nothing special, she’d found after having it examined, and had a small place on her desk as a keepsake in a protective plastic case.
Was there a connection, she wondered, between Cassie and the lake? There had to be something; it was simply too unusual to be mere coincidence. She felt a chill run down her spine at the thought, the idea that something could be meddling in her friend’s mind to such a degree. Ghosts were one thing, usually harmless unless they were truly angered, but this...
If there was any truth to those myths and stories, Kaitlyn suddenly felt as if she didn’t want to know. Nothing good ever came from meddling in the affairs of Legends, as history had often shown.
“So...that’s it,” Cassie murmured, staring down at the carpet. She felt drained, tired, like she’d just run a marathon without ever leaving the sofa she was sitting on. She was terrified that Kaitlyn was going to leave, having no idea what to make of her reactions over the time she’d been talking. Her mind and soul felt lighter, though. No more secrets to hide, no more running from the truth.
“...It’s a lot to take in,” Kaitlyn said, leaning back into the sofa’s cushion as she looked up at the ceiling. She still didn’t really know what to think about it all, honestly.
“If you want to leave, I...I won’t try to stop you. I just thought you deserved to know.”
Kaitlyn laughed, the sudden sound cutting through the tension that had settled over the room and causing Cassie to look over at her in surprise.
“Why would I do that?” she said smoothly, finally looking at Cassie with eyes full of mirth. “You know, I thought you were from Unova at first. At least this makes a bit more sense.”
The question hit Cassie like a ton of bricks, causing her to look up at Kaitlyn in confusion that was only heightened by the follow-up statement she had made. “Unova? Why?”
“The accent. You sound like you’re from Castelia City.”
Cassie’s mouth opened, but no words came out, as if she wasn’t quite sure how to respond to the statement. She didn’t think she had an accent...but of course she didn’t think that. Most people didn’t seem to think they had an accent, no matter how much of one they had.
“What do you mean, it ‘makes a bit more sense?’” she asked instead, honestly wondering what Kaitlyn meant by that.
“The knowledge gaps,” Kaitlyn replied. “You kept asking questions about things that most trainers learn at a trainer school, or just by watching battles, things like that. I started wondering if you’d never been to a trainer school at all, but I didn’t want to ask because it felt rude. Then there was the whole Paldea thing...it was weird that you knew about a lot of the different regions, but didn’t know anything at all about Paldea.”
The younger trainer nodded in understanding. She had no frame of reference for a lot of things that just simply weren’t ever addressed in any media, so she never realized how strange some of her questions may have sounded to an experienced trainer.
“I...kinda feel silly for asking some of those,” Cassie admitted. “I could’ve probably found the answers online somewhere.”
“No shame in asking,” Kaitlyn remarked with a shrug. “Either way, you figured it out well enough, so it worked out in the end.”
“So...you’re not going to leave?”
Kaitlyn’s brow furrowed just faintly. “Remember what I told you when we first met?” Cassie hesitantly shook her head. “I said that travel’s always better when you’re not alone. Besides...I still want to see what you can really do,” she said, a small smile creeping back onto her face. “If you know half of what you say you do from this other world, then once I help you get up to speed on the things you don’t know...”
She let the thought hang, but Cassie didn’t need her to finish to understand what she was saying. Kaitlyn honestly and truly thought she had what it took to win the conference...to be a champion.
“Kaitlyn...”
She reached over and threw her arms around the older girl in a hug, burying her face in Kaitlyn’s shoulder. Kaitlyn froze for an instant from the unexpected contact before pulling enough of her arms free to return the hug, idly feeling a lot like she was comforting Kayley in one of her more weepy moments.
“You’re welcome,” Kaitlyn said, chuckling a little as Cassie finally let go. “Feel better?”
“Yeah...a lot better,” Cassie said, finally smiling for the first time in a while. “I don’t feel like I’m walking on eggshells anymore.”
“Speaking of walking, we better figure out what we’re going to do now. Think you feel up for a planning session?”
“That’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about,” Cassie said, realizing all at once that she’d almost forgotten about telling Kaitlyn her ideas for what to do next. “I did some thinking when I went to see Orion and Paulos. Maybe we should go to Lake Verity, and let me challenge the gym again on the way back through? It would give me some more time to figure out a strategy, and...I kinda think we could use the break.”
“I’d been thinking about that too. If you think you need the time, we’d have a week or two to work on things before we came back. Probably more than enough time to figure something out, really,” Kaitlyn said, nodding in agreement. “I’m on board if you are.”
“Let’s do it, then,” Cassie replied, hands gripped tightly onto her knees. “That badge is mine next time.”
