CHAPTER 179

Like every Ranger Station in cities, Veilstone's had been built somewhere near the gate. It had only taken ten minutes for the Rangers to take me, and I was immediately taken to a neat office room that looked like the one I'd been in back when I had told them about catching Sunshine. There was a simple metallic desk, a computer monitor that looked like it was from the 90s, and two chairs in front of it, where I currently sat. I could see Veilstone out of his window. It was a city of concrete, stocky buildings, and the sky was clouded by pollution. There was a reason Bella hated the city. Veilstone was known for its heavy industry and was probably the worst offender of city expansion. Even Hearthome, Jubilife and Sunyshore knew to control themselves. Oreburgh was polluted as well, but it was small and self-contained within a valley. Veilstone had none of the charming architecture that other places were known for, and its noxious air could easily spread to the other routes. Only Snowpoint looked worse than this, and that was because of its harsh environment. The same Ranger leader that had spoken to me sat down with a heavy sigh.

He was probably having a terrible day.

"Let's get started. You can call me Ranger or Mr. Gibbs. Can I see your ID first?"

"You know who I am," I said. "But you pretend not to?"

"They're just the rules. Procedure. I have to verify your identity no matter how obvious it is."

I paused. "Fine."

I handed it to him and he mulled over it, his eyes drifting over the card.

"Thank you, Ms. Pastel. I'm going to need you to sign something— just an oath that you're telling the truth. Again, procedure."

I nodded as he handed me the paper and a pen. While I was still capable of lying if needed, I felt like doing so would be horribly wrong just because of how ingrained Bella's teachings had been. I'd rather obscure the truth or go around it if needed. I'd called it a weakness, which had sent her into a thirty-minute rant about the superiority of fairy types and how that reputation made it easier to trick people.

Good times.

"So, Ms. Pastel. Can I know why you had an Arceus damned army at my gate and how the hell so many Pokemon followed you?"

His tone was harsh and snappy, which I didn't appreciate.

"I told you already. They were just sending me off. I befriended them during my stay on the route."

The Ranger irritatingly drummed his finger against the steel table.

"Befriended hundreds of Pokemon in that short of a time?"

"Yes. Just because you can't fathom it doesn't mean that it's impossible," I shrugged. "I've done nothing illegal, and I know you can't keep me here."

"Will this happen again? Do we have to put a permanent presence on the route because of this?"

"You aren't listening to what I'm saying, and I'm starting to take offense."

"What?"

"They are harmless. Don't intrude on their home because you feel insecure about having them close by in large numbers. They know better than to attack the city."

"Look, the truth of the matter is, we just want to know how you communicated and coordinated so many Pokemon around."

"I stopped and listened."

He sunk slightly deeper into his chair. "Let's move on. That Hatterene and Decidueye aren't normally species seen in the wild in Sinnoh, and it doesn't take much to know that they're special. Powerful beyond what we'd be able to contain without League backup. Do you know if—"

"They're the same as the other. Harmless."

"You should look at the videos going around. The Decidueye seemed calm enough, but she made some threatening faces while we spoke."

"That's just like her," I smiled fondly. "She was just feeling protective, I think."

"Oh boy," he groaned. "So you confirm that they won't be of any danger to Veilstone? Can you be sure?"

"Yes, I promise."

Looking at his face, this meeting hadn't gone the way he thought it would. He was probably going to call the League since there was no way he was going to just trust anything I said. Rangers usually did so when something too powerful struck, but he'd be out of luck there. Bellatrix technically hadn't broken her deal with Cynthia by just revealing her existence. I wondered what Cynthia's reaction to all of this would be, but unfortunately for me, there was no way to figure it out. If I had to guess, she had her head deep in Team Galactic matters, and I wasn't about to call her. If she wanted to speak to me, she'd do it herself.

Ranger Gibbs just stared at me as a heavy silence settled into the room.

"Look, I'm in the League Internship Program," I said. "Cynthia invited me into the program herself. I wouldn't do something stupid or lie about this."

