The gloomy atmosphere that had hung between Kaitlyn and Cassie had all but disappeared following their talk Saturday evening, and Kaitlyn was infinitely thankful that things seemed to be moving in a better direction now. It was like a weight that the younger girl had been carrying since they met had been removed, leaving her once again the sunny, upbeat girl Kaitlyn remembered. Not only that, but there was a new undercurrent of steel behind her cheerful exterior now, Kaitlyn noticed, new determination forged by her first major loss. She was adamant that she wouldn’t lose the second time around, and both Orion and Paulos seemed similarly determined to avenge their previous defeat.
Cassie had picked up Orion and Paulos from the Pokemon Center the next morning, each still recovering but well enough to be released, and had immediately started brainstorming ways to deal with Roark's challenge on their next attempt. Her way of thinking seemed to have shifted ever since revealing everything, as she talked to Kaitlyn freely about what she knew from the games she had played in the other world and seemed to be using that knowledge to help craft a strategy.
Games...what an unusual thing, Kaitlyn pondered. It was hard to believe that such a thing existed at all, but the evidence that Cassie had presented her with was undeniable. When she’d pulled out a phone that was clearly unlike the one she had purchased back in Eterna, booting it up with the name ‘Samsung’ flashing across the screen, Kaitlyn had given it a very strange look. That was definitely a name she’d never heard of, nor had any of the app names on the screen been familiar when the younger girl showed her. When she booted up something she’d called an emulator on the phone, only to have it show an animated intro with what was unmistakably Lugia flying through a night sky and a title screen showing ‘Pokemon SoulSilver,’ Kaitlyn’s eyes had widened to saucers instantly.
Cassie had loaded up a saved game that she said was somewhere around halfway through, and had proceeded to play for a few minutes to show Kaitlyn what she was talking about. Kaitlyn had watched in fascination as a simplified version of Olivine City had come into view on screen, somewhat amused at how few buildings there were in this game’s recreation as opposed to the real port city she knew. Cassie had shown off her team in the game, wild battles, trainer battles, and a little bit of exploring before she had put the game away, leaving Kaitlyn a bit stunned at what she’d witnessed. It was a little strange to see 2-D versions of creatures she knew well battling each other in a much-simplified version of real battles, but even more unusual to know that everywhere you were familiar with in the world was somewhere else’s fantasy, a strange mirror of reality that you never knew existed until now. She’d finally put the thoughts aside lest she drive herself crazy in the short-term, opting to help Cassie with strategies for what would be her next gym battle some two weeks from now.
Pity she likely wouldn't be able to make use of her newest teammate, Kaitlyn mused as she watched the tiny Pokemon toddle across the couch and back into her lap. Cassie grinned as the Pokemon settled again, rubbing a hand over the hard head of the small turtle and taking care not to hurt the tiny leaf sprouting there.
Gardenia’s egg had finally hatched Saturday night, and Cassie had been ecstatic to see the small green and brown form of a Turtwig finally emerge from the broken egg. Piplup was admittedly her favorite starter from the generation four games, but she was fond of all three, and the infant Pokemon was downright adorable. Its brown shell hadn't fully hardened into the compact, earthen protection it would become and was more of a squishy, moist covering on its back right now, while the single leaf on its head was small and had yet to develop and split into the paired leaves it would mature into. It only weighed around five pounds, a healthy newborn weight according to Gardenia but still barely a quarter of the weight it would be once it was fully grown.
“Turtwig get most of their energy from photosynthesis?” Cassie read out loud, eyes locked on her phone as she absently gave gentle pets to the Grass-type in her lap. “I kinda thought they would get it from food like other Pokemon.”
“Most Grass-types do, really,” Kaitlyn replied as she swallowed a bite of the cheeseburger in her hand. “Some do eat regular food, but it’s more of...I guess you could say a treat for them, rather than really needing it.”
“Says here that Turtwig are also herbivorous...” Cassie murmured, continuing to read the article she’d pulled up as the TV hummed in the background. “Wonder if they like berries?”
“I don’t think I’ve seen a Pokemon that doesn’t like berries,” Kaitlyn remarked. “Except for ones like Tera that just don’t eat normal food, at least. I’m sure he’ll be fine with them. It’ll probably be good for him to have anyway if he’s going to be battling, for extra nutrients and all that.”
“Could you get the berries out of the fridge?”
Kaitlyn nodded and stepped over towards the kitchenette, reaching inside the fridge and grabbing a container to hand over to Cassie. Turtwig’s eyes followed the object as Kaitlyn sat it down on the coffee table, tracking the new thing in its space, and Cassie carefully leaned forward to grab it before popping the lid off and leaning back again on the sofa. A beak darted over her shoulder to snag one of the berries before she could react, and her head swiveled to see a very self-satisfied Paulos munching on his prize.
