CHAPTER 253

"Good afternoon!" I exclaimed with a bright smile. "My name is Grace Pastel, and I'm a member of the UPAN. How are you doing today?"

The thin man lazily scratched his beer belly and squinted. "I was doing great until you knocked."

Uh, that was bad. I wanted to look back at Alex, but I knew I couldn't show any sign of panic. Panic would let the man in front of me grow more confident, and that meant he'd grow more aggressive. I adjusted my crutches (Alex had told me that a Tangrowth at their door would make people call the police) and kept up my smile. Usually, the people on the list of addresses were at least amenable to the UPAN cause, even though I had no idea how the hell they tracked that. Canvassing was still a mystery to me.

"Well, I'm so sorry about that."

The man groaned with a grimace. "No, no, never mind. I was a dick. Sorry, I've just been having a terrible week. I lost my job and stress has been piling up. I need to scrounge up a plan to pay my mortgage. Go ahead. Do your speech, or whatever."

"Well I hope you'll find something," I said, my eyes closing slightly. "Pastoria's really started feeling the sanctions now, huh?"

"Every city," he sighed. "My brother's up in Hearthome, but he managed to be spared in the layoffs. Works for some tech company that won't have the components to make their chips anymore."

"And where do you work?" I asked.

"The docks. I'm no sailor, just a guy that moves— moved things around when they got to port. My wife and I finally managed to buy this house last year, but… maybe this Kanto-Johto thing will work."

I didn't know enough about economics to know if it would. Trade between Kanto-Johto and Sinnoh was just starting and hadn't ramped up yet while almost everything from Galar had been cut off in a few days and the little scare from Unova had given out-of-region investors cold feet. Melody had even told me about how X Tech was scaling back their expansion into Sinnoh, so at least there was some silver lining with all of this.

A silver lining for me and the Poketch Company, I caught myself. Not the common people like this man. I had to be careful not to grow out of touch.

"Uh, I guess I'll give the speech," I awkwardly said, staring down at my paper. "First, can I confirm that your name is indeed Ethan Callahan?"

"The one and only," he sarcastically drawled.

"The UPAN has restarted its operations, and I wanted to know how closely you track… ah, screw the speech," I sighed. Ethan raised an eyebrow, and I could feel Alex stare daggers at my head. "What do you know about the Safari Zone?"

"The Great Marsh? It's that place you trainers love," he shrugged. "Pokemon are easy to catch there, and there are some rare critters running about."

"A lot of those… critters are at risk of going extinct from the Great Marsh if the City Council doesn't convene to update the Great Marsh's guidelines. Wugtrio, Veluza, Toedscruel, Paldean Wooper, Clodsire, Araquanid and Comfey are all critically endangered right now. We'd like for you to sign," I handed him another piece of paper, "a petition and to commit to voting the current councilors out of power if they don't get this done. These are people that are going to be wiped out if we don't do anything. Their rarity makes trainers want to catch them and they need protection."

Ethan stopped leaning against his doorway and actually started paying attention to what I was saying.

"Extinct? Why's this the first time I'm hearing about this?"

"If I had to guess, the media's focused on what's fresh and new instead of long-standing local issues because that drives ratings up. Right now, we have around eleven Councillors willing to do the right thing," I continued, remembering what Alex had told me. "Way short of the twenty-five we'd need to pass any kind of legislation. The only way we're going to change things is to threaten to take away their power."

"Well, I'll be damned." He snatched the paper and pen out of my hand to sign against his wall. I gave him the list of all eleven names before thanking him for his time.

Elections in Pastoria wouldn't be for another two years, but any pressure was good. The strategy wasn't to actually wait things out that long, but to make the politicians sweat and start to feel the current shift in public opinion. According to Alex, they tended to prioritize decisions best to keep themselves in power over anything else.

"You scared me for a second when you went off-script, but that ended up going very well," he said. "Way better than the last house. Good job."

"Well, it's not like I tripped all over my words until you had to intervene," I said with a joking tone. "I think it was the script. It's easier when I can use my own words."