Arceus, it'd be so much easier if they had an empath around. We were just both wasting our time here. The Rangers' job was to keep people safe and I had just done something very unusual, so I knew where he was coming from, but it felt like he'd just brought me here with the expectation that I was going to reveal something big. Like a planned attack instead of it just being friends saying goodbye.

Which made no sense anyway. If they wanted to attack, they wouldn't have done something so obvious.

But I was worried about something else. Not Bella or Night's safety, but what if the Rangers encroached further on the route for the sake of 'safety' if I messed up here? I knew that I wasn't detained and I could just leave if he annoyed me too much, but I owed them better than that.

All the Pokemon on that route.

"That's a fair point," he said, his face tightening. "Can you go more in-depth? Tell us how you ended up connecting with Hatterene and Decidueye in particular?"

Well, I could answer that, at least.

"They sought me out and befriended me. We spent a week off-route together with my team," I explained. "Ranger Gibbs, they really want nothing to do with Veilstone. Give them the benefit of the doubt here. They're both just living their lives and— look, they haven't endangered any trainers either, right? Route 215 is weird, but it's certainly nowhere near the most deadly route. It's actually one of the safest."

"I see your point," he nodded after a pause. "We'll let you go."

"You had no right to detain me in the first place," I shrugged. "Erm, sorry. What will you do now?"

"Keep a few more guards posted at the end of the route and see if whatever happened with you happens again," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

I smiled. That was basically the best I was going to get.

"Thank you. Uh, I know I kind of sprung this whole thing onto you, but I really did only tell the truth."

He irritatingly waved his hand at me. "Go. Have a good day."

I stood up and left as Bella's complaints about human encroachment rang inside of my head. It might not have been much, but today, I had helped the wild Pokemon of route 215.

—

Veilstone was an ugly amalgamation of concrete and cement, but it also had a surprising amount of Pokemon out and about. Every city had a number of Pokemon that walked the street, but Veilstone especially so, and a lot of them did so without a trainer by their side. A Machoke curiously stared at me, and I dipped my head in return. Even though Pokemon would only feel a link to me in forests, it seemed like they could all sense there was something different about me. I grabbed my phone as I walked past a set of massive warehouses that must have altogether been the size of Floaroma. The port to Veilstone's northeast exported the majority of what they produced in the city and imported goods from abroad.

There were a few messages from people. Louis' group and Justin saying that they'd made it to the city almost a week ago, but also Emilia. I felt a burst of excitement. I hadn't seen her in what felt like a lifetime. Denzel, Pauline and Cece had apparently just entered route 215 as well, so they'd be here within the week. Knowing Bella, she'd probably subject them to some kind of weird test, but I'd secured their safe passage, so I wasn't too worried. Chase was also here, but he'd already signed up to battle Maylene. I probably wasn't going to have enough time to see his battle in two days. Justin, for his part, didn't want to meet. It was a miracle he'd even sent a text at all. I couldn't help but feel hurt when remembering how he used to be, but there was nothing I could do. Shiftry was already dead.

I spotted the League's office where I'd have to get my Carry License, and I also tried to find the League Trainer that was supposed to be tailing me, but to no avail.

"I guess they'd be bad at their job if I could find them," I muttered. "They'll probably talk to me at least once."

Because of the people behind the line of Rangers that had filmed me, the news of what I'd done at the edge of the route was already spreading and Melody had already attempted to contact me numerous times. Before talking to her though, I decided to find a Pokemon Center to room there and shower. Being in the wild was nice, but there were only so many times that I could wash with a wet cloth without feeling dirty. Plus, a general check-up for my Pokemon was in order.

I sent a message to the group chat to let them know I was safe, and a flurry of responses arrived immediately. Luckily for me, they didn't know about what had happened at the route yet, but they definitely would within the hour.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I arrived at the Center the closest to the gym, since I assumed that was where everyone was. After giving my Pokemon away and ignoring the stares as I had learned to do by now, I finally entered the quiet of my room and showered. Veilstone was loud after getting used to the muffled sounds of route 215. The car horns, the hum of the city, the people talking, it was all overwhelming but I didn't let it show.