The first thing that Cynthia noticed as she stepped into the room to meet with her Leaders was how much more tired a few of them appeared as opposed to previous weeks. Roark and Gardenia were both present as usual, and both looked as if they had been put through the wringer. Roark’s eyelids kept drooping faintly behind his glasses as he talked with Wake, seemingly ready to fall asleep despite the big man’s loud and exuberant voice. Gardenia wasn’t quite as bad as Roark, but Cynthia could still see the faint lines under her eyes that she couldn’t entirely erase as well as the definite toning down of her usual upbeat attitude. Byron, meanwhile, looked tired for entirely different reasons that Cynthia knew were related to their discussion about the port late last week. He’d likely been stretched thin with all of the troubles, though thankfully his gym challenges had been few and far between as of late.
Fantina had also joined them today, having no show to put on this Saturday evening, and the Ghost-type Leader was chatting quietly with Candice and Maylene to one side of the table. She’d changed out of the flowy, ballgown-styled dress that she normally wore during matches into a more subdued blouse and long skirt, as well as having taken her hair down from its complicated styling. Cynthia couldn’t imagine wearing such elaborate outfits day in and day out, and she greatly respected the older Coordinator for the sacrifices she made in the name of her art. Wake, however, still wore the wrestling attire that he usually sported, though he’d doffed his fanciful mask for the meeting.
Notably absent were all of the Elite Four members, most of whom were currently training with their teams elsewhere on the island, as well as Volkner, who was back in Sunyshore helping work on repairs to part of the city lighthouse. Cynthia didn’t worry very much about it, though. Sunyshore had still only seen a relative handful of challengers even over a month into the circuit season, most of whom were city natives who were well accustomed to the grueling early matches that the Electric-type Leader offered.
“Good evening, everyone,” Cynthia greeted, taking her seat at the head of the long conference table. “I’ll try to keep this brief, since I know everyone is probably tired. I’m sure the challenge season is ramping up for most of you.”
“Tell me about it,” Roark groaned, not quite able to stifle the yawn that followed his statement. “The tourist traffic is a real killer this year. Feels like I’ve hardly had any time to think lately.”
“I did tell you to delegate more to your foremen,” Byron chuckled from across the table. “I’ve had to pretty much leave the mines to my chief so I can try and get the port under control.”
“I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to be of much help, Byron,” Cynthia cut in, just a hint of bitterness clouding her tone. “If there’s anything you need, please let me know.” The older man waved off the words with a shake of the head, not bothered at all by the Champion’s inability to lend a hand.
“Not your fault, Cynthia,” he replied. “These things take time, and there’s not much we can do about that. I’m keeping an eye out for these Galactic guys you keep mentioning, too, though I haven’t seen any out in the open just yet. If they’re behind some of these problems, they’re hiding it pretty well.”
“They’ve been all over Oreburgh for a week or two now,” Roark started, “but...I don’t think we had as many reports about them this week. Not sure how to feel about that.”
“We arrested a few in Eterna this week,” Gardenia added. “They broke into a machine shop and made off with some equipment, but we tracked them down pretty fast. I think the police are still looking for everything they stole, though.”
“You as well?” Fantina asked, her Kalosian accent tinged with irritation. “I have heard there has been a rash of thefts across the city ever since last week. The police are still investigating, but several have already led back to this group, I was told.”
Cynthia frowned as she listened, feeling as if she was still a step behind whatever was going on here. Hearthome had been basically untouched by the hands of Galactic for weeks, but now they seemed to swarm like Combee around the city. Yet Jubilife, which she worried vigorously about in prior weeks, remained mostly clear of anything beyond scattered reports of trouble. She still had no clues to go on as to what the group was after, though the sudden activity on the eastern side of the region was troubling.
“Do you know what was targeted, Fantina?” she asked. “Maybe it will give us some clue as to what they’re up to.” The Hearthome Gym Leader sadly shook her head, raising both hands in a shrug.
“I will find out from my chief of police and have the information to you by tomorrow. You believe these thefts are not random, I assume?”
“Correct,” Cynthia remarked, folding her arms. “Going from no activity at all to a string of thefts within two weeks? Either they are after something very specific that your city has in abundance, or they are attempting to draw our eyes away so that they can strike elsewhere.”
An uneasy silence drifted over the room at the Champion’s words. Each of the Gym Leaders looked apprehensive, realizing that their cities could seemingly be next at any time. With little to go on as to Galactic’s motives, they felt as if they were spinning their wheels and not truly getting anywhere with solving the problem. Cynthia easily noticed the downturn in mood of the room and sighed, looking between each of her Leaders as she tried to return the smile to her face with better thoughts.
“We’ll table the problem of Galactic for the moment. Does anyone have anything to mention regarding the circuit’s progress this week?”