“Imp,” she joked, reaching up to scratch a spot on his breast for a moment before returning her attention to the box.
Only to find Orion’s nose close enough to almost touch the fruits inside, a low whine coming from the pup as pleading eyes looked up at his trainer.
“Oh, come on,” Cassie laughed, reaching into the box and grabbing three of the small Cheri berries inside and holding them out to the Fire-type. They were gone in an instant, Orion’s satisfied smacking sounding in her ears as he sat back on his haunches.
“Going to do a taste test?” Kaitlyn asked, throwing away the wrapper for her burger as she stepped back over towards the couch to take a seat next to Cassie.
“Yeah - I figure I can afford to replace some of the berries after all the jobs we did,” she replied, picking through the container to find a few different types before starting to offer them to Turtwig to see what he preferred.
They’d been in town since Thursday night, and with only a week of free room and board at the Pokemon Center and funds that were slimmer than either trainer liked, they’d decided to use the next few days as an opportunity to earn some more funds to restock their supplies for the next part of the trip. Between the myriad jobs that they’d taken on, none of which required Cassie’s still-recovering Pokemon to help out for anything, they’d managed to make enough credits for supplies and then some by the end of Monday. Kaitlyn had suggested they take the bus to Jubilife on Wednesday morning, and they’d grabbed tickets first thing Tuesday morning so as to avoid almost an entire day’s worth of walking.
With travel plans laid out, a new gym challenge set, and everything restocked and ready to go, Cassie had spent the rest of Tuesday morning trying to figure out how to properly overhaul the way she was training her Pokemon with Kaitlyn’s help. One thing she changed didn’t have anything to do with her Pokemon and more to do with her - namely, starting to exercise properly alongside her Pokemon. She wasn’t going to be winning any races against Orion or anything, obviously, but she figured that working hard alongside her team would motivate everyone to do their best if they saw her striving to improve just like them. Plus, it would help get and keep her in proper shape for what she knew were likely to be harder travels ahead; the routes leading towards Snowpoint to the north instantly came to mind, as did the idea of traversing anywhere within Coronet’s mountainous terrain.
Alongside that, she’d done a bit more research into Pokemon nutrition and discovered quickly that some of her thinking wasn’t quite right. She’d been trying to keep each of her Pokemon’s meals roughly balanced between protein, carbohydrates, and fats, knowing little of anything like athletic nutrition and trying instead to make sure each meal was healthy and filling, but had neglected to consider the sheer amount of calories that Pokemon needed when they were actively training and battling. It wasn’t uncommon for even Pokemon who were new to a battle team to need three thousand calories or more per day, depending on what kind of Pokemon it was, and more experienced Pokemon who could utilize stronger attacks and fight for longer periods of time made that number look downright small in their daily needs. She wasn’t sure how many calories were in the meals she made for Orion and Paulos, but she was reasonably sure it wasn’t at that level. Carbs were by far one of the more important things for Pokemon to have, and she’d started to really try and dig into species-specific meal ideas and nutrition advice so that she could do better in the future. For the moment, the only thing she could do was make some minor changes and increase the amount of food she gave her Pokemon until it seemed to be closer to proper portions for training. At Kaitlyn’s suggestion, she’d also grabbed some of the pre-packaged Pokemon food offered at the Mart, for times when her Pokemon might need a quick snack or when they were on the road for longer periods of time.
The other major thing she’d thought about regarding training was to consider what moves she might try and teach her team in the coming days to help deal with the gym battle the second time around. Kaitlyn had heard her complain about wishing she had access to something called ‘Bulbapedia,’ which she assumed was some kind of website similar to Caterpedia. Fortunately, she’d discovered that the information she wanted was rather widely available for most species - namely, a brief list of their most commonly seen moves. It wasn’t perfect, with some species having less information than others and some having almost none at all - pretty much all of whom were ‘capital-L’ Legendaries - but it was enough for her to plan with.
“We’re going to do some more training when we get to Jubilife tomorrow, right?” Cassie asked Kaitlyn, standing up to stretch as Turtwig finally wandered off of her lap to continue exploring the small room.
“That’s the plan, so long as Orion and Paulos are feeling up to it,” her friend replied, rummaging around in her pack at the table.
“I really hope Skarmory would be okay with teaching Paulos Steel Wing...I don’t want to bother him too much, but it would be a big help at the gym,” Cassie sighed, mildly frustrated as she looked over at Orion. “I just wish there was something Orion could learn that could help out, but I don’t think he can learn any Steel-type moves. Maybe some kind of hazard like Stealth Rock, but for Fire-types?”