"I get that. I mean, the script is there for a reason— it's been proven to be the best way to keep people from closing their doors on our faces, but if it works for you, it works for you," he paused, slowing himself down to wait for me to release Angel. Like he'd done countless times today, the grass type picked me and my crutches up so I wouldn't have to walk. "That was the last house," Alex continued. "We've reached our quota for the day."

I stretched my arms. "Woooo! That was a lot of work."

I'd been out and about since this morning, and Cecilia and Chase were already done with their Safari Zone. I was very surprised when I saw that they'd both already caught their Pokemon. A Croagunk and a Wimpod. Apparently, Cece had something to tell me about Croagunk, though, but she was currently at Flight School and then would start training her to see what level she was at.

Alex had helped with everything, thankfully. From feeding the rescues to standing around at the city center near the docks to hand over fliers, we'd basically done everything in our power to help the UPAN. He'd also let me ask him questions about anything UPAN or politics-related, and he'd answer after making fun of me. Still, I was learning, and despite his mocking ways, Alex was a great teacher. The way he spoke about politics in terms of individuals made things a lot easier to understand.

"You have to understand, at the end of the day, politicians are people," he had told me. "People with goals, dreams, fears, families, and irrational opinions. Everyone's just pretending to know what the hell they're doing, and somehow the entire system still works."

A sobering yet illuminating thought. Every politician I usually saw had been on TV when dad had hogged it to watch the news, so I'd always seen them as sort of… characters in a show? Not real people in a way. I guess Cynthia's also a politician, I mused as we made our way back to the UPAN to report our work today. But I always saw her as a trainer first and foremost until I saw more and more of her.

"When are we doing this next?" I asked. "I'll probably be a little busy in the coming days."

"Right, you're training for Wake, right?" He asked.

That, and other things.

"I'd like for you to come in and do this at least twice a week," he said. "You know—" he stared up at me, "—I've only known you for a few days. At first, I thought your entire persona was something the Poketch Company built, but I know better now. This is you," he paused to fold and shove the papers into his satchel. "But now that I actually know you're real, I have a question. Why are you so brutal in your battles?"

My lips tightened, and Angel ran his vines over my legs and head to soothe me.

"I've never brought it up before, because I'm not a trainer— well I am, but not in any serious capacity. I was wondering if it was just a me thing, or…"

"No, you're right. I am unique. It's not just me, though," I said, remembering the Orrean Craig had brought up back at that bar in Sunyshore. Ammar Halimi, if I remember correctly. "Every trainer has a different style… does that make me look hypocritical?"

"Eh. Sorta kinda?"

"I mean, I just want to use every tool to win," I explained, patting Angel's head. "Before Ditto were a thing, then yeah, I never would have done it. But these days, medicine for Pokemon can basically fix anything as long as you don't wait days to get there. I think I'm just very competitive at my core."

And fighting that way was just fun, as much as it pained to admit. It was fun to use brutal attacks to mess with the opposing trainer. It was fun to cripple Pokemon in a way that'd make them useless further in the fight. It was fun coming up with different ways for my Pokemon to stab things. It was exciting to see Gym Leaders baffled at the tactics I pulled and get serious— to an extent. That wasn't something I would tell just to anyone, though, so I omitted that part of my answer. The fact that the only person who battled like me was a guy from Orre (and probably a few others I didn't know about) didn't work in my favor.

"And if someone wants to fight back the same way, they can be my guest," I continued. "I'd probably get mad in the heat of the moment, but that's something my opponents could exploit to make me make mistakes. It's a sport at the end of the day. The goal is to use everything at your disposal to win."

He frowned— not in a judging way, but in an 'I'm very confused way'. "I'm not sure I get it, but I wasn't cut out for battling anyway," he said with a protective hand over his Pokeballs.

I still hadn't met his team.

We made our way back to UPAN headquarters, and Ms. Webb was very pleased with our work. So much so that she gave us one of those rare smiles Alex had talked to me about so many times. Ms. Webb tapped her fingers against her desk and eyed all the signatures we'd gotten.

"With all the teams we have out and about, one more week of this, and we'll have enough to present to the City Council," she said with a grin. She brought a pen to the corner of her lips. "Of course, a petition won't get them to move off of their asses and do something. It's only one part of the punch."

