A thick atmosphere of tension hung over the few gathered Galactic members at their hidden base within Eterna City as they awaited Cyrus’ arrival. Mars sat at one of the seats nearest to the head of the conference room table, eyes still glittering with frustration as her fingers tapped lightly on the varnished wood. The purple-haired woman sitting across from Mars sat back in the chair with arms folded, her own glaring gaze filled with disdain for the Galactic Commander across from her. Jupiter and Mars had already gotten into it the moment both returned to the hideout, with Jupiter baiting Mars by accusing her of being the reason they were found out before they were properly finished, and it was only by Saturn’s intervention that the two didn’t get into a fistfight while they waited on their boss.
The blue-haired admin was much more calm than either of his two female companions, sitting beside Mars to try and forestall any potential physicality that might arise from Jupiter opening her mouth again. While he was unhappy that their plans had been spoiled right at the last moment, he knew that for all intents and purposes they could call it a victory, even if some of their members didn’t see it as such. His eyes wandered between the pair of glaring women and the last member of their gathering as he waited, knowing that Cyrus would be arriving any minute now.
The balding, pale-haired man across from him didn’t cut an impressive figure, nor have the same intimidating presence as he or his more battle-oriented comrades, but Saturn knew that Charon was not to be underestimated or taken lightly. The scientist was a certified genius, particularly in the fields of mechanical engineering and physics, despite his lack of Pokemon battling expertise that placed him firmly as the most junior of Galactic’s four Commanders. The entire operation at Valley Windworks had been his suggestion, rumor had it, and he fidgeted at the table as if he couldn’t wait to be out of what he viewed as a boring meeting and off to tinker in his makeshift workshop once more.
The electricity they’d gathered was safely stored away now somewhere within his clutches, held within a large conglomeration of batteries and supercapacitors hooked up to something that Saturn couldn’t even begin to decipher even with the blueprints Charon had excitedly shoved in his face not long ago. He knew the basics of what Charon’s machine was designed to do, relying at its core on a massive electrical discharge into materials that seemed unusual in their composition even to his unscientific mind, but he couldn’t fathom how it all worked together to achieve the end result that Charon’s research swore it could.
The conference room door creaked open from beside him, sparing his already tired mind the hassle of having to ponder it any further as Cyrus entered and let the door slowly shut behind him. The boss of Team Galactic looked unflappable as always despite the late hour, stepping over and taking a seat at the head of the table near Mars and Jupiter with calm strides. The tension between the two seemed to dissipate as Jupiter’s attention shifted solely onto Cyrus, any antagonistic thoughts of her rival Commander lost in a flash as she waited to hear what the older man had to say.
Cyrus’ hands templed atop the table as he looked between the gathered Commanders, the piercing gaze falling onto each of them in kind and even causing Charon to finally cease his fidgeting. “I understand that the mission at the Windworks was concluded ahead of schedule due to...interference.” The statement hung in the air for three long, heavy seconds before Mars finally found her voice, trying to keep the sudden nervousness out of her tone as she began to speak.
“Yes, sir. Europa and I spent five days at the Windworks gathering the energy for Charon’s experiment,” she began, glancing over towards the elder scientist across the table from her. “While it’s true that we were interrupted and forced to withdraw, we were able to meet Charon’s testing requirements before that happened.”
“Four hundred and thirteen point eighty-two megawatts,” the man chimed in, an eager smile crossing his face as he looked towards his boss. “By my calculations, three hundred and fifty should be sufficient, but...well, overkill is underrated,” he added with a shrug.
Cyrus gave a brief nod, turning his attention back to Mars. “Were you discovered by the workers?”
Mars shook her head. “No, sir. The fake IDs and paperwork worked perfectly. A pair of trainers discovered us and engaged two of our grunts within the grounds, forcing us to take action.”
“Tell me about these trainers.”
Mars took a moment to compose herself, still a bit miffed at the flippant attitude of the blond she’d challenged. “Both were young women, likely in their twenties. The one that I fought only used a single Pokemon against me - a Mawile - which was able to go up against my Purugly without issue, and I believe I saw a Magnemite with her as well that she didn’t send into battle. She was clearly experienced, likely a circuit competitor if I had to guess. The other trainer seemed more inexperienced and only fielded a Pidgey against Europa, which evolved during their battle. She also had a Growlithe which never left her side.”
