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Chapter 15 - The Brief Respite

The second Lena’s back touched the couch, an overwhelming weight enveloped her along with a deep breath leaving her soon after. They had just arrived at the Aspertia Pokémon Center and she had got two rooms for the time being, and William said he was going to wash up after being in the hospital for two days. Lena had a moment to gather her bearings after that conversation on the subway, her head rolling back slightly and almost hitting the wall.

As soon as she did however, the flash of Poké Balls opening signified judgement day was coming for her. She tilted her head forward and saw both Rina and Arthur looking at her with a mix of emotions. They both glanced at each other for a moment, clearly nervous about how to approach.

“I know what you're both gonna ask about, you don’t need to tip-toe around it,” Lena bluntly brought up with a sigh.

At this, Arthur took the initiative. “Do you think telling William about Terrakion was the best course of action…? That moment is…”

“Float-Zeeel… Float-Floaalt, Floatzel.” (I’m… with Arthur on this one, Lena… that moment was… it wasn’t a good one…) Rina followed up as Lena closed her eyes and took a deep breath to center her thoughts.

“It doesn’t… matter. It was bound to come up somehow… it’s in the past, and we did everything we could.” Lena’s voice clearly hid how paper thin her emotions were truly feeling about it as she glanced at the Floatzel for a moment, but not at her eyes.

“...Lena…” Arthur’s voice was gentle, but leading, Lena shook her head and opened her Fine Styler, she needed to see what the League or Interpol responded with to her—

“Lena, I know what you’re doing…” Arthur’s voice was gentler, but still pointed, making Lena frown at him for picking up on her own mental misdirection for herself, but decided to just hopefully put the issue to bed.

“It’s been more than a year. We did everything we could at Victory Road, even with a Legendary coming in, there was nothing we could do. We just… gotta move forward, keep getting better so it doesn’t happen again.” Lena refuted, trying to go at it from a different angle.

Arthur shook his head. “Lena. Don’t think we missed how you reacted when the Antidote wasn’t working…”

Lena involuntarily flinched, words started coming out faster than she could think them through. “I know, I just… I needed something to show William that he could trust us… me. He has secrets, and things he’s uncomfortable about… and so do we… but we need to show him we trust him so he can trust us, even if he doesn’t have the full picture. He knew not to ask about it, and…”

Lena trailed off, the words falling off the tip of her tongue. Rina just sighed at this, shaking her head as she moved and gently wrapped Lena in a side hug. The Floatzel’s floater pressed against her partner as her paws gently wrapped around her back and front into a comforting squeeze.

“FloatZeeeel… Zel-Float Floatzel.” (That doesn’t mean that you need to bring up bad memories… you need to take care of yourself too Lena…) She comforted, making Lena slump slightly and lean into her partner’s grasp.

“I am, just… it’s been a hectic couple of days… I — No, we’ll be okay, I promise…” Lena trailed her words at the end. She wasn’t sure if she was convincing herself, or her Pokémon…

She stayed in the hug for a few more moments, glancing at Arthur, who stared right into her with the clear expression: ‘this conversation isn’t over, but I’ll drop it for now.’

She tried not to look away from Arthur as she pulled out of Rina’s hug, using the chance to shift her focus back at her Fine Styler. “Let me look to see if anyone responded…we’ll check in on William after to get lunch.”

She quickly navigated to her email and saw two new ones, one from Interpol, and one from Iris…

She didn’t expect Chairperson Erma to respond, and Clare would have called her directly knowing her. Tapping Iris’s email first, she read it over, her eyebrows raising higher with each passing line.

“Huh… Iris let the other Gym Leaders know that I’m going to be traveling with William… doesn’t mention the Ace Trainer part, but just that there is a cover story.” She said, making her partners look up in surprise at the information. Lena hummed and tapped the casing of her Fine Styler for a moment to think. A light snorting noise from Rina broke her barely formed thought as a smirk formed on the Water Type’s face.

“FloatZel. Float-Lel-zel.” (You’re gonna need to come up with a better ‘cover story’ then, maybe talk with grandpa since you’re bad at lying according to a kid.) She teased, making Lena glare at her with indignation along with heat rising to her cheeks.

Arthur shook his head. “It’s not a bad thing that Lena is bad at lying. It means she is so true to her words that doing anything but goes against her nature.”

“Yeah, I’m just trustworthy and honest — wait — you think I’m bad at lying too?!” Lena accused, making the Lucario cross his arms and look away.

“I refuse to comment further. I wouldn’t want to tell a lie.” Arthur replied, Lena not missing at the smallest twitch of a smirk.