"What's the other part?" Alex asked. He'd been tired recently, but all of that had vanished when he'd entered Ms. Webb's office.

She adjusted her thick glasses. "Grace will be there."

There it was, I thought with a sharp inhale. She'd essentially had the same idea I had when I'd first met her. She'd use me not just as a prop to show around, but as a legitimate measure to pressure the Council. No one knew how close I was to Cynthia exactly. Even Ms. Webb didn't know. They had no idea I actually had very little clout in anything she did.

To the outside world? Well, I might as well have been her apprentice.

I sarcastically giggled at that thought.

—

Maeve Chang's phone was lost.

It had been a stupid mistake. She had dropped it out of her hand as she picked it up from her pocket, and it had fallen into a gridded storm drain. She wasn't rich by any means (although she was starting to look for a sponsor), but buying another Poketch phone wouldn't be an issue. It wasn't an issue, she repeated to herself. For as long as she could remember, Maeve had kept old items, even when they were broken. She'd always attached sentimental value to something she had owned for long. Plushies, broken figurines, shoes that didn't fit her any longer, clothes that were too small, and her lost phone that was four… five models old.

"I don't get the issue," Justin deadpanned behind her. "If you need a new phone, just buy a new phone."

Maeve groaned. "I will. Just let me get my thoughts in order," she sighed, then stood back up from the drain and finally gave up her hopes of one of her Pokemon going down there to get her phone back. Infernape could have kicked the gate down for Starmie to pull through, but that was probably illegal, and her phone was definitely broken after having soaked in water for so long. "Yeah, let's just go, I guess."

She clicked her tongue and tried to abate the ever-climbing frustration rising from within her. Justin and Maeve had been supposed to join Louis for training in the arena Grace had recommended, but there was no way she was going to go more than an hour without a phone with all of these rumors about poachers.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Sorry for the waste of time," she said, remembering that Justin didn't enjoy staying idle. "There ought to be a Poketch store somewhere near. Could you look it up for me?"

With a discreet glance, Maeve observed how quickly Justin could type. In an instant, he was already pointing in the store's general direction.

"Did Alakazam take another look at you today?" She asked.

"He has more theories. The newest one being that he could counteract the darkness by overcharging my body with fighting, bug or fairy TE. Of course, when he realized that had been tried before in the past and all experiments had failed, he said that they hadn't done it properly."

"Don't let him worsen your condition, alright?" Maeve warned. "You aren't a lab Rattata."

"I might as well be," he said, his voice unwavering. Even his walk seemed mechanical, somehow. Something that had taken her a while to get used to on their travels. "But yes, I did tell him that I would not accept such an experiment unless he could get at least fifty renowned doctors and professors to agree."

Maeve smirked. "Good!"

It was strange, to babysit someone like Justin. Maeve wasn't used to being in charge of anything, let alone someone with such a burden. Following what everyone else said had been enough to carry her this far, even if there had been stumbles along the way. Every day, she had to remind herself that yes, she was a good trainer. Five badges in her first year— and possibly more— was still something rare. The problem was that the people at the top of her friend group were just too good to even hope to compare herself to. It was difficult to live in a perpetual shadow. Maeve's vice was ego searching. Something that plagued many, from trainers, to politicians, to online personalities to singers. Looking yourself up on the internet to see what people were saying about you could either make or break your day, and yet it was so intoxicating at the same time. A drug.

Maeve wasn't the butt of any jokes, nor was she the subject of any admiration. Her megathread was depressingly calm, with a few posts every day, and she had no presence outside of the forums. She just didn't have the skill, nor the interpersonal drama to generate any kind of discussion, and for some reason, that hurt her more than anything else. The fact that she was in a group of such talented people that overshadowed everything she could come up with didn't help. Maeve clenched her teeth but calmed herself with a deep breath. Maybe I shouldn't get that damn phone after all, she thought to herself with a sad chuckle. Thank the Legendaries Louis wasn't there, or he would have noticed and asked too many questions.

"Oh yeah! Are you going to the Great Marsh tomorrow?" She asked to distract herself.

"And for what? I already have six Pokemon."

"Oh, I thought you'd want to come with us or something," Maeve said. "Just to hang out."