Another nod. “Did you get their names?”
“Only one - the Pidgey’s trainer was named Cassie. I heard the other girl say it before we battled. The Mawile was named Astrid, and the Pidgey was Paulos, if I remember correctly.”
Cyrus’ eyes moved to Saturn, catching the younger Commander in his steely stare. “Saturn. Find out who they are. If they interfere again, we’ll deal with the problem.”
“Of course, sir,” he replied.
“All of the grunts that came with us got away as well,” Mars added as Cyrus’ attention returned to her. “We were able to keep them distracted long enough before Europa’s Bronzor brought us back here.” She didn’t mention the group of idiots that had gone and gotten themselves arrested before the plan even started; it was likely irrelevant, at any rate. If they were truly that stupid, the boss likely wouldn’t consider them even worth springing from jail.
“Hm...it seems that despite my initial misgivings, it appears that the mission could be considered a success. Good work, Mars.”
“Thank you, sir,” she replied, unable to keep the beginnings of a smirk off her face as Jupiter scowled openly across the table.
“If I might ask, master Cyrus...what’s our next move?” the purple-haired woman said, schooling her face back into something vaguely resembling neutrality and trying to ignore Mars’ smug attitude.
“For now, we will bide our time,” Cyrus answered. “The League will be on higher alert following the Windworks mission. We’ll allow things time to cool down again before we make our next move.” His eyes turned to the scientist at the table. “Charon.”
“Sir?”
“Proceed with your experiment and keep me apprised of the results. If all goes well, we will consider how best to acquire the necessary power for the chains.”
“Of course,” he replied, his fidgeting resuming as he considered what was to come. “Consider it done.”
“Jupiter, I would have you stay here and take command of the forces remaining in the city. Keep a low profile, but use some of our more expendable assets to keep the League distracted.”
“Yes, master Cyrus.”
His gaze drifted to Saturn next. “Saturn. Proceed to Hearthome next and take command of whatever forces our admins have been able to procure, but do not cause any trouble. I want the League’s attention to remain here on the western side of the region for now until we are ready to proceed further.” Cyrus’ eyes glanced briefly towards Jupiter. “Coordinate with Jupiter on how best to make that happen.”
“As you wish.”
“Mars. Take Europa and head towards Canalave. I want the two of you to spend time on some research in order to assist Charon with the next stage of our plan.”
“Researching what, sir?” Mars found herself curious - she had heard little of Charon’s plans up to now, only that whatever he was working on would require large amounts of energy. Cyrus had mentioned chains once before, she vaguely remembered, but it had meant nothing to her at the time. This was the second time he had brought it up, and it seemed he wasn’t talking about some ordinary metal if it was in relation to whatever Charon was doing. Cyrus leaned over the table slowly, hints of a dark smile tugging at the edges of his face as he spoke a single word.
“Legends.”
Unbidden, a shiver ran down Mars’ spine as she saw the expression on Cyrus’ face, and she found herself wondering if the spike of fear she’d just felt was a coincidence or a premonition.
Gardenia had barely made it back to the gym and recalled Musa into his ball when her phone rang, the sudden noise cutting into her thoughts as she walked back towards the gym’s front doors. Roark’s name appeared on the screen in large letters, and the Gym Leader pressed the “Accept Call” button before hurriedly putting the phone to her ear.
“Hey, I just saw I missed a call from you,” Roark’s voice hummed in her ear. “Something up?”
“Cassie found Galactic at the Windworks,” she started without preamble. She could almost see the shock on the Oreburgh Leader’s face in her mind’s eye as she went on. “I wanted to get you to come help, but they’d already handled the problem by the time I even got there.”
“What did they want at the Windworks?” Roark’s voice was tight and full of concern, not to mention a healthy dose of unease at being caught off guard by the news. That was an extraordinarily bad place to find Galactic roving around, given its importance to the entire western half of the region.