“Don’t think anything like that exists, or if it does, it’s not widely known,” Kaitlyn mentioned with a shrug. “Why don’t you try and make one?”
Cassie blinked. “Make one? Like, a new move?”
“Sure. Lots of trainers make up their own moves, you know. It’s harder for someone to fight you when they can’t know for sure what you bring to the table. At best, they’ll have a little time to dig up info on you before a match like a Gym Leader might, but most of the time they’re flying blind.”
The thought made a lot of sense, and Cassie started to head towards where her bag was sitting in order to jot down some notes before she forgot, only to stop halfway there and mutter something under her breath. Kaitlyn gave her an odd look and was just about to open her mouth when Cassie’s hand slapped into her face in exasperation as she groaned.
“Dig up...I am such an idiot!”
She spun back around to Kaitlyn, pleading eyes locked on the older girl and hands pressed together almost in prayer as Kaitlyn’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Can you please have Ivan teach Dig to Orion?”
Kaitlyn blinked, mouth opening in stunned amazement that both of them had seemingly forgotten about something so obvious. Hell, she’d even seen Growlithe belonging to local police use the move on occasion. Cassie forgetting, she could understand given the girl’s memory issues, but she couldn’t believe she’d let the idea slip her mind.
“Of course,” she said quickly, regaining her bearing as Cassie resumed her walk for her bag while muttering the entire time.
“How distracted have I been recently...” Cassie said to no one in particular as she fished out her notebook and started flipping through to an open page with pencil in hand.
“You did say you hadn’t been sleeping well ever since you started having the dreams about the lake,” Kaitlyn offered. “Sleep deprivation will do that. And I didn’t think of it either, so don’t be so quick to blame yourself.”
Orion barked in agreement from the other side of the room, causing Cassie to sigh as she headed back towards the couch. “I know,” she said, almost flopping back down into the seat and resisting the urge to bop herself with the notebook in her hands. “I’m trying to be better about that, but I just can’t believe I forgot about something so stupid. I even thought about it a long time ago when I first got Orion for this exact reason!”
She hurriedly flipped through the notebook as a thought struck her, fingers slipping between pages rapidly until she found the one she was looking for and held it up to Kaitlyn with a shake. “See? Right here! I’ve had it all along, and I still didn’t remember!”
Kaitlyn frowned, taking a closer look at the words scribbled down on the page in Cassie’s neatly looping handwriting.
Gardenia - Ember is probably enough, maybe Flame Wheel for Roselia. Wing Attack/Aerial Ace? Is Gust strong enough?
Roark - Dig is maybe the only option - is it even possible to learn it now? Paulos probably won’t be able to help much.
Fantina - Bite or Crunch takes out any Ghosts. Watch out for Curse.
Maylene - Paulos should win easily with decent Flying moves. Find a Psychic-type for backup?
Candice - Also easy with Orion. Flame Wheel should be enough, probably.
Crasher Wake
Byron
Volkner
There was nothing beside the last three names; Kaitlyn assumed she simply hadn’t gotten around to thinking about those battles whenever she wrote out the rest. “When did you write this?” Kaitlyn asked softly as Cassie started flipping back to the blank page she had been on.
“The night after I caught Paulos, I think,” she said. “I don’t remember exactly, just that it was sometime before our gym match. I was kinda still thinking of everything in game terms back then, so...I don’t think any of that means anything anymore, honestly. I mean, Roark didn’t have a Rockruff in the games since it didn’t even exist yet.”
“What do you mean?”
That caused Cassie to break into a short explanation about the idea of the different generations of games from one to eight and exactly what they represented and introduced. Kaitlyn listened with fascination as Cassie explained, just one more surprise she hadn’t been expecting recently. The idea that the games’ creators didn’t create all Pokemon all at once was certainly interesting, and it also made another thing make sense all of a sudden to her.
“Is that why you didn’t know anything about Paldea?”
Cassie nodded. “Those games weren’t released yet when I wound up here - they’d barely shown off anything to the public about them, only the starter trio and a little bit about what the region looked like. I was pretty excited to see it, and I absolutely loved Sprigatito, but...”
She left the rest of the thought unspoken, but the remainder was clear anyway.
“Maybe you should’ve asked Gardenia to see if she could find you one,” Kaitlyn said with a grin, steering the conversation back to happier thoughts. “She liked you enough to give you that Turtwig, after all.”
“And I wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world, either,” Cassie beamed, looking over at the turtle wandering around the room in an effort to find something interesting. It toddled over to the bed as she watched, tilting its head for a moment as it examined the piece of furniture before opening its mouth wide and chomping down around the wooden bedpost.