"Meaningless risk. If Louis asks me to come, I will be obligated to do so through the contract I signed, but if not, I will be practicing for Wake."

"Fair enough."

Alone time with Louis. Terrifying. Her travels with Justin had broken the routine of it all, and now she feared she'd turn into a nervous mess. It wasn't like he was returning any of her advances anyway. Maybe Gligar would break the awkwardness, with all of his hair-eating ways. After a ten-minute walk, they entered the modern-looking Poketch store, with sleek, rounded tables and displays of all of their devices for customers to test (and to entice them, too).

Out of the corner of her eye, a tall woman— or was she still a teenager?— was buying phones in bulk. Eleven of them, and the cheapest models still available. She was also paying in cash only and not using her Trainer ID. From the two Pokeballs on her belt, she was also a trainer. Maeve thought it was weird for a trainer to buy that many phones, but she paid her no mind. Maeve asked for the newest Poketch model and winced when she saw the price. Oh well, it wasn't like she wasn't going to use it. Justin took the opportunity to buy a portable battery for his own phone—

"What are you staring at?" Maeve asked.

Justin's eyes drifted back toward hers. It was strange, how he could maintain eye contact for as long as he needed. "That girl was staring at us," he said, nudging his head forward. "Looks like she's getting ready to leave."

Maeve turned and noticed it was the same woman— or girl, according to Justin— that had been buying so many phones. She packed them all in a bag, but instead of leaving, she beelined right toward them, her ashen hair swaying from side to side. Maeve's back straightened as she stared at the six-foot-two teenager. She'd rarely seen a girl this tall.

"Hi," she flashed her teeth. "Uh, I noticed you were looking at me? Do you need anything?"

"Oh, uh, sorry," Maeve stammered. "I was just surprised at the number of phones you were buying and your height."

"Oh. People always joked about how tall I was growing up," she muttered, placing a strand of brown hair behind her ear. "I wish I could be smaller, but it is what it is. Both my parents were over six feet. My dad's almost seven feet tall, actually."

Maeve almost shrunk under her intense stare, but she pushed through. "Well, that was it, I guess. Sorry to bother you."

Justin also dipped his head and apologized.

"No worries. And hey, maybe we could hang around more often? This is kind of embarrassing, but I'm a pretty big fan."

"Oh. Of who? Denzel?" She asked, thinking it was the most likely choice. He had the most followers online, after all. Maybe Grace? Cecilia? Chase was too mean to have many fans, but the ones he did have were mostly from Canalave and the Iron Islands.

"You!" She laughed. "I've seen all of your Gym Battles. Your battle with Volkner? Great performance! Your Infernape is a menace. The way you had him throw those flaming rocks at Volkner's Pokemon like bullets? That was cool as hell. "

Maeve inhaled sharply. A fan? Was this a dream? All of a sudden, her jaw started to tremble, and Maeve wanted to crawl into a hole. She'd been so weird! To a fan! She cleared her throat, making her voice a smidge deeper.

"Sure thing. We can do whatever. Just contact me on the forums? Wait, what's your name?"

The teenager beamed. "Zoey Miranda. My account's verified, so you shouldn't have any trouble on that front. So, uh, I'll see you later?"

Maeve excitedly nodded, and Zoey left the store's premises. It wasn't much, but being recognized outside had meant the world to her.

"Justin, did you see that?!" She bumped him in the arm with an elbow. "I have a fan!"

"She could be using you to get closer to Denzel or the other top first-years," he immediately said. Maeve's shoulders slumped, and her confidence vanished. "No need to look like you've seen a ghost. I'm just saying it's a possibility. Why don't you start by looking her up."

The two left the store, and while making their way to the arena Grace and Barry had battled in, Maeve set up her phone. The good thing about Poketch was that she could recover everything she had on her old phone through her Poketch account, even if you had to go through a thousand different loops and steps to actually get your data back for security and privacy reasons. Zoey Miranda. Her account was indeed verified. Two badges, although she'd started later than the usual age of fifteen, which made sense. She was actually nineteen years old, having beaten both Maylene and Volkner.