“We’re not sure yet. The police and I went over the area, but we couldn’t find anything out of place. I’m not sure if we caught them before they got up to anything, or if they were just subtle about it. Either way, the cops are going to talk to the workers and let me know what they find out.”
“Did you tell Cynthia yet?”
“I was just about to when you called, actually.” Gardenia sighed, more out of annoyance at the situation than any emotions towards the Champion. “She’ll probably want to have a meeting tonight about it - I know I would, in her place.”
“The only thing I can think of,” Roark began after a moment, “that they could want at Valley Windworks would obviously be electricity, maybe spare parts for something like the turbines. Why, though?”
“They could generate their own easily enough,” Gardenia remarked, shrugging even though Roark couldn’t see the motion. “Why go through the trouble? Fantina did say something about parts being stolen in Hearthome, though...”
“Could they be building something?” Roark asked thoughtfully. “Something they had to power for a long time, not just short-term?”
“It’s a thought,” Gardenia agreed. “Lemme call Cynthia and get her opinion on it - I need to get back to the gym here soon.”
“I’ll mention this to the police here just to keep them in the loop, maybe get some thoughts on what they might be doing out there. Just be careful, alright?”
“I will, Roark,” Gardenia promised. “I’ll let you know if I figure out anything.”
“Sounds good.”
The connection shut without fanfare, and Gardenia quickly swiped over to her contacts before pressing Cynthia’s name and putting the phone back to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Cynthia, we’ve got a problem. Cassie and Kaitlyn just stopped a Galactic group at Valley Windworks.”
To her credit, the Champion’s voice remained calm and collected when she spoke again. “Was anyone hurt?”
“Nothing serious that I saw, just some normal battle injuries on some of the Pokemon.”
“Good,” Cynthia’s voice stated through the tiny phone speaker. “I know that I expected them to get mixed up with Galactic, but I certainly didn’t expect it this soon.” She hid it well, but Gardenia could still hear the faint note of anxious concern in the Champion’s voice.
“Me too,” Gardenia said with a sigh. “What do you think Galactic was doing at Valley Windworks? It didn’t seem like they were there to sabotage it from what I saw. We checked out the inside, and there were no signs of damage, nothing missing...it doesn’t add up. I talked to Roark a minute ago, and the only thing we could think of was that they needed some excessive amount of electricity that they couldn’t just generate with Electric-types.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line, along with a faint tapping that sounded like a pen or pencil on wood as Cynthia remained silent. “That seems as likely a reason as any,” Cynthia began, “but it begs the question of why. What would they be using such an amount of electricity for that they would risk exposing themselves like this?”
Gardenia didn’t answer, and it seemed like Cynthia hadn’t expected one anyway. “So, what now?”
“I’ll send a few League Trainers over to the Windworks just in case, but I doubt Galactic would try the same thing twice in such a short time.” She sighed, frustration leaking into her voice. “I hate being reactive like this, but we still have no clues as to what Galactic’s motive is in all this. Petty crimes, thievery, now this? There’s no pattern, at least none that I can see right now. If we could only catch one of their leaders, we might be able to make some headway...”
“Think we should let those two know about things now?” Gardenia asked, eyes drifting to the stone walking path beneath her feet. “They certainly seem like they’re involved now, anyway.”
“Let’s talk about it more this evening,” Cynthia replied. “I’m going to see what leads I can dig up on the Galactic members that were at the Windworks for now, since there should be surveillance footage we can look through.”
“Let me know if you need any help. I’m gonna head back to the gym now - Annie’s gonna be mad if I don’t get back to work,” Gardenia said, laughing in an attempt to lighten the mood a little before she said goodbye.
“I will. Keep your eyes out, and I’ll let you know if I find anything after I check out the footage.”
The line closed a moment later as Cynthia hung up, and Gardenia shoved the phone unceremoniously back into a pocket before rushing for the door of the gym. She pulled the door open, barely getting one foot in the building before Annie’s voice cut through the air.
“There you are, Leader! I was beginning to think I’d need to reach out and borrow some Growlithe to track you down,” she said, mouth spread in a wide grin. Gardenia laughed, giving her a quick shake of the head before springing over to the desk.