“Betrayal, from my trusted partners.” Lena groaned despite a smile on her face, shaking her head after a moment and refocusing on the screen. “Well, if both of you say I’m bad, I’ll speak to William at least to get the story straight between us both before sending a response to Iris to pass along… now, the next email…”

She navigated back before taping on it, and read through… her amusement from before blowing away as a frown formed on her face. “...That’s it? ‘We will monitor this closely, and we do hope to see your formal update soon’— that’s it?”

She shook her head and closed her Fine Styler with a bit of a huff. ‘No, I’m not gonna bother to give it more thought than needed. They’re just being spooks and probably trying to make me anxious.’

Before her partners could question further, she stood up and stretched for a moment, feeling her joints pop slightly with a satisfied sigh as she released it. “Forget it. Let’s get lunch. We need to make sure William isn’t trying to train in his own room with how determined he is to push himself…”

She grabbed her bag and slung it around her shoulder before heading for the door, Rina and Arthur behind her. William’s room was right next to her own thankfully, something she specifically requested just in case something happened with the medicine Dr. Yagokoro prescribed once he took it… a frown formed on Lena’s face as she remembered it.

‘Shoot, I still need to make sure it’s nothing… concerning, wouldn’t put it past that fae doc to put some mysterious powder in it.’

Dispelling the thought before she could go down that Buneary hole, she gently knocked on William’s door, waiting just in case he was changing.

Lens heard faint shuffling inside, followed by a series of footsteps that ended with Charon opening the door just barely. Before Lena could speak, he silently opened the door fully and revealed the sight of William passed out completely on the bed.

He wasn’t alone, with Viridi on his chest like at the hospital, vibrating and purring as her job of ‘Comfrey Bugg’ entailed. Ronin looked like a Teddiursa plush in William’s other arm, though not asleep as he turned slightly to the door. He didn’t move however, staying close to his Trainer as a watchful sentry. Lena could hear Rina making the Floatzel equivalent to a ‘d'awww‘ behind her at the sight.

Lena could see that William had at least washed and changed before jumping into bed with his hair wet and wearing a long-sleeve shirt instead of his hoodie. The slow rise and fall of his chest clearly showed he was one step down from being hit with Hypnosis before.

‘...Guess I was right to make sure you rested before we did any training.’ Lena mused, before realizing Charon was staring at her with a raised eyebrow, prompting her to speak in a whisper. “I’ll come back at dinner to make sure he gets food…”

Charon nodded and moved to close the door, but Lena put up a hand. “Hold on, wait…” She grinned and shifted her Fine Styler slightly as she moved to the photo application, zooming in on the scene with Viridi and Ronin looking at her with puzzled expressions. She ensured the flash and shutter was turned off before taking the photo, grinning slightly as she tilted and showed Charon.

The Typhlosion stared at the photo for a moment before rolling his eyes. Lena turned to walk away as Charon silently closed the door to let his ward rest in silence as well.

“Well… I guess we have some free time until dinner… we’ll just rest in the room just in case, I’m gonna go through and see what I can pull up about Ace Trainers to send to the League I suppose… and research the medicine that Dr. Yagokoro prescribed.” Lena said to her own partners.

“Floatzel-loatzeeel… Zel-loatzel?” (I wouldn’t put it past her to put something like X Attack in it… what’s the human equivalent of that?)

“Steroids, but that at least has medical applications. X Attack… egh.” Lena said with a wrinkling of her nose at the thought before returning to her room… she’ll focus on the medicine first. More pressing either way…

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Making sure William wasn’t a Slakoth the entire day, Lena knocked on his door at dinner like she said. Silence followed, before a soft groaning noise sounded along with shuffling inside. It took another ten seconds, but eventually William opened the door, his hair completely messed up from going to sleep after he showered, and looking half-asleep still.

After she told him it was dinner time, he grunted and muttered something completely indiscernible before closing the door to… presumably get ready. It took about another three minutes for him to reappear, Lena turned from poking about her Styler’s menu idly at the sound of William’s door opening, wearing a fresh pair of clothes with his backpack half-slung around his right shoulder.

“Nnnope. Can’t put stress on your shoulders.” Lena said simply, carefully taking the bag into her own arm so she was carrying her own as well as William’s. William sighed, but gave in as he followed Lena down to the cafeteria and got their respective dinners.

Lena had tried what was called a ‘Spicy Juicy Curry’ from Galar, while William got a helping of vegetable soup and water. Lena was about to tell him to get more food, but William made the argument that he hadn’t really eaten much at the hospital and didn’t want to upset it suddenly with something more extravagant.

She narrowed her eyes at him and hummed, but dropped it for now.

For now. She would teach him how to cook by the end of her Mission and expand his horizons no matter how many pots they had to get through.