“Nononono, don’t do that!”
Cassie bolted out of her seat on the sofa to grab the misbehaving baby, startling Paulos and nearly causing him to fall in the process, and Kaitlyn couldn’t help but laugh.
Mars’ eyes traced across the displays and screens in front of her, taking in the information they showed regarding power availability, transfer rates, system issues, and many other bits and pieces of data in the main control center at Valley Windworks. A small part of her still couldn’t believe that Europa’s plan had worked so well, but she was all the more thankful for it. Not having to use force was a major help, especially when they only had a handful of grunts for backup under the guise of technicians.
A few of their members had stupidly gotten themselves arrested right before the operation before they’d even left Oreburgh City, something Europa had discovered on the bus ride over to Jubilife. That left them with only six grunts and the two of them to carry out their plans inside the power generation facility, one which probably sported easily a hundred people on average. If things went bad, even their trained Pokemon would likely fold under the sheer numbers that they might be facing, since it was highly likely that most of the workers kept their own Pokemon on hand to help out with tasks at the plant. The solution was both amazingly simple and incredibly outlandish.
Namely, just walk in the front door and act like you were in charge.
Europa’s forged documents had turned out to be a carefully crafted cover story regarding a new archaeological dig site in the wilderness outside of Floaroma Town. The town’s relatively few inhabitants made for a distinct lack of prying eyes, and it was a simple matter for them to have a fake site cleared out and ready for some temporary power lines to be run from the neighboring town. The site’s purported importance demanded secrecy until the news was ready to be revealed to the public, or so the story claimed, and so they asked everyone to sign non-disclosure agreements just to ensure that no loose lips sank the ship. Getting everyone to comply was trivial, given that they planned on being done within a week’s time, and they promised a great deal of public thanks to the wonderful workers of Valley Windworks when the announcement was finally made.
Of course, every bit of those promises were just as bogus as everything else they carried around, but that was irrelevant. The simple looming threat of legal action tied everyone’s tongues rather effectively, combined with the appeal to peoples’ desire for notoriety, and that seemed to be that. They’d effectively taken control of a portion of the plant’s operations by the middle of Saturday, and things had been humming smoothly along ever since then. By the time anyone figured out that they’d been duped, the Galactic agents would all be long gone with the power they sought.
‘Simply amazing what a few pieces of forged documentation and a silver tongue can do for you,’ Mars thought as she scribbled some notes on her clipboard, keeping track of the power that had been provided so far as well as a few other things to report to Cyrus later on. The grunts were still milling about, helping the few night shift workers who were starting to report in to get up to speed on any issues that needed to be addressed, while Europa was serving as an assistant to the night shift supervisor. Fortunately, most of the tasks were simple things that just required some extra muscle, enough so that the grunts could assist while leaving the complex parts to the workers properly trained for it.
Her cellphone rang suddenly, and she dropped the clipboard onto the desk nearby before pulling out the phone and answering the call. “Rie speaking,” she said, using the fake name she’d given herself for the mission.
“Everything’s going to plan, I assume?” a female voice answered from the other end of the line, one she recognized as fellow Galactic Commander Jupiter.
“So far, so good,” Mars said, nodding to no one in particular as she turned back to the consoles again. “Power transfer hasn’t had any issues since we set everything up. Everything looks good on your end?”
“There’s a steady inflow, no spikes or dips,” Jupiter replied. “Seems you can do something right after all.”
“Save it,” Mars growled, resisting the sudden urge to smash her phone to smithereens. “We’re over here doing the real work, while you lot are just babysitting glorified batteries.”
“Yes, yes, because looking at consoles is so much more glamorous,” Jupiter sneered. “Just make sure no one comes sniffing around for the next few days, and we’ll be ready to go. So long as you don’t screw anything up, we’ll have enough power to run the first real test.”
Mars started to retort, face reddening, but Jupiter had already hung up the line. The scream that she wanted to let out came out as more of a strangled, irritated cry, and a notepad went flying across the room as she grabbed the closest object and used it to vent some of the anger she couldn’t bring to bear against the one who deserved it. It clattered against the wall with a loud rustling of paper and fell to the ground as the door opened to let Europa walk in, seeing Mars’ angry face and the now-crumpled notepad beside the door.
“Did I miss something?” the disguised Galactic admin asked, casting a stray glance at the notepad before letting the door swing shut behind her.
“Just our lovely purple-haired coworker,” Mars grumbled, folding her arms. “Legends, I hate that bitch.”