“Took a little longer than I thought,” Gardenia remarked, dropping her voice to a whisper and tacking on a quick ‘talk later’ to the end before she slipped back into her bubbly, professional demeanor. “Who’s up next?”
“They’re already waiting for you - I’ll tell Richard you’re on the way back now.”
“Umbra, please wait! Why won't you join us?”
The black-clad girl turned slowly to face Sylveon, eyes cold with disinterest and condescension.
“You're too naive, Sylveon - you and all of your so-called Stars. It's going to wind up getting you killed.” She turned to the lavender-garbed young woman beside her, gesturing for them to leave even as she began to walk away again. “Come on, Espi.”
“What in the world was that all about...?”
Sakura’s blue-clad teammate stepped up beside her, looking out at the rapidly-vanishing forms of the two retreating girls they’d thought were there to help them before meeting the gaze of their group leader.
“I thought they would listen to me, Sumomo...”
“Didn’t look like it to me,” another voice cut in, the yellow ribbons and frills of her outfit flowing in the wind as she and her last companion joined the other two. An Eevee leapt to join them now that the fighting was past, looking unusually pensive to the four girls she’d gifted a portion of her power to.
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“Who were those two, anyway? They looked like more Chosen, but they didn’t have any qualms about catching Satsuki in that blast,” the last girl said, folding red-sleeved arms under her chest and sharing a look with the girl wielding Jolteon’s electric abilities. The Eevee’s ears drooped uncomfortably as it sat down, sorrowful eyes gazing in the direction the two others had fled in.
“They are, Koume...” it said in a soft, feminine voice. “The ones I failed the most.”
Cassie quietly munched on a small bag of chips as she and Kaitlyn relaxed, both sitting on the small couch in Kaitlyn’s room at the Radiant Sun. Kaitlyn’s laptop was on the coffee table in front of them, playing the next episode of Wishing Star in the list with the older girl grinning as she watched. Kaitlyn had managed to rope her into properly starting to watch the series with her a few days back, though they hadn’t had much chance to do so between all the excitement and the lack of ways to charge her laptop out in the wilderness before they made it to Oreburgh.
She was enjoying the anime - did it count as an anime, she absently wondered - more than she had expected initially from Kaitlyn’s description, given how little she’d watched of anything similar so far as she could remember. Granted, she loved all of the Eeveelutions as far as Pokemon went, so it hadn’t been the hardest sell in the world to get her to watch a show all but themed around them even if she likely would’ve never looked the show up on her own. No matter what they were watching, though, she certainly thought a little relaxation was well-earned after everything they’d done today.
Most of their collective teams were either asleep or resting in their balls, with even Astrid electing to take a proper nap inside her own Poke Ball for once. Orion was the only one out at the moment and was curled up beside the table, sound asleep with occasional snores and light kicks of his foot that nudged the piece of furniture every once in a while. Thankfully, it seemed no one had been too injured during the whole fiasco with Galactic, though they’d made a quick trip to the nearby Pokemon Center on Canala Avenue to be sure. That had also given Cassie the chance to properly register her latest catch with the nurses, as well as let them give her team a full checkup for the first time in a while.
She was still a bit awed by Paulos’ sheer size after evolution, too. Kaitlyn’s earlier joke wasn’t all that much of a joke, really - at four feet, three inches and a whopping hundred and thirteen pounds, Orion likely could ride the Pidgeotto into battle if they practiced enough at it. She didn’t miss the look of longing that Orion had in his eyes as they left the Center, either, and vowed to do some more research before she went to bed tonight about how she might go about finding a Fire Stone here in Sinnoh. The only place she could think of offhand to find one was Stark Mountain, given Kaitlyn’s earlier mention of it being a volcano and what she’d read online about the evolutionary stones, but that was clear on the other side of the region for now. Paulos wasn’t quite big enough to ride just yet like Gardenia’s Tropius was, but he would be more than large enough once he evolved into Pidgeot. If they had to fly all the way across Sinnoh to help Orion evolve, she told herself, then that’s what they’d do.