My room was the same as usual except it was slightly older fashioned, with a ceiling fan instead of air conditioning. It wasn't like I'd need it anyway because of how cold it was. I had a view of the gym, which was as massive as always. The large stadium stood on an elevated part of the city's southwest, and it was themed orange. I would do my research soon, but not today. The first thing I had to do was call Melody and assuage her worries. The Poketch Company was definitely angry with what I'd done, and it could easily be spun negatively.

It could also be spun positively, though.

"Eleven missed calls, huh," I sighed. "Must have gotten grilled by her bosses."

I clicked on her name, and she picked up immediately.

"Grace! Finally, I've been trying to reach you since you entered Veilstone!"

Her voice was confident, but there was also a hint of anxiety. They were probably tired of me being so unpredictable.

"Sorry. I needed to speak to the Rangers and get to a Center first," I said. "I know what you're calling about, and I'll tell you what I told them. The wild Pokemon didn't hurt anyone and just wanted to say their goodbyes. They're friends."

"Legendaries," she exhaled. "It's my job to work with you, and I feel like I've failed."

"It isn't that big of a deal, Melody. It's probably going to be out of the news cycle in a few days."

"You're right. I think that this is actually good and that we can exploit this, and some of my colleagues do so as well, but we have to run it to the head of the sponsorship department, but he has his bosses upstairs breathing down his neck as well. He wanted to shake things up by working with you, but you're actually doing that too much."

"And he's lashing out at you because of it. I can tell that you're tired."

The liaison manager paused. "We're obviously not going to drop you. If there's one thing you're good at, it's staying in the news, and that's more promotion for us. Clearly this girl-next-door thing isn't working though, so we'll have to go back to the drawing board. Just… be normal for a little while so we can regroup. Fight a few battles, win against Maylene and do some of those online promotions I've sent you, okay? I'll keep in touch. I have a few ideas of how to spin this, but I have to convince the men in suits first. If they approve, I'll talk to you about it."

"I will. Sorry, again. I'll pay you back someday."

"It's okay. I know that you're trying your best."

"One other question. I had a plan to battle trainers above my level, and that implies losing, probably publicly. Is that okay?"

"Yes, obviously that's okay, but try not to go overboard with the losses. If you could limit yourself to one or two trainers to improve, we'd like that."

That was… not ideal. Losing against different styles of battling would make me improve faster.

"I've put you in a lot of trouble, so that's fair," I resigned. I owed her this, at least.

She hung up the call, and I lay down on my soft bed until my phone blew up again. News had spread, and my friends wanted to meet for an explanation. Unfortunately, they were outside, and League Protection or not, I wasn't going to go out without my family there in case things went south, so I asked them to come.

Time passed slowly as excitement budded and flourished inside of me, but thirty minutes later, they arrived. Emilia's forceful knocks nearly broke down my door and she tackled me into a hug as Mira, Maeve and Louis entered the room. Her chestnut hair was shorter and wavier than before, only going down to her neck.

"Emi!" I laughed. "I missed you so much!"

She stared at me with tears in her eyes and sniffled. "Me too. It was lonely without you guys! I've been here for a week and a half!"

"Where's Vincent?" I asked, staring at the others. Louis looked as tired as always, his Combee flying overhead. One of the faces stuck out its tongue at me, but the others just stared, whispering at each other as they analyzed me.

"Not coming. He said that he's sticking to Hearthome until he at least gets into the second round of a Contest. So the top sixteen."

"Your friend's turned into a badass coordinator, by the way," Mira said. "She's been in the top sixteen twice."

Mira appeared to be better, but there was no way for me to know if that was how she really felt or not. Her lips stretched into a child-like smile as she offered me a warm greeting.

"I never seem to make it past the battle rounds, though," Emilia smiled awkwardly.

"Wait, you made it?" I gasped. "Emi— that's great! Why didn't you tell us? You didn't even send a text about it. Pauline's going to be livid."

"I wanted it to be a surprise. I have a few others too. Plus, with everything you guys went through at Solaceon, bragging about Contests didn't seem appropriate," she said.