“Your reactions simply fuel her antagonistic outbursts,” Europa said matter-of-factly, stepping over to seat herself in front of one of the consoles as she began to record readings on a clipboard of her own. “Ignoring her is the best course of action.”
“Whatever,” Mars scoffed, sighing and grabbing the clipboard she was using. “Of course you’d say that. Sometimes I wonder if you have any emotions at all.”
“Emotions don’t serve any purpose in accomplishing our goals,” Europa said evenly, not turning to face the Commander. “Master Cyrus will eliminate them anyway in the creation of his perfect vision. Thus, they are irrelevant to our mission.”
‘What a weirdo,’ Mars thought, going back to checking her own readings. If her math was right, based on the current data, they would have all the power they needed within the next three days. Once they were done, all they had to do was pack up everything and head back to HQ to let Charon test out the forging machine, assuming he had the work done on it by the time they returned. Mars knew that there were teams out in Hearthome and Veilstone gathering components that the scientist apparently needed, but she didn’t know the extent of what he needed nor how the progress was going. Whatever process Charon was using to craft what they would need, it was well beyond Mars’ ability to properly understand, and she preferred to leave the engineering to the engineers.
“Estimated time to completion...approximately fifty-three hours,” Europa said from her chair, glancing towards her fellow Galactic member as if seeking confirmation.
“That sounds like it’s close to what I estimated,” Mars confirmed with a nod. “Everything’s been going smoothly so far. Looks like we’ll be in and out of here without a hitch.”
“Some of the grunts reported hearing strange noises from the nearby forest,” Europa said, immediately pouring cold water on Mars’ statement. “I advised them that it was likely just a wild Pokemon, but that they should remain vigilant in case of trouble.”
“Can’t imagine many of the wild Pokemon would bother this place,” Mars shrugged, not seeing the news as anything to worry about.
“Still, it pays to be cautious.”
Mars hesitated for the briefest of moments before sighing. “Fine - send out a pair of grunts to go check it out properly if you’re so bothered by it.” Europa nodded, satisfied, as she got up from her chair to head back out accompanied by muttering from Mars that she didn’t care to pay attention to. The door slid open and shut behind where Mars was sitting as her fellow admin exited, and she suppressed the urge to let her head smack into the metal console before her.
“Legends, give me strength...this can’t be over quick enough.”
Kaitlyn stepped off the bus amidst a throng of other people also disembarking at the Jubilife City Transit Center, stretching and letting out a long yawn as she finally found herself with more than a cramped chair’s worth of space to move in. Cassie joined her a minute later, doing much the same before she checked the time on her phone.
“Nine thirteen,” she told Kaitlyn before yawning again and causing a similar reaction in her friend. “Did we have to take the earliest bus?”
“Well, we want to make the most of our time, right?” Kaitlyn said, letting a small impish smile cross her face that was totally unlike her. “Sometimes you have to make sacrifices.”
Cassie groaned something unintelligible, but nevertheless conceded the point as she reached for Orion’s Poke Ball. Both he and Astrid emerged in flashes of red light at their trainers’ sides, equally as glad to be able to stretch out as the two girls were.
“So, where to first?” Cassie asked as they headed for the exit. “There has to be tons to see in a city like this, right?”
“It’s the biggest city in Sinnoh,” Kaitlyn stated with a nod, pushing open the door and holding it for the pair of Pokemon and Cassie. “We should probably go get checked in at a hotel first before we do anything, though. Odds are that none of the Pokemon Centers in town will have open rooms right now, with all the trainers passing through to Oreburgh and Floaroma.”
“That makes sense,” Cassie agreed, finally taking a good look around her to get her first glimpses of the new city.
In a word, it felt enormous.
Eterna City was a rather comfortable size, perfect for quiet living but still having the comforts of the city. Oreburgh was larger than that, more industrialized and busier with a bit more hustle and bustle. Jubilife, though?
Jubilife was the closest thing to a metropolis that Cassie had seen yet.
Almost every building in sight was multiple stories, with the exception of the odd corner store or older-looking structure that she was sure had to be grandfathered into whatever zoning laws might’ve existed in the world. Dozens of windows reflected the early morning sunlight into glittering beams that threatened to blind her if she caught one at the wrong angle, and the chatter of pedestrians blended in with Pokemon cries and vehicles making their way down the streets into something that felt almost alien when compared to the places she’d been so far. Skyscrapers - actual skyscrapers - loomed in the distance, the tops peeking above the rest of the buildings far away in what looked like a proper business district, and for just a split second Cassie felt like she was back on Earth again, walking down the streets back home and listening to the frantic atmosphere. She hadn’t felt that way since she first woke up in Eterna Forest, remembering the sensation of falling and hitting warm grass instead of hot, solid concrete.