The change of topic served to return a bit of levity to the room as people started to talk about some of the matches they’d seen over the past week, as well as things that they needed for their respective gyms. With the challenge circuit now well underway, things were starting to ramp up a bit in terms of difficulty for most trainers who had begun right at the start. More and more trainers were taking their three-badge challenges, something which honestly surprised Cynthia. With the circuit season lasting roughly eight months, most trainers opted to try for around one badge every three or four weeks to try and maximize their prep time between major matches. This year, it seemed, many more trainers were setting a more rigorous pace in the early going. Cynthia suspected that trainers were taking a more front-loaded approach to the challenge, opting to try and speed their way through the first two or three gyms in order to give themselves more time to train for harder challenges in the latter half of the circuit. It was a strategy that could pay dividends with a strong team at your back that worked well together, and she found herself wondering if she would see a corresponding uptick in the number of conference goers this year as a result.
Gardenia was one of the first to speak up, mentioning one of the first third-badge challenges she’d had just two days ago against a young Johtonian woman named Chiaki Asano. The three-on-three match had been close, but was eventually a loss for the Gym Leader, though the Pokemon that the woman had fielded surprised the Grass-type Leader. A Seel was not uncommon to see, though it had performed admirably in a field without a single drop of water to utilize, but Gardenia had been noticeably more interested to see Chiaki field both an Eevee and an Alolan Vulpix to round out her team. If she had any doubts before, seeing both Pokemon together left her convinced that the young lady either had some good connections or very deep pockets, perhaps both. Both Pokemon were almost vanishingly rare in the wild, with most people acquiring them through specialized breeders for hefty fees. Alolan Vulpix in particular was one that most trainers preferred to utilize breeding services or other sources for, since the harsh environment of Ula’ula Island’s Mount Lanakila in Alola was one of the only places where confirmed wild populations of the elusive Ice-type were found.
Fantina joined in with a laugh, looking directly at the Eterna City Leader as she mentioned one of her second-badge battles. The reason became evident quickly, as her challenger was a teenage girl from Eterna City by the name of Gianna Lawson. It took Gardenia a few seconds to try and remember who Fantina was talking about, but when she mentioned that the girl had told her that she aspired to come work in Fantina’s gym someday as a gym trainer, Gardenia finally snapped her fingers in recognition. She couldn’t say that she properly remembered her first-badge match with the girl, but Fantina had been delighted with the match she had at the start of the week. The girl’s Gastly and Misdreavus had performed admirably, but in the end had lost narrowly to Fantina’s own pair of phantoms. That had done nothing to dull her enthusiasm, however, and according to the Ghost-type Leader she was set to challenge again near the end of the coming week.
The floodgates opened after that, with several of the other Leaders mentioning their own battles in an attempt to one-up each other. Cynthia sat back and listened with amusement as the table broke into good-natured squabbling between most of the Gym Leaders - Byron being the notable exception, who seemed to enjoy listening to the banter more than participating in it. Fifteen minutes passed in what felt like the blink of an eye as the Champion relaxed, glad to take a break from all the stress and worry of the past few weeks, but she finally had to put her serious face back on as the stories and jokes around the table began to taper off. She still had one more topic to address before she was ready to end things for the day.
“Before we wrap things up, I have one more thing of importance to mention,” Cynthia began, standing up from her chair to step over to a screen mounted on the wall behind her. It flickered to life as she pressed a button on a small remote, displaying the picture of a young woman with blond hair that looked as if it was one taken for an ID of some kind. No one noticed Gardenia lean forward in her chair at the sight, all eyes focused on the television screen.
“This young woman is Cassandra Blair, age twenty,” the Sinnoh Champion continued, eyes sweeping across the room with the focus that everyone was used to seeing from their leader. “She is currently taking the Sinnoh League Challenge, and is currently in...Oreburgh City, I believe? Is that correct?”
“It is,” Roark said with a nod. “She battled me earlier today, and I don’t believe she’s left the city yet.” The Oreburgh Gym Leader was the only one besides Gardenia who knew what Cynthia was about to explain, having been informed a short time before the meeting.
Cynthia nodded lightly; Gardenia had said the same when she had asked. She knew the Eterna Gym Leader was keeping in touch with the girl through text messages, though the last time she knew they had talked was the previous day. “A few of you might remember Gardenia mentioning her a few weeks ago, near the start of the circuit, having come to Eterna City after waking up in the nearby forest with partial amnesia. Since then, we’ve done some investigation around her situation and have drawn an...interesting conclusion.”
“Interesting?” Fantina asked, noting the unusual phrasing from the Champion. “In what way?”