The medicine Dr. Yagokoro prescribed was just a pill to be taken while eating, a mixture of light steroids and painkillers. Lena couldn't pronounce half of the names in the mixture, but looking them up online seemed to show they were at least medically common.

Either way, William swallowed it with no complaints before they dug it. Their Pokémon were around their table eating the provided Pokémon Center food, except for Charon who William said he would get food for later without a crowd.

A slight silence was over the table, but Lena could tell that William was still waking up. She waited until he was about halfway done through the rice until she finally spoke up.

“So… I wanted to let you know what I told the League and the International Police in the update email I sent them,” Lena explained, raising her arm with the closed Fine Styler. “Just so we’re on the same page and… just for transparency.”

William froze just slightly while eating, but nodded, making a motion for her to continue while he listened. “First, I stated only the facts. I mentioned nothing concerning why the poison had such an impact on your body. The doctor hasn’t reached out about… the science-y stuff behind it, and I felt that it’s too speculative for a formal… report.”

The slight slump in William’s shoulder she saw was relief. His lack of Aura, and how he knew it was an issue but didn’t speak up sooner was something she had to ask directly about later. Even with how Charon glared at Arthur and her last time… she’ll need to go about it carefully, but soon.

“On top of that, I did… mention that Charon told you about Virizion. Surprisingly, neither the League nor Interpol have… mentioned anything about that. The League, or at least Iris, actually is reaching out about the Gym Leaders to let them know about the cover story.”

“The Ace Trainer one? So… the Gym Leaders know about me now by name?”

“Yeah, and that… you have a Hisuian Typhlosion.” Lena winced at the end before she continued on. “I still need to get the specifics of the ‘cover’ to them in a documented form, which I’ll do before we go to a Gym. Thought this would be the best way to stop… any other sudden questions from them or awkward moments in battle.”

A hum left William as he lightly nodded, taking a sip of water before responding. “Got it… I… actually don’t know much about the Ace Trainer program. Is there anything I should know…?”

Lena felt herself thinking about William’s question, before she caught herself and shook her head. “Not now. We can talk about that later. What you need,” she emphasized while lifting her spoon slightly and pointing it at William. “Is to rest this weekend, no training, no talking about things that require school level focus. You’re a kid who just got out of the hospital. You need to rest.”

A silence fell over the two, only broken up by the surrounding sounds at other tables and their Pokémon eating next to them. William didn’t have a rebuttal towards her statement, judging by his expression, but it was clear he still felt… discontent. Silence fell over them again except for the noise of those eating at other tables and their Pokémon eating next to them.

Sighing, Lena continued to eat her own meal while she worked through her thoughts. ‘I don’t get it. Most kids would be jumping for joy at the idea of a day off, but do you truly think you can’t rest?’

‘Maybe it’s because he hasn’t been given the choice or option too?’ Arthur voiced through their link gently, Lena glancing over for a moment towards her partner, but didn’t turn her head to him to immediately give away they were communicating.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Has he truly been able to do what he wants? He was told to go on a Journey, he was told to get Gym Badges… those were things presented to him as the only options.’

Arthur looked a bit thoughtful as Lena could feel him reminiscing. ’As a young pup, we were always told what to do, where to go in our pack. It wasn’t until… I met you and Rina, that I really had a choice to decide what I wanted… I decided to learn how to read, and I think only the leader of the pack could read Sinnoh script…’

Before he could go down that line of thought even more, Arthur refocused. ‘Regardless, even if William doesn’t have Aura for me to read from him, I would think he’s… a people pleaser. Almost like you.’ A slight twitch of his expression hinted he was teasing, but his Aura shifted back to seriousness, concerned. ‘William… hasn’t really done anything for himself from what we’ve seen, besides going to visit Charon which may have been the only time he had privacy at the boarding home…’

‘...He no longer has that choice to be alone and do what he wants.’ Lena finished, not able to suppress her sigh aloud and focused on William now, speaking and getting his attention while he was mid-sip of his soup.

“Look… I’m sorry. I know that my idea of going to the Dreamyard ended with you getting poisoned that night. I’m bad at choosing things to do to relax…” Lena said, before making a motion to him. “So… what do you want to do? You and our teams still need to relax this weekend, so no training, but… what do you want to do?”

William looked surprised by the sudden initiative, blinking in surprise as he set down his own spoon. “U-Uhaa… I… I dunno… uh… what’s in the area?”

Taking a moment, Lena flipped over her Styler and opened the map function, showing an aerial view of Aspertia City. “Let’s see… we could go to the park, I hear it has a great view… we could just explore the town and see what’s available…”

William stared to the side for a moment, lost in thought before biting his lip… his tone was hesitant, maybe even shy. “Is there… an arcade nearby?”

