The seated crowd clapped at the last speech of the night. Fortunately, it was the last one, and he would be free soon.

Bruno glanced down to adjust his ill-fitted suit and when he lifted his gaze the crowd had already risen from their seats. People were descending the stairs to the middle of the dance floor. The entire ballroom lighted up with various coloured lights that would follow the rhythm of the soon-to-come music—the work of psychics no doubt.

Sure enough, the musicians on the third floor placed their hands and fingers on their instruments and, at a gesture from the conductor, played as the pairs travelled across the floor.

Bruno focused on two individuals. They spent three minutes dancing and talking, and after the song, they changed partners for the next song.

Dancing was fun, Bruno’s teacher had made sure he was familiar with it. Interesting sounds forming tunes capable of making someone want to move their body in a specific way. In a very certain way, dancing was like fighting. Still, the fighting master could see that they weren’t there to enjoy the song and the dance, not ultimately at least. Not the way he enjoyed a good fight.

They were there to speak about ownership, business, deals and favours. Who owned what and why, and what they could do to get more of it. Bruno hoped they were speaking about making another one of these charity events but he knew they probably weren’t. His teacher had taught him that charity events were no place to speak about making other charity events. There were other places—darker places—were they spoke about charity and aid, in the same way that someone would want to eat something good after swallowing something bad.

No. This was a place to speak about business, and Bruno did not see the fun in that.

“Good night Renly, Millie.” Mitchell, suited for the occasion, approached the table while waving an empty glass. “Bruno, how are you holding up on this splendid night?”

“I am fine. Thank you for asking.”

“Good, good.” Mitchell stood in silence for some time, his head moving around and down, looking at the people in attendance on the two floors of the building. “You know, Bruno… Maybe you can go meet some people? Talk a little bit? See the scene?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Well, you know how it goes.” He leaned over an empty chair. “People are always excited to meet pokemon masters, and you my friend, are no common master. You’re an Elite Four, and the more prestigious, the better the people you can talk with.”

Bruno frowned.

Mitchell sighed. “I’m just saying, people like to be heard by the important and powerful.”

“I’m just the second.”

Mitchell sighed again, deeper this time. He signalled to a passing waiter and then traded his empty glass for a full one. Bruno, sometimes, felt bad for making the life of his Chief of Staff difficult, but that’s just who he was. He was a warrior, not a politician.

Mitchell pulled back the one empty chair and sat down.

“You know you don’t have to stay here with us.” Bruno said as he looked at the dance floor. “We understand that perception and politics are important for your career.”

Mitchell raised a glass. “What’s better PR than sitting down with the Third Elite? The Secretary of Environment himself?”

Bruno scowled as his dislike for the second title came through. That title had weight, and implied that Bruno did the same things his predecessors did. Individuals came up to him to ask for things he didn’t know, but deciding what happened and why was not his job. He was the one who made things happen, that was his job in the Indigo Elite Four. It was not a job anyone could do, and was important, but people seemed to want more.

They spent some more time speaking about normal subjects. Mitchell was good at charming people and spoke at length with Renly and Millie about their personal lives. His assistant was, of course, way more open about her life than his steward. An ACE trainer of the sort that Renly was inevitably demanded a certain level of anonymity that came with almost rude silence.

Mitchell and Millie spoke about her disclosed work, about her husband, her children and their hobbies. Bruno glanced at the big gold clock on the wall and—after a minute of looking—figured out that he just needed to stay one more hour and then he could leave.

As the music continued to crash into his ears, he closed his eyes and wondered why he still needed to come to these events.

He blinked when Mitchell called his name. “Bruno?”

“Yes?”

“I was asking if you spoke more with Lorelai or Lance about the issue with Simon.”

“No, I didn’t have the time.” Not a complete truth, but true enough. “A new issue came up and I have not seen them since the last time you asked.” Bruno also considered that matter settled, but his Chief of Staff was nothing if not persistent—something that was usually good in other situations.

“Bruno, this is important.” Mitchell said and looked over at Renly and Millie. “Guys, help me out.”

Renly made the decision to remain quiet.

“Well… It is important, but not urgent I guess.” Millie said. “I think that the next Secretary could resolve it.”

Bruno nodded.

“Yes, yes.” Mitchell rolled his eyes. “But what do you think?”

Millie stopped for a few seconds, and then rolled her eyes back at Mitchell. “Obviously it’s important and it should be solved as soon as possible.”

“Aha.”

“You’re fired.”

Renly and Mitchell didn’t react anymore—not that Renly ever did—but Millie turned fast, glared, and smashed a fist on the table. “Why!?”

The tables around us looked over but soon enough went back to their own conversation, and Millie’s face was redder than a Charmeleon. No matter how many times Bruno did that, Millie's reaction always amused him. His silent laugh was tighter than normal, so Bruno grabbed his tie and pulled it down.

“To finish this talk Mitchell, I will speak to them about this when I next see them, but if they do not approve, again, you will stop hounding me. It will not be on me anymore.”

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “All right, boss.”

“And don’t drink too much, are we all set for tomorrow’s training session? Bruno asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I already made the plan, spent three hours on it. If the new ACEs are to keep up is another thing.”

Bruno looked back at the dance. Mitchell was not an ACE trainer, but everyone that worked in the Plateau should be a good enough trainer to plan a training session, at least.

People were tiring and forming small groups in the corners of the ballroom to talk about something or another. Meanwhile, Renly, Millie and Mitchell talked­, or complained, a little more about the tasks they each had tomorrow. Bruno and Mitchell would train the newcomers, and Millie would spend the day with her assistants to organise Bruno’s share of the new batch of food that would be delivered tomorrow to the Elite Four and the Champion. Due to the large number of high calorie pokemon on the Plateau, they had to buy food in bulk. A massive, massive bulk.

The clock had moved when Bruno’s eyes met it again. Another forty minutes and then Bruno would be free.

---

The aura pokemon stood at Bruno’s side. Their arms were crossed as they watched the ongoing fight inside the deep pit that was carved inside the Plateau. They agreed; that pokemon was a problem.

Four beams of light smashed into the belly of the giant blue pokemon one after the other in a split second, and the annoyed Nidoqueen replied with a leg thrust that sent her opponent soaring away across the rocky field. The four-armed pokemon bounced two times on the ground before smashing into the rock wall, denting his shape into it. Machamp flexed his muscles and the rock around him was crushed into dust. He fell and rolled on the floor, glowing as he dashed against the massive ground pokemon again.

Machamp was doing a great job. He was, however, beginning to tire. Bruno would have to change soon, maybe in an hour or two. But, as always, it wouldn’t matter how many times Bruno’s team beat her. She always stood back and fought again and again.

A stubborn one for sure.

“You really don’t wanna fight her?”

Lucario stayed silent, his body was light but there was an anxiety in his spirit. Bruno knew he would have liked to fight, but their views on this matter clashed. Bruno being of the opinion that the more times they beat her, the sooner they could snap her off from Giovanni’s leash. Lucario argued against it. He visited her sometimes, taking a longer and friendlier path. One that may never work.