“So, what’d you think?” Kaitlyn asked, looking over at Cassie as the ending credits started, a catchy pop song that started playing through the small speakers before the older girl paused the video.
“I think I’m starting to see why you like it so much,” Cassie replied. “That’s the end of the first arc, you said?”
“Next episode, but yeah, basically.”
“So, what’s the deal with those GATE people?”
“Remember when I said there was a shadowy government organization? Yeah, that’s them. We’re about to see a whole lot more of them, too, so saying anything might be a bit of a spoiler. They’re basically around for most of the rest of the show, actually, so you’ll get plenty of time to see what they’re meddling in.”
“And those two are gonna join the group, right? There’s no way they just introduce them and not have them join.”
“Oh yeah, but we’re still a long way off from that. Not until...season three, I think? The middle of season three?” She glanced up towards the ceiling, lost in her own little world for a few seconds as she thought. “Yeah, middle of season three. Zuki’s still a bit of a brat for a while, but Naoko’s a lot nicer.”
“Zuki’s Umbreon, then?”
Kaitlyn nodded. “Yeah, Naoko’s Espeon. There’s a lot of good stuff coming - season two got a much bigger budget after they saw how popular it was getting. Johto loves the show, probably more than any other region. And it was made in Unova, which is kind of crazy since you don’t see a lot of that kind of thing there.”
“So, wait...how many episodes did they make?”
“Uh...” There was a pause as Kaitlyn reached for her phone, not wanting to bother with the laptop for something simple. “Looks like...a hundred and ninety-seven. And four movies. Season one had thirteen episodes, and the rest all had around twenty-six once the budget increased.”
Cassie blinked in surprise.
“Wow...”
“Yeah, when I say it got popular? It got really popular for a while.”
“...Do you think they’d bring it back if any more Eevee evolutions got discovered?”
“With how popular it still is even now, they’d be crazy not to. PokeStar Unova would be sitting on a gold mine.”
“Wait, PokeStar Unova? Like PokeStar Studios?” Cassie asked, reaching for another chip only to discover the bag was empty. She got up to toss the empty bag, careful not to hit Orion as she stepped around the table.
“Yeah - was that in the games too?” Kaitlyn asked, seeing Cassie nod from the small kitchenette. “So, that’s actually the parent company now. It went by that name at the start, but after it started getting more popular and expanding to some of the other regions they started branching out into regionally-specific companies and just kept the original name as the umbrella all the regional companies fell under.”
“That makes sense,” Cassie said as she sat back down. The more she learned, the more she found things that were surprisingly close to the games among all the wildly-different bits. It was kind of like looking into a funhouse mirror, where things were warped but still easily recognizable as what they should be. Or was it the games that were wrong? Every bit of new information she learned felt like a coin flip as to whether or not it was either just a tiny bit off, or so wildly different as to not even resemble what she knew from the games.
Try as she might, she couldn’t stifle the yawn that escaped her mouth in the next moment, causing Kaitlyn to yawn too as she leaned over to start the next episode. “Good for one more? This is the last one in sea -”
Her phone chimed before she got to finish her sentence, causing her to glance at it again and see a text from Kayley. Even as she was pulling it up, the phone chimed again, and she took a look at the message before tapping the screen again to pull up what Cassie guessed was a picture. A moment later, she blinked, then managed to suppress a snicker even as she shook her head. Cassie leaned over, wondering what was so funny, and Kaitlyn turned the phone to show her.
Sitting inside what appeared to be an open washing machine were the unmistakable shapes of a Dratini and Dreepy, the blue and green Dragons curled up quite comfortably-looking around the spindle inside and each other. Both were gazing up at the camera with adorable looks of wide-eyed innocence, too.
“...Why are they in the washing machine? Did Kayley put them in there?” Cassie asked, too stunned by the sheer strangeness of what she was looking at to even laugh despite how funny it was.
“Given that the text she just sent me said, and I quote, “Look what my newest noodle boy did!”, I’m guessing that her Dreepy caused this somehow,” Kaitlyn said with a sigh as she started typing a reply. “Now just imagine living at home with this sort of thing happening every day.”