Lena moved back to her map on her Styler, typing in the search function and waiting a second for a couple of results to pop up. “...Yes actually, one is a couple blocks down… you wanna do that for the night? It’ll probably be around six by the time we get there, but we could do that and do something else tomorrow.”

It took a moment longer than it should have, but William eventually nodded. “Y-Yeah, I just… I haven’t been to one since… home, and they were already a dying breed there, so… wanna see what they’re like here, I guess.”

‘Oh yeah, didn’t he say he hacked the boarding home computer to download games?’ Instead of voicing that aloud, she only gave a smile and nodded. “Well, I have no complaints here… I uh, I haven’t played a game in a while, so I can’t give any recommendations. But I’m sure we could find something you’d like.” Lena tapped the closest location on her screen to save the address for directions.

“Okay… yeah, that sounds good…” William replied a bit quietly, albeit with a small smile as he glanced over at Charon’s Poké Ball on his belt, having a silent conversation with the old ghost.

As William did this, Lena couldn’t help but let out a very light sigh of relief.

Progress! Small progress, but progress nonetheless!

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Even just walking down the street to enter the arcade filled Lena’s ears with the sounds of ringing bells, pixelated explosions, and the sound of engines revving up for racing games through the windows. A neon sign at the top spelled out ‘Flynn’s’ on the corner building, displaying it all to see.

William giggled a little while looking up at the sign, making Lena turn to him. “What? Something about the name?”

“Kinda… just reminded me of a movie back home, but I dunno if it was released here…” William said, before shaking his head. “Nevermind, let’s see how much the machines cost...”

Following William in, the noises from before only amplified in decibels. Wall to wall, classic arcade machines were displayed proudly, showing the gameplay demos or having a user playing in front of them. It wasn’t as busy as Lena expected, with at most maybe around ten or eleven people lingering around, leaving most of the machines open.

‘Works perfect for us… maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have Rina or Arthur out to watch…’ Lena thought as she looked around, noting how it wasn’t as cramped as she thought it would be. William, with noticeable reluctance despite choosing to do it, left his team behind at the Pokémon Center so that Viridi could have her first official physical from a Nurse, and Ronin and Charon could get an official look over since they refused to leave his side while he was in the hospital.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Lena didn’t feel completely comfortable not having at least one Pokémon per person, so she brought Rina and Arthur with her, but both said they were fine with resting in their balls in case it was busy. With it being light on people though…

“Hey! Nice to see you admiring the classics, but mind getting out of the way of the door?” A voice called out; Lena turned to see a man behind the counter. His hair was greyed, and the very slight wrinkles under his eyes showed his age. However, the combed-back hair and beard gave him the feeling of an old friendly Ursaring as he smiled at the two.

“A-Ah, sorry sir, first time being in an arcade for a while…” Lena started, making the man wave her off, still holding the smile.

“No trouble at all. I usually only get the regulars now so it's always great to see new faces. You a Trainer? Just came into town?”

“Ah, yeah. Just uh… traveling together, but taking the weekend off to relax and rest up, so took William here since he wanted to. I’m Lena.” She said, quickly shaking the man's hand which he returned.

She noticed his hands had ‘Trainer’s calluses’ as she shook it, something usually only seen after what would be decades of high-level battling. While this piqued Lena’s interest (and Arthur’s judging how she felt his Great Ball twitch), she pushed it aside as he talked again. “Always love teaching the new generations about the classics. So! Kid!” At this, William turned from observing the arcade machines with an expression Lena couldn’t catch in time back to the man with a surprised expression. “Name’s Kevin, tell me, what kinda games do you like to play? Side-scrollers? Racing games? Fighters?”

“U-Uh, all the above, but mostly RPGs,” came William’s instinctual response, making Kevin grin somehow ever larger.

“Ah, a real connoisseur, then? We sadly don’t have any real RPGs here, but if you enjoy those games, you’ll find something soon enough…. Games are unlimited play for one hundred for a kid, and a hundred and fifty for an adult though, but you’re free to look around until you find something you wanna play.” Kevin stated, but Lena had already moved her Styler forward towards the pay pad before William could get his Pokédex out.

“H-Hey —”

“Nope, I’m paying. I have a normal income, you don’t,” Lena stated, making Kevin laugh as the machine beeped and accepted her payment, making Kevin place two cards on the counter in response.

“Here you go! Just scan this in front of any machine, and it’ll let you play. Let me know if you have any issues!” He grinned, sliding the cards on the counter forward. William and Lena took the cards, and both gave a polite thank you before venturing in.

Everywhere Lena turned, there was another game, another genre she didn’t recognize, overwhelming for someone who’d only ever played games in passing. She turned to William to distract herself. “So… uh, see any games you recognize?”