His friend displayed a stubborn nature. Bruno knew there was no conversation that would change his mind.

Another quick exchange sent Machamp flying again.

Since his oldest and strongest wouldn’t fight, Bruno needed to put the others to fight.

Most of them would win against the Nidoqueen,­ after a couple hours of gruesome fighting that would put both fighters in the Pokemon Center for a few weeks with broken bones, ripped skin and internal bleeding. No. The purpose was to tire Giovanni’s pokemon into being open to listen, not put her in a Pokemon Center, and not his pokemon either. To avoid that, Bruno utilised relatively rapid rotations between his pokemon so they can wear her down enough so the last one can beat her with minimal injuries.

Machamp was the fourth pokemon that Bruno used today in the, until now, three-hour session. Unfortunately, the poison and ground type could stand almost as much punishment as a Snorlax. Giovanni was one of the best defenders in the entire world, and that showed on his pokemon, even a weak one like this Nidoqueen. Also, unfortunately, he was one of the most charismatic humans that Bruno knew.

Well, the canine he’d knew since he was a baby might not want to fight, but he would share his burden as an act of companionship.

Two hours and a change of pokemon later—now with Hitmontop on the field, dodging and baiting attacks left and right—Bruno was bored, more bored than earlier even. He sat cross-legged on a rock, observing the fight below. Lucario was nearby, on his feet still. He always won this little game of theirs.

Bruno was bored but it was all right. It was a frequent occurrence these days, but excitement for security would always be the best deal he’d ever made in his life.

Lucario’s head moved as he glanced back and Bruno’s ears twitched as he picked a sound other than fighting. Soon enough, he understood it was the sound of steps on the stone stairs behind him.

He caught the scent of dragon types as he turned his body to see a large caped silhouette descend the grand staircase. The weak afternoon sun that came from above shadowed the individual, but Bruno could see that the tall and thin figure wore a dark cape, black training clothes with gold lines, and a familiar spiked pink hair. The light from the arena below exposed sharp features and the most recognisable face in all of Indigo.

The leader of the humans that lived in this slice of land, Lance Kanetatsu.

“Bruno, how is the toil going?” The dragon master asked, his grin became more visible the closer he stepped into the artificial lights of the training ground.

Bruno grunted as he turned back to the pit. “This one’s as difficult as expected.”

Lance regarded the ground type with a sharp look. “The first time we released this one I knew she would be a formidable and mighty adversary. Seeing the recordings of her fights just improved that image… Such a shame. It still shocks me how a vicious being like Giovanni can command such loyalty from his pokemon.”

“He became their rock, something they could depend upon.”

“A powerful conviction indeed… Well, no matter. I’m confident that you’ll solve this problem.”

“I will.”

“However, I didn’t come here just to check on your progress or speak about Giovanni of all people.” Lance reached inside his cape and pulled out a folder which he handed to Bruno. “I’m passing by here to give you your new mission from the Territorial Department.”

“Do you know what Lorelai wants?” Bruno bluntly asked as he grasped the folder. Seeing no urgent mark on it, he turned to the fight again. Hitmontop was finally getting the upper hand.

“You guys should solve your own problems…” Lance sighed, his shoulders slumping. “Which means no, I don’t know, but I’m sure you can guess.”

“The same as always, right?”

Lance stood quietly for a minute, watching Hitmontop and the Nidoqueen fight below. The dragon master never stopped somewhere for a time without a reason. Bruno recalled when the dragon master admitted he couldn’t quiet his mind.

“Do you need anything else?”

Lance leaned back. “I will admit, I also came here to measure how you’re feeling about that episode we had two weeks ago… I feel your frustration, Bruno.” Bruno made to speak, but he raised a hand. “Thus, I think that I need to make things explicit to you in light of our friendship… I don’t need to tell you this, you already know that if I wanted, I could have approved the budget to expand Simon’s team, Lorelai’s approval being a non-issue.”

“I know that.” Bruno’s voice might have been more aggressive than he wanted.

“And I know you know.” Lance nodded. “That day, when you entered my office and asked for the expansion, I easily gave it. Later, the same day, Lorelai dragged you back into my office to explain how your reconnaissance team didn’t need to be expanded and that hers was enough, you remember that?”

“Of course.”

“Your memory’s as great as always then,” he nodded. “So you must also remember the face you were making as she was talking. What the words you chose to defend your request were, as well as the tone in your voice. Uninterested, distant, passive, the language of someone who was just going with the motions. You didn’t care about Simon’s team, and if you don’t care, that tells me much about what you will do with it when you have it.”

“I was speaking on behalf of Simon.” Bruno’s eyes narrowed. “Of what he needs to do his job, I can’t be blamed for not being interested in it.”

“Simon’s job is to help you do yours by providing useful information… Remember Bruno, our subordinates work under us. Always. They may have the intelligence, the knowledge and the expertise. They may gather all the data that they want, experiment everything they fancy, do whatever they feel like doing with the region’s money and resources, but if we, as leaders, don’t care for it, we will rarely use it, and rarely using it is a waste. The responsible thing for us to do, again, as leaders, is to use the region’s assets correctly… Someone who doesn’t care, doesn’t need it. That’s my belief.”

Bruno wanted to roll his eyes at Lance’s words, instead, he stayed silent. Arguing over this would do him no good. In many ways, Lucario and Lance were the same.

They were interrupted by the sound of metal hitting metal, and the Champion glanced down at the black and gold pokeballs on his belt, they were shaking at each other ominously.

“I have to go, they are becoming restless.” Lance patted him on the shoulder. The action reminded him of the time he met Lance years ago. “Think about what I said.” He then looked down at the Nidoqueen. “I would say good luck if you needed any.”

The dragon master turned with a wave of his cape and moved towards the exposed cliff to the side of the hanging pit, on the underside of the Plateau, and stopped there to take in the ground and sky. Bruno sometimes went there to look at the sea green forest below. Regrettably, he didn’t have a flying pokemon to do what Lance did.

Bruno waved the folder with an arm before Lance could leave. “Thanks for going through the trouble.”

Lance glanced back with a smile. “You’re welcome.” And then he jumped.

The air was filled by red light and the savage growl of a Blackthorn Dragonite, which was soon drowned out by the sound of something heavy breaking the sound barrier.

Lucario watched with narrowed eyes as Bruno opened the letter from the Secretary of the Territorial Department. Bruno’s eyes rapidly scanned the text. Inside was the information that always reached Bruno—what he needed to do his job. The problem, the place, and the offenders who he needed to strike at.

He got up and grabbed two retreats from his belt. Poliwrath and Medicham materialised on the field. Hitmontop and Nidoqueen stopped, surprised by the newcomers.

“Nidoqueen.” Bruno’s deep voice rumbled against the stones.