She had never posted on Maeve's megathread, but maybe she was more of a lurker than anything. More snooping reinforced that theory. Zoey rarely posted anything. In fact, there was a one-and-a-half-month gap where she hadn't posted anything on the forums, or even been active at all, for that matter. Maeve contacted her right away, asking when she'd like to meet. Her heart was beating in anticipation for an answer, but none came by the time they made it to the arena. Louis was already waiting for them by the entrance with his Ninetales next to him. They'd been practicing telepathy the last few weeks.

All in all, today was looking up already.

—

"Why wouldn't you show me Wimpod?" I whined. "They're such cute little bugs!"

"Because she's terrified of loud noises and new people, that's why," Chase complained, staring at me in annoyance. "She ran away from me when I showed her to Mira. It's a wonder someone like that managed to live in a damn marsh full of other Pokemon. I'd think she would have gotten a heart attack from her own shadow."

I placed my hands on my hips. "Rude."

"I'll show her to you when I get her to sit still in front of strangers," he said. "Right now she thinks me and my team are part of her new swarm or whatever."

I was sure I'd be able to look at Wimpod without scaring her, but I respected his decision and decided not to keep pushing.

"Don't keep us waiting too long," I chided. "I'm happy you got a new Pokemon."

"Sure…"

Chase didn't look very pleased with his capture, but his team was, and I knew he wasn't the kind of person to treat a Pokemon badly. He was prickly on the outside but soft on the inside, like a cactus. He'd probably be gushing about Wimpod's progress in a week and bringing her up any time he could. We were waiting for Cecilia to come back from assessing Croagunk, and she'd be there any minute now. Mira was unfortunately unavailable, having convinced the Porygon expert to let her work for him in exchange for an Upgrade. Supposedly, he'd been impressed with her credentials, having attempted to create a Porygon from scratch.

So basically, we weren't going to be seeing her a whole lot, at least until Denzel got here, which was soon. During her free time, Chase would force her to train so she didn't fall behind more than she had. He told me that they'd made good progress while traveling and that she had a few tricks to alter the terrain now. The others were still out training, which meant it was just me and Chase.

"How'd you like your work at, uh, the…"

"UPAN," I said. "United Pokemon Advocacy Network."

"Right. The UPAN."

"I won't lie to you, it was tiring, but it was also fun. I felt like I was actually doing something." I smiled, and my fingers twitched in excitement. "I'll be working with them the entire time we're here."

"Well, good for you. You know, I've been meaning to tell you. That ancient city up in the mountains? Don't bother looking inside of the city, there's nothing there but Sigilyph and you'll just waste time— time that will leave that ghost enough time to find you and hunt you down. Look inside of the castle instead. Make a beeline for it. The ceiling's high enough for you to fly in Princess."

"I'd thought of that already, but thanks."

"Huh? You did?"

"Well yeah, I'm not gonna look if there's nothing there. You said the Claydol and Baltoy were all drawn closest to whoever the king was, right? That means they'd be in the castle."

"Well, except for that weird metallic Pokemon, yes," he nodded. "I hadn't thought of it that way. I didn't have time to look anywhere but the central hall and the throne room."

"Thanks for the advice anyway."

Such a powerful ghost would definitely have ways to render barriers ineffective, I thought. I was better off playing it as safe as I could.

Cecilia entered the room a few minutes later, a thin Croagunk following behind her. Her bright yellow eyes instantly captivated me, and I nodded at her. Chase raised a hand to make a non-committal wave. The poison type didn't really look happy to be here, but she wasn't angry. Maybe a twinge of anxiety? Or was it anticipation? Slowking followed close by. He had probably served as the translator.

"This is Croagunk," Cecilia introduced her with a gesture of her hand. "As you know, I caught her in the Safari Zone, but she revealed something to me."

Cecilia explained that Croagunk had been friends with a Paldean Wooper who had been caught by an older-looking woman. From the way Croagunk had described her, she was older than your usual trainer. In her forties, maybe. The intriguing part about this was that she had used a Hypno to Teleport away.

More importantly, Cecilia had promised. She had promised to do something to find Wooper, so this was her fully giving in to fight Abel.

Her reservations had not been put to rest, however. I still heard the doubt in her tone when she got to that part of the story. What she was sure of, however, was destroying the poachers.