William waved his hands back and forth, but he didn’t seem disappointed. “Kinda, I didn’t… expect there to be any direct games from back home. Some games are similar enough for me to know how they play… interesting to see how they differ, though.”

At first, he gravitated to what looked like some game with Krabby and Chewtle walking around the screen on a black background, but then paused and turned his head to look at a different machine. His expression turned softer as he walked up. The arcade frame had a green checkerboard frame and what looked like cartoon ‘viruses’ and a doctor holding comically oversized pills with opposite colors.

“Huh, makes sense they would have a version of this…” William said quietly, placing his card by the scanner with a beep, causing the machine to register a credit as he placed his hands on the joystick and buttons.

Lena stayed quiet as she watched William play. It looked to be a puzzle game, matching the colors of the pills with the ‘viruses’ in a pill bottle… matching four to remove them all…

‘I dunno who I would trust more… this guy shoving as many pills as he can to solve a common cold, or a crazy fae doctor…’ Lena idly thought as William slotted a yellow pill in by pressing a button at the right moment and causing it to vanish, smiling slightly before realizing the support for the pills on top also vanished, causing them to fall down.

“Dammit.” William muttered, his eyes narrowing as he started slowly digging himself out with the new pills he would get… the method was inefficient, but safer. The bottom and sides were a colorful mess by the end, but he wasn’t even halfway filled up to the top until he slotted the final pill and ‘won’, with a cheerful jingle playing.

In the reflection, Lena could see his smile was a tad melancholy, but he spoke with a warm tone before she could question it. “My parents played a version of this game when they were in college, my mom especially. Neither of them were really into games like I was, but… this was always the game we could play together when they re-released it… nice to see a form of it over here as well.”

Lena didn’t know what to say… though her mouth started moving before her brain could plan a proper response. “Did you win against them?”

William laughed suddenly, shrugging. “It was even, I'd say. It would depend on the night, as Dad was good with putting the pills in the right place, while Mom was great at surprise combos, filling your screen with garbage. It was nice, fun…”

He trailed off, looking at the screen asking the user to press continue for a moment. William pressed it, but held the stick down to drop the pills faster until he got a quick game over screen, bringing him back to the title screen. “That’s all. I just wanted to reminisce… let’s see what else they have here.”

Lena stayed closed but nodded, but not before taking one look at the game's name and making a mental note. As she filled it away, she turned back to William who was now looking at a fighting game that… looked pretty violent judging from the demo as she watched a man in what looked like a Drapion-themed outfit throw a chain and suddenly impale the other person and drag them to the other side.

“Huh, they’re using the Genesis version… I wonder if the cheat code would work…” William said out loud, before frowning and (to Lena’s relief) shaking his head before moving on to another fighting game next door. This one seemed much more tame, Lena noting that one of the primary characters was a Lucario with a red headband, shooting an Aura Sphere.

“No, we’re not getting Arthur a headband…” Lena amusedly whispered while glancing down at the Dive Ball that shook, Arthur’s capsule trembling and a flicker of… gentle pleading Aura reached out to Lena.

“Here, jump on player two, I wanna see how similar this one is to home…” William said, making Lena jolt from her one-sided conversation to awkwardly moving next to him as he went to the character select screen. It took a moment for her to figure out which button was ‘accept’, but she selected a Mienshao wearing a blue top, while William thought for a moment before going with Lucario with the headband.

“Not sure how different it’ll play… might as well go with something similar…” He said as he chose a random stage, making Lena roll her shoulders slightly as she tried to remember the last time she played a fighting game…

…Has she ever?

‘Shoot. Uh… can I distract him while I learn the controls?’

“Played a lot of games back home like this?” She asked as the stage loaded and the characters did their introductions, though her tone probably showed her true intention.

William could tell obviously from how he chuckled, but he still shook his head. “Not arcade games, I was born after their prime sadly, so most of the games I did play were home console games, or handhelds…” He started as he moved his character left, clearly giving Lena and himself some space. He moved his joystick in a half rotation while trying certain buttons, but he continued to speak. “Though, I still got the classic game education. My family had an NES in the basement I’d play. That’s when I first played games and… it stuck.”