The blue pokemon’s eyes flicked towards him and she growled. This time she didn’t throw rocks at Bruno; she had learned early on what the consequence for that would be. Her eyes briefly snapped to Lucario in fear, and Bruno felt discomfort emanating from his pokemon as he grabbed her own retreat.

“I’m going on a mission. You know what that means, don’t you?” The poison type growled, and that growl swallowed his voice. Bruno waited a few seconds for the echo to fade. “Accept the return or we will have to make you.”

Bruno clicked the button and the red light smashed against the Nidoqueen. The pokemon flexed her body and broke the light’s hold. He frowned at the broken orb in his hand, cracks running through it.

“Your choice.” Bruno nodded to his three pokemon in the pit and glanced to Lucario. “We are going home. I will ask Renly to prepare our things, be back in fifteen.”

Lucario nodded and turned his stare to the pit.

Bruno walked up the rock steps towards the Plateau. He was halfway through the stairs when he heard what sounded like a Hydro Pump, a Brick Break, and a Psybeam hit a rock shield.

---

Winter was still some months away, but the city on the north was already covered in snow.

The Third Elite leaned against a post outside the Mahogany Gym, waiting for his old teacher’s shift to end. Bruno smiled. The man never learned how to quit. That might explain why they had such a good relationship.

He looked around at the cobblestone road and the small and elegant wooden buildings. Mahogany Town was exactly how Bruno remembered. He had been just fourteen years old when he met Pryce and his beloved city. The nearly old man was taking a stroll in the True World, an activity only the greatest masters of Indigo could do, and he was doing it just to find a worthy partner for his Dewgong, something Bruno later learned he had been putting off for a decade, when he stumbled upon a wild teenager.

A wild teenager who was a trainer.

A wild teenager trainer that had powerful pokemon following him.

Bruno chuckled, he still remembered Pryce’s face, the man had been stunned for a whole day. Not nearly as much as him, however. Of course, at the time Bruno had never seen another human before.

Their battle was brief. Pryce easily won and could still win today.

Pryce convinced Bruno to come to Indigo after a lengthy talk that stretched for a week. The promise of easy food, security and training was enough after some guarantees. Bruno then spent four years in Mahogany learning how to be a ‘normal’ person from Pryce. After that, Pryce recommended Bruno for a spot as an Elite Four trainee. A year later and Bruno became the Third Elite. Officially speaking, the third strongest trainer in Indigo after Lance and Agatha.

Bruno kept his humility, however. Mainly towards the people stronger than him. The blessed-by-Arceus retired individuals who didn’t need to play politics anymore.

The automatic sliding double doors opened, and they not only released colder wind into the snowy streets but also a man dressed for a mild winter, with a slim, long blue coat and a long white scarf. His head was greyer than Bruno remembered.

Bruno hoped the man's surprise was a pleasant one.

“Bruno, my boy! What are you doing here?” The man’s stony face turned into a warm smile, and Bruno knew this was a genuine one. It was easy to understand a man whose eyes spoke a lot.

“Good afternoon, teacher.” Bruno bowed. “I was on my way to a mission in the east, so I thought about passing by Mahogany. I was hoping we could talk privately.”

“But of course, let’s walk towards my house. My garden’s private enough.”

Bruno and Pryce walked through the old and battered streets of Mahogany Town. The city had seen many, many harsh winters but always came back stronger. While other old and isolated towns nearby lost their younger citizens and faded in time after the first harsh winter they faced, Mahogany stayed. Their citizens building and rebuilding their lives here. They were brought up to the harsh reality since young and, as adults, welcomed the challenge. The town lived up to its reputation as a small and harsh place, filled with resilient people fighting against harsh conditions.

It was no True World, but the people here understood Bruno the most.

A half hour of walking later—filled with the greetings from the warm residents—the two trainers reached a gated expanse of empty land with a mansion in the back. The gates opened and they began the walk through the extensive ice garden. Many lines of ice and grass type pokemon walked around and looked curiously at them.

Pryce waved at them and then turned to Bruno.

“So, what do you need?” He sighed. “Are you having problems in the Plateau? Maybe the relationship with the people there is not going that great?”

“No… Well, yes.” Bruno let his head fall. “How did you know?”

Pryce placed a hand in the breast pocket of his coat and laughed. “I understand when people forget your age, but I’m somewhat always surprised when you yourself forget it… Bruno, you are only twenty years old and live in a highly political space. The Plateau is an almost thousand years old entity. Hundreds of workers live and work there, every single one has a finger in politics. Anyone will struggle there, let alone a young adult only now leaving their teenager years… When I first became an Elite Four, I struggled with it for years and years, and I was a grown man at that point.”

Bruno thought about it for a minute and smiled. “You are right as always. It does not mean that I cannot ask for advice, right? Or are we back to the training days?”

“Of course you can, and I will definitely try to be more straight forward this time.” Pryce chuckled and patted me on the shoulder. “Besides! My old body can’t handle those trainings anymore.”

Bruno gave a quick summary of the situation with Simon’s team, of the last few months of discussion with Lorelai, his last conversation with Lance, and Bruno’s concerns about the matters of working politics and taking a more active role in his position.

The rest of the walk through the garden was spent in silence as Pryce grasped all of that.

“Lorelai…” He shook his head. “I’m not as involved in the Plateau these days, and neither Saffron nor Goldenrod for the matter… However, with me being the who I am, and wielding the power I wield, individuals and groups cannot help themselves but report things, no doubt hoping that we, the stronger ones, the withdrawn, will swoop in and balance the scales one way or another. No doubt about that.”

He gestured for a beautiful wooden table in front of the yellow mansion. Taking a seat in the large and elegant chairs, Pryce pulled out from his pockets a pipe, a tobacco bag, and a tamper.

“Lorelai will soon lose her position.” He spoke as he prepared his pipe. “Now that Koga’s daughter completed her training, she will take over his gym, and he will take his place in the Elite Four, as his strength and competence dictates… Agatha’s retiring, but her position asks not only for a stronger pokemon master, but a spymaster as well, and she already has someone in mind… There’s another one that will take the place of the provisional one, William’s his name I believe. The Plateau needs a psychic, always needed, and we are reaching the breaking point without one.”

Pryce finished his pipe, lighted it with a lighter, and smoked. He puffed while glancing at the pokemon pacing around his snow garden, admiring them, no doubt.

“That is the first time I hear this.” Bruno said.

He turned his head with a faint smile. “I’m not surprised somehow.”

“And me? I’m not politicly affiliated with anyone. Why not take me out?”

“First, you’re neutral. You don’t make alliances, and that’s an advantage by itself. The absence of friends also means the absence of enemies. You are predictable, don’t rock the boat, if you know what I mean. Many people like that… However, and that’s the main reason, you’re also too strong.”

“Is that so important?”

“Of course!” Bruno knew that if Pryce had his staff—and was three years younger—he would have hit him. “Indigo is strength manifested! The fact that we have you and Lance, two pokemon masters that are so strong while so young, projects something for the rest of the world. It puts them on notice. It also doesn’t hurt the fact that you take the most dangerous missions in the ‘true’ world, something Lorelai can’t do, and people, the people who really matter, know it.”