“That bad, huh?”
“I always said that Kayley and her team all share the same brain cell, and it’s still true,” Kaitlyn snarked, shaking her head. “I love my sister, but it’s...she’s a lot.” She put the phone back on the table again as she looked towards Cassie. “Want to watch the last episode?”
“Sure - I think I’m awake enough for that much.”
Kaitlyn cycled to the next episode with the press of a button, letting the cheery opening theme start playing for a moment before she tapped a button at the bottom right of the screen to skip the intro they’d heard a dozen times now. The episode had barely gotten ten seconds into its run before Kaitlyn’s phone rang, startling Orion awake and earning a mildly frustrated sign from Kaitlyn as she pressed pause for the second time in as many minutes. A quick glance at the screen caused a change in her demeanor, and she quickly mouthed ‘sorry’ to Cassie and swiped to accept the call before putting the phone to her ear.
“Hey, mom. What’s up?”
Cassie reached down to pet Orion as the dog got up from his spot, nap spoiled by the phone call, and he leaned into the gentle scratches for a few seconds before electing instead to sit beside Cassie’s legs and plop his head down in her lap in a silent demand for more. She giggled, grabbing her phone and pulling up the browser so that she could resume reading the article she had been working through while Kaitlyn was on the phone. One hand held the phone comfortably in her lap while the other rubbed gentle strokes through Orion’s fur to the pup’s delight.
Psychic-type abilities have been extensively studied both in Pokemon and humans for decades, though none quite so much as the ability of teleportation. Instantaneous travel is a concept that could revolutionize nearly every field with the right application, though the ability itself bears quite a bit more complexity than it appears at first glance. Factors such as the psychic’s natural ability, health, the amount of matter being transported, even stress all contribute to the difficulty of teleportation. Young Psychic Pokemon are capable of simple translocation even from a nearly-newborn age, able to teleport themselves and others short distances with ease thanks to natural instincts and control. The most famous and oft-cited example of this ability is Abra, which sleeps nearly eighteen hours per day and uses its ability of teleportation reflexively to elude capture and conflict in the wild. As a Pokemon matures, its range and capacity grow remarkably, with fully-grown and properly trained Psychics able to travel region-wide with ease.
With Kirlia electing to join her team, Cassie had thought it was a good time to dive into the mysteries of Psychic-type Pokemon to try and learn more beyond what she was familiar with. She had no illusions about just how powerful they could be; memories of Mewtwo’s exploits from the first movie were easily remembered, though she wondered if the reality was more modest. It wasn’t the potential strength that interested her so much as the versatility, however. Teleportation, telekinesis, shielding...Psychic-types naturally had a wide range of abilities that were amazing for any traveling trainer, regardless of whether or not they ever saw a battlefield.
She glanced at the Poke Ball containing her newest member, still rubbing soft circles around Orion’s head. A part of her felt for an instant like she was neglecting her starter, putting too much focus on Paulos’ training and now research about Kirlia and Psychic-types. She squashed the line of thought ruthlessly, knowing it wasn’t true no matter how much the emotional side of her protested. The battle they’d just been through had given her an inkling of an idea for Orion to try out, though she would need to have Astrid try to teach him Protect first before she could start having him experiment. She still had...
Ten days, she thought to herself. Was that enough time?
No, probably not. It might take him the majority of that time just to get Protect down, she realized, and she would rather have him spending time with Ivan to practice Dig instead. Paulos might have Steel Wing workable enough in that time to use it in more than quick bursts, which meant that the more she thought about it, the more she came to the realization that her next gym match would likely come down to Paulos and Kirlia’s efforts.
The hint of shame returned, quashed just as swiftly once more. Orion wasn’t out of the running at all, just not her first choice for this. The third gym, though...
She grinned as she thought about which gym she would choose to tackle after she had won Roark’s badge. She didn’t want to try Byron’s gym so early, given what she’d heard about it from Kaitlyn and the knowledge that Steel-types would likely have Rock and Ground-type moves in their repertoire, perfect for countering Orion and Paulos both. Snowpoint would be a good choice for Orion, but was far out of the way, and she wanted to prepare a bit more before making the trek into the frozen north of the region. That left two choices - Maylene’s Fighting gym in Veilstone, or Fantina’s Ghost gym in Hearthome.