“Stuck… how?” Lena asked as she struggled to mirror William’s actions… making her pale slightly as an Aura Sphere came flying across the screen and almost hit her had she not accidentally jumped trying to do what William was doing. “H-Hey —”

“Hold away from my character to block.” William stated ‘helpfully’, before his character approached Lena's from his side as he answered her question. “Well… got me into computers, wanted to know how they work, wanted to do something with them for my career…”

Lena struggled to focus, stuck holding back as William’s character used an overhead kick, and then again, preventing her character from moving despite her health bar ticking down slightly. “So video games — come on, move… video games are the reason you know how to get around computers — what the—”

The Lucario on screen suddenly grabbed Lena’s character and threw her in the direction William was holding the stick, suddenly sending her to William’s side. “Grab with both buttons… but… technically? It led to that eventually, I mean…”

Lena squeaked, losing her concentration on the topic while physically panicking as the Lucario approached. She held the joystick in one direction, then shifted to the opposite, then back and forth, before hitting one of the bottom buttons. The screen suddenly flashed and suddenly the meter at the bottom on her side became empty.

“Shit — oh, I’m not —” William now was panicking as the Mienshao dashed across the screen, rapidly kicking the Lucario in a flurry as William slumped his shoulders slightly at the attack connected as his attempt to block failed.

“I did it! What did I do?” Lena said, feeling a tad giddy at the spectacle, at least, until a similar flash happened on William’s screen, and a burst of an Aura Sphere shot across, hitting Lena’s character multiple times until her health bar ran empty. The ‘P1 WINS’ screen flashed shortly after and William couldn’t help but smirk, the ‘comments’ from the peanut gallery at her belt not helping a slight competitive displeasure. Arthur’s Aura pulsed with a teasing pride, while Rina’s Dive Ball trembled as if chuckling.

“Special move with the meter at the bottom…” William turned up to Lena, holding his grin against her slight pouting glare. “Come on, let’s see what other games there are?”

“Oh, I’ll find one to beat you in, you can’t be good at everything.” Lena mockingly said, making William (and her team judging by how her belt rattled) laugh as he moved through the hallway of games once again.

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William tried multiple games he seemed familiar with as the night went on, or at least a version of them. He would point out differences to Lena or reference trivia about their development, almost like a museum curator. A couple of other patrons gave him or her an amused look, but everyone seemed content to keep to themselves. Lena surprisingly got used to the noise level as it faded into the background. William walked down another row of games before pausing and looking at a screen.

“Oh shit, never seen that in person...” Lena turned to see what he was looking at, and her eyes got assaulted by what looked like garbled letters and numbers, with half of the screen looking broken. The poor arcade cabinet looked ready to put itself out of its misery with the visuals, and Lena couldn’t help but feel bad for the poor orange Ghastly that seemed to keep going in circles without a maze to guide it on screen.

“Is it broken…?”

“No, just a regular who likes to give us more work while being a showoff…”

Kevin’s voice caused both of them to turn to the man, who was shaking his head slightly while looking at the machine. With a sigh, he pulled out a worn Ultra Ball and opened it; in a yellow flash, Lena raised her eyebrow to see a Pokémon she normally didn’t see often, a Porygon2. The digital Pokémon let out a beeping chirp, facing Kevin with absolute attention.

“Jerry, our friend decided to leave us a visit again.” Kevin motioned to the glitching screen, making Jerry sink a little into the ground and let out a series of beeps. Their Trainer understood it somehow, shaking his head with a chuckle. “Yeah, a real piece of work he is… can you sort it out?”

Another series of beeps followed, and Lena and William could only watch in fascination as Jerry turned around and almost seemed to sink into the screen as if it was rubber, and then vanished from view. The display suddenly turned off, William looking a bit concerned by that before Kevin made a pausing motion to halt his worries. “Jerry turns off the display while they fix it ‘cuz it gets a bit… psychedelic when a Porygon starts messing around with older machines. Normally, turning it off and on would fix it, but there’s a memory chip that I haven’t been able to replace yet… wanna keep the scores, so have Jerry go in and reset the game manually.”

William stared at the blank screen now with total attention, his eyes going wide with an indiscernible expression. “That’s amazing…” He turned back to Kevin and asked a question that seemed almost entirely foreign to Lena.

Kevin understood it completely, surprised but his tone eager as he gave a just as technical response to the young Trainer. Lena couldn’t help but feel completely out of place, like when two Mechanics would complain about the technical aspect of repairing Stylers or some new computer they got mandated to use by that League that they had already taken apart and put back together six times because of some inadequacy in the chip manufacturing.

This pattern repeated for a while, William asking a question, and then Kevin responded in kind, eager for someone to be curious about his partner before William finally said something she could decipher.

“I know Jerry is a Porygon2, but… is what they say about the Dubious Disc true for Porygon-Z? About how their behavior becomes unstable? I read about it in the Pokédex, but… never seen one for myself, or… well, a Porygon either technically.”

Kevin frowned and crossed his arms, clearly waiting a moment to find his words before responding.