Pryce indulged in another puff as his eyes turned cold, and he frowned in indignation at the thought of Bruno not being in the Elite Four. “No, no, you’re not going anywhere… But you must understand, Lorelai is on her way out, and people—humans—who are on their way out of anything unwillingly tend to lash out. All you have to do is endure, and this will go away, together with her.”

"That's good to hear," Bruno remarked with a nod. “And about what Lance told me?”

“Lance? About caring?” His eyes widened and he leaned back. The ice master turned his gaze back to Bruno. “That got you thinking, hum? Cut you deep, maybe?”

“I don’t know.” Now it was Bruno’s turn to frown.

Pryce said nothing, and they spend more minutes in silence.

“I think… Do you know about human nature?”

“Human nature?” Bruno looked down. “It sounds familiar, but I don’t know what that means.”

“It’s a concept invented a long time ago by philosophers. It says that humans—all humans­—at our deepest, all move with the same thing in mind, heart or soul. There was a lot of debate back in the day on what that thing is; if it’s true at all, of course… If we can change it, and if we can, what should we change it to. That nature was tested in the war, actually, now that I think about it. They all saw that one coming, from both sides. They spent years thinking about why that would or should happen. The necessity of it all… Why do some nations have this expansionist disposition…”

Pryce gazed at some invisible point in front of him, lost on his own mind. Bruno didn’t know the point he was trying to make, but he knew why he was having such a hard time with it. Pryce was talking about Indigo, the war that Indigo raged against the other continent. If Bruno knew something about the people of Indigo was that they have too much pride. To remember defeat hurt them in a way that Bruno simply couldn’t relate as he wasn’t born here.

“What was I talking about… Ah, human nature! Today, most people believe that this notion—this concept—is outdated, I’m certainly one of those people. In my long life I saw people doing things differently for different reasons, almost all times, they believed that they were right, like our dear friend Giovanni, may the shadow take him.”

“The point?”

“Just as impatient as ever.” The ice master rolled his eyes as he took another puff. “The point is that these days I believe that humanity doesn’t have a shared nature, but that us as individuals do, some of us do things that others aren’t capable of. For example, you. You are naturally talented as a trainer, but your nature doesn’t favour political issues. You’re a straightforward person. Someone who doesn’t bow to compromises. Who isn’t chained. Someone who does the act, not someone who thinks on the why, and sometimes not even the how.”

Pryce laughed and caressed the head of a passing Snorunt, who stopped to nuzzle in it.

“Some people would take offense to that, old man.”

“I’m not talking to those people; I’m talking to you.” He shrugged as he made his point. “But that line of thinking is still too narrow for me. What? Just because you have a nature you can’t change? Tauroshit. People change. Some more slowly than others, certainly slower than pokemon evolve, if you caught my jab.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I don’t.”

“Of course.” He stayed still for a moment. “I always wondered why you were given the title of Secretary of Environment.”

Bruno frowned. “Every Elite Four needs to hold one of the first four offices.”

“I also wonder why I taught you with those old books. Yes, you needed to hold one, but you didn’t need to hold the most important one.”

The Secretary of the Environment was indeed a very prestigious title with a lot of history. Being responsible for the balance between humans and pokemon was not easy, and sometimes in history, it was the hardest job in the world.

“Who decides who holds which title?”

“The Champion together with the Council.” He snickered. “Maybe they saw you wouldn’t be satisfied with just being a pawn.”

Bruno looked towards the horizon, where Mahogany city rested. The city in the north, a city full of Indigo citizens, citizens that Bruno protected many times over in these last few years.

“Maybe.”

“Whatever maybe the case, the one who needs to decide what the talk with Lance meant is you, not me. I gave you all the tools to make up your mind about anything human related. Dammit. Use them.” He snapped his fingers and Pryce’s most recent addition, a Frosmoth, hovered down and put down a rectangular wood box on the table before flying away to meet with an Abomasnow. “Speaking of kings and pawns, how about a game of chess?”

Bruno sighed, and with the practise of someone who did something hundreds of times, he opened the box and began taking out the pieces. “What time control?”

---

It was pure luck that they found this cave.

They were on top of a mountain, looking down at a natural mountain pass that cut straight through the middle of the mountain. It was a natural little path created by time—erosion, to be more precise. Behind them was the Indigo Region. In front of them, the True World.

“Why am I here again?” Mitchell asked. He was crouched, grabbing anywhere he could on the rock they were standing on, his body locked in the fear of dropping the mountain.

“Because you need to learn.” Bruno responded. “You do know that Gallade will catch you if you fall, right?”

“I could learn by reading the reports. I didn’t need to come here just to watch.”

Bruno nodded. “You can read reports, congratulations. Still, the first step to learn what I need to teach you is to feel, and to feel is to experience.” Bruno looked down at Mitchell with a raised eyebrow. “Or are you now going to say that you can experience things through paper?”

“Imagination is a great power on itself, if I close my eyes…”

Primeape, also perched near the edge of a rock, turned his head to the side and growled at Mitchell’s antics. The pig monkey pokemon still couldn’t believe that they needed to bring such a baby to a mission. Mitchell was not a baby, but his pokemon were so outmatched here that he might as well be one.

Bruno, besides Gallade and Primeape, also had Blaziken out. They were mapping the place where they would intercept the pack.

‘The ideal situation would be to funnel the pack through the road.’

“Agreed.”

“Alright, alright.” Mitchell said as he crawled away from Primeape, which was hard since the cliff outside the cave gave little space to move. “Can you please tell me the situation at least?”

“A pack of Houndoom are attacking the Aggron family that lives under this mountain, so we have to stop them.”

Mitchell waited a few seconds. “That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“Why is the pack attacking the Aggron?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why is that our problem? A problem for the region?”

Bruno gestured around them. “This mountain serves as a natural barrier for Indigo, and the Aggron matriarch under it is a guardian.”

“A guardian should be able to deal with a pack of Houndoom.” Mitchell frowned.

“She is.” Bruno said. “She was in an Elite Four team twenty years ago, and she has only got stronger since. She would be able to deal with this pack, however, if she comes out from under the mountain, there’s a risk that some underground pokemon will slip past her. Since her family is not strong enough to beat the pack back permanently, the ranger in charge of monitoring this pass called for reinforcement. Us.”

Mitchell nodded. “How are we going to solve this?”

“The attacking part is the offender. We will beat back the pack of Houndoom until they stop.”

“Is there a motivation for the attacks?”

“… They didn’t include it in the report, but the pack probably wants to expand its hunting grounds.”

Bruno felt Mitchell look up at him. Bruno knew he wanted to bring up the issue of the expansion of Simon’s reconnaissance team, but he will not. It’s not the place for it. Bruno nearly let out a sigh, fully aware that Mitchell would bring up the topic later.

Unfortunately, Mitchell always chose the uncomfortable road, one way or another.