“Cassie? You okay?” Kaitlyn gently asked from beside her, carefully pulling her to the side and out of the way of foot traffic as her eyes traced the skyline.
“Yeah, I’m fine...” she murmured. “Just felt kinda weird for a minute. Kinda like I was home.”
“Did you grow up in a city like this?” Kaitlyn asked, curious to see if something had jogged her memory.
“I think so,” she replied. “It’s still a bit fuzzy, but I remember walking down streets like this, lots of people walking everywhere, lots of traffic...”
Kaitlyn was a bit surprised, if she was being honest. She would’ve sworn Cassie grew up in a small town with how comfortable and hesitant to leave she’d felt back in Eterna.
“Maybe being here will jog your memory a little,” she said with a faint smile, gesturing for Cassie to follow as she started to head further down the street.
It took a while for them to make their way to the north end of town, and Kaitlyn played tour guide for most of their walk, talking about the various things of note in Jubilife that Cassie might be interested in. As the largest city in Sinnoh, Jubilife had a lot to offer for anyone - entertainment, business, shopping, anything that tourists and locals alike could ever want. Both Silph Co. and the Devon Corporation had branch offices here that managed almost all of their business at the regional level, with much smaller offices elsewhere around Sinnoh that took some of the workload off and helped keep things running smoothly. The region’s leading television provider, Jubilife TV, had its headquarters here with the vast majority of stations region-wide running through their offices in some capacity. Smaller local channels also existed and generally provided things like local news and weather to their respective cities, but for anything regional or international, Jubilife TV was the source.
Cassie found herself intrigued when Kaitlyn started to talk about the city’s primary trainer school, Jubilife Trainer University. JTU wasn’t just the largest trainer school in the city, it was the largest in Sinnoh, period, and many famous trainers who had placed highly in the Lily of the Valley Conference in years past had gotten a start there. They didn’t just have courses for traditional trainers, either. JTU also featured an extensive course in Pokemon Contests, and the well-known Top Coordinator Ayako Tsumura was a graduate of the school.
There were a host of other attractions like museums, a sporting arena, and even a mall, but the most popular place in the city by far was the Global Terminal. Part battle arena, part marketplace, the Global Terminal was a trainer’s dream that attracted people from all over the Sinnoh region and beyond for battles, business, and everything in-between. Local battle tournaments were frequently held there as well as promotional events for businesses, pop-up markets for local businesses and independent merchants, and even the occasional attraction like small concerts. The entire thing was owned and operated by GTS Telecom, Sinnoh’s largest telecommunications provider, and their headquarters was located right next door to the massive building that sat in the southwestern part of the city, just a short walk away from the local train station.
“Finally,” Kaitlyn said, stepping off the sidewalk and onto the entrance path of a building to her right, past a large sign proclaiming ‘Radiant Sun Suites’ in elegant lettering. “I think you’ll like this place,” she said with a glance over to Cassie. “I’ve stayed here a few times when I was in the area. It’s not very fancy, but it’s affordable and has pretty nice rooms.”
The building itself was sturdy brick, its three stories weathered a bit with age but still standing firm. Rustic, tan-painted shutters and the dark curtains that Cassie could see on the inside of the windows made the hotel contrast quite sharply against the more modern architecture surrounding it. Kaitlyn was right; it wasn’t very fancy, but certainly seemed a rather cozy and quaint establishment among the big city feel.
A door pulled open with the cheery ‘ding’ of a bell, and the young red-haired man behind the desk looked up from the computer there to greet their group with a polite smile. “Welcome to the Radiant Sun,” he greeted as they walked up to the desk. “How can I help you?”
“We’d like two rooms, please,” Kaitlyn replied politely, prompting the man to turn back to the computer to check availability briefly.
“I’ve got two on the second floor,” he said, spinning the monitor around to show the amenities list to both of them. Both looked like simple hotel rooms with the basics - full-sized bed, small kitchenette, pretty similar to what the Pokemon Center rooms offered, if a bit larger overall. The price wasn’t bad either, true to what Kaitlyn had said before.
“Sounds great,” Cassie said as she skimmed the information, reaching into her purse to fish for her bank card before Kaitlyn waved her off.
“I’ll pay,” the older trainer said quickly, already pulling her wallet from a pocket. “You can pay next time.”
“Are you sure?” Cassie asked, earning a nod from Kaitlyn that caused her to withdraw her hand again as Kaitlyn handed over her card to the receptionist. A quick bit of typing and a scan of the card later, and the man handed Kaitlyn's card back along with handing each of them room keys for their respective rooms.