“Setting aside how difficult it is to get your hands on a Dubious Disc, it’s a horrible thing for a Porygon to go through. I mean, just look at how it changes the Porygon’s body — their tail and limbs get ripped off and stitched back together wrong. But... I think what really makes me uncomfortable is just how unstable it turns the Porygon into. Jerry over here already sometimes requires me to remote in and do some routine maintenance to fix memory leaks and segfaults and bad sectors and whatnot, but something about the way that Disc is programmed just...”

“It feels like you’re torturing your Pokémon every second of its life for power…” William finished, deeply uncomfortable and glancing toward the machine.

Kevin followed his gaze and sighed. “Yeah, I didn't even consider evolving Jerry because of that specifically. A buddy showed me a ‘cracked’ version, and I couldn’t even begin to comprehend the start of the code that Twins or Arceus-forsaken Dubious Disc was written in…”

With a shake of his head, he gave a slight wince to Lena and William. “Sorry, to put down the mood there. If you want to play this game, you might need to wait until next time you visit. Jerry’s gonna take a bit to make sure all the scores get copied over right… can’t use Trick Room to change his speed here, haha!”

“No worries, just saw the kill screen and haven’t seen one in person, only videos.. sorry for taking up your time and… bothering with that last question, but thank you for answering!” William said with a slight mix of a bow and nod of his head, Lena giving a thankful nod to Kevin as well, which he returned before turning back to the broken machine as the two continued down the row…

As Lena’s brain finally came back from the defensive fugue state it put itself in, she turned to William. “Really into computers, huh? Sorry, I can’t do any back and forth like that. I couldn’t really understand a word you or Kevin were saying until the end there.”

William actually blushed a bit, looking a bit abashed. “A-Ah, sorry… It's been a while since I’ve actually talked to someone about computers like that…”

“No, no, I’m glad honestly… maybe I’ll see if any of the Mechanics I know could give you a run for your money with computer techy stuff, since it’ll fly over my head for sure unless it's something more mechanical...” Lena said as she started to idly check her Fine Styler, noting it was getting late and about to suggest heading back to the Pokémon Center.

She turned to William to ask for his input, but paused when she saw what looked like four plastic model motorcycles connected to an arcade machine against the back wall. Its multiple screens played a demo that looked to be from four different first-person perspectives over a three-dimensional race course.

“This a racing game…?” Lena asked, prompting William to look over to where she was.

“Huh? O-Oh, yeah it is. It’s multiplayer, so four players can race against each other like the car machines, but you gotta lean to turn instead of using a wheel as it’s a motorcycle.” He clarified, turning up to face Lena with a curious expression. “Why? Do you wanna give it a go?”

Lena had to hide a grin. Now this was something she knew, and Rina and Arthur could tell by how her belt rattled from her spike in Aura. Instead of jumping on, she waved her hand forward towards the machine. “You know what? Can you give it a go? I wanna watch it first…”

William looked a tad confused, but nodded before heading over. He pressed his card against the reader and the machine instantly registered the credit. He then climbed up and awkwardly hoisted his leg over because of his height and settled himself in before he pressed the button. There was a dramatic animation and flash before it brought him to the vehicle select screen.

Lena could recognize every single brand, Mauville Bikes, Mach Motors, Rickshaw’s Wheels, making her realize this was more of a brand promotion game… Even so, she had to admit: the models were high quality as she could only spot a few inconsistencies…

William chose one model from Cyllage’s Cycles, Lena noting how the stats were mostly about control. After selecting his obvious color of choice, he selected a track that was rated three out of five stars, with a couple of tight turns and bends. The game took a moment to load before it loaded into the race and started a count down… and he was off.

It was clear it had been a while since William played such a game, but his choice of control over speed was clearly one as he got used to the game’s feel, turning in a way to not bump the walls… carefully braking when taking a corner tight… but…

“You’re biking wrong,” Lena proclaimed aloud automatically as Wiliam finished, making him turn to her with a confused expression even as he input his time, which showed him in the top five on the leaderboard.

“What do you mean?”

“You're slowing down like it’s an Acro when making turns, which makes sense if you want control, but Cyllage’s Cycles motorcycles don’t have the same frame of Mauville Bikes to be as agile for those turns so you’re losing speed overall.”

Before William could respond, already looking dumbfounded, Lena spoke again, shaking her head and glaring at the model on the screen. “That’s not even considering the fact that Cyllage’s Cycles prefer a HV-Four engine for their models, and then they design the frame for control the engine would give anyway with enough practice by the user. If they gave it an inline-four engine, it would have both control and speed, but they don’t, making it a beginner’s trap bike.”

William looked up and down at Lena for a moment, clearly not having gotten any of her rant. “I… didn’t realize you were a biker. You don’t look like a biker… your jacket is way too bright, and missing a Pokémon design on the back.”