“No questioning Lorelai about why the report is so poor? Again?”

“I’m the last alternative. If I’m being called in, it’s because nothing else worked.” Although he doubted that no one else could deal with this.

“Why don’t we go talk with the Houndoom?”

Bruno’s pokemon—Primeape, Blaziken and Gallade—looked sideways at Mitchell, Bruno would too if he were not familiar with how the humans inside the region were raised. It was Mitchell’s first time here, his beliefs on peaceful pokemon were supported by using the pokemon inside the region as precedent. But they were not inside the region.

This place was Bruno’s home. The world unknown to most humans, the True World.

Pokemon here understands one thing only. Strength.

“Good luck talking to them.” Was all Bruno said.

Mitchell’s face closed as if he tasted something sour. Even though Bruno could feel that Mitchell was still annoyed by this conversation, he let the conversation die.

Bruno walked back into the cave behind them and laid down on his sleeping sack. The Dragonite that took Bruno and Mitchell here found this cave that was perfectly placed above the Aggron burrow and the road below. The next time the pack of Houndoom came, they would be ready to intervene.

Bruno looked over to the deep end of the cave where Lucario was sitting, meditating. When was the last time he had meditated?

When he came back to the Plateau, he could do it. Maybe.

Bruno closed his eyes and slept.

---

The distant sound of many paws banging rock woke Bruno up.

Bruno got up from his sleeping sack and walked out of the cave. Gallade, Blaziken, Primeape and Lucario were already up and leaning over the cliff when Bruno approached, they were the ones that would fight today. In the distance, the pack of almost twenty Houndoom and forty Houndour ran up the twisting paths towards the mountain through the narrow road.

Mitchell was up a few seconds later. He got closer and looked down at the pack with worry. Bruno felt Lucario was worried too, though why he didn’t know and didn’t have the time to find out.

“Teleport us down.” Bruno said.

Gallade’s eyes glowed pink, the sign of his psychic energy manifesting, and in response to Gallade manipulating the rules of reality, our bodies glowed pink, and then everything shifted.

They were now in the middle of the dirt road, at its highest point where he would be able to command the battle. Mitchell stood on his right side, his body tense at the proximity of the pack. In front of him stood three of his pokemon, Primeape, Lucario and Blaziken, the only one not there was Gallade, who was at his left.

They were just waiting for the pack to reach them when the ground shook as something big came from behind them. Bruno briefly braced himself and Mitchell with his right hand, and then looked back. The road behind him went down into a cave under the mountain, a cave from where an Aggron was rising from.

He was obviously male, and so couldn’t be the guardian. Even then, this Aggron was strong, not be strongest Aggron he saw, but Bruno also felt a hint of spirit, a rare thing for a wild pokemon. The steel type, completely out on the sun, frowned at them. The frown then turned into a glare at the pack of Houndoom.

The fighting master turned to Gallade. “Explain the situation to him.”

Gallade nodded and teleported closer to the Aggron, and then they talked. Bruno understood the explanation and knew that the Aggron understood too. The steel type stayed still, however. He didn’t speak or acknowledge them. He just stood there, like a statue, observing the situation.

That was fine by Bruno.

The pack of Houndoom finally ran up the slope and the leader, a large one, easily two meters high and sixty kilograms heavy, stopped the fifty pokemon march. The wild pokemon glared at Lucario, who was ahead of the others, but didn’t approach. He was wary of the aura pokemon.

Smart.

Bruno shouted. He put his spirit into it and was heard. “We’re here to guarantee you will do nothing against the Aggron family or pass through the mountain. Turn back now and never come back.”

Bruno knew the Houndoom heard him. The pokemon didn’t understand words, but Bruno made sure he understood his intent.

The Houndoom’s eyes narrowed. The pokemon stood still, his glare shifting between Bruno and Lucario. The pack behind him moved nervously, probably in anticipation of the leader’s command to attack. Most smashed their paws on the ground, some breathed little pockets of fire, others swung their head back and forth.

“Bruno,” Mitchell said. Bruno ignored him since breaking the glare between them could be seen as an admission of weakness to the Houndoom. A few seconds later, he came again. “Bruno… Bruno!”

“What?!” Bruno asked to the side, eyes not leaving the leading Houndoom.

“There are puppies among them.” Mitchell pointed to the inside of the group, in the middle of the Houndoom and adult Houndour.

Bruno’s gaze flew past the leader and his strongest warriors towards the middle of the pack. There were tiny Houndour—almost babies—in the middle of the group and near the ground. It was obvious that they were being protected from all sides by the adult Houndour and the dozens of Houndoom. They stretched their necks to look at them with big and curious eyes. That shouldn’t be the case. A hunting pack didn’t take their puppies with them.

Bruno felt his head spin.

He focused on the other pokemon behind the leaders and noticed something. Most of the adult Houndoom and Houndour were skeletal. Normally, that wouldn’t be strange, the Houndour line was naturally lean, especially in the wild, but Bruno knew intimately both pokemon and starvation. He knew that this was not the natural leanness that this line displayed. This pack was starving.

Bruno looked forward at his pokemon. Lucario was facing forward, but his head was half-turned back. He was looking at Bruno. That sharp eye brought back memories of the time Lucario was a Riolu and Bruno was a kid, memories made during sleepless nights, in which they fended off strange and strong pokemon. Bruno remembered the nonstop walks through mountains, deserts and forests during the day. He remembered the time bones poked at his skin. He remembered the agony of almost drowning in a snowstorm.

Bruno decided.

“Lucario.” The pokemon fully turned his head towards him. “Talk to them. Ask what’s happening.”

Lucario walked forward towards the leader of the pack. The fighting pokemon didn’t stop when the big Houndoom barked at him in warning. Primeape and Blaziken tensed but didn’t move. Lucario stopped in front of the Houndoom and spoke.

The pack listened. Bruno knew they had, but they didn’t respond.

The pack stayed in place. Now that Bruno looked at the pack, he could see some more energetic puppies moving here and there, sniffing the ground and walking towards the edge of the pack, apparently eager to explore the new surroundings. The adults, while listening to Lucario, just picked them up with their mouths and dragged them back to the middle of the pack, where they were protected.

“What do you think they are talking about?”

“The pack is running from something.” Bruno and Lucario both could recognise knew someone was running from something. Mitchell turned his eyes back to the pack, a grave expression on his face.

Usually, a pack of Houndour stayed in one place, normally a cave or another isolated space, and send out hunting parties from there. The hunters of the pack hunted, and a group stayed behind to take care and protect the puppies. The only way for the hunters—and the leader was always a hunter—to move and take the puppies with them was if they need to move the entire pack. However, the Houndour line was stubborn and would only move the entire pack in extreme circumstances, normally if there wasn’t any more food in the area.

Or if something was after them.

Bruno remembered the time he and Lucario had to move from their rock. The rock that they lived for the first six years of his life. He remembered the predator that hunted them. Their journey towards the mountain where they met their saviour. The battle between Abomasnow and Drampa. The feeling of finally being safe.