“There you are,” he said with a smile. “Before you go up, please make sure that any Pokemon too large to be released indoors has their Poke Ball locked to avoid any accidents. We hope you enjoy your stay!”
Kaitlyn nodded, reaching for Ivan’s Poke Ball and giving the button a quick double-press that she held for a few seconds until the light flashed and stayed red. She clipped the ball back onto her belt before motioning for Cassie to follow her towards the elevators, and Cassie waited until they were out of earshot of the receptionist before turning to the Steel-type trainer.
“I didn’t know you could lock a Poke Ball,” she said quietly.
“It’s a built-in feature,” Kaitlyn replied, glancing down at Ivan’s ball again just to make sure the light was solidly red. “Makes it so that the Pokemon can’t open their ball from the inside, and you can’t open it with a press or throw accidentally. Just press the button twice and hold the second press until the light turns red and stays on, and do the same thing to unlock it.” She reached for Astrid’s ball as Cassie pressed ‘2’ on the elevator’s wall panel, holding it up and demonstrating the lock and unlock procedure for Cassie.
“That’s neat,” Cassie said as the elevator chimed and the doors slid open, both trainers and their two Pokemon stepping inside before it smoothly started to rise.
Their rooms were at the far side of the hallway where they exited the elevator, and Cassie found hers almost at the end of the hall on the right. The key card slid through the lock with a faint scraping of plastic, and Cassie stepped into the room with Orion on her heels to take a look around before they headed back out for the battlegrounds near the north end of the city. It was, as the picture had shown, a fairly ordinary hotel room with simple amenities, everything white and neat and almost starkly bright to Cassie’s eyes when compared with the more subtle colors of the rest of the building.
“She wasn’t wrong,” Cassie said to Orion as the puppy inspected the room, nose sniffing around as he wandered around the small environs. “This is pretty nice.” She pressed a hand into the bed - firm, but not overly so - before moving over to check out the tiny kitchenette. It looked similar to the ones at the Center, though Cassie doubted she’d need to use it all that much while they were here. They’d probably only be staying for a day at most before heading towards Lake Verity and Twinleaf Town, and she’d already pre-cooked and packaged some meals for her team so that they would have a day or two of leeway while she tried to figure out how to better prepare food for them.
She sat her pack down on the small counter before starting to dig in it, rummaging around before coming up with three containers of food that she set down to the side before she clicked the buttons on her other two Poke Balls. Paulos and Turtwig appeared in small flashes of light, joined by Orion as he trotted back over, his inspection of the room complete. “So - some breakfast first, then we head out for training, right?”
Orion and Paulos both eagerly answered her, their eyes almost blazing with determination as they looked up towards her. Turtwig was still a bit too young to fully understand her words - usually it was a few weeks before they started to acclimate to human language, from what she’d read online - but the tiny Grass-type did seem interested in whatever the other two Pokemon around him were talking about. She definitely planned to have him out with the others getting sun and exercise, but anything resembling battle training was a long way off just yet. Still, it was never too early to consider how best to train him, she thought as she started to heat up Orion and Paulos’ food. Turtwig would be an excellent Pokemon for her team, and would make a great anchor position to help support and protect her other team members. It wasn’t amazing on offense compared to other Pokemon, but it could still put a sizable dent in anything that wasn’t prepared for it, especially once it reached its final evolution.
She still needed to start thinking about names, too. Just like with Orion, she wanted to make sure Turtwig had input on his eventual name as well, so she had at least a few weeks to think about it. Nevertheless, she didn’t want to procrastinate too much on the subject; she still remembered how much trouble she had picking a name for Orion.
With her Pokemon taken care of and all happily eating, she turned back to her bag to fish out a sandwich she’d bought earlier at the station before unwrapping it and tossing it into the microwave. Wouldn’t do to forget herself, she thought as she grabbed her phone to text Kaitlyn. It was just after ten now, which left them plenty of time to get in some training and sightseeing if they wanted. She was determined to be more proactive now that she didn’t have to worry about keeping secrets, but that was no reason to stop having fun along the way.
“Come on, Orion! Almost there! You can do it!”
Cassie shouted encouragement to her Growlithe as she watched him sprint, hitting the next to last rock marker they’d laid out before bolting back in her direction again. He was panting hard, but showed no signs of slowing down as he approached, and she grinned widely as he dug his paws into the ground to send up a spray of dirt before reversing direction again and hurling himself back towards the last and furthest marker. She reached for a bottle of water as she watched him go, moving as fast as he could without drawing on Agility, and cracked it open before gulping some down greedily and wiping her mouth.