“Cheeky, aren’t ya?” Lena commented while moving over and scanning her badge against the machine next to William. She shifted her leg over the fake bike and could not hold back her grin any longer. “Select another course, whatever difficulties you want. I’ll show you how to actually bike.”

William stared in shock at Lena, before a slight grin formed as he scanned his card again to go again. “Alright, if you say so…”

This time, William chose the ‘Mach’ model from Mauville Bikes, prompting Lena to shoot him a look. “Are you sure that’s a good choice?”

“High speed, but at the cost of low control. High risk, high reward.”

“Tsk, tsk… you’d do better with the beginner's trap.” Lena said as she locked in her choice of a Rickshaw’s Wheels CV8. Her hand already gripped the clutch and throttle, her foot shifting to the mock shifter on the machine… her body naturally leaning forward…

“Let’s see… do they… ah, they do have it…” William muttered to himself, grinning slightly as he selected it too fast for him or Lena to get a map preview. She could only make out ‘Prismatic’-something before the stage loaded.

She rolled her eyes despite smiling. She’ll let him try to pull a fast one for now.

It wouldn’t last long.

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“How the fuck…” William muttered in awe and disbelief, finally finding his voice as they walked out of Flynn’s. Lena’s hands were in her pocket with her own grin fixed on her face as she turned to face him as she walked down the street.

“Told ya you were biking wrong. You need something with gear shifting to really get and maintain speed and control.”

“T-That’s not — I mean, how did you not — I — you swear you’ve never played that game before?” William looked absolutely flabbergasted as he lightly jogged to catch up. Lena shrugged in response, despite the smile on her face.

“Nope.”

“Then how the fuck—”

“I’m from Eterna City, William. Biking capital of Sinnoh? Cycling Road right to the south?” Lena reached into her pocket to pull out her license. “Got this when I was sixteen. You can even get a motorcyclist license before you can get a regular driver’s license in Sinnoh. Bike culture is one of our trademark things. Of course I know how to ride a bike. How did you not know any of this?”

William pouted a bit, showing off his age for once. “Sheesh Lena. Where I’m from you only buy a motorcycle if you’re a dumbass teenager with a death wish or a 50-year-old Dad in a midlife crisis. Forgive me for not knowing everything about biker culture from a place I’ve never been to.”

Lena softened up a bit, realizing that she was ribbing on him a little too much. “My Dad was the one who got me into biking. Started me on a regular bicycle with training wheels when I was three. Probably earlier than when he should have done that but... whatever. Wasn’t long after that he brought me on his Yamabiko sitting in his lap... Probably also wasn’t the safest or smartest thing to do but... the feeling of the air rushing past me, the sights flying by… It was exhilarating and it just… stuck with me. Kept riding for years. Got myself a Rydel X380 when I was seven. Used to race all the kids to the other side of town.”

Lena looked upwards, fondly reminiscing.

“Saved up a bunch of money from my first year and a half as a Ranger for a Rickshaw AX7 Turbo. Still have it in my parent’s garage whenever I’m back home. There’s nothing like the wind flying in your face riding down Cycling Road, after all...”

“Huh… is that why you like flying?” William asked, making Lena tilt her head with a thoughtful expression.

“Huh, you know… probably… never thought about it like that.” She hummed, thinking about it for a moment before shaking her head to not get distracted. “Anyway, eventually I want to ship my bike over here to Unova, but of course I’d have to rent a storage unit... Same problem here as in Sinnoh; no place to put it...”

William blinked and let out an impressed hum, though his expression showed how flabbergasted he was. “I still can’t believe you got the top score by a full minute….”

“Oh please, give me a day and I could probably bring it down by another half minute.”

At this, William fell silent for a moment, before starting to laugh, making Lena turn to him with a pointed expression. “What’s so funny?”

“N-Nothing, nothing… just had the… visual of a speedrun documentary.” He moved his hand across the air for a moment, changing his voice to mimic someone he had heard before. “And finally, after five years, the person to break the sub-two minute barrier wasn’t any of the previous world-record holders. It wasn’t AndrewG, and it wasn’t even Matt Turk, no, it was a Top Ranger who hadn’t even played the game before, Lena Winifred.”

Despite herself, Lena couldn’t help but burst out laughing into the night, William joining in shortly after as they continued heading to the Pokémon Center to sleep. Her hand gently ran over the Poké Balls at her belt, and she could feel Arthur and Rina’s joy through it with how they gently shook, even without any Aura.

‘Yeah, tonight was a good night.’

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Beta Editors/Readers:

David “TheBlizWiz” R

Garmfild

Post Release Edit:

Special Thanks

Suddler - For pointing out an awkward sentence with a misplaced word, thank you!