Bruno took a step forward.

The now master descended the road just like the friendly dragon had done with his mountain. He passed his pokemon, walked closer to the pack, moved past Lucario, and stood right in front of Houndoom. Bruno could feel the pokemon’s hot breath on his face. Now that he was so close to the pokemon, he could see what he actually looked like.

Bone and skin, ragged breath, scuffed fur, and some muddied wounds where fangs, claws and blades got him.

“You are dirt.” The pokemon understood and growled. My pokemon tensed and prepared to jump forward, but Lucario held them back with an arm. “You're feeling tired, hungry, and injured. Really, you’re not attacking us out of fear, but because you can’t. You and your pack just finished a long-winded walk to get back here. You don’t have the strength to lift a paw, let alone a flame.”

The pokemon growled again. This time however, it was the growl of someone who didn’t like to admit weakness. Bruno knew this growl. He heard it many times in his prideful pokemon. Bruno also knew that if he were a pokemon, that was the growl he would make.

This situation made him remember his friends. First came Riolu, who he spent his first eight years with, and then came Machop, Mankey, Poliwag, Shroomish, Tyrogue, Ralts, Meditite. Besides Riolu, all of that would never have happened if it wasn’t for the friendly dragon. The one who protected his pack when there were only two of them.

The circle of goodness he talked about. Bruno had forgotten it but now remembered.

It was his—

Lucario was glaring at him, and Bruno smiled back.

Now it was their opportunity to return the favour.

---

Bruno and Lucario meditated like the old days. Bruno’s spirit revolved as he let go of the things that held him to the mortal world. His mind felt clear.

They were interrupted by a scream and a familiar and, at the same time, unfamiliar smell. It was the smell of dragons, specifically, two.

They left the pack sitting at the beginning of the road and walked out to the plain field near the mountain. His team waited for them.

A Druddigon and a Kommo-o stood on the base of the mountain, they were moving together towards them. The Druddigon flying low with its strange wings, while the Kommo-o walked proudly, its metal scales clinging loudly as he walked. Their pace quickened the moment they laid eyes on them.

Everything fell into place.

What would make a pack with twenty strong Houndoom leave an area? Something that didn’t happen every day. An anomaly. If just one dragon were hunting them, they would’ve been able to deal with it, they would have beaten them back. There would be losses, but that was to be expected. They would have been able to keep their hunting grounds.

Two dragons teaming up however? They could not survive if they had to hunt and also continuously defend against that threat.

The full team he brought for the mission surrounded him, including the reserves: Lucario, Primeape, Gallade, Blaziken, Machamp and Emboar.

“The mission was to beat back a pack of Houndoom that were attacking this mountain.” Bruno said to them. “That mission was flawed, and so, we’ve found a new one, a more noble one, as the humans inside the region would say. We’re here to defend the pack from two great predators who together are too powerful a unit to be fair to nature itself.”

For the first time in a while, Bruno felt that his title of Secretary of the Environment was deserved.

Lucario gave a very deep howl that echoed through the valley. The two dragons slightly stopped, but then continue to move. Dragons were the most dangerous when fought in tight spaces, so we met them in the valley below, an open field, unlike the place where they had stopped the pack, a dirt, natural road that funnelled them into his team.

They growled at us, the Kommo-o scales raised up high and smashed down on his body, producing a metallic screeching sound that echoed in all directions. The Druddigon went with the more conventional dragon sound and just growled at us.

The fighting type master nodded. “Unfortunately, you two together are too dangerous to be left alone now that you both learned how to cooperate. You don’t need to worry, though. When this is all over, you’ll both be going to a better place… Go!”

Gallade glowed, and then vanished.

Lucario, the faster one of all his pokemon, zipped through the field towards the Kommo-o, its powerful legs flattening the ground. Blaziken, Primeape and Infernape were just behind him.

Of course, Gallade was the first one to arrive.

The pokemon appeared between the two dragons and tried to separate them by releasing an explosion of psychic energy. It worked, as both dragons were thrown to the side. Lucario turned left and drove a glowing punch into the chest of Kommo-o. The metallic dragon danced, and within his dance, he found a way to twist himself into blocking the punch with an arm. His arm still groaned like crumbling metal, a punch of Lucario was not something anyone—or almost everyone—could stand.

An ace pokemon in a team composed of just aces, that’s the best description of the strongest pokemon in an Elite Four team from Indigo. The best description of Lucario.

They exchanged pointers like the fighting types they were. Wild pokemon generally fought more wildly, but not fighting types. They, unlike the other types, developed their own fighting style and sometimes that fighting style even reminded humans of human techniques. Something structured that the pokemon could practise.

They weaved punches and kicks as they moved through the grassy field, Lucario with his powerful and stable style, and Kommo-o with his dance. They seemed more like they were practising than fighting, but each shockwave created after a rare collision didn’t let Bruno forget that any of these strikes could crumble a Steelix.

After a few seconds, the dragon made a mistake. He turned his back to Lucario as he tried to swipe the pokemon with Dragon Tail. Lucario jumped milliseconds before the tail connected. The canine pokemon passed by the dragon’s back and grabbed one of the scale chains that left the Kommo-o’s body.

He pulled and then was pulled along.

The Kommo-o turned his head and was struck by a punch covered in ice. Lucario grabbed where he could, specifically, the metallic scales of the dragon’s head, and unleashed a flurry of punches into the Kommo-o. The aura pokemon grabbed with one hand, and punched with the other, just to change hands again and again, as he moved across the Kommo-o upper body to dodge its arms.

The dragon had enough and spun its own body around in a dance like manoeuvre, making the Lucario fall from his body. The pokemon twirled around the grass and pulled himself up just in time to cross-defend against the headbutt from the charging Kommo-o. He defended well, and they still smashed through a lot of rocks that littered the ground around them. The body and weight of Lucario was not able to stop the momentum of a giant like the Kommo-o.

Thankfully, both stopped just before they hit a rock wall of the mountain. The Lucario skidded back on his feet while the wild pokemon stopped.

Confused, the dragon turned his head back to see an extremely muscular pokemon with four arms holding his tail.

If you have a skilled problem, sometimes brute force was the solution.

Lucario agreed, and he jumped forward to grab the arm of the confused dragon into a lock, and then he pulled the dragon. Lucario’s muscles expanded, and the Kommo-o left the ground, briefly stood in the air, and was then smashed into the rock wall of a nearby mountain that locked the valley.

Lucario jumped back just in time for the Machamp to dash through his position and into the rock wall, smashing the dragon deeper into the wall.

Bruno turned to look at the other battle.

On the other side of the battlefield, Bruno’s other pokemon were bringing the Druddigon down.

The Druddigon—still stunned from Gallade’s psychic blast—glided low and growled, but that turned into a screech when a flying blazing body smashed into his side and brought him to the ground with its weight.