"Come on. You're our friend, you deserve to celebrate things too," Maeve said. "Right Louis? Louis!"

"Yes. Obviously," he nodded. After a brief pause, he stared at me. "Grace, we heard about what happened on route 215. What in the world was that?"

"It's not as crazy as you think it is."

Mira doubled over and wheezed. "E—excuse me? Girl just walks up to a gate with a ton of Pokemon and acts like it's not crazy?"

"Well okay, it might be a little crazy," I acknowledged.

I chewed on my following words and considered what to say. I didn't exactly feel like going in-depth about the old legend of the boy with the Plume because of how unbelievable it was in the first place. Plus, they already knew I had a knack for understanding Pokemon, although it had probably grown past their expectations.

"Be— Hatterene found me while I was traveling through the route after I let some wild Pokemon under an overhang with me, fed them and healed an injured Ponyta," I explained. "Err, from there, she and Decidueye kind of took me under her wing."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Bellatrix would definitely scold me if I gave her name out like that. Nightstalker definitely wouldn't care, though.

"What does that mean?" Maeve said.

"She taught me and Princess a bunch of stuff. It was a lot of fun."

"So let me get this straight," Emilia exhaled. "You go and befriend a Hatterene, which are known to be incredibly dangerous and she becomes your teacher?"

"Well, also a friend," I added. "And don't forget about Night."

"Night?" Louis asked.

"Oh, Decidueye, sorry. I got used to calling them by name."

"Take a look," Mira smirked, showing me her phone. It was a video of me taken by a trainer in the gate and posted on the forums. "You're the talk of town."

"Right, it still doesn't explain the whole wild Pokemon swarm," Emi nodded.

I held back a shiver as I heard the sound of my recorded voice.

"This is going to sound a little crazy," I said. They all laughed. "I'm serious. Keep this a secret for now."

I didn't know how common it was for titles to be given out to trainers, and I wanted to at least wait until I spoke to Cynthia again to reveal that entire thing.

I waited for them to agree, and started again. "Hatterene gave me this title that makes Pokemon in forests look to me as a friend, so they came together to say goodbye."

"Title…?" Maeve muttered. All four looked somewhat confused.

"I know, it sounds weird, but it's true," I said. "I traveled alone to figure myself out, and that was exactly what I got from my time with her."

Emilia sighed. "I still can't believe the stuff you all get up to sometimes, but I'm happy for you."

"Thank you. And by the way, how are your Pokemon?!" I asked her. It'd been so long since I'd seen Beldum, Aipom and Rockruff. "They must have grown a lot with how you're this big deal coordinator now."

"Well, I wouldn't call myself a big deal," she shyly said. "I'm no rising star, but I'm good."

I blinked. I'd usually never seen Emilia this confident. Her voice had been steadfast when saying it.

"I don't know if you've seen, but I managed to catch Antoine Nguyen's old links to Team Galactic. He was someone the League had missed, which is where most of my fame came from. I've got… three hundred thousand subscribers. I'm doing pretty good."

"Told you she was badass," Mira said. "Hey, tell her how you caught him."

"Arceus, don't make it sound so crazy. I was looking for corruption first… there were rumors about him altering his scores for people he liked and disliked, but they'd never been substantial. I managed to sneak into his office at night and looked through until I found some old documents linking him to some weird packaging company that I had never even heard about, and I know business. That screamed shell company to me, so I looked deeper until I found out the whole entire thing was fake… that was the extent of my involvement, really. I warned Fantina about it, and it turned out that was a Team Galactic shell company, so they caught him. People keep saying it was me who did it, like I confronted him or something. Metang pointed me in the right direction, and Vincent helped a lot with research—"

"Wait, you said Metang?" I gasped.

She bit her lip. "Well dang it, my surprise is ruined, isn't it?"

"You have to show him to me!" I demanded. "I bet you have something crazy like a new Pokemon too."

"Or some new evolutions," Mira added.

"That is… scarily perceptive," she said.

She opened her purse, pulling out four Pokeballs. She teased us, releasing only her original three. Her white and golden Metang appeared as pristine as ever, his red eyes flashing in surprise as he saw me. I had seen a few in the Solaceon tournament, but I'd never really been close to one.