“Gardenia was the first to suspect anything was amiss, and after speaking with Agent Anabel Kimura of the International Police, she became convinced that the suspicions she had were correct.” Cynthia’s gaze swept the room again, seeming to gauge the reactions she might be about to receive. “Given everything we know at the moment, the three of us believe that Cassandra Blair is a Faller.”
Expressions of surprise and concern quickly made their way around the table like a stoked blaze, with the remaining Gym Leaders who hadn’t been privy to the information looking between each other with varying degrees of worry. All of them had heard of the term, though none of them had ever seen anyone that fell under the category of the unusual title. Even Anabel was someone that most of the assembled Leaders only knew by name, with Wake being the sole person to have actually had the chance to meet her thanks to an international smuggling incident a few years past. Notably, no one gathered at the table spoke up to question Cynthia’s assessment of the situation. If not only Cynthia, but another one of their own and an Interpol agent of some renown were all of one mind about the subject, then that was enough for them to stand behind their Champion barring an egregious action being taken.
“That certainly sounds like a cause for concern,” Byron spoke up, arms folded as he leaned back in the chair, “but you seem pretty calm, Cynthia. I’m guessing you already have thoughts in mind to handle things?”
“For the most part, yes,” Cynthia affirmed with a nod, brushing some of her long hair back again. She turned back to the screen, changing the picture once again before turning back to the table. “Miss Blair is traveling with this person - Kaitlyn Rayne, age twenty-four. With Cassie being a new trainer, miss Rayne here appears to have taken her under her wing to teach her the basics, if what I’ve heard is correct. At the moment, I don’t believe miss Blair to be of any danger to the region simply by virtue of her assumed status.”
A bit of the tension around the table eased at that, though one or two pensive looks remained on the older Leaders at the table. “That being said, I have a request for all of you.”
“What kind of request?” Gardenia asked, interrupted briefly by the ping of an incoming message on her phone that she quickly silenced.
“A simple one, or so I believe,” Cynthia replied, a smile crossing her face. “While Fallers themselves are not dangerous, I find it hard to believe that the appearance of one such individual and the recent uprising of Team Galactic are a coincidence. Whatever is truly going on here, we must be ready to combat it with everything we have at our disposal.”
She leaned back in the chair, fingers lacing together as she gazed around the table. “If - no, when - miss Blair arrives at each of your gyms, I want you to make sure that you give her a welcome challenge...perhaps a bit more so than a normal challenger. From what I have heard from Anabel, Fallers have a tendency to find themselves embroiled in conflict regardless of their desire for it. I suspect that whatever Galactic is up to, their paths will cross at some point, and I would rather see her prepared for any dangers that they might bring to the table.”
“Isn’t that a little...” Roark paused, searching for the word he wanted to use. “Harsh?”
“Perhaps,” Cynthia admitted, shrugging. “Still, as I said, I would rather she be prepared in case she does find herself an inadvertent target of Galactic’s crimes, even if we risk accusations of unfair treatment.”
“Would you like me to talk to her?” Gardenia suggested. “Fill her in on what we think we figured out?”
Cynthia thought for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of doing just that. Gardenia waited patiently for a response, finding Cynthia’s face as impossible to read as it always was.
“Not yet,” the Sinnoh Champion finally replied, shaking her head gently. “Let’s wait and see what she does for a little longer before we do. Just continue to keep in contact with her, and let me know if you need anything.”
“If you’re sure,” Gardenia said, shrugging as her phone sounded again from her pocket. This time, she sheepishly retrieved the phone and checked the alerts, blinking for a second before looking back towards Cynthia. “Speaking of...” she started, pulling up her messages to take a look at what she’d been sent.
“She messaged you?”
Gardenia nodded, tapping at her screen for a moment before her face lit up. “Aww...it’s so cute!”
She flipped the phone around to show Cynthia, grinning ear to ear. “I gave her an egg before she left town, and it looks like it finally hatched!”
Cynthia laughed as Gardenia started showing the other Leaders, getting similar reactions as they all saw the picture. Even Byron cracked a smile as he saw the newborn Pokemon on the screen. “How adorable,” Cynthia said as Gardenia started tapping out a return message to Cassie. “I think that’s everything I had for today. Anything else before we wrap up here?”
A chorus of shaking heads and other negatives answered her question, and Cynthia stood from her chair to shut off the screen. “Enjoy your evenings then, everyone,” she said as she tucked the remote away again, watching as everyone began to disperse from the room. Once she was alone again, she let out a heavy sigh, finally letting some of the stress show where no one could see. She was thankful that all of the Gym Leaders placed such trust in her. Without their support, running a region would be ten times harder than it already was, and that hat felt just a little heavier with each passing day.