Maylene’s gym would likely be a solid third choice with both Paulos and Kirlia to counter the multitude of Fighting-types she could bring to the table. There was always the chance that she could bring something out that would throw a wrench into the simple idea, but she felt overall that she had a good chance of winning with all the time she would have to practice between now and then. One way or another, it would likely turn out to be a straight contest of strength, given the direct nature of most Fighting-type Pokemon.
Fantina’s gym, by comparison, gave her no real advantages in type matchup barring something like the Gastly line’s part-Poison typing, but she had thought about a very real advantage she had that would never have been a thing in one of the games - namely, Orion’s incredibly sharp sense of smell. She had no way to test it yet, but she was willing to bet that the intangibility of Ghost Pokemon wouldn’t do anything to diminish their scent. If that was indeed the case, then her starter would be a top choice to lead the way against Fantina’s team of phantoms, not needing to rely as heavily on his sight to track their movements. Plus, Bite’s Dark TE-infused nature would be super-effective against any Ghosts. Was there any way he could learn Feint Attack, she wondered, thinking back to the half-remembered sight of Mars’ Purugly using it back at the Windworks. She grabbed her phone and jotted down a quick note before she forgot about it, hoping she’d remember to add it to her notebook later.
Orion whined, breaking her train of thought as he protested the ceasing of head petting, and she vigorously ruffled his fur with a giggle in response. The look her starter shot her was one of absolute betrayal, his head snapping up and fur standing on end in every direction like he’d been attacked with a blow dryer, and that only caused Cassie to laugh harder as she tried to smooth out the frazzled fur again.
“Sorry, sorry - I’ll give you a proper grooming before I go to bed, how’s that?” she said through giggles. Orion’s answering bark was low and short, a simple noise of undignified agreement even as he plopped his head back in her lap again.
“You two seem like you’re having fun.” Kaitlyn sat back down on the couch beside Cassie with a small grin, the younger girl having not even noticed her walking back over in her distraction. “Sorry about that. Mom called, and I haven’t talked to her in a while.”
“Don’t apologize for that,” Cassie said quickly, waving off the apology. Kaitlyn just nodded as she reached over and pressed play once again on the laptop, letting the show resume once again.
“Were you able to secure the -”
The second half of the sentence was interrupted by the sound of Kaitlyn’s phone for a third time, and Cassie swore she could hear the thread attached to her friend’s tenuous calm snapping over the musical tones.
“Oh my Arceus, what is it now...” Kaitlyn groaned, pausing the episode again and reaching for her phone as Cassie stifled a giggle. She looked at the caller for a moment, then stabbed the button with clear annoyance and put the phone to her ear. “What, Kayley?”
Cassie couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation - Kayley was keeping her voice down for once - only Kaitlyn’s half. “So, don’t ask me, ask them. Emet’s a Psychic-type, it can relay the question for you.” She paused again, listening to her sister. “I’m sure they’ll be fine with it as long as you don’t bother them for too long. Or hurt Ethan’s wing. Just text me if you have a problem.”
The line hung up a moment later without Kaitlyn even getting a chance to say goodbye, and she let out a deep, frustrated sigh as she sat the phone back down on the table in front of her. “I love my sister. I really do. But she knows she can ask my team herself for these things...” she muttered, putting her face in her hands for a moment before she composed herself again.
“Are those more of your Pokemon?” Cassie asked. “Emet and Ethan?”
“Yeah. Emet’s my Bronzong and Ethan’s my Staraptor. Kayley wanted to get their help with her next video about raising Steel-types. I’ve told her a dozen times to just go ask Emet herself, but she never listens to me.”
“Why didn’t they come with you and Astrid this time?” Cassie asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. Kaitlyn hadn’t talked much about the other Pokemon in her care, just that she had more team members that were at her home for the time being.