"I'll just assume she Teleported in," I muttered, both to myself and the others. "But for that, you'd have to have been inside the Safari Zone beforehand."

"And if she didn't, think we can twist some arms and find a log of everyone who's been there? You said it was two days ago, so they probably still have her name," Chase suggested.

"They'd just say no," I shrugged. Unless this soft power thing was way beyond what I thought it was capable of. But that was just a pipe dream. "And Abel wouldn't just let himself get tracked like that."

"Agreed," Cecilia said.

"Did the woman talk at all?" I asked.

Croagunk nodded.

"She spoke well?" Cecilia asked, catching onto what I was implying.

If she spoke well, then it would lend credence to it being his Zoroark. The Unovan Pokemon was extremely rare— one of the rarest Pokemon on the planet, in fact— but it was still a dark type. Dark types couldn't Teleport.

Unless… well, unless Hypno knew Miracle Eye, now. Jasmine had explained how it allowed psychics to 'peer through the world's veil' to affect even dark types.

"Was there a giant eye above Hypno's head when they Teleported? Something you couldn't look at no matter how hard you tried because it was wrong?"

Croagunk's eyes widened, and she nodded.

"Fuck. Fuck!" I snarled.

"What?" Chase asked.

"Miracle Eye," I simply said, and then proceeded to explain how the move worked. Chase struggled to accept it as a concept, but when I told him I'd seen it from Jasmine's Metagross, he changed his tune pretty quickly. "Okay, we'll file a report for now. What was done technically wasn't illegal, and we don't know one hundred percent if it's Abel yet for this one, but Miracle Eye as a move is… incredibly difficult to master."

"So we tell them we think Abel's Zoroark was in the Great Marsh?" Chase asked.

"We know Cynthia. We won't get laughed at," Cecilia said, crossing her arms. "The key is to make the tip anonymous. This means that nowhere in Pastoria is safe, but if we get a headline or something, it'll put pressure on Abel. He'll know he's been found out, and maybe he'll shift tactics."

Croagunk croaked, and Slowking translated whatever it was she was saying— but only inside of Cece's head. It was probably a private matter.

"I'll go talk to Ariel when I get Princess back," I said, biting my lip. "She should be easy to spot in the sky."

"Got it. Williams gets back tomorrow, so we'll bring him into this, and we'll see if Lauren wants to as well. What about Barry Lane?" Chase probed. "He's a big deal. Also a nepotism baby that gets everything handed to him, but that's beside the point."

"He works hard, and you know it. Barry Lane is…"

I trailed off, trying to find the word. Yes, he wanted to do good. Yes, he had spoken to me about the poachers, but he was so… innocent. I was sure he had multiple close calls during his journey, but he still saw the world like, well, a normal sixteen-year-old. He thought a Salamence flying south to Kanto to kill thousands was cool. I wasn't the most mature girl on the planet, but I'd seen my fair share of awful and terrifying things. I didn't want to involve him in this, especially when he had no psychics or barriers to use.

"I think he'll want to leave," I said. "His battle with Wake is soon, and then he's out of here."

"Fair enough," Chase shrugged. "I'll text the shrimp."

The creeping dread from the fact that we were again getting involved in such a situation was hard to ignore. Sure, route 212's marsh was extremely big, but a few flying types could sweep over it in a couple of weeks at most to try to find this poaching base. There were manpower problems, but hell, I was sure the League had at least some Pokemon like Staravia to spare. Was it truly pure negligence, or was there something more than met the eye? Cecilia recalled Croagunk to let her sleep. The poison type had trained hard with Slowking and Scyther and all of today's emotions had tired her out.

"How is she?" Chase asked. "Strong?"

"I assess her to be around the level of three badges?" Cecilia said, unsure of herself. "Maybe slightly lower. She's got a good foundation, and she's quite speedy, but her power is lacking as of yet. It's nothing that can't be fixed, though. What about your Wimpod?"

Chase coughed into his fist. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's currently at the lowest of the low."

I chuckled nervously and sat on the bed. Cecilia grabbed my hand, placing it on her lap and Chase continued speaking about how his team already loved Wimpod way too much.

Tensions were high.