"Long time no see!" I said, expecting some words back.

He stayed silent, however, opting to simply bow using his entire body.

"Metang's a little shy. Well, I call him he, but he has two brains," she said. "It gets a little confusing when they both talk to me at once."

"Metang are actually real interesting," Mira mused. She touched at the cold steel, and the psychic type let out an eerie mechanic resonance in irritation. "They can either form naturally after a Beldum's psychic powers are put under enough stress and forces itself to split in two to add to those powers, or when two Beldum meet in the wild and decide to fuse into one being. It makes 'em more likely to survive. A lot of Pokemon eat steel where they live."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "I assume you went with the first option?"

"Yeah… it was when I got into my second top sixteen during my first Grand Contest. I, uh, got crushed. Temperance's Dragonair and Meowstic combo destroyed me in style, but Metang still evolved, so I wasn't too sad."

She is lying. She cried.

I almost jumped in surprise at the voice.

"Metang! You're so annoying!"

The steel type didn't care to entertain Emilia's antics. She released Ambipom as she grumbled under her breath.

"Ambi. Say hello."

The monkey greeted the entire room with a snicker, then presented one of his tails to Louis.

"He wants you to shake it," I said. Louis looked to Emilia, who nodded.

Louis brought his hand forward, but Ambipom sneakily stole his Poketch from his backpocket while he was doing so. He quickly tried to grab it back, but the normal type jumped over the desk, hanging onto the ceiling fan as she laughed and looked through his phone.

"Ambi! Give it back!"

Unfortunately for her, it was locked behind a code. Ambipom's grin twisted downward as he threw the phone back at Louis' face. The poor man just couldn't catch a break.

"I'm so sorry, he's been getting more and more mischievous," Emilia apologize, helping the blond man up. Ambipom stuck out his tongue and spun himself around on the ceiling fan until Metang clicked annoyingly and grabbed him with a Confusion. "Thank you, Metang. I promise he's not always like this. He was my first evolution. It happened a little before the Solaceon tournament started during one of our training sessions after he learned Double Hit."

"He seems fun enough," Mira said, much to Maeve's annoyance. "What?"

"Read the room."

"It's okay. I just hope he'll mature soon," Emilia said. Ambipom shook his head. She released Lycanroc next. He'd grown a lot, but still had that light brown fur. His lean muscles flexed and his rocky fur rustled as he lazily stretched across the floor. "Lycan's the same as always."

I crouched, petting the rough fur around his neck and he flopped on his back with his tongue hanging out. I obliged him and rubbed his belly instead.

"He's been a huge help raising my new Pokemon. Without him, she'd be like Ambi already."

"Enough teasing, just show it to us already," Mira complained with a childlike pout.

"Well, you can't blame a coordinator for enjoying the spectacle a little bit," she smirked.

Her new Pokemon was a small yellow fox with red fluff coming out of her ears that I immediately recognized as a Fennekin. She was pretty young, if I had to guess, with how she quickly hid behind Lycanroc, Ambipom and Emilia. Maeve was over the moon, though, and she desperately tried to pet the little Pokemon. Fennekin's eyes settled on me, and I could tell she that she felt my title. She only spent a few seconds doing so, though, and quickly returned to dodging Maeve's advances.

"I got her as an apology gift from my parents," she said with a pained smile. "That was always how they thought I worked, and they haven't changed at all."

"Your parents are in Hearthome?" Louis asked.

"Hmhm. They desperately want me to go back to the meek little girl I was before, most likely because they can feel their control over me slip. I knew it was bad when they didn't blow up at me when I told them I was pan and dating Pauline."

"Well, at least you told them, right?" Louis said. "Imagine telling your old self that."

"I know, right? But you know… I still love them, and they're trying, I guess. And I'm happy that they gave me Fennekin, even if I wished they'd let me do my own thing. But anyway, enough doom and gloom. You've got to go more in-depth with this Hatterene business! What'd she teach you?"

"Well, let me go back to the beginning. First, she scared the crap out of me…"