“They’re taking a break, training at their own pace for now,” Kaitlyn explained. “I’m going to bring them in later, once I’m further along in the circuit, but I wanted to raise some other members to spread the workload out a bit more when it came to gym battles, give myself more options to battle with, that sort of thing. I think that might’ve been one of the reasons I couldn’t get past Byron last season...having a great plan A is all well and good, but I didn’t really have much of a plan B to use against someone who’s plan A was better than mine.”
Cassie nodded slowly, wincing internally. She hadn’t meant to bring up sore memories for Kaitlyn inadvertently. “Let’s get back to the show - I want to see what happens!”
Kaitlyn smiled, though Cassie didn’t miss the very deliberate look she shot her phone as she reached towards the laptop again to resume the playback.
A yawn escaped Cassie’s lips as she flopped onto the sofa in her own room at the hotel, the last vestiges of daylight rapidly fading away through the thin cloth curtain over the window. She clicked the remote to turn the television on for background noise as she reached for her pack, rummaging around as she searched for the grooming kit she had bought on a recommendation from Kayley before they left Oreburgh. There was an almost inordinately large selection of grooming supplies for Pokemon, she’d discovered during a shopping trip, with all kinds of specialized tools and kits. She’d seen everything from kits designed for feline and canine species to different elemental types, along with more than a few highly-specific sets tailored to specific Pokemon or evolutionary lines. The set she’d picked up was for canines and was rather middle-of-the-road in price, but Kayley had assured her it would be more than enough for her Growlithe.
She started to take the plastic off the packaging as Orion padded over to sit in front of her, obligingly helping her pierce the corner of the wrap with his teeth so that she could get at the contents. The set of three seemed fairly simple but well-made, just as Kayley had said, and she ran a finger across the rounded edges of the small double-sided rake before looking down at Orion.
“I’ll try not to pull any fur, okay? I haven’t ever done something like this before,” she said, gently starting to pull the tool through the Growlithe’s thick coat. She hadn’t really realized just how thick Orion’s fur actually was until now, as even despite his own grooming while they were outdoors there seemed to still be a decent amount of loose fur and small debris trapped within the layers of hair. It only took her a few passes to realize she needed to put something down so that she wouldn’t get fur everywhere, and she finally settled for one of her spare shirts out of a lack of anything else to use, making a note to get some kind of mat, towel, or something else to use the next time she went shopping.
A few minutes went by as she practiced with the grooming kit, and despite a few instances of pulled hair and small knots that needed breaking up, she got the hang of it quickly enough and settled into a rhythm that seemed to slowly be lulling both her and Orion to sleep. Her starter’s eyes were closed as he lay on the floor, barely moving except to twitch an ear or kick a foot every so often as she pulled the brush through his fur. The pile of fur beside him was considerable, but the mess had been kept to a minimum. It was unexpectedly soothing, she thought as she gently swept the massaging brush down his side. Not just for Orion, but for her as well. She hadn’t realized how tense and stressed she’d felt lately between the failed gym attempt and the Galactic encounter, and she’d finally found herself properly relaxing as she focused on grooming Orion. Maybe she’d even go for a swim when they reached Lake Verity.
The more she thought about the lake, the more she wondered what she might find when she got there. Her dreams hadn’t abated, but neither had they gotten worse or more frequent. She found herself dreaming of the lake every few days, always the same moonlit night and odd stretching of the senses. Shadows crept across her vision every so often, silhouetted against the shimmering waters, but never clear or sharp enough for her to figure out who or what they were.
She yawned, looking down at Orion as she brushed only to realize that the pup was too still to simply be relaxed. The soft snores she heard from him confirmed that he’d fallen asleep, and she smiled softly before starting to pick errant bits of fur from the bristles. Once she’d cleaned the brushes, she swiftly returned them to their carrying case and shoved it into her bag before carefully walking towards the bed. With Orion sound asleep, she’d have to clean up the loose fur once he woke up - he was still lying on her shirt, and she was pretty sure there was more hair underneath where he was resting. Probably a task for the morning, she thought as she pulled out her notebook and phone. For now, she had studying to do. She had a lot of thoughts running through her mind as far as her team went, and she wanted to get at least a few of them down before she finally settled down for the night.