Befitting the largest city in Sinnoh, Jubilife City possessed some positively enormous training grounds in multiple parts of the city, with the one they were in now sprawling practically as large as a baseball stadium with different sections for organized battles, practice areas, some obstacle courses, and even concession stands. That last one had been particularly important once they started working out as she realized she was down to her last two bottles, and she’d hastily set herself a reminder to grab more once they left for the day. The difference between the relatively tiny battlegrounds in Eterna and Oreburgh and the one she stood in now was like comparing a rowboat to a yacht in terms of scale, and she wondered if the ones elsewhere in the city were equally as large.
She’d spent a lot of time thinking over the past few days for ways she could help Orion improve his speed and endurance, and her mind had eventually wandered back to thoughts of home, something that seemed to be just a little easier to do as of late. One of the things that Orion still struggled with was maneuverability while sprinting, something that only got worse with the use of Agility, and Cassie had pored over training ideas online before she finally hit on a thought one evening, something she remembered doing in school a long time ago.
Astrid had been nice enough to set up a series of rocks to use as markers, each one a few meters apart from each other in a line moving away from a starting point, and Orion had been tasked with running to and from the starting point and each marker in sequence. It forced him to constantly push himself to start and stop quickly, changing directions back and forth at top speed, as well as helping his endurance with the ever-increasing distances. She’d run a few herself after some warm-ups, only to be quickly reminded of just how awful the exercise could be for someone who hadn’t properly exercised in quite some time. Orion seemed to be coping well enough, though, as he was finishing up his third complete run without a break and didn’t seem like he was ready to quit just yet.
Paulos, meanwhile, was a short distance away alongside Ivan and Kaitlyn’s new Skarmory, flying high in the air away from any other trainers while Ivan pelted his general direction with showers of small rocks. She could see the faint glint off of his wings as he used them to shield himself from the attacks, tinny metallic sounds echoing for a moment before the Steel Wing he was practicing wore off. Skarmory had helpfully given him the basics of the move, and he was slowly working at improving his control over the unfamiliar Steel TE the attack demanded while the metallic avian watched with a steely gaze. He was only able to hold it for a few seconds at a time right now, but that was already an improvement from the bare flicker he had started with around an hour ago.
“Good work!” she cried, kneeling down and letting Orion run into her arms as he skidded to a stop after finishing his last sprint. The force almost knocked her over, sending water sloshing out of the open bottle before she held it out to Orion, pouring water into the panting dog’s mouth as he rested.
The sprints weren’t the only thing she had planned for Orion, though. She’d already planned to have him run some drills to help his natural agility, weaving between rocks to better learn how to zig-zag and curve his body around attacks. Beyond that, Ivan was going to start teaching him how to use Ground TE later so that he could use Dig, though they could save that for later in the afternoon. It would be less draining to do the TE practice, and they could use the learning as a bit of a cooldown of sorts after the more physical exercise was done.
She had yet to think of other things for Paulos, however, beyond practicing his new move. There was the potential for Skarmory to also teach him Wing Attack, though he might be able to suss that out without help now that he was already practicing infusing TE into his wings for physical attacks. Practice with dodging projectiles and overall aerial skills was likely to be the best use of his time for now, especially with him still being on the cusp of evolution.
“Going again already?” Cassie asked as Orion started to turn and pull away from her to head back to their starting line. Her starter nodded and barked, taking off towards the first rock marker in a burst of speed as she stood up again. “Don’t overdo it, Orion!”
He barked something at her as he spun around, racing back to her across the short distance before flipping around and heading out towards the next marker in line. Cassie just shook her head, hoping that the defeat at the gym didn’t cause her starter to forget his good sense in a push to improve. She watched intently as he hit two, three, four markers out, each time making good speed there and back as his legs pumped to carry him across the large grassy area.
Five markers in, he turned around to sprint back towards his trainer and made it only a few meters before a small flash of light burst in front of him and an object popping out of thin air forced him to dodge out of the way. Cassie’s eyes widened as her starter skidded to a stop, grass flying around him as claws dug in to arrest his momentum after nearly colliding with something, and she looked closer to see just what Orion had been forced to dodge out of the way of.
Standing on shaky green legs was a humanoid Pokemon, barely as tall as Orion with a white body and ruffles that almost made it look like a ballet dancer wearing a tutu. Red eyes full of pain were framed by long, green hair on either side and red, semicircular protrusions almost like rounded horns. Bits of blood marred the white of the Pokemon’s chest, and it lilted to one side painfully as if it had just escaped a fight - which, from the looks of things, it had.
“Help...me...”
A girlish voice echoed not through the air but through Cassie’s mind in the next moment, and she broke into a run as the Pokemon suddenly toppled limply onto the ground, the last of its strength giving out.