Marie Beaumont was not your everyday girl from Coumarine.

She was going places.

Just not at this exact moment, as she was currently sitting cross-legged on her bed, flipping through her binder one page at a time.

It had taken months and months of talking to her Bro and trawling through online forums, but every detail of her journey was mapped out and ready to go.

All she had to do was wait a couple of months, and she'd take Kalos by storm.

Then everyone would want to be her friend, right? I mean, who wouldn't want to be best friends with rookie of the year?

It would no longer be Nosy Marie, clingy Marie, or know-it-all Marie.

No, it would be ace trainer Marie!

She knew it would be a lot of work; even Bro didn't make it that far. But she was much smarter and cooler than him.

He didn't even prepare for his journey! Papa just gave him a Rhydon one day and the next…poof.

What a loser.

Where was she?

Oh, right!

She was going to kick ass, collect badges, and win the conference. Well, the junior bracket at least.

Or…that had been the plan.

Things changed. As Bro said, everyone had a plan until a Primeape punched them in the face.

As super awesome of a plan hers was, she needed to let it go.

Not all of it. She'd still reference it, but there were more important things now.

Like helping her friend.

Tanya was weird.

And that was coming from totally-her-friend Marie. But like, weird in a good way. Like totally secretly a badass weird.

I mean, how else do you describe someone who tamed a wild pack of Garchomps?!

A warning would have been nice, but she totally got why Tanya hadn't said anything. In her place, Marie would have for sure done the same. You couldn't just give away that reveal; it was way too cool to let go.

Now, she could admit to being a teensy, itsy, bitsy upset that Tanya hadn't gotten her help for rescuing Gible. But the girl was just trying to protect her. After all, she was technically a criminal.

Marie had always been a stickler for the rules. She still was, but sometimes the rules were wrong?

No, they definitely were.

How was it fair that a tourist gets to come, buy a Gible, and then everyone else suffers? Lots of people and Pokémon got hurt by Garchomp, who was just trying to find her baby.

It wasn't fair!

And, to make it worse, the person who fixed it gets in trouble? No way! Marie wouldn't allow that!

Stolen novel; please report.

But as much as she wanted to tell everyone the truth, she couldn't.

Because adults were stupid.

They wouldn't get it. Some rich guy was hurt, and he mattered so much more than the rest of them.

Bleghhh.

But that didn't mean she couldn't help. Tanya had been worried. Super worried. Marie got the sense this wasn't the first time she had done something like this.

People were after her. Maybe even her own family? I mean, it was pretty obvious the girl didn't know how the world worked. Marie tried to pretend she didn't notice, but there were so many tiny things that just yelled at you that Tanya didn't get basic things.

Who didn't know how to wash their hair?

Rich people.

Rich people didn't know how to wash their hair.

Marie could see her friend being locked away in some big fancy house all her life, having fancy pancy people do everything for her.

But Marie liked to think she knew Tanya pretty well now, and the girl she knew would never be satisfied living like that.

She had that non-nonsense, do everything yourself attitude. Tanya must have been driven crazy by that type of pampering and run away.

Yes. That must be it.

Then, somewhere along the way, she found a wrong. Tanya being Tanya, there was no way she'd just let it be. She would fix it, no matter what!

She was like a real-life hero! And not like those weird people playing dress up.

Marie shut the binder.

It had been made by a child.

And Marie wasn't a little kid anymore. She'd be eleven soon enough!

Which meant she was old enough to help her friend. But how? Bro always said all problems could be handled by a big enough Hyper Beam, but he was an idiot.

Marie couldn't be a criminal. She just couldn't. It was like Pansear evolving into a Simisage. It just didn't happen.

The only thing she was good at was following the rules—the ones that were wrong sometimes.

That's it!

While her friend attacked from the outside. Marie would attack from within!

A, what was it? Uhhh, she knew this one. A pliar movement? No, pincer. A pincer movement.

But she couldn't do it alone; she needed help.

Luckily. She knew just where to get it.

Hey Bonsly? What do you say we go find Garchomp again?"

It would be dangerous sneaking so far into the route, but she was a trainer! She passed her exam and everything.

"Bon?" Her partner shook her head frantically. "Bons, bonsly!"

Hmmm, that was probably a yes.

Well, she could pretend it was.