Emboar grabbed the cave dragon’s arm and was determined to break it. The reptilian’s red head opened its mouth to shoot a move at Emboar’s face when a Body Slam kick from Blaziken turned his head to the side.

Druddigon’s Hyper Beam tore apart the Valley’s landscape.

The pokemon head came back faster than even some master’s pokemon to Headbutt the Blaziken away. The dragon then screamed when Emboar tried again to break his arm with a Brick Break on his elbow. Primeape, like a hunter smelling weakness, jumped and perched himself on the dragon’s body. The glowing monkey then weaved Fury Attack and Close Combat to rain punches into his back while screeching furiously.

The Druddigon finally regained his mind.

A metallic claw tore gashes into Emboar’s side. Blood gushed out and was instantly evaporated by the white fire of the fire-type skin, and the locked-up arm was released. The dragon then rotated, using its signature move, Slash. Its whole body moved around in place and the many sharp edges around his body turned into a hurricane of blades. Primeape jumped away before he could be cut down.

The dragon’s wings expanded, and they beat. He was trying to fly away. Bruno just didn’t know if he would fly away or try to help the Kommo-o.

“Gallade, net him.”

Unfortunately, a smart pokemon like him couldn’t be allowed to leave.

Thunder roared from where Bruno knew Gallade was hiding. Bruno saw the dragon’s muscles lock up. The green knight teleported near the flying pokemon, and from his hands pink lines rushed above the pokemon. The lines expanded from themselves like branches from trees and formed a net.

The net laid on top of the frozen dragon and wrapped around the pokemon. Emboar, with a pained grimaced and limp leg from the fall, grabbed the net’s end and pulled. Hard.

The dragon fell to the ground with a thud. Gallade crossed his arm, and the net tightened around the pokemon.

The sixth pokemon of Bruno’s team was Gallade, and he was also the second strongest.

Bruno’s body relaxed, and he nodded. Everything went well on both sides. Soon enough, these dragons would be too tired to fight against the power of the retreats. The fighting one he would take for himself to teach and train. The other would go to Lance.

Bruno spirit spiked. His eyes rushed towards Lucario, and Lucario was looking back at him. The aura pokemon’s eyes were wide.

His body froze.

Bruno called for Lucario, but he was too far away.

The grassy ground in front of him rose like a trapdoor, and something had swung it open.

In the dark of the underground, Bruno saw two red dots, and—around the two dots—two massive red blades.

There wasn’t two dragons.

There were three.

The golden head of the Haxorus rushed forward, blades glowing towards his torso.

Bruno felt Gallade disappear from his senses, the familiar sensation of his pokemon vanishing into teleport. He would not make it in time. The head approached his body, swiping from the side so that its blade could cut his body in two, and was deflected by a grey metallic arm.

Sparks flew at Bruno as the Haxorus’ blades briefly met Aggron’s gauntlet.

The head was pulled and the pokemon’s long body arched, its arms still tried to reach him, but the Aggron had pushed it far enough so that when Bruno jumped back, they wouldn’t reach him.

Bruno had jumped, and as he did, five Houndoom—the leader of the pack and his strongest hunters—descended from the sides and hacked the golden dragon’s body with dark energy. Aggron—with its other arm—clawed the Haxorus’ back and raised the dragon into the air and then dropped him in the middle of a nearby rock, denting the rock, then breaking it, and then lodging the Haxorus on the ground with the Aggron line’ command over rock energy.

The five Houndoom didn’t waste a second and bathed the dragon into flames. The dragon screech as the uncommon black flames of the dark and fire type ruined his body.

That’s what they would have done if they had fought a single dragon.

Even then, the Axew line had a distant connection with ground energy, and soon enough the Haxorus was able to break the hold that the Aggron had in the rock holding him prisoner. The rock crumbled and the dragon twisted its body to jump at the Houndoom’s leader, just to receive a powerful knee strike into its long neck that swept him into the air.

Lucario had arrived, and he was looking far from the calm pokemon that he actually was.

The canine jumped back and slammed all the attacks it knew into the Haxorus’ body. The dragon, rolling through the ground, tried to fight back with its head’s right blade. A metal punch dented it and rattled the golden dragon. Lucario stormed past the stunned pokemon’s torso and grabbed its tail. Lucario’s body bulged with strength. For a second, he looked bigger than Bruno.

The non-flying dragon was pulled to the sky, and Lucario, still gripping the tail, twisted his body downwards and the dragon followed the motion. Lucario slammed the Haxorus’ whole body into the ground again, denting the ground even harder than the Aggron did and trembling the mountains around the valley.

It’s been a long time since Bruno last saw Lucario like this. He knew Lucario had been holding back for years ago, and now he could see his friend truly let loose.

Haxorus tried to rise but a wave of orange punches and kicks struck all its joints, freezing the dragon into a crouch. It was able to rise its head through the pain and tried to breathe its draconic energy towards Lucario, but a sweeping chop to the throat made the pokemon gasp and jerk backwards. The enraged pokemon jumped towards the head, twisted mid-air, grabbed it, and pulled the head into the ground. Slamming it on the ground.

Stone, dirt and clay lifted from the ground whilst altering into hard silver steel that grabbed—like claws—the golden head of Haxorus.

A palm was raised into the pokemon head and wind streamed backwards towards the Aura Pokemon as he used one of its signature techniques, Vacuum Wave.

The Haxorus gasped for air for the next minute. That minute seemed to stretch into a whole day. It suffocated and finally fainted. Lucario stopped, the energy coursing through his body vanished bit by bit.

His body was still tense.

Bruno finally noticed the sounds on the battlefield. The other dragons had taken advantage of the distraction; Kommo-o was fighting Machamp, Primeape and Emboar while Druddigon, grounded still, was baiting Gallade and Blaziken in flames. Gallade’s Light Barrier held the flames back.

Lucario raised his paws and two lances made of blue energy materialised into his hands. The pokemon then jumped, and rotated its form in the middle of the air so fast that he faded for a second, and both lances were fired perfectly.

That had been one of the things that Drampa taught him that year.

Kommo-o was in the middle of a low attack when one of the lances struck him, somehow seizing both hands of the dragon and drilling through both. The force behind the Lance was so great that it nailed the fighting type into the ground. The screech was daunting.

The second lance punctured Druddigon’s torso and lodged him into a mountain wall.

Soon enough, both pokemon were subdued by Bruno’s team. Druddigon tried to fight back more than Kommo-o, but Gallade immobilised the rest of his body with his psychic energy.

Bruno approached Lucario. “As always, thank you for everything Lucario. You can rest now.”

Lucario, face as composed as when the fight had started, was pulled into his retreat, and Bruno pulled three new retreats.

The first dragon to go was the closest, Haxorus, the ball didn’t even jiggle as it captured the dragon, the second one was the one Bruno would take in, Kommo-o, the dragon glared as they got closer. It even tried to put some fight against the retreat but was swiftly captured, and the third, Druddigon, broke the first retreat, but was captured by the second.

After everything calmed down, Bruno noticed the pack had not left yet and walked up to them. Most were celebrating with howls and jumps, but something caught Bruno’s attention. He saw something new in them.

Bruno stayed put for an entire minute, thinking. As the Secretary of the Environment, Bruno had the authority to invite wild pokemon from outside into the region in exchange for their collaboration. He never used that right before.

The power that the founder of the Elite Four—the first champion’s closest advisor—had used many times in the beginning.

“You wanted to pass through the mountain to the other side, right?” Bruno said, and the pack quieted to hear him. “Too much here for your old body I bet.”

The leader of the Houndoom, after some silence, nodded.

Sometimes, mostly when they got old, wild pokemon tend to turn away from the violent and chaotic nature of the True World. They try to find­, or become, leaders of some territory. Most mountains, rivers, or lakes have some ruler, a pokemon or a group of pokemon­­ who oversee and limits actions of the other wild pokemon in that space. These groups created pockets of civility in the True World.

What humans in the past figured out­—what had changed the world—was that they could also do that, and the next thing they figured out was that they could recruit. The main purpose of the Secretary of Environment.

“If you pass through the mountain, you will reach the Indigo Region. It’s a place controlled and ruled by humans. They have rules there, rules that you would have to obey. But, in exchange, we promise security and prosperity for your pack.”

The pokemon huffed, pockets of fire left his nostrils as he did.

“If you want, you and yours can go there, however, again, we have rules. Your pack’s stronger than normal so you will probably be situated in a protected territory where you won’t need to hunt anymore since food will be provided for you. Does that sound good?”

The pokemon nodded in an uninterested manner, but could not truly hide his interested from Bruno. His spirit told him the truth.

“There are some other rules, particularly about training and capture…” Bruno sighed. “Do you have some time now?”

The pokemon looked at him, and Bruno sat down and began to explain.

It took a few hours for the Houndoom to understand what Bruno meant, but in the end, the dark type got it—most of it. New trainers still needed pokemon after all.

The following morning, Bruno and his team guided the pack through the Aggron’s mountain, and from there a team of rangers took command and—having been warned beforehand—already had a place near Olivine ready to settle them.

Bruno, Mitchel and Gallade were standing on the road as the rangers mounted their Rapidash. The fire horses ran off and the pack of Houndoom and Houndour followed them to their new home.

“As always, good job, sir.” Mitchell.

“Thank you.”

---

Bruno and Mitchell were sitting on the couch in Bruno’s living room in the Third Elite’s house.

To call it a house would be misleading. The Indigo Plateau, one of the biggest plateaus in the world, was taken up by the first champion, with the goal to create housing for the Champion, and later for the Elite Four. A place of power from where the five most important trainers of the Region could project their power into both Kanto and Johto.

For the imposing effect, the five main ‘houses’ in the Indigo Plateau are more like stone palaces than simple houses. The five-story structure carved on the inside of the Plateau and full of expensive furniture were mostly identical to each other, with the only difference being the decoration of each resident. People sometimes called Bruno’s house barren. He preferred the term functional.

The second floor, the living room where Bruno, Mitchell and Lucario were resting, had three expensive and comfortable couches that Bruno rarely used. Bruno rarely used any furniture except the bed on the highest floor.

“So, you’re really going to do it?”

Mitchell was once again in a suit, his natural skin.

“Yes.” Bruno said, putting his tea down on the black centre table.

“I’m glad,” he sighed. “Don’t be nervous when you go into this meeting, I doubt they’ll fire you or anything close to that.”

“I know.”

Mitchel drank his coffee and looked towards the window. The light from the sunrise illuminated all the windows on the side of the mountain. The conversation extended for a few more minutes until Bruno had to leave.

Bruno and Lucario split up from Mitchell at the entrance of his house. Mitchell had to talk to a few business representatives that were going from Johto into Kanto, and Bruno and Lucario had something a little more important to do.

They walked all over the road carved into stone, though many paths, all leading towards the uppermost part of the Plateau.

The sun hit their face as they exited the inside of the colossal elevation.

A modern building stood above the highest part of the Plateau. A building made of concrete, steel and glass. Bruno looked behind him, where the atrocious path that the challengers for the championship would take next year. Bruno turned back around and followed Lucario through the double doors.

The ace trainers saluted them as they passed.

“The Third Elite, Strongest Fighting Master of Indigo, and Secretary of the Department of Environment, Bruno.” The Steward of the Plateau announced. Bruno remembered that the first time this happened he was annoyed by it. It had become familiar to him at this point.

He climbed the stairs to the third floor that only League Official had access to and walked down the massive corridor that stretch from the front of the building all the way to the back.

At the end there was a set of double steel doors, and Lucario opened them to reveal a meeting room.

The gold dome made the room look even more ostentatious than it already was. Full of expensive furniture and, more interesting for Lucario, full of historic artefacts mounted on the walls. Spears, swords, paintings and jewellery. Bruno, however, didn’t care for any of it.

There was a giant ivory meeting table in the middle of the room, and five big chairs around it. Three who were already occupied.

Agatha didn’t bother to look up from the papers she had on the table. However, Her Gengar, one of many, smiled at him from her shadow. It was a clear indication of her amusement. The stand in for the vacant First Elite Four position, Elite Four Trainee Marcus, nodded towards him. The Meganium by his side smiled at Lucario.

The ice master openly glared at him. She had seen the items he had put on this meeting’s agenda. Her starter, Lapras, looked bored, as it always did in these quarterly meetings.

Bruno sat down in his chair, and Lucario crossed his arms behind him.

The sound of something landing on the balcony drew the attention of three of the four elites. The double doors on the other side of the room opened, and Lance walked inside, behind him, squeezing through the big glass doors, his starter also entered the room.

The Dragonite glared at them all.

Lance didn’t greet them as amicably as he did when Bruno met him on the training grounds. This Lance was the Indigo Champion. He also couldn’t show what could be perceived as weakness to other people.

The Dragon Master sat down on the head chair, and the massive Dragonite sat behind him. The dragon’s head almost reached the ceiling.

Lance turned his head towards Bruno. “Do you have them?”

Bruno took the two retreats from his pocket and rolled them towards Lance, who deftly caught them.

“Great job, Bruno,” The dragon master said. “A shame that they had to be caught, but Indigo’s stronger for having them.”

Agatha scoffed. Lance ignored her as always.

“Are you sure you want to keep the Kommo-o? I can triple the offer.”

“Yes, I’m sure. I’ve never trained a dragon though, so if you could help me from time to time, I would be grateful.”

“Sure. I’m always happy to help a dragon,” The slight smile on his face vanished as he pocketed the pokeball with the two rogue dragons. “Now, let’s start the meeting.”

Four Alakazam teleported in, forming a square around them. Their spoons and eyes glowing with pink energy.

The meeting room for a moment was consumed by that pink light, and he felt the room’s connection to reality snap like an elastic band that was sketched too far.

Their meeting began, and Bruno was ready